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"There's an aura about you that feels familiar to us." The two dragon-maiden sisters spoke in unison, their tone and pitch identical, for all the world as though a single person were speaking.
As the elder Violet and the younger Viola, puzzlement showed in their vertical dragon-pupils. This was the first time either of them had ever sensed a familiar aura on someone outside their own Dragon's Valley kin.
And it wasn't only Luke. Elise and Lyra carried a faintly familiar aura as well, though far fainter than Luke's, so slight as to be nearly negligible.
A familiar aura? A flicker of realization crossed Luke's face. He'd ridden Red-Eyes Black Dragon here, and so he'd picked up a trace of black-dragon aura along the way. The two were from Dragon's Valley, so in all likelihood, that was exactly what they'd sensed. Elise and Lyra had ridden along with him too, which accounted for the fainter traces on them.
These two's sensitivity to auras really is something else. Luke turned over how best to respond, and in the end decided a bit of deflection was the wiser course. "But before you go on, could you perhaps rephrase that? It's the sort of thing that's awfully easy to misunderstand."
Before Luke could get his answer out, however, a terrifying pressure came crashing down from the sky.
"It's here!" Almost in the same instant, the thought flashed through the hearts of every new student who'd felt that pressure. Even the two dragon-maidens stopped paying Luke any mind, whipping their heads toward the source of it.
Luke, quietly relieved to have escaped the awkward line of questioning, looked toward the pressure as well.
The once-clamorous plaza fell dead silent. Then everyone saw a female instructor drifting in mid-air, and that pressure a moment ago had been precisely what she'd unleashed, only to draw it back in the very next breath, a display of no small control.
"You may call me Instructor Ashwood. The assessment of the Trial Road that follows will be overseen by me." Floating in the air, Moira spoke slowly, and the unhurried words set everyone on edge.
Though all present had been admitted, no one knew what the Trial Road held in store, and more importantly, it was their first battle at the Academy. A poor showing on the Trial Road would make for a rather poor first impression.
"Being able to stand here proves that your talent and strength both surpass those of your peers." Moira's gaze swept the crowd, lavishing generous praise. These were, after all, the ones who had risen above billions of exam candidates. To say otherwise would only reflect poorly on the Academy's eye for admissions.
Her gaze passed over Elise, and Moira gave a small, private nod. She had indeed promised Roland she'd look after the girl, but the Academy admitted only the finest of students to begin with, and Elise was genuinely qualified to stand here. A flicker of surprise followed, though. She hadn't expected Elise's group to be acquainted with two of Dragon's Valley's new students.
"But Celestial Academy is not like an ordinary Card Master university." The corners of Moira's mouth curved into a pleasing arc. "In your home high schools, each of you may have been a one-in-a-million talent, unique and without peer. But this is Celestial Academy, and what Celestial Academy lacks least of all is genius."
"Or to put it another way, a Card Master whose talent falls short would never be admitted by Celestial Academy in the first place." Moira's voice turned cold. "So in the assessment of the Trial Road ahead, I hope you'll give everything you have, and win yourselves the standing you deserve at the Academy."
"The lion brings its full strength to bear even against a rabbit. If you've no wish to fall a step behind the rest the moment you enroll, then treat the Trial Road's assessment with the seriousness it demands." Moira waved a hand, and a low rumble rolled through the entire space as a transport gate slowly opened in the depths of the void, radiating an uncanny aura. "As for the content of the Trial Road's assessment, that will be announced once you've entered."
The content of each Trial Road differed from the last. Only the Head and the overseer in charge knew it in advance, with everyone else learning of it solely upon entering, a measure meant precisely to guard against cheating.
The new students exchanged glances, then filed one after another through the gate and into the Trial Road. Luke, Elise, and Lyra crossed through along with the crowd and vanished from sight.
"Ah~ they're finally all through." A short while later, once every last new student had entered the Trial Road, Moira waved the transport gate shut, and the composed instructor's mask on her face melted away in an instant, replaced by a look of pained resignation. "Turns out I really am no good at this kind of on-stage work."
She held the strength of the Sovereign Realm and handled most matters with practiced ease, but faced with a crowd, especially on grand public occasions like this one, she grew nervous all the same. It had nothing to do with her strength; it was simply a personal quirk. But the Trial Road's assessment doubled as her own assessment, so grit her teeth and see it through was all she could do.
"Moira, you're excellent in every respect, yet on this one point alone you haven't improved in all these years." A chuckling voice drifted out of the void. "Honestly, with your Sovereign Realm strength, and as an instructor of Celestial Academy no less, facing a batch of new students who reach at most the Leader Realm, is there really any need to be this frightened?"
"Head?" Startled to find Tobias had been watching all along, Moira didn't dare give free rein to her temper. Before the Head, her own superior, she simply couldn't. But annoyance she had in plenty. "Couldn't you have appeared somewhere else? You very nearly scared me to death."
"Hehe." Tobias's figure emerged from the void, offering not a word of apology.
"That's right, Sister Moira. Your performance just now was actually quite good." From behind Moira, a second figure stepped out of the void as well. Selene Dawnford.
"Oh, wonderful. So you arrived ages ago, and you've been hiding off to the side watching the show." Given a second start by Selene's appearance, Moira retorted without an ounce of good grace, and her fair, slender hands seized Selene's little face and pulled it out to both sides. "Couldn't you have picked somewhere else to appear? I was very nearly scared to death by you, you little wretch."
Toward Tobias, Moira had no way of being this unrestrained. The man was the Academy Head, her direct superior, after all. But toward Selene, that was another matter entirely. Even if Selene was Lilith's student, Moira held few reservations with her. The relationship between the two of them had never been an ordinary one.
Firmly in Moira's grip, Selene could manage nothing but a string of meaningless, muffled protests.
As for Tobias, his gaze had already fallen upon the sealed gate and the students who had departed through it, his interest fixed above all on the Trial Road ahead. His true reason for attending, after all, was Luke, the creator of Original Cards standing behind Selene.