The faint sunlight from the early dawn shone down the roads made seemingly by smooth stone where the wheels of my ride slid smoothly. Sitting down on the back seat of a 6 legged horse driven carriage alone, I looked outside, down the castle area, where the commoners of the kingdom Aria resided. Apparently, the kingdom I resided was born of a battle between two nations back then in a massive war, one of the older nations, Araria, won an an uphill battle and conquered the other nation, as you’d guess, they built the castle of their new kingdom on the hill that decided their final exploit. That was the history of this kingdom, Aria.
I looked down at the commons area, where I saw the outline of a monorail amongst numerous buildings , seemingly inspired from the Victorian era of my old world. Of course, I wouldn’t know since I wasn’t born at that time, but all I knew was that I was incredibly fascinated by how they worked and felt. Unfortunately, I haven’t ridden there ever since they said it was only for commoners…… imagine allowing a 10 year old boy to run around in the woods in the dark but not letting him ride a train. Granted Aurio was there……. Ugh fine.
As I continued to look outside the carriage, alone with my thoughts as usual, Sara called out to me from the front, “Eli, we’re almost at the academy, get yourself ready.”, she said informally. Aurio who was driving the carriage chastised Sara, “Sara, watch your tone, show the young master some respect.”, he said with a rather displeased voice. Sara slumped her back before lightly nodding reluctantly.
I sighed, “It’s fine, I don’t really mind. It’s her habit anyway, I don’t see any point why she can’t speak like that. Just remember to watch your tone with people besides me, you represent my family’s name anyway.”, I said, clarifying any room for complacency before they start. Aurio nodded in agreement, “As competent as I expected of you, I cannot wait to see how far you will surpass your father. Fruitful and talented in everything, quite the shame that you…..”, he paused before continuing, insinuating my lack of inheritance from my mother’s magical prowess.I chuckled back.
“What? Even without magic, I’ll ace this entrance exam you know?”, I said, feeling a bit confident, ready to show up the other kids mentally younger than me in the entrance test I was about to attend.
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Me and Sara stood at the side of a closed large gate, leading to a rather spacious campus inside the royal district, beside us was the carriage Aurio attended to. The reason we weren’t standing in front of the gate was because……. There were tons of people crowding in front. Apparently, we came quite early, but alot of others had the same idea, noble and commoners alike. How generous of the noble academy.
I looked to me side to see Sara glancing over the crowd, along with the academy rulebook and guide which she held rather anxiously, I gave a smile. “Are you anxious?”, I asked, she looked at me and gulped. “N-no, I’m totally ready!”, she said with a slight pause. I chuckled a bit in reminiscence of my high school entrance test, that breath of freshness and anxiety I felt, seeing all the new people I was about to meet, remembering all of those made me inadvertently smile.
“As expected of Elis…… you’re not worried at all, as expected of the young lord of Eines.”, my maid in training commented, a bit impressed yet discouraged at the same time. I shrugged before replying, “Is that what it looks like? Well, I’m just remembering something similar, inside I’m as anxious as you.”, I said with a nostalgic tone. The stakes of securing a spot amongst the people far more talented than me pierced my heart with a strange nostalgia that somehow made me feel rather calm.
“I….don’t get it.”, she said, like any normal kid would. I gave a grin as the gates started to open in front of me, “Don’t think about it too much, Come on Sara, we got a spot in the academy to take for ourselves.”, I said, signalling the start of my school life redo.
Behind me, Aurio bowed deeply while reigning in the 6 legged horse which was staring at us quietly, “I wish you two the best of spots, I shall be parking this carriage somewhere. Sara, make sure the young master-”, he said, only to be cut off by Sara.
“I understand.”, she said with confidence, befitting a maid-in training. I smiled in anxiety and excitement, seeing all my competitors usher into the school gates, “Alright, Let’s start.”, I said, feeling sharp.
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After passing through a large courtyard filled with trees, the crowd was ushered by a man in a suit who didn’t say anything, like, at all. From the start, he just stood by the gate as it opened and beckoned the crowd forward, as they happily followed, along the way, I even bumped into some kid in a crop cut who slugged me in the eye, even though he was the one who bumped into me. Looks like we know who’s gonna grow up well.
