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The day has finally come, the convoy crests the hill, and in the distance, I see the gleaming white walls of the kingdom’s capital, sprawled around the pristine white walls, were acres upon acres of farmland with farmers hard at work in the mid-morning sun.

As we got closer, I soon realized Dad was right, these walls completely dwarfed Earl Beaufort’s.

After getting past the main gate, I looked up ahead to see another set of high walls elevated atop a hill, and within those walls was the Royal palace, resplendent and majestic with its tall spires reaching to the sky.

Just as I was about done admiring the palace, the convoy turned left of the main road and the view of the Royal palace was cut off by the buildings that lined the road.

It was then that I got to take a look at the people that made up the capital. The majority of them were human, but in the mix were gnomes, halflings, beast folk of all kinds, and even a few of the races that usually prefer to stay in their territory, like the elves to their hidden forests and dwarves to their mountain halls.

And I know what most people are thinking, gnomes and halflings are basically the same thing, essentially tiny people, but that could not be further from the truth. Though they are similar in stature, they differ in body shape and culture greatly.

Gnomes in general are more slender in build, and with them being short, it does not speak to physical excellence. But for what they lack in physical might, they make up for with higher than average magical potential and sharp creative minds that sometimes teeter into madness when it comes to tinkering with magic and machines, this usually happens to a good number of gnomish artificers, which leads to many explosions, which unfortunately leads to their insurance premium rates skyrocketing.

Is it racist that gnomish artificers need to pay higher insurance premium rates? Yes, but as Grandma explained, “In the past, the insurance companies were burned 1 too many times because those insane little gnomes blow something up every few months when “Inspiration” takes hold of them. But I made good money when I was hired by an insurance company to set up defensive arrays to contain their mad tinkering.”

I will need to ask Grandma about the rates she charged the insurance companies for her services. If the insurance companies here are anything like those from my old world, they must be loaded, and I could make some serious coin.

As for halflings, they are slightly shorter than gnomes on average, but unlike gnomes, halflings do not have a knack for magic in general. Sure, they could cast magic like anyone else, but they could not do it for extended periods of time or use big spells due to their innately low mana capacity.

To make up for this, halflings are stockier and quick on their feet. They usually work as thieves, assassins, spies, or any other sneaky profession.

Now, one might think having a race of people that excels in doing these less than honorable jobs would be horrible for their reputation as a race, and you would be absolutely correct. But to balance this out, halflings excel in another area that everyone can appreciate.

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The Culinary Arts.

There is a famous saying in this world, “There is no such thing as a thin halfling chef.”, it is a stereotypical saying but true. Food is an extremely important part of their culture, it is so ingrained in their culture that when halfling families, restaurants, or even individual food stands have feuds, they would settle things with public cook-offs and let the public be the judge, and while mages and mage towers horde spells, halflings jealously guard their many family recipes and are even willing to die to defend it.

Among high nobility, if you did not have at least 1 halfling among your kitchen staff, was your family even worthy of being called high nobility and not some border noble? Git Gud, scrub!

As for the beastfolk, they were 2nd to humans in population and came in many sub-species, there were dogfolk (they would always insist on being called Wolffolk), catfolk, lizardfolk, and many others, even Emma and her family back home would be classified as beastfolk.

But besides the usual beastfolk that I was used to seeing, my eyes lit up as I caught sight of something I had only seen in books so far, what could only be theorized as a divergent evolution from the usual beastfolk. Walking on the sidewalk, weaving between the people of the capital that towered over them, were cats, dogs, raccoons, and other normal-sized animals walking on 2 legs.

Now, when I say normal-sized animals, I mean straight up mean a slightly bigger than avrage house cat walking upright, wearing a cute vest with an appropriate-sized backpack strapped on its back. These cute animals walking around simply called themselves, The Kin, and the only thing that different shades them from their more mundane animal counterparts were slight differences in their skeletal structure to allow them comfortable bipedal walking, and the look of intelligence in their eyes.

The Kin counted themselves as beastfolk and usually kept to their villages in the woods, only coming into human settlements to trade the bounty of the forest for goods and items they needed.

As my eyes were glued to the cute Kin, I felt the impulse to burst out of the carriage and kidnap 1 of them to give pets and belly rubs, but I restrained myself, mainly because I caught sight of another 2 races I had not seen in person before.

Elves, from what I read, they are a somewhat insular people, preferring to stick to their forests to be among nature rather than the bustle of urban sprawl, but there were always a few that felt different and integrated into the wider society, these elves were usually appointed as a diplomat or point of contact by different elf villages.

Then there were the dwarves. These dwarves, despite their impressive beards, were most likely young dwarves who came out of their mountain to experience the wider world before they returned to their great halls, it is somewhat similar to the Amish’s Rumspringa back in my old world.

When some years have passed, the young dwarf would return home without question. Rare is the dwarf that stays in the outside world. When asked what they are going home to, no dwarf has ever answered even under the pain of torture or death, even the rare dwarf that stays in the outside world guards this secret dearly while having a look of shame when asked.

***

Finally, after many turns on the road, the convoy of carriages comes to a stop in front of the gates to the Royal Academy at the behest of a guard holding up his hand and shouting “Halt!”, but this was not just any guard, this was a fucking gold armor plated Royal Guard that I thought was only seen in the Royal palace.

But then again, it is the Royal Academy, so I should not be so surprised it is guarded by Royal Guards.

Albert the Royal Invigilator comes up to the Royal Guards, he showed them something in his hand while speaking to them, and shortly after, we were waved through the gate.

And so starts my school life… again… wait a minute, I was homeschooled so that does not count, and university does not count either, everyone there were adults by then. So could this count as my 1st school experience as a kid?