Making my way to the U shaped building, my jaw nearly hit the proverbial floor as I witnessed just how long the queue to go inside really was. Snaking around and between each of the surrounding four buildings, a minimum of 1000 people had to be waiting in line.

Slumping my shoulders, I trudged my way to the very back, death by boredom a very real possibility in my mind.

I raised my head, and forcefully breathed in, intending to approach my situation with a positive mindset, when I spotted Lunia.

Leaning back against one of the gray, heaven scraping, rectangular prism buildings, she had a dazed look, as she stared into the sky.

As I approached her, Lunia lowered her gaze, and smiled as she spotted me.

Wearing the same solid white shirt and pants as me, she pulled her scroll out from her pocket, and we walked together, joining the end of the line.

“What grade did you get?” she asked, reading off of her parchment, “I got S, building 55 for Mana 101.”

“C, Same building.”

“Yay,” she clapped her hands, nearly dropping her scroll in the process, “We’ve got the same homeroom. Do you know when breakfast is?”

Staring at her in disbelief, “You had to have eaten a solid pound of meat alone last night, not counting anything else.”

“Yeeeeah,” she nodded, “But after I created that circle, I don’t why, but I just keep getting hungrier. Like I like food, but it’s getting annoying.”

“How’d your duels go by the way?”

Her face noticeably darkened, and sensing that I had touched on somewhat of a sore spot,

“It’s fine,” I quickly apologized, “You don’t need to say.”

“No,” Lunia sighed, “I can … see why you hate fighting.”

She closed her eyes, and despite the sun shining brightly, blanketing us in its warmth, she shuddered.

“I won though,” Lunia smiled dryly, “All five of them.”

Faintly nodding, I continued moving forward. Despite being seemingly endless in nature, the line was in reality quite fast moving, and we quickly found ourselves near the entrance of the U dormitory within an hour.

“...and it’s actually really good if properly prepared and cooked,” I explained, “Like descaled, degutted, everything.”

“No thanks.”

“Come on,” I prodded, faintly smiling, “Fish is good. What could you possibly not like about it?”

“Just everything,” she took a deep breath, “No matter what, it somehow always ends up smelling like salty, spoiled garbage, and the texture,” her face distorted with disgust, “It’s somehow slimy and firm at the same time. Completely, absolutely awful. And when you actually do put it in your mouth, there are those tiny, little bones, which you have to either spit out along with a wad of half chewed up meat, or you have to blindly poke around to find it. Honestly, that's all well and good, if it tasted good.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she placed her hands to her hips,

“But it doesn't. Fish is like half vegetable, half meat. And I don’t even hate greens that much,” she stated, matter of factly, “But it’s so wishy washy. You’re either a vegetable, or a meat, but fish is neither, so I’m just completely incapable of respecting it.“

“... So I take it, you’re not the biggest fan of fish?” I barely eked out.

Sighing,

“You don’t know the half of it,” she exaggeratedly slumped over, defeated, and devoid of energy, and I burst into laughter, unable to contain it for any longer.

Walking between the U dormitory’s two wings, we made our way up the line, and before long, we were to be the very next ones to enter the building.

With the front glass doors propped open, I was already able to feel the frigid air coming from the inside blowing against my face, and I shuddered, rubbing and breathing into my hands in an attempt to warm myself up.

My teeth chattering from the cold,

“D-d-d-o you-u know how?” I forcefully stilled my jaw, “Do you know how many people are studying here?”

“I asked Thalric, and he said there are usually around 3000 in the first year, then the class above us, year four, usually has 1800, then there’s another class above them, in the seventh year, which is about 600.”

I whistled, or at least attempted to, “What is that, like 20% graduation?”

She nodded, “Less, after the seventh year ends, but it’s Celestia. When I was a kid, even I knew about the prestige of just getting to attend here, let alone graduating.”

That struck me as peculiar. I hadn’t ever heard of Celestia before I had met Thalric, though that could most likely be chalked up to me essentially living and moving from one information vacuum to another.

Finally making our way through the building entrance, we quickly came upon a semi open reception area, somewhat reminiscent of a street stand. A bespectacled woman sat behind the wooden counter, and looking up from whatever she was reading, she reached her hand out.

“Scroll?”

I was enraptured by her appearance. With long, light green colored hair, her skin was milky white, smoother than anything I had ever seen before, and somehow, her face seemed to be perfectly symmetrical. Though, for some odd reason, the first person I thought of when looking at her was Aurelia.

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The two of them were both objectively beautiful, but the air of the green haired woman was one of sophistication and intellectualism, while Aurelia’s was more complex and mature, akin to an aged wine.

“Scroll?” she repeated.

Snapping out of my stupor, I fished the rolled up parchment out of my pocket, and handed it to her. Quickly reading it over, she reached underneath the counter, and handed me a gray metal band and a paper booklet.

“Point bracelet, your Mana 101 teacher will explain how to use it, and map of Celestia. Are you literate?”

Seeing me nod my head, she went back to whatever she had been doing previously, but noticing that I was still blankly standing there, she raised her eyebrow, as if asking me why I hadn’t made space for the next person in line yet.

“Can I have a copy of the academy’s rules? It said on the scroll that I could ask for one.”

Nodding in response, she gave me a book over seven inches thick, before shooing me away.

While I waited for Lunia to the side, I unfolded the map, eager to see the facilities I would have access to in the very near future.

Celestia Academy was a complex of 38 buildings, with the U dormitory at the very center, and the cathedral I had previously spotted to the far Northeast, away from the main campus. The rest of the 36 buildings followed a grid system, where they were numbered based on their location.

