Ch 18: New Friends

Clara was a bit nervous at first but as she conversed more with Alexis, she started to relax. Glory on the other hand, from the very beginning was comfortable talking with him. As they conversed about various miscellaneous things, a teacher entered the class room.

The teacher was a shabby and tired looking man who had bags under his eyes. But even with his less then impressive looks, no one looked at him disrespectfully.

That was because this man was a genius mage and magic researcher. His name, Cornwell Grimhel was well known in the noble circle of the Octavia Kingdom.

Cornwell looked tired but greeted the class very cheerfully. As he noticed Alexis sitting in the corner, his tired face bloomed into a heartfelt smile.

No one was surprised by this too. Two years ago, Cornwell had found himself in a huge amount of debt after failing a massive research project.

At hat time, it was the Archduke Langesior who had helped him out. Not only financially but the Archduke had also provided him better equipment for his following experiments.

This was the only reason why Cornwell was able to get his life back in line and managed to became a respected researcher. So it made sense why this person who now had the title of genius researcher would be grateful to the Archduke.

Stories like these were not uncommon. The Archduke had a reputation for being very cold so many people were unable to look him in the eyes.

But the Archduke had also helped a lot of people so he was also known as a kind and generous man. Overall his reputation was very high among both the commoners and the nobles.

...

The class ended early as it was only the first day. The students were said to introduce each other and then Cornwell gave a short lecture on magjc. Then he ended the class and told them that the real lesson would start from the next day.

After that, the students were allowed to return back to their homes or to their dorms. But as this was their first day here, many students wanted to check the campus out.

Alexis also invites his two new friends to do the same and both of them immediately agreed. Alexis was already very familiar with the place as he had visited it several times before so he took the role of a guide and told the two girls about the facilities that the academy had.

While following behind Alexis, both of the ladies thought how absurdly lucky their situation was. They had never imagined, even in their most outrageous of dreams that the great Archduke himself would accompany them as a guide on their very first day of the academy.

...

Clara had always been shy with her family's conservative upbringing. And after she awakened a special skill called the "Eye of Clarity", her eyes became extremely sensitive to most things and she stopped going outside almost completely.

The glasses that she was wearing was a special artifact that helped her with this problem. In the last two years after her awakening, she had practiced her ability vigorously and had managed to control the sensitivity somewhat.

For that reason now she was able to go outside again but talking to people was still very hard for her. That was because her Eye of Clarity was even able to see the emotion of a person. Specially the emotion that was directed toward her but she was also able to see the emotion someone was feeling toward others.

This was a lot of information and it was extremely tiring for her brain to handle. If someone was too emotional and Clara talked to suck a person, her brain could get fried due to sensory overload. So for Clara, not talking with anyone was more relaxing and safe.

But Alexis was the first person from whom Clara had not managed to sense any emotions while having a conversation. While talking with the head master, Clara had also felt a lot less uncomfortable as very little of his emotions were leaking out.

But not feeling anything was a first for her. Clara was not sure about the reason behind it but she was very glad to have someone to comfortably talk to, for the first time in her life.

...

Glory was the third daughter of marquis Balema. The marquis was an adept politician and was very enthusiastic about making bonds with various nobles.

For that reason, since her early childhood, Glory was raised as a proper young lady with the intention of marrying her off to a family to create a relationship of benefit.

But Glory's own nature was different from what her family wanted from her. She was a cheerful but also a very head strong person. She had absolutely no intention of being her father's pawn.

In her childhood, Glory had no power to go against the marquis and she was forced to go through the tough and boring study about how to become a proper young lady.

But fortunately for Glory, she managed to awaken powerful combat skills and also had a B grade affinity for aura. These were great abilities that made Glory exceptional with a lot of potential.

For that reason, just becoming a political pawn was a waste for someone of her talent, the marquis had started to treat Glory differently.

But Glory did not care about this anymore and just wanted to live her life on her own. She even wanted to get rid of the Balema surname.

But to do that while she was still underage, she needed permission from at least one of her parents and unfortunately for Glory, her father and mother both refused her.

Glory came to the academy to learn as much as she could before she could come off age. Immediately after turning adult, Glory was immediately planning to get rid of her noble surname so before that she needed to grow strong enough to take care of herself.

Glory was a very big fan of Archduke Langesior. She was impressed by how a young person like him managed to get out of his family's shadow with his own strength. So Alexis was an inspiration to her.

So even though she was able to hide her excitement, at seeing Alexis face to face and getting a chance to sit close to him, she was extremely happy in her heart. Now that her idol was guiding her around the campus, she was feeling like she was inside of a beautiful dream.

...

After introducing Clara and Glory to most of the important facilities of the academy, Alexis invited them for lunch and they sat down in the academy cafeteria.

As this place was meant for the nobles, the selection of food here was very diverse and the foods themselves were of extremely high quality. Alexis ordered a few of the dishes he had liked before and ask the ladies to order whatever they wanted without.

Glory was veey happy to get a treat from her idol so she did not reject the kind offer and ordered some dishes immediately. Clara was quite a bit shy about it at first but soon with Alexis' encouragement, she also ended up ordering a few dishes that she liked, which were mostly sweets.

After everyone had their food, Alexis became serious and asked Clara a question.

"Miss Clara did not speak with miss Glory at all even though both of you were together for most of the day ? Is your special condition the reason for this ?"

Hearing this question, Clara was shaken. She had not expected Alexis to know about her condition. Clara became nervous that after learning about this, Alexis would not want to become her friend anymore.

Being friends with someone who could read all your emotions was extremely dangerous as essentially hiding something from them was almost impossible. Clara knew about it and that was the reason why she was nervous.

But would Alexis do something like that ?