“Have you decided which classes you’re going to stick with?” Lunia asked.

Continuing to poke and prod the yellow, pillowy eggs on my plate, I looked up at her,

“No,” I shook my head, “The first week isn’t even over yet. Besides, what’s the harm in just choosing to do all of them? Not like the times overlap.”

Forcefully blinking my eyes, the drowsiness I felt somewhat lessened. It turned out that the lightstone embedded above my bed was set to produce a horrible, high pitched beeping noise in the morning. Not only was I woken up in such an extraordinarily rude manner, I had also hit my head against the hard, stone like wall in my initial panic at not knowing what was going on.

“Not really,” she gurgled, continuing to drink some unidentifiable, purple colored juice even while attempting to respond to me.

Setting her glass down,

“I heard,” she continued, “You can earn a lot of points by doing well in the class tests for the classes, but they’re really hard, so if you try and do all of them, you won’t excel at any of them.”

“When’d you get the time to hear that from other people?” I confusedly asked, “You’ve practically been stuck to me for all of the time we’ve been here.”

“I dunno,” Lunia shrugged, “People just tell me things.”

“I’m not even saying to try in all of the classes,” I set down my fork, my hunger having completely dissipated, “Just to go every once in a while, so that you know that what you’re doing is correct.”

“Ehhhh,” Lunia made a noise, “That just sounds annoying. Like the martial arts class yesterday, the sword moves the instructor were telling us to do. They just felt so unnatural.”

Reaching for my plate of food,

“By the way,” she suddenly exclaimed, pointing to my school rule book I had brought with me to breakfast, “Is there anything in there?”

“Nothing much that’d apply to you. The top ranking ten of the grade are able to duel with anyone of the next highest grade for their position, earn more points from ranking highly on tests. Though, you already get so many points, so nothing too important.”

“Life is nice this high up,” Lunia cheekily gloated.

Snatching the rest of a partially eaten sweet pastry off of her plate, I quickly stuffed it into my mouth in retaliation.

Speaking candidly, Lunia’s assessment was objectively correct.

Grade D had a monthly point allowance of 25, grade C had 75, grade B had 225, and grade A had 675, with the top ten students of each getting double.

Grade S got 7000 points each month.

Not even taking into account there only being a combined total of thirty S grades in all three classes but their still getting to use an entire building as a dormitory, the sheer number of benefits S grade got was genuinely absurd. Free use of private training, alchemy, forging, and study chambers were only some of the advantages they got.

Though, they still needed to pay a price, only it wasn't quite as tangible as points.

Concerningly, the rule book was written incredibly vaguely, including repeated use of the term “wrong act,” stating how the accused could only be held liable after the exhibition of “definitive, physical proof,” and when describing the consequences of such “wrong acts,” just declaring that the subsequent punishment was left to the discretion of the arbitrating figure.

It was as if the rules were written to be as hazy and unclear as possible.

Concern for Lunia welled up inside of me.

It was most likely too early in the year for the majority of the new students to realize the freedom that they truly possessed, but the people in A grade had gotten there because they deserved it, even more so with those ranking in the top 10.

It was almost guaranteed that they were more capable than me, and if even I had figured out the potential to get ahead with the rules being so loose, they too would probably realize it today, if they hadn’t already yesterday.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Be careful,” I finally warned Lunia, “The rules are structured in such a way as to allow for maximum freedom, with very illusory, if any conseque…”

“I’ll be fine,” she flashed a toothy smile, sticking her purple dyed tongue out at me, “I’m an S Grade.”

Flexing her arm immediately afterwards, Lunia attempted to show off how strong she really was.

Though, for some odd reason, the image of her stick-like arms staying the exact same even as she visibly strained herself didn’t inspire the utmost confidence inside of me.

***

Lifting the training crossbow up, I looked down the shaft of the arrow, lining the tip up with the center of the target ten yards away.

I slowly exhaled, forcing my heart beat to slow, and ignored my noisy surroundings.

Pressing down on the lever, the arrow energetically shot forward, the twang the elastic bowstring made vibrating in the air as it released.

