The morning after the academy tests, Mia, dressed in red clothes adorned with embroidered carps, made her way to the academy alongside Onyx. A grin played on her lips as she reveled in the news that she could now bring her wolf companion with her.
Walking confidently through the academy gates, she couldn't help but notice the curious looks directed their way, mainly due to Onyx's imposing presence. While a few students had animals with them, Mia's large wolf drew a lot of attention.
What struck her even more was the transformation of the entrance area. It had evolved from a bare field into a vibrant park adorned with patches of colorful flowers, lush green grass, trees, benches, gazebos, and even a sparkling fountain. The beauty of it captivated Mia, although she noted that it reduced the available space for activities.
She soon found the scoreboards displaying the test results and directions to their first destination. Mia had secured the 48th position in the written test, 350th in the physical assessment, and, to no one's surprise, first place in the magical test. She was pleased with her results but remained grounded, knowing that replicating such a feat consistently would be challenging.
Following the directions, Mia arrived at a classroom on the first floor of the governance building, and, to her surprise, she found that the students inside were of various races and ages. It became evident that this place was not bound by the conventional educational norms of her old life; instead, meritocracy reigned supreme.
As she entered the room, the gazes of her classmates fell upon her, making her slightly nervous.
“Hello everyone. I am Mia and this is Onyx. He is a very good boy. He is also smart and shiny.” Mia said as brightly as she could. Most of the students there gave a small ''hello'' back and nothing more, probably due to the shock of the scene.
Shortly thereafter, a professor entered, and everyone quickly took their seats, ready to receive instructions.
“Uhn, hello. Sorry to interrupt all of you but I am just here to pass a message. As of today you are part of the special class. This means that unlike the other students, your curriculum will be a lot different. Mostly because it wouldn't really help all of you much.” The professor said. Some of the older looking students couldn't help but to agree with the man.
“The actual person in charge of all of you is a little late so you have around 1 hour of free time. Feel free to talk with each other a little. I heard you will need more teamwork than normal.” The professor said before taking his leave.
Not long after he left, an elf boy approached Mia, he didn't look that much older than her.
“My name is Moon! Fight me!” He boldly said as Mia took a good look at him. He was approximately 155 cm tall. He had fair skin, silver eyes and short straight dark hair not going past the base of his shoulder. He was using some sort of military uniform like a lot of people Mia saw here and outside.
“...No. Why would I fight you?” Mia answered and then asked as neutrally as possible.
“You coward! Fight me so I can show who is the superior one here!” He shouted angrily three other students grabbed him and pinned him down on the other end of the classroom.
With Moon restrained on the opposite side of the classroom, other students began to approach Mia, introducing themselves one by one.
First were two older girls, both around 16. The first girl was fair skinned, blonde-haired with black eyes, wearing her hair in twin ponytails that nearly reached her waist. She appeared Western in appearance, and her well-endowed figure was striking. The second girl was a cat-girl, her orange fur marked with occasional black spots. The cat-girl was on the more balanced side of the beast-people Mia has seen so far. She was a cat with a lot of humanoid features. Her face resembled a cat a lot but not enough to not look human. Both wore similar clothes, a buttoned white shirt with their sleeves folded to reach their elbows along with something Mia deduced as horse riding pants and boots.
“Hello! My name is Narissa and this is Shishen.” The blond girl said as she introduced herself. “Hello.” The cat-girl said energetically.
“You were incredible, I never saw anything like you did yesterday.” Narissa said like a fan-girl.
“Yeah! And you are adorable. Let me Hug you!” Shishen added. Mia just nodded at the request. Narissa and Shishen jumped on the opportunity and began to hug and pet Mia like a cute pet. Mia didn't really mind it.
“I guess I am next. My name is Cassandra, the one who will be the greatest merchant of all time. You seem to have potential, why not forge a work contract with me? I promise a very good pay.” The girl, Cassandra, said.She was a dwarf girl who closely resembled the stereotypical image of a rich, blonde girl with drill twintails, though her hair was brown. She wore clothes that exuded an air of affluence. Her dress was almost sparkling. At least it wasn't a full gala dress, so she can still do physical activities in it.
“Hello... My parents said that I can't sign any contracts without them.” Mia said to Cassandra who accepted the answer.
The three boys who pinned Moon down returned and introduced themselves.
“My name is Mathias, I am 17 years old. This is Luminus and this is Kaki. We are all here to become Royal Guards like our parents.”
“Hello, I am 16 by the way. And before you ask, my family came from the southern deserts and no I am not black because I am burned.” Kaki said somewhat humorously. Mia basically never saw black people around so his explanation shed light into some things.
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“Good Morning ladies. I am also 16 years old.” Luminus said. Mia wondered if it was somewhat important that they said their ages.
Mathias was the tallest one 180 cm tall, with really dark green hair and yellow eyes. He looks like someone who was really pale and got a really basic tan. He was also very muscular and along with his face, it reminded Mia of how Koreans were depicted in older movies.
Luminus was a pretty boy. He was around 165 cm tall. He was also very skinny, even with all the muscle he clearly had. He had long blonde hair that he didn't tie up and went almost to his feet, it somehow contrasted really well with his white skin. He had a more western look. He could see him coming from the same place as his mother, whatever that place was.
