Entering the class, he saw that the seats were arranged in a tiered seating style, and half the students were already there, looking at him.
’Well, what could I do? I am so handsome.’
Though it was true, the real reason they were looking at him was because he was a D’Auremont. A duke noble family that was rumoured to be as powerful as the royal family of Tharavell.
For an heir candidate of D’Auremont to be placed in anything other than 1-A was nothing but shocking.
Easily and without any pressure, Severin walked to the last seat near the window and sat down. He had to say, the room was really spacious for just twenty students.
’I wonder if they will teach magic here?’ He thought as he looked at his empty desk. He hadn’t gotten the books till now, so Severin had no knowledge of what would be taught. In the game, though, he usually skipped classes whenever he could.
Soon enough, as the class time approached, the rest of the students started coming and forming groups. No one came to his side of the seat, mainly because he was a noble, and usually, Class D students were all commoners or low-ranking nobles.
Or they might even be from other realms, usually called lower realms. An insulting word given by the 7 Apex Realms of Eclipse of Eternity.
"Hello, may I sit here?" A soft but neutral voice came as Severin was observed looking out of the window.
He turned his head to look.
It was a girl.
She had black hair, the kind of color you saw often among commoners. It fell loosely around her face, framing features that were surprisingly pretty.
Actually, she was beautiful.
There was nothing overly striking about her at first glance. She just had a gentle sort of beauty that naturally caught the eye.
She was wearing academic attire, which suited her well.
Then he noticed her eyes.
Her irises were black. Completely black, with several thin golden rings sitting inside them, circling her pupils.
They didn’t glow or anything like that. They were just... there.
It was an unusual trait, certainly, but not unusual enough to draw much attention from anyone, as there were many strange things in this world.
But he knew that the eyes of her were the strangest and most mysterious thing, in fact, in this universe.
But he just nodded and didn’t do anything strange because he didn’t have any interest in those eyes, as they were like that due to her talent’s physical manifestation.
The girl, seeing him nod, secretly sighed with relief and sat down.
"No way someone actually has the courage and guts to sit with a D’Auremont."
"She must be crazy."
"Even I, as a noble born from Tharavell, don’t dare."
Small whispers started flowing in the classroom. And Severin, with his supernatural hearing, could easily hear those.
In fact, anyone in this class could, unless they used magic or talked telepathically.
The girl seemed to hear what they were talking about and looked at Severin with shock.
"You are D’Auremont?"
"Yes, is there a problem?" He said with a passive face.
"No.....it’s just I am from.....Edria...And D’Auremont.....it’s...." As she spoke, her expression darkened.
Before completely stopping to talk and just silently looking at the desk with her head slightly down. Her black hair blocked her side profile from him.
The students paying attention to them also heard their conversation.
"Edria, is that a city name in Tharavell?"
"No, I think that’s her world’s name."
"Huh? I have never heard of that."
"So she’s just a lower realm-born commoner, huh? No wonder she’s this daring."
"What would you expect of a lowborn?"
Severin heard the insulting words, and so did the girl. From where he was sitting, he could perfectly see her hands curled into fists.
Because of the game, Severin was perfectly aware of the superior nature of the 7 Apex Realms. Most people, even the lowest commoner from here, looked down on any other realm’s people, especially if they were unknown.
At such behaviour, he could only shake his head. These people were not even nearly as talented or strong as this girl. After all, she was the female protagonist of Eclipse of Eternity.
Mira Ashford
In the whole Eclipse of Eternity, there were five primary protagonists. A player plays as the story progresses.
Those protagonists weren’t just powerful, but they also represented five different factions and their hardships in the game.
Mira was born in the lower realm of Edria, a completely insignificant realm where the strongest fighters were just Level 2.
In the game plot, she will face not only deadly monsters but also the insults of people who think they are great just because of their birthplace. And the more she shines, the more people will come to drag her into the abyss of human malice.
But currently, in Mira’s head, there was more than just anger over the insult.
And Severin perfectly knew what the other thing was. After all, Edria was D’Auremont property.
Yes, this was right. The whole realm of Edria and its vast land, which was double the size of Earth, was the property of Severin’s family.
And its people were their slaves.
Though harsh, it was reality. In theory, as a heir candidate of the D’Auremont family, Mira could be considered his slave.
But here in this academy, everyone was equal and an important person who would defend humanity and other races from the evil demon race, so Severin or anyone wouldn’t speak on these matters.
Even the D’Auremont head would think twice before claiming such things in public now that Mira was a student of Aethryndian Academy.
And it was true. According to the game plot, if Mira participated in the year-end 1st and 2nd-year tournaments, she would be noticed by every major family and royalty.
At that time, seeing her potential, the D’Auremont head would ask her to choose a reward to build goodwill. And Mira would always choose the freedom of her realm every single time.
