Chapter 2: Chapter 2
"Man~ Princess Lunaria sure was a beauty, wasn't she?"
"Not to mention so prim and proper… as expected of a princess."
"Did you see her tail? I really want to touch them just once."
"Prepare to have your head chop off then."
Kaze was currently in his classroom, waiting for lessons to begin. Even though it was only the first day, students were already excited about the new addition to the school, namely Lunaria.
Lunaria's presence on stage perfectly captured everyone's eyes and ears, showing off what it meant to be a princess. Even though it was expected that she might receive some special treatment from the school as a guest of the nation, she still wore her uniform attire properly and spoke with respect to her peers. While it might not seem like it, she was actually older than most of the people in school as dragonkins live much longer than humans. As such, it was actually a weird concept of respect that should be shown in reverse.
"I wonder what class she will be in," Kaze mumbled to himself, fiddling with his pencil as he didn't know how the princess would react should she see him again.
"Lunaria-hime will not be with us, that's for sure," a voice came from behind Kaze to answer his supposedly rhetorical question, capturing his attention.
Turning around, Kaze was met with the familiar smile. It turned out to be from the guy who sat behind him in the hall earlier, who happened to have overheard Kaze.
"I-Its Yuuji-sama!" One of the students in class cried out when they saw him, causing another wave of commotion to erupt in class.
"Thank god! We get to be same classes with a royalty too!" Another person sighed in relief. "Even though we didn't get Lunaria-hime."
"Wait… you are this country's prince?" Kaze asked the same person who spoke to him, feeling a little absurd by the situation he was in.
"Indeed I am," Yuuji pushed his fringe backwards, scattering his blonde hair messily over the side of his face. "Pleased to be your acquaintance."
Instantly, Yuuji got surrounded by classmates who were enthusiast to have the first prince of Czech, who was of same age as they were, to be studying with them. While it was heard from the palace long ago that an heir was produced, nobody really saw the first prince until he made an appearance in public during one of the major festivals. With blonde hair akin to his Majesty alongside the slender physique that resembled her Majesty, there was no one in the capital who wouldn't recognise the Royal Highness Yuuji Thros Bivel, first in line to the position of the King.
There was no prior notice to the student body that the prince would be studying in the Institute in the first place, so it was no wonder that not many people recognised the rarely seen-in-public prince when he first arrived. It was only until he spoke that the others caught on quickly, for his voice had a tone that reminded people of someone in command. It wasn't that much alike with the King, but it certainly had the same speech pattern due to him being raised up in the palace for most of his life.
"Yuuji-sama, why are you studying here with us?" One noble's son asked the prince. "Was it His Majesty's desires?"
"Well, it was actually more of my mother's decision, since she said this would allow me to get closer with the public and forge a relationship," Yuuji simply answered with honesty. "It is no secret that I rarely get to interact with people of the city, so starting in school would be a good approach."
Yuuji was about to be bombarded with more questions if not for the teacher entering the class. This caused the students to scatter back to their desks, leaving Yuuji to occupy the seat next to Kaze.
"Um… are you sure you want to sit with me?" Kaze asked the prince, staring sheepishly at him. "I'm no noble or someone famous you know?"
"Then all the more that I should be friends with you," Yuuji chuckled. "I don't have many commoner friends like you, but I can assure you that I have had my lifetime of interaction with nobles assured by my parents."
"Oh, I see what you mean," Kaze smiled at this, relieved to hear that the prince was a decent person. "Is it because you are going to succeed your father?"
"Yes, that's mostly the reason, but also because it helps that I get to know a few major Houses in power to have a suitable wife too," Yuuji nodded. "Don't tell anyone I said that though, I don't want mother to give me another lecture for causing more trouble."
Lessons put their conversation to a temporary halt. For now, they would have to go through classes if they wanted to speak to each other even more.
The first class of the day was just a simple introduction from the home room teacher along with students' self-introduction. Classrooms in school consisted of an average of 30 students per class, making it a total of 300 students for one year's worth of new batch as there were 10 classrooms in total. Lessons were conducted by different teachers depending on the topic, but every class has a homeroom teacher who would specialise him most of the class's businesses like interclass competition, sports events and more.
The student body was split into a mostly equal gender ratio of male to female. However, the same can't be said for the race of students. Humans occupied a whopping 80% of the student body alone, leaving not much space for the diverse culture present in Czech. Among other races, dragonkins were a rare kind that rarely showed up outside of Aravel for reasons unknown, so it was without a doubt that Lunaria was the sole dragonkin in the 20% statistics for the year. Other races like elves and wolfkins were much more common in comparison, putting much emphasis on the dragonkin race as a result. Even in Kaze's class alone there were 3 elves already.
