Descendants of Gibbous
Chapter 63: The assembly hall

Chapter 63: The assembly hall

A few minutes later, they arrived in the large circular hall, their guides leading them to the front row section, where a group of Fangpeak’s students were seated. As if by fate, the four of them were now seated next to their guides—four because they’d found Ambrose already there when they arrived—and she ignored everyone except for Eden.

A faint trail of veiny yellow light reflected on the floor from above, making it seem as though Damien had stepped into outer space. He raised his head to look at the source—clean white webs that were clustered and forming clouds with small yellow "stars" that were moving around.

"Say, what’s that?" Damien nudged Alicia’s arm, pointing at them.

"Oh, those are ghost spiders. They’re almost invisible during the day, but they glow at night and emit a natural light."

"Oh," Damien replied, grimacing.

Alicia let out a chuckle. "Don’t worry, our dorms use lanterns." That managed to settle Damien’s heart.

His attention went back to the growing student numbers in the hall who made noise as they found their dorm mates and sat with them. Damien noticed how the students from Bracadia were in the front lines of the symmetrically curved chairs and tables facing the large statues similar to the ones in the stadium—but smaller, clustered, and glowing the same color as their houses.

Seated behind them was the Draconic house in their yellow uniforms—although the majority of them looked as though not being on the front lines was a crime. Right behind them were Fangpeak’s students who instead of being annoyed, looked fine with being stuck in the back and some of them were even complaining about the food not arriving on time.

Lastly, in the back of the room were the Clawthorn students. They were the noisiest amongst the students and didn’t seem to notice when the teachers started walking into the hall from the front. The rest of the students from other cardinals immediately stopped, but they didn’t. Damien even heard a wolf’s howl from within their group which halted the next moment when a flame erupted from one of the teachers as she began to levitate.

"If I see any of you open your mouths again, you’re getting expelled," came Nalani’s voice wings the same shade as her crimson flames flapped to her sides—sending a wave of cold air whooshing in the students’ faces.

"If you want a place where you can goof around all day, then by all means go back home and attend the regular schools. We can’t have stupid heroes coming from Gibforge."

The hall went silent as Professor Nalani returned to her seat, the flames surrounding her body disappearing in an instant. Damien’s eyes widened a little when he noticed a familiar face sitting next to her—the bored wizard who’d joined in the fight against Kaos and his men.

"That’s Professor Nightshade. He’s a wizard," Alicia explained. "And that next to him is his brother in attitude, Professor Kofi Owusu," she added pointing at the man sitting next to Dion whose face Damien couldn’t make out like the rest of the teachers sitting by the statues and facing the now whispering students.

Finally, Principal Twiller and Professor Mei-ling walked out from the entrances behind the statues, sitting in the middle part of the large curved table on the podium that had Professors surrounding it facing the students. This time, even the whispering among the students stopped. As if to cement the deadly silence in the room, the large black entrance door shut behind them, and it was only the new students who turned their heads to look at it.

"Ahem—welcome!" Came Twiller Dextrodus’s voice. "Welcome new students to another year of making the finest heroes Gibbous has ever seen! I hope we’ll be sending home a few heroes this year. Now, before we get to the depressing staff, how about a feast?!"

Immediately after he yelled the words, a sound akin to that of bees approaching the room filled the air, but Damien knew better than to believe they were bees—and he was right. Zinging sounds filled the hall left, right, front, and back as tiny fairies dressed in black and white with hair tied back like waiters appeared before each student.

"Anything you’d like to eat Damien Amaris, sir," one of them asked Damien just like the rest of them did with the students before them.

Damien soon noticed she was the one who’d brought him here.

"Umm, what’s there?" He asked.

"Anything to your liking is here for the day," the fairy replied just when Alicia’s excited giggles filled their corner as she gave her orders.

"A large serving of rice, with all the white meats you have in stock. Add in veggies—no broccoli by the way, oh, and some ice cream. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of those," she took a deep breath. "And please bring me mango juice."

"Deserts. Pile them in there like nobody’s business. I don’t care about anything else," the beefy nerd said, pushing up his glasses and licking his lips.

"I want to try asian cuisine, please. Anything that doesn’t contain fish though, I’m allergic to it," Ambrose said in a rather posh voice.

Damien didn’t know what to order. He wanted to try new things too but was afraid they’d taste bad and he’d waste food. But Alicia said this was a once-in-a-year opportunity for them to eat delicious food, so it was a try or spend the rest of the year eating boring food deal.

"I’d like to try asian cuisine too," Damien found himself copying Ambrose.

"Right away, sir," the fairy immediately zinged away from sight.

Now that he was alone, Damien was suddenly aware of the eyes glaring at him from both sides of the table. He glanced to his left where Yong Kim was giving him a side eye.

"Pervert," the prince mumbled begrudgingly.

Damien rolled his eyes at him and looked away. Whatever this guy was on, he didn’t want to fall prey to it. However, after settling his eyes to his right, he’d rather have tolerated Yong than the sight of Ambrose glaring at him, the beefy jerk gawking all whilst Eden and Alicia were smirking at him suggestively.

’Now these are the real perverts," he thought to himself, raising a brow at them.

Ambrose immediately looked away, but Eden, Alicia, and the beefy jerk kept their gaze on him. When he couldn’t take it anymore he finally asked what was wrong with them.

"Nothing," Alicia looked away at the same time the beefy nerd did. But Eden—who was sitting right next to Alicia kept smirking at him.

"I think someone had a crush," she sang just when their fairies flashed before them with trays full of food floating right above their tiny bodies.

Grateful for the distraction, Damien immediately thanked his fairy as she placed his food before him and dug in.