“Ah, bollocks,” I heard Kargath mutter under his voice, barely audible over the sounds of crumbling brick and the eruption of battle. He sighed. “I just know they’re gonna make me fix that.”

  I turned an incredulous eye on the dwarf, still tense with surprise at the unexpected demolition of both an entire face of the ‘main hall’ and the explosive entrance of Honoka. In the distance, I could see that the older woman I hadn’t seen in nearly half a year now had engaged in an all-out duel with the other man. Fists and feet were flying at speeds I could barely perceive, while gouts of furious flame and sharpened water erupted from the melee, to crash into a bubble shield that seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere to surround them.

  Even from a distance, I could recognize the feel of the Mana inundating that shield, rife with a familiar cold and impersonal Celestial affinity. The Arts and Skills of the sudden duel splashed harmlessly over the transparent walls of the bubble. I couldn’t see the caster through the cloud of debris that hung over the new hole in the wall, but I’m sure he was there.

  At the sudden breakout of violence in the courtyard of the Academy’s main hall, I’d moved protectively in front of a thankfully only startled Aveline, affecting a ready stance as I did so. Meanwhile, Fade had moved to shield her with his body, crouching and baring his fangs. I noticed that I wasn’t the only one to make ready as well, with Azarus and an abruptly full-sized Sena standing tense to my side. However, curiously, the other members of my party did not seem very alarmed by the sudden duel.

  Liora merely looked curious, while Venix seemed a bit exasperated. In contrast, Renauld actually looked a bit excited. The Gnollish leader dragged his eyes away from the melee to fix those of us standing at attention with an amused look. “Don’t worry, don’t worry,” He said with a smirk. “This is…pretty common between Professor Honoka and Professor Aozora. They’ve been at each other’s throats for literal decades.”

  “Puerile behavior,” Venix sighed, shaking his head disapprovingly. He crossed his arms as he veritably tutted at the sight of the duel. “It makes for a poor first impression.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Liora said with a small smile on her face. “The rivalry between Lady Honoka and Lord Aozora has long been a point of local legend. It’s an almost…festive occasion when the relationship heats up enough to prompt another duel.” Her brow furrowed. “However, I’ve never heard of them destroying property in the pursuit of their antagonism. It’s normally restrained to the arena.”

  “Tensions have been damned high,” Kargath interjected, shaking his head. “It’s got them two idjits at each other's throats like wolves over the last scrap. Ah…no offense,” He said toward the relaxing form of Fade. Said Spirit Wolf shrugged his furry shoulders, uncaring. “Might as well go and watch the cluckin’ of them hens. I’m guessin’ the meetin’ is over anyway. Headmaster will want to see ya.” With his piece said, Kargath resumed his walk in the direction of both the main hall and the still ongoing duel. The rest of the people who were at least semi-familiar with both the Academy and the apparent rivalry between Honoka and this ‘Lord Aozora’ followed along.

  Exchanging a glance with Azarus as we relaxed, I took Aveline by the hand and did the same. If…they were unworried, I guess I just had to conform to local expectations.

  As we drew closer to the imposing, if not damaged building, we skirted the edge of the duel. And as we did so, the double doors of the Academy’s main hall abruptly slammed open, and a large number of people began to stream out excitedly.

  These, I could only guess, were the myriad students of the Academy. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was a bit surprised to find that there was apparently a uniform dress code.

  In retrospect, that…made sense.

  Thankfully, it wasn’t as stuffy as I might have thought a near-military academy uniform would be. It was unisex and appeared to primarily be composed of a short, waist-length charcoal grey cloak with a mantle, over a crisp white collared tunic. On their lower half, the students wore military-cut black pants bound by either a long sash in one of three colors, either white, blue, or green, while on their feet they bore plain black boots with silver buckles. Curiously, I noticed that each and every one of the students wore a badge of some kind pinned to their breast. As we drew closer, I was able to make them out.

  There seemed to be three different kinds among the gathered masses, visible as they began to actually…cheer on the furiously dueling Professors. The largest number of them were bronze, depicting a simple circle split down the center, one half enameled with blue lacquer, the other green. All of the students wearing these pins also wore the white sashes. The second largest group of students all wore square badges wrought from silver, this time with either a blue or green glass gem of an identical shape inset into the surface, while they wore a sash of a matching color around their waists. There were noticeably fewer of the third type of badge in the cheering student body. These were gold shaped into a heptagon, with similarly shaded gems inset into the surface, but this time cut into the shape of a starburst. I could only assume that the badges were a form of identification for the wearers, but there was something else I noticed about the student body.

