I rolled over as an alarm went off. I stretched over my playmate to slap paper off the dresser. I barely grasp the irritating thing when the sound cuts off.

Who the fuck would set an alarm for this early? Heavens sakes!

I lifted it up and brought it to my eyes, realizing that I was holding my student badge. I clicked my tongue and glanced at the leaves still covering the window. Tugging the cover off me, I tiptoed to the window. Moving aside the branches with a wave of magic.

I stared up into the sky, taking in the bright starry landscape. The moon that hung above me like a reproachful mother.

Tsk, what the fuck is this?

I held up the badge and checked the enchantments to figure out how to cut off the alarm but it seemed tied into another enchantment. Which upon activating began to show a map with blinking letters.

First class, Night Herbology.

My lips trembled as I noticed a ten minute timer. They really were trying to ruin my beauty sleep. How scary.

My companion merely pulled the cover over her tighter, turning to snuggle deeper into the thick blankets.

I slipped into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Dressing into a warm winter green suit and cloak. My guards looked at me in confusion as I walked out of the gate. One of the gate guards rushed after me without a moment's hesitation.

He didn’t walk too close or too far behind. Close enough to be able to get to me in a microsecond if needed. Far enough not to interrupt my peace of mind.

I enjoyed the cold walk but not the yawning part. My eyes were still heavily asleep.

I came upon a greenhouse with two minutes remaining. Clicking my tongue for the third time of the night, I stepped into the dimly lit indoor garden.

I noticed that a few other students were standing around, also yawning and rubbing their eyes.

I think I was the last one to step in.

The teacher was a short woman sporting a black thick robe with sleeves rolled up and fresh dirt under her nails.

She glanced at her own badge before smiling. “Good. You are the last..”

A red head guy came flying through the door, bent over breathing hard. He was in grey overalls miners and blacksmith tended to wear. His feet were covered with black thick boots with soot stains, so must be a blacksmith.

“Sorry,” he said, standing straight but chest still billowing out and in.

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“It’s fine. First day for you students and you commoners have further to walk then the Nobles. Just remember this class will be at this time every night. Please sleep earlier so that you can wake up on time.” the instructor spoke gently.

Her eyes turned to us with gentleness but I could see the strictness in the lining of her face. She half turned and gestured at the flowers that were blooming. “My class is going to teach you how to identify the type of common plants normally bloom only during the night or certain times during the night. This is a required class for any Alchemist and if you hope to go far along this path then you must understand herbs to a degree that you can smell them and automatically know what they are.”

She waved her hand and several thick books flew out from the back and landed in before us.

I snatched mine out the air so I wouldn’t have to bend down to pick it up. It was too cold to be brushing the grey cobblestone with my fingers.

“You may call me Professor Blakeley and I won’t be hand holding many of you. As the majority of you come from some background that deals with plants.” Prof. Blakeley looked at us before settling on a few commoners. She sighed and continued speaking. “Your first assignment is to figure out what each of these flowers are. Write ten pages about each and every one of their uses. You have until the sun comes up to finish.”

She turned and walked off, disappearing into the back.

I clicked my tongue and pulled out my notebook and quill. It’s a good thing I came prepared. I didn’t need to reference the book much. Many of these were common. I guess the ones further back with one or two pots near them must be the rarer ones.

Nightshade, Moon Lotus, Star-drip root, sea-eye lily were all within eye reach.

There were so many and each had their own habitats. Nightshade was the most common plant among the batch. You could grow it in just about any condition, the only requirement was blood. It had a lot of usages but the main one is its medical applications.

I glanced back at the red head commoner who was flipped through his book roughly while staring at it. I couldn’t help shaking my head.

I turned to see if any female that was moderately good looking in need of help. To my dismay, they were all nerdy. Even the female commoners were writing already. Only a few males were struggling.

I wasn’t about to go assist a man but eh. I was bored as fuck and I didn’t want to seem as if I could only talk to women. Women were perceptive, after all. Thus I walked to the red-head. He seemed like a blacksmith and having a spare one of those can never go wrong.

“It’s nightshade, page sixteen.” I whispered, while walking by him to the new plant.

He looked up at me with a grateful face. Slapping pages to the left just to get to the right page quickly. His face brightened up into a smile but it soon fell away when he realized he didn’t bring anything to write with. He looked around before walking to me.

“Sorry to bother but do you have spare paper?” he whispered, while trying not to be super obvious about it. His body was hunkering a little low.

I took out a spare notebook and ink jar along with an old quill. It was still in good condition but the tip was a little dull and for a lot of my work, I needed a fine tip.

He thanked me with a bow and looked around for a place to sit before dropping onto the floor. I watched him spread out his equipment.

“Why didn’t you use magic to make it float? Like everybody else?” I asked, curiously.

He then noticed everybody else was in fact doing what I suggested. His dark skin darkened even worse, he turned to me and said with such a sad face.

“My master didn’t teach me any other magic besides how to utilize fire to forge. I don’t think I have fine enough control to not burn paper.”

At least he was straight forward.

I waved my hand and the blanket folded up into a neat square and I sat down on top of it. With another wave of my hand a mirror appeared before us. Images of the plants showed up after a second.

“Sun will be up in four hours and there are more than a hundred and sixty plants.” I gave an explanation as he looked at me.