After some minutes, the arena was full with all the students of the five third year classes of the school.
Many didn't even glance at him, some did look at his direction while others outright mocked him for even being there.
"Let him dream" Was what they said.
He just stayed thevin silence.
"This is so stupid!"
After all, Matthew was speaking for all three of them.
"I forgot just how stupid high school could be!" He said, arms crossed as his foot tapped the air.
"Can't say I'm fond of my time at high school either" Leonard hummed while sitting on air.
Yeah, that's on Amadeus.
Matthew had always been feared for his temper, and his stubborn nature made him get on the bad side of many people in school.
As for Leonard…
You know how people say that beauty can be a curse?
That was Leonard's curse.
Amadeus pointedly decided to stay quiet.
The representatives of each school soon came into view and the principal started to make the speeches he loved so much.
Amadeus really thinks the man just loves to hear his own voice.
"Shouldn't you be approaching them?"
It was Leonard who made the question, but he just smiled as he pulled his hood.
The representatives were already going to other students to make their offers, but there were too many students, he would only be pushed away.
{It's better to wait for some time} He said {Let things calm a little then I can show off}
"I agree with the boy here" Matthew chimed in with a smirk "Let's steal the stage when everyone assume the show's over"
So wait they did, it was a loud wait with many people speaking over each other.
It was when he and Matthew were trying to figure out which representative would get Frederick when a shadow hovered over him.
Looking up, he nearly jumped back at the person who approached him.
It was a woman with dark skin and brown hair, her eyes blue like sapphires showed an eagerness that honestly almost seemed fanatical.
"Come to Iron Solace with me!"
That was… eventful, to say the least.
On his last day of school, he was invited to Iron Solace by Joleen Arison, the rank 30 Awakened.
***
'What a drag'
Joleen was there in the arena with all the other representatives.
She was the representative of Iron Solace, the best Academy of this bands, but Gods she didn't want to deal with this.
Joleen was sent by the principal because of her natural ability to sense one's worth granted to her by her Thief, she was in charge of finding strong and/or skilled youths to bring to Iron Solace.
The thing is, she hated teens! Especially the spoiled ones.
And this was the first school of the day! There was a bus waiting for her to bring at least two of each school she passes through today.
She took a good look at the sea of heads in front of her.
She didn't feel much from them, and the few she felt something were the famous ones that clearly had some great superiority complex.
Two in particular caught her attention.
She eyed a girl that looked like the incarnation of the color white and a red haired boy with fair skin and violet eyes.
Amanda Hudson, Spirit Summoner and a genius in her area born into a rich family, and Frederick Barnes, one of the few Dragon Tamers known in history and son of a guild master.
They gave her some great vibes, but it had a strange touch to it, like pyrite.
Looks like gold, shines like gold, but stinks once crushed.
They were the type to show an ugly face once surpassed.
Basically two ticking bombs competing who would stay the longest without exploding.
So she crossed them, pretending to not see their expectant eyes in her direction.
Her eyes focused on a wild looking boy with blue hair and golden eyes and a shy boy with brown hair and green eyes hidden behind his big round glasses.
Elijah Jackson and Akilah Grace, the son of a gangster with the Hunter class and the son of a famous business woman with the Masked Fighter class.
Grace felt like a precious jewel, not the frail type, but the one that shines forever.
Jackson felt like a pearl, where you have to hold carefully or it might be stained with fingerprints and become dull.
Risky, but worth the shot.
She was quite satisfied with her finds and directly offered the opportunity to them both after the principal of this school stopped with his yapping.
They both accepted, as she imagined.
She was already planning on directing them to the bus, but froze as she took a step forwards.
Her senses started to scream at her head, like they did when she was about to leave a treasure behind.
Confused, she looked around, trying to find what she could have missed.
It was then she saw it.
A person sitting on the ground on the farthest side of the Arena.
The moment she saw the person, she immediately ran to where they were.
"Come to Iron Solace with me!"
The person, a teen with long gray hair covering his eyes and falling over his chest, a gray hair that would seem white if she didn't look properly, he was using a black and yellow hoodie with a turtleneck that hid his mouth, leaving only his nose to tell the boy's skin color.
They stayed quiet for a moment, and it was at this moment that she noticed how quiet the place had become, but she ignored it.
She was more interested in convincing the kid to join her.
"I can tell you have potential, kid!" She said "Iron Solace can definitely bring it to light!"
But the boy didn't say a thing once again, making her get agitated.
She was wondering if she should start using her negotiation skill to convince him to come with her when someone else spoke.
"He can't go with you"
She turned around to see a very pissed off looking Amanda Hudson.
Joleen was confused by this, making her frown.
"Why not?" She asked.
"This one is not an Awakened"
Joleen froze at that.
Just now she remembered an article about a boy who was unable to Awakening even after he passed the maximum age for it.
The only not Awakened in all history after the cataclysm that descended in their world.
She heard of it from the principal a few years after she started to work for him.
He was sad they couldn't really approach the kid because of Hermina Jones, daughter of the leader of the Association and part of the crew of the receptionists.
She put a really thick wall around the kid after the institutions tried to trick him into letting them make tests on him and the Association crew was very protective of the boy too.
There was barely any information available on him, not even a photo or name, so it was surprising for her to meet him in person.
She watched as the boy got up from the ground.
"Sorry, but I actually-"
Joleen was quick to deny his an apology.
"Don't be sorry!" She said "It's even better to know it's you! The principal has been trying to get a green pass to meet you for a long time!"
Jones wanted the boy to have a life as normal as possible, so, after the fiasco of the institutions, even Academies and guilds were forbidden to even approach the boy, much to the sadness of her principal, who genuinely just wanted to know the kid.
He loved children, the guy had orphanages under his name and kids there called him grandpa.
The dreams of an old man with no actual grandchildren.
If she managed to bring this kid, it would make the day for the principal, and the boy would most definitely have all the support he would need to make a living and live comfortably.
"Actually"
Her thoughts were interrupted by the boy, who's hand ran to his turtleneck to lower it, revealing an ID and a small smile.
"I Awakened"
Oh Gods, wasn't that a surprise.