We arrived at the entrance of the academy after the blinding light dissipated. I have actually never seen the entrance up close, but this is just spectacular. The gate itself seems to be made out of a light gray metal, it has no signs of any rust, so it must be imbued with some kind of rust repelling magic, at least I assume. The walls are also nothing to scoff at, above them are beautifully decorated statues, each depicting a creature that I'm not familiar with. I think it's mythological creatures?

In the walls are also words carved out, however I can barely read it. I think it says something along the lines of 'Welcome … academy, where … magic … new limits …' Too difficult for me. My parents did try and teach me reading and writing, but I'm not the most studious one. I found it very difficult to learn reading and writing.

I follow the headmaster through the gate and we enter the campus. This place is much more impressive than I had ever dreamed of. All the buildings are decorated with the same statues, imagery in the windows and works of art.

Once we enter what I assume to be the main building, I see the same level of artistic beauty as outside. Even the untrained eye can tell that this was done by great artists. Walls are decorated with paintings, on the ceiling is a chandelier, which looks to be made out of gold. The floor also has a blue carpet with yellow rims.

I continue to follow the headmaster upstairs, I see other students looking at the both us, whispering something. They're probably wondering who I am and why the headmaster is with me. After a short while of walking, we arrived at a door, behind it is my personal student dorm. This room is comparable to the one I stayed at while recovering from the magic whatever syndrome, it is much more luxurious than my own room at home.

"Are you hanging on there, because you said earlier that you still suffered from pain." asked the headmaster.

"Yes, I'm fine, Mr. Halvad. I can manage this much, thanks for worrying about me."

"Well, that's good to hear. That means you're a strong person. I'll leave you here for now to set up your room, I'll be going for now as I have matters to attend to as the headmaster. I'll ask one of the teachers to give you a tour of the campus and introduce you to how we operate here. Normally, as a new student, you'd attend the introduction day, but that took place yesterday. And obviously it's hard to attend it when you're unconscious. Today, there are no lessons yet, so you won't be disturbing any classes during the guided tour."

"Okay, well thanks for everything, I really appreciate what you've done for me. This truly is a dream come true for me."

"Good luck and see you soon again."

"Goodbye."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, back to my room, I set my suitcase on the ground and got ready to explore my room. The room is at least twice as large as the room in my house. The walls of the room are a light brown color. The room also has many drawers and closets, with another door leading somewhere else. The bed looks very comfortable, the sheets are made from cotton and they're stuffed full of wool. I never thought I'd get to sleep in a bed made out of such luxurious material. This is the sort of stuff you'd only find in mansions owned by landlords and rich merchants.

I jump into the bed to get a feeling of it and I slowly sink into it. I feel like I could just fall asleep right here and now.

But no, I cannot, at least not yet, there is still a lot more to explore. I take a look at the drawers, they are made from brown wood with metal finishes to it. There are three drawers on top of each other with plenty of room in each of them. I then open the closet and see a few coat hangers. This place really has everything. It even has a mirror.

Next thing is the mysterious door. I open it to see a room with walls covered by white tiles. In it is a bathtub, a toilet and even a sink with another mirror. I take a closer look at the thing that hangs above the bath tub. It looks like a blue gem attached to a metal rod, on the base of the metal rod are inscriptions in some language that seem different than the ones written in books. I touch and the inscriptions light up blue, then suddenly water starts pouring from above unto my head, I quickly back away to see that it came from the blue gem above me.

I've never seen anything like this before, at home we just filled up a large tub with water from the river and I washed myself in it, but this is something else.

My head is completely wet right now, so I need to dry myself for the tour later. I go back to my room and open my suitcase to get a towel and dry myself.

I looked around once more and thought to myself "Wow, this room really has everything you need and I got it all for myself."

Suddenly I heard a knock on my room's door. I open the door to see a rather young-looking woman slightly smaller than me, she has red hair and dark eyes. "Hello, I'm Yasmin, are you Naoki?"

"Yes, that's me. The one and only."

"Okay, so I've been told to be your guide today, since you haven't attended the introduction day, am I correct?"

"Uh, yes."

Yasmin is wearing a white dress shirt and around her is an interesting looking necklace. On it hangs what looks like a medallion, with a red crystal in the middle. I wonder if it has any specific use. You never know with how crazy this place is.

"Alright then, let's start off the tour with the classrooms of each teacher, this way I'll also introduce you to the teachers as well."

"Say, uh, Professor Yasmin? Actually, you haven't told me your last name, so I don't know how to call you properly."

