We were saved from the aimless wandering within the walls of the building monstrosity that is the Academy. Herded by the older students we left the main building at the back, opposite of Sereban and the bridge, and marched toward the small city and the other facilities in between, occupying the rest of the island. Some of us walked like a big herd while others took to the skies, flying freely overhead and bypassing all the boring foot traffic.
Lucky them, I really need to solve my flight problem as soon as I can.
The dorms are just halfway between the main building bloating out the light of Solaire, and the market arranged in a half circle. Probably to make us feel more like we’re living in a normal city instead of a prison island.
Although, I’m really curious what students could need a whole town for when all our basic necessities are taken care of by the Academy… I hope to find out today.
Unsurprisingly there are three buildings allocated for us students and after the seating order during the opening ceremony, it's not hard to guess the arrangement. All of them are largely the same actually, multistoried, tastefully decorated yet functional, with plenty of windows. The only noticeable thing telling them apart, and also signaling which one might be ours, is the massive ring on the facade looking exactly like the bracelet we received not long ago. There’s another, white-colored one, on the second dorm and a golden ring on the third. Looking at the students, or more accurately their uniform, nothing other than their age and bracelet hints at what year they attend.
At least the clothing isn’t discriminatory…
“So room or town first?” I ask, genuinely tired but also curious to see what this place has to offer.
“Room, and then meet up with the others?” Valka proposes with only one flaw.
“Have you agreed with them on anything?”
This is not just the Fort where we can walk around and shout the other’s name until we find them. From what I’ve seen there are tens of thousands of people here and to top it off we’re basically strangers to this place.
“We’ll figure something out.” She says. If not a plan, at least the motivation is there.
The inside of the dorm building is a lot more… functional than I expected. Plants and furniture take up the place of fancy decorations and wide floors welcome us instead of suffocating splendor. In a sense similar to the Fort.
I also sense a tinge of space magic in the air, maybe the same trick that exploded in the carriage a year ago… We’ll see.
We know our room number, it was on the paper the gnomes slapped at us and it surprised neither of us that out numbers matched. I’m not saying I can’t endure sleeping in the same room as Valka, she got rid of her habit of crawling over to me, my worry is if it’s not just the two of us.
“Twenty-four, twenty-six, twenty-seven. Here it is.” I say out loud what is clear to see. I grab the hand, pull down on it, and… it's locked. “It was twenty-seven, right?” She nods. “And you didn’t get any keys either, right?” She shakes her head.
Okay… are we missing something?
I don’t know if just on a fuck it basis or for some weird other reason but Valka gives the handle a try herself. The door hums as her hand touches the metal and turns with ease opening up to our room without any difficulty.
“Just how low is you Might?” She looks at me dumbfounded.
“It’s not that, you idiot!” I slap her to move inside and check through my memories for what she did differently.
More force, slight pull upwards, left hand, different mana sig… Wait, wait, wait. I check her left arm and see something on it I’ve mostly forgotten about, the blue bracelet. I slam the door on Valka’s nose and pull out my own token of identification inside the Academy.
It should’ve been obvious really.
As soon as I put the blue ring close to the handle the door hums again. “Bingo.” I fist pump.
On the other side of the doorstep, Valka’s back welcomes me and some heavy-handed portion of embarrassing silence. Popping my head around her back, two new faces come into view. Both of them are girls thankfully and they look even more surprised than we do.
“You are not nobles, right?” One of them asks carefully.
My perplexed face is quickly distorted by a fiendish grin after hearing her question.
This might not be that bad.
“Repeat your words if you’ve grown tired of life, peasant!” I step forward with my nose held high and eyes full of disdain. “If you kiss my- Argh.” A slap to the back of my head interrupts my act right when their faces are beginning to turn white.
“Don’t be a bully, remember?” Valka takes up the mantle of chiding now that no adults are around. “You’re making us look bad.”
“It was just a joke.” I whine while rubbing my head. Damn, she’s fucking strong.
[Mage lvl 63]
[Artisan lvl 66]
Just barely crossing the threshold to even participate in the entrance exam. A quick use of Eyes of Judgement, an Eli special, tells me they will have a ridiculously hard time here and will likely cry in their rooms every third night.