  They were quite…diverse.

  I was pretty surprised to notice that all of the races of Vereden and Indiqua that I had personally encountered were visible among them. As expected, the largest number of them were Human, which was unsurprising considering our location. However, it was interesting to note that there was generally an even mix of the three general Human ethnicities among the student populace. That being the Herztalians, the Kawamarans, and the Roricians. I typically only saw the darker-skinned Rorician people in the Gyreite Churches. But there were a surprisingly large number of them here, and that wasn’t even considering the Kawamarans. Seeing any of them this far south was a bit of a surprise, considering my understanding of their culture.

  The second largest group was, to my surprise, the Gnolls. There were quite a few of the furry people mixed in with the other bipeds of the student body. Outside of Renauld and Liora, I couldn’t put my finger on the last time I’d encountered one of their people.

  I was a bit happy to see that the third largest group of students was Sculpted. There were honestly so many of the newly victorious former constructs among the student body that they were visible among every formed group of the cheering masses. Formed of all kinds of materials and in all kinds of shapes and sizes, they were by far the most diverse-looking group at the Academy. After all, no two Sculpted were ever alike, considering each one had been an individual project. Creating a Sculpted wasn’t as simple as hammering out a blade.

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  Still, I could only assume most of them were being sponsored by the Academy in some manner. It was hard to believe most of the Sculpted could afford the fees, considering just how young they all were in the grand scheme of things.

  The fourth largest group was Dwarven, which was…expected. The Principality was the second-largest geopolitical rival on the continent, after all, and there were some very pointed differences in opinion between the two countries. However, even seeing as many here as there were was worth noting. I would have thought that the vast majority of aspiring Dwarven Classers would have chosen to attend a Velancian institution. But…now that I thought about it…

  I’d never heard of such a thing. Huh.

  However…what really caught my attention were the last two demographics.

  There were actually Orcish and Antium students here. Not many, I could say that easily. But without a doubt, they were here. The tall green skinned, sharp eared, and betusked Orc students were the smallest demographic, with more visible chitinous individuals in the crowd. Both stood out, for reasons both obvious and not. The Antium, I think, just seemed…awkward. My understanding of their people, born from a decent amount of time spent around Venix, told me that the Antium as a whole were just bad at expressing emotion among us softskins. Antium possessed emotional signaling cues more closely related to the sensing of pheromones and hormones, through their noses and antennae. From what I’d learned, it took quite a bit of practice for a young Antium to learn how to ‘ape’ the physical emotions and cues in our society. By and large, the young Antium students of the Academy were not joining in with the revelry that the duel was causing. They were mostly standing around awkwardly. That is, until our little group grew closer.

  Then absolutely every single Antium I could see, both in the crowd, hanging around in the doorways, peaking through the dust of the destroyed wall, or even hanging out of the large windows of the main hall with the other students…

  Immediately snapped their attention onto a very specific person I was walking with. Namely, Venix. At the scrutiny, I could see the chitinous samurai’s antennae flex almost awkwardly as a grimace stole across his face.

  Even with their awkwardness, I could tell there was a degree of adulation in their fractal gazes.

  As for the Orcs? Well, they mostly seemed like stuck-up pricks. For the most part, the few Orc students were standing around in isolated groups, literally looking down their noses at the other students. This was…in line with my expectations. From my few limited experiences with Orcs back in Elderwyck, they were a pretty arrogant people.

  We were all just primitive barbarians to them, really.

  Which made it all the more interesting that there were any Orcs in attendance at all, here at the Academy.

  As for everyone’s ages, well. Pretty eclectic, I’d say. As expected, the youngest person I saw among the gathered students looked to be sixteen and newly Awakened, but they were the minority, really. For the most part, people seemed more university-aged to me, and on the older side of that age group. While it could sometimes be hard to pin down an Awakened’s actual age without Observing them, I’d say most people fell into the upper range of twenty to the lower of thirties. But some people looked even older than that. Hell, I saw more than a few people who looked like they could be someone’s grandparents in the mix. The result was that I really couldn’t tell if there were any of the Professors mixed in with the raucous student body.

  Just no way to pick them out, really. At least to my knowledge.

