Road of the Heavenly Light

Prologue: Return to Royale High

It was a beautiful Autumn day, and the sun was reflected in the small puddles of water scattered around the road towards Royale High. Laura von Falmar was once again sitting in the carriage towards Royale High, as it had been two weeks since the Autumn ball. She had briefly returned home with her parents, and together they had taken some time off to forget about everything that had happened in the past weeks. She had also missed Felix very much... They'd only just revealed their feelings for each other, and they already had to spend two weeks away from each other. They'd exchanged letters here and there, but it was nothing compared to being together in person. Still, Laura felt refreshed and ready to go to school for real this time. When she arrived, she grabbed her luggage and passed through the gate with a smile on her face.
"There you are, took you long enough..." a certain someone greeted her, leaning against the entrance of the castle.
"Felix!" Laura shouted, running towards him and tightly embracing him, "I missed you..."
"I missed you too. It's only been a week, but it feels like months... at least you're finally here," Felix whispered, kissing her.
"But now we'll be seeing each other every day again, and that's what matters."
"How about we see how the others are doing?" Felix asked, and Laura nodded. Together, they went inside the now familiar school, and immediately found Glen in the entrance hall, talking to three girls. It seemed like some things would never change...
"Felix, Laura, good to see you two again!" he greeted the duo. He was talking to Audrey, princess of Brightwald, Isabella, a commoner from the same country who was Audrey's close friend and her protector, and the last girl was Amaya, princess of Mistlyn.
"It's good to see you too, Glen. It appears you've found yourself quite the company," Felix responded. Laura giggled.
"I find him quite boring..." Amaya said.
"He reminds me of that noble who was at court a few days ago. He was flirting with every girl, despite being married! Rumor has it he has four more-"
"You shouldn't be spreading rumors and gossip," Isabella interrupted Audrey.
"You say that every time, but she never listens..." Amaya sighed.
"I'm going to look for different company..." Glen quickly walked away from the group.
"I think I'm going to go to my dorm, I want this luggage gone from my side," Laura said.
"Oh, me too. How about we meet in the garden in an hour from now? Principal Abigail is having her speech at the end of the afternoon, so we can go there after the garden," Felix suggested.
"Sounds good to me, see you in the garden!" And with that, Laura turned around and went towards the dorms. It felt satisfying to stand in front of dorm 10 again, and this time all four of its inhabitants got along. The first thing Laura saw upon walking into the dorm was Anna standing on a ladder.
"Hi Laura!" she exclaimed, "look at all of these plants I bought! Don't they just look adorable?"
"Indeed they do!" Laura responded. Astrid was sitting on the couch, embroidering floral patterns onto a pillow.
"Hello Laura, how was your vacation?"
"Oh, it was wonderful," Laura sat down, "I went shopping for hours with Eleanor, mother took me with her to a charity event, and father and I went riding..."
"And your courtship?" Astrid was always a nosy one... Everyone already knew that Laura and Felix were now a thing, and Astrid had immediately demanded to hear the whole story.
"We've exchanged a few letters, and we're meeting in the garden in a bit," Laura shot up and took her luggage with her to her room. "Give my regards to Elizabeth!"

After unpacking her luggage, Laura immediately left her room. She traversed the halls of the school and came across so many people, once again reminding her of how wonderful this school was. People from all over the continent attended, and that was what made this place so prestigious. When Laura reached the music room, she saw that the doors were open, and peeked around the corner. Inside, she saw Elizabeth playing the piano, joined by Levi, who was playing the violin. It was a wonderful and harmonious melody, as was to be expected of the two of them.
"Could you go a little higher for that part?" Elizabeth asked.
Levi nodded, "right. It's been a while since I played the violin."
"You're doing wonderfully, don't worry. Now, one, two, three!" And they started playing again. Laura decided to let them be, and she continued on towards the garden. But when she passed by the library, she ran into someone. That someone fell on the floor.
"Ah, f-forgive me!" the boy apologized.
"No, no, the fault is mine, I should have paid attention to where I was going... Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm alright," the boy got up from the floor, "my name is Apollo, and I'm the prince of Fayiron. I don't believe we've formally met before..."
"A pleasure to meet you, Apollo. I'm Laura, princess of Falmar. But I really have to be on my way, someone's waiting for me. Sorry for running into you!" Laura continued walking towards the garden, hoping she wasn't late. Apollo was known to be a bit of a lone hermit, fitting for a country where people lived isolated in the snowy mountains. Fayiron had always had tense relations with Falmar due to nautical disputes near the Amestou Archipelago, but Apollo didn't seem too interested in that. Laura finally arrived in the garden, and went towards the sitting area, where she saw Felix already waiting for her.
"Am I late?"
"A little, but we still have plenty of time. Around an hour or two," Felix smiled. Laura sat down on a chair, and looked at the flowers that were still blooming like it was Summer.
"So, what did you do during the break? I hope you didn't have to get Glen out of any messes..."
Felix laughed, "no, not once. I had to do my usual duties as heir of Gaspard territory, so I didn't even see Glen." He let out a sigh.
"And what about Alexander? Couldn't you spend time with him?"
"Nope. He seems to have developed a new hobby in studying tactics and strategy, and is now in Divinia a lot as well, as he's become friends with Astrid's sister, Emma..." Laura giggled, and the two continued talking about this and that.

Outside of Royale High, plenty of things were happening too. In Earth, a carriage from Aurion arrived, and three people stepped out. One was a noble lady, and the other two were noblemen who closely followed her. They were Sigrid, Christian, and Adrian, heirs to three of Aurion's four noble houses. The three of them walked past a flower stand, and both men immediately bought bouquets for Sigrid. She smiled and gracefully accepted both of them, while Christian and Adrian shot each other death glares. Elsewhere, in the capital of Belmont, Prince Erric waved his younger brother, Prince Howard, farewell as the young prince stepped into a carriage and left. In the capital of Divinia, Emma and Alexander were playing in the garden under the watchful eye of Edith. Elliot was out in the streets doing his usual business as Cardinal.

Back at Royale High, everyone was gathering in the cafeteria for principal Abigail's opening speech. Laura sat down next to Elizabeth and near Astrid and Anna, while Felix went towards Glen and Levi. The other seat next to her stayed empty for a while, until a familiar face sat down.
"Laura, can I sit here?"
"Eleanor! Of course you can!" Laura and Eleanor had become great friends in the two weeks they were home, just like their parents had always been. Eleanor has excellent taste in fashion and loved sewing. She'd made a beautiful hat for Laura that she was planning to wear soon. Laura was about to introduce her to Elizabeth, but principal Abigail arrived, making everyone go quiet.
"Greetings, my dear students. It does my heart well to see you all here today, ready to start the school year for real. We may have lost a lot of time due to the actions of ex-principal Mary, but I speak on behalf of the whole staff when I say that we believe that it is still possible to continue the school year as per schedule. We will spend the coming weeks trying to make sure everyone is caught up, especially those who have had to miss a lot of lessons. In addition, there will be extra tuition every day after school until dinner for those who require it. There will be exams coming up in a while, so make sure to study well! After the exams, the winter break will start, and everyone will have vacation for two weeks to spend with their families. Up next will be a few announcements," Abigail took a sip of the glass with water that she had with her, "first up, I am very honored to announce that, for the first time in Royale High School's history, a member of the royal family from every country on our beautiful continent is attending, as prince Howard of Belmont has unexpectedly decided to start attending Royale High School starting tomorrow!"
"She isn't kidding, this was very unexpected. Both Fayiron and Belmont haven't been on the best terms with Divinia, so to see members of their royal families attending here is almost unspoken of," Astrid whispered.
"Why do they have bad relations with Divinia?" Laura asked.
"I can't begin to guess why for Fayiron, but for Belmont it's because the church doesn't approve of the study of the dark arts that is allowed to take place in Belmont."
"Ah, that's right, Belmont is the only place where you can study dark magic. And as the only place where you can study light magic, Divinia is the polar opposite, right?"
Astrid nodded, "yes, it's only natural that light and dark magic clash with each other. Nonetheless, I've heard that Prince Howard isn't that bad of a person, and neither is his older brother Erric, who is the heir to the throne. Both of them do study dark magic, though, as Belmont's national treasure is the dark spell of Azazel."
"Finally, some damn decent people in this school!" Drake exclaimed, just barely not loud enough for Principal Abigail to hear, "I'm bloody tired of all of these boring people."
"And the final announcement I want to make is that we will be forming a student council that will help guide students and ensure that everything will go smoothly together with the staff. There will also be voting for a student council president. Details will be revealed for this tomorrow, so be sure to check the notice board! And with that, it's high time to end this meeting. We all hope you will have a wonderful school year at Royale High School!" Everyone started clapping, and Laura started to wonder what kinds of crazy things would happen in the year to come. At least it would never be as crazy as what happened before this, right?