Start of Semester break

Morning arose with the usual wake up by the alarm and the best way to describe how I got out of bed would be crawling. My whole body ached and I felt very dehydrated. I probably overdid it in the sauna yesterday. I also didn't have the best sleep.

Dragging myself into the shower I turned up the water and let it flow down my body. The shower actually made me feel a bit better again.

Today would be the last day of the school for this semester. According to Lisa, today the headmaster would have a great speech in front of all the first years. For that reason we didn't have to attend school as early as usual.

I waited for Emilia to get herself ready as well to then go for breakfast. There we met the rest. Althaia looked just as tired as I did, she didn't take it too well either. Once we finished breakfast we all strolled towards the school together while having a nice chat.

Instead of our class room we headed for a huge hall at the side of the regular school building. We hadn't been in there as of now, but by its sheer size it should be able to fit all students, not just the first years.

Entering the building we could see a lot of the other students were here already. We might have been one of the last ones. All the other students sat in the front rows, the back left empty. Iris decided to sit down behind the other students as there weren't enough seats left anymore for us to sit together.

Five more minutes passed for the lights to go dark and for a figure to show up on the stage. By its outline alone I could tell it was the headmaster, his bulky frame easily recognizable. The lighting on the stage turned brighter again as he took his position. He cleared his throat and then started to speak without any need for amplification of his voice:

"Congratulations, students. You managed to get through the start of this school and now things are beginning to get more serious. In your second semester you will all focus more on practical training and getting actual experience than theoretical lessons. Those will only be held from time to time and aren't mandatory anymore. The biggest focus will lie on your first mission as a team and the tournament to find out your ranking among your peers. The tournament will start once all students have finished their mission. If you have any more question, please ask your homeroom teacher."

With that, we were done with school for today. The speech couldn't exactly be described as long, the headmaster certainly didn't beat around the bush.

However as we left the hall, Lisa pulled us aside. We followed her towards our regular classroom. Sitting at the front row was Mr. Black. As we entered the room, he stood up and went forward to the teacher's table.

"I had Lisa bring you kids here to congratulate you on your overall success in training so far. We can tell, you kids have been the ones working hardest in class. No one else put in as much effort. But…, this isn't the only reason…."

"The other reason is a small warning from us", Lisa took over and continued: "Try to show as little strength off as possible. Trust me. I can't tell you why though. The walls are quite thin here after all."

We were all left confused, all of this seemed way out of line from their ordinary behaviour. I couldn't grasp what Lisa implied by her speech.

"But enough with the gloomy topics, I reveal your surprise now. I will take you all to a beach to make up some of the lost relaxing time from the last couple months. We will start traveling tomorrow morning, so get all what you need today. You don't have to worry about food though, that is taken care of. Just get bikinis or other swimming equipment. Mr. Black will also accompany us as a sort of bodyguard. I'm not sure if you are aware but the only beach the human nation has is right at the border to the demon nation. Going there unprepared isn't the greatest idea but most of the time nothing too dangerous happens."

"How will we get there? This school is quite far away from the border. All the hybrid schools are built near the capital after all", Iris asked.

"Well, I have something prepared for this, don't worry you will see tomorrow", Lisa assured.

Mr. Black didn't add anything but he wasn't looking to happy. Maybe he thought traveling there would be a waste of time.

We all left the class room and headed for the clothing shops of the hybrid school. There we all got us some nice swim suits, Althaia and Emilia went for a one-piece swim suit while Iris and I chose to take a more revealing bikini. The boys got themselves some simple swimming trunks.

Having finished all the shopping for what we needed, the next day soon arrived.

Lisa told us to wait before the entrance of the dorms in the morning but she was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Black also hadn't arrived yet.

Then, suddenly an ear-deafening screech sounded through the air and as I looked up in the sky, a huge silhouette came down towards us. Iris and the rest started to panic and tried to find cover. I, however, had already figured out what this likely was.

It appeared to be our way of transportation, a huge dragon like beast with a wingspan of ten meters.

The beast landed right before us and now we could see a sort of cabin on its back. The door to the cabin opened and Lisa came out.

"Oh, my. Did we scare you? I told you, you shouldn't land so quickly right in front of the students, Mr. Black!"

The others calmed themselves down to then climb up the dragon to enter the cabin. The inside seemed way bigger than what one could assume from the outside. Later Lisa told us this was because of the celestial energy used on the cabin. By doing so the space inside became distorted and allowed it to be so spacious.

Once we all entered the cabin, the beast under Mr. Black's command took off the ground.