Book 2: Chapter 41: Acacia Academy

After Dyon rested, he ended up spending a few more days ensuring that everything with the orphans was set up properly.

He hired a few lower level teachers for them, which actually infused money into a part of the economy that had been dormant. Because of the constant wars over the past few centuries, it wasn’t often that children could afford tutors. And often, if they could, they were from rich families that would have their own private teachings. This meant those who met the requirements to teach focused on secondary occupations they specialized in rather than teaching orphans. Although many of them wished to, they had their own families to feed as well.

With the promise of money and the protection Dyon left, he was finally confident enough to head into the Elvin City along with Ri.

Holding Lyla in his arms, Dyon hugged her good bye, “I’ll come back to visit you soon, okay?”

The adorable little girl nodded, wrapping her arms around Dyon’s neck.

Dyon set her down and she ran off with a big smile on her face. This made Dyon feel great, so he set off with a calm heart and a wide smile.

Too lazy to go down all the stairs, Dyon directly jumped out of a window and over the fence, landing softly next to Ri, “alright beauty, let’s head off!”

BOOM!

Dyon was slammed into a tree, “ow… there’s no need to be so angry about a compliment.”

“hmph… you humans have low standards…” she said softly.

Dyon looked at her in confusion, but once they entered the city, he immediately found out what she meant. He had never seen such a collection of beautiful people. Describing Ri as subpar was almost adequate.

This didn’t seem to bother Ri too much though, she instead chose to happily point out all of the great things about the Elvin Kingdom.

“Elves are actually descendants of a god race, which is where our beauty comes from. It isn’t often that you’ll find an unattractive elf, which is why I find you and Little Lyla to be so ridiculous. Actually, I’m more surprised about you honestly. The fact you’re so handsome is probably the only reason you haven’t met discrimination yet… I don’t expect that to continue for too much longer though. You might have looks comparable to even the best we have to offer, but some people won’t care too much about that. I hope you’re prepared.”

Dyon nodded. He wasn’t too bothered by this. He was used to being looked down on. He was a commoner at Focus Academy, and now he’d be known as a human. Same shit, different pile.

“Don’t worry too much though, you can just do what I do and kick their asses. Very few have the guts to make fun of me anymore,” she said pridefully.

Dyon chuckled, he really enjoyed spending time with Ri, in spite of the beatings.

“Also, this is actually the only city on the whole island. Aside from the villages in the forest, the other strongholds of people are just the exclusive lands of the 9 major families. But, I doubt you’ll ever get a chance to go to those places unless you’re trying to die… it’s one thing for a human to come here, to the city, but the sacred places of the families is a different matter entirely.”

Dyon nodded as he listened, but he was still in awe of the city around him. The architecture of the Elves was truly something astounding. Everything seemed to be made of jade of marble, including even the simplest of shops. The flood of colors was endless, as people with reds and blues and pinks and greens in their hair bustled around, running from place to place.

The roads seemed to have no real logic to them. They could curve and end in massive fountains, or abruptly end in massive homes and businesses. Sometimes buildings would take odd shapes. Dyon saw cone shaped buildings, and bridge shaped buildings, he even saw a library that looked like a book lying on its side!

However, regardless of what it was, it would always have the characteristic shining greens of jade or the swirls of white and precious stones of marble. It gave the city a one with nature feeling coupled with a level of design and ingenuity Dyon had never seen before.

While Dyon looked around, Ri continued to speak, “Anyway, the city itself has 4 major areas while the rest could count as miscellaneous. These would be the 3 academies and the royal palace. Some sub areas would include the homes of major families, although the majority of those that make up those families would be on their sacred lands outside of the city, it isn’t too rare for their younger generation who attend the academies to be here.

Not surprisingly, the academies are usually separated by divisions of major families as well. It’s very rare for a member of a major family to not attend the academy that their family backs. Because of that, the areas held by the major families tends to be near the academy they back”

Dyon perked up in interesting, “does that mean that your kingdom is separated into 3 sub powers?”

“no, actually. The separation of families by academy is actually just an age-old tradition meant to ensure that the major families had to continue investing into the education of the kingdom. By tying their names to academies, they would be more willing to give funds to the academies because it would then become a matter of prestige. It isn’t necessarily the case that those families are allies or would band together.”

“I see… what a clever idea…”

“The academy that we’re headed to now is known as Acacia Academy. It’s backed by the Eostre family I mentioned to you before, the Ingram family and the Conventine family.”

“mm, are you part of those major families?”

Ri was startled by the question, but immediately answered, “no. But, I am the daughter of Acacia’s head master. He’s the younger brother of the king, so I guess that makes the king my uncle. My mother was actually a human, which is the reason for my normal appearance.”

Dyon nodded, “wouldn’t that make our children a quarter Elvin then? I’d like to see tha –“ Dyon received a firm kick to the ass for that one.

“stop talking nonsense and focus. If I don’t explain to you all the ways you could get killed and you end up dying, don’t blame me. Blame the fact you talk too much,” she said with a harrumph.

Dyon playfully rubbed his behind while smirking, “continue, continue. It wouldn’t be my place to interrupt royalty.”

