While Asher was lost in thought, quietly assessing the towering buildings and the intricate scenery around him, the other first-year students were doing the same, though not with the same peace of mind he possessed.
Unlike Asher, their minds were anything but calm. The image of thirty-four of their fellow classmates being expelled mere moments ago still lingered like a phantom in their thoughts. They hadn't even witnessed the inside of the Academy before those students were gone, cast out and left behind at the very gates they had all dreamed of crossing.
To them, this place already felt like a battlefield, and they feared that every step they took, every word they spoke, might become another hidden test waiting to eliminate them.