  All of this and more I saw as we approached the growing near party gathered in the courtyard of the main hall. The air was almost festive as the gathered students appeared to start a betting pool on who would win the duel, loudly debating the fact. From what I could hear, Honoka was the current favorite to win. There was even one particularly…rat-like Human student who seemed to have pulled out a tray from nowhere and appeared to be hawking food of all things to the attendees.

  Nobody seemed to think this was unusual.

  “SAUSAGES!” The short, rodent-like Human bellowed over the cheers of the gathered students and the sizzling energy of the duel. The apparent food vendor was closest to us on the edge of the crowd and seemed to be doing brisk business judging by the small line in front of him. “INNABUN! THREE COPPA FOR A SAUSAGE INNA-cor, is that you Renauld?” The man blinked his beady little eyes at us as we walked by him, nearly dropping a sausage ‘innabun’ as he handed it to a Dwarven student.

  To my surprise, Renauld’s muzzle split into a wide smile at the sight of the hawker. He spread his arms wide almost as if he was going to embrace the man. “Look at that!” He nearly shouted, fighting to be heard over the crown. “If it isn’t ol’ Pinless Pete! How ya doing, Pete!”

  ‘Pinless Pete’ laughed loudly, sounding almost like a donkey as he did so. He reached forward and clasped Renauld’s outstretched forearm easily. “It is you! The hell are ya doin’ here, you furry bastard! Last I heard, you got locked up in the clink!”

  I and the rest of my group stood off to the side as the two…friends? Maybe acquaintances reunited. Not out of any desire to give them any privacy, no. More…the man had an almost sleazy aura, punctuated by a distinct scent emanating from his greasy cloak, and equally greasy, long, thin, black hair.

  I did my best to keep Aveline out of the man’s sight.

  Renauld laughed at the man’s words. “I was, but now I’m not!” He shouted, almost in time with a particularly loud cheer from the crowd. Craning my head, I saw that ‘Lord Aozora’ had landed a particularly brutal-looking punch straight to Honoka’s nose. I winced as I saw a thin trickle of blood stream down over the older woman’s lips, only to wince again when she reared back and abruptly headbutted her opponent.

  Now they both had a nosebleed.

  “So, what’s this all about?” Renauld asked, jerking his head in the direction of the duel.

  “Eh…I think it was the usual?” ‘Pinless’ Pete said uncertainly, scratching the thin, patchy beard on his weak chin. “Kenny called Honoka a gormless, talentless hack not fit to lead a general store, much less the Cultivators. Then Honoka said he was a feckless coward and tackled him through the wall. Nothin’ out of the ordinary, but, if you ask me…” He leaned forward, and almost instinctively, I leaned back, even though I wasn’t anywhere near the man. “It’s a distraction. Meetin’ wasn’t goin’ well, with plenty of raised voices and some dangerous talk bein’ raised. Always thought those two didn’t hate each other as much as it seemed."

  “What was the meeting about?” I asked, ignoring the dirty look I got from Kargath in the process.

  Pete’s eyes slid my way, and he considered me for a moment. A smile appeared on his lips for some reason, displaying several gold teeth. “Whether or not we publicly support Oskar’s bid, o’ course.”

  Bid? What bid? I…thought it was all but settled that Oskar would be ascending to the throne?

  However, before I could question the almost stereotypically suspicious man, the dust finally settled, revealing the man who I had known was casting the shield.

  Grey.

  My mentor was…looking good, honestly, even if he had an almost exasperated frown on his thin lips. The man looked to have put on some weight since the last time I had seen him, considering he had still been shaking off the effects of his Brand, even if he had recovered his power. He was wearing an almost stately looking robes of a peculiar silver cloth, over which he wore a similar charcoal grey cloak to the students. Also similarly, he bore a long blue sash around his waist, and upon his breast was a pin that seemed to be unique to him. It looked to be Lunar Basalt, wrought into the form of a triskelion. Of his infamously powerful weapons, I saw no hint.

  He had his right hand raised in the direction of the duel and was striding toward the edge of it. That was, until his eyes flickered in my direction.

  My eyes met his own reversed silver and black orbs, for the first time in nearly half a year.

  Grey’s lips parted in surprise and then widened into a smile. I couldn’t help but return it as I raised the hand not holding Aveline’s in a small wave toward the man who had honestly done a lot for me.

  Despite the odd thoughts I’d had about Grey, and the small suspicions that had fostered…

  It was good to see him again.