One demikin with gray feathers on her limbs and shoulder with hair of similar color and yellow eyes, while the other is a dwarf. I have never seen female versions of the short and physically dense people before actually. I assumed they’d be an eyesore but that’s not the case at all, she’s just kinda short and bulky. It’s like you compressed a normal human and got a dwarf, although that’s not entirely true since dwarves usually weigh much more than the average human. At least she doesn’t have a beard, just a mane-like brow hair to match her brown eyes and light brownish skin.
Like chocolate, I hope they have chocolate here.
Anyway, besides their race and background, which both seem to be deciding factors on this island, they are weak and meek. A terrible combination.
I sigh and shake my head. Protecting and guiding them is not my job, I don’t even know their name. They made it this far so they can’t be total pushovers… except if they cheated somehow, like us.
“Yo, I’m Elyssia and this is Valka, looks like we’ll be roommates so let's not get on each other's nerves, sounds good?” I introduce ourselves as it is proper and they just nod silently. “So… any room arrangement, any of them occupied?” I ask after realizing that although the living space is shared, we all still have a bedroom of our own. They each just point toward a door and I’m starting to lose my patience with their miming. “Names, words, now!” I order with my eyes narrowing, a hint of threat latent in my voice.
“Uhm, I- we, I’m Adele.” The birdy stutters.
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“I’m Rona. You’ve got a sharp tongue to go with those pointy ears I have to give you that.” The dwarf huffs. “At least not a noble that’s for sure.”
“How did you get here so fast?” I ask the obvious question since we came here straight away.
“We sat in the back…” Adele answers, fiddling with the feathers on her forearm.
Yeah, I can imagine that. Also, I want to touch those feathers, they should be soft right? And she would freak out if I asked… Self-restraint Eli, you’re no longer a kid.
“Your bags are in the common room and we took the liberty of settling in the rooms to the right.” Rona finally speaks something useful so we can stop wasting time dilly-dallying. “Say… you’re not like the average student here, right? I’m not just talking about the level, I saw others as strong as you but… you are different.”
Hoh, people as strong as us? Interesting.
“Care to elaborate?” I ask while Valka grabs her bag and checks one of the empty rooms.
“When I worked under my master in the smithy we had all kinds of customers, his work has always been popular…” Rona chuckles. “I’ve seen countless people with levels I could only guess but there was always a big difference between those who were strong and the dangerous ones.” She looks at me in the eyes. “There are a few strong students here, however, you two… you are dangerous.”
I’m not sure what dangerous means and won't ask because that would be sort of uncool, breaking the facade of mystery and danger and all that. In the end, I just smile and walk past them mysteriously to check out this place properly.
A small kitchenette, for mostly recreational purposes, a few tables to eat and or study I guess with my baggage on one of them, and a massive window opposite the entrance.
That fifth door should be the toilet and hopefully the bath so we don’t have to share that same space with hundreds of other people in the same dorm. When I look out the window it becomes apparent why I felt the tinge of space magic here. Everything outside is too big. The rooms and this entire place are enlarged just like the carriage was.
Have these idiots not learned what happens when one of these malfunctions? Would it be so difficult to just build bigger? Although the space on the island is fairly limited… then just have fewer students I don’t care, I can still remember the sensation of space destabilizing around me and it gives me the creeps.
Since three of the four rooms are already occupied I just take the last one without complaining. Except if they’re not all the same, then I might get a bit grumpy.
A normal single bed, a study desk, a wardrobe, a small window, the bare minimum. Nothing is too fancy, yet the quality is still apparent, which is to be expected for the amount the Fist pays in tuition.
For now, I just dump my baggage at the foot of my bed and make sure the other rooms are the same. Now that the excitement of the opening ceremony is over I carve some conflict, to bug somebody. Valka is not the best target, she just doesn’t have the snappy reaction and instead takes it as a challenge.
Without knocking I barge into said brute’s room. “Let’s go, I’m hungry!”
She’s in the middle of unpacking and I grimace a little at the sight of her belongings. Two changes of clothes, a pair of boots, a comb, a towel and just a few other junk, most of them bought by my parents.
Damn, we should buy her some casual clothes and something warmer for when the weather cools. And maybe something for the hotter days… That five gold a month doesn’t sound that much anymore.
“Why can’t we wear something else? These sandals and skirt are just so… so… impractical.” She pulls out the training pants we borrowed from the Fist some time ago.
“Because it's a requirement when attending lessons and they are comfy as hell?” I look at her with a tired expression. “My clothes probably don’t fit you so I’ll grab some more coins, you wear whatever you want as long as it doesn’t look like underwear.” I turn and leave her, only to meet two pairs of eyes in our common room.
