Hearing that, I reclined my seat to the back, and closed my eyes. Aurora wasn't much of a talker, and Tokito and Owen were three and four seats away from me respectively. And the reason I had also chosen this seat was to see landscapes, but all I could see was colorful clouds. It wasn't my fault, I blame the people in the slums who claimed they could see the various landscapes from the air. I was brought out of my thoughts when I suddenly felt the same feeling of my insides being wringed out. "What was that?!" I muttered to myself opening my eyes. And I wasn't the only one, almost all the cadets in my view were reacting the same way.
I turned my head towards Aurora once again, but before I could say a word, "It's the academy's barrier!" she said as if reading my mind. And wait, is that irritation I hear in her voice?! 'It's slight, but it's there!' I thought to myself. Her face looked the same, there was not the slightest bit of fluctuation in her facial features, but somehow I could tell she was a little irritated with all the questions I was asking. And remembering that day I went to her dorm, 'Yeah, I better not push my luck anymore!' I thought.
I closed my eyes, but couldn't sleep, so I pretended to for the next four hours or so. It was pretty taxing I tell you, but nothing too big for this king. Hahaha, I'm starting to act like those arrogant young masters. On a serious note though, I tried to make small talk with Aurora, but she completely ignored me.
About a few minutes after the fourth hour, the instructor in charge of the teleportation matrix suddenly appeared in the cabin. With no fanfare, he began "Alright everyone, when I call your group, you get up and walk over to the matrix!" he gestured to the matrix on the floor. It was the same one we appeared on. One by one, the groups were called and teleported, and once again, we were the last group. "Finally man, I was starting to get tired of sitting!" said Owen as we approached the instructor. "The ride was pretty boring!" Tokito said. "Tell me about it!" I said glancing at Aurora.
We stepped into the matrix, and with a snap of the Instructor's fingers, we were back at the dock yard. Then we were ushered into a smaller ship. Turns out the sky bastion wasn't even going to land. Honestly what was the point of even bringing it in the first place. 'In fact why weren't we just teleported there?!' I thought. So I turned to one of the three instructors going with us. The instructors assigned to this trip were, instructor Cornwell, instructor Conner (our alchemy instructor), and lastly, instructor Atlas the pretty boy. And he was sitting not far away from my group.
"I have a question!" I said to him. "Shoot!" the instructor replied. "Why did we take the huge ship when even this one could suffice?!" I inquired.
"It's more about symbolism and showing off!" Atlas replied. "Showing off? to whom?!" I asked. "You remember the Virellans?!" he asked to which I nodded.
Virellans were tall, elegant humanoids with translucent skin that shimmers like moonlight on water. Beneath their skin, glowing bioluminescent veins pulse in patterns that reflect their emotions—cool blues for calm, flickering greens for curiosity, vibrant purples for joy, and stormy reds for anger. They have large, opalescent eyes with no pupils, and their hair is made of soft, vine-like tendrils that move subtly with their mood or surroundings. Their build was slender, willowy, and semi-fluid in movement.
And like the samdals, they also didn't have bloodlines, instead what they had were racial abilities, that is, the entire race has the same abilities. They had Aether Pulse: They can release a surge of emotional energy from their glowing veins, influencing the feelings of those nearby—calming foes, inspiring allies, or even disorienting attackers. Another of their abilities was glimmerstep; They can phase through solid, attacks and whatnot.
Oh and yes, they can fly since they are naturally attuned to the wind element. Of course their weakness is that they are physically weaker than most humanoid races, but make up for it with social/emotional manipulation.
"Well their delegates along with some of their scions are currently on the planet, and guess where? right here at the millennium museum!" Atlas said. As soon as he said that, the gears in my head started to turn. This wasn't only an outing to relax was it? it was to show us off to the Virellans, the scions of humanity. And what better way than to come in flamboyantly.
"I see you get it!" the instructor winked. We were quiet after that, and soon the ship docked. But we weren't yet allowed to go outside. Instead as we stood right before the hatch, instructor Cornwell decided to give a speech. "Listen closely cause I will not repeat myself. When we get to our lodgings, you all will be allowed a few hours to tour the resort, but you move with your team, and you must be back to the hotel by 7pm!"
"Also, we have quite some important guests from outside the galaxy!" As soon as the cadets heard outside the galaxy, the crowd burst in chatter.
-"Aliens?!" a cadet exclaimed.
-"Probably, the only guests we can have from outside the galaxy must be aliens!" another cadet reasoned.
-"Damn, never thought I'd get to see an alien with my eyes!"
-"You do know to them we're the aliens right?!"
"Aliens huh, I've seen a lot of them before!" Owen commented smugly. "Don't give him the satisfaction of asking when or how?" Tokito hurriedly interjected making Owen glare at him. "Now now, calm down all of you. As you've probably been taught about them, the guests are Virellans from the Fürd Galaxy!" instructor Atlas announced.
And also, we'll be having dinner with them by 8pm. So do not make trouble if you encounter them before that. Behave and conduct yourselves, we don't want to leave a bad impression. But if they try to stir trouble first,...." Instructor Cornwell paused. "Kick their asses!" A voice shouted. *Silence*, the cadets were gobsmacked, hell even I was, almost simultaneously, heads flicked towards where the voice has came from. "What?! I thought that was what you were going to say!" instructor Conner defended herself.
Instructor Cornwell ignored her and continued "And as you've been told before, the only feature of your bracelets that work outside the academy, is only the storage, apart from telling the time that is. Which means you'll have access to your accounts and credits, since academy points obviously won't work here!" After she ended her speech, she then gave the signal to open the hatch.
With a soft hiss, and a subtle release of smoke, the hatch opened and extended downwards. Instructor Cornwell took the lead, the remaining two instructors stepping a line behind her, and followed by the cadets in the order we were arranged beforehand. As I took the first step outside the ship, I felt a cool refreshing air breeze past me. The instructors talked a bit with the people who came to receive us, and soon we were being led out of the docks.
Apparently the dockyard we landed in, belonged to the hotel where we're lodging, but still, because of how large the docks was, we had to take buses to the hotel blocks, yes blocks, there were at least twenty tall buildings whose tops I couldn't see from the ground. We were led to one of the blocks, and each and every cadet was given a card for a room. After that the Instructor's left us on our own. The only order being we were to be back here by 7pm. The time was still 1:30pm, so we had about five and a half hours to explore.
"We're definitely going out right?!" Owen asked as soon as the instructors disappeared. "You bet we are!" I replied while Tokito nodded. "I'd like to come, but I wanna go checkout my room!" Lara objected. "What about you?!" I asked Aurora, but only for formalities, I knew she was gonna reject anyway, and besides we would constantly be on edge if she came with us. But her response baffled me. "I'll come with you guys!" she said.
"Whaaaat?!" Owen exclaimed. "No offence Aurora, but he was only asking just for formality, right?!" he turned to me gesturing with his head to back him up. "When did I say that?!" I asked innocently. "Of course you can come if you wants!" I said to Aurora, but in my mind I was like, 'Who can stop you if you want?'. "Right!" Aurora said, and wait is that amusement I sense in her tone?! Nah, I'm probably overthinking it. "I'll see you guys around" Lara excused herself.
Owen looked at me feigning a hurt look, 'Bro why'd you leave me hanging' his eyes seem to say. But soon he said "Where do we go first? Honestly I recommend a restaurant. I'm pretty famished" "You know it!" Tokito said and I nodded, but it seems we still needed to ask someone's opinion. We all turned to Aurora, but all she said was "let's go!"
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