Ri sent a glare at Dyon but continued as they weaved into and out of streets, “don’t expect the academy to be a cozy place. There is no comradery only competition. You’re soft hearted despite your dense killing intent. I can already tell that that’s gotten you into trouble before. If you get yourself killed for offending the wrong person, don’t blame me for not being able to save you. Not even the king’s real daughter has any power… let alone her cousin.”

Dyon raised his eyebrow at this, ‘the princess has no power? What exactly is going on here…’

But Ri didn’t allow Dyon to ask about it, “this isn’t something that the younger generation should be concerned with anyway. The adults are duking it out, and we’re still trying to find our place in the world. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“War orphans… powerless nobles… seems like the Elvin Kingdom isn’t as peaceful as I thought it would be,” Dyon said with a chuckle.

Ri sighed, “I’m certain that the kingdom will stabilize. And soon at that,” she said with determination.

Dyon gave a side glance to Ri as a light smile played on his lips, ‘interesting…’

But, Dyon didn’t delve any further into it, “are you sure this really keeps the younger generation out? Normally families fight to position themselves for the sake of the coming generation.”

Ri shook her head, “maybe that would be true if our lives were short. But, not only do elves live for hundreds of years even if they had no cultivation, with cultivation, our lives increase exponentially. The king is already over 10,000 years old, and since he’s a Celestial Level Expert, he’s technically still quite young for an elf at that stage.”

Dyon frowned. A Celestial Level expert would indeed be able to live to 10,000, but that was the cap for a human. It seems the elves improved upon this substantially.

‘it also seems like I’m dealing with real experts this time around…’

Dyon realized that much of the reason he had survived until now was because although the seniors who hated him were powerful, their level of strength was still within his sights. But, an existence at the level of the Elvin king wasn’t something he could even fathom. Despite this, Dyon chuckled. He knew very well that even if he warned himself of this, his personality wouldn’t allow him to bow his head.

Ri continued, “that being said, the prowess of a family’s younger generation often has a lot to do with how that family is received because they would obviously be the future. Plus, it isn’t like every older expert has reached the cultivation level of the king.”

Dyon nodded. Honestly, Celestial stage experts were as far as the memories of his master went, aside from doa formation experts. When the sage said he had reached a transcendent level of cultivation, Dyon had assumed he meant the celestial stage… But, the more he thought about it, the more he thought that maybe the sage had truly meant something that transcended the knowledge they had.

“I’m confused… if elves live for so long… and their king is so powerful… why is there a power struggle?…”

A complicated look flashed across Ri’s face, “… the king is missing and no one knows where he is. In fact, it isn’t even that simple,” she laughed in what sounded like self-mockery, “the king hasn’t appeared in nearly a decade.”

Dyon started, ‘for a king to not appear in 10 years… I feel like there’s more to this story…’

But, Ri immediately changed the subject. Dyon didn’t find this to be suspicious at all, who wouldn’t feel complicated when they spoke of their missing uncle?

“anyway, don’t be a hot head and hop into the life and death arenas. Don’t accept challenges to the ancient games, I suck at them because I’m half human, let alone you being a full human. Be sure to really think about it if you want to use the unique type technique, there’s always the possibility of you crippling your soul cultivation as opposed to helping it,” Ri seemed to be rushing through information as they neared a massive castle like structure, except much like the rest of city, the stones were made of marble and jade.

What was even more odd was the fact that other than its basic structure, it had no other features of one. It stood in a cul-de-sac, completely out of place with the buildings around it. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was hundreds of meters across, you’d never think it was worth its prestige as one of the 3 main academies of the Elvin Kingdom. 

Ri smiled, seeming to enjoy Dyon’s confusion, “there’s another important thing I forgot to tell you. Elves, because our population is relatively small compared to other nations, live on this small island rather than having an entire continent to ourselves like the humans do. That’s partially due to infertility issues, but unimportant… The point I’m trying to make is that although the area we take up is small… well, you’d better not take anything at face value.”

Dyon was going to ask Ri what she meant but all his thoughts were interrupted by his surprise. Ri had flashed a badge at the large doors of the castle, and Dyon was greeted with the fresh air from a completely different world.

The castle doors led into a field of flowers and sunlight. There was an elegant jade path leading towards the largest structure Dyon had ever seen. The fields were filled with Elvin students. They chatted and laughed, trained and sweated. The air was fresh and revitalizing. The energy in the air was so dense that Dyon’s body almost bulged greedily.

After kilometers of fields, a building reminiscent of ancient times was found at the end of the path. It stretched out as far as Dyon’s eyes could see in either direction and was at least 5 stories high.

Ri interrupted Dyon’s thoughts, “although you can’t see it now, the school building is actually a massive square. Within it, there are a whole bunch of things to do although the most popular is probably the ancient games. So, what do you think?”

Dyon couldn’t speak for a while… ‘all of their buildings… have pocket dimensions within them?! What kind of nonsense is this?!”

Ri’s grin was wide as she watched Dyon’s reaction with a bit of pride, “welcome to Acacia Academy”