That being said, this does often lead to the question of interspecies dating. Although uncommon, it was still possible to see a human holding hands with the opposite member of another race.
Lets take elves as an example. Elves are a race that have a much more open interaction with the human race due to their open mindset. As such, elves and humans do get into a relationship more often than other races. Not to mention that they have an abundant population from the elf nation of Yvel too, it was easy to see why relationships formed with elves were visible on the surface too.
Another reason for the dating scene in schools of Czech being not much of a secret was that there was no reason to hide it. Marriage between noble Houses were very common, especially in a social hierarchy like one that Czech possessed. Children of respective houses were often sent to study in same schools and grew up in same environment, so it was no surprise if one saw two students holding hands down the corridors of the school. Still, there are strict rules in place that limits the barriers of how much one could show they were dating within the school compound. Holding hands and sitting next to each other were mostly the limit, leaving more intimate things like kissing or cuddling to private rooms instead. Being caught doing one of the other would cause the students to be imposed with heavy punishment along with letters of warning being sent back to their respective Houses, regardless of whether they were commoners or nobles. It is believed that this would help to encourage healthy relationships to be developed as well as a clean environment in the school compound, though the authorities could only do so far as to monitor the students beyond the private walls of their own houses or rooms.
Introductions finished quickly and it was time for the first lesson of the day. Unfortunately for most, the day started off with Czech History. Everyone already had their timetables distributed to them in the form of magic. Students of Czech First Institute were given magic bracelets that contained several things, one of them including their personal information needed for classes or projects and another being their timetable. Of course, the bracelets weren't very functional considering the limits of how much one could input magic formulas to make it all round working, but it was sufficient for students to use.
As Kaze fiddled with his bracelet to check for the following lessons during their lecture, he was a little surprised to see that their first day had comparatively fewer lessons than usual. It was most likely due to the fact that it was the first day and more focused on getting students used to the environment. Czech History being taught by their teacher wasn't too bad either, since the topic mainly spoke of how Czech was established in a brief manner. As lessons progressed, the students could tell from their textbooks that they would be getting into a lot more details than what they were receiving right now.
Second period was yet again another introduction but to a different subject: Arithmetic. There really wasn't much to talk about since the subject was very standard, but the third period presented everyone with a more unique experience. Every year, students would be faced with 2 lessons that combined two classes together to make it a more interactive experience. One of them was physical training while the other was Magic Perception.
Magic Perception was a class that involved both theory work and practical work, which explains why there would need to be combined classes. Theory work was needed due to there being a limited amount of teachers who were truly experts on the subject that they would be able to confidently teach, thus why classes merge to save on teaching resources. Another would be practical work would require students to perform in groups up to 6 people, so there would be more groups formed per lesson.
Third period was Magic Perception, meaning students had to leave the comfort of their classroom they were just getting used to. They followed their teacher down the hallways of the school to their next classroom, only to find that the other class had already been waiting there patiently. Unlike the normal classes, this room was made to accommodate a much larger crowd as well as space for activity, which explains why it was a huge rectangular room with huge tables instead of individual sittings. Kaze scanned the room out of curiosity and found himself staring right at Lunaria, causing him to shudder as he dodged behind Yuuji.
"Hm? Oh, I see Lunaria-hime is here too," Yuuji lifted his head at Kaze's reaction and spotted the reason for it. "What's up? Are you one of those people who gets cold feet looking at royalty? You certainly don't behave that way towards me."
"No, that's… I mean, its just that I met Lunaria before," Kaze muttered softly, not using formal speech to address the dragonkin princess since he wasn't used to it. "Now its weird knowing she is a princess. I thought she was a noble or something."
"Oh~ so that's how it is," Yuuji nodded and grabbed Kaze's arm. "Alright, we're sitting with them."
"H-Hey! Wait!" Kaze got dragged off just like that, Yuuji pulling the two towards Lunaria's table.
The other students also had the same idea, everyone wanting to get close to the dragonkin princess. As such, the moment the teacher allowed them to find their own seats, most of the students rushed over to Lunaria's table. Yuuji was one of the few enthusiastic ones, dragging along a pitiful Kaze who could only get swept up in his actions.
The moment the students got within 6 feet of Lunaria, the 2 elves and a kitsune that sat with her got up and casted a barrier magic around them that effectively prevented the students from getting closer. Everyone who ended up smashing into the barrier immediately bounced away, as though they ran right into an impenetrable bubble that simply knocked them off. The teacher of Magic Perception only watched the commotion with a small smile on her face, knowing that this sort of reaction was normal for students who wanted to seize the rare opportunity.
"Ouch, it seems like we really have no chance huh?" Yuuji chuckled, rubbing his head as he too got knocked off like bowling pins being rammed by a bowling ball. "We will have to let Lunaria-hime choose who she wants to sit with herself after all."
