The distance between sector 3 and the academy, located in sector one, was immense. To reach there, every person had to either drive or fly in an airship.
For obvious reasons, no teleportation was allowed into the academy or even from hundreds of kilometers away from the border of sector one. Despite the airship's high speed, it would still take about a day to reach the destination.
During this day, Atticus met up and caught up with Nate and Lucas. He had decided not to train too hard today as he had no idea what to expect when they reached the academy.
He also used this time to find out more information about other sectors. The journey was completely peaceful without any problems.
And without him even noticing, the day passed in the blink of an eye.
…
In the entire human domain, there was only one academy.
The human domain spanned across millions of kilometers with billions of inhabitants, with the inhabitants increasing daily.
The fact that this vast domain with so many people had just a single academy, where every youth turning 15 had to attend, should be enough to understand the sheer size and scale of the academy.
There were no exceptions to this rule. The world had advanced to the extent that disabilities amongst even the 'poor' were almost nonexistent, and every child expected to be 15 would be retrieved if they didn't show. They were all accepted into the academy regardless of talent.
Given the sheer size of the human domain, it was no surprise that at a very large expanse just at the border of sector 1, was teeming with millions of youths from every single sector.
And just at the front of the expanse, there was a spherical blue translucent shield that encompassed the entire sector 1 from the ground up.
This was the infamous Aeigis shield that the alliance had used to repel the aliens.
It was kept on 24/7, always protecting the academy from outside forces. No one could teleport in or out of the shield as long as it was running; not even a paragon could get past it.
But anyone even the least bit observant would notice an oddity: the complete and total absence of adults in the area. Every single person in the expanse was a 15 year old youth.
In this expanse, there were different landing spots for airships of different sizes. And periodically, airships of all sizes would land quickly, dropping off more youths and taking off back immediately afterwards.
But amongst these airships, there was always one size that garnered the attention of almost every youth present – the largest ships, massive and imposing, which dwarfed every other airship. It was an airship that could only be owned by the absolute rulers of any sector, the tier ones.
And when they landed, they dropped a procession of youths whose every manner of action, accessory, and confidence stood out from the crowd of youths currently present.
Due to this clear difference in class, many groups had already formed. In the area close to where the tier one family airship usually landed, different youths, all radiating power incomparably to most others, were gathered.
In this area, there were a total of eight groups already formed, each with at least 20 youths. Every one of these groups had one thing in common: each member of a group had almost the same distinct features. These groups represented eight of the ten tier one families in the human domain. Some of them were gazing at each other as if looking at enemies.
This was to be expected, as each one of them basically considered the others as their only competitors.
In one of these groups, where deep red haired youths were gathered, a boy turned towards a strikingly beautiful red haired girl who stood out from the crowd, and spoke,
"Lady Lila, do you think he's still coming?" he asked.
The girl, Lila, answered without turning to look at the boy, "He's 15, Lark. Everyone has to attend the academy at that age. Why are you asking me stupid questions?" she replied.
Lark bowed his head and apologized, "I'm sorry, Lady Lila, but I just want him to pay for what he did to young master Dell those years back," he added the last bit while gritting his teeth.
It was then that Lila turned to look at the boy, regarding him for a few seconds. Then she sighed, taking in a huge breath as if trying to bottle up her frustrations.
'Why do I have so many stupid people around me?' Lila thought. She exhaled, deciding to humor the idiot.
"Hmm. So let me ask you, what exactly is your plan for when he gets here?" she inquired.
Lark eagerly answered, "I'll challenge him in front of everyone, staking his family's honor so he couldn't refuse. Then I'll beat the living daylights out of him until he begs for his life," Lark said, clenching his fist and smiling slightly, as if foreseeing the punishment he wanted to inflict.
"Beat him? You're talking about the same person who easily defeated Dell, who was stronger than you, right?" Lila asked.
Lark seemed to understand what she was trying to say and quickly added, "That was years ago, Lady Lila. If both of them were to fight now, young master Dell would win within a second!"
Lila simply stared at the boy for a few seconds, then she suddenly turned her gaze back to the front. There were levels to stupidity, and this particular one was so high leveled that she didn't have the patience and niceness to cure it.
'He's just one of our hundreds of cousins who wants to gain Dell's favor anyway. He'll learn to use his brain the hard way,' Lila thought, choosing to ignore Lark.
After a few minutes, a giant imposing airship gracefully descended, landing at the tier one family area.
And from it, a procession of white haired youths walked out of the ship.