"You can just call me Yasmin, I'm not gung-ho on all the honorifics. I'm probably the only teacher here that doesn't like to be called like that, so don't call the other teachers by their surname. Anyways, let's focus on the tour, so we've arrived at the class of…"

She seems to be trying to dodge my simple question of what her last name is, I wonder why that is.

The first few classrooms we arrived at looked like large auditoriums, they can each seat approximately 100 students. Quite a few teachers use these rooms to teach mostly theory on magic and what not. Yasmin told me that practical classes are performed in rooms dedicated for that specific course.

We went on ahead and arrived at our next destination of our tour, namely the research lab of professor Sildok The Wise. Yasmin has told me that the students fear him for both his looks and his personality, but she then adds that she personally has never found him to be that scary of a person. Makes you wonder if he's just keeping up a façade or if Yasmin's opinion of what is scary and what isn't, is just skewed.

The research lab slash classroom actually looks quite impressive, I see all sorts of tools that are probably used for research on magic.

"Sildok is obsessed with his research on fundamentals of magic. I personally don't know shit about all this research and the tools he uses, that's not the area I specialize in."

"Then what do you specialize in?"

"I specialize in 'Applied magic' and 'Magic combat'."

"And that means specifically?"

"That means I try to teach all the practical usages of magic and how to improve your usage of it, both in combat and in everyday life. Because all that stuff about magic theory and fundamentals, frankly is just boring to me. On that topic, let's check out my classroom, which is next to Sildok's."

We enter a room that is mostly empty, with a few closets and one desk, which I assume is Yasmin's desk.

"Well this room is quite empty compared to the others."

"For my courses, you're not going to need to sit around and take notes, you do enough of that during the other courses. Here it's all about practicality and utility. So, you can bet your ass you're going to be actively using magic all the time."

"I see you also have a few closets though, I wonder what's inside the-"

"No!!! Don't open it!"

*CRASH* *BWAMP* *BADUMP*

"Oh no… this is not good."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ugh, that stupid headmaster really had to take in another student last minute. Now I have more paperwork on top of already having to prepare classes for the coming year.

Fundamental magic is a very complex topic, so it takes a lot of time for me to compress all the information into an easily digestible form for the students to take in. Otherwise, they'd just forget most of it again by the time the end of terminus exams arrives.

I was walking down one of the many hallways of the academy towards my classroom holding documents for the official registration of a new student, who just enrolled under the recommendation of the headmaster himself.

"Hmm… Naoki Rhein, huh? Merain did tell me the reason he took him in was due to him suddenly being able to control magic, while he never could before in his life."

Well, I do look forward to be able to study this strange phenomenon, as it might allow us to make important discoveries, when it comes to how magic works.

Then I suddenly heard a loud noise from one of the rooms in the hallway.

It seemed to have come from Yasmin's room. Of course it would be coming from her classroom, she's always up to no good. She's probably testing some kind of new spell that she came up with again.

I approached the room and entered to see what was going on. What I saw surprised me though.

"Naoki, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

What I saw was the newly enrolled student buried under a pile of various armor and combat equipment. Yasmin was panicking and trying to get Naoki out of the pile of metal.

"Oh, Sildok! You're here, perfect timing, could you cast some of your healing magic. I think he's badly hurt."

So, I cast some healing magic after Yasmin removed the equipment lying on top of Naoki. Then I said, "Yasmin, you really shouldn't just stuff your equipment in closets like that, try and organize it better. I've told you many times over that it can be a hazard for whomever opens it."

"Sorry, I keep forgetting." She says with her head hanging low and looking to the side. This is a side of her that she would show nobody else besides me. She always tries to keep up her 'cool' act and frankly, I don't know why. I guess it' just one of her many quirks.

"Ugh, that was rough, I didn't expect so much to just come out and fall onto me. Also, thanks a lot pops for healing me." He looked at me and suddenly looked like he saw the devil or something.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was lying under a pile of what seemed like heavy metal equipment. I couldn't get out of it, but I can hear Yasmin panicking and trying to get me out of this pile. Then I suddenly heard somebody else come into the room. "Oh, Sildok! You're here, perfect timing, could you cast some of your healing magic. I think he's badly hurt."

Sildok? That is the teacher who teaches fundamental magic, right? Yasmin told me students usually are afraid of him, but she didn't understand why.

"Yasmin, you really shouldn't just stuff your equipment in closets like that, try and organize it better. I've told you many times over that it can be a hazard for whomever opens it."

"Sorry, I keep forgetting."

From what I hear, he does sound strict, but his voice doesn't sound like the one of somebody you should be afraid of, more like a middle-aged father reprimanding his daughter or something.

