Suddenly, an unwanted interruption barged into the conversations of the ladies.
“Fairies,” a young man bowed respectfully, “my little brother was honored to have you attend his conquering of the first year’s assessments.”
Jade looked over to see a young man Dyon would have recognized as Benes, followed by Ryba, a girl and what looked like Benes’ younger brother. It seemed that his younger brother, Sebastian Benes, was the champion of the first years.
Although Benes was smart enough to know that it was impossible for the beauties of their school to have gone to the first-year assessments just for his brother, the true reason didn’t matter to him. All that mattered was that this was a simple way to breach conversation with these ladies without seeming as though he was trying too hard.
Who wouldn’t want an amiable relationship with these women?
Jade smiled, understanding the intentions of Benes, “Jonas Benes, right? It was my honor to watch my juniors, I had a great time.”
Jade had no reason to disrespect Jonas’ kind intentions, so she could only accept his attempts at conversation. Although the Benes family didn’t have status as high as the major families, as members of the sub-families, their importance to the kingdom couldn’t be understated.
While the major families were responsible for the academies, the sub-families were responsible for the three largest guilds in the kingdom: the alchemy guild, the formation guild, and the blacksmithing guild. With campaigns being as important as they were, it was safer to overestimate the importance of these guilds as opposed to understating them.
Although other kingdoms had other important guilds, like beast taming guilds for instance, the Elvin Kingdom had always focused on just those three, maximizing their effectiveness.
Jonas smiled, appreciating Jade’s decorum. ‘If I could marry her, wouldn’t that be fantastic?’
He nodded slightly towards Celine and Opal. He didn’t want to seem as though he would take any of these beauties, he wanted to give the impression that although all of them were beautiful, that he only had Jade in his eyes.
To him, this was a clever tactic, but with Jade’s astuteness, she was well aware that if Celine or Opal showed interest, Jonas would without a doubt reciprocate. However, she didn’t let this show. At the very least, Jonas was more refined than others, on the surface anyway.
Jonas, knowing that he shouldn’t drag out this interaction, decided it was best to withdraw for now.
“I’ll keep this interaction in my heart. It was a pleasure to speak with you. I only wanted to introduce myself and my younger brother. Since you’re all here, I look forward to performing for you,” Jonas bowed slightly, turning and taking his entourage away.
Once they were gone, Celine giggled and said, “he’s quite the playboy, it was clear he’s had relations with that girl behind him, but she showed not an ounce of displeasure. He sure knows how to train ’em, no?”
Opal scrunched her delicate eyebrows, but she could only sigh as she was quite used to the raunchiness of her two friends.
Jade smiled. “His etiquette is not bad. At the very least, he hides his lust better than others,” Jade said knowingly.
Celine pouted in mock anger, “I saw him trying to pretend as though Opal and I didn’t exist. One small giggle and he’d break easily. I wonder if the apple of your eye would break as easily,” Celine grinned, trying to pry into Jade’s thoughts once again.
For the first time, Jade decided to drop a hint, “if he was here, he wouldn’t hold back in flirting with all three of us. He’s very bad. Very, very bad. But somehow still pure,” Jade said, looking out towards the distance. “It seems like the geniuses of the other academies have decided to arrive…”
However, Celine didn’t seem to care, much more intrigued by Jade’s analysis.
“Not a drop of impurity?… how could a man not lust after us?”
She didn’t seem to catch the narcissism laced in her words at all.
Jade chuckled. “Who said anything about him not lusting?”
This just confused Opal and Celine even more, but it didn’t seem like Jade was intent on explaining. Instead, she said something that spurred the competitive fire of even the docile and petite Opal.
“He may lust after you all, but something tells me that even if we lay before him naked and defenseless, he wouldn’t raise a single finger towards us. That’s how deep the love in his heart is for that fiancée of his,” she said.
A gust of wind raged through the coliseum as shimmering lights of a teleportation formation formed in the center of the arena. Soon, a group of six figures blinked into existence.
The regular students and citizens of the Elvin Kingdom couldn’t help but hold their breath under the pressure of these six young men and women.
Zaltarish was the first to make a move, his black changpoa fluttering slightly in the wind along with his sleek black hair. Taking a step forward, he bowed towards the above terrace, “I apologize for our late arrival elders, I hope we haven’t missed any of the proceedings.”
Headmaster Acacia sneered within his heart. He’d let Zaltarish figure out for himself that his plan to arrive after Acacia Academy’s assessment had completed had failed.
In place of his master, Aeson Acacia’s voice came out from within the space below the terrace, not bothering to step out.
“If you’d like to witness the proceedings, you can sit within the audience, or you can sit among us here. You haven’t missed anything, Master has yet to announce the start of our assessment,” his voice was faint, yet held a powerful disdain and pride.
Although Zaltarish was a bit disappointed that his plan had failed, it didn’t matter too much. What really bothered him was the fact an orphan had the audacity to speak with him like this. But, he felt it was beneath him to show displeasure for such an insignificant figure, so, he ignored it. Deciding to instead smile and nod appreciatively.