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"ZEN! ARVELL! OVER HERE!"

Hearing a voice call out to them, both boys turned their heads to see a young girl running in their direction.

"Hey, Reyna!" Zen replied, "I didn't think you'd come this early. But, unfortunately, we still have another 30 minutes before we depart."

"I could say the same for you two."

"Well, in our case, we just met in the cafeteria and found our way over here. What about you?" Zen responded, but he avoided Reyna's eyes while speaking.

Catching this, Reyna flashed her fiance a knowing look.

"Tell me the real reason."

"What other reason could you talk about?"

At this point, beads of sweat began to form on Zen's face, but he didn't seem to notice.

"You wanted to see if the two of us would be in the same group, didn't you?"

Despite knowing where she was going with her prodding, Zen couldn't help but freeze up when she laid his intentions out in the open.

"Well, did you?"

Knowing that she managed to get the upper hand, Reyna took a step forward, causing Zen to instinctively take a step back.

"Come on, Zen~ There's no reason to be shy!"

Mustering up all the courage, Zen stood his ground and looked his fiance in the eyes.

"So, how about you? Since you keep bringing it up, are you here to check then?"

Not expecting Zen's counter-attack, Reyna's face flushed with a deep shade of crimson.

"Umm… Well… You see…."

Watching the two lovebirds flirt early in the morning, Arvell and August exchanged tired looks.

***

After roughly 20 minutes had passed, A woman carrying a clipboard made her way to the front of the crowd of students.

The instant she stood and faced her students, their murmurs and conversations stopped as if on cue, and they silently turned to meet their teacher.

Without wasting another second, Professor Orfina began to do a roll call to check the attendance of her students.

"All here ten minutes early. Well, such punctuality is expected of the S-class," she nodded, "since you're all here, I might as well go over the details of our 'trip' again."

Walking over, she gestured to a board containing the groups of all students in their class.

"All of you will be divided into groups of four and raid one of the academy's specially sanctioned dungeons. While most of the beasts are far above your fighting level, the first and maybe second floor should be manageable for your class. Some of your might even be able to go even deeper."

While she said this, she threw a cursory glance over her students, momentarily stopping on a few of her students.

"Today's experience is to serve as a trial run of sorts, and if you would like you can attempt to raid the dungeon again in the future. Just make sure to take a temporary leave of absence beforehand. As for the next few days, I want you all to try to get used to living in the dungeon's environment for an extended period and practise teamwork with your classmates."

Arvell cringed at those words.

'Frankly, I'd rather go in on my own, but I guess I can revisit it in the future. However… It seems I have something else I need to do this time.'

In the morning, he'd planned on simply treating it like an excursion to hone his skills, but after catching a glimpse of the groups for the dungeon raid, he threw that thought on the back burner.

One of the faculty members walked over to Professor Orfina and handed her a briefcase containing small metal insignias crafted in the shape of the academy's crests.

"I already explained how terminal iron worked yesterday, so just remember to snap it in case you're in danger."

After handing out the insignias to all her students, Professor Orfina shepherded the students into the nearby carriages while paying extra attention to Titus.

After a month of attending the academy, Titus had rightfully earned himself the moniker "Walking Catastrophe," after all of the school's furniture and supplies he'd accidentally broken with sheer strength.

If it wasn't for the fact that somehow he'd managed to fix everything he broke, the school might have had to let him go.

Although… glueing something back together didn't really look aesthetically pleasing.

Grabbing a carriage with Zen and Reyna, Arvell tilted his head and gazed at the sight of the academy getting further away.

'This is so fun! It's bumpy and fast!' August energetically exclaimed.

While he was fully capable of speaking, he abstained from doing to attract attention to himself, an idea that both Arvell and Lykos had strictly enforced onto the young dragon.

On the outside, he still responded with various noises, such as his signature 'kyu' sound.

Arvell rubbed August's back with a soft smile.

It had been only a month since August had last ridden on a carriage, but that time felt like ages ago for a dragon who had only lived for a few weeks.

Unfortunately unlike the last trip which lasted for a full day, they managed to reach their destination within only ten minutes, much to August's dismay.

'I'll show you other fun things like this in the future,' Arvell promised.

'O-ok… Promise?'

'Promise.'

'Yay!'

Arvell's words renewed the young dragon with vigour, making his previous pitiful appearance look like it was a lie.

Sighing, Arvell shook his head.

"Arvell, we're going to go join our group, so we'll be splitting here."

"Yeah, see you guys later."

Wishing Arvell goodbye, Zen and Reyna broke off to find their other two group members.

Through some luck, the two ended up being on the same team, so they were energetic throughout the carriage ride, eagerly planning combat strategies they could utilize together.

'I hope those two don't end up forgetting the real purpose of this activity.' Arvell thought to himself as he shook his head.

'As if you're one to talk,' Lykos retorted.

'Yeah.'

Arvell didn't even try to respond to Lykos's quip since he knew it was true.

He'd put aside his goal in this excursion for quite a long time.

Walking over to a purple-haired boy who seemed engrossed with the novel in his hand, Arvell silently stood near him.

The lavender-haired boy raised his head and looked at Arvell with a bland and disinterested gaze before returning his attention to the book.

Arvell didn't pay his behaviour much heed since he wasn't keen on talking with the boy either.

Moments later, an energetic-looking girl with bright yellow hair greeted Arvell with a smile.

"Hi, Arvell, my name's Marisa! I will be in your group, so please take care of me!"

Despite her attitude seeming peppy and full of life, Arvell could feel her gaze filled with ulterior motives penetrate him.

After spending a few months with his new appearance, he'd gotten somewhat used to the looks he would get from girls, but Arvell wasn't really a fan of it.

It was an annoyance, to say the least.

In fact, he'd much rather have 10 teammates like Julius, the purple-haired boy, than be with Marisa.

Unfortunately, he needed to keep up appearances, so he had to properly return her greeting.

"Hello, Marisa. I look forward to working with you as well."

Arvell's expression was monotone as he replied in such a way that it was clear he was trying to establish a boundary between the two.

Unfortunately, the blonde before him couldn't take a hint and continued to repeatedly make conversation attempts with him.

It wasn't until the final group member showed up that he got a break.

Seeing their last group member approach, all three of them lightly bowed.

Even Julius momentarily put away his book to show the minimum level of respect.

"Please raise your head. While I'm a member of royalty, when I'm in the academy, I'm just a normal student. So please treat me normally."

All three of them raised their heads and nodded in agreement.

Seeing her group members accept her words, Lillianna smiled to herself.

"Now that everyone's here, let's get going."