After all the rubble on top of me has been removed, I felt the healing magic's effect. The pain from my injuries all dissipated, making me feel much better instantly.

"Ugh, that was rough, I didn't expect so much to just come out and fall onto me. Also, thanks a lot pops for healing me."

I looked to the left of me where professor Sildok was standing and what I saw made me feel afraid instantly. I saw a very tall and wide man, even taller than the doors, with a deer skull as a head. Inside the eye sockets I can see an orange glow. Those must be his eyes. He looked like one of the monsters in the stories that my mom told me about.

"Don't just call me 'pops', have respect for your teachers and call us by 'professor'."

Yes, he's clearly one of the strict types.

"Uh… um… yes… Professor… Sildok." I was visibly shaking because he looked so menacing. If it wasn't for Yasmin's explanation earlier, I would have thought a monster might have invaded the school.

"Of course you'd be afraid, every student that meets me acts like that. I'm starting to get tired of this." professor Sildok says looking rather annoyed.

"Hey, I wasn't afraid of you, when I was a student here." Yasmin remarks.

"Well, you were not a normal student."

"Hey! That's mean!"

"Wait, Yasmin was also a student here?"

"Yes, indeed I was. It was very long ago though, but I remember I had a blast. And yes, I was the only student who wasn't afraid of Sildokie over here."

"Don't call me 'Sildokie', that sounds weird."

I was looking at Yasmin, thinking her definition of what is scary and what isn't, is actually just skewed and that she has a screw loose in her head.

"Hey, why do you look at me like that, I know you're thinking I'm crazy, I'm not for your information. The reason is that I already was quite close with Sildok before I even enrolled. We had a shared past. But that's too long of a story to delve into right now. We still have a tour to finish you know."

"Oh, so that's what you're up to. I was wondering why you were busy in your classroom, even though classes only start tomorrow." professor Sildok said.

"And before you go, clean up your room first, because I know you'll leave it messy like this and forget about it, if I let you go."

"Ugh, fine, I'll clean it up."

Yasmin looks defeated and starts picking up the pieces of equipment. They almost look like a father and daughter. It makes me smile and ease up a bit more.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After that whole incident, we continued onwards with our tour. The next place we will visit is actually in a different building, we walk outside and then up some stairs, to what seems like a building that is mostly just made out of glass panels.

"This is the botany building, professor Olivia March teaches botany and medicinal usage of plants in here."

We enter the building through a glass door, the inside of the building is filled with all sorts of exotic plants I've never seen before.

"Hey Olivia!"

"Oh hello, Yasmin, what brings you here today? I also see you brought a student with you, I assume."

"Yes, he just enrolled under the recommendation of the headmaster and he didn't get to participate in the introduction day, so I'm giving him a personal tour of the academy."

"Oh, how nice of you."

Professor Olivia seems like a nice elder woman. She's tending to the plants in this building, so she's wearing an outfit you'd usually see gardeners wear.

"But I see he's not wearing the school uniform, does he not have one yet?"

I see Yasmin look at professor Olivia like she realized she forgot something important.

"Oh no! I completely forgot! The headmaster told me to get you your uniform first!" Yasmin screamed out loud.

"Hihihi, it seems you got too excited giving him the tour and forgot about it." Professor Olivia says while laughing.

"Okay, we need to get you your uniform first before we continue. Let's go."

So with that we rushed back to the main building, we went downstairs to the lower levels of the building. After minutes of continuous walking in a straight line, we arrived at a place that looks like they do laundry service.

"Hello professor, do you need anything from us?" says the friendly lady who's currently taking care of a large pile of laundry.

"Yes, I need you to get a uniform that fits this boy right now."

"No problem, I'll look for one, can you come with me, so I can measure your size?"

"Yes." So, with that I follow the lady to the back to a separate room with a row of closets all filled with uniforms of all sizes.

She used a tape measurer to measure my size, then went into one of the closets to take out a specific size. "Can you try this on and see if it fits?"

I went into one of the changing rooms and changed into the uniform. The uniform has a white dress shirt, a dark blue jacket with white rims down the middle beside the buttons. The pants are the same color as the jacket. With it also comes a large dark blue mantle, that goes down to my knees, it also has a large hood. On the left at chest height is the insignia of the academy, which looks like a golden phoenix with a shield behind it.

I tried it all on and I have to say, it looks pretty good on me. The size is also just right. However that might be a problem later on.

"What if I grow more and this uniform becomes to small?" I asked the lady.

"Don't worry, if that's the case, you can come down here anytime and we'll give you a larger size."

