Chapter 51 - Registering 1

The next day at the Ironforge Smithy, Cecil and Lucia were just about to head out to the Arks Royal Academy to register themselves.

They left Silver behind and started walking down the road in the direction of the Arks Royal Academy's district. Along the way, Lucia was clinging onto Cecil.

"Neh, neh!! Cel!!! Sorry okay! Stop ignoring me already!"

Cecil kept silent and turned his head away. After their mock battle, Cecil had begun ignoring and stopped talking to Lucia.

He wasn't particularly mad though since he still won in the end. But Lucia, his best friend, had actually used him as a guinea pig to test her new spells.

Not only that, she was actually ruthless enough to do so without any regard towards his well-being. There were even times during the battle where he saw his life flash before his eyes.

"CEL! CE~EL!"

Cecil didn't respond and only kept walking forward.

'Idiot! Who was the source of all my frustration, if it wasn't you! Hmph! Let's see if you still dare to ignore me!'

Lucia let go of Cecil and stopped walking.

*sniff* *sniff* "Gusu..."

Cecil was just about to continue forward until he heard Lucia start sniffling.

Cecil took a small glance behind him and immediately regretted it.

'Haaahhh... here we go again... she's 'crying' ...'

Cecil sighed exasperatedly and walked towards Lucia. He put his arm around her waist and said.

"That's cheating Lulu..."

Since she was caught, Lucia stuck her tongue out at Cecil and huffed.

"Hmph, your fault stupid!"

Lucia then started pinching his sides.

Cecil walked forward with his arm around Lucia's waist, not minding her pinching. After a couple of paces he lowered his arm and walked ahead while saying.

"How's it my fault? I'm not the one who was trying to boil me alive!"

Lucia grabbed onto Cecil's arm and said playfully.

"Like. I. Said! I was only testing out my new combo spell! You also agreed with it too~"

"Tch... I agreed to test your spell out, not to be boiled alive!"

"uhhh... Teehee?"

"Don't 'teehee' me!"

"Nahahaha~"

"Stop laughing already! My butt still stings!"

"NAHAHAHA!"

Although Cecil complained and told her not to laugh, he actually started smiling after seeing her laugh so brightly.

'Tsk, I should be angry. Why the hell am I smiling?'

Cecil started worrying if his orientation was shifting towards the 'dark' side. He shivered and threw the thought into the back of his head.

'Whatever, better her laughing than crying.'

As Lucia was laughing, she eyed Cecil's expression and found that he was slightly smiling. She breathed a sigh of relief and thought.

'Phew... good thing he's not mad anymore..."

Lucia normally didn't care whether she did anything bad to Cecil, but after the two went home yesterday, Mrs. Ironforge was patching up Cecil's injuries which were caused by Lucia and said something to her.

Mrs. Ironforge actually told Lucia that if she kept being so aggressive, Cecil might just run away from a violent girl like her.

Of course, Mrs. Ironforge was only joking, but her words made Lucia start to worry.

With Cecil also ignoring her, she started to really worry that he might run away from her if she didn't correct her violent tendencies towards him.

It's not like she could help it though. After half a year of trying to make her feelings obvious to that stupid muscle brained genius, she gradually grew frustrated with him being so insensitive towards her.

She even already told Cecil that she loved him, but all the idiot thought was about the affection love that one would have with their sister.

"I love you too, Lucia. After all, you're practically my sister!" Those words had almost made Lucia snap.

When all the frustration peaked, Lucia would sometimes randomly flare at Cecil or even start firing spells at him with the excuse of having a mock battle with him.

As for Cecil, he would always reciprocate the excuses without a second thought, but unfortunately not her feelings.

*Sigh* "Who cares, at least he's always with me!" Lucia mumbled softly.

"What's that Lulu?"

"N-nothing, let's hurry already! We're going to be late!"

Lucia pulled onto Cecil's hand and started running along the road.

It took awhile, probably around an hour or so, but Cecil and Lucia had finally arrived at the Arks Royal Academy's district.

The area was surrounded by high ramparts, so this was actually their first time seeing what it was like inside the campus.

