“It’s stuff like that that got you kidnapped the first time!” Breale cried. “By the Star, what are you even thinking sometimes?”

I smiled sheepishly as we walked through the main gates of the campus proper. The others had apparently been thrown for a panic after I’d run off unexpectedly like that, and they’d spent the rest of the walk through the academy town chastising me for it.

“I thought you’d been enchanted.” Auro agreed, poking my arm. “What if you’d been assaulted!”

“It was just a residential street.” I said. “It was a dead end anyway.”

‘That… that makes it worse!” Auro cried.

“The academy town should be almost as safe as the campus.” Francis said. “I wouldn’t worry too much about something as horrible as that happening on our watch.”

“See? I was perfectly safe.”

“And yet.” Francis continued, offering me a hard look. “I wouldn’t be so quick to run after potential danger if I were ye. It is not a great habit to have.”

“Eh yeah, of course…”

We fell into silence as we continued. After we’d cleared the open gates of the main campus, the buildings had melted away to make room for expansive gardens and plazas. White-branch bushes and hedges rose up like walls around us, hiding the rest of the campus from view with flowers of bright grey and thorny thistles. As with all public places in Verol, the sound of gentle water was commonplace, and we passed several small plazas with fountains and benches on our way forward. The path was not straight as one would expect from the grounds of a high class garden, but winding and confusing to go through.

It was only when the hedges cleared away did we catch our first glimpse of the main lecture hall.

“I thought it’d be… bigger.” I said.

“And this covers all of the kingdom’s nobility?” Breale asked.

When I had heard about this place from everyone and about all its importance, I had never imagined that my high school would be bigger. It was only two stories and a was a little shorter than a football field, nowhere near large enough to even hold everyone in the small attached town outside.

It looked solid enough, though. It followed the cliff’s shape with rigid straight walls made of stone and white plaster, while the roof seemed to have more expensive looking tiles than the cheap blue shingles I’d seen before. Even the glyphwork on the walls was more intricate and finely carved than the common houses in the capital, even if they were more muted and dim. Regular struts in the minuan fashion curved away from the walls to hold up roofs balconies outside, and dozens of windows were implanted in its side.

“What? How many nobles do you think there are?” Auro frowned. “Especially those of the age to be admitted here.”

“More than this…” Breale said.

“Maybe a thousand overall?” I offered. “The town’s certainly big enough for that many.”

After all, it wasn’t just duke and count children who were forced to go through with this indoc… I mean ‘schooling’. Everyone from the prince to the knight’s son whose father owned a single farm was to be here, and that wasn’t even counting all the relatives of nobles who hung around leeching off of the family’s rents. People kind of like Saphry, actually.

“Then ye’d be wrong.” Francis said. “As of today, we have just over a hundred in attendance, and that is our largest assembly in the history of Kelrione.”

“Exactly. The population’s only ever increased since the middle of the age, but it hasn’t increased by that much.” Auro said.

“A hundred?” I asked. “[Christ], the entire town outside is just for a hundred people?”

Auro grinned.

“Minua’s done an impressive job, hasn’t she? A real grand city.”

“Indeed, it would be strange to expect the nation’s future protectors to make do with less.” Breale said. “That’s what my brother would say, I think.”

“Exactly!” Auro nodded enthusiastically. “There is no way the heart of Lmeri schooling could be poorer equipped than the Brepolese or Mistren academies. Or heavens forbid the Burgund.”

Francis stopped suddenly and bowed towards us.

“I suppose I should leave ye here then.” He said politely. “I should return to the gate before long.

Oh? That was a quick change of subject, wasn’t it Mr. Guard? Perhaps it wasn’t safe for the peasantry to engage with talk like that.

“Oh, so soon?” Breale sounded disappointed. “I guess we’ll pick up later?”

“If ye wish, my lady.” Francis nodded towards us and turned back towards the path.

We watched him go until he disappeared behind a hedge.

“What a grand soldier.” Auro said. ”Way more dutiful than he first looked too.”

“Perhaps he just thought it strange to be escorting us around?” Breale asked. “Didn’t want rumours to fly, maybe?”

“Ah, that sounds about right.” Auro started leading us down a left path. “Hey, let’s get to the dorms, alright? They have such a strange method for dinner, you wouldn’t…”

I raised an eyebrow at the exchange. Was it not obvious to them why he’d left so suddenly? It seemed pretty cut and dry that it was because of what we were talking about. I mean, it would be surprising that some people would see the waste here for what it was and though I was probably reading too much into things, I was sure that not everyone in Verol believed in the divinity of their rulers.

