I hugged my mother, leaving the door. A portal opened outside of the house with a guard standing by it with a clipboard. On the other side was a mountain and a lot of teenagers in lines.

Voadhailis wasn’t coming with us as he said that he wanted to hunt beasts and grow his mana pool and strengthen himself before the Heritage Wars, so it felt odd as my thoughts weren’t being interrupted all the time.

“Here to collect Zeref Amara, Malia Stronghold and Jace Stinkend,” he read from the clipboard, looking up afterwards.

Malia was still inside collecting her bags and Jace was helping her. 

“I thought we were going to school first.” I stepped forwards to talk to him.

He stared at me with an unmoving expression. I held his stare, waiting for him to answer. His lip twitched as I stood, waiting for him to reply.

He finally gave in, puffing.

“Change of plans.”

The door opened behind me and Jace ran next to me, looking at me then to the guy in the portal.

“Are you Jace?” he peered up at him.

“No I’m Zeref,” he made a ‘duh’ expression, shoving a big suitcase into my chest.

“Zeref Amara?” he double checked, his eyes squinting in suspicion.

“Yeah, why? What are you tryna say?” Jace returned.

“Zeref just seems like a…”

“Like a what? Are you raci-“

“Now, now Jace. No need to cause a scene.” Malia stepped out with her bags in her hand.

Mike ran out behind her, giving her a tight hug. They both held each other while Mike cried

She casually walked through the portal but was stopped by an arm. The guard looked down at her with his arm out.

“Malia?” he questioned and she nodded.

He ticked her name on the board. “Go left and find your school’s female line.”

She smiled at him as a thank you and carried her things there, not waiting to see if we were following behind her.

Jace watched intently before rushing to follow her. I sighed, looking back at the house. Mother watched me through the window waving.

“Hurry before the portal closes.” the guard reminded me as I still watched the window. I lifted my hand, giving my last wave before running in.

The place was crowded, packed with people and their large bags of clothing. A lot of rich kids were whining at the sides in a huddle and from a distance, I could see Jace’s noodle hair. I casually dodged people, swerving around many close encounters as I reached Xanxus Academy’s line. It was long and split into two separate lines – a female and a male line.

There was a metal, barb wired fence that towered over us and tables in front of each line. Sitting at the tables were guards who I think were doing security checks.

They opened each bag, taking their time as at least three guards were at each table. The students peered down the line, looking surprised to see a security check. They checked off the student’s names when they were finished and took a mana flow check to see our strength and keep a tab.

Everyone was equal when they stepped inside the camp and apparently, many of the nobles and royals did not like that idea, running to the back of the line when they came close to the table.

Jace sighed in front of me as I examined the place.

Allefin came running to us from the girls line, probably dropping off Leilani.

“Hey guys-” he tried to say but was whacked in the stomach, making him fold.

“Get to the back! Don’t cut in!” a squeaky voice spoke from behind me. I peered down at him while Allefin begrudgingly walked to the back.

The place was cold and dull, thick clouds loomed over us like a lid, shutting us into a pot to be cooked. In the middle of nowhere, was definitely an ideal place to take a bunch of scared kids who were shaking from the frost nipping at their skin. 

A brown building glared at us from behind the fence, waiting for our entry so it could welcome us into its merciless torture. The field around it was also large with different obstacle courses and muddy floors. Down the middle of the area was another fence to segregate the girls and boys. 

On the side, a house stood in solitude, it looked dry with no life as if rays of light had once tried to reach for those cold walls that shrunk away but had given up. The wood of the front steps looked like they were starting to rot and one could tell the place hadn’t been used in a while. Specs of dust clung to the windows, giving it a darkening tinted effect.

The training area was unbelievably large, the wires looking like they went on forever, reaching out over the hills and around the whole mountain and with the months coming closer to the coldest month of all, I would expect it to snow after a while too.

“Next!” a soldier yelled as Jace swung his bag onto the table.

We had reached the front quicker than I had expected and I watched closely as they spun Jace’s luggage around to face them with great concentration.

The bag looked like it was going to explode just looking at it and I could tell they were hesitant to open it. Some of them hesitantly stepped back with their hands out like a shield as a determined man slowly unzipped it.

Before he could even fully unzip it, the bag bounced open, ripping off the zip and causing the soldiers to flinch. Even Jace had his arms up, yelling at the sudden pop.

“What is the meaning of this?” one of them looked at Jace with a judgmental look.

He slowly dropped his arms, taking a moment to process.

“Snacks,”

“No snacks allowed.” They shut him down quickly as his jaw practically fell off his face in shock.

He scoffed nervously, scratching his nape as he looked at me with a ‘I messed up’ look.

“I-I’m not even meant to be here. I’m 14 and won’t be turning 15 till another 4 months.” he chuckled nervously, stepping back at every word. “I didn’t even bring enough clothes.” he continued as a few of them walked out from behind the table and towards him.

“Name please.” one of them picked up the board to tick him off seeing as he had no more luggage left.

“No! Zeref tell them I’m 14!” Jace protested.

“Name!” the man repeated, ignoring his whining.

Two men held onto each arm as he tried to run.

“We will drag him in and ask a teacher for his name,” the one on his left said, gritting her teeth as Jace dropped to the floor, sticking his heels into the ground and pulling them both down.

“Noooo! Tell them Zeref! Help! Let gooo!” he continued while being dragged into the gates and behind the barbed wire. He was handed to a man who pulled him up by the shirt and threw him over his shoulder like a sac.

“ZEREFFFF!” was his last distant cry before everyone turned to me.

“Next.” she sighed, looking for my name on the board.

“Zeref Amara?” she raised her eyebrow, peering up at me.

The soldiers carelessly pushed his luggage off the table, the sweets and crisp packets falling to the floor. I nodded, swinging my luggage and bag onto the table while discreetly catching one of the crisp packets and using my Gravity Magic to hide it under my sleeve. Packets floated up as I concentrated, only taking Jace’s favourite ones and hiding them under the back of my shirt and sleeves.

Luckily, they were all too busy rummaging through my luggage, they weren’t paying much attention to my sneaky stealing.

“Zeref! Zeref! Help!” Jace’s face squished against the wire as he reached for me.

“Get back here!” the soldier ran towards him.

“NOOOO!” he continued running, kicking his feet behind his bum with his hands in the air.

“Alright, you’re good. Please walk left to the group of people.” they zipped up my things and I took them off the table, nodding at them innocently.

I turned back to the line, seeing that it was nearly Allefin’s turn to get checked and I was going to look at the girls line for Malia but was nudged forwards before I could.

“Keep it moving fatty.” a boy from another school snickered, walking around me and I looked down at myself, realising the crisps and snacks under my clothes made me look plump and suspicious.

I kept walking in and found the group of boys from different schools, huddling in small groups and watching the entrance, probably waiting for their friends to walk in.

I found Jace sulking on a bench with his arms crossed but when he saw me, his eyes lit up in hope.

“Did you find a way to get us out of this shit hole?” Jace smirked, knowing I always find a way out of things but this was non negotiable.

“Good news and bad news.” I was exasperated, dropping my bag on the bench and causing a few boys to turn and look at us before looking away.

“Bad,” his hopeful expression dropped.

“We can’t get out of this. But the good news is…” I swirled my finger and opened my bag. Packets of crisps and sweets floated out from under my clothes and into my bag.

“Yes!” he leaped in the air happily, punching my shoulder multiple times.

“I was gonna ask you why you looked so fat..” he laughed as I rolled my eyes, rubbing my arm.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep