"This is my brother, Chris. He is Aron, our friend, and the new joinee along with us siblings." The three boys stood without motion, letting Christina introduce them to a bunch of her friends. 

"This is..." While the three girls on Christina's side, shook hands with Chris and Aron, Ben's stared in angst as the young girl struggled with his name. "Ghaha.. Ben Gallant.." Totally switching expressions, he delivered a suave smile. 

Shaking the hands of the first girl, Ben made sure to leave a lasting impression. "You might have heard about me, I am not a new joinee after all." 

The uncomfortable chuckle from the girls let everyone know they clearly didn't recognize him. But such a small setback was nothing to stumble upon for Ben. Not retracting his smile, he made sure to shake everyone's hands. 

Next, Christina made introductions of her friends to the boys as well. "My.. so you are Aron. It's nice to meet you." At the same time, Aron found himself face to face with the last girl in the group. 

"My name is Ester." This was the first time Aron had met such a tall girl. He himself was approaching six feet in height, but the girl was even taller than him by a full head. 

Her extraordinary height didn't actually take away from her beauty. If anything, it only seemed to enhance it. The girl looked genuinely happy to meet him, grinning from ear to ear. 

Ester was truly a marvel to look at, but what surprised Aron was not her appearance. Rather, the grip on his hands.. it was tight. If might have been wincing in pain had his physicality not received a bump.

And yet, there was no indication on Ester's face that she was doing this deliberately to him. This can only mean one thing. Aron found himself inadvertently turning his head to face Chris. 

'She is strong.. crazy strong..' Both had a single thought in their mind. The lustful firey eyes with which Chris stared at the exceedingly tall girl meant Aron was more or less accurate in his conclusion.

"Pleased to make an acquaintance, Ms. Ester." Aron reacted courteously, giving soft yet strong hands a swift shake. "Please call me Ester. Also, Christina informed us about your circumstances. Don't worry, your identity is safe with us." 

Ester responded with a sweet smile, making his heart flinch for a moment. What charm was this? Aron was positive that the girl didn't rely on any kind of magic for her increased attractiveness. Still holding onto her hand, Aron recalled a gravely familiar face. 

"Hey Ester.. drop his hand, you are going to hurt him." Seeing the boy and girl were in an absolute deadlock, another girl stepped out to break the stalemate.

"Ohh.. Hehe.. I am sorry.." Finally reminded of her unnatural strength, Eater chuckled awkwardly, retracting her hand in the process. "It's okay..!" Aron too took a step back, finding himself to have stared at the girl for quite some time. 

While the group laughed and got back on track to reach their assembly grounds, Ester can't help but take another look at the boy. She has never met him and yet.. her black pupils dilated. 

Aron remained unaware of this scrutiny, busy answering the questions thrown his way by the other two girls. "I suppose you two are the same as Christina, with no homeroom class designated for you yet?" 

"We are not. Most certainly we will be assigned today." Aron discussed. Credits were divided into two types in the academy, consisting of general classes as well as affinity-related classes. 

General classes were what were called homerooms and every student must attend them. Other than that, however many affinities you discover, you can take a class for it. 

While having multiple affinities sounded and helped in the overall development, usually students were not very keen on taking up the extra credits. Simply because if you are half-assed in a certain type of magic and decided to include the credits for it, then it might negatively impact your final grading.

Hence, only those who were confident in their ability to learn new kinds of magic took up extra credits. Even though girls told him that, he was aware of this matter all thanks to Ava. 

"Oh.. so do you have any preferences for homeroom?" "I know no one. So anyone is fine." Chris didn't think twice about it, locking his palms behind his head he whistled nonchalantly. 

"What about you Aron?" Ester was the one who came next to the raven-haired boy. "Hm.. I have worked in the Necromancy department and considering my affinity with it, I hope to land in Mrs. Yana's class." 

"Mrs. Yana?" Aron somewhat expected the exaggerated response. Apparently, Mrs. Yana had quite a reputation with the students. "Brother Aron, I can understand that Mrs. Yana comes out to be an amicable woman and for the most part.. she is. But.." 

The girl named Dria who possessed a uniquely darker skin tone was the first to respond. Still, she staggered mid-way, not knowing how exactly to frame her sentence. The twins had nothing to add to the conversation, as such the siblings resorted to listening. 

"Ahem.. Dria is right, Aron." Ester took a deep sigh. "Mrs. Yana is my homeroom teacher. Believe me, she is not exactly amicable with her students." 

"Yeah man.. I have heard the same. Princess of the north is a tough nut." Ester's words found coherence from an unlikely source, that being Ben. "Huh.. you might as well take our advice and not land in her hands. That will be our suggestion." Dria along with Ester and their third friend knocked their head fervently. 

    

"Haha.. she can't be that harsh on us, can she?" Truthfully speaking, it was very hard for Aron to imagine Mrs. Yana as anything other than a sweet and mellow matron. 