"Thank you very much."

"You're welcome."

I left the room and went back to Yasmin.

"Hey, looking good."

"Thank you, I initially wasn't too fond of the idea of a uniform, but I like the design of this. So, I think it'll be fine."

"Alright, now that this is taken care of, we can continue on."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After returning to the botany building and having received an explanation of what professor Olivia teaches, we went to our next destination, which is in another building as well.

"This is the alchemy and potion brewing faculty. This is professor Nolan Nivrem's domain, he teaches the students alchemy and potion brewing, but he also oversees the production of potions, which we sell on the market."

"Oooh, what kind of potions?"

"Mostly healing potions and stamina restoring potions." says a man approaching us.

He was wearing a black robe that went all the way down to his feet, he had black hair and dark eyes and was wearing glasses. This man is professor Nolan Nivrem.

"But the production facility is off-limits for students." He added.

"Oh don't worry, we're not going there, I'm just showing him the classroom you teach in."

The man in front of us eyes me for a second before turning around and waving his hand.

"If that's all, then go ahead, I'll be going back to the facility. And try not to break anything."

"Don't worry about us, I'll make sure he breaks nothing." Yasmin says.

"It's you breaking something that I worry about the most." He says quietly, but I think Yasmin is pretending she hasn't heard him.

We entered the room to the right, which leads to the classroom. Inside it is a large area with rows of benches. On each bench is a setup, which is used for brewing potions. On the side of the room are also many different complex looking tools. I don't know what they're used for, but they look interesting.

Stolen story; please report.

"Well, this is the lab where you'll be brewing potions and whatever you do at alchemy. If you're wondering what each tool does, you're going to have to ask Nolan."

I was walking around and taking a look at each of the tools, I was about to touch one of the potion brewing setups, when suddenly one of the clamps holding up the stand came loose. The whole thing fell, making an ear shattering noise of glass breaking.

I looked in surprise and in horror, knowing that professor Nivrem just told us not to break anything. I feared what he will say to us, when he gets here and sees the mess we've made. I looked back to Yasmin, she surprisingly looked calm. She walked over without saying anything and held her right hand out to the pieces of broken glass.

Suddenly a bright colorful aura around her appeared, which had white streaks coming out of it. The shards of glass started to levitate and they went back together again forming the potion brewing stand. She just fixed the entire stand!

"Wow, how did you do that? That was amazing."

"Oh, that? It was nothing special, you know. Just some reality altering magic." She says, casually brushing off a show of masterful mage craft.

"Anyways, remember, nothing happened."

Suddenly we see professor Nivrem rush into the room.

"What happened? I thought I heard the sound of glass breaking."

"Oh, nothing to worry about, Nolan. You were probably just imagining things. Are you sure you're getting enough sleep?"

Professor Nivrem looks at us skeptically, then looks around the room, to make sure everything is alright. He then went to the stand that I just broke and Yasmin repaired afterwards. He inspected it closely, before nodding and then walking away again.

We both sighed out of relief.

"Well, that was strange behavior, he seems rather paranoid."

"Don't mind him. Nolan just really cares about his work and equipment. Almost too much I would say."

We quickly went away and exited the building.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We visited a bunch of other classrooms that don't really have anything noteworthy to them. We walked past a staircase that goes up to the highest floor of the main building.

I asked, "where does this staircase lead to?"

"Oh that? That leads to the room where the headmaster's office is. We can go up, but I don't think we can enter, as he is busy right now. We wouldn't want to disturb him."

We walked up what seemed like an endless set of stairs until we reached a hall that is rather soberly decorated, for one that leads to the office of the headmaster. The door at the end also isn't anything special.

"Behind that door is where the headmaster is. Usually, students don't come here. If they do, it's either because the headmaster has an important matter to discuss with you or if you've done something really bad. Let's hope you'll never be here for the latter reason."

"I'll try not to." I say.

We walked all the way down again, then we went on our way to the final room, which is the room of a teacher that actually recently joined, according to what Yasmin told me.

That teacher is called Robin Cilhood. He teaches 'Curse repelling and protection against dark arts'. Seems like a rather complicated topic.

We approached the door, Yasmin puts her hand on the doorknob and turns it. The door slowly turns and we see a classroom that isn't too large, but isn't small either. After turning the door further, we see that professor Cilhood was actually sitting at his desk.

"Oh, sorry to disturb you, we didn't know you were here, Robin."

"Professor Yasmin, don't worry, I'm not really busy with anything."

I see professor Cilhood quickly putting away a few pieces of paper into his desk, specifically the first drawer to his right.

