“I’ve got a Vis Assessment first… what about you guys?” Lil Fatty said, trying to see what was on Arthur’s timetable.

“Aura Assessment… my trainer made me do triple hours the past few months in preparation for this…”

He made sure to hold his timetable well away from Lil Fatty’s reach. He wasn’t a neat freak, but he didn't want his first impression to be ‘the one with a pizza-stained timetable’. Nobody would willingly let Lil Fatty touch them after eating unless they were being paid big money.

Arlo’s door opened quickly as he snatched the timetable Arthur had left him. Shortly after, a yell joined the conversation from behind the door.

“Pact Assessment over here!”

They all looked over at Delta, as if expecting him to say something.

“Mana Assessment. Can’t you guys see the trend here?”

“Buzzkill…” Arthur muttered.

 

About 20 minutes later, the group had changed into their uniforms, brushed their teeth after their early pizza, and prepared their things for class. Delta still hadn’t gone shopping for any new clothes and the likes, so he was still wearing the clothes he had arrived in.

 

“Are you not going to wear something else?” Lil Fatty asked, rather curious as to why Delta had only worn one set of clothes the past three days. He didn’t exactly expect him to wear something different every day, but one outfit for three days straight was slightly more than the normal.

 

“My parents seem to want me to ‘get used to the outside world’. Other than some money, they gave me nothing else. Pretty harsh if you ask me.”

“How much did they give you?”

 

Delta wasn’t sure how much money was normal, but it definitely couldn’t be in the millions. If it had come directly from the Pillars, just 5 million would have been plenty more than what typical parents would give.

 

“3,000 gold coins.” Considering the extravagance of Arlo’s clothes, and the fact that 5 million gold was an extravagant amount for the Astral Spirits, Delta figured that 3,000 gold coins was a suitable amount for the typical Count.

 

In reality however, he couldn’t have been further from the truth. The jaws of everyone in the room dropped, and they all looked at him in awe.

Even Arlo, who had been in his room brushing his hair stepped outside, hairbrush clattering as he dropped it onto the floor in shock.

 

“I didn’t mishear him, did I?” Arlo asked, still staring at Delta. 

 

“No, he definitely said 3,000 gold coins.”

Lil Fatty looked confused. 

“I don’t understand… is that a lot?”

“You can buy 15 of the pizzas we just had with a single gold piece…”

Lil Fatty pondered for a second, before replying, “450,000 Pizzas?! I could last ages with that much food!”

The others looked at Lil Fatty in amusement for a moment, before turning back to Delta. 

 

“Who knew you’d be so loaded!” Arthur remarked.

 

“For the record this needs to last me the full 6 years of academy life, I can’t be wasteful.” 

 

“Yeah yeah. Either way, dinner’s on you now.”

 

Delta was about to reply, but Arthur put a finger to his lips and shushed him.

“We’re kidding. Still though, I’d love to have that much money!

 

Delta held back a sigh. ‘I wonder how these guys would react if I told them I actually had 5 million coins…’

Another bell rang, signalling for students to make their way to their first classes.

“Saved by the bell, huh,” Arthur chuckled, “we’ll continue this later.”

 

After navigating himself through the winding corridors and staircases, Delta finally arrived at the room which had been noted on the timetable. 

A large sign at the top of the door read “M - 1A”, and a large notice was plastered onto the door. 

“MANA ASSESSMENTS WILL BE HELD ON TRAINING FIELD 4”.

‘Brought me all the way here only to make me walk even longer…’ Delta cursed internally.

There was an arrow pointing down the corridor scribbled onto the notice, so Delta figured that it was the right direction to walk in. He made his way down the corridor and went down the stairs at the end of it, spiralling down to a large gate that seemed to lead outside. 

He walked outside, then found a large signpost with multiple arrows pointing towards different areas. After a short look for the correct arena, he found what he was looking for and followed the path for a few minutes, finally arriving at the large training arena.

There was a long running track on the outside, with a high jump bar set up in the middle, along with a shot putt area and the rest of the traditional athletic equipment that Delta was familiar with.

In the middle of the field was a small group of four students, each wearing their school uniforms, seeming rather out of place wearing a suit in the sports field. 

Glad he had finally arrived, Delta walked over towards the group, placing his hands in his pockets to keep his fingers from freezing. Upon getting closer, he noticed that the four figures seemed to be frozen in place, their facial expressions unchanging.

Delta pulled out his home-made shiv and crouched low, preparing to lunge or leap out of the way on a second's notice. He continued to approach the figures, getting within touching distance before inspecting them more closely. 

Two of the figures were female, one with short blonde hair and the other with longer black hair. The males were made up of a stocky dwarf and a skinny boy with glasses. 

Delta quickly realised that something wasn’t right. The figures were too still. Even if they had been playing a game of charades where they stood as still as possible, they would have small signs of movement, yet here they were statues. 

Intrigued, Delta reached out to touch the arm of the statue closest to him, resting his hand on the shoulder of the black-haired girl.

Suddenly, he recoiled in pain, hands clutched over his eyes as they reeled and burned with pain as piles of new information was dumped upon his brain. He fell to the floor, falling into a kneeling position where he remained for a few seconds as he tried to readjust himself.

After a few seconds of pain, Delta rose back to his feet, planning to figure out what was going on with the human statues in the middle of the grounds. Strangely, however, the figures had completely vanished without a trace. 

The grass underneath seemed entirely undisturbed, as if it had been unused for quite a while. Delta took a deep breath in but couldn't smell anything resembling a human’s odour. 

Rather perplexed, Delta looked around for any other signs of the human statues but was unable to find anything. 

In a last-ditch effort, Delta shut his eyes and took in a deep breath, focusing on his other senses and searching for any signs of the others, but there was nothing.

Delta opened his eyes again, eyes flicking around quickly between the trees and bushes at the edge of the training grounds. There was nobody.

Looking back at the spot where the statues had been, Delta noticed something he hadn’t before. A cloud of blue haze seemed to be where the human statues had been, forming a perfect copy of what Delta recognised to have been some of the children in his class. A faint line of blue started from the centre of the statue’s back and threaded directly to a bush by the edge of the training field.

Delta inconspicuously made his way over to the bushes, fumbling with his trouser buttons as if preparing to pull his trousers down and urinate. As he got closer, he noticed that there was a similar blue light floating around, oozing around 4 still figures whilst practically dancing around a conscious one. 

Although he didn't know how, Delta knew exactly where they were, so when the figure sprung out holding a club made of blue haze, Delta easily leapt out of the way, rolling sideways, and landing on his feet. 

He moved to grab the makeshift shiv he had made before, but it seemed to have cracked in two during the roll sideways. 

He wasn’t surprised, considering how it was only a makeshift weapon, but it meant he didn’t have a weapon for now. 

The man faced off against Delta, armed with his weapon of blue haze as the two circled each other.