At least, for their own futures I hoped they didn’t.

The two of them walked a little further ahead, absorbed in their conversation.

It wasn’t that obvious. Gideon thought, apparently having caught my look. Especially not to those who live like Auro and Breale. Nobles aren’t all bad people, but their position can blind them to certain realities.

“Really?” I scoffed quietly. “Noble privilege seems endless.”

Many of the people actually administrating deserve a lot of those privileges. Gideon said. You should see what the eastern counts in Doux-Burgund have to deal with. Or Erithine and Cinion for that matter. The eastern passes are practically warzones.

“I doubt it’s that-” I gestured generically towards the town. “-much harder. Imagine how some blacksmith feels, or heavens forbid a farming serf.”

The vast majority of farmers are freedmen. There was a lot of land to go about after the beginning of this age. They only pay taxes for the most part.

“Yeah, yeah. [Potato potato]. Politically, they might as well be serfs.” I scoffed. “It’s still a little disheartening how wasteful this all is. I mean most of these people will never inherit! They certainly won’t be working that hard.”

That seems a little much coming from the neet princess herself.

“Princess? I’ve had nothing but trouble since I’ve gotten here. Now if you’d said ‘modern american citizen’ I’d see your point, but…”

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Ah, sorry about that. Gideon shook his head. By the Star, it seems so long ago now.

“By the Star?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you’ve converted already.”

Gideon tilted his snout in thought.

Why not? I’ve seen some of its miracles already, that’s much more than you can say for a lot of things. I’m almost of the mind that it’s the only reason you’re still alive after everything that’s happened.

I stopped and held the drake up in front of me.

“Woah, woah, woah!” I said, shaking him a little with each word. “What’re you trying to say? We’ve only been here two months!”

Gideon had never really been a very devout person, but something like this was more than a little shocking. I wasn’t sure it was ever a conversation we’ve actually had before, but he’d always struck me as an uncaring kind of guy, so for him to suddenly start believing in some whacky pagan star-thing? Madness!

Certainly feels longer to me. It’s almost like we’ve been here all our life.

I furrowed my brow..

“Dude, we really need to find a way to block your memory transfers. It’s starting to get scary.”

Scary? What could possibly be scary about-

“You’ve called me ‘princess’ or ‘Saphry’ for weeks now.” I interrupted. “Isn’t that terrifying to you? Doesn’t it feel like you’re starting to be more ‘Silst’ than ‘Gideon? That you might wake up one day and decide that being a dragon is better than seeing your family again?”

No? I’m still the same person, Ryder. Nothing about me’s been corrupted or whatever weird notion you’ve gotten in your head. Flying is… nice I’ll admit, but it is nothing in comparison to the conveniences of the modern world. I mean, we don’t even have toilets here!

“Saphry, you coming?”

I waved ahead to the two of them. They had made it to the end of a hedge row before they’d noticed my departure.

“Go on! I’ll catch up in a second!”

“Don’t be long!” Auro called.

“And don’t make us search for you again!” Brealle added.

I turned back to the drake.

“I’m serious. I don’t want to stay here forever.” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t be going native on me.”

It’s not like I’m going to stop trying to get that potion recipe, or start wanting to stay. In fact, haven’t you been more frightening on that front? Sometimes I even feel like you’re trying to sabotage us. Have you even looked up how to find gold yet? Why am I the one doing all the work?

“What do you expect me to do? We’ve been on the road ever since we left the capital! And don’t change the subject! This is about your mind, not our plan!”

You just don’t understand. Gideon sighed. If you were to experience more memories I’m sure you’d feel be-

“And that’s almost as terrifying.” I said. “What, that I should just accept turning into Saphry?”

That is not how this works. There is no invisible force forcing either of us into a mould, nor are our personalities changing any more than you’d expect from spending a month abroad. I’m still Gideon and you’re still an idiot.

“Rude. But fine.”

Silst certainly wouldn’t be having this conversation with me if Saphry’s memories were anything to go by, so Gideon was probably still fine. My initial worries about our hosts mind-controlling us back were not very likely.

Still, he had been getting mixed up a lot over the last few days. Silst’s memory seemed to be almost boundless to a simple human like me, one that I knew would change Gideon if it kept going on like that. It was also telling me that Silst was way older than Saphry had actually known.

Now if you were to start getting the hots for some-

“And I am no longer listening! They said the dorm, right?”

…

“What do you mean, ‘not in the same room’?” I demanded. “I thought you were excited!”

