Isata's New Students

Isata.

This Black Wizard Academy stood above this swamp as it always had.

Twisted, spiraling spires pierced the sky.

Towers rose from the mountaintops, making the entire academy resemble a colossal composite tower.

Purple, blue, and red smoke drifted in wisps through the middle and upper levels.

Some of it was toxic waste gas discharged after the wizards' experiments.

Some of it was also a product of the surrounding swamplands.

But if one looked deeper, the changes in the swamps had actually been caused by the experiments of Isata's wizards.

They casually poured failed potions into the sewers, contaminating Isata's entire drainage system.

Beneath the Lower District and even the Outer District, countless underground creatures—Goblins, all kinds of slimes, slugs, and other miscellaneous things—

mutated because of the toxic reagents being discharged.

Every year, quite a few people died in the Lower District and Outer District due to riots by these mutated creatures.

And today was another important day for Isata.

The time for new students to enroll had arrived.

Children from seagoing ships from the Outer Seas, and from cities across the vast lands under Isata's rule,

were all beginning to draw close to Isata.

At the mouth of the great river, a massive seagoing vessel transferred its passengers onto riverboats, then continued along the river toward Isata.

After reaching the final port, these boys and girls would switch to carriages here.

Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!

Amid the thunder of warhorses' hooves, a group of knights in black armor arrived at the port.

They formed ranks and waited there, while carriage after carriage arrived and was escorted onward by them.

They were all ordinary knights, save for the few leaders, who were Blood Ring Knights.

"Wow!"

"So many knights!"

On the ship, some of the youths looked at the sight