"How do you not see this coming?" Kaze moaned in agony, getting off the floor with the other students. "It is natural she would already have guards when coming to this place."
Lunaria then stood up from her seat and walked towards the group of students who came charging at her earlier. The atmosphere in the room instantly became tense, for everyone wanted to see what the dragonkin princess would do. Walking past one after another fallen students, who could not help it but stare at her in admiration, she arrived in front of Yuuji and Kaze.
"… You two, sit with us," Lunaria's soft voice filled the room. "I won't permit anyone else to argue or join us without my permission."
"See? I told you we would make it," Yuuji winked at Kaze as they followed Lunaria back to the table.
After this, everyone quickly found their places without much trouble. None of them dared to even argue with Lunaria because they knew that this was her choice and they couldn't do much even if they disagreed. After witnessing the sheer power that her comrades put up to effortlessly silence them, they dared not further pursue this topic. Most speculated at this point that Yuuji was chosen naturally because he was the prince of the nation, but Kaze was more of a wild card who got lucky since he was spotted to be somewhat close with the prince. No one would ever imagine that the reason was the exact opposite, being that Lunaria chose Yuuji simply because he was close with Kaze.
The teacher then allowed 5 minutes for each table to introduce themselves as well as got used to their desk mates. Following this, the groups would be permanent for the rest of the school year so it was probably best to get to know their fellow classmates.
"L-Lunaria-hime," Kaze quietly addressed the princess while Yuuji began casually chatting with the kitsune girl.
"Its just Lunaria," she smiled at him and took her seat right next to him. "You don't have to get all respectful with me. Just act like you did back when we met."
"Err… is that going to be fine?" Kaze asked nervously, looking at the elf whom he met back at the start too.
"Its fine, Lunaria allowed it so we allow it too," the elf smiled and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you Kaze, I'm Sera. This here elf is Rena and the kitsune is Shoko. Three of us are good friends of Lunaria since childhood."
"Oh, I see," Kaze sighed in relief. "I thought you were her bodyguards for a second there."
"We sort of are, if not we wouldn't be dispatched to Aravel too," Sera tilted her head at this and nudged Rena. "What do you have to say?"
"I don't think I need to introduce myself after your words," Rena giggled but still shook Kaze's hand. "Its rare to get Lunaria to choose you herself, so be honoured."
"Sup~" Shoko, the kitsune, simply turned to Kaze and gave him a hearty slap on the back. "You don't have to be so uptight with me like those two, so you can stop acting nervous now."
"In case you didn't know, us elves and kitsune are able to tell how one feels if they get close to us," Rena explained, pointing to her ears. "You notice how elves have slightly pointed ears compared to humans? Other than it being sensitive to the wind, we can sort of tell your body language too."
"But none of us can compare with Lunaria," Sera gestured to the smiling dragonkin. "She can tell whether a person is good-hearted or not."
"That's too much of a stretch," Lunaria sighed. "But yes, I can tell if a person is good from bad. Lets just say its from experience."
"Isn't that too overpowered?" Kaze asked, sweatdropping. "But a useful skill for a princess like yourself."
"For your information, these three are also high-ranking officials," Lunaria grinned. "Rena is a candidate for the high elf, Sera is a general of an army faction in Yvel and Shoko here… well, lets not disclose that, but she is sort of like an assassin."
"Oof, this makes me think if I should have included Noel with me," Yuuji pretended to look scared before laughing. "Having a guard with me is probably a good idea too."
"Well, it's a choice," Lunaria simply smiled at his statement. "Who's Noel?"
"Oh, the daughter of the commander of our army," Yuuji noted. "She studies here too but in a different class."
"Dang, that makes me feel left out," Kaze laughed dryly. "Am I really supposed to be in this table?"
"You should. You are our reality check in case we talk about stuff that you or anyone else might not understand," Yuuji smirked and placed an arm around Kaze's neck. "Plus, didn't you say you fancy Lunaria-hime here?"
"That's a lie, please forgive this idiot," Kaze pointed at Yuuji with a deadpanned look on his face while apologising to Lunaria.
"That's one way to address a prince like me, but I don't mind," Yuuji laughed and retracted his arm. "I hope you can forgive me for such jokes too Lunaria-hime. Its just that I know Kaze and Lunaria-hime met before so I made such assumptions."
"Well, one would certainly say Kaze fancied Lunaria based on the way that he was ogling her that day," Sera spoke with a smug smile. "Didn't you trip and fell on your face?"
"Yamerooooo!!!" Kaze groaned out loud, bashing his face repeatedly against the table. "Stop bringing up my dark encounter!!"
Immediately, the table erupted into a fit of laughter as lessons began. One could say that this was the start to a group of close friends of which 2 members would develop further feelings for each other.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone