"Name!"
"Ayrin."
"Age!"
"Sixteen years old!"
"Address!"
"Cororin Town."
"Hrm? The forgotten and abandoned town?"
At St. Dawn Academy’s registration, the Kaht who was bending over his desk and in the middle of scribbling something lifted his head with some surprise.
There shouldn’t have been many young people left in that little town near the declining mining area in his impression. He’d also heard the people there were only barely subsisting thanks to some barren copper ore.
His brows scrunched up when he saw Ayrin with his hair a little dried yellow, wearing clothes made from some fabrics he couldn’t recognize, and a height more befitting a normal thirteen to fourteen years old young man. "You’re called Ayrin, from Cororin Town? You’re really sixteen years old?"
"That’s right, what’s wrong?"
At the same time Kaht had lifted his head and was observing Ayrin, Ayrin was also examining this young teacher, and this Holy Spring Tone Street the registration was taking place on.
Holy Spring Tone Street was one of the four main avenues in St. Lauren City. A great many shops stood on both sides, and a twelve-tone fountain that produced beautiful music hand been built in the plaza in the center of the street. Various kinds of stores had put together various kinds of decorative patterns on the ground made from multicolored glossy stones… Even the colorful store signs, or the pale cyan academy clothes embroidered with the words St. Dawn Academy worn on Kaht’s body, all of it was very novel for someone like Ayrin who’d come to a great city like St. Lauren for the first time.
"Cororin? Isn’t that forgotten town that’s been abandoned? Didn’t they say there’s no youngster left there anymore? Haha, little shorty from Cororin, aren’t you too short for a sixteen years old?"
Kaht hadn’t had time to speak when a red-haired young man lining up behind Ayrin to register suddenly burst out with a great laugh.
This red-haired young man was half a head taller than Ayrin, with a round face, faint freckles, and an unbridled expression.
"Hm? This is?" Kaht’s gaze fell on the red-haired young man and saw the meadow viper symbol on his clothes. His eyes faintly shrank on their own accord.
"You are?" The Ayrin who was used to be made fun of by the miners didn’t actually get angry. He turned around and looked at the red-haired young man. "Am I really too short?"
"Listen carefully! I am Moss from the Quinn clan!"
The red-haired young man seemed to have finally gotten the opportunity to show off he’d been waiting for. He laughed loudly in a very arrogant manner, even while assuming a very puerile posture at the same time.
"Indeed!" Kaht’s eyes flashed. He looked all smiles at the red-haired youngster and Ayrin, not interrupting for the moment.
"Haha, little shorty, you’re of course too short." Moss laughed out loud and gesticulated toward Ayrin. "Look, I’m only fourteen years old, but I’m still half a head taller than you."
Ayrin scratched his head a little depressed. "So that means I’m really a little too short."
Moss blinked, then he immediately laughed wildly in an even louder voice. "Are you an idiot? You don’t even know if you’re a shorty or not?"
"That’s because I’m the only one around my age in Cororin, there’s no one else to compare to." Ayrin answered in a natural tone on the outside while he cursed old Ginns on the inside, "You’ve really done well ravaging little children…"
"This guy is truly innately stupid enough, he won’t get angry even like this?" Kaht heaved a gentle sigh when he saw Ayrin not show the faintest angry expression at being called a little shorty. He said, "Alright, Ayrin from Cororin, next you only need to pay a hundred silver coins to sort out the academy entrance procedures."
Ayrin’s disbelieving voice abruptly sounded up, "What! One hundred silver coins! You actually need a hundred silver coins, this is a little too expensive right?"
Kaht rubbed his ears that’d gone numb from the tremors and looked at the Ayrin who showed such a big reaction. He explained, "These hundred silver coins not only include tuition and lodging fees for one year, they also include the academy clothing fees as well as some school trip expenses."
"You already need so much for a single year…" Ayrin pulled Kaht’s sleeve. "Can’t you make it a bit cheaper?"
"Haha, little shorty, don’t tell you can’t even pay the tuition right? Don’t tell you directly ran here to study without knowing how much the tuition for one year at St. Dawn Academy cost?" Th red-haired Moss suddenly laughed up wildly again. "There’s actually someone who bargains even for tuition fees."
"Saving up silver shouldn’t have been easy actually looking at your appearance. You awakened at only sixteen and you’re also so thin and weak, it doesn’t look like you’re someone with any special bloodline either." Moss’s face became instantly solemn after a burst of wild laughter. "It shouldn’t be very useful even if you were to enter St. Dawn Academy and study here. My advice to you is to better not to waste the silver coins you saved with a great deal of efforts."