"What brings you here, Professor Yasmin?"

"You don't need to use honorifics. You know I'm not fond of them."

"Oh, excuse me, force of habit. Since I'm new here, I try to be more respectful towards my colleagues."

"It's understandable, I get it."

"So, who is that behind you, right now?"

"Oh him? He's a newly enrolled student, I'm giving him a personal tour of the campus. We've already visited most classrooms. Yours is the last one we haven't visited."

"Well, in that case come in. Don't be shy." Cilhood said with a smile.

I walked inside the room from behind Yasmin.

My face becomes visible to professor Cilhood and the moment he saw me, he smiled.

But not in a friendly way, almost… sinister.

I then hear him say: "Well… look who we have here…"

I hesitated for a second after seeing his strange display of behavior. He then frowned a bit, before I stepped forward and said "Hello, my name is Naoki Rhein, I'm the new student that just enrolled here. Nice to meet you."

I try to ignore what I saw.

"Welcome to the academy, I'm Robin Cilhood, call me professor Cilhood. I will be teaching you everything about curse repelling and protection against dark arts throughout the year." he says, but without the smile he had earlier. For some reason, he's making me tense up. There is something not right about him. There is a short moment of silence with him just looking at me.

"Anyways enough of the formalities, you said you aren't busy right now, right? In that case, could you maybe show him what your courses will be all about?" Yasmin says, trying to loosen up the tense atmosphere that was hanging around us.

"Sure, students learn the best from visual examples."

Professor Cilhood goes to the backroom and comes back with a cage and a box. In the cage was a small bird. Cilhood then takes out a pair of pliers and opens the box. He then takes out a black round stone using the pliers.

"This may look like an ordinary rock, but it actually has quite some dangerous properties. The reason I'm holding this with pliers is because touching this rock petrifies you. It is a cursed artifact. I'll be teaching you methods and spells that allow you to counteract or undo these kinds of curses."

He then touches the bird in the cage using the rock. The bird slowly petrifies and falls down. He then puts the rock back into the box and closes it.

"Now I'll show you a spell that undoes the petrification."

He puts out his left hand towards the cage and yells "Depetrification!".

A white light shines from the palm of his hands, afterwards the bird slowly starts to move again, indicating he has undone the curse.

"As you can see, the bird is well again. These are the kind of things you'll be learning. Of course, it's not easy as just yelling out a chant, there is more to it, like imagining the results you want, having the right flow of mana from both you and your environment."

His show has lightened the mood and me and Yasmin both clap after his display.

"Thank you, I'm flattered."

"Thank you very much Robin, that was a great display. However, I think we'll be leaving again, we still have places like the cafeteria and the training area to visit."

"Oh, don't worry, go ahead. Don't mind me."

"Okay then, see you again."

We then left the room and closed the door behind us. What I noticed afterwards was that the smile on Yasmin's face instantly disappeared once the door closed.

"Damn, he's weird, don't you think?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah. He is."

I was taken aback by her remark. I knew he was behaving strangely and that she also probably noticed it, but I didn't expect her to openly say it out loud.

"When I met him initially, he seemed like a nice guy. But after a while, he seemed to show signs of his strange behavior. I don't know, he might just have a few screws loose in his head."

Then her expression suddenly changes, "Anyways, let's check out the training area, shall we?"

"Yeah… let's do that."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Going back to Robin Cilhood's room after Naoki and Yasmin have left, he's sitting at his desk and just staring out the window for a moment. Then he opens the right drawer of his desk and takes out a piece of paper he hid in there when they came in.

He lays it back on his desk and looks at it.

It reads:

Agent RC,

Thank you for your report on the current situation at the Zahn Halvad magic academy.

As you already know what your mission is and what your time horizon is, I'll keep this short.

From new intelligence that our agents have gathered, you have about a month's worth of time before the academy's magicians will be done studying the artifact. After which they will secure it inside their vault, which is extremely hard to breach, even for the best of our agents. We also can't send in more agents to assist you, as it is now too late to infiltrate the higher positions at the academy within our limited time span.

So, I will repeat what we've relayed to you earlier. It is of upmost importance that you succeed with your plans.

Do not fail us.

Agent MW

Cilhood looks visibly angry at the letter.

"If only he hadn't interfered, then my plan would have worked out and everything would have been done by now."

He stares out of the window again for a short while, then slowly walks towards it and looks outside. He sees Naoki and Yasmin walking outside in the courtyard of this place. After seeing them walking, he then smiles sinister again, the same way he did towards Naoki earlier.

