My mind was awash with worry as I was led through the winding stone corridors of this dungeon. We were underground, probably underneath the Astraea guardhouse, a place I always tried to avoid for obvious reasons.

We finally stopped in front of an unassuming room, where a familiar voice chirped away inside.

“Yeah, like, she was so embarrassed when I kissed her, it was just way too cute-”

I barged inside without thinking. “T-that’s not true at all! I-i was just surprised, that’s all!” Haine was inside, chatting away with some older lady and gossiping all sorts of things about me while I was worrying sick about her!

“Ah, Ms. Edelweiss.” The woman inside smiled at me, and a chill ran down my spine. “We were just talking about you. Please, take a seat.” Her request felt more like a demand, and I quickly complied.

“I’ll leave you to it then, boss.” The knight slammed the door shut behind me. Just great.

“Now then, I suppose introductions are in order.” This person, who the knight had called ‘boss’, stood and bowed. She was an unassuming, bespectacled older lady, dressed in an office uniform not out of place in a guildhall, with a permanent smile and a calculating gaze behind her eyes. “I am Marjorie Nemala, the current head of the Magical Affairs department.”

The Magical Affairs department oversaw and regulated all magic in the country. From maintaining public street lights to operating the Knight’s Academy itself, their head was one of the core members of the Council of Nicaea. One of the leaders of the entire country. What the hell was a big shot like her doing here interrogating us?

“I’m glad to see you’re still in one piece. Our dear Knight Captain has been on edge recently, so I’m glad she wasn’t that rough on you.” She spoke with a calm demeanor that made it difficult to tell if she meant it. “Now then, since the two of you are finally together, we can begin.”

I glanced over at Haine, who seemed unbothered by everything. She was uninjured, thankfully. Our gazes met, and she winked at me. Glad to see she was still her usual self.

“Ms. Haine, just to confirm this, you said you were summoned from another world, correct?”

She nodded. And I thought that was something we were supposed to keep a secret.

“Perfect. You see, if what you’re saying is true, then that makes you the fourth recorded person to ever be summoned here. You see, you were involved in a powerful ritual based off of the ancient art of summoning, designed to call upon individuals from other worlds to act as ‘heroes’. I had thought that all traces of that ritual was destroyed, but it seems somehow the White Veil got a hold of it.”

“W-why was something like that destroyed?” The world ‘hero’ reverberated through my mind. The first hero. That legendary figure I had looked up to since I was a kid. If that hero really was summoned from another world, then that ritual sounded like something that should’ve been celebrated, not forgotten to time.

“Because it was too dangerous.” She interrupted me immediately. “The first person who was ever summoned turned out to be a heinous criminal, and was executed. The second person ever summoned went mad. Their rampage killed hundreds before they were put down. The third person ever summoned perished immediately after. Their body couldn’t handle this newfound magical power, and they quite literally exploded, taking out an entire city.”

“S-so what are you going to do with her?” I blurted out. After hearing all that, I couldn’t stay silent. She was different. She wasn’t like that at all. She was… she was just a normal, overly friendly girl. My new friend.

“Well… I have a little proposition for you two!”

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I didn’t like the sound of that.

She smiled straight at me like she just read my mind. “Oh, it’s quite simple, actually. How would the two of you like to go to school?”

My heart skipped a beat. Did I hear her right?

“It only makes sense! From what you said about the White Veil, they seem to be after your otherworldly friend here. Unfortunately, their members are unclear, and we have no idea what exactly they’re capable of. This puts us in a bit of a bind. But the Royal Knights Academy is the center of my department. It is the cornerstone of this city. The most well protected and monitored place in the entire country. You two will be safest there.”

I… that was my dream, now handed over to me on a silver platter. I didn’t know what to say. It was too good to be true.

“Oh, I see.” Haine spoke up. “So you want us to act as bait.”

“There’s that, I suppose. You will undoubtedly lure out potential key members of their organization. However,” She stared at Haine with familiar eyes. That research obsessed look, of a mage finding their next subject. “I’m more interested in observing you. Seeing how an otherworlder lives in our world. How you’ll act, how you’ll adapt, how you’ll fight. You will make for some very exciting research, I assure you.”

“School sounds like it’ll be fun. I’m in!” She immediately chirped back. Didn’t she hear anything about what she said? If that weird group is still chasing after her, then she’ll be in constant danger. Even beyond that, she was just going to be treated like an experiment.

But still. This was what I wanted, wasn’t it? Even if it came with all these strings attached.

“I… I don’t know. I mean, is it really okay for me to attend? I-I did just fail. So, um, it feels wrong, almost, to get this second chance. I don’t know if I deserve this,” I managed to stammer out. It felt like cheating, in a way. A part of me desperately wanted to say yes, but another part of me felt guilty. Everyone else struggled so hard. It didn’t feel fair.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about all that!” She pulled out a stack of papers and splayed its contents in front of us. “You see, you were supposed to pass.”

“What?” I stared at her blankly.

“Well, just barely.” Those were my test reports. My name and face was on those pages. “Let’s see… Oh, pretty impressive written exam results. You just managed to squeeze by on the practical portion though - that’s the part that always gets people.”

“I personally investigated this after you were brought into custody last night, and it seems that someone personally sabotaged your records,” she explained.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. It was absurd. I… I did pass. All of my effort wasn’t a waste. I should’ve been celebrating, or jumping for joy. But I could only mutter one word. “Why?”

“Corruption is rare and stamped out as quickly as possible, but such cases still sometimes fall through the cracks. Families buying off administrators to guarantee their admittance or to sabotage rivals, those sorts of things. Rest assured that it has already been dealt with.”

I didn’t need to ask who. Deep down, I already knew. There was only one person with that much of a grudge against me, who had the means to do something like that.

My brother was at this school, after all.

“Don’t wanna interrupt you, but uhh… I gotta question.” Haine chimed in, interrupting my train of thought. “What about me? Like, I dunno anything about all this magic stuff. Do I gotta take a test too?”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about all that. I know someone who’d be glad to teach you everything you need to know. Isn’t that right, Ms. Edelweiss?” She smiled ominously at me. Why did everything this lady say feel vaguely threatening?

“I-I’m not confident in my teaching abilities, but I’ll try my best,” I said.

“Excellent! In fact, I’ve already arranged for the two of you to room together at the dorms.”

What? W-we were going to be living together? I mean, I don’t think I could handle being that close to her at all times, especially after what happened last night.

“Great!” I felt Haine’s arm wrap around my shoulder, as her face got uncomfortably close to mine. “We’re gonna have so much fun together!”

“Y-yay…” I responded meekly. My cheeks were burning up. I really hoped no one noticed how red I was turning. Getting into that school was supposed to be the best day of my life, but now all I wanted to do was to crawl in a ditch and die of embarrassment.