321 Chapter 321: The Arrangement of Academies (1/2)
After watching the game between Southampton and Manchester United, I returned to the hotel with the others. Upon reaching my room, I raised my hand, tore open a time-space portal, and then exited the flashback to return to the present.
Everyone was staring at me, dumbfounded.
”Where did you go?” Pearl demanded.
”To the past,” I replied. Ignoring their gazes of disbelief, I continued. ”I'm surprised you guys actually continued waiting for me here.”
”You were gone for one second at most,” Dong Fang Yue Chu explained, shaking his head in bemusement. ”One moment you were gone, then we blinked, and then you were back!”
”Hey, if you have such an ability to travel through time, can't you use that to…save Alicia or do something more significant instead of randomly doing a flashback?” Craig asked, annoyed.
”I'm sorry. I can only use that ability when the author intends for me to break the fourth wall as a joke. The moment things get serious, I lose the ability.”
”…you're kidding me, right?”
”All right, all right.” Harrison clapped his hands to draw our attention back to him. ”Let's not waste any more time. Keep moving, people!”
We arrived in Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy before long, which turned out to be a massive school that resembled a palace more than an education institute. There were already countless groups streaming through its opulent gates and strolling through its marble paved paths, guided toward the gigantic main hall by student volunteers. Passing through the extravagant double doors, which contain lots of artistic motifs, we found ourselves surrounded on all sides by thousands of people from hundreds of schools.
”Wow, there are so many teams,” Lily remarked excitedly. ”There are so many participants!”
While we were looking around in awe and wonder, one of the staff approached us. This time, she wasn't a student volunteer, but an actual professional, an adult in her twenties wearing a gray business suit. She bowed.
”Good afternoon, everyone! Welcome to Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy. I am the receptionist here. Ladies and gentlemen, we have staff who will take care of your luggage for you.”
To our utmost surprise, a bunch of bellboys with hats showed up with a trolley and began wordlessly stowing our luggage away. As they did so, the receptionist smiled at us politely.
”Also, if you don't mind me asking, you guys are the Jing Tian Academy team. Am I correct?”
”That's right.” Harrison nodded.
”Excellent. Then…” the receptionist rummaged her pockets, and then produced a formal-looking letter. ”I believe this is for you. This is an invitation to a banquet organized by Quetzalcoatl Academy.”
”Quetzalcoatl Academy?” Yue Chu repeated, his brow creasing. ”Never heard of them.”
”Quetzalcoatl is Aztec god of wind and air, and is often depicted as a gigantic feathered serpent,” I explained. Everyone stared at me.
”The Az…Az what god?” Theodore tried to repeat.
”Aztec.”
”Never heard of that,” Sheila admitted, scratching her head.
”It's an ancient empire that reigned in South America and Mexico, until they were destroyed by Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.”
I would have explained more, but the blank looks on my friends' faces told me that it would be a pointless endeavor. Besides, I wasn't a walking encyclopedia. That was pretty much the extent of my knowledge.
”How do you know about them?” Harrison asked curiously. I stared at him, dumbstruck. I was more surprised that they didn't know about them…
…oh, right. This was almost a thousand years into the future. Much of ancient history was lost to the past…hell, the time period I originally came from was considered ancient history by people of this era. The history that the people of this time knew was different from the history that I had mastered.
”I read about it somewhere.”
”That's cool and all,” Craig broke in impatiently. ”But what does this Aztec thing have to do with Quetzalcoatl Academy? Are the directors of that academy descended from that South American empire or something?”
”…to be honest, I have no idea,” I admitted as I raised my hands in surrender. ”I haven't heard of Quetzalcoatl Academy before either.”
”How can you not know who the Quetzalcoatl Academy is?!”
We whirled around, only to see a red-haired guy in a green, dark blue and bronze uniform standing behind us.
”…who?” I muttered, perplexed. But the guy paid no attention to my question, dismissing me as stupid.
”Don't you dare look down on Quetzalcoatl Academy?!” he gritted his teeth. ”Even though their name might sound unusual, I'll have you know that they were consistently ranked among the top 16 in the national tournament for the past two years!”
That piqued my interest. So they must be a very strong team. I ought to do some research on them in case we faced them during the tournament.
The red-haired guy was not done.
”As a bonus, I'll fill you guys in on some top secret information.” He flicked his hand, and a huge holographic screen beamed into life in front of him. ”I spent quite a lot of efforts obtaining this, so be grateful!”
Uh, no. no one asked you to share it with us…
The guy shared it with us anyway. Pounding on some weird graph that displayed indecipherable stats and weirdly colored bar graphs, the guy jabbed toward the numbers insistently.
”They have been granted rank B! You guys should be very afraid of them!”
”No, not really.” That rank thing held absolutely no meaning to me at all. What was with people's obsession with ranking things? Must everything be a competition? Okay, that was a dumb question. We were participating in a tournament. Of course ranks were a given. However, what was with this weird A, B and C grades? More importantly, what was this guy trying to achieve, showing off his knowledge like this. And…”Um, who are you?”
”Me?” Redhead grinned. Then he flamoybantly flashed his arm up to introduce himself. ”I'm Ding Ke Po from Divine Divination Academy, and I'm probably your best information specialist and analyst for this tournament.”