"Don't think I've already played all my cards, I still have a plan. This time it'll work out."

He goes back to his desk and puts the letter in his bag. He cleans his desk and prepares to leave his classroom.

After closing the door, he starts walking at a fast pace with a neutral expression heading towards the exit of the main building. Another professor walks past Cilhood, he greets him, but Cilhood didn't say anything back. Instead, he just continues on. His colleague looks at him in confusion and thought "He must be in a hurry."

Robin Cilhood left the main building and continued walking to the main gate. He then left the campus and wasn't seen any more for that day. He'd return to finish the mission that he was given.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We're currently walking down the courtyard on our way towards the training area. We walk towards one of the side gates. The main entrance of the academy is at the south, the gate we're currently going to is at the east. It leads towards a big open grass field. It is the largest faculty on the campus. It has a stadium, where tournaments and other contests are occasionally held. It also has a building for indoor training, for when the weather doesn't allow outdoor activity.

Currently it is completely empty because the academic year hasn't started yet.

"Say, Yasmin, what kind of tournaments do they organize here?"

"Mostly martial arts."

"Oooh, sounds interesting."

"Students participate and compete to become the winner. The winner takes home the trophy and gains the title of 'Martial Arts Master' among the students for that year, until the next tournament. But that's actually not the main reason people participate. The main reason isn't winning just to win and prove to be the strongest, but there are personnel from various divisions of the state that actually come and scout for potential new recruits. If you get chosen by them, you often will be able to land a high paying job and improve your position and stature among society."

"When is the tournament usually held?"

"You sound interested in it. You want to partake in the tournaments?"

"I don't know, I'm just asking. But it does sound fun though."

"It's usually held during the beginning of the summer. So, it'll be a while from now until then. But that just means more time to practice if you're considering participating."

"I'll think about it."

We enter the stadium to take a look inside. It is very large and Yasmin explained that it is able to seat a few thousand people. Much more than there are students at this academy, so people from outside the academy can also spectate the tournament. In the middle is a large open field with gateways at the four cardinal directions, for people to enter and exit. There is also what looks to be a VIP box. I assume special guests and the sorts will be sitting there to get a good view of the spectacle.

We then left the stadium to visit the indoor training area. Right now, it is just an empty building, also because the year hasn't started yet.

"There is a storage room that has a ton of training equipment inside it, like wooden and dull weapons, wooden ragdolls to train on and also protective armor. However, it is closed right now, so we can't enter and look inside it. But don't worry, you'll get to use the equipment throughout the year more than enough."

"Who teaches us martial arts actually? I don't recall you naming anyone who does?"

"Well… guess who teaches that course." Yasmin asks me with a proud face on her.

"Wait, is it you?"

"Yours truly. But not just me, there is actually another teacher that does. He isn't exactly your typical teacher. He's an ex-commander in the army, who took on a part-time job teaching skills with various weapons at this school. His name is Gerard Rubicus. He's a nice man, but his training courses are very rough. He pays a lot of attention to technique, so remember that when you're taking exams for this course at the end of the year."

"And what about you then?"

"I teach combining magic with martial arts. It's something that isn't taught anywhere, since most people tend to go all in on one of the two ends. They either just become a full on mage, or they become a warrior, specializing mostly in fighting using weapons, the only magic they use is mostly limited to body enhancing spells. For example, improving your speed, strength and thought acceleration. I try to combine the two to create even more powerful techniques."

"Wow, that sounds amazing!"

"I know right? Anyways enough about this. It's starting to get late, so let's go visit the final destination of the tour, which is the cafeteria."

We walked back inside the campus walls and entered the main building again. While the left wing is dedicated to classrooms, the right wing has the student dorms and the cafeteria. The cafeteria is on the ground floor, so we don't have to go up stairs again. Which is a relief, because my body still hurts a bit from the equipment falling on me earlier and the events of a few days ago, so I'm starting to get tired and hungry as well. This would be a good opportunity to get some dinner at the cafeteria.

"Say, Yasmin, is the cafeteria open right now, by any chances?"

"Yes it is, that is the only place, besides the laundry area that is in use before the academic year even starts."

"Oh, good. Because I'm starting to get hungry."

We arrived at the cafeteria. It is a huge place, with plenty of tables to seat students. This might be one of the largest areas of the campus, behind the training faculty. As Yasmin has said, it is open right now and there are already a few students here eating dinner. I can smell the delicious food that the cooks are serving the students.

"Well, here is the cafeteria, where students and also the teachers eat, though not in the same area. The teachers tables are at the back end of this place, while the students tables are closer to the entrance. You said you're hungry right? Go ahead, the tour is over from here on, so you are free to go for the day. I'll also go get something to eat."

