The main building of the Royal Academy was a tall structure, by far the tallest in the academy itself. It was essentially akin to a palace of sorts from the outside, and it housed the administration section of this academy, including the management offices of each faculty for the school.

From the ever so popular Magic and Combat Arts faculty, to the more civilian industry related faculties such as Law, Civilian Arcane Sciences, and Engineering. The main building housed it all, barring really only the educational and support facilities themselves.

The number of civilian faculties outnumbered the magic and combat focused one, but by far the latter remains the best in reputation, quality, and number of studied fields. So the amount of combat and magical students, both old and new, took up the majority in the demographics. They total in about thirty percent of the school’s population compared to the civic and academic ones.

Marilyn herself would be studying in the field of Combative Arcana, falling under the Magic and Combat Arts faculty because of it, due to her being inspired by her father. And while the field does focus on offensive and defensive uses of magic, as well as how they're applied in the field by professional mages, it still had academic and non-combative courses that she could take for extra knowledge and grades.

The latter would definitely be something that she would want to do, she's rather obsessed with the world of magic after all. Not just the elven-style magic that she, her father, and most other mages would use, but the art of alchemy and arcane science too.

Nonetheless, the main building was where the group had been ordered to go, for it's obligatory for them. Afterall, the headmaster of the school was going to give them a welcome speech. For both the future students that would succeed in the inevitable entrance exams, and otherwise. The ones that do fail could still join the academy by next year and re-enter the exam, but that's more of a worst case scenario really.

Speaking of entrance exams…

“So…since the academy does have non-combatant faculties, would they go through the same trials as us?” Marilyn asked that question, for she had yet to research how the academy truly works, only really focusing on preparing herself for her own exam.

The group that she's travelling with consisted of herself, the Second Princess of the royal family Cecilia Lenore, and the apparent descendant of the Hunt family Adrian Hunt. Helena herself was far up front, only really looking back occasionally, her proud eyes beaming whenever she saw her little sister. That cowboy man, Vincent, was also pretty far away to the point that Marilyn wouldn't associate him as part of the group.

In any case, Cecilia wouldn't want to answer the question herself, opting to ignore the girl as she crossed her arms, focusing on the path ahead. So it was really up to Adrian, whom Marilyn had assumed to be the nicest of the two, to answer her question.

“Hm? Nope, they won't!” He said, “their entrance exams are more academic than ours to be honest, I’m somewhat jealous of them because of that. But at least we get to show off our fighting skills, right?”

“I see…so our trials are more akin to testing how capable we are in combat huh?” Marilyn responded.

He nodded, “Yep! That's essentially it. It changes every year ever so marginally, but the focus remains the same.”

“Why did you even ask that question, of course they won't go to the same exam! You did study about what kind of test we’re going to have, right?” Cecilia now decided to barge in, a bit curious about the rural girl next to her here.

“Yes, I did. No need to be condescending about that at least.” Marilyn retorted, looking at Cecilia with rather offended eyes. “Sorry for the question though, I know it was a bit stupid of me. I was homeschooled, so I was not certain about the processes I have learned."

“Don't fret it, Marilyn. Everyone asks stupid questions once in a while.” Adrian said, trying to console the girl.

“Yeah yeah I know, just a bit of a worrywart, that's all. But thanks.” Marilyn responded, smiling.

Cecilia just huffed in response to the two’s exchange there. But anyhow…

The trio had finally arrived at the rendezvous point of the entire academy here after Marilyn said those words. It was the main hall, reminiscent of the ones she had been to in her past life whenever there were important events for her previous school. There were thousands of students here, both above and below.

The ones on the top are the older students of second to third years, the fourth years, and even some second-half third years if they're talented, not exactly present due to the nature of them being out in the world. They'd specifically be doing academy sponsored hands-on learning, either as novice pathfinders, magical practitioners, or any other professions in their respective industries. The ones below in this case would be the first years, future first years that is.

And while the rag-tag trio would wait amongst the crowd of what could be inferred as around two to three thousand students…

“Hey! Nice to meet ya! You look cute!”

“Huh-?”

Marilyn was caught off-guard by yet another person. A girl taller than her, pink hair, Japanese, or in this world’s case Nihon, style of clothing, and…dragon horns? Definitely a demi-human.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Sooooo, what's up?” She said, her tone seems to be a bit too excited.

“Uhhh, doing fine? Who are you…?” Marilyn said, a bit flustered and confused.

“Name’s Elysia Natsuki, from Nihon you see! You?”

“Uhm…Marilyn.”

The girl, Elysia, with her blue eyes staring at her intently, almost like how a toddler would stare at something, backed away from Marilyn's face and laughed.

“You're very timid!”

“T-thanks…”

“We should definitely be friends!” She half-yelled, “Dunno if you would actually succeed in the exam going forward, but I definitely will! So don't fail.”

“R-right…” Marilyn felt a bit overwhelmed, so she just nodded after saying that.

“Made a new friend huh? Elysia I heard?” Adrian suddenly turned towards them, “A dragonkin demi-human, quite a rarity!”

Elysia turned towards him, “Yep yep! Nice to meet you too, Albion human!”

Adrian just chuckled slightly, offering her his hand, “Name’s Adrian. I think we should definitely be friends.”

“Likewise!” And Elysia returned the gesture in kind, before getting her attention to… “Princess!!”

The girl’s antics definitely have caught the attention of the people around her, but she did not care, for she immediately would approach the ruby-eyed girl with stride.