"Take a good look at those landbearers. Even if they have some beastman bloodline and have leg strength ordinary people can’t match, they still can only be mere landbearers inside this city of St. Lauren!"
"Landbearer?"
Ayrin followed Moss’ line of sight and saw several brawny fellows wearing only leather shorts with thick ropes wrapped around their bodies.
Those several brawny fellows were all close to two meters tall and unusually sturdy, especially their two legs that were as thick as water buckets. Every muscle was bulging high up and seemed as hard as rock.
Ayrin couldn’t help but ask, "What’s called a landbearer?"
"You don’t even know what a landbearer is? Landbearers are porters specializing in helping people drag heavy items!" Moss looked at Ayrin and said in a loud voice, "Looking at your appearance, you shouldn’t force yourself the way I see it. Might as well save up some silver coins and use them elsewhere."
"Isn’t it merely having a little giant bloodline? You dare to casually determine someone else’s life just because of that?" said a cold voice from the side.
Moss froze a second. He turned his head and saw that the one who’d spoken was a beautiful girl with long hair and a handkerchief in her hand, standing to one side. Her hair was a strange silver color and seemed unusually clean, untainted by even a speck of dirt. Her height seemed about the same as Moss. Her face was full of a cold and antisocial expression.
"You dare to talk to me like this? Who are you again?" Moss became immediately a little angry and said with a cold humph, "Can’t you see I’m doing it for his own good?"
"So you can look down from high above and casually find fault with other people just because it’s for their own good?"
The white-clothed girl didn’t even spare a glance for Moss. She looked at Kaht after speaking her sentence and said in a freezing voice, "Arrange the school entry for him, I’ll help him pay the one hundred silver coins fee."
"Oh?"
Kaht sent a glance at the white-clothed girl and smiled faintly. "You want to help Ayrin pay up one hundred silver coins?"
Ayrin was a little dazed. One hundred silver coins was enough for an ordinary family to live for two years. It was definitely not a small sum, and he was absolutely certain he’d never ever met this white-clothed girl before.
"His expenses plus mine." The white-clothed girl seemed unwilling to say even one more word than necessary. She chillingly took out two gold coins and threw them to Kaht.
On the continent of Doraster, one gold coin was equal to a hundred silver coins.
Kaht caught the gold coins and asked with a lot of interest, "You’re also a new student coming to register at St. Dawn Academy?"
In his impression, this white-clothed girl had shown up on Holy Spring Tone Street a long time ago already, but she’d never lined up so far. Now he vaguely came to a little realization in retrospect. This white-clothed girl wasn’t willing to line together with other people, so she’d been waiting for the all the others to leave before handling the school entrance procedures.
She wanted to pay one year of expenses for Ayrin just because of a single sentence from Moss… There was also the handkerchief she was holding at all times, she looked just like she had some innate fear of any dust falling on her body. This youngster was probably not merely noble and aloof, she also had a certain degree of obsession with cleanliness in all likelihood.
"Bastard!"
An angry shout burst out. Moss looked at the white-clothed girl with a face flushed bright red and yelled, "Is it a matter of money? Do you think I can’t afford to help him!"
"No one can arbitrarily decide someone else’s life. Everyone has the right to pursue their own dreams."
"Just pay for him since you can afford to help him, why do you sprout so much nonsense."
The white-clothed girl coldly interrupted Moss’s angry shouts. She still didn’t even glance at Moss and only looked at Kaht as she said indifferently, "Teacher, since I’ve already paid for his school entrance fees, then would you please help him sort out the following admission procedures."
"You!" Moss was so angry even his nose became crooked. He stretched his hand and fished out a purse then handed it to Kaht. "Teacher, I’ll pay for his school fees!"
"No moral at all," said the white-clothed girl in a soft contemptuous tone as she turned her face and looked at the corner of the street.
"What did you say!" The red hair all over Moos’ head was about to stand erect. He clenched his fists: "If it weren’t for you being a girl, I’d definitely have made you suffer today!"
"This…" Ayrin weak voice came out, "Everyone could you please not quarrel, it’ll be fine if I just pay for my own school expenses."
"What? You can afford the tuition fees?" Moss turned his head around and looked at Ayrin in disbelief.
Ayrin strongly nodded his head nonstop. He cautiously untied the purse he’d been holding inside his hand.
