I was one of the last people to enter the hall. It was a big, fancy hall with a decorated stage in front of it. In the center of the stage, there was a lectern but nobody was standing there. There were many rows of chairs in the hall, most of them filled with people. I entered through the door on the balcony, which was the sitting area for noblemen. There were ten fancy chairs, of which only one was empty. I casually walked up to the chair and sat down. Instantly, I began to muster the people sitting there.

The guy sitting next to me wore short brown boots, beige trousers, a white turtleneck sweater, and a light blue quilted long coat decorated with white fur. He was tall, skinny and had quite fair skin. His eyes were light blue and he had well-combed platinum blonde hair.

The guy next to him had a completely different appearance. He wore black boots which went up to the mid-lower leg, red leather pants with a wide black belt, a dark grey shirt, and a black leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up to the mid-forearm.

He was tall and muscular, had slightly tanned skin, brown eyes, and dark brown gelled hair.

While I mustered the other people sitting there I was interrupted, as a person entered the stage and people stood up and clapped. The person entering the stage looked like a true nobleman. He wore grey short boots, white trousers, white gloves and a decorated white military uniform jacket with a high waist grey belt with a golden buckle on it. It had golden buttons going up the middle and on the sleeves and two white shoulder straps on which a piece of red fabric was attached so that it went from one shoulder across the back to the other shoulder. On the right shoulder, it went over the whole shoulder. On the left shoulder, the jacket had a small golden chain going from the front of the shoulder around the arm to the back of the shoulder. The jacket hat a high collar with a red cravat on it. The man was tall, had fair skin, grey eyes, a pair of gold-framed glasses, and blonde hair, combed to one side.

He stood behind the lectern and patiently waited until it was quite in the hall and everybody sat down again. He then broke the silence and started to speak in a strict but well-mannered tone. “Welcome to the prestigious arcane academia, my new students. I am Lord Callickson, the director of this institution. You are here today because you are starting your academic career. You will have the privilege of learning the arcane arts. Of course, this incredible privilege comes with great responsibility. You are expected to dedicate all your time to this task and give your absolute best here. Once you graduate, you are expected to serve the United Realms with absolute loyalty with this power. You will have access to high tier positions in the armed forces and you are expected to dedicate your life to those positions.”

He then said: “Before I send you off to your classes, where you will get additional information on everything here, I’d like to take some time to welcome our special students. I am honored to announce that we have new students of high nobility status. Students on the balcony, please stand up.” The other ones and I stood up and everyone in the hall was looking at us. He continued: “From left to right, I’d like to welcome the son of Duke Painton, Daniel; the daughter of Lord Durandan, Catherine; The son of Count Traffon, Rodrick; the son of duchess Reighl, Tristan, the daughter of Baron Christen, Rebecca; the young Lord Astorlight, Robert; the young Lord Arcinshire, Hershel, and the halfbrother of Lord Dracailis, Jonathan.”

I didn’t particularly like being mentioned while everybody stared at me. Yet I was grateful that he called me halfbrother and not bastard brother. I was sick of always hearing that I’m a bastard. It was already bad enough for me, not knowing who my father was.

Anyways, now that he mentioned all of us, with me being the last, his speech was finished. He wished us great success and told us, to now go to our assigned classroom. Everyone got up and so did I, ready to start my career at this academy.