Kaki was around 170 cm tall. He had really short black hair and dark brown eyes. All three of them were using the same type of military uniform and were with swords on their hips.
“Hello and thanks for helping me deal with Mister Fighting over there.” Mia said while pointing to Moon.
“No problem.” Mathias said. “Man shouldn't be picking fights with little girls.” Luminus added. “He is lucky that I can't walk around with my spear.” Kaki also added.
Soon after, a shy boy approached the group. Unlike everyone in the room, his clothes were really basic, good leather pants and a white cotton shirt, just a step above poor people's clothes in terms of quality. He was around 160 tall, somewhat thin, he was also a little pale but color seems to be returning to him. His hair was a black mane going to his shoulders, it was really unkempt.
“Hello, I am Klaws. Can I pet you wolf?” The boy shyly asked.
“Sure.” Mia answered. As the boy began to lose himself in Onyx fur, Mia noticed that he had signs of recovering from malnutrition. This wasn't something you could forget how it looked once you saw enough so Mia was sure. 'At least he is well on his way to recovery by the looks of things' Mia thought to herself.
“I guess I am the last one. Greetings, my name is Katia, nice to meet you.” The beast-girl named Katia said. She was a rhino-girl and looked exactly what most of the people in her old world would think a beast-girl would look like. She was pretty much a human with some animal characteristics. Besides her animal characteristics, appearance wise, she was a perfect mix of black and white ethnicities. She had curly medium length dark orange hair and black eyes. She had a small horn growing from her human nose and her ears were normal rhino ears that were hidden by her hair. The strangest thing of all is that she had this really strange gray skin that looked both like human skin and rhino skin at the same time. She was just a few centimeters taller than Mia, around 145 cm. She was also using some kind of military uniform as it looked similar to the boys who wanted to be royal guards.
“Hello. You look cute.” Mia said to Katia. The beast-girl didn't really know how to react so she accepted the compliment in silence.
“Now that everyone has already said their hellos, let's discuss how cute Mia is.” Narissa said. Shishen seemed to agree.
“I am more interested in knowing why we were selected to be part of this class.” Cassandra said.
“It's because we are probably the best. You are still below me but maybe you are good enough to be near me.” Moon talked out loud from the wall. Everyone went silent for a second.
“He might not be completely wrong. The three of us were the top 3 students in terms of fighting ability for the last 2 years.” Mathias said while implying his two friends.
“Shishen was selected as the best student mage last year, wasn't she?” Narissa asked.
“And you are the only person who managed to finish that war simulation without dying.” Shishen said to Narissa.
“It does seem that this is a class for the top achievers then.” Katia said.
“That doesn't explain you two. I know that you two weren't particularly good in the entrance tests. Katia, your best ranking was in the physical test where you ranked 295. As for Klaws, he did just a little better than you in the physical test giving him the 280th position. His test scores were almost the worst though.” Cassandra explained.
“Sorry about that. I pretty much learned how to read, write and do math around 2 months ago.” Klaws said really apologetic.
“That's not a problem to me. Everyone starts somewhere and you are here so the least I can do is respect the opinion of the professors.”
“Now that you have approached the subject somewhat. I am curious about you Mia. Who trained you?” Mathias asked.
“In what exactly?” Mia asked back.
“Magic, of course!” Pretty much everyone said.
“No one really.”
“You can tell us, it's not like we are going to leave the academy to find your teacher.” Cassandra said.
“No, really. Nobody trained me in magic. My father and a good mister showed me the basics of cultivation. An old lady in my hometown taught me about survival and medicine but nobody ever said a word to me about magic.” Mia said without a drop of superiority. She was really just stating facts. Sadly, not everyone saw it that way.
“There is nothing worse than a lady who thinks she is better than the others.” Luminus said.
“If you can't say, just say so. This is a waste of time.” Katia said.
“Pin her to the wall too!” Moon shouted.
With that the three of them formed their little group on the other side of the classroom. Luminus and Katia even freed Moon.
“Sorry about that idiot. He really doesn't like when he can't do something to seem superior to others. As much as he is good with magic, he had extensive training to reach where he is now.” Mathias explained.
“Pretty boy needs to shine.” Kaki added.
“I just don't get why they seem so offended by it. It is the truth and getting angry at the truth is like getting angry that water is wet. It's a waste of time.” Mia said to the group.
The group continued to converse, but soon they each began doing their own thing, waiting for their professor to arrive. It seemed that none of them really understood why they were placed in the special class, a fact that alarmed them all, considering their collective desire to graduate from the academy. Their skills probably had some part in their placement there but there was nothing besides that. Only Mia remained somewhat oblivious to the implications, as she had no understanding of how things typically worked.
The two girls who had taken a liking to Mia continued to pamper and hug her, enveloping her in their warm affection.
Finally, the room's entrance opened again, revealing a dark elf woman with light purple skin and tribal-like dark purple marks across her body. Her striking red eyes and silver hair cascading to her back made her a captivating figure. Unlike the other professors, she wore an attire reminiscent of a kimono with modifications for ease of movement.
“Good morning everyone. My name is Mirai, until about an hour ago I was the vice-principal but as of now I am the professor in charge of all of you. Don't ask the reason, I can't say them even to you. I hope you enjoyed your little break. Time for class to start. Our first lesson will be about magic.”