Though that choice would lead to another hell and cruel reality... it was the deepest desire of Mira Ashford.
Still, it was a story for later.
"All right, everyone, attention here now." A strong and manly voice echoed loudly in the class, enough to even pull Mira out from her complex thoughts.
At some point, the teacher was already here and already standing at the podium with a thick book in his hand.
"I am Gareth Hale, your homeroom teacher, and will be for the next five years if nothing unforeseen happens." Gareth spoke, his expression extremely serious and his bald head shining with reflections from the sunlight coming from outside.
He was wearing formal black pants and a white shirt, just missing black glasses and a black coat from looking like a bodyguard.
Gareth, seeing that everyone was quite casual, glared at Severin and then looked at Mira for a few extra seconds.
In fact, Gareth was here in class from the start, but the students’ strength was just too low to even notice his half-baked stealth, except for one student.
Evelyne de Roselle.
Sitting at the right corner of the room with pink hair and gem-blue eyes, with a dignified sitting pose and bearing.
She was the daughter of Vivienne de Roselle, the sister of Emperor Cassian de Vaeloria from the Apex Realm of Vaeloria.
She was also the daughter and the only legal heir of House de Roselle.
The most cherished daughter of Lucien de Roselle, the Duke of the Vaeloria Empire.
Honestly, Gareth was impressed by seeing how impressive and heavyweight names were there in this year’s first-year class.
’But can they break free from their shells and truly shine, Headmaster?’
If Severin knew his thoughts, he would definitely disagree. After all, his status in reality was nowhere close compared to Evelyne de Roselle. She, by all rights, was truly noble, whereas he was just noble in name.
If not for his slightly immature age and political reasons, he might already be thrown to the streets.
"Now it’s time to give your first-year books."
With a snap of his fingers, books towering over the desks of twenty students appeared.
Mira looked at the suddenly appeared books in shock and bit of pain because her hands were laying on the desk, and the books directly weighed on her hands.
In reflex, she tried to pull them, but this caused the books to fall right on her.
Thud!
Because of the loud sound, all the others looked at her, and seeing her covered in books, they started laughing.
"Look at her, so clumsy."
The female students were especially pleased since Mira, as a commoner and that too from an unknown realm, was more cute and beautiful than them. Seeing her like that pleased their vanity.
Gareth looked at this in silence. He wanted to scold them, but he knew it was useless. Especially when the students in front of him were geniuses of their own.
Even if they were in Class D, meaning that the academy’s expectations from them were not the highest, they were all rightfully geniuses.
And geniuses have a fatal flaw: words don’t reach them; only strength does. So, Mira has to overcome this hurdle on her own.
Evelyne, with a small amusing smile, also looked at Mira. Her smile wasn’t born from malice but from Mira’s clumsiness, which resembled that of her cousin sister.
At Mira’s side, Severin was impressed by her attention-grabbing skill.
’Is this the luck of the protagonist.....wait, no, the goddess of luck is... cough... amen.’
Severin silently prayed for her for 0.1 seconds before admiring his own luck.
’The blessing really isn’t fake.’
He was sitting just right of her, but not a single book fell in his direction.
Even his own towering book set wobbled a bit before calming like before.
’At least she did something nice before.....amen.’
Leaving such amusing thoughts, he got up to help Mira, covered in the weight of the books.
In just 30 seconds, the books were again on Mira’s desk.
"Thank you." She said to Severin with an awkward tone. After all, she hasn’t forgotten his origin.
"No need. It wasn’t truly your fault that the old man’s Transael spell obviously isn’t good enough." Severin said with a teasing tone because he knew that Gareth would definitely hear.
And why would he do that? Obviously, because he was the so-called bad student of the school, or some might call him the troublemaker.
They don’t have any intention, but they still carry out harmless pranks like blowing crackers in the washroom, throwing insects at female teachers.
In his last life as Alex, he did all this, and he has to carry out this tradition. After all, he knew that there were very few students in this academy who truly had a heart for mischief.
And as a self-certified God of Mischief, he has started his first move.
Gareth, who heard Severin, felt like shouting that he was just a little over a century old, still young.
But as it was the first day, if he started having a fight with a student, his authority that he built by standing here for the past hour or so would crumble.
But he still mentally noted to give Mr. D’Auremont a taste of extra homework.
The other students tried to suppress their laughs at Severin’s words, as they knew it wasn’t good to get on the teacher’s bad side on the first day of school. But mentally, they awed and thought this was courage commendable of D’Auremont.
Mira, ignoring all this, had a weird spark in her eyes as she looked at Severin and asked with immense curiosity.
"Transael? Is that the spell name? Can you tell me more?"
Severin could only speechlessly look at her closing face.
’Where is that awkward and brooding face of yours now?’