(Mini) Chapter 78 - The Mock Trials

It had been a week since Griff and his friends' training session in the outskirts of the school. They were still training these days, but they had lost their fire. Something he didn't like seeing.

As he was walking through the corridors to his class, he came into eye contact with a few of the Gilded Kings. They looked at him distainfully. Just the usual... for now.

'I'll teach all of the nobility a good lesson...'

He kept walking to his next class. It was a unique class, something called Joint Magic Exercises. It was apparently going to be held at the courtyard.

A few minutes of walking later he reached the courtyard. It was bustling more than usual... just like the ceremony he attended a few weeks back.

"Griff! Over here!"

Sylvie was waving her hand jumping up and down. She was standing beside the rest of the First Year Phoenix Class members. He walked towards them with a smile on his face. He hadn't seen them all together for a week, and they seemed to be a bit excited. A change from their week long moody auras.

"Hey guys! Where were you all? Whenever class ended I saw you guys just go off to different places."

That was indeed the case. For the last week everyone was training and studying by themselves. Griff had taken this as time to practice about the fourth tier, but he had no idea what the others were doing.

"Well... ehehe."

Sylvie scratched her head trying to avoid the question.

"Nevermind that now Griff... you'll find out sooner or later anyway."

Kato replied, trying to calm down Griff's curiosity for now.

"Students! Listen up!"

A large, muscular man was standing on top of the podium in the courtyard. There were three more people standing besides him, one of them being Julius.

"Are those-"

"The teachers of the first years. That man is Marquis Augustus, the teacher of the first year Gilded Kings."

Kato answered his question even before he could form a proper sentence.

Griff's eye twitched but he let it go.

The large man, Marquis Augustus, continued after having made sure every brat was looking at his direction.

"This is a lesson that we as the heads of every class had decided to schedule at the start of the term. These joint magic exercises are where we shall pair you up individually with someone from another class. Do you understand what this means?! THIS IS A CHANCE FOR YOU BRATS TO SHOW US WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF! AN OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE OFFICIAL RANKING FESTIVAL!"

With every word that got out of Augustus's mouth, the Gilded King's students started to cheer louder.

Kato clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Bunch of fanboys..."

Sylvie and Ellen didn't pay heed to Kato, simply lost in their own thoughts on how they would do today.

Griff was shocked, yet happy at the same time. This was a good chance to see what he was lacking, and if he could truly call himself strong right now.

"Alright now. I'll cast a simple illusion spell. There are about 100 students gathered here. This spell will make you see numbers floating above your head. One of these is your ranking, and the other one is your duo tag. The other person who has the same duo tag as you is your opponent in today's mock training."

Augustus raised his hand and a small, yellowish magic circle appeared around his wrist.

He casted the spell without a single chant.

A couple seconds later, Griff noticed that there were numbers floating above his head. The first one was his ranking, 382. The second one was his duo tag number, 23. Now all he had to do was find the other person.

"You have 5 minutes to find your duo. The ones who can't might just as well leave the school for stupidity."

It seemed that they wouldn't make things easy.