"She is." Ester added, but then tilted her head to the side in thought. "Then again, you are a fresher. She might not be that hard on you." Aron didn't know why he could not find solace in Ester's remark. Why did that sound like a big ominous flag to him?

It wasn't long when the group found themselves surrounded by many more students who were each congregating on the grounds right outside the infirmary. The first thing Aron's eyes landed on was the magnificent black spear stuck into the giant wall.

There was an inherent attraction that he felt towards the weapon. It was as if it was calling on to him even at such a long distance.  

"This way.. First years stand from the left." Ester and Ben took the lead, bringing the group over to the right place. "Then are those guys the fourth-years?" Chris pointed to the opposite side. 

"Haha.. yeah.. you can easily differentiate them from their haughty face." Dria remarked. "Hm.. so all the best fighters in the academy are situated over to that area." Chris added, seemingly talking to himself.

"Obviously. But time is the only advantage they got over us." Ester claimed, finding support from her friends. Since there was still time before the assembly began, most of the students had formed their own groups, chatting and laughing together.

Looking around, Aron found it strangely nostalgic to stand together with such talented individuals. From the last two years, he had desired nothing else than this. From now, his path of cultivation will have a certain direction. With a slight smile, Aron let out a deep breath. 

Talking to his buddies, Aron attracted the attention of the onlookers. Some were only looking because they had never seen the boy around, others were charmed by his extraordinary visage and yet others were the ones who had witnessed his first-ever arena fight against Christina.

"Looks like you found yourself a company." A voice broke their flow of conversation. Smiling, Aron who was dressed in a long blue attire turned around to find a bunch of familiar faces. Julia led her gang over, unaffected by the admiring eyes of the onlookers. 

"Haha.. I was waiting for you guys." Aron stepped forward to hug the first girl who eagerly jumped into his arms. With two softballs crushed on his chest, the short green-haired girl giggled. "Damn you, Aron.. you never came to see us." 

Acting all coy, the spectacled beauty slapped his chest in protest. "Sorry about that.. I was too busy with all the formalities." Hestia finally let go of him. Aron was ready for more hugs, alas.. other than the busty bookworm, no one else was brave enough to show an open affection towards the boy.

Julia was definitely going to stomp his foot if he tried anything with her. Ava had a boyfriend and he had the least interaction with Sophie. On that thought, Aron stepped ahead and caught the most vulnerable looking one out of them.

Stepping next to the frail Hera, who had been staring at the ground ceaselessly, Aron wrapped his arms around her waist without any hesitation. "How are you?" 

Hera felt her heart will break out of her chest. Not expecting the boy to display such naked fondness, the shy girl was spooked out of her mind by the alarming gesture. "I.. I am fine." 

Memories of her haggling with Hestia to hold onto Aron's arms flashed in her mind. Recalling how much she let her emotions spill out during the trip made Hera extremely embarrassed of her actions now. 

"Come.. I will introduce you to some of the friends I made." At that moment the couple looked like a bunch of five years old as Aron held onto Hera's hands and brought her over. 

Julia and others smiled. It was impossible to imagine any other boy taking such liberty with their friend. There had certainly been boys who had wanted to make a move on her, but all of them were sent to the infirmary ward with no exceptions. 

"These are my friends.." Aron went on to introduce Julia's gang members to his new group. Meanwhile, Ester and her two friends could only gawk at the sight of the boy holding onto Hera's hands so confidently. They can tell the peachy-haired girl was not very comfortable at being the center of attention, nonetheless, she let the boy hold her out.

"We already know each other, Aron." Julia interrupted. "Ester is in our homeroom. And we have been familiar with Dria and Frilla, for a while." "Ohh.." Aron then skipped the girls and chose to familiarise the twins with the group.

"Chris is the name. And this is my twin sister, Christina." Ever since the girls had wandered in Chris's eyes were focused on no one else but Julia. This blonde girl was giving off a strong vibe, probably even stronger than Ester.

"We have heard a lot about both of you. My name is Julia.. The one in glasses is Hestia, she is the brains of our group. The shy one over there is Hera. She doesn't look like much, but you can call her our core strength."

Chris and Christina shook hands with every other girl as Julia provided a small introduction. "This is Ava.. not really good with magic but is equally accomplished in sports. Next is Sophie, the most level-headed out of us all. She brings much-needed sanity to our rowdy group." 

"Wow.. it looks like each one of you has a function in the grouping." Chris chuckled. "Yeah, I wonder where Ms. Julia fits in?" Christina questioned. "You can call her the de-facto leader. She is the heart of the gang." 

Sophie made introductions for Julia, making the large group laugh out loudly. As another round of chats broke out, Chris can't help but try to remember something. 

Glancing at the girl standing shoulder to shoulder with Aron, he can't help but ponder over her name. 'Hera.. Why does that sound familiar?' But no matter how much he strained his little brain, the boy could not recall any viable information from his memory.