If one were to view Celestia from a bird’s eye view, oriented in such a way that the center dormitory was in the shape of an upside down U, building 55, where Lunia and I needed to go, would be five right, then five buildings up from the bottom, left most corner.

Hearing the pitter patter of running feet, I looked up from the map to see Lunia proudly displaying her wrist, adorned with the same metal point band as mine.

“Where to next?” she cheerfully asked.

Clenching the rule book between my arm and torso, I held out the map, and pointed, first to the U dormitory, where we currently were, then to building 55.

“Not that far.”

“Let’s go then,” she began to walk out, “I’m freezing.”

As we made our way back outside, shrill shrieks akin to the wails of a banshee reverberated throughout the air, bouncing off of the U dormitory’s reflective glass walls, and into our ears.

I watched, as a pompous, scarlet haired boy talked down to a scrawny, dark brown haired girl.

“Commoner,” he arrogantly addressed the timid, shaking girl, “If I need to repeat myself again, I will get well and truly angry. Give. Me. Your. Spot. In. Line,” the ginger boy enunciating each word, and violently poking the girl in the chest.

Stuttering and mumbling horribly, we weren’t able to hear what exactly the girl had said, but whatever it was, in the next moment, the boy had grabbed her by the collar, and raised her into the air.

“YOU DARE TALK BACK TO YOUR BETTERS?” He roared, causing me to flinch and half cover my ears, else I risk hearing damage from the sheer volume of his voice, “‘l know your worthless parents probably didn’t properly educate you, but surely you’re not stupid enough to not know that there are consequences to your disrespect?”

Turning to Lunia, I opened my mouth, intending to ask her if she wanted to help, only to find that she was already gone, running off to confront the arrogant red haired whelp.

Sighing, I picked up her map, and trudged over.

Already fuming mad, Lunia stomped her way to the two, “Put her down,” she yelled, directly facing the red faced, red haired boy.

He was larger than Lunia, both vertically and horizontally, being six inches taller and 50 lbs heavier. Had there not been a serious risk of him striking Lunia, I would’ve laughed from the sheer absurdity of the situation.

“Or what?” he taunted, shaking the girl he now held with only one hand, “You’ll hit me?”

“No,” Lunia, calming herself down, attempted to explain, “Just leave her alone.”

Her words were quite reasonable in my opinion, but she had evidently set the red boy off, as he threw the girl he held away. Luckily enough, she didn’t hit her head, instead falling on her side, though tears were already beginning to flow down her cheeks.

“Who are you?” the boy asked, his crimson eyes beginning to burn with an eerie stillness, “To lecture me?”

“Calm down,” Lunia, beginning to back off and shake her hands, replied, “I’m just making a point, that surely this situation can be resolved peacefully?”

The boy began to chuckle, breaking into outright laughter, and Lunia, not knowing how to respond, awkwardly joined in.

Suddenly stopping, the boy pulled back his fist and punched out, aiming directly for Lunia’s head.

Pulling her back, I bobbed beneath his outstretched fist, before jumping out, and striking him directly in the temple, the soft part of his head directly meeting with my knuckle.

Beginning to lose his balance from my attack and from missing Lunia, the red haired boy stumbled, his gaze finally focusing on me as the realization that I was the one to hit him briefly sparked in his eyes.

Teeth clenched, he attempted to kick out, but already dazed from my earlier strike, he was clearly telegraphing.

Leaning back, I barely dodged, and taking advantage of his momentary lack of balance, I retaliated, kicking his leg still planted on the ground as hard as I could, and forcing him to fall onto the ground.

About to hit his head against the stone pavement, a faint blue glow suddenly surrounded his body, and he gently slowed to a halt.

“Goddess,” a voice, female in origin, sighed, “Barely even the first day, and I’m already down.”

“Goddess,” a second voice, this one male, jovially laughed, “Thank you. What is it, 10K we agreed on?”

I turned, coming face to face with a pair of blondes approaching us in the direction of the back of the line.

Their eyes colored the same piercing blue color, and their sharp, defined jaws similarly shaped, I judged them to most likely be related. Siblings probably.

“...Shut up,” the girl countered, her striking red lips pressed together.

She focused on the three of us, “Quite frankly, because the year’s just starting out, I don’t want to call the sentinels. You,” she pointed to me, “Read the rule book. I see you already have a copy,” she pointed behind me to the floor, “That’s good.”

She pointed to Lunia, “Admirable intent,” she smiled, and gave a thumbs up, “Horrible execution,” she exaggeratedly pouted her lips, and turned her thumb upside down.

Then she looked down at the dazed and confused red haired noble.

“And you,” she sighed, “Continue to act like this, you won’t even make it to second year.”

“COME ON,” her brother yelled, already going into the U dormitory, “I need to ask Head Yvine something.”

Nodding, the blonde girl passed all three of us, not sparing any of us a second glance.

Walking to and picking my copy of the rule book back up, I watched as the girl Lunia had saved clasped her hands together, and repeatedly bowed,

Visibly uncomfortable, Lunia was only able to escape after continually reassuring her that it was fine, that anyone would’ve done what she had done, and that the brown haired girl didn’t need to feel bad.

Catching up to me, Lunia quietly walked by my side.

Seeing her downcast face,

"I’m sorry,” I apologized, “For hitting him, even though you said you wanted to resolve it peacefully. I was just worried.”

At my words, Lunia frantically shook her head.

“No, that’s not why I’m troubled,” she clarified, moving closer to me, and gradually lowering her voice, “It's just, why did he have to act like that; why couldn’t he just stop?”

I always did my best to guess what those around me were thinking and feeling.

I would even call it one of the things I wasn’t completely mediocre at.

But I wasn’t the Goddess.

“...Hell if I know.”

“Yeah,” she grimly smiled, “Me neither.”