“Wha-?”

“Didn't expect to meet you!! You're popular across the seas too ya know!” Elysia said, hugging Cecilia a bit too tightly.

Adrian and Marilyn could really only watch. They're all standing pretty much at the frontal end of the crowd. It was getting too embarrassing to watch, but they couldn't help but stare.

“H-hey! Cut it out!!” Cecilia yelled out, in panic at her bones breaking. This girl's too strong for her own good.

“Sorry sorry! I’m a princess too y’know? We should definitely be friends!” Elysia backed off and giggled, her hands resting upon her hips.

This girl's definitely tall, as tall as Helena from what Marilyn could see too. Maybe slightly taller due to her horns.

“Princess…isn’t the Natsuki family from Nihon a clan of dragon maidens?” Adrian interjected, “You’re definitely not a royal princess, that's for sure.”

“Still counts, no?” Elysia turned to him, eyebrow raised.

“Uhhh, y’know what, it definitely does!” Adrian just nodded along, smiling.

“How do you know that even…?” Marilyn asked.

“My family has quite the big library about all kinds of things, an ancestor of mine was very explorative and wrote it all down.” He explained.

“No wonder you have no manners…” Cecilia sighed, she seemed to be mentally exhausted from all of this.

Elysia just laughed it off, “I appreciate the compliment!”

Cecilia wanted to object, but at this point it didn't matter, so she just clicked her tongue in frustration.

Adrian however continued talking to himself. “Hmm…speaking of families…the Vincent Morales guy.”

“What about him? We should've ignored him to be honest.” Cecilia responded.

“I can hear y’all y’know!?” The man that the group was talking about suddenly yelled, behind them in fact.

“We…?” Marilyn instead focused on that. Quite the interesting development, Cecilia had either intentionally or unintentionally grouped them together as friends…or something of equivalent.

“Getting off-topic! We should definitely just ignore him.” The princess enforced her own will again, this time with more boldness. She did not want to be associated with these deemed-to-be fools.

“You're very commanding and self-centred huh? I was just saying that the guy’s surname and attire reminded me of one of my father’s late friends.”

“Really?” Marilyn questioned.

“From my observations? Definitely.” He said.

“Why do you even care about that anyway?” Cecilia replied.

“It's just a curiosity! Nothing too special.”

“You're all just leaving me in the dust huh?” Elysia said in turn, behind them all, before turning towards the man they call Vincent. “You! You're definitely in the wrong because of this!”

“What did I even do!?” The cowboy said out loud.

Elysia just stuck her tongue out, insulting him, “Blehhhh!”

The group’s banter was unfortunately interrupted by the entrance of a long haired man with an eye-patch, carrying a cane to the stage in front of them. He’s well dressed and handsome, looked to be in his early 40s, and it's definitely well assumed that this man was the headmaster himself. Behind him would be a peculiar girl of sorts, with a hair colour split vertically in the colours of white and black. Her clothing was less formal than the man, but still it's one that made her seem professional.

“Mr. Alden Wednesday…” Cecilia said, in slight awe at the figure.

“The headmaster of the academy, right?” Marilyn responded.

“Yeah, he is.” Adrian would say back.

“And who’s the one behind him?” She asked again.

“The vice-headmaster most likely? Probably a new assistant.” He said, “Never seen her before.”

Elysia and the rest would be watching onwards as the trio exchanged words, the man tested the mic and cleared his throat while they quiet down too. And with a calm but commanding voice, he began to speak.

“Considering how late I am, I'll try to keep this brief.” He said, “For those that are in this very hall, standing in front of me on the floor of this very building, you're all candidates for the future students of this academy. You’ve either passed the campus selection test, or you were personally invited by my behalf to study here. Now, all that's left is for you to take the chance to prove yourselves worthy and capable in the Royal Academy’s entrance exam according to your faculty. I offer you my congratulations on that fact alone.”

Marilyn looked at the man speaking and listened closely as the crowd gave an applause. His voice was, from her observation, akin to an old man full of wisdom despite his appearance. It's as if he had yet to age a day at all. He was after all her father's headmaster too, so this man was at least sixty years old in her eyes.

He continued. “To hone your craft and acquire new skills and knowledge, that's essentially the goal of education. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection or service of the people, that's the vision of education that I intend to mould. But I look amongst you, and all I see are a pair of eyes in need of purpose, your very being wanting to invest your skills and energy in something you all consider to be productive.”

“Weird man…” Elysia commented, silently of course.

“The exam that you will partake in is a chance to prove that you truly want to achieve the essential goal of education, and learning. That you are not simply here to try and look for some vain and selfish purpose. This academy’s main goal is to help guide those that want to be better for the sake of others, not for one’s own gains. And by the time the exam commences, all that's left for you is to take the step forward.”

Marilyn looked downwards for a bit, in contemplation. Was her goal truly selfish? Or was it something that would allow her to also realise the very vision the academy intends to achieve for the world?

Wanting to become strong, capable and useful enough for people to rely on. It's inherently selfish. But another way to look at it…it’s also a selfless act in the long term. For with one’s own strength they could use it in service of others.

As she raised her head, she hoped that thought was correct, obvious or not. Proving her ideal in the exam would be all that she could do in service of it.

“I just hope that whatever path you will choose, it's for the betterment of all of us. That is all.”

And the man’s hope had also aligned with hers as well.