Besides him, only one other kid stood out to me, but he disappeared along the way, besides him and our promising young man, everyone else followed the silent man, only then did I see at the corner of my eye a white owl like animal circling over a certain area past the woods beside the stone path the man in suit guided the crowd. At that moment, I stopped as I pulled back Sara who was walking beside me, she flinched for a bit before looking at me, “W-what is it? We’re going to get left behind.”, she asked me, a bit surprised at my sudden tug. I lightly pointed my index finger at the white owl like animal circling above a certain area, A white Rowl…..? Ah!”, she muttered as if a thought popped up in her head. As expected of my accomplice.
“Yep, the test has already started.”, I said before separating from the crowd alongside Sara who understood what I meant almost immediately.
Walking through a rather off road path through a well trimmed forest where daylight seeped through the intertwined leaves, we followed and went to the area where the white Rowl was circling around incessantly. Upon arriving at the area in the middle of the forest, we arrived at a white stone monolith where four people stood by, one was a man wearing the same proctor suit as the person who guided the crowd a while ago, a rather lone girl who avoided eye contact with us with a resounding, “hmph.” and the blonde haired boy who stood out a while ago.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Upon seeing me, the proctor smiled before bowing lightly, “Welcome you two, looks like you’ve passed our pseudo test.”, he said with a rather pleased voice, Sara looked at me and the proctor a bit skeptically. The proctor smiled,
“To mark where pending important venues are held, the school will assign the official school animal, White Rowls, into the areas thus holding the said important events including but not limited to ceremonies, exams and other school sanctioned activities.”, he said as if citing a quote from the school handbook, which he did. Sara nodded in understanding, considering she was holding onto the book a while ago rather anxiously.
“Meaning that this place was your intended destination from the beginning. I’m glad that you took the time to read the handbook.”, he said with a smile.
“Um, what will happen to the others? They won’t be disqualified won’t they?”, Sara asked in response, a bit skeptical to the whole set up.
“Of course not, we couldn’t expect every young person to know this. Think of this as a pseudo test for your diligence and reading comprehension, it’ll only serve as extra points for your final mark.”, he explained, seemingly having fun with his job. How passionate.
“I see, well, reading comprehension is important after all.”, I commented, knowing that this was a magic academy where the ability to understand the materials and lectures given and stay conscious of them without being told to is important.
“Precisely. As of now, the people guided by my fellow proctor a while ago are undergo a preliminary test that you will be exempt from. That is how much we value diligence.”, he said with a satisfied smile. At the corner of my eye, I saw Sara contemplate, knowing her, probably because without me, she wouldn’t have noticed. That was how pure hearted yet naive this person was.
The proctor nodded before turning around, “Well, that’s pretty much it, the main event starts later and since you four are a bit early, you’ll have to wait for a bit, if you have any more questions, I’ll be sitting over there.”, he said as he pointed to a corner beside a tree where he subsequently sat down and left the four of us on our own. After his leave, the blonde haired kid approached us with an impressed look on his face,
“Congratulations for making it here.”, he said with a composed look on his face, at that moment, I knew I wouldn’t get along with this person, how pretentious do you have to be to congratulate someone for doing the same thing you did? That’s like assuming you’re automatically better than everyone else. At least, that’s how I saw it.
“A-ah, yes, you are Rom Lowell right? The way you helped the person who tripped a while ago was very admirable. I’ve heard you were top of the classes in the basic magic academy.”, Sara said, a bit impressed about this kid’s sudden approach.
“Oh it’s nothing much haha.”, he said, humbling himself. Yep, I’m not going to get along with this brat at all. Well what am I expecting from a bunch of kids……. Ugh.
He bowed before speaking again, “My name is Rom Lowell, the first son of the Lowell Family. I graduated from this academy’s beginner course, just like Miss Wallas here.”, he said courteously.
