[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/LSubMXs.png[/img]
[/center][hr][INDENT][sup][COLOR=silver][b]TIME:[/b] [i]Present Day - Morning[/i] | [b]LOCATION:[/b] [i]Hikari Academy - Leaving the Great Hall[/i] | [b]INTERACTION:[/b] [i]None[/i][/COLOR][/sup][/INDENT]
[color=662d91][i]'Well that was entirely boring.'[/i][/color] Aster thought to himself as he left the Great Hall, wholly engrossed in unwrapping one of his favourite brand of cola-flavored lollipops. Despite being his preferred choice of sweet, Aster had always been infuriated by the difficulty of removing the wrapper. Inevitably, he was forced to resort to using a sharpened fang in order to open it, as per usual. Finally successful, he discarded the defeated sweet wrapper into a designated bin along the large academy walkway, one which he had taken to return to the refuge of his office, popping the sugary confectionery into his mouth as he did so.

As was the same with every one of the Magister's Opening Speeches in recent years, Aster had to refrain from pulling out his phone so that he might cure his boredom by playing EvoMon III. He could still very much remember Vice Principle Reiko's fury towards him some years back, followed swiftly by an actual ass-kicking, when he'd been caught playing an earlier prequel to his current smartphone game towards the back of the Hall during a particularly energetic orientation speech. Aster could occasionally feel the scarred burn mark on the back of his left hand from one of Reiko's cigarettes. He kept it as a reminder of the consequences for his actions, however, his successful capture of a Platinum-Rare [i]Osebon[/i] during the speech had made the entire ordeal totally worth it.

Aster had never intentionally caused trouble for himself, or the Academy for that matter, even despite the near-destruction of his classroom a few weeks back. Things just seemed to go awry whenever he was in the vicinity, though he would never admit to it being through any fault of his own. Bad things happened to everyone at all times, he just so happened to be around for a lot of them. Many of his peers were quick to pin it to his Demonic heritage, although to that notion he merely laughed. Demons were misunderstood as it was. But Demon Princes? They were a whole new level entirely. Virtually unknown, 90% of the Earthen Realm's population didn't even know of their existence, let alone that one had made their way into this realm and was currently teaching at one of the most prestigious Magical Academies in history.

The largest contributing factor was that the Demon Princes were almost extinct. These days only a handful remained. The last census had the number at around 45, not including half-breeds. The reasons behind their critically endangered status had been kept hidden behind stories and legends, none of which could be verified by anyone save the Council of Elders, who themselves only knew the truth from 2 surviving members of the [i]'Old Times.'[/i] The most prominent legend, however, had it that the Princes had once aligned themselves with the Great Witch only to be nearly hunted to extinction by the very first of the Dawn Slayers after the Witch's downfall. To Aster, this had always seemed like the most likely of occurrences. The Demon Princes had forever stationed themselves above the other Demon races, acting like some kind of royalty, which explained their chosen name. And even now, in their direst of times, certain elements of the remaining numbers still considered themselves superior to all others.

As he meandered down the walkway, Aster considered the history of his race and what his kin would think of him nurturing the future generation of Dawn Slayers.