"Since you have so much money, why did you still squawk and holler, still trying to barter!" Moss was even angrier when he had a look, almost about to faint. There were at least more than twenty gold coins in Ayrin purse and hundreds of silver coins. Added all together it was even more money than what he had in his own purse.
"Because the school fees are really too expensive, of course it’s better if it can be a bit cheaper." Ayrin laughed awkwardly. "But I still have to thank you and this elder sister, you’re both good people."
Moss was directly made speechless, and the Ayrin who was in the middle of talking also suddenly stopped. He felt a chilliness attacking him.
The white-clothed girl who’d turned her head away just then and not looking at them immediately turned her head back, back lines all over her face, her appearance that of someone on the verge of exploding.
"What?"
Moss and Kaht exchanged a glance, unsure what it was that happened.
"I understand."
Ayrin said with an apologetic expression, "I must have spoken wrong right. I should be thanking you, little sister, not elder sister."
There were some female students who were indeed very concerned about matters of age.
Moss and Kaht suddenly saw the light somewhat.
But the "young girl" with a face full of black lines yelled out loud in rage instead, "You idiot, I’m a boy, not a girl!"
"Ah?"
Everyone became immediately dumbfounded.
"You…you’re a man?" The gaze of a dumbfounded Ayrin fell on the "young girl’s" flat chest and came to a little realization. He mumbled to himsef, "A little too beautiful though, looks really a little too much like a girl…"
Moss and Kaht couldn’t refrain from nodding.
To tell the truth, even Kaht formerly thought it was a pretty flat-chested girl.
"You… are…still…talking…!"
The white-clothed "girl" watched Ayrin and spat out four words one by one, filled with murderous intent. Even the loose hair started flying up in disarray.
"Fox ears?" Ayrin’s voice rose again, filled with astonishment, because he’d seen two pointy ears on the "girl," looking very pretty and delicate.
"Idiot!"
Moss knocked Ayrin’s head. "What fox ears, this is elfin bloodline!"
"Elfin bloodline?"
"Why did even you come to school if you don’t know this!"
"What’s the problem with that? Right, you’re really not a girl?"
"I"m going to kill you!"
Kaht finally managed to rein in the conflagration after much difficulty and completed the admission procedures a dozen minutes later. He looked at the backs of Ayrin and the others and couldn’t resist smilingly talking to himself.
"These little guys are really troublesome."
Then a cold light suddenly flashed in his eyes. He quickly turned around.
A young man clothed in the same St. Dawn Academy attire walked out of the shadows at the corner of the street the instant he’d turned around.
Kaht immediately sighed in relief.
"It turns out to be you, Lister! Why are you here?"
"I was just walking by." This young man whom Kaht called Lister was very handsome. He had a lazy expression, yellow rays of light sometimes flashing and spinning inside his pair of black eyes. This was something that would give a weird feeling to people fixating on his eyes. He indifferently asked after casting a glance at the backs of Ayrin and the others, "What’s this guy with at least one half of elfin bloodline called, where does he come from?"
Kaht threw another look to the registration forms and answered, "Rinloran, from Emmy Forest Townlet."
"I didn’t hear about any high-level elfin bloodline clan there. However no matter where he comes from, it’s a very high elfin bloodline… There’s also the little guy from the Quinn clan with some giant bloodline, plus that little guy called Ayrin coming from Cororin’s mining area. This year’s new students are much more interesting than in previous years." Lister shook his head and said such words, then he smiled lazily. "Kaht, you have the title of a good-tempered teacher in our St. Dawn Academy, but that little guy Ayrin’s temper is even better than yours the way I see it. He looks like he won’t get angry no matter what."
"Ayrin?" Kaht heard the meaning behind Lister’s words and said with a little doubt, "He awakened so late… Do you actually feel there’s something special about him?"
"You haven’t gone to the ‘forgotten abandoned town’ but I have."
Lister said smiling, "The people left there actually all have a very tough temper just like stone. On top of that, there’s an unspeakable self-confidence and courage on this little guy. For me, only this can be regarded as genuine talent. As to bloodline, it’s far from being the most critical issue the way I look at it. Don’t forget, I’m also from an ordinary human bloodline."
"Are you…?" Kaht was immediately somewhat surprised.
Lister said very frankly, "Indeed, I’m even more interested in him than in Rinloran. Especially how he even has so many gold coins and silver coins on him when he comes out of the forgotten abandoned town, this makes me feel even more curious. I will take note of him… If he turns out to be indeed decent, I’ll personally guide his training."