Scarlet

We end up waiting for over a dozen minutes until it’s finally noon on the dot when a man just suddenly appears on the stage. One I recognize as the vice-headmaster. The guy who originally had me take my exam.

All of the chatter in the auditorium quickly begins to go away, leaving nothing but silence in its wake. Then I notice various people suddenly standing in all of the corners of the room, every last dark place, every last shadow, and almost all of them are familiar faces from the news. Each being famous Guardians who teach at this university.

Then a tapping sound echoes once from the stage, bringing my attention back to the old man who had just tapped his cane – which I didn’t realize he had – on the stage.

Why does he have a cane? He’s a Guardian. Likely a Class IV one at that. I can tell that from his mana alone. So why does he have a cane?

And he didn’t have it on him when I met him before… also, is it just me, or is that cane a little too thick?

“It’s probably a weapon of some sort disguised as a cane,” Tar explains to me, making me form an o with my mouth in understanding.

“Students both new and old of Lion’s Heart, hear me now,” the old looking man says, his eyes searching through the crowd of students. “Those of you here are of the highest echelon of all new Guardians in the world. Take pride in that fact. But don’t let it go to your head.” He taps his cane once more, making two lions suddenly jump out of the wall behind him before coming to a stop next to the man. “As you should already know, every Guardian’s University has an animal figure for it. And here at Lion’s Heart-” the man emphasizes the word Lion’s “-our animal is the lion.”

Yeah, that couldn’t have been more obvious.

“We take pride in our strength, in our magic, and in ourselves,” the man says, laying it on a little thick with this whole ‘pride’ shtick. His face suddenly takes a dark turn as he continues, “So I warn you now. If you do not uphold the pride of the university, there will be no second chances.” He taps his cane on the stage once more, sending a wave of dark mist through the entire auditorium, making everything go dark. Then two glowing green eyes suddenly appear on the stage, faintly lighting up the old man’s visage as a rather sinister voice echoes throughout the auditorium, “Break the rules even once, and you will be sent to a Tier 2 Guardians University. And there will be no complaints.”

Then, just as suddenly as the change had come about, all of the mist vanishes and the old man begins smiling an old man smile as he says, “Now, onto more pleasant things.”

I find that I was holding my breath during that entire event before letting it out, feeling a powerful surge of shame hurting my pride at being afraid of the man just then. Even if he is – judging by his mana – even stronger than Allen and Cynthia.

He taps his cane once more, making me narrow my eyes on the thing before the floor of the stage opens up and a large screen emerges from it, showing some sort of pyramid as he starts speaking, “Many of you already know of the hierarchy we have here at Lion’s Heart, one that is stricter than any other universities hierarchy. But here it is.”

Looking at the pyramid, there are three different levels in the hierarchy. The Regular class students, the Advanced class students, and the Top class students. But unlike the name implies, these students aren’t taking classes together. It is a university after all, so they simply get labeled as such and given better benefits and offered more classes and opportunities than the other students.

“Regular students are the bottom two thousand students in the ranking that you will be earning later today based on your success in the ranking tournament,” the old man says, leaning on his cane with both hands. “You are allowed to take all of the regular courses at the university, the courses that are required for every Guardian to take such as Guardian Law and Guardian History, along with the basic theory classes on the Status, Demonology, magic in general, one class on their own broad magic, and statistics and capabilities. You may not live off campus and must live in the dorms, specifically the Regular Class Dorms. And you may not enter the Advanced or Top class buildings labeled with these symbols.” The man finishes while raising his cane to tap on the two symbols located on the levels of the hierarchy for the Advanced and Top class students.

I grimace at the idea of living on campus. Because it would suck losing my suite in the base, not to mention that I like the quiet the base has. Not to mention that I’d probably have to have a roommate.

Although anything’s better than an orphanage.

“Next up,” the old man continues, the smile on his face growing slightly as he glances at a couple of students who had begun whispering amongst themselves. “The Advanced class students include the students ranked 101st through 1000 on the rankings. They will be given everything the regular students have, along with various Advanced student only facilities such as a gym, a park, higher class restaurants, and so on. The Advanced students will also be able to take classes on any type of magic they want, allowing them to study up on possible magics that other Guardians or even the sapient demons may be using. They may take classes over the art of magi-tech, Achievements, and the Fae. And lastly, Advanced students can live off of campus if they’d prefer.”

Which means I need to become an advanced student at the minimum.

Although I’m curious as to what the Top class students get.

I know the universities strictly forbid discrimination based on the hierarchy, so it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get a good rank or a good class result. In fact, I think I’ve heard of a Top class student once being knocked down to Regular class just because they tried holding their position as a Top class student over a Regular student and forcing them to do something for them.

Not sure what it was though, since that part wasn’t publicized.