Scarlet

The next morning sees me eating a rather large breakfast before going back to my room and changing into my uniform for the university. But right when I’m about to leave my room to meet up with the others who are attending the opening ceremony, I pause as I notice some sort of amulet on my bed with a note on top of it. An amulet that looks just like the ones the other Guardians have that lets them equip their magi-tech armor.

A grin spreads across my face as I grab the thing before putting it on over my neck and hiding it underneath my uniform’s top. Then I read the note.

Press the center of the amulet to equip your magi-tech armor. Your armor is consistent of your jacket, along with pants and a shirt. All of which are crafted from the latest material to date, just like Cynthia’s armor. And the armor is enchanted to adjust to your size no matter what changes may occur, as long as it has the material required.

Yes!!! Finally!!!

And he got it right before the opening ceremony too, which’ll apparently have a tournament in it?

Then I notice the added part on the other side of the note.

PS: The Silver Association has been hired as added security for the event, meaning I won’t be able to see you off. So my only advice to you would be to show off what you can do. It’ll lead to a better life in the university, along with better sponsors that will be able to make your life even outside of the university much more enjoyable. And please protect Belle while you’re there.

I smile at that last part before leaving the note on my bed and then walking out of my suite, locking it as I do so.

Then right when I turn around, I get blinded by the light of a camera, following which I hear Belle saying, “There we go. A picture to commemorate your first time in the uniform!”

While blinking the spots from my eyes, I feel Belle put something in my hand. And when the spots are finally gone, I find it to be her phone which I bring to my face just to find a picture of me on it with some sort of filter that takes out the background and makes it look rather odd.

After looking at the picture I hand it back to her, unsure of why she handed it to me in the first place.

“Idiot,” she says with a frown, “take one of me next!”

Oh.

I do so before handing it back again.

“And now one together,” she says with a smile, which makes me frown.

I really don’t like pictures.

She doesn’t seem to care though and takes it anyways before we both go to meet up with the rest of the team.

Fortunately, they were all quick to allow her to join the team. Mostly because we do need a defensive Guardian, and full teams are made up of five people, meaning we would’ve needed a fifth if we were to compete in the interschool tournaments. Which I ended up deciding to go along with in the end.

Although I really do have to wonder how this opening ceremony will turn out in the end.

We continue walking.

And I also hate wearing formal attire, so I want out of this thing as soon as possible.

So when I first heard that we would be arriving in a limo, I was very worried that the other students would start judging us. Or maybe that they’d think of me as some spoiled rich kid which I very much am not.

What I wasn’t expecting was to find over a dozen other limos here dropping off students amidst the remaining students who are all walking from the parking lot.

Okay… so maybe there are a bit more rich kids here than I expected…

I also can’t help but notice a lot of people sending glances my way in particular, likely due to those videos of me online fighting a knight and a wraith. Although I’m just glad they didn’t show the parts of my fight against the wraith where my clothes were damaged badly enough that it would’ve had me blushing pretty badly if I was seen by anyone.

I can’t help but think Allen had something to do with wiping that footage though. Because I doubt the media would’ve censored it, considering that nothing important was actually showing. So it would’ve been perfectly legal to do so.

Fortunately, the people looking at me don’t do so for long, returning their focus to whatever it is they were doing – mostly walking or talking – just seconds afterwards.

The five of us join the throng of students in the direction of the auditorium, which just at a glance is enormous. It’s also very different from any auditorium that I’ve ever seen, because the moment we enter it, my eyes are immediately attracted to the sight of the massive screen showing a random battlefield of sorts. One that looks a lot like one of the magical reality battlefields shown on TV for the interschool tournaments.

After looking up at it as we walk for a couple seconds, I look down again at the auditorium which seems to have thousands of seats in it. The place doesn’t actually have as many seats as one might expect for a university, but in hindsight, it makes sense. Since the university is only open to Guardians, and there aren’t tens of thousands of Guardians like there are students for most universities. At most I’d say there are around three or so thousand Guardians attending this university at a time, if my research is to be believed at least.

Which isn’t very many compared to the twenty to thirty thousand students in other universities that aren’t meant solely for Guardians.

Actually, if I remember correctly, there should be around – on average – twenty to thirty new Guardians each year within the republic’s capital alone, not counting the other cities across the globe. Although since the Demonic Assaults are linked to the population, the cities just get less and less as their populations are lower. Like how a tier 3 city generally only gets maybe a few Guardians a year at best.

And with the university having four years of mandatory study along with whatever graduate degree people want and the many, many transfer students constantly wanting to attend Lion’s Heart, I’d say three or so thousand sounds about right.

We all make our way to an area closer to the back of the auditorium, which is set up in a large oval, with the stage being at the very opposite end of the oval from the entrance, and a vast number of seats slowly going down the stairs to it with the seats angled inwards toward the stage, a few aisles in between the seats, and another set of seats on a floor above us overlooking the thing. Meanwhile the large screen that I noticed upon entering is directly above the stage. And the auditorium itself is in the colors of the school. Gold and black.

Once we decide on a good place to sit that’s in the very back row but not in the corner, we each sit and find an earpiece immediately extending out of the arm of the chair, along with instructions written on a screen build into the armrest.

Put this device over your ear to enter the magical reality once directed and the light on your earpiece turns green.

Oh, okay.

I blink in surprise as another notice flashes by the screen.

If you do not have human ears, you may press this button and an alternative will be given to you.

Huh. Convenient, but I have human ears still.

“For now, at least,” Tar suddenly adds, reminding me of the fact that I’ll become less and less human every time I reach a new Class.

I grimace at the thought of losing my human ears, and more importantly, losing my ability to lower the volume when I need to simply by switching to them. Even if I do spend almost all of my time using my blood lycan ears.

Belle, Michael, and Denise quietly chat amongst themselves, leaving me and Emily to sit in silence as we wait, just watching the students pile into the auditorium.