A new year at Nine Petal Academy means a new crop of students, including a boy who can't control his magic, a thief, an angel, and even a suit of armor? Adela, Lei, and their friends are tasked with welcoming the new class of first years and helping...
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I glanced at Ling as we both remained seated on a bench inside the school. An awkward silence had fallen over us since we entered.
"Uh, n-nice weather we're having, huh?" I said.
She glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. "You're trying to make small talk with me?"
I lowered my head. "Y-yeah. Y-you s-said that you don't bite."
She snickered. "You thought that I did?"
I turned away. "N-no."
"Say, where are you from? I know that other than Jude, Huoyin, Lidia, Tamara, Mira, and me, the rest of you come from the east."
Wait, she knew where Tamara was from?
"Aurelius is actually from the north," I said. "I'm from the continent of Trono, from Shizizhidi."
Ling snorted.
"Did you just laugh?"
"Sorry. It's just that name sounds near impossible to say. I'm surprised that you could pull that tongue twister off."
I huffed. "I would be an embarrassment to the Shizhi Jiazu if I couldn't."
She gasped. "Wait, you're from the lion clan?"
I smiled. "Y-you heard of us?"
She narrowed her eyes at me. "You're stuttering again."
I turned away. "S-sorry. It'll take some getting used to you. I-I'm slowly getting better at taking to Kanja."
From the edge of my eye, Ling crossed her arms. She sure gave off a refined air. Was she a noble?
"Stop staring. It's weird," Ling said, closing her golden eyes.
I jumped. "What? I-I wasn't staring!" How did she notice?
"Hitting on the new girl, I see," Kanja said.
I jumped out of my seat as she and the others walked over to us. "W-what are you doing here?"
Kanja laughed. "What do you think? The test? Or did you think we would bail?"
My face heated up. Why had I asked such a stupid question?
Mira looked left and right as more people started to pour into the previously empty school.
A laughing boy surrounded by jocular friends glanced over at him. His smile faded. "Carter?" he asked.
I gulped. "Hey, Rob."
Rob put a hand on his hip and grinned. "Didn't expect to see you here, buddy."
"Same here. Why are you here?" I asked. Last I recalled, Rob was in the good graces of our clan. He wanted to fight Dad to undo my exile shortly after it happened, but I told him not to. If my sister couldn't defeat him, there was no way a little kid like him could. Did something happen that would push him to enter Nine Petal?
