First Day of School

After a short breakfast, Katherine finally brought the three of them out of the house.

The road was filled with people going to their classes, but many of them went the other direction while Katherine continued heading straight.

When they finally arrived at the school, the three kids were a little surprised by its name label, 'Seraphel Elementary School.'

It made them realize the Mystic Academy of Seraphel had schools within a school, or in other words, much bigger than they ever imagined.

As they followed Katherine past the entrance and into one of the buildings, they were even more in awe of the spacious design.

Walking past the different classes, they could see other students similar to their age through the windows.

"It should be class 204... Where is it?" Katherine murmured as she checked the acceptance letter.

"I think it's that one," Sophia said, pointing toward the classroom at the end of the hall.

"Oops... You guys go inside the classroom with this letter and give it to the teacher, okay?

I need to handle a few paperwork. I'll be here to pick you guys up when the class is over. Don't be nervous and stay calm, okay?"

All three of the kids nodded in agreement, accepting the letter as they watched her head downstairs.

"I still can't believe I'm going to be in the same class as Mary..." Alex murmured as he looked over to his eight-year-old sister.

"I'm the more embarrassed one... I really hope we aren't going to be put in a class full of children."

Sophia quickly looked over to Mary as well, only to realize she was going to the same class with someone who was barely half her height.

"Hey, everyone is a child at some point. You guys aren't even adults yet," Mary said with a slightly irritated voice.

"Yeah, yeah..."

As the three of them finally began heading towards the classroom, they were a little stunned as they stopped right at the door.

Their eyes couldn't believe the teacher standing in the front was Amelia, wearing almost the same outfit as Katherine except with a knee skirt rather than a long skirt.

"Welcome! You guys must be the new students... Don't call me auntie. You three hear me?"

The last part was only heard by the three kids as Amelia's voice appeared in their heads.

"Ahem, let's have you introduce yourself to the class. I'll be taking the letters, thank you."

As Amelia welcomed the three into the classroom, she quickly took the letter off their hands before bringing them to the front.

"Sophia, do you want to go first? Just say something about yourself, like your favorite food." Amelia asked softly.

Sophia nodded as she slowly stepped up to the front of the blackboard, taking a deep breath before getting ready to speak.

"Hello, my name is Sophia. My favorite food is chocolate chip cookies, and I hope to be friends with everyone in the class."

As Sophia stepped down, Amelia quickly directed her to the back of the class next to a girl sitting alone.

"My name is Alex. I don't really have a favorite food, but I hate chocolate."

As Alex finished next, Amelia directed him to the front to be seated with a man who looked way too old for this class.

"My name is Mary, and my favorite food is chips. Thank you."

Mary's introduction confused a lot of people in the classroom, as they didn't expect to be thanked randomly out of nowhere.

Still, no one really spoke up until Amelia personally brought Mary down from the front before seating her near Sophia.

"Ahem, my name is Amelia Reid, but you guys can call me Miss Amelia..."

Amelia writes her name on the board before turning back to the student in the classroom.

"I'm actually just your substitute teacher for the week since Miss Amy got sick during the weekend. I don't know how far you guys have gotten, so I'm just going to start from the beginning."

As everyone started taking out their textbook, Alex looked down at his desk and quickly noticed a textbook inside.

"Please do not open your textbook yet. Except for the three new students, you may read it for now."

As Alex opened the textbook, the first page covered things that he already knew, such as how mana level is directly tied to a person's mage level.

However, the most intriguing thing was meditation. It was one of the main ways to increase their mana capability. In other words, to become a higher-level mage, they needed to meditate.

When he reached the second page, he learned that Fire, water, earth, wind, dark, and light were the six basic elements that formed this world.

In addition to the basic elements, there are hundreds of sub-elements, such as Ice, metal, rocks, sounds, and even time.

To use all these different elements, mana is the essential ingredient to move different elements into a specific arrangement to form spells.

Even though there are infinite unique patterns, shapes, element positioning, and element ratios for making spells, the textbook stated that experimentation was dangerous without further explanation.

