After the orientation ended, Yuri, Jihoon and I decided to grab a bite at the most famous eatery on campus, The Bread Bowl. Soon, we were making our way to the café which was a fifteen-minute walk from the academic building according to Yuri, who had suggested we go there. The three of us chatted absentmindedly on the way, enjoying the slightly warm, sunny day after a long spell of winter, and getting to know each other better. I was surprised that Yuri wasn’t as uncomfortable with everyone’s stares as Jihoon and I still were, although she did mention that she was the daughter of a famous martial arts master from a prominent dojo in Seoul, so I assumed she was used to the attention. Although funnily enough, she didn’t seem at all snobbish or stuck up; if anything, she didn’t seem satisfied with her abilities and rank, radiating a humble determination to grow stronger.

As Jihoon narrated a mostly one-sided tale of our final match on Magiharu to Yuri, I noticed that most of the students around us were grouped up with the same rank as themselves. At least, white blazers were for sure only walking with white blazers, although there were some yellow and blue blazers grouped up. Still, as far as the maroon blazers went, although there were supposed to be around eighty of us, including the second-years, I had only seen groups as big as three, including us, apart from a bunch of lone walkers. 

And it was obvious why I couldn’t find any indigo blazers; since all twenty A-rankers currently studying at the academy were second-years, it was unlikely they’d be hanging out with first-years on orientation day. Also, apart from their classes starting a week later, their dorms and academic buildings were on the opposite side of campus. Purposefully so, I surmised. Well, at least I knew Fang so I should be okay if I did ever wander into the second-years ‘domain’ by accident.

After walking casually for about twenty minutes with Yuri guiding us, we finally arrived at the Bread Bowl, and luckily, it wasn’t too crowded.

‘Aren’t you guys glad I came to campus a week ago with my dad and discovered all the cool hangout spots,’ she asked rhetorically as we entered the large café that seemed like it could fit a hundred students on its two floors.

‘Yeah I actually really like this place Yuri. I used to go around Seoul in search of rustic, old-school cafés with my dad before I awakened, so I have a soft-spot for places like these,’ I replied, Yuri’s eyes sparkling as if I’d given her more than the reaction she was hoping for.

‘We have to order at the till apparently, so what do you guys want? I’ll go order for us!’ Jihoon declared excitedly.

‘Oh cool, so Jihoon is buying then,’ I shot him a knowing grin.

‘In that case let’s get a large jalapeno thin-crust pizza to share and I’ll have an iced americano with that please,’ Yuri winked at Jihoon.

‘Me too, an iced americano…’ I added.

‘Okay I’ll go order!’ Jihoon smiled as he got up without a complaint to go give the order.

‘Oh, wow he’s actually a nice guy,’ I chuckled to Yuri, adding, ‘… we should pay next time we hang out to keep things fair.’

‘Yesss! To be honest Minjun… I was worried it’d be hard to find cool people to make friends with but I’m glad I met you guys before the orientation. I met this other group of high-rank first-years in the morning but they seemed really arrogant so I was kind of looking for an excuse to get away when Jihoon approached me,’ she confessed.

‘Ah, yeah, I guess most high-rankers can be kind of stuck up, although I don’t think you’ll have that issue with us… Jihoon and I are both from pretty normal non-elite families. And also, you can call me Jun,’ I replied with a smile, looking directly into Yuri’s eyes for the first time, as she sat opposite to me.

‘Ahh yeah of course, Jun! I’ll do that,’ she replied with an ounce of urgency before quickly shifting the topic, ‘…by the way, your familiar is soo cute!’ she squealed as she pointed at Azu, who was now sitting comfortably on the table in front of me where my plate should be, having jumped off my shoulder moments ago.

‘Oh, thanks haha, her name is Azu… she’s usually super friendly,’ I remarked, as Azu, right on que, went up and brushed her face against Yuri’s right hand, placed on the table in front of her.

‘You’re right, you’re so lucky!’ Yuri exclaimed as she started petting my insanely powerful familiar like some sort of house cat, adding, ‘…usually familiars stick close to their masters and are quite hostile towards other mages, but Azu is a delight!’

‘I guess I’d never really thought of that before,’ I remarked, adding, ‘…well I’m not really her master or anything, she’s more like my friend and partner… though I guess that sounds weird haha.’

