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Volume 1 Chapter 8 – Invisible Pressure
With the remaining time, Monica brought Ouyang Tao to familiarise with the dormitory.
Inside the three story western villa, the first level was the living room, kitchen, bathroom and other shared facilities, while the second and third levels were the bedrooms. The second and third level housed two people. Since the villa was not full and Chen Feng enjoyed peace and quiet, he lived in the third level by himself while Monica and Ouyang Tao stayed at the second level,
Although the entire building took up quite a bit of space, each floor only had four rooms. Two of the rooms were bedrooms while the other two was a laboratory and a practice room.
The laboratory was well equipped with tools. This was excellent to Ouyang Tao who was strongly in love with Mechanical Technology.
The stable and garage were also free for use and even had professionals maintaining it. Monica and Chen Feng had no need for horses and cars. Therefore, those two areas were vacant. Monica also reminded Ouyang Tao that if he wanted to transform the garage into laboratory number two, he had to obtain permission from Chen Feng as well.
Soon, it was already afternoon. Ouyang Tao decided to make lunch to express thanks. Hence, he began his work in the first floor’s kitchen.
Actually, he initially did not know how to cook. However, due to the fact that his parents were always out at sea, the responsibility of taking care of his younger sister fell to him. In order to let his sister eat healthily, Ouyang Tao had to learn how to cook.
Monica stood by his side curiously, looking intently at Ouyang Tao’s great skill in cooking. He skillfully sliced and diced the ingredients before frying them: “Yo, not bad. I initially thought you had called your chef from home.”
“How is that possible? I’m also not any noble blood.” Once he said it, Ouyang Tao felt as if he had let out some secret. The frying in his hands slowed down.
“Oh, I know, you’re this year’s Mechanical Engineering’s recruit who’s a commoner.”
“Uhhh…… Ahhhh…… Yes……” Feeling the huge and invisible hierarchy in the school made Ouyang Tao nervous. He even stopped frying his food.
“Don’t lose focus. Your food’s going to be burnt.”
“Aw, shucks!” Ouyang Tao turned off the fire hastily and plated his completed dish.
“Look how nervous you are. Don’t worry. Chen Feng and I are both commoners.” Monica obviously saw through the worry in Ouyang Tao’s heart. Any commoner student who entered Augustus would definitely have this worry at the start.
Monica patted Ouyang Tao on his shoulders: “Although there’s a strong hierarchy in the school, as long as you possess talent, you will get what you want.”
This simple word of encouragement acted as a potent form of reassurance for Ouyang Tao. He could tell that both seniors were good people.
Don’t know how Ah Xue is right now —— Ouyang Tao could only hope that she could adapt to the new lifestyle.
Time passed by quickly and it was soon 5 pm. Ouyang Tao wore his uniform and prepared to depart for the school hall to attend the welcome dinner. Chen Feng and Monica, being outstanding seniors, were also selected to attend as representatives.
The summer uniform was a pure white shirt and tie with dark blue pants or a skirt. Although it didn’t match, Ouyang Tao habitually placed his metal gloves on his waist.
The school crest was what differentiated the students into their different faculties. The crest for the Mechanical Engineering Department was a silver gear. For Chen Feng’s Magical Swordsmanship Department, it was a downwards pointing sword. As for the Feral Beast Department, it was a wolf howling towards the sky.
“My two seniors, I’ve already arranged to meet my sister. Hence, I shall leave first.” His sister had earlier sent a message via the crystal ball to arrange to go for the dinner together. Therefore he left earlier.
Arriving at the library, his sister was already waiting there. She greeted Ouyang Tao from afar: “Bro, I’m here~~”
“Coming.” Ouyang Tao promptly hastened his footsteps and arrived in front of his sister
As the saying goes, a man is what he wears. But sometimes, a person’s charisma can bring out a very different feeling to the same clothes. The plain uniform when worn by Ouyang Xue gave off a smart feel. Even the hollow six sided star of the Elements Department looked like it was shining brightly.
Ouyang Xue happily twirled around in front of her brother: “Bro, how do I look?”