"Thank you very much for the tour today, it was very informative."

"It's no big deal."

With that, she went and got dinner and sat at the teachers table next to another teacher.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After finishing the tour with Naoki, I went and got something to eat for dinner. Let's see what they have today. Oh, they have steak burgers, let me get some of that.

"Can I have some of the steak burgers?"

"Sure, coming right up!" said the woman standing behind the counter.

Afterwards I went towards the teacher's tables and sat next to a tall man already sitting there eating dinner as well.

"Hey, there Sildok. Don't mind if I sit here?"

"Go ahead." He replied.

So I went and sat down.

"How did the tour go? Did you run into any more trouble?"

"Hey, don't assume I'm always getting into trouble!"

"Well, I've known you for very long by now and every time I leave you on your own, you end up getting into no good."

"Okay, there may or may not have occurred some things that didn't go as planned."

"Of course, I didn't expect anything else from you."

"But besides that, it went well. I showed him all around and he should have a good idea of where everything is and how we operate here. I just showed him the cafeteria and he's also getting dinner right now."

"I see. Just to get off-topic, I actually saw Robin Cilhood walk out of the campus earlier today. I was walking outside, about to go to the headmaster's office, when I saw him. Usually teachers stay on campus at this time, especially before the year is about to start, so it seemed kind of strange to me. He was also in a hurry judging from the pace at which he was walking."

"He's always been a weirdo." I say getting reminded again by our encounter earlier today. He seems to have drastic emotion swings, where he's at first all smiles and laughter, but then just gets all serious and gloomy at times. It's not like your typical mood swings, but almost like he is bipolar. I'm not sure if anybody else has noticed, but I feel like nobody has.

"Whatever he's up to, it's most likely some important personal matter, so I think it's better if we stay out of it." Sildok says.

I nod silently, but I have a hunch I should keep a better eye out for him.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I walk towards the counter where all the food is being served. There is currently quite a long queue though, so I just stand in line.

This area looks slightly different than the others in this academy. Most classrooms and buildings have this kind of high-end antique style to them, but the cafeteria actually looks quite modern. The walls are mostly bright colors like white, yellow and light blue. On the back wall above the tables of the teachers is a huge insignia of the academy, the same one on my uniform.

The queue is slowly but surely moving along, I can now get a better look at all the things being served. They all look delicious, some of the things look rather fancy, so I've never tried them. I can't wait to order.

While thinking about what I should get today, three guys suddenly skipped a few people in the queue and stood in front of the girl in front of me.

"Hey, what are you doing? Don't just skip the line! Wait in the back like all of us did." Said the girl.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it? Hit me?" says one of the guys boisterously.

"I will if you don't go back."

"Tststst. You know violence is against the rules. You'll get punished if you hit me."

Afterwards they all started laughing.

"Go fuck yourselves! I'll report you for skipping the lines." The girl suddenly blurts out.

"Oh, look who's got a big mouth all of a sudden. You elves should know your place here." The guy in front then proceeded to shove her in my direction, causing her to fall on me.

We both fell on the ground and the guys were just laughing at us.

"I've had enough of this." she says quietly. Then I see the same colors that I saw during the ambush around the elven girl. Oh no, I think she's about to use magic on these guys. If I don't do something, this will get out of hand.

So, I quickly got up again and yelled at them, "Hey, cut it out!"

"Stay out of other's business." says the bully, before he went and threw a punch in the direction of my face.

I managed to dodge right on time by moving me body to the left. If I was even a fraction of a second slower, it would have hit me square in the face.

"Damn, you're fast."

He threw another punch in the direction of my gut, so I took a step back.

He was readying a third punch, but then suddenly my legs gave out and I fell down. I think I'm still exhausted from the "Magic Depletion Syndrome".

"Hehehe. Tired? Take this!" He says, ready to kick me.

"Hold it right there!"

The bully then stopped his foot.

Everybody looks at the entrance and we can see a person in black robes with black hair wearing glasses standing there. It was professor Nivrem.

"Violence is not permitted on the school terrain outside of martial arts training sessions. All three of you, come with me right now. You're going to the headmaster's office."

"Ah shit." The guy in front of me said.

"Tsk. You got away lucky this time."

They then all went with the professor to the headmaster's office to get punished.

"Are you alright?" The girl asks me, lending me a hand, so I can get up.

"Yes, I'm just a bit exhausted from today."

"Uhm… thank you very much for standing up for me." The elven girl said, thanking me.

