So the day has finally come. It was time for our first day at the Royal Magic Academy. As Milena and I got closer and closer to the front gates we saw ever increasing numbers of fellow students arriving. Every one of them wore the school uniform and Milena and I were no exception.

The primary color was white and depending on your rank, your uniform would have a different secondary color. The rank one students had blue, rank two had red, followed by green for the third rank. Fourth rank and up they shifted to metallic colors; bronze, silver, then gold.

Now I say "rank" because the school worked entirely on a merit system. This is sort of a remnant of the academy being essentially a military installation to train new magic-wielding soldiers for the war long ago. Normally you'd go up one rank per year, but there were exceptions. You could show up on your first day and immediately get promoted to a higher rank if you were good enough. Unfortunately, there were also cases of students going there for years and never getting a single promotion. Most of those would quickly drop out rather than deal with the soul-crushing shame.

Since we haven't done anything yet, our color was blue. Milena looked pretty good in her uniform with a blue skirt and vest worn over a white blouse. There was also a white jacket with a blue stripe going down each sleeve. She brought it all together with a blue hair-band and white ribbons. What I was wearing was a little different, even when you factor in the fact that I'm a boy.

When I saw the uniform and the accompanying note I found the king's "solution" to fall pretty short of my expectations. Apparently the idea was simply to hide the fact that I'm a wulvari by hiding my ears and tail. Pretty much the same thing I had done from the start with my old sheet.

I was honestly impressed with the pants, they were tailored in such a way that if I were to stuff my tail in a pant leg, somehow it wouldn't look awkward. I had no idea if it was the tailor's incredible skill or magic was involved in some way, but it was impressive nonetheless. The blue vest and white jacket was similar to Milena's with the stripe down the side, except designed for a boy. But it was the part to hide my ears that I didn't like.

"Wh-what the hell is this supposed to be?" I had said when I saw it.

I quickly grabbed the note and skimmed through all the formal crap to find the part I really cared about. Apparently, the king had suggested to the school that while uniforms gave the students a feeling of togetherness and conformity, they shouldn't completely crush individuality. So he had the uniform changed to allow an option to wear a hat for boys or hair ornaments for the girls. What exactly was worn was up to the individual student as long as it followed the school color code.

It was obvious that the general idea was to use a hat to hide my ears. It was made of a soft cloth material that was blue on one side and white on the other. Basically all they had done was roll the cloth until it formed a cap shape. So it was a soft blue cap with a large, rolled up white cuff.

Was it comfortable on my ears? Well, yeah. Could I still hear? Yes... But the material was so soft that on either end of the cap my ears made these two points stick up out of the cloth! So not only did it fail it's original purpose, it made my ears stand out more! I miss that old sheet.

As we walked through the school gate I kept messing with it, trying to make those points seems less visible, even if a little bit.

"Stop messing with it," Milena scolded. "It looks fine. No one is going to notice."

"Well, even with the hat, what about this strange hairstyle?" I asked.

Since I wasn't human of course I wouldn't have a set of round human ears on the sides of my head. I mean four ears... wouldn't that be ridiculous? That meant that if they cut my hair short, then it would reveal that I don't have ears in that spot and I could be exposed that way, too. So my hair had to be kept long and Milena had flared it out a bit to give it a more wild look. I had no idea what the point of that part was and I still wasn't convinced it looked good on me. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was really just another incident with her obsession over everything fluffy.

"Do you have a problem I with the hairstyle I came up with for you out of the goodness of my heart?" she asked while being a little overdramatic.

She's gotten a bit more assertive over the past couple years. Once she finally realized that her father was just like everybody else she became a bit less of a daddy's girl and more of her own person. She didn't practice swordsmanship like I did and Roland didn't force her to change her mind. Instead she focused on practicing magic on her own. She's gotten quite good at it and I was certain that she might jump to the second rank, or maybe even third just from that alone.

I waved off her accusation and focused on what was planned for the first day here at the academy. Today there would be a special entrance exam to see what your abilities were and assign you to the appropriate class schedule. For the stuff you could write on paper like math or history, that was all done before we came here with papers that were delivered to the mansion about a week earlier. All that was left was the practical portion of the exam.

"You're worried about the practical, huh?" she asked when she noticed how quiet I was being.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," I replied. "But I can only do the best I can with what I've got."

It wasn't completely hopeless. I did have the sword skills that Roland taught me. In the first year he taught me the basics, like keeping a proper distance from your opponent, attacking and parrying properly, etc. In the second year he moved on to techniques, combos, special ways to attack, reading your opponent and more. As much of a jerk as he is, I have to admit, he's a good teacher. So, I'm actually thankful he taught me. If I don't have a breakthrough with magic in the next few minutes, I may end up having to rely entirely on those sword skills.

My problem was the most basic of basics in magic: mana manipulation. Just like it sounds, it's the ability to use your force of will to move, alter, and well... manipulate mana. Even after over three hundred years, mana still isn't completely understood. The current theory is that mana is the energy within all living things. By that theory, I should definitely have mana. The trouble is, I just haven't figured out how to use it, yet.

In order to make up for this, I decided to read about magic theory and techniques in every single book I could find in Roland's collection. I memorized the sigil patterns for over a hundred spells over many different affinities. That way, once I finally had my breakthrough, I could go straight to casting spells. Then, even if I do terrible at the magic portion in the test today, I could catch up with Milena quickly. In the meantime I had that mana stone put on a pendant that I now wear around my neck so I can keep trying at any time.

