It didn’t take long for us to arrive at the front entrance of the academy, mainly characterized by two gigantic doors made of darker colored wood and accented with completely over the top golden trim. I felt a slight urge to tease my uncle about the ostentatious design choice, but when I looked up at him, the affection he held for this place was obvious. It probably wasn’t something I had a say in anyways, so I kept quiet.

As we approached, the overly fancy doors swung open without any delay, revealing an overly simple lobby. There were barely any decorations, and a few simple fur lined couches lined the walls, probably to allow for visitors to wait. Easily the most standout part of the room was the round reception desk in the center, which was honestly both absurd and amazing. Somehow, a huge cylinder of glass stretched all the way to the ceiling, its base localized in the center of the desk’s circle . Besides a small entry point and two small windows, the center of the desk was entirely isolated from the rest of the lobby.

“Ah! Keith, you’re here?!”

Hastily rushing out from behind the reception desk, a rather huge woman greeted us with a legitimately joyful smile, only to immediately be replaced with disgust.

“Wait. Is that your niece? Gods dammit, Keith! You finally kidnapped her huh?!”

Keith groaned and I couldn’t help but snort. The woman had immediately assumed that I was forcibly taken, which admittedly I could definitely see him doing if his plan hadn’t worked out. Glaring at my uncle with her hand on her hip, I couldn’t help but admire how confident and strong she came off as. I didn’t know if it was her scarlet hair, which had been styled with a mohawk that hung down to her back, her fit build that screamed that she was a fighter, or her vibrant silvery blue eyes.

Ignoring my probably beet colored face, I hesitantly held out a hand for the woman, an action that made her visibly surprised.

“H-Hello, my name is Illa Reinhar- U-Uhm, I guess I would be Illa Ebony now, p-pleasure to meet you…?”

Taking it with a rather beautiful smile, the woman knelt down and kissed the back of my hand to my shock.

“Greetings, young lady Ebony! I am Dame Jeramiah West, the main receptionist of the academy and the vice-captain of the Ebony Band.”

I bashfully retrieved my hand as Dame West released it, nervously glancing up at Keith. I was a bit surprised to see him looking at us with obvious suspicion. He seemed concerned about Dame West for a reason that I was unaware of, and even more concerned at our interaction. I felt the chair below me begin to move as Keith began to physically end the conversation.

“Jera, glad you got to meet my niece. Get back to work, and don’t bother her.”

With a scoff, Jeremiah exaggeratedly began to slowly stroll towards the desk, an action that I couldn’t help but giggle at.

“But Keeith, I was so lonely without any other girls here, it’s such a sausage fest!”

Without stopping or even turning to look, Keith shot back.

“You’ll get plenty of chances to pick up a noble girl in a week, Illa is off limits, got it!?”

“Yeeesss…”

Finally understanding what had just happened, I shyly looked down at my lap. P-Pick up girls? How did that work? Wasn’t she a woman?

As if reading my thoughts, Keith made me flinch by whispering in my ear.

“As your guardian Illa, I don’t care who you end up with, man or woman, but be careful around her. She’s notorious for a reason.”

I felt my entire body heat up, and I playfully slapped his hand that was pushing my chair, which got a smug laugh from him. I didn’t know a single thing about romance, let alone the fact that I could even have a chance at being with a girl in that way. In fact, I had always assumed that I was going to be married off for political reasons to a man I didn’t know. I knew at this point that I was probably woefully unprepared for more things than I expected.

Leaving the lobby through the eastern doors, Keith directly pointed out and explained each room we passed by, which were mainly unused classrooms. It seemed that the left wing of the academy was dedicated to classrooms of all types. I hadn’t really felt like the place we were in was an academy up until this point, but with each room that we passed by, it began to sink in.

I was going to get to learn, to study with others. To listen to lectures, make friends and create something for myself. I quietly wiped a tear that had formed, and closed my eyes to just listen to my uncle talk. He was obviously so, so excited about this place, and the raw emotion that escaped his heart with his voice was amazingly soothing in a way that I hadn’t ever experienced. After a short while of classroom introductions, we made our way back to the lobby, where Jera was sitting behind the desk while holding a pen on her upper lip.

“Oi, Jera, get to work.”

“Keith, there is absolutely nothing to do right now. I’m literally just standing guard.”

“I know you’re a ‘prodigy’ and are already at your third circle, but you’re still only twenty Jera. You can fuck around later, get to working on that mana circle.”

Rolling her eyes, Jera lazily slid off her chair into the center of the desk. Entering a kneeling stance with her eyes closed, Jera went silent as we passed her by. Was she… actually working on a mana circle? I roughly knew that it took some serious concentration to do that, and I couldn’t help but doubt that she was truly doing what she was told.

