Elise had been reminded by the cook, an old elf woman, that today was her first day at school. After eating her meal, which had been quite tasty, she had hurried into the room that was to be her new classroom. She had found herself in a brightly lit room. It was filled with wooden cupboards containing a variety of toys and dolls. But what was unexpected was that Elise discovered several stones and other materials, from unfamiliar and colourful gems to simple things like bricks or mortar. Even more interesting was the sword made of an unknown material hanging on the wall. It looked like it was made of wood, but it clearly wasn't.

The young girl sat down and yawned. Elise still felt tired. Today was going to be a really exciting day and that was why she hadn't slept much. She remembered that Gustav had told her that she was not the only student he would be teaching. If she remembered correctly, there would be another girl her age.

But Gustav certainly seemed to be late. She sighed and pulled out her deep pocket before grabbing her trusty metal pen. She loved her pen, but it sadly needed replacing. It was about to break apart and perhaps her sheer willpower or love was holding it together.

The young girl eyed the stack of blank papers in front of her and reached for one.

"Gosh, I should have done this weeks ago," she thought. Elise looked at the deep pocket and quietly chanted her first wild spell, Sight. She didn't know why, but somehow Sight worked quite well in combination with the deep pocket. It allowed her to look inside it and see its contents. That was extremely helpful.

"Three bags of spider silk, rotting flesh, I might have to throw that away," she thought, writing these things down, "Dark steel blade, probably needs cleaning and sharpening, but I don't have any whetstones. What a shame. I'll probably have to buy one or ask one of the people who work here if they have some to spare. Maybe mum can bring one from the armoury? That's a good idea, probably."

Elise made a mental note and circled the word 'whetstone'. It was of great importance that she took care of the sword. It wasn't just a gift. No, it was something she treasured. Her beloved sword helped her earn money, made it easier for her to kill things and was a wonderful tool to protect herself.

She dipped the pen into the ink bottle and waited for it to be refilled. It was a wonderful mechanism, and it didn't work with magic. It was simply marvellous that such a great tool could be made without magic. She really wanted to thank its inventor.

Seconds passed and the young girl noticed that her pen was filled with ink. She took it out and looked in her deep pocket. Elise murmured, "A handful of herbs, most of which I could sell to an alchemist, others I could also keep them for use in cooking ... which I have yet to master."

She sighed. She had completely neglected that. She was sure that Heidi wouldn't be too pleased. But Elise surely had some time before Heidi would come to visit.

The door opened, the ensuing gust of wind almost hurled the stack of papers across the room. But fortunately that did not happen. She looked up and Gustav had entered the room. He was breathing heavily, almost as if he had been running for a long time. He looked at her, then at the empty chair beside her, and finally asked, "I take it Jacobina is not here?"

"The margrave's daughter?" asked Elise. She had heard that name many times from the other servants, "I haven't seen her here. Is she your other pupil?"

Elise unfortunately didn't know what the girl looked like either. She had only seen the Margrave a few times. She mostly saw some maids and a handful of butlers. Yet she had never seen the Margrave's wife or any of his children, except Miss Selena. It was understandable that she had not seen his other children. They did not live in Aschen. They lived in Königsfeld, the capital of Borussia. Some even lived elsewhere.

"Yes, it is. But it's very unfortunate that she's not here," Gustav murmured before setting down a heavy bag. It was so heavy that Elise could feel the vibration through the table.

"Elise," he continued, "I'm going to look for her. Could you be so kind as to take out the books? There should be two copies of each book."

She nodded and said, "Sure."

"Wonderful," Gustav replied, "you are a great student. Thank you."

He left the room and unfortunately forgot to close the door. That was annoying, but Elise could ignore it. Maybe she should have closed the door instead, but she really didn't feel like walking to the door and back. It was just a waste of time.

Elise opened the white bag. It felt quite cold, which was quite strange. It was probably leather, either drake or wyvern. The leather was quite thick. So it was most likely made of drake skin. Wyvern skin wasn't that thick, since wyverns were weaker than drakes.

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She really wondered why Gustav had such an expensive material and he had used it for a bag. The book on monster materials, it was out of date but something she had read because Heinz had given it to her for her fifth birthday, had claimed that the skin of a drake was often used for durable leather armour. This type of armour was equivalent to plate armour made of moderately enchanted steel.

But although these armors were much easier to wear due to their lighter weight, armour made of drake leather was extremely expensive. It was so expensive that Heinz had seen very few people wearing such armour.

Elise took out the books and looked at the titles. Most of the books were about magic. They were quite clean and appeared rather modern. Or Gustav really took care of the books he had. There were also some books on history and maths. The last remaining books were about alchemy and monsters.

