楼上的上瘾女士

Never did Melinda believe her plans to be impossible.

She was not coming by her plans by some spur-of-the-moment decisions.

Having guilds was seen as essential in the Royal Academy as the Academy was an environment that had a knack of getting dystopian every now and then.

Without a guild and without considerable strength to stand your ground, it is very easy to be (for want of a better word) bullied in the Royal Academy.

Usually, not even being the disciple of an elder of the Academy would help against the bullying because as long as it was not life-threatening and would not result in a disastrous change in the disciple's life e.g losing their cultivation or the ability to cultivate further, elders were not allowed to interfere.

This was not a perfect system.

Not by any standards.

Even students with Elders to back them up knew that, should they lose their lives or their ability to cultivate during any bullying session, their Elder's interference would probably be much too late. 

After all, the Elders had their own matters to attend to.

They had things going for them.

Their primary duty was to offer guidance to their disciples and not to watch their every step.

They could not possibly be with their disciples at every moment on the Academy grounds.

That is what guilds are for.

They are to pick up the slacks (so to speak) of the Elders.

Hanging out what your guild members gives certain confidence that you are untouchable and to an extent, this is true.

However, there is a downside; By being part of a guild, you are pulled into their history and thus into their long-standing rivalries should they have one.

Their enemies become your enemies.

Every guild that exists at the moment, excluding the newly created Sapphirine guild, has a long-standing history.

Their histories could be traced back to when the Royal Academy had been created for the cultivation improvement of the best of the best and although there had never been a rule preventing the rise of new guilds, new guilds never last.

Once the old ones had established themselves as the 'big dogs' of the Royal Academy, they had the manpower, the status, the promises to choke out any newly established guild hoping to have their say.

And their success would see the members separating to join those established guilds while admitting to themselves that the very idea of establishing a new dominant guild was foolish.

Admitting to themselves that it was too much work.

Melinda was not in the dark in regards to this history and they were all the more reason she was sure her plan would work.

She felt she was in exactly the right generation where an insane idea of a fairly unambitious guild (in regards to having large numbers) would actually make sense.

The fact that there were students who were guildless by choice meant that the novelty of large guilds was wearing off.

She believed the reason for failure at those times was because the new guild creators wished to compete with the large guilds by using methods the large and established guilds had already perfected.

They (the new guilds) wanted to be huge as well.

They wanted to have a say and that was why they were choked out.

That was why they were unsuccessful.

As of now, many of those without guilds actually had been in guilds upon entry into the Academy but left for several reasons and it was those reasons Melinda wished to exploit.

Fast forward to a few days after this meeting and major decision making of theirs and Melinda approached one of the targets she had in mind for the Sapphirine guild; A long-time student by the name of Suri Hander.

Suri Hander was a tall lady with brown hair and brown eyes. Her face despite being screwed in concentration at the moment was beautiful and her movement with the light blue halberd Cosmic Armament in her hand was fluid and impressive.

It was almost as though she was dancing.

Melinda's approach was silent and she made sure not to disturb Suri's free-flowing movement. She thought she had done her slow approach well and was a little surprised when the brown-haired woman, whose back was turned to her and whose eyes Melinda could have sworn were closed, spoke,

"If you are trying to sneak up on me, you will have to try harder than that" Suri's tone had an annoyed edge to it.

"You heard me?" Melinda asked and Suri nodded while still looking away,

"Yes. You were very loud" she said.

"I was?"

Suri sighed,

"It's not your fault." she said and finally turned to face Melinda as she said,

"I have sensitive ears." 

"Wow. It's even more impressive than I thought" Melinda said with a hint of admiration.

"So you know." Suri said while holding her halberd like a staff that she leaned against.

Melinda nodded,

"Of course I do"

Suri Hander happened to have been born with especially sensitive hearing and considering the senses of cultivators get more heightened the stronger their cultivation, that was truly saying something.

She could detect sounds of pitches that surpassed what she should have been able to detect considering her cultivation.

It was not really a kept secret as probably anyone she had faced off against would have deduced it whether she revealed it to them or not.

However, as Melinda was a new student, her knowledge of Suri's helpful condition was a result of the research she had done.

Suri nodded to Melinda's words and then eyed the golden-eyed beauty from top to bottom before she asked,

"You're the new Dane student, right? The one who's the Principal's disciple? Why are you here?" 

Melinda shrugged,

"To practice of course, why else?" Melinda asked and stepped up on the stage.

Suri furrowed her brows,

"There are multiple practice Arenas in the Royal Academy. They number at least a hundred. This is the farthest from the populous Academy center. I come here to be alone..."

"You and me both" Melinda said with a sigh.

"Is this a ploy by the Flame guild? Is this your initiation? Were you sent here to...?" Suri paused and cocked her head which Melinda knew she was doing to listen out for sounds in case she missed some.

"I'm here alone. I'm not joining the Flame guild... Or any other guild for that matter" Melinda said.

The Flame guild just like its name suggested was formed primarily by the first best Flame lotus sect disciples to attend the Royal Academy and at the moment was being headed by a Dane.

A talented Dane from the Dane branch family.

It had been one of the guilds interested in having Melinda join their ranks and had been one of the guilds she had rejected.

Suri's mouth formed an 'O' shape before she said,

"Oh, going the solo route, huh, turning your back on guilds, that's a bad idea" 

"You don't have a guild" Melinda pointed out.

"But you are not me. I've been in this academy for years. I know my way around and can afford to attempt striking out on my own.

You just got here. You won't survive on your own"

"It's a good thing I have a guild then" Melinda said.

"Ah-ha, so you ARE with the Flame guild!" Suri said with the tone of a Eureka moment.

"What, No. What is this issue you have with the flame guild anyway? I didn't join a guild, I created one" Melinda said with a bit of exasperation.

"Huh?" now Suri was confused.

Melinda sighed,

"I created a guild. The Sapphirine guild.... And I want you in it"