My mind was quickly taken off my doubt of the lady knight when we entered the west wing, which was by all accounts, lively. While in the east wing, we saw maybe one or two people doing things, but it was quick and easy to pass through while ignoring them. The western half of the academy was immediately an entirely different story, the first room beyond the lobby being a cafeteria. Peeking inside, I saw two men chatting over food, something Keith apparently also noticed as he sped us up to probably try and avoid them. Unfortunately for him, they noticed us, looking at us, then standing up in shock.

“You lil’ bastard! I can’t believe you actually kidnapped Kelia’s daughter!”

Stopping with a groan and turning to face the two approaching men, Keith put an obviously fake smile on.

“Ah, Teacher, it’s great to see you. I see you were eating with Desmond.”

The one who had yelled at Keith, a very obviously elderly man, wobbled on a cane beside a very overdressed gentleman. I figured he was probably Trist, the only one that my uncle had actually talked about other than my mother and grandfather in his story. He hadn’t aged well, his skin extremely rough and aged, alongside his body being uncomfortably skinny. His eyes were extremely cloudy, indicating to me that he probably couldn’t see much if at all.

The one referred to as Desmond was dressed in a tight looking tuxedo, his brown hair had been slicked back in a way that told me he either didn’t care what people thought or he was just lazy; Perhaps both.

“Master Trist was discussing with me a new preparatory method for sausage that he had come up with, I was giving my input and providing counterpoints.”

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“Geh, more like this guy couldn’t accept a gift horse if it kicked him in the ass. I worked hard on a method to make this easier and the ass just outright denies that it would work.”

“The physics simply don’t add up, good sir, perhaps you should discuss this with that infuriating physics teacher.”

Putting his hand on his forehead and sighing as the two bickered, Keith took a second and then cleared his throat.

“Gentlemen, this is my niece, Illa. I hope you treat her well both in and out of your classes.”

I did the best curtsy I could in my chair, which seemingly allowed for Desmond to refocus from the argument he was just in. The man began to stare at me in a very discomforting way, and I couldn’t help but avoid his eyes. Putting his hand on his chin, Desmond mumbled something to himself and then proceeded to leave the cafeteria, and us, behind him.

“Uh… Does he normally do that?”

I couldn’t help but ask, considering that he had basically stared into my soul before immediately leaving. Patting me on the back, Keith smiled in a way that told me he knew what was happening.

“Unfortunately yes, and I know why too. He was inspired by you, and immediately went to begin a new painting of something or another. He’s a master painter, but don’t expect a portrait or anything. He gets very abstract with his work.”

I nodded, silently hoping that he definitely did not make a portrait of me. I wasn’t anything special, and seeing my portrait next to my mothers would probably be devastating to my already fragile self esteem. Wait, do they even have a portrait of my mother here? I’ll have to ask.

With a resounding Humph, Trist wobbled back to his table, gingerly taking a bite of a chicken drumstick.

“Uh, Teacher, do you not care that she’s here?”

Keith, the most nervous I had ever seen him, left my side for the first time today and petitioned his mentor for an answer. A particularly awkward tension I hadn’t felt since my father and one of his brothers had a falling out over something irrelevant filled the room, and I uncomfortably rolled myself beside my uncle. It was surprisingly relieving to be next to him, something I didn’t really get.

“Keith, did you kidnap her or is she here willingly?”

“Of course I didn’t kidnap her! What do you and Jera even think of me?!”

Trist, obviously uncaring, takes another bite of the chicken drumstick.

“That’s fine then. Let me eat.”

I shrugged, and began to roll myself out of the cafeteria and into the hallway once more, the sounds of Keith’s desperation for validation from his mentor echoing behind me. I figured that if he was dead set on finishing that awkward conversation, I would be fine to go explore a bit on my own.

As I continued into the hallway, I followed the left wall to a large window, which looked out over a small training field, where I counted six different knights going through practice motions of some sort. I guess a rather decent question to ask Keith would be if I was required to participate in physical classes, which I definitely didn’t want to do. I have been and likely will never be able to walk, and it just seemed almost pointless to train my arm muscles to any significant point. I was strong enough to lift myself in and out of my chair alone, and that was enough for me.

Continuing a bit further, upon noticing an open door to my right I glanced inside, and the thing I saw filled me with excitement, a library. I looked up in amazement as I rolled myself inside, the bookcases made of the same kind of wood as the front doors of the academy stretched to the ceiling, and I couldn’t help but wonder how many books that were kept here. I entered my own little world when I saw the library, but I was spooked out of it when I heard a voice behind me.

“Oh gods, aren’t you Illa? I guess Keith lost his patience.”

Sitting behind a large desk, a rather built man looked at me from behind a book. He was obviously older, his hair a classic salt and pepper, and his hazel eyes looked at me in concern. I awkwardly laughed, and gave my best curtsy.

