The duel died down as we all returned to the dorms. I didn’t really want to hole up in my room, so I stayed in the common area and waited. The others walked past me as the day began to settle down. When the night chill seeped in, I lit the fireplace and took a seat closer to the hearth. The warmth nearly made me doze off before I was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door.
“It’s about time,” I muttered, opening the door. “I’ve been waiting for you all night!”
“Yo. I thought I smelled something familiar.” Two furry ears greeted me. No, that wasn’t right. I looked down and saw a familiar face. It was that beastkin from earlier. Great, and I had just embarrassed myself even more in front of her, thinking she was someone else.
“R-right. It’s good to see you too.”
“Looks like I’ll be relying on your help sooner than I thought.” Griff grinned at me, making sure to show off her fangs properly before retiring to her room like everyone else.
I sighed, plopping myself back in front of the fire. Where was she? It was getting late. Not like we had a curfew or anything, but it was still concerning. What if she got lost, or got hurt? Or maybe she just ran away, and left me behind to go off on her own?
But all that thinking and worrying only made me feel even more tired, and I slowly drifted off.
…Until I was gently shaken awake. The fire had died down to embers, and the dorm lights had turned off by now. But even in the darkness I could make out a familiar figure.
“Hey. What’re you doing out here? You’ll catch a cold, y’know.” In my half asleep state, I felt Haine lift me over her shoulder, as she carried me to our room. “Aww, don’t tell me you were waiting for me.”
“N-no. Of course not. I was just… worried that’s all,” I half mumbled, clinging onto her body. She was warm. “What were you doing out so late, anyways?”
“Oh y’know, just exploring. I wanted to see what our school looked like, inside and out.”
“You really spent all that time exploring? Nothing else?”
“Aww, you really did miss me, didn’t you?” She patted my head, and I was too tired to really protest. “But honestly, that’s all I did. And I guess working on that little… task we were given.”
That’s right. The mission we had to fulfill as ‘payment’ for being allowed into the academy. We weren’t just here to act as bait. There was another secret job given to us, one we weren’t allowed to tell anyone else, no matter what. To find and root out members of the White Veil who had infiltrated the school. It… wasn’t really something I was keen on doing. I didn’t want to spend my school life suspecting everyone I met of being a cultist. So I tried my best to avoid thinking about it.
“Did you find anything?”
“Hmm? Oh, right. Nothing we need to worry about.” Her words weren’t very reassuring, but I just had to trust her. Besides, if she was fine carrying me, then she couldn’t have run into anything dangerous.
Haine placed me in my bed, and I huddled under the warm covers and once again fell back to sleep. It had been an exhausting day, one that really wasn’t good for my self esteem. But that just meant I had to work twice as hard, right? I was still alive, after all. As long as I kept moving forward, that was all that mattered.
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My day began before the sun rose. The usual training regimen had been kinda interrupted by all the… recent events, but this was something I had been sticking to since forever. I had to, if I ever wanted to catch up.
First, I started off the day with a morning jog. I tiptoed out of bed and changed quietly, as to not wake anyone up. I didn’t want to leave the academy, so my usual route was a lap around the school grounds. Just enough to get the blood pumping. Though it was a nice feeling, running around on a completely empty campus. A secret view for my eyes only.
After that came the usual drills. The arena area out behind the dorms was a pretty nice setup, all things considered. Big, open clearing, no one around to bother me, a few training dummies already set up–what more could I ask for?
I pulled out my usual sword: a thin, curved shortsword that felt light in my hand. Ever since that night I’ve been carrying it around everywhere I went. Might be a bit paranoid, but better safe than sorry. Anyways, the drills. I rotated between practicing sword swings and casting spells, emphasizing form and endurance. Each cut had to be measured and precise, even if it was the hundredth or the thousandth. Same went for my magic, though my mana reserves soon reached its limit.
After taking a quick break, I headed over to the bath. Another reason why I woke up so early was so I could have the place all to myself even after training. Seriously, this dorm was mostly girls so the single women’s bath in the building turned into a battlefield if you got there at the wrong time.