---

As the clock hit twelve, Amelia had been teaching for three hours nonstop, with only one bathroom break in the middle.

Meanwhile, Alex had already finished reading the first chapter of the textbook.

"It looks like everyone in the class has a firm grasp of the basics. In the afternoon, I'll test your knowledge in more depth.

If any of you need to talk to me, I'll be at the teacher's cafeteria. You all are dismissed."

The moment Amelia stepped out of the room, the entire class burst into chatter, and some were already heading out to eat lunch.

Alex quickly took the chance to speak to his seating mate, who had been silent, writing in a notebook without being picked a single time.

"Hey, my name is Alex. Can I ask what your name is?"

"My name is Justin... You're wondering why I'm in this classroom, right?"

Alex awkwardly scratched his head as Justin spoke out exactly what he was thinking about in his head.

"I'm a level one mage, just like you all... I had been in this school for over ten years now."

After a short silence, Justin went back to writing in his notebook. But Alex was even more intrigued by his situation now.

"Sorry if this sounds a little offensive, but how are you still at level one?" Alex curiously asked.

"I was just not born with the talent. But I believe I can overcome it with hard work to become a level two mage one day."

Hearing Justin's optimism and dedication to his dream, Alex felt bad for him but was also inspired by him.

"I hope your hard work pays off one day... What are you writing in your notebook?"

"Just a device that manipulates magic."

After looking at the strange device in Justin's notebook for a while, Alex could tell it was certainly some sort of magical device.

But with zero knowledge of crafting, Alex silently watched it until Sophia and Mary came over with a group of people.

"Alex, you want to go eat with us?" Sophia asked.

"Sure. See you later, Justin."

Justin didn't reply or look back at Alex, but he did stop his work to wave back as Alex left the classroom.

---

As Alex followed Sophia with her new friends towards the student cafeteria, he was a little surprised by her social skills.

Sophia had already perfectly blended in with her seating mate and all of the pre-existing friend groups in the classroom.

Even though they had just met less than a day before, they were already chattering with each other nonstop the whole way through.

What was more surprising was the fact that Sophia was able to let her groups of new friends absorb Mary into the friend group as well.

"Hey Alex, do you want to introduce yourself?" Sophia curiously asked as they finally sat down at one of the tables.

"Hello. I'm Alex."

Seeing four girls all staring at him in silence, Alex felt a little pressured to end it there.

"You're Sophia's little brother, right? How old are you again?" One of the older-looking girls curiously asked.

"I'm ten, turning eleven in a few months."

Alex replied as he nervously clicked on the standard lunch menu. But all four of the girls kept staring at his face.

Suddenly, one of them leaned over and hugged Alex in her arms.

"Alex, you're so cute! You're so much better than my stinky brother!" The girl excitedly said out loud.

"Um, thank you?" Alex replied in confusion as Sophia separated the girl and him away from each other.

"Ahem, you guys should probably introduce yourself to my brother. He doesn't even know your guy's name yet."

The four girls looked at each other for a second, then one of the older girls stepped up first.

"Hey Alex, my name is Evelyn. I'm thirteen. My dad also works as a teacher here."

Alex nodded, briefly glancing at her much more developed body a few times before turning to the second person.

"Hi, I'm Luna. I'm twelve years old, and I'm Evelyn's younger sister."

As Alex examined her looks, Luna seemed less physically mature than Evelyn despite the difference of only a year. However, he was a little scared of her because she was the one who hugged him out of nowhere.

After the two finished introducing, Alex turned his attention to the third girl, who had extremely pale skin.

"Um, my name is Chloe. I'm twenty years old——"

Seeing Alex looking a little shocked, Chloe quickly chanted something that shocked him even more.

Her pointy ears, green eyes, and blond hair made his mouth drop in shock as the features perfectly matched with a certain race.

"I-I'm actually an elf... so that's why I'm much older than you guys. Mom said I'm only ten years old in human years."

As soon as Chloe finished talking, her elvish features disappeared eyes as she murmured something to herself.