I see, this loss was not unfounded." Julius chuckled.
"While I may have lost now, I declare you, Hardin Reinhardt, my rival!" Raven expressed at the side.
Seeing how everyone calmed down, Julius told everybody to get ready for dinner while the atmosphere was jolly Julius expressed to Renault,
"I have prepared a house that meets your requirement of being tidy and clean, as well as your status. I understand you want to remain low for right now but your father and family are still waiting for you near the palace of the king in their manors. Especially Duke Reinhardt."
"You have my thanks, I will meet my Father when I settle everything here".
Renault expressed his thanks and went back to eating his food.
Julius looked at Hardin and started smiling widely: "Hardin, I have already prepared you a spot in the battle academy of Three Streak's alongside Raven as you both are younger than you are supposed to for enlistment. As for you five." Julius looked towards Ralph, Zephyr, Louise, Regi and Lute, and explained their paths.
"Ralph you cannot study at school yet so stay with your mother for a bit longer, as for Zephyr, Lute and Regi, you all will attend three streaks elementary battle academy. They are split into two sections, 8-9 and 10-11. This is obviously because the younger ones did not have the opportunity to awaken and they wanted to minimize the bullying being done. Louise has just started her year as one of the awakened ones. Raven on the other hand, showed exemplary performances in the year he stayed there and they decided to bump him up to the real battle academy."
'Why's it called battle academy uncle Julius?"
Because it teaches this empire's young up and comers how to be strong and handle themselves. It allows for the geniuses in battle and the ones more fit to scholarly work to separate themselves. Another important aspect is glory.
There is always the annual competitions battle academies have in Liandry and every couple of years other nations join in for a continental competiton of sort and that is usually when there is no war or conflicts. Here, student's fight in a competition involving the honor of their schools and nations.
This should not bother you right now as you still got four years to go before you even experience it, plus they would only use the most senior of students so that would make it eight years for you. Look at me, I rambled on, ahaha." Julius laughed and took a drink of his water.
"Wow, I can't wait to see the school, huh Hardin? Zephyr asked Hardin.
"Yeah" Hardin agreed with his little brother, he must work harder to achieve even more success in the future.
"That reminds me, school starts next week for the battle academies and a couple days after is the sign ups for the elementary one. Do remember you will be living in the dorms as it lets people get used to being in the outside world and make new friends." Julius explained another piece of important information.
Thus after dinner Renault and his family said goodbye to Julius and followed a maid to their house. There they saw a luxurious house that was not too big or small. It was blue in color and gave off a typical rich feel, something that did not sit right with these villager kids.
They explored the house and unloaded their parcels and were soon at home. They changed nothing about how they used to sleep together in the same room despite the increase in space.
"Hey Hardin?"
"Ya Ralph?"
"Does that mean in a few years you will be famous throughout the world?
"What do you mean?"
"He means are you going to win that competition and make father proud" Zephyr interjected and explained for Ralph.
"Don't worry about it Hardin, even if you don't succeed father will still be happy for your accomplishments." Ralph hurriedly consoled.
A smile bloomed on Hardins face
"If I can't do it, I know one of you two will take up the challenge so I have no worries." he said In his heart and closed his eyes.
Just like that, the family of five were getting acclimated to their new lifestyle and home. They would always visit Julius's house or vice versa with Raven always challenging Hardin and losing, but improvements were being made on Raven's part.
Meanwhile Zephyr was keen on the countdown to when his school started, back in the village the other boys feared him and called him 'the purple demon'. He promised himself he would try to change his habits the best he could.
Whenever they visited, the two sisters they saved would always find Zephyr and Ralph to play. With one fierce and the other meek, Ralph and Zephyr finally made friends for the first time in their lives. Hardin was gentle and handsome so he was always popular, but the demon and the quiet Ralph were always left to their own devices. This was why they were always together and how they came to find a baby Shelly in the mountains and brought it home and Zephyr raised it.
Zephyr and Ralph came to depend on each other and grew to be the best of brothers, which was similar to the pair of sisters playing with them. Just like that admission time came. When Renault arrived with his hand holding the scruff of Zephyr's neck because of his excitement and Ralph followed tightly behind.
They spotted the Thunder house across the plaza but kept on to their destination. Renault had already dropped off Hardin at the manor a couple of days ago to let Raven lead the way and he personally took up the task to see Zephyr off.
This was the only child he was worried about, not for Zephyr's well being because he was taught how to protect himself, but for the other kids who did not experience what a tornado passing by called Zephyr was.
He left everything in total destruction and only mellowed out a bit after gaining his black book, however, Renault was kind of scared he would revert back to his destructive habits whenever.
He needed to talk to his father about both his wife and son's baffling conditions as well. Renault sighed about how busy he became.
Diiiing!
Diiiing!
Diiiing! The massive bell started ringing, signaling it was time to say goodbye to their kids. Renault looked long and hard at his kid and finally released him, leaving only four words, "go forth, my son!" Zephyr rushed towards the entrance as soon as he was released, waving bye to his family.
Holding only a backpack while others held three huge bags of luggage made Zephyr feel poor despite his heritage. Soon he heard a voice.
"Head to that board and seek out your name and living quarters, since this is the afternoon, meet here tomorrow morning on the dot at seven thirty. If you do not know where you are going, there are teachers stationed almost everywhere that can lead you to your destinations."
Making sure that was the total message, Zephyr departed and looked at the massive clear board looking for his name and there in the bottom right corner he spotted it.
"Reinhardt, Zephyr, room h12, building five." After five minutes of wondering what those words meant, he finally saw a kind looking old lady and asked for directions, she grabbed his hand and wind surrounded them and they arrived in front of a massive building immediately.
A gust of dark aura entered Zephyr as he felt nauseous. He entered his building and from there it wasn't hard to figure out. He entered his room and saw a fat kid and a scrawny kid sitting on their beds talking to each other in excitement.
"Hey my name is Zephyr Reinhardt, I'm eight! Zephyr introduced himself.
My name is Archie Aqua, and he's Patrick Magma, Magma and Aqua for short. You can also call us Archie and Pat. We are both eight years old, nice to meet you!" The scrawny boy in glasses said as he waved happily.
"Yeah!" Magma followed up with a large grin.
"Ahem, my name is Claude Von Heiger that's right, from the noble Duke Heiger's house. I shall allow you peasants to bask in my glory as we are roommates, but never forget your standings." While Aqua and Magma looked meek and timid from meeting a stranger, this brown haired child looked on as if everything was natural. His eyes were a bright brown that looked completely towards the sky in a haughty manner and did not acknowledge another person in the room.
A wicked smile appeared on Zephyr's face but he hid it quickly as he made his way to the bunk bed above Aqua.
"Move out the way peasant, nobles have first choice do they not? I care not for time of entry as superiors will always be superior." The three kids looked at each other awkwardly and Aqua decided to maintain peace and left obediently.
"Did I say you could sleep higher than me, are you insinuating you are of a higher position?!?!" Claude raged.
Bam! Claude was sent flying and smashed into the door, breaking it into pieces. Zephyr wasn't done yet, he whistled and Shelly appeared by the door immediately and he signaled the monkey what he needed. They charged at the downed Claude and put a bag over his head and started walloping on him.
If it wasn't because he is a noble, I would have stripped him and kicked him into the lobby!" Zephyr said angrily. Everyone had their fuse and Zephyrs was an abnormally short one. He was the type of person who could not sleep on his need for vengeance, he needed it immediately.
The quickest way was through violence, something he specialized in. Since there was no summoning ritual yet, Zephyr could be said to be unparalleled in these two years in terms of fighting skills.