There were two books she had almost missed. These had been at the bottom of the bag. The books were rather thin and were about ...

Elise frowned.

... the history of the Euros. But the books seemed quite thin. The books on the history of the Empire had been thicker by far and there had been at least twenty volumes in Heidi's little library.

Elise carefully put the books down and put a copy down next to herself and Jacobina's place. She scratched her head and wondered how long she would have to wait, hopefully not too long.

Almost ten minutes passed before Gustav entered the room. He held a wriggling girl under his arm and carried it as if it were a log. The young girl tried to free herself, but her attempts were futile.

"I take it you are Jacobina?" asked Elise, looking at her closely. The girl was probably a little older than her. She was maybe the same height as her. It was hard to tell because the girl was still fidgeting. Elise noticed that the girl's skincolour was constantly changing.

The girl stopped fidgeting and answered, "I am Miss Jacobina van Aschen."

The annoyance in her voice had been clearly audible. Although Elise did not know the reasons for her annoyance, she could not help but feel irritated. Why was this girl so arrogant?

"Miss Jacobina van Aschen," Elise said, "I am honoured to meet you. My name is Elise Anker. But you can call me Elise if that's easier for you. Titles really are a nuisance when talking to others your age."

The girl's skin colour changed from a light brown to a bright red. When Elise saw this, she wondered if this was normal among the Effus or just something their children did because they couldn't fully control the features of their skin.

"Elise and Jacobina," Gustav said, lowering Jacobina, "under my care, your origins don't matter. Here you will learn everything you need to know to become mages, or perhaps knights."

"I don't want to become a knight," Jacobina interrupted, "Selena says I have no talent with a sword."

"I did not give you permission to interrupt me, young girl," Gustav replied sternly.

"From today, I am your teacher and instructor. I am not a great mage and not necessarily a scholar, but I passed the exam. I had eighty points in the theoretical and sixty in the practical entrance examination. Your aim should be to surpass that. The Major General has promised to give you something if you succeed," he explained.

"What?" Elise asked. Learning was amazing, but gifts were certainly even more amazing.

"A gift," Gustav replied with a smile.

"What kind of gift?" Elise asked in return. She loved gifts.

Would they perhaps give her a suit of armour? She loved the shining armour of the knights who had accompanied her on her journey to Aschen. Or would she perhaps receive some kind of magical artefact?

"A secret," Gustav stated dryly, "that you two will never get if we don't start, so why should I tell you?"

"Splendid," Jacobina murmured, "you seem to have quite a bit of faith in us."

She glanced at the books in front of her and said, "I assume the books here are what we need to achieve your very modest goal."

Gustav grinned, but he could not suppress his amusement for long and began to laugh. After a few seconds he calmed down and said quietly, "No, these are for your first two years. You still have four or five years to go. But that depends on how fast you both learn."

He looked at Elise and added, "Even if you already know something, you can deepen your understanding and read more. If I deem you worthy enough, you can try to do one of the mock exams I still have to create."

"Will do," Elise replied. "Do we get anything if we pass it?"

"Elise, you may take an item from the armoury," he replied.

That meant that the gift for passing the entrance exam to the academy with better grades than his would surely result in a much greater gift. It annoyed her deeply that he wouldn't say what they would get.

"What about me?" asked Jacobina, "I don't like fighting. I like animals much more."

"Your fa, um, the Margrave has managed to get his hands on the egg of an exotic animal. You can get it if you behave, study and also pass more than three of the five mock exams."

He added, "This also means that you are not allowed to leave the castle during class. Also, you must not start any mischief and you must be here on time. That means no hiding and no running away. Understood?"

"Yes?" said Jacobina, pouting, "But I really wanted to go to the stables."

"You can do that after class," he replied, followed by a loud sigh.

"So," Elise asked, "when do we start?"

Gustav looked at the clock hanging on the wall and said, "Right ... now. Please open to the first page of 'History of Euros'. We will read it only briefly, and then we will jump to the next topics. I doubt that the contents of this book will be very important in the exam, but they will help you understand more about the continent you live on. It would be a shame if you are in the Crimson Republic only to find out that half of their military hates us while the other half hates themselves."

"That would be most unfortunate," said the angry voice, "for them, not for me and you, Elise."

Elise ignored the voice and opened her book. It was time to learn something new. As much as she liked to fight, reading and learning something wasn't so bad. The angry voice objected vehemently, but gave up rather quickly. There wasn't much that could change Elise's opinion, an angry voice in her head clearly was no such thing.