They reported themselves and handed their recommendation letter to the old gatekeeper. The recommendation letter was penned by none other than Lucia's mother, Anna.

Mrs. Anna said that she was an alumni and was somewhat important to the academy since she was one of the few who were researching magic after graduation.

The gatekeeper took a look at the letter and turned a surprise eye at the two. He eyed Lucia and was somewhat astonished.

The gatekeeper quickly bowed and respectfully handed the letter back to Cecil and ushered them in.

"Okay... what's with that guys attitude?" Cecil asked.

Lucia was also puzzled and could only reply, "I dunno, maybe my mom was really important you know!"

"Probably."

The headed into the campus and was stunned by the scenery they witnessed.

"Woah!" They exclaimed.

On the main road that they were on, tall majestic buildings lined up on the sides of the road with trees and flowers decorating the area all around!

It was just like their first impression of Angla City when they first arrived.

"It really is like a mini-city!" Cecil exclaimed.

The people that passed by them turned at his exclamation. Some scoffed while others laughed. Cecil was too fascinated with the scenery and atmosphere that he didn't register any of the reactions the people around gave him.

Lucia did however, she face-palmed and dragged Cecil away with her. Cecil just followed along while keeping his eyes glued to their surroundings.

Lucia looked back towards him and helplessly smiled.

'Just like when we first arrived at Angla...'

Lucia giggled and walked towards a bulletin board by the side of the street. On the board there was a map and she looked for the building that handled any new students' registrations.

She quickly found it and walked off with Cecil after she memorized the location.

After they arrived at the center of the campus district, they took a left turn from the central plaza and soon arrived at a bustling road.

The area just before the registration building was jam packed with people.

On the right side of the road, there were children of all ages accompanied by a.d.u.l.ts standing on the roadside, sitting by the sidewalk or on the benches.

On the other side, were children walking back towards the central plaza with their parents. Some were smiling happily, while others were crying or had grim expressions on their faces.

Cecil had already stopped letting his eyes wander when they got to the plaza. He looked ahead and whistled.

"Sure is a lot of people here."

"Of course, today's the only day during the whole year where students can enroll into the academy!"

"Hmmm... it's gonna take a long while then."

"Not really. Don't you see how fast the line is moving?"

Cecil turned his head and observed the people on the right side of the road. They were supposed to be a line, but all Cecil saw was a jumble of people there and they were not idling around.

The people were walking forward at a slow, but even pace.

"... well that's fast I guess?"

"It's fast Cel... let's hurry up and line up with them."

"M'Kay"

Cecil and Lucia walked towards the end of the waiting line and lined up. In front of them were children or teenagers who had anticipating or worried looks on their faces.

They had just lined up, but there were already many people lining up behind them. They moved at an awfully slow, but steady pace.

They didn't make conversation with the kids or teenagers around them since the two saw that everyone was either focused or worried.

Cecil only hummed and said softly to Lucia.

"Welp, we don't need to worry too much. Let's just get this over with."

Lucia yawned and replied, "Yeah... I'm kinda hungry now too."

It took the two another hour before they finally arrived inside the building. When they got inside Lucia and Cecil noticed that the long line branched out into 5 separate ones.

Each line led to a desk with young a.d.u.l.ts dressed in uniform manning them. They appeared to be taking down the names of the children who were registering as students.

After they jotted down the name, one of the people manning the desk would head into the room with the child or teenager who had just registered.

The people looked quite young, probably only a couple of years older than Cecil and Lucia. Cecil guessed that they were the academy's staff.

"The staffs of the academy are pretty young, don't you think?"

"Uhuh, they look old enough to be students to me~"

"My thoughts exactly."

They randomly lined up behind one of the lines. It didn't take long until it was finally their turn.

The person behind the desk was a male foxkin with glasses. He had sharp eyes and looked intelligent, from Cecil's observation he deduced that the guy was around 18-19.

'Older than Matty, but younger than Ima.'

The intelligent looking foxkin looked up and saw that the two who were registering were also foxkin like him, one being silver and the other one black. He smiled amiable at the two and said.

"Welcome, may I have your names please?"