After that waste of time of an orientation the two of us made our way back to the dorms. It was a long trek through the woods, and I dreaded walking this every morning once classes actually started, but today, under the rustling treetops, the walk helped to calm me down.

Our room looked alot nicer than it did this morning, and I silently thanked our dorm manager for that. Honestly, I still couldn’t believe the Rilona was just here, working in our dorm building, and I had to try my best to contain my excitement even when just asking dumb questions. Like where the baths were. Though I guess it helped that the answers to those questions were kinda… disappointing. Look, I wasn’t expecting anything that fancy. But the whole dorm only had two tiny bathtubs, one for men and one for women, and they were both outside! In the forest! Separated only by a flimsy cloth divider! I mean, they were so primitive you needed to light firewood underneath just to get hot water!

At least our beds were comfortable. I had gotten used to sleeping in the same room with Haine by now, and now I didn’t have to share the bed anymore. Barely any room to put our stuff away, let alone get a desk, but I guess I’d figure something out later. Staring at the ceiling, having second thoughts on if this was really where I wanted to be, I was slowly lulled to sleep by the familiar sound of Haine snoring. No matter what doubts I had, she would still be by my side.

There were still a few days before classes began in earnest. Something about letting new students acclimate to living in the dorms and familiarizing themselves with the campus, I think. So, to kill some time, we went exploring. Well, Haine went off to explore. I already knew where I wanted to go.

The Sanctum of Wisdom was the largest building on campus. A winding spire that towered over the rest of the city, it housed a repository of books and tomes throughout history. It was particularly busy, as you’d expect, with a constant deluge of new students gawking through the shelves and librarians making sure no one made a mess, but that was where my magic came in handy. Shadow Cloak was my most used spell, and for good reason. I kept to the dark corners of the tower in a veil of darkness. Don’t need to interact with crowds if no one can see you, after all.

The higher up I went, the less people there were, until I reached the top floor which was completely empty. A garden awaited me up there. A tranquil spot of blossoming flowers and exotic saplings that reminded me of the greenhouse back home. An inert magic circle was drawn in the center of the garden. This wasn’t technically the top floor–above me was the inner workings of the clocktower and the headmaster’s office, which was only accessible through that teleportation circle only important staff members could activate–but it was quiet enough for me. I had grabbed a couple books here and there as I made my way up, and went to find a nice, shaded area to relax in.

Something caught my eye, swishing around behind a patch of flowers. It looked like a pillow, or some sort of oversized furball. Whatever it was, it looked so fluffy. And when I saw it, some sort of primal instinct overtook me. I… I had to touch it. I had to fluff whatever that thing was. It would feel so good, I just knew it.

I reached my arm between the flowers, grasping that ball of fluff within my fingers. The fluffy texture felt like bliss on my skin. I couldn’t help myself. I rubbed my hands all over, feeling up that warm, furry blob all over. It felt better than I could even imagine.

Then the ball of fluff screamed. “W-w-what do you think you’re touching!?” A shrill, high pitched voice echoed.

I fell over backwards, and my pile of books spilled all over the place. Ouch… What the hell was that? I pulled myself together, and saw two… pointy, fluffy things looming over me.

“Oi. Don’t you know it’s rude to touch someone without permission?” Oh, they were ears. Long, fluffy ears that twitched constantly, as if enticing me to scratch them.

Wait, no, that wasn’t what was important right now! A scary looking girl was standing on top of me, gripping my collar with sharpened claws. She had a sharp, narrow gaze behind her wild, untamed hair, staring at me like some sort of predator, and flashed a menacing smile revealing what looked like fangs. Even though she was smaller than me, she was pinning me down like it was nothing. A true delinquent type, through and through. Then, that means, the thing I grabbed was…

Her large, fluffy tail waved back and forth behind her, mesmerizing me. She must have been a beastkin. They were humans with blood descended from ancient, magical beasts, and gained animalistic characteristics as a result. In this case, fox-like ears and tail. I had seen a few of them in town, but never up close like this. Though, I think this was probably way too close for comfort.

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“Oi. Say something.” She bared her fangs as she pulled me close to her face. I gulped. Remind me to never follow my instincts ever again.

“R-right, um… I’m really sorry!” I spluttered an apology as quickly as I could. Listen, it was really hard to stay calm when you have someone who looked like they could easily bite my face off that close to you. “It-it’s just that I couldn’t help myself!”

She dropped me back to the ground with a dull thud, as she leapt backwards and wiped her hand on her pant leg. “W-what are you, some sort of pervert!?” She hissed at me.

“N-no, that’s not what I meant! I mean, I think anyone would do the same.Y-your tail just looked so fluffy, I couldn’t resist touching it…”

“Huh?! Are you saying I’m the kind of girl who’d let anyone touch my… my tail like that?” Uh oh. She just looked even more pissed off. I felt like every word I said was just digging me deeper into my own grave.

“Of course not! It’s just that I, um, uh…” I stammered through my words, unable to think of anything to help me out here. At this point I was debating whether I should just jump off the railings.

The fox-eared girl rolled up her sleeves. “Looks like I gotta teach you some respect.” Her claws glinted with deadly intent. But before she could do anything, a loud shush shut both of us up.

A librarian had climbed all the way up to give us both a stern lecture on not being so noisy. While getting reprimanded like that sucked, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was saved.

After that librarian left, I went to pick up my books. “Don’t think this means this is over,” that girl growled at me. “You invaded my hangout spot, grabbed my tail without permission, and got me yelled at. I ain’t letting go that easily.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” I asked nervously. I heard beastkin had excellent senses of smell, so I doubted using Shadow Cloak again would even do anything, no matter how tempting it was.

She pointed to my stack of books. “You look like you’re smart. Help me study, and maybe I’ll let you off the hook.”

I mumbled yes to her demand. That wasn’t at all what I expected. But I’d rather it be that than being on the receiving end of one of her claws.

“What are you waiting for? Get over here.” She sat with her feet on her chair, glaring expectantly at me. Thankfully, she wasn’t wearing a skirt; otherwise she would’ve been exposing everything to me. She flipped her bag upside down and shook out its contents, and all her textbooks and loose paper and writing utensils spilled out across the desk.

Wait, she meant right now? Not wanting to get beat up or something, I quickly complied.

Her name was Griff, and she was a first year like me. She was also completely clueless when it came to magic. Her textbooks were elementary level, the kind you’d get for child apprentices. Well, we all had to start somewhere, I suppose. Though how she got accepted to the academy in the first place was a mystery.

The hours went by as the sun slowly faded from the windows, only to be replaced by the soft glow of candlelight. I walked Griff through the basic theories of magic. The five standard elements of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. The components of a magic circle, and the proper structure of casting chants.

“S-so, um, how did you pass the entrance exam, anyways?” I asked, preemptively flinching away from her.

“What, you callin’ me stupid are something?” She barked, and I quickly shook my head. I really needed to stop blurting out whatever came to mind.

She shrugged. “Whatever. It’s ‘cause knocked that knight out cold during the practical, so they let me in even though I fucked up the written exam. Something ‘bout a scholarship, I think.” She definitely looked strong enough, and from what I could sense it wasn’t like she was lacking in magical energy. She was probably one of those savants who was a natural at using magic, but didn’t have a clue behind the theory and technical details behind it.

As moonlight started to peek through the tower windows, Griff yawned loudly. “Ugh, I feel like I didn’t get through shit today.” In that entire day, we had managed to go through only half of one of her many textbooks. Still, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally over. It wasn’t like I disliked teaching others–I spent most of last week tutoring Haine, after all–but I’d rather do it without the threat of bodily harm.

“W-wow, it sure is late! I should get back to my dorms before curfew!”

“Sure. I’ll catch you later when I need some more help.” She grinned, which only made me more nervous as she exposed her fangs to me. “Oh, and don’t try to hide from me, got it? I’ve already memorized your scent. We beastkin got good noses, y’see.” I was way too naive to think this was just gonna be a one day thing.

“R-right, um, of course! I’d love to help you study again!” I let out a stilted, awkward laugh before excusing myself away from that predator’s den.

This was probably the worst possible start to my school life. But at least it couldn’t get any worse. I made my way back to the dorms, hoping Haine was back already and waiting for me.

But as I approached, I was greeted by the grating sounds of screaming and fighting. It sounded like my other dorm mates had finally arrived.