“Ah Xue is very cute.” The simplest of compliments, but also what Ouyang Tao really felt. Any other compliment was excessive to him. “It’s about time. Let’s go.”
“Ok. Let’s go.” As Ouyang Xue said that, she held onto her brother’s arm.
The sudden intimate action made Ouyang Tao distracted. He felt that this would definitely cause a misunderstanding: “Ah…… Ah Xue, what are you doing?”
But Ouyang Xue did not mind one bit: “What’s wrong? We’re siblings anyways.”
“But…… But……” But there was nothing similar between the siblings. On their way there, they already caused several misunderstandings. How the two looked right now, made it seem like they were a couple madly in love. “Don’t be like that. People will misunderstand.”
“I don’t care. I want to be with my brother.” Actually, Ouyang Xue also didn’t know why she suddenly acted in this way. She was actually dying of shyness. However, instead of releasing her brother’s arm, she held onto it even tighter.
Ouyang Tao felt that maybe she was just too nervous in the new environment. He rubbed his sister’s head and said: “Okay, but we must stop when we reach the hall.”
“Mn!” Ouyang Xue happily slotted her head into her brother’s arms.
The banquet in Augustus Academy was exceptionally large, and was able to hold thousands of people at one time. When the siblings entered the hall, they found out that the seats were actually arranged beforehand and each seat had a name tag on it. This also meant that everyone had to sit at their assigned seats, and the siblings would be split up.
Students from the Elements department and the six other common types of magic were seated according to their examination rankings. There were three thousand students and being ranked six hundred and forty four meant that she was already sitting relatively close to the front. However, she was still quite far from her brother. This made Ouyang Xue disappointed.
The students from the three special departments sat at the very front. They were different from the other common departments as they each only required a table and each table was not even seated with ten.
The Mechanical Engineering department was seated at the centre of the three special departments and it only had six seats. This meant that other than Ouyang Tao, five others still had not arrived yet.
On the left was the Magical Swordsmanship Department. All ten students for that department had already arrived and Chen Feng was drawing with his hands. He appeared to be instructing them as the new students around him nodded continuously, as if they were learning a lot from him —— it appeared that Chen Feng was quite significant in the Magical Swordsmanship department.
Slightly further down, Monica could be seen. Unlike the strict and tense atmosphere of the Magical Swordsmanship department, Monica acted like a passionate big sister and had already broken the ice with the new students at her table.
Even further down, Ouyang Tao finally spotted his sister —— Ouyang Xue was cuddled up with her head down. She looked very reserved, even to the extent where she looked like she had been wrong and was very pitiful.
Ouyang Tao knew that his active and bubbly sister was actually bad at interacting with people. It could clearly be seen that she felt pressured —— it could be because there were too many people here, and by comparison, she was only a member of the commoners.
That was actually true, for when Ouyang Xue looked up, her eyes happened to just meet with Ouyang Tao’s. She deeply hoped that her brother would come to her side.
At this point, the other students from the Mechanical Engineering department had arrived. They all came together and it was obvious that they knew one another. There were four guys and a girl, and the girl was the apple of their eyes. All four guys were competing with each other to strike a conversation with her.
It only took Ouyang Tao one look to recognise that she was the girl riding the horse at the gantry earlier; the daughter of the current prime minister.
The girl’s beauty did not need to be elaborated on. The most important factor was that she belonged to a noble family. Her bearing was exceptionally graceful and she looked modest, but there was a feeling of untouchable nobility and a sense of superiority. One could say that she was a person of virtue and prestige.
The gathering felt more like a gathering for the nobles rather than a welcome party for the new students.
“The three special departments”, “The sole commoner Mechanical Engineering student in close to fifty years”, thinking about such situations, Ouyang Tao felt that he understood something —— if he was right, the special departments were for a certain set of people, and he did not belong with them from the start.
Therefore, when the five others sat down, no one took notice of Ouyang Tao. He was an outsider who could only sit quietly in his seat.
Perhaps, his situation was much worse than his sister’s.
