It wasn't that long before most of the crowd had already entered the room.
Only now did Zayn get up.
He waited a little longer for the last of the crowd to go inside.
Now, only the latecomers were rushing in. Not dragging it out any further, he walked to the classroom.
As he entered through the door, the first thing he noticed was the space between the desks, dividing the seating arrangement into three sections.
There was the middle section, where he saw Melina and a few others from the Zenaris family sitting at the front.
Though it wasn't all of them, he could see a few redheads sitting further back in random seats.
There was also a gap on both sides of the middle section, creating two sides of a semicircle.
He saw that the front section on the left side was filled with humanoid creatures with long ears.
Xane said to him, [Man, if not for their long ears, I wouldn't even call them elves.]
Zayn mentally nodded.
Even though all the elves had bright white skin, he wouldn't call them pretty just based on that.
They were just like every other species. But then he focused on the right side, which was filled with slightly short, chocolate-brown-skinned dwarves.
It was hard to tell them apart from short humans, except that, unlike humans, all dwarves had broad shoulders.
Even the skinny ones had shoulders wider than a typical human teen.
He also saw a couple of other humanoid creatures, mostly the Featherheads, who had colorful feathers coming out of their heads, and the Jaggedtooths, who had slightly wider mouths.
But in a group of 200, he could barely spot fewer than a dozen of them. If he hadn't been actively looking, they would have blended perfectly with the crowd.
Though all this distinction was in the front half, the back half was a chaotic mess, with far more humans than other species.
At that moment, he saw others from the Zenaris family glancing at him, though he noticed Melina staring at the front like he didn't even exist.
He just nodded to the others and started walking up.
It was like a big auditorium where each row was set higher than the one before it, so those at the back could see the podium with no problem.
With almost three-fourths of the seats already filled, all he saw was a single empty row directly behind the dwarves and elves, which everyone was avoiding.
It was clear to him that sitting there would spark trouble.
Xane asked him, [So where are we going to sit?]
Zayn looked around until he finally spotted an empty seat on the second-to-last row, right in the middle section.
He wasted no time and walked up to the bench.
A skinny boy was sitting on the other side of the seat, who panicked a bit upon seeing him and bowed his head.
Zayn just smiled and took the seat.
Even though they were already in the academy, those from common backgrounds still feared the powerful families. But he knew it was just a matter of time before that changed.
Xane asked him in confusion, [Why did you pick this seat?]
Zayn motioned to him.
Xane focused in the direction Zayn motioned and saw a girl sitting attentively in her seat. Since they were at the back, it was hard to see her face, so he asked, [Yeah, so what about that girl?]
Zayn said mentally with a smile,
That introduction baffled Xane, and he focused intently on her.
From the back, it was really hard to tell how beautiful she was, but then he noticed that from time to time, all the surrounding boys kept glancing at her.
Xane cursed, [Fck! If there's such a beauty in this class, then why the hell are we sitting all the way back?!]
Zayn made a disgusted look.
[Come on, don't be like that. Don't tell me you're planning to live like a monk here. No matter what, we can't die virgins!]
Zayn said with a deadpan face,
Xane stopped bothering him and asked, [Okay, tell me what's so important about this seat?]
Zayn then glanced at the elf section.
Xane shifted his focus toward the elf. She wasn't that far from the black-haired Kaia. [So, she's also a member of the protagonist's team?]
Zayn nodded.
Xane was really baffled by all these extra titles. But he followed Zayn's instructions and stared intently at the tips of her ears.
Even after a couple of seconds, he didn't find anything odd until he looked at the other elves.
That's when it hit him. Actually, the ones sitting at the front had a bit of redness at the tips of their ears.
Only the first two rows of elves had red-tipped ears, while most had normal ones like Eline.
[Okay, now I see it. A couple of elves have red tips, but most don't.]
Zayn said,
Xane looked at Eline and then at Kaia. It took him a moment before he said, [Wait... both of these characters are sitting in the middle, so they're both from common families?]
Zayn smiled.
Xane was about to ask again when he stopped, as he saw a golden-haired boy with a decent build walking into the class, laughing.
He wasn't the only one, as everyone's eyes focused on the golden-haired boy. Finally, the protagonist had entered the class.