After soaking and washing off all my sweat I tiptoed back into my room before Haine even woke up. She was splayed out on her bed snoring loudly, having somehow kicked her blanket off the bed in her sleep. Jeez, she really should learn to wake up earlier. But I guess that was just the type of person she was.
I gently shook her awake. She groaned as she slowly came to, before letting out a loud yawn.
“C’mon, hurry up and get ready. Today’s finally the first day of school, remember?”
She protested and mumbled in her half asleep self, but she finally relented and got out of bed. Like always, I had to help her get dressed as she went through the motions of her morning routine, almost sleep walking. Though, I dunno how, but a single trip to the bathroom was all she needed to perk up to her usual, fully awake self.
“Well, let's go!” She smiled at me with her usual chipper voice, as we grabbed our bags and walked off to class.
A part of me was still a bit worried. Not about myself: my family name seemed less and less impactful when placed near a dozen or so other powerful noble families who were much more eager to start trouble. People still tended to avoid me, but the weird stares had mostly stopped. I was more worried about Haine. She… seemed like she absorbed everything I was tutoring her on, but I had no idea how much she actually retained in that short time. Not to mention her whole magic situation. She was strong enough to swing a sword around, albeit needing more than a couple pointers on proper form, but magic was another story altogether.
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It was strange. Despite not sensing any mana from her, she could still cast basic spells just fine. But she had no elemental affinity whatsoever, so the basic, unaspected magic was all she could cast. That had to have been due to her otherworlder status, right? That was the only explanation I could think of. If that somehow exposed her, then… Well, I don’t know what would happen, but definitely nothing good.
We were one of the first to arrive in class. We made our way to our seats in the backmost row. The classroom soon filled up, and I saw some familiar faces from our dorm. Once the room was full, a tense sort of silence filled it. Quiet enough you could hear a pin drop. None of the first years wanted to say a word, but who could blame them? There were tons of stories about how strict and ruthless the academy was, and those speeches during orientation really didn’t help the mood. So, we all waited, counting down the minutes until class finally began.
A bell rang out from the clock tower, and our teacher finally walked in. He was… well I don’t know what I expected. He was a messy looking man who was constantly adjusting his round glasses. He looked not that much older than us, and wore a wrinkled old researcher’s coat over an equally wrinkled suit. He slouched over to his podium and cleared his throat loudly.
“Um, welcome, new students, to your first day at the Royal Knight’s Academy! I’m Professor Dionne, and I’ll be your General Magic Studies teacher for the year,” our teacher began, mumbling through his words. He continued to talk about mostly a bunch of logistical stuff, as if it was things none of us had heard of before.
The first year at the academy was considered “General Studies”. Broadly learning everything there is to know about the theory of magic and swordplay, and applying both together in practice. Our second year is when we got access to more specialized classes. Focusing on specific fighting styles or a particular line of magical research, that was where all the interesting stuff was. I just needed to survive until then. Then, in the third year you’re left largely by yourself to complete an independent research project. This could be as complex as drafting a research paper on a new breakthrough in magic research, to something as simple as tracking and hunting down dangerous magical beasts. As long as it showed off everything you learned here, it was fair game.
“Well, anyways, I’m sure you must be tired of hearing me talk to you. But before we begin our lessons in earnest, I want you all to engrave safety and responsibility in your head.” He began speaking in a more serious tone, no longer stumbling over his words. “Everything we teach here is dangerous, and can be used to hurt others. But that’s not what a knight does. A knight protects. And to do that, you must learn restraint. You must learn control. But above all else, you must learn to stay prepared for anything. Besides, if any of you get hurt then it’ll be me who gets in trouble…” He muttered that last line under his breath.
“So, with the topic of safety in mind, let’s put that into practice. Uhhh… yeah, let’s do that. Everyone, form up in a line. One by one, I’ll throw a spell at you, and you will need to try and deflect it with your own magic,” he explained, and with that our first official lesson began.
We were near the back of the line. Some guy with a smug look on his face was up in front. I think he was from some noble family up north? Something like that. “Come now, don’t you think this is too elementary for people of our caliber?” He said.
