39 Twelve Magic Academies (1/2)
It is now eight in the evening and the opening ceremony for the competition is about to begin.
The reception hall in the hotel can be seen to be divided by 12 groups representing 12 participating academy in the competition.
A stage is in the northern part of the hall and from here, there are tables arranged in four rows.
The first row has three tables, each for Skywalker, Stoneheimer and Eternal Fey Academy.
The second row consisted of tables for Leonhearts, Isolde and Phoenix Academy.
It is to be noted that if Stoneheimer is an all male academy, in contrast, the Isolde Academy is an all female one.
The third row is for Mystic Gate, Sacred Peak and Abuxorth Academy. The last row of tables would be for Odrexelts, Honeysuckle and Neon Academy.
As the ceremony begins, the emcee introduced a middle age man representing the Ministry of Magic Education, the organiser of the event.
It is Hayden Fraser, one of movers and shakers in the industry of magic. He walked and stood at the center stage and observed the crowd for a moment before starting his speech.
”Good evening students of the twelve prestigious magic academies of our country.”
All the students including Wallace looked at the new speaker at the stage upon hearing the name that was called out, mostly of them weren't aware of the man's apperance but surely as a magician, they are aware of the name Hayden Fraser.
He is the first and oldest enneadic magician or someone who could use 9 mana artifact at the same time. He alone could fight an army with this ability as not only his capability to use nine mana artifact was outstanding but also his abundant mana pool that could sustain such draining number of mana artifact.
Hayden Fraser continued his speech as the students gawked at his presence.
”It is wonderful to see you all tonight! I know that many of you have struggled very hard in order to make it here and neither storms nor distance could stop you. I am not surprised. You are magicians and you can't be stopped. You made it because you are strong enough!
This event that has been ongoing for 17 years will help you establish useful connections, which is not our only goal. By providing this extensive match on magic engineering and combat, we want you to learn a lot more about the things that academy could not teach you. I hope that after this competition you will be able to build even better mana artifact or appreciate every single artifact being created for its usefulness, be involved more in combat training, or upgrade your existing magic combat strategy.”
As the students listened to Hayden, comments from some students are being softly whispered as they appreciated his presence.
”To think that I'd meet such a legendary magician here. I'm really lucky.”
”He doesn't look to be in his fifties, he looked just like my father.”
”What? I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Anyway with such abundant mana pool nurturing his body, he'll maybe live for hundreds of years.”
”Haha.. As if.”
Apparently, it wasn't every time that such an amazing figure would do the opening ceremony speech in this competition. Hayden continued on his speech.
”Today the Twelve Magic Academies Competition had some changes on it's rules. We have developed better management as the quality of education improved and students have grown faster individually. We grow together and we must never forget that it is good to win trophy but what is much greater is to make friends.