The crossbow violently kicked back, causing my right shoulder to lurch back and the trajectory of the projectile to be slightly altered. Although it was able to hit the target, it only just barely did so, landing on the very outermost circle.

Though, considering the fact that all of the arrows I previously shot had completely missed, shooting off into the lanes to my right and left, going above the target, or bouncing off of the hard stone floor, I thought that I had improved, albeit marginally so.

I pointed the crossbow down to the ground, grunting as I forcefully pulled the bowstring back, the thick, almost metal-like wire biting into the spaces between the upper segments of my fingers.

Loading another metal bolt in, I shot at the target, but unlike last time, where I was lucky enough to just barely kiss the target, I completely missed, my arrow somehow completely arcing over where I intended it to go.

“Wow,” Lunia whistled, having snuck up behind me, “You’re really bad at this.”

“Shut,” I gritted my teeth, preparing to shoot another bolt, but this time from a kneeling position.

Shooting the crossbow another time, I once again landed a shot on the target, a feeling of accomplishment immediately washing over me as I confirmed that I had actually succeeded.

“Not like anyone else is doing better,” I finally rebutted, gesturing to the other lanes.

Whether they were using a crossbow, or a regular bow, everyone around was just as bad, if not more so, than me, with absolutely no one able to land a shot dead center on the target.

“I bet I could shoot dead center,” Lunia arrogantly smiled, reaching out for the crossbow.

“Be my guest,” I handed it to her.

"I’m next,” the person waiting behind me interrupted.

“I only need one,” Lunia, having loaded in an arrow while we were talking, began to aim, closing one eye, her face scrunching up in intense concentration.

Knowing that I only had one more arrow left anyways and that I was letting Lunia shoot instead of me, the frontmost person in line decided to keep quiet.

Her long white hair brushed behind her right ear, Lunia pressed the metal lever down, and the bolt immediately shot out, going into the shooting range to our right.

“...”

Stunned into silence, Lunia set the crossbow down, before beginning to walk away.

Following behind her,

“What was that?” I taunted, pressing on her temple, “I just need one shot?” I mocked, imitating the way she so seriously held the crossbow.

Abruptly turning to face me,

“Shut,” she mimicked me, her pointer finger sticking up.

I burst out into laughter at her excessively serious expression, and eventually, so too did Lunia join in.

Moving out of the ranged weapons shooting hall, we entered the underground passageways linking the six training facilities together.

“How much longer?”

“Probably thirty minutes?”

“Do you wanna skip forging after this?” I offered.

“Sure, but why?” she confusedly asked.

“I was thinking of going to the library.”

“Why not,” Lunia shrugged, “Forging is way too hot anyway. I’m probably going to drop it.”

“Same,” I nodded in agreement, “Martial arts also.”

“Why? It’s not that bad?”

“Wasn’t it you saying that the instructors were bad just this morning?” I asked, “Besides, I’m dropping it because it just seems like a waste of time.”

“There are six entire buildings,” I ranted, “Six, along with an entire underground complex, all devoted entirely to training, and even then, it’s way too crowded this time of day. Plus, think about it. There are way too many people for each of us to be individually, properly trained.”

“True,” she nodded, “At least compared to forging and alchemy.”

“Are you going to stick with alchemy?” I asked, “You were knocked out cold by the end of yesterday, and I don’t want you to keep going because of me if you don’t think it’s interesting.”

“Maybe,” Lunia shrugged, “I just don’t know what else to do. If I drop forging and alchemy, and I sleep for eight hours, I’ll have twelve hours of free time.”

“Oh yeah,” she suddenly exclaimed, briefly stopping in her tracks before continuing to walk by my side, “Someone invited me to a get-together at, building 21 I think it was? Something about getting to know other students, forging connections. Do you want to come with?”

“The reception hall?” I asked, mentally pulling up a map of Celestia in my mind’s eye, “Sure.”

“Great,” Lunia smiled, “They said six in the afternoon, formal wear.”