“If it’s really elementary, then you should be able to do this perfectly.” Professor Dionne smiled. “Anyways, this spell won’t hurt, it’ll just give you some mild discomfort if it hits. I hope.”
“As if that’ll happen–” Before he could even finish his sentence, the professor conjured and launched a compressed ball of water, hitting him square in the face and soaking him from head to toe.
“Next!”
“H-hey, that’s not fair! I wasn’t ready yet!” The man complained, but was immediately shut down.
“Do you think your opponent will wait for you to be ready? You need to be prepared at all times. Now then, next!”
The students went up to the front of the class, one by one. It was a simple test in concept, but trickier than it seemed. Each test, the professor mixed up the type of spell he used, and the timing and angle he casted at. Most were able to block it properly, but none perfectly.
Some familiar faces stood up for the lesson. First was Roland, that guy I saw dueling back at the dorms. He sulked around a bit after losing, but had picked up some newfound confidence–probably a bit too much, if you ask me–and was roaring to go.
As the professor launched a bolt of fire, Roland formed a mound of ice around his fists and quite literally punched it out of the air. “Aw yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” He cheered, pumping his fist into the air.
Our teacher cleared his throat awkwardly. “Uh, right, I guess that’s one way to do it. Keep in mind that going for something that flashy can be predictable. Also… uh, can you make room for the next person in line?”
Then, the beastkin Griff showed up. I had been “encouraged” to help her study the past couple days. My inner teacher was kind of hoping to see her succeed. She stood up to the front, and as the teacher launched a ball of compressed wind, she quite literally leapt over it, nearly reaching the ceiling in height.
“I thought I said to deflect it using magic,” the professor chided, rubbing his temples.
“Hey, I used magic to jump that high.” Griff grinned, as if that was something to be proud of.
“That’s not really what I meant…” He sighed. “Just follow the directions and deflect it properly next time, okay? Next!”
Before long, I was up. I took a deep breath as I stepped up to the front. My first real lesson. My eyes were peeled on the professor’s hand. I saw the professor ready a bolt of unaspected magic. Traced the motion of his arm as he launched it towards me, releasing the spell. I formed a small barrier to catch the trajectory of the magic. But as soon as I deployed it, the projectile was gone. No, not gone. It had somehow changed trajectory mid-flight, looping around me and aiming at my blind spot. A simple but effective trick. I deployed another barrier as quickly as I could behind me, barely deflecting the bolt of magic in an array of sparks.
“Nice speed. But you need to be better at reading feints. You were reading into my arm too much, so I was able to catch you off guard.” The teacher explained, before calling over the next student.
A frustrating response, but at least it wasn’t a complete failure. I’ll take whatever praise I could get.
But now it was time for what I was most worried about. Haine stepped up to the front, all smiles as always. I couldn’t tell if she was clueless or just that confident. Either way I felt concerned. Our teacher launched a ball of unaspected magic at her and–
She just swiped it away. As if swatting at a fly.
“...Well, I suppose that’s one way to use ‘Barrier’. Dangerous, though. You could hurt your hand if you accidentally touch it.”
No, that wasn’t what happened. But what other explanation could there be? ‘She wrapped her hand in a barrier spell and deflected it’. That was the simplest, most believable answer. But… at that moment, I couldn’t sense anything. And not just from Haine. The teacher’s spell had completely vanished. No traces of it bouncing off her hand, or dissipating into air. It was as if the mana had been completely devoured.
I just hoped the teacher didn’t notice.
Once everyone had gone up, the professor went back to lecturing. “I hope this taught a valuable lesson today. I hope you’ve instilled a better sense of safety and preparedness after today. Oh, and since this is your first day, I won’t factor this lesson into your grades just yet. But just so you know, those who have a failing grade by the end of the semester will be expelled. Now then, have a good rest of your day.” His ominous last words were timed perfectly with the ring of the bell, signaling our next class.
The room emptied out as quickly as humanly possible. But as we tried to leave, the teacher’s voice called out to us.
“Oh, right! Can you two stay for a bit? I need to talk to you about something.”
Oh no. He totally knew something was up, didn’t he?