“I-I’m Illa Ebony, it’s a pleasure. Keith kind of did lose his patience, but it was sort of my fault.”

“Bah, you can’t take blame for the man, he’s hopeless.”

The man bowed his head a bit to greet me.

“Meteo Jua, I hope you enjoy your time here. I’m the librarian and physics teacher.”

“Oh, the one that Desmond called infuriating.”

Meteo laughed at the mention of the dapper teacher, giving me a thumbs up.

“He wanted to be the librarian, but got stuck with cooking prep as his duty for this year. I don’t honestly blame him, but I didn’t want to trade.”

Half shrugging and going back to reading his book without a word, I quietly roamed off after awkwardly waiting for Meteo to continue speaking.

One of the main things I figured out about this library was that it was enormous. The manor I had lived in had a decently sized one, but I had no clue how I could possibly choose where to start with this place. My desire to learn was growing fast, and there were so many things I wanted to look into before the semester started. This place had to have some books on the biology of spirit beasts, which was a subject I’ve been curious about for a while, but also I couldn’t help but find my eyes straying to a particular section that I had noticed upon entering. I rolled myself over, pulled out a book and upon reading the title couldn’t help but smile. When my mother passed, her belongings were never found as far as I was told, so the book she always carried with her, “Law of Gardens, by Dame Justice Glaive”, had disappeared with her.

The book, which I understood was actually written by the founder of the Glaive duchy, was a detailed description of the traditional methods for garden tending that she had used before she earned her title. It portrayed gardening as both a potential profession and hobby for women, regardless of their status in society. I had read a bit into it, but my mother was a devout follower of its preachings. In hindsight, the rather liberal teachings of the book probably didn’t sit well with my father, so I guess I couldn’t say if we had actually lost the book or not. However, I had my hands on a copy now, so…

Grabbing another two books that I found interesting from the same section, specifically a seed encyclopedia and a strange book that had caught my eyes called “Bed of Lilies: Gardening for Love”, I placed them into my bag. The second book was obviously out of place, but I had never seen anything like the title before and it caught my curiosity. I was silently hoping it was a romance novel, since it wasn’t something I was allowed to read before.

Nearing the entrance of the library once more, I found Keith and Meteo happily chatting, the two obviously friends with the atmosphere they produced together. As I approached, Keith noticed me, then smiled and waved.

“Ah, Illa! I see you found some books to take with you to your room?”

I nodded with elation, which got a thumbs up from the two men. Keith strutted behind me, once again pushing me towards the next destination, Meteo passively went back to reading without questioning our impending exit, an action I now figured he did quite often considering that Keith didn’t even react to it.

The rest of the western wing was occupied by the teachers' offices, a few more of which I met and greeted. Upon reaching the furthest point, we doubled back to the lobby, where we found Jeramiah in the same position we had left her, which surprised me a bit. We had been gone quite a while, so I figured that she’d laze around again, but I was obviously mistaken about her character. Ignoring the training woman, Keith pushed me into the final, northern wing of the academy.

“This final wing is the dormitory where you’ll be staying, Illa.”

I was rather impressed by the mood shift of the north wing. Rather than having the vibes of a converted manor, the place seemed almost homey. Each room had plenty of space between it, and the decor was rather delightful, rustic and simple but obviously had thought and money put into it.

“There are three floors, specifically separated into staff on the first floor, males on the second, and females on the third. You’re technically staff so you’re on the first floor.”

I nodded in agreement, figuring that I should take the boon of not needing assistance to get up two floors to my room. As we continued, I peeked inside a room to see how well it was furnished, which they unsurprisingly were nice. They had the mandatory bed and desk, but also had a small couch and table, along with a dresser and bookshelf to bring it together. It was going to be a pretty big upgrade for me, considering my previous room.

We eventually passed all but the final room, where Keith stepped out in front of me. With a smug grin, my uncle exaggeratingly opened the door as if revealing something fantastical.

“Your room, my lady.”

The room wasn’t very different from the one I had looked into, but a few things were obviously better quality. I rolled inside and happily looked around to find anything Keith had done to make it different, but I didn’t notice anything other than the window’s view after a search. Because we were at the very end of the north wing, the view of the academy’s back garden was spectacular. I figured I would have no trouble getting to the garden if it was right beyond my bedroom window. Smiling wide, I looked up at my uncle, who was watching me with anticipation.

“T-thank you Keith, this room is everything I have ever wanted.”

Taking his victory quite well, Keith gave me a thumbs up. A look of realization popped up on his face right afterwards however, and he wished me to have a good afternoon while he went to go and make dinner. It was nice to be alone, since I really had something I wanted to do.

I had my mother’s book in my bag after all this time without it, and I was dying to read it.