Yeah… what should we do with them?
Valka emerges from her room in the same blouse but wearing pants and boots this time. She points towards the other two with her eyes, asking the same question I had, and I just shrug. Not my problem. After that a wordless conversation unfolds, moving only our facial muscles and using mostly our eyes. It goes something like this.
We should include them. She points out.
We know nothing besides their names, they are strangers to us.
Yeah, strangers we’ll be sharing a living space with, besides didn’t your father tell you to make friends?
This is too fast for them and he meant friends, not pets. Just look at them! I know I’m mean but this is for their sake.
“Uhm, are you going somewhere?” Adele asks after I basically nod their way.
“Yeah.” I answer and try to change the topic. “Do you two know each other from somewhere?”
“What? Not really we just sat next to each other during the ceremony. People avoided us because…”
“Because they’re petty assholes.” Rona add. “The two of you on the other hand are no strangers, eh?”
“That’s right, we have… a lot in common.” Valka speaks before I can stop her. “We’re actually planning on checking out the town, would you like to come along?”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Rona gets up. “Let me get ready, just a minute.”
“Y-yeah me too.” Adele also disappears.
“What are you doing?” I hiss at my friend while poking her in the chest, demanding answers.
“Look, they are commoners and not human. There has to be something special about them to gain admittance.” She whispers after flicking my hand away.
“You think they are-”
“No, something else.” She replies before I even finish and just as the others return from their rooms.
***
After searching around the second-year dorm but not bothering by asking anybody, we decided to just set out without the other three. We trusted, or rather hoped, Kayla and Victor’s Blessing to find us. One of them can ask literally any rat or bird while the other is able to guess which turns to take until they end up finding us.
They are just simply better suited for this task.
The purpose of the small city becomes apparent just minutes after entering the crowd. Everyone here is either a student or a staff of the Academy except the artisans and clerks offering their services. Every shop is tailored to the needs of young nobles looking for entertainment or small necessities to aid their study.
“Everything is posh, everything is expensive, and worse, full of people.” I complain after rounding only the second street corner. “Let’s find somewhere simple to grab a bite, then buy you a few sets of clothes and get out of here.”
“Is there a place you’d like to visit?” Valka ignores me completely and asks the others.
Stop making me look like the inconsiderate one and help me help you Gods damn it! Half the reason we’re even here is you yapping about the uniform, ungrateful woman.
“The smithy.” Rona answers bluntly.
“I would also love to eat something.” Adele found her voice in the last few minutes, chirping instead of stuttering constantly.
There’s one thing poking at my mind wherever I look at the girl… was she born from an egg or more like a normal human. Demikin aren’t really a separate species per se like orcs or elves, rather they are like half-elf-like… yeah, eww. Asking her would be weird, right?
Obviously, we secure the food first so we can enjoy the rest of our little outing. This single decision almost made my effort to leave my room worth it, if only I didn’t have to pay at the end. Meat-filled salty cupcakes, clams, some mix of potato, egg, and chees baked, and meat wrapped in fluffy pasty…
We were defenseless.
Every dish was so unique and savory that leaving the place felt like a sin and the only thing stopping the crazed eating spree was someone calling out my name. My hands moved on their own and Valka was even worse, chewing at even just the sight of the food and reaching for every bite with trembling hands. The bill came out to be seventy silver just for the two of us…
If it wasn’t for the arrival of the three lost lambs we might’ve doubled it, just like our waist size.
“I see you fell victim to the local chefs,” Victor grins. “We lost most of our funds the first few days just like this and had to survive until next month’s allowance with only a few silvers.”
“Good timing then.” I leave the restaurant even grumpier than I arrived, not because I’m still hungry but because it was just too good. I need to have more. “Where were you?”
“We got word the coach of the Combat Department was looking for us so we went to see what she wanted. Turns out she was looking for you two so here we are.” Kayla chirps while walking past me and Val. “Who are your new friends? Where did you meet? Oh, my name is Kayla, I like strawberries and my favorite color is green. What’s your name? Was Eli mean?” She bombards them with questions and enthusiasm so I get a brilliant idea.
“Then let’s see what this coach wants from us.” I wave and lay the trap. “Could you make sure our new friends aren’t bored until we return, Kayla?”
That’s right, I’ll ditch them all.