‘Oh… not at all, it’s kind of refreshing to hear,’ Yuri replied after a short pause, as Jihoon returned with our food and drinks, sitting perpendicular to both Yuri and I on the small square-shaped wooden table.

‘Wow this looks great! Thanks Jihoona!’ I spoke affectionately as I took a nice long sip of my refreshing iced americano.

‘Haha anything for my new best friend Junie,’ he replied with double the enthusiasm I had just displayed.

‘Wow guys sure become close fast…’ Yuri remarked, almost immediately shoving a slice of pizza into her mouth, as if she was embarrassed at having said that out loud.

‘Well you know, Junie and I go way back,’ he declared as he shot me a wink.

I couldn’t help but break into a fit of laughter at his statement, Azu clearly worried for my sanity, repeatedly telling me to stop being an embarrassment.

While the three of us had been enjoying our early lunch, the café had gotten increasingly busy as the late afternoon had approached. I noticed that most of the café-goers stares were still directed at our table, and one other table with another group of four maroon blazers who I assumed were also first-years. As Yuri and Jihoon engaged in a pointless conversation about who the strongest mage in the world was, I turned my head towards the large window to my right to enjoy the rays of refracted sunlight falling on my skin.

It was at that moment that I saw two yellow blazers who had just entered the café, unsuccessfully looking around for an empty table. After circling around the café once, I noticed that they had a disappointed expression on their faces, as they passed by our table which was situated near the entrance.

‘Hey, you guys can sit here, we have room!’ I signaled to the guy and girl in yellow blazers, not wanting them to leave the café disappointed on their first day, without having had any food.

Before I knew it, the entire café, including Yuri and Jihoon had turned quiet, their eyes fixated on me. The strange situation had lasted at least a few seconds before Yuri caught on, getting up from her seat and escorting the two yellow blazers standing near the door to our table.

‘Yeah, join us!’ she told them warmly, the café returning to its previous buzz as soon as they took a seat at our table.

‘Oh, umm… thank you so much! We’re really honored to sit with you guys…’ the girl, who looked a lot like a slightly more grown-up version of my sister Yoonah spoke while respectfully lowering her head.

‘Noo please stop, you don’t have to be so formal haha! We’re all the same age,’ Jihoon spoke up this time, eager to help out with the apparent mess I had caused with my polite gesture, adding, ‘…we still have a lot of pizza left-over and it’s really tasty, do you guys want to share? Or I can go order something new. Oh, and drinks… what do you want to drink?’

I was genuinely impressed with Jihoon's ability to warm people’s hearts with his words while looking straight into their eyes because the two mages, who introduced themselves as Peter and Jangmi, soon started to open up. While Jihoon went to order their drinks, they started telling us about themselves as we devoured the remainder of our pizza together. Jangmi was a fire elemental like myself, although she was from Changwon, a city towards the south of our province, so this was her first time coming to Seoul. Apparently, her parents wanted her to study close to home, but she had impressed the recruiter who came to the city from Ashford Academy during Magiharu, and was determined to improve her abilities at the province’s top magic academy for elementals. And so, she convinced her parents, and moved all alone to Seoul to study here at Ashford Academy.

‘Wow, Jangmi that’s really impressive! I’m not sure if I’d have the courage to move by myself to another city, you’re really brave…’ Yuri stated, her soft tone carrying the genuine appreciation in her words.

‘No, it’s nothing like that… I just want to be strong you know, and improve my rank, so when I go back, I can join the city’s Magiguard and keep Changwon safe,’ she declared, albeit hesitantly.

Her honest words affected me enough that even Azu noticed it, enquiring what the matter was. As I explained to her through our mental link, I also wanted to find a purpose to drive me forward, like Jangmi had found. As things stood, I simply wanted to get stronger to protect my family, not really overly concerned with what happened to the rest of the world. My aspirations weren’t really noble, rather, they were quite selfish. And that had been bothering me lately.

‘Peter is even more impressive,’ she quickly added, shifting the attention to her partner, ‘…he moved here from the British province six months ago because of Ashford’s reputation as one of the top academies for elementals. He’s an earth elemental so they readily agreed to admit him after Magiharu, but he had to study the Korean language really hard for six months, and now he can speak almost fluently!’