“Oh so you know who I am…. My name is Sara Wallas, the second daughter of the Wallas family of butlers, I also graduated from Aria Academy’s beginner course.”, Sara said, as it was customary to introduce yourself after a person here. He looked at me expectantly, I sighed mentally before going ahead,
“I am Elis fon Eines, heir to the Eines family of nobles. I was taught by the mage Anastasia Eines.”, I said in prescription to how they told me to introduce myself. At my introduction, Rom and the proctor who overheard our conversation from the corner opened their eyes wide in surprise, even miss ice queen at the side was slightly taken aback, by the way she flinched. I sighed internally while keeping my composture on the outside.
“O-oh! T-the Eines family?! That’s quite a surprise.”, Rom said, a bit taken aback before extending a hand towards me which I shook back. Knowing that I had to befriend this person if I was to live a normal academy life, a steady build up was necessary. Beside me, Sara chuckled a bit at their reaction.
“It’s quite a pleasure to meet the son of the Kingdom’s most talented healing magician and one of the kingdom’s 7 Paladins.”, he said, a bit taken aback but regaining his composture he nodded in respect, referring to my mother and father.
“Well…….”, I said, thinking what to say in response, but at the corner of my eye, the proctor approached me hastily before taking out a book from inside his suit, after getting near me, he bowed deeply before reaching out his book,
“C-can i have an autograph from M-miss Anastasia, I’m a big fan!”, he said with absolute passion leaking out of his voice, I looked at his book titled, “Principles of Contemporary Magic by Anastasia Eines”. I looked at his figure shaking in excitement with skepticism.
How professional.
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After waiting for an hour or so, 20 or so more people came to the monolith, following the Rowl as well, out of the hundreds of 9-10 year olds applying for what was this world's middle school, this was a really fair number, after a certain amount of time, my mother's fanboy guided us to the main testing ground where the test was about to take place, seeing that the sun was getting slightly bit dimmer, around an hour and a half out of the three hours of daylight had probably passed, and yes, our sun in this world stays completely still, it only gets dimmer. You win this time flat earthers.
As I walked through the forest path beside Rom and Sara, I looked curiously at the lone girl who set away from the crowd led by Mr. Fanboy. Rom noticed me and gave a troubled expression, "She's a bit distant right?", he said with a bit of empathy. Sara overheard and jumped in on the conversation, "She graduated from the basic magic course here as well right?", Sara asked as Rom nodded, "Yes, her name is Rina, she was my classmate once, and she was absolutely talented with her magic. I couldn't hold a candle to her.", Rom commented.
"Huh? Wait really? But I've heard you were the best in the batch.", Sara said.
"I guess that's what people say, but nobody pays any attention to Rina and nor does she pay attention to anyone else, so nobody really blinked an eye when it came to her. Nobody really said anything bad or good about her.", he said with a bit of empathy in his voice.
I stayed silent, hearing this was all too familiar.......
"Then......why don't you talk to her? You never know if she's just bad at talking to people.", I said, a bit empathetic towards her situation, knowing I've been the one who was in her place in my previous life.
"You think so.....?", Rom asked while Sara smiled, "Umm, I think it's good if we all became friends.", she said with a smile. I unkowingly sighed while Rom nodded.
"Alright then, I'll try!", he said, showing a bit of enthusiasm as he walked over and tried talking to Rina engagingly. Seeing the two interact was pretty darn painful considering the girl wasn't even looking at Rom who was trying his best as they walked. I might think you're pretty suss but hang in there, Shujinkō.
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Upon arriving at the venue, outside of the school building which was from the opposite side of the forest, we gathered around as the Fanboy left us alongside the people from a while ago so suffice to say, in this large school plaza with a large water fountain in imagery of the Patron goddess Stesia, Sara gripped the fabric of her skirt in anticipation, I patted her back in reassurance, "Hey, hey, don't flake on me now. I need you in top shape partner, I got your back.", I said, trying to sound as cool as possible, despite feeling anxious as well inside.
She looked at me before slightly toning down a bit, "Mhm. You're right, I'll make sure you pass, that's my job as your maid.", she said, saying the things that seemed to have been plaguing her mind since this morning. I laughed at her declaration before patting her head.
"And I'll make sure you pass, that's my job as your boss.", I said with an amused grin. She looked at me with a pause before smiling sheepishly, "Hehe, alright, I'm counting on you, boss.", she said with new-found determination.