Auro shifted uncomfortably, regret blossoming over her face.

Surprisingly, the dorm had turned out to be a larger building than even the main campus, both in length and number of rooms. It was built with the same format against the southern cliff, with two ‘wings’ on either side of the main hall. Countless rooms were built against the open air side connected to a central hallway not unlike a hotel. The main hall had been nice, with a dozen bookshelves and couches for seating as well as a kitchenette under the grand stairs on either side of the room. The roofs were somewhat short, with thick beams of wood just eight feet or so above the floor. It all tended to a comfy vibe, one that I was sure was carefully crafted by the architects.

We were currently standing halfway down the leftmost wing where we had suddenly stopped when Auro had dropped the news.

“I m-mean I arrived on time…” She swayed nervously. “So my room filled up already.”

“Just switch.” Breale yawned, bored. “They probably won’t say anything.”

“I-I can’t!” Auro cried, quieting when a couple girls glanced into the hall from the main room. “They’d think I hate them.”

“So?” Breale asked.

“So I can’t do that!”

Breale sighed.

“This is why I hate politics. Everything’s much better if everyone just stops caring so much.”

“Agreed.” I said. “Why should you care what they think anyway?”

If Auro wanted to switch rooms, would that really be such a big deal? People switched dorms all the time back when I was in college, and just about nobody took it personal. Actually, people almost always welcomed it because it meant they had more room to themselves.

“Do you two know nothing of diplomacy?!” Auro whispered. “I’m roomed with important people! Count Aylicin’s daughter Aline is in my room! I can’t just burn that bridge!”

“I have literally no idea who that is.” I said plainly.

“He rules a count near Fanula.” Breale explained. “Just south of Lake Fan if I recall. Aline even inherits.”

“Oh really? That is kind of big, isn’t it?”

“That’s why I can’t.” Auro said. “Father would kill me if he heard about it. And he would hear about it.”

I clicked my tongue.

Honestly, it probably didn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t like we’d be far, nor was it ever a bad idea to make new friends. It still felt a little disappointing after Auro had hyped it up though.

“Then there’s nothing to be done for it.” I pat Auro on the back. “We’ll still see each other in classes, I suppose.”

The other two looked at me strangely.

“What?”

“Your classes are based on your dorm.” Auro said. “So we won’t be in homeroom together. We might be in some classes, but I have a feeling we aren’t good at the same sorts of things.”

“Ah, that sucks… But why would our skills matter?”

“Each class sends representative…” Auro paused. “Ah, well it might be better to let your class leader explain it tomorrow. But basically, if you aren’t good at political theory we won’t be in the same class.”

I snorted.

“Political theory? Probably not.”

“Yeah, same here.” Breale said.

Why would I want to be good at corruption and betrayal anyway?

“So I guess we’ll just see each other after classes then.” Auro gestured towards the door beside us. “And if I remember correctly you actually have a roommate to meet.”

“Ah, I almost forgot! We would’ve had one if we’d all arrived at the same time anyway, wouldn’t we?” Breale asked.

Auro nodded, and I leered at the door nervously. Meeting a new roommate was always a stressful affair. I’d actually gotten really lucky pulling the SSR that was Gideon on my first semester in Chicago. I just hoped that luck would be consistent.

“Do you know who? They’re not a dick, right?”

“S-saphry!” Auro cried. “Language!”

“Eh, sorry I mean a jerk.”

Internally I cursed Fredrick.

“She’s nice! Now stop dawdling!”

Auro pushed the two of us closer to the door and stepped away expectantly. With one last glance at each other, Breale and I pushed into the room.

The room was a little larger than I had expected, about forty percent larger than the dorm I’d shared with Gideon back in Chicago. The walls were panelled with whitewood, and a bay window looking over some balcony behind the dorm took up most of the back wall. There were two tall dressers close to the door with a great many drawers each, and a low table surrounded by pillows sat in the middle of the room. A bunk-bed stood on both the left and right walls, each of them constructed with sturdy ash coloured wood, each one with some shelving at the head. An unstrung longbow leaned against the rightmost bed frame.

And sitting on the top bunk of the rightmost bed with a book in her hands was our new roommate.

Long black hair flowed down from her head to the bed, curly and wild. She had a sharp face and thick eyebrows over gold eyes. Her skin was fair and unblemished, and she currently wore a stripped down version of the uniform.

Most importantly, her ears were slightly pointed at the ends.

“Y-you’re an [elf]!” I cried immediately. “An actual [elf]!”