‘Ah no, it wasn’t too difficult, nothing praiseworthy…’ he stated humbly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

‘I think it’s amazing, I mean it took me so many years to learn English, and even though our curriculum is mostly taught in English you still learned Korean… and in just six months! Maybe you should wear this blazer instead of me haha,’ I interjected as we quickly finished the last of the food on the table.

‘Wow you guys must have been really hungry…’ Jihoon remarked as he made his way back to our table carrying two more drinks, with an innocence that made all of us laugh.

‘Thank you so much, please let me pay for this meal, you’ve been so kind to us!’ Jangmi said, once again starting to retreat into her shell of formality.

‘Don’t be silly, it’s my treat today, although you guys can buy next time,’ Jihoon shot back confidently, leaving Jangmi and Peter clearly astonished.

As Jihoon looked at me in confusion, I added, directing my attention to the two newcomers, ‘…yeah I mean we’re friends now so we can all take turns buying!’

It was at those words that I heard a loud metallic clang from my left, as if someone had deliberately smashed something on the table. The entire café quickly went silent as one of the four maroon blazers who had been sitting on the table a little bit to our left started walking towards us. 

The blonde-haired brown-eyed mage, a little shorter than me but similarly fit, had unleashed his aura, causing lower-ranked mages in the café to freeze up from the sudden surge in pressure around us. Although I didn’t know who he was, it was obvious from the green-tinted mana particles congregating around him, that he was a B-rank wind elemental. As he reached our table, the whole café frozen at the sight of this event, I noticed that the three other maroon blazers had caught up to him.

Standing directly opposite to me, a little to the right of Yuri, and perpendicular to the two yellow blazers at our table, he addressed me, saying, ‘hey friend, I guess you don’t know since it’s the first day for all of us, but high-rankers like us don’t really mingle with these low-rank losers. My brother graduated from this academy last year so he gave me a few pointers… trust me, we’re better off sticking to our own kind.’

‘Firstly, I’m not your friend. And secondly, how is it any of your business who I’m friends with or not friends with? Are you my wife?’ I shot back, looking directly into his brown-eyes which were turning increasingly blood-shot.

‘Daebak…’ I heard a voice from one of the tables behind me as Jihoon and Yuri both burst into laughter, breaking the eerie silence, and leaving the wind elemental’s friends clearly embarrassed. They must have seen their friend fuming because one of them grabbed his arm, telling him that it wasn’t worth it, while the other two stood behind him, no doubt determining whether the four of them were stronger than the three of us, without any information about each other’s abilities.

‘Let go of me!’ the oaf shouted at his friend as he yanked his arm free from the friend’s grip, adding, ‘I’m Jeong Siwoo from the Almia family, who the hell are you to speak to me this way?!’

If I remembered correctly, the Almia family was associated with one of the top fifty houses in the Korean province, and specialized in wind-based mana arts similar to Fang’s Aria family. I knew this would be a headache later, but honestly, I didn’t feel it was right to back down in this situation and have this oaf insult hardworking mages like Peter and Jangmi on their first day.

‘I don’t care if you’re Superman from the House of Clark, you’re interrupting our peaceful lunch so why don’t you take your elitist ass and fuck off…’ I replied coldly, the reference from everyone’s favorite childhood cartoon drawing rave applause from the audience of café goers, even a few white blazers.

Siwoo now visibly infuriated, his words not affecting me in the least, released another surge of pure mana which caught the nearby Peter off-guard, causing him to grab his head to stop his ears from ringing.

‘See, look at the kind of weak trash you’re defending,’ he screamed in a venomous tone as he thrust his right arm towards Peter’s neck.

My now active mana sense could sense Jihoon starting to create a portal in its path, but the green-tinted mana particles vibrating agitatedly around Siwoo’s arm meant he was using at least mid-rank wind magic to enhance his speed and strength. 

Not sure if Jihoon would be able to cast the portal accurately in time, in that split-second moment, I unleashed lightning coat on my lower feet still under the table, standing in front of Siwoo the next; his arm held tightly by my Flame Body enhanced hand, lightning coat fully dispersed from my legs without anyone noticing.

‘Let’s take this outside,’ I commanded as I met Jihoon’s eye, throwing Siwoo into a portal that had just appeared to our right, both of us re-appearing outside the café onto the main pavement ahead.