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The practical tests were separated by gender. Boys went to one side of the practice field, while the girls went to the other. I waved goodbye to Milena as she left with the other girls.

When I turned to join the boys, I noticed that I seemed to be getting a lot of stares. I was sure it was about my strange cap, but to my surprise, it seemed that it wasn't really anything about me that was so interesting.

"Where did that weirdo get to meet a pretty girl like that?"

"Lucky bastard, I hope he dies."

"I want to be the one to kill him."

Having this much hate pointed at me didn't bother me much, though. I spent years with the city guard slinging spells at me. A bunch of jealous brats like these guys seem laughable in comparison. So I just ignored them and brought out the mana stone to practice with while I waited for my turn.

The practical test was broken into a couple different types to choose from. For those who were less confident with their magic, they could simply shoot spells at a target dummy. Looking across the field, it seemed most of the girls were doing that. Although, I think it was because they'd rather not hurt anyone. Because the alternative was dueling. The vast majority of boys wanted this option and I was no exception.

Obviously it wasn't because I was confident in magic. Far from it. If I tried the target dummy, I knew I was screwed no matter what. But in the duel format, I could probably blunder my way through somehow. I focused on the stone again, but as usual, I didn't get anything.

It was a few minutes in when I heard a commotion coming from the girl's side, so I turned to take a look and found Milena had chosen the duel format. I felt sorry for her opponent, because it was less than a second after the teacher said "Begin!" that it was all over. Right there at the other end of the small dueling arena was that ever so familiar frozen explosion. I shivered unconsciously and silently wished her opponent a speedy recovery.

I then headed to the dueling arena after my name was called.

"Fen? Just... Fen? No last name?"

"A commoner? Are you kidding me!? How the hell did he get in here?"

"A commoner and a cute girl like that... Now I really hope he dies."

I tried to ignore it, but it was really starting to piss me off. Their worthless comments and threats were just distracting and something I really didn't need right now. I didn't even know why they liked Milena so much. If they knew the truth about that 'fluffiness addict', they'd shut up immediately. Piling on top of my frustration, my mana stone still wouldn't glow.

I grabbed a wooden sword off of the rack behind me then stood in the circle. I felt the weight of it and realized that it had an iron core in it. In magic duels like this a simple wooden sword wouldn't be able to last. But using an actual sword would be overkill, so a sword like this is the compromise.

The rules were pretty simple. We'd fight until one of us is knocked out, pushed from the ring, or admits defeat. No time limit and pretty much anything goes. There's healers available, but deliberately trying to kill your opponent will not only disqualify you, but is also grounds for expulsion.

My opponent was apparently some bigshot noble from the eastern provinces. No sooner did the teacher say "Begin!" did he immediately start spouting off about how great he was and "offered" to "allow" me to concede to him. I didn't even bother listening to his stupid self-flattering introduction and charged forward with my sword at the ready.

"Wha-! Listen when someone talks to you!" he yelled as he ducked out of the way of my attack and dashed back to where I had been standing before. Damn. I wanted to end this quick. If I took him out in one strike, people would be talking about that instead of the fact that I hadn't used magic. But that's what I get for underestimating the annoying little worm's ability to wriggle away.

I dashed back to his position with my full speed this time, but my quick win was denied again when he cast a spell. I  recognized the sigil from the books I had read before.

"It's Stone Wall!" I realized. So the worm is an earth affinity, how fitting.

I quickly stopped my dash short and used a piercing stab technique to punch straight through the wall that appeared.

"Aah! How is he- What!?" the slippery little bastard stammered as I kept stabbing through the wall again and again trying to hit him. But the wall slowed down my stabs enough for him to duck and dodge out of the way over and over again.

I had punched it full of holes when I finally got sick of it and simply smashed it to bits. To my surprise, he wasn't there. I heard a spell activation coming from behind and turned. I took one look at the sigil and realized I knew this one, too.

"Rock Shards!" I said on reflex and took a defensive stance.

Sharp bits of rock came rapidly flying out of the sigil one after another. I tried to dodge as many as I could, then swatted the rest out of the air with my sword. So annoying. This is taking too damn long!

My frustration was reaching a breaking point and my heart was beating faster and faster. I hadn't felt this hyped up since I fought the basilisk. The fact that this worm was using stone was an odd coincidence, too and that only made it worse.

He then slammed his hand on the ground and activated a really big sigil this time. Just like before I knew what it was. This was a more advanced earth spell, Stalagmite!

Not only were these giant spears of rock shooting up out of the ground to attack me, they were preventing me from reaching him, too! I mercilessly smashed one after another with my sword.  I lost track after about 10 of the blasted things. I could feeling myself losing it. Not the fight, but my grip on my sanity. I'd never been this frustrated before.

My vision turned red once again and I felt that howl rising from deep in my gut. I remembered what happened last time I felt like that and inwardly began to panic.

No! If I lose control here, I'll blow everything! I'll-

It was at that moment that I heard a high-pitched screeching sound coming from just below my chin. I looked down and saw the mana stone was finally glowing! It was so bright I could barely look at it! Wait, what color is it!? My vision is still red, I can't tell! And what the hell is that screeching noise?

Now that I was focusing on it, it got brighter and brighter as the sound kept getting louder until there was a bright flash and it exploded!

"Match. Ring out," the teacher said.

"What?" I replied while dazed and blinded.

"You stepped out of the ring," he explained. "You lost."

About a few minutes later I was in the teacher's office getting a reprimand for swearing loud enough to be heard across campus.