"It's only natural to stand up against bullies." I say with a smile on my face.

Now that I'm looking at her closer, I can see her long ears, which are characteristic of elves. She also has long blueish silver hair and blue eyes.

"Anyways let's get back in line and get our dinner."

"Yes, let's do that."

Afterwards we both got our dinner and I ask her "Say, what's your name?"

"I'm Silvia Midori. What is yours?"

"Mine is Naoki Rhein."

We both sit down at the same table across from each other. The table is located more to the side of the cafeteria, so more secluded from the others.

"Sorry, but I couldn't help but notice your long ears, are you an elf by any chance?"

"Ah, yes, but not a full one, my father is human, while my mother is a full elf. So, I'm a half elf. Half elves tend to have slightly shorter ears than full elves."

"I don't often see elves in my life, I used to live in the countryside, about a day's worth by carriage from here to the west. I know to the south is a country that a lot of elves live in. But I forgot the name."

"You're talking about Liviera right? That's where my mother is from. My dad is from this country."

"How did they meet then?"

"My mother was overseeing a trading group that was on their way to the capital of Silgardia, which is not far from the academy. When they arrived there after many days of travelling, they set up shop there to sell the goods they brought with them. One day, my mother was taking a stroll across the city, when she suddenly got approached by a few men, trying to hit on her. She wasn't interested, but they didn't take a no for answer, so they forced her into a small alley way. Luckily, somebody did notice them and called them out for it. The men then roughed that man up though, but the city guards eventually arrived on time to capture the men. That man who saved my mother, but got beaten up in the process, is now my dad."

"That's a beautiful story."

"Yeah, the way you stood up for me kind of reminded me of the way my dad saved my mother."

"Huh, really? Funny how things tend to repeat themselves."

"Yeah, it really is."

We were eating our dinner in silence afterwards for a few minutes before Silvia asked a question to break the silence.

"I didn't see you yesterday during the introduction day, were you absent then?"

"Oh, yes, I was, in fact I hadn't technically even enrolled yet."

"How come?"

"Well, some things happened, after which the headmaster himself asked me if I wanted to join the academy earlier today."

"Wait! The headmaster himself asked you?"

"Yes, is that such a big deal?"

"Yes, it is! Him recommending a student is something that he rarely does and if he does, it's usually because he thinks the student is a prodigy."

"Oh, I didn't know that actually."

"That must mean you have great aptitude for all sorts of magic. What kind of magic can you use?"

"The thing is, I was never able to use magic my entire life, but a few days ago, I was suddenly able to control magic easily. So far, I've been able to create fire, but I haven't tested what else I can do."

"That's strange. My mother and father have always told me that you're born with a certain aptitude for magic and that you can improve it slightly, but never to the degree that you can go from having no aptitude to being able to control it easily." Silvia says, while looking bewildered by my statement.

"Yeah, that's the reason the headmaster wanted me to join. He said him and the teachers want to perform research on me, to see what caused this to happen."

"I see now. Now it makes sense."

We both finish our dinner, afterwards Silvia stands up.

"Well, thank you again for saving me earlier. I'll be heading to my room for now. I'll see you tomorrow for the 'House Dedication' ceremony again."

"House Dedication ceremony? What's that?"

"Oh, you don't know? That's true, you didn't participate in the introduction day."

"No, but I did get a tour of the school by professor Yasmin. But I guess she forgot to tell me about this ceremony."

"Well to summarize it, a ceremony will be held where the teachers will determine what house you will be assigned to. Houses are subdivisions of the students, each of the houses have their own name and insignia. The five houses of this school are the House of Eagles, House of Wolves, House of Dragons, House of Owls and House of Lions. Throughout the year, not only will you be scored as an individual, but you'll also be scored as an entire group, a House. This is to teach us to work together and compete with others. At least that's what we've been told."

"I see, thank you for the explanation."

"You're welcome."

She then left the cafeteria and went towards the student dorms.

Houses competing against each other, huh? Honestly it just sounds like a pain to me. Well, I'll see what it is all about tomorrow, I guess.

I went back to my room as well, I changed out of my uniform and laid in my bed, ready to fall asleep after an exhausting day. The year hasn't even started yet.

It's already late at night, judging from the darkness outside my window. I stare at the ceiling, thinking about what my parents would be doing at this hour.

I think back to Silvia's story of how her dad met her mother. Then I laughed to myself.

"The way I saved her really was like how her dad saved her mother. Makes you wonder if there isn't an all-powerful force controlling the events of the world."

After a minute of more random thoughts, I fell asleep.