“Are you not hungry, my darling?” The man was smiling warmly at me.

The food did look ok, I mean it was just bread and a couple slices of meat.

“Sorry I wasn’t feeling very well.” I said before picking up a slice of bread and starting to nibble on it. For what it was worth, it was good bread.

My father had gone on and on about how he was so nervous about my first day at school. He asked me how I slept and how I was feeling. I mean, he seemed like a pretty normal guy.

He was a shorter man, probably in the 170cm range. He had a freshly shaved beard with a pencil thin mustache. He honestly looked like a cliche villain. He had dark blue eyes and thinning gray hair. He was skinny, but neatly dressed in velvet.

“I know you’re probably nervous, but Alice will be attending you even at school. I know you’re probably scared after what happened but she will protect you.”

I was starting to get annoyed, not knowing my past was seriously starting to be a problem. Also what does he even mean? I had learned that the “maid girl” was actually Alice. I was still pretty sure that she wasn’t much older than me though. How could she exactly protect me?

I had also confirmed another thing after just being in the room with the two of them for a few minutes. Alice definitely did not like my father.

She did not say anything directly; but everytime my father mentioned something about me, she glared at him.

I couldn’t really understand why either, my father really did seem to care about me. I mean he seemed kind of detached, not much unlike my actual parents, but he cared enough to notice I was uneasy.

“Sir, may I ask how do you plan on getting Emily to school and back. Traditional transportation methods would be very hard on her body.” Alice kept her voice calm and steady when talking to my father.

“Yes well, I did think of this. Is this not something you could take care of, Alice?” My father’s tone was quite a bit colder when talking to Alice. The warmth and smile had faded from his face.

Alice stood there, not able to hide her annoyance at this comment.

“Sir, you know very well that I can not use my magic unregulated until I turn 17.”

Wait a minute, did she just say magic? Nothing at all that I’ve seen so far would suggest that there was magic in this world.

Now that I think about it though, it wasn’t particularly warm outside. Yet the room we were in was comfortable, almost the perfect temperature. There was no fire pit, no vents, no heating elements of any kind.

Did this mean that Alice was a magician? Wait, could I be a magician? Suddenly I had many more questions about this world.

My father let out a large sigh.

“Well, you must make an exception today then. Tomorrow I will arrange for a different mage to teleport you two, but we are running out of time.” He didn’t seem to be asking a question.

“I would really prefer not to-”

“Should the commission come after you I will take responsibility, and that will be that.”

Alice looked like she wanted to argue, but she just bit her lip and gave a bow.

My father looked back at me, and his happy demeanor returned.

“I wish we had more time to talk, but you really must be getting going dear. I will see you tonight. Alice will lead the way, just follow her.”

I guess that was my que to leave.

“Ok then, I love you father.” I said standing up from the table.

The warmth seemed to drain from his face, and his smile turned to a frown. He looked at me like I was the most disgusting thing on the planet. Suddenly I couldn’t move, I was frozen in fear looking at his face.

“Let us be going then Emily.” It was Alice’s voice, she sounded strained, and maybe even a little scared.

And just like that it was over, the color came back to my father’s face as he once again wore his smile.

Alice was already walking towards the door, so I quickly turned to follow her.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Have a good first day, darling.” My father called from behind me. I just kept following Alice, not wanting to look back.

It wasn’t until we had walked to a different room in the manor that I was able to speak.

“Alice, did I say something wrong?” My voice still felt a little shaky, he really did scare me with that look.

She looked taken aback, maybe this wasn’t something that I would typically ask.

“I wouldn’t worry about it Emily, it’s not your fault. Anyways, do you remember how to teleport?” I guess I wasn’t going to be getting anything else from her about what just happened.

I shook my head no

“Very well, then just step into the circle, and hold on to me tightly.”

I wrapped my arms around her stomach. “Like this?”

“That’ll work fine, yes.”

The room we were in was dimly lit. There were a few bookshelves, and in the middle was a glowing blue circle, with a symbol in the middle that kind of looked like the letter P.

“I will start on the count of 3, try to remain calm. 1… 2… 3”

The glow from the blue circle glowed brighter and brighter. It was starting to become uncomfortable to my eyes. The bookshelves lining the walls of the room started to become fuzzy, and the room started to spin.

Tightening my grip on Alice, I closed my eyes. If I kept them open, who knew what would happen. Even with my eyes closed I could still feel my head spinning.

A tugging sensation started to pull at my back. It felt like I was getting crushed from both sides, like we were stuck in a cliche horror trap with walls closing in all around us. It was getting tighter, and tighter, and then… nothing.

“You can let go now, Emily.” I had not realized it but I was probably hurting Alice with how hard I was hanging on to her, or at least I would have been had I not been so weak.

Still holding on, I slowly opened my eyes. We were no longer in the dimly lit room in my fathers manor. Instead we were in a large open room with white walls. We were standing in the middle of a circle. It was just like the circle in the other room, but much bigger.

I finally let go of Alice.

“Where are we?” I wondered out loud.

“You are in the teleportation room of Meryl High-school.” The voice was cold and unattached, and it did not come from Alice.

Turning around I saw a girl who was slightly taller than me. She was dressed in the same uniform that I was in, but she wore a badge pinned to her Blazer.

She had black eyes and black hair that fell to her shoulder. Her face looked completely neutral, like she couldn’t care less about being here.

This was a bad habit of mine, I was always quick to judge people for no reason. It was part of the reason I was so secluded in my old life.

“Hello! Who are you?” I might as well try to be friendly, even though I was awful at talking to people.

“I am Mei, Mei Araha. I am the head of the first years at Meryl High. I am currently overseeing the new student arrivals that are coming through teleportation.”

Geez, everything about this girl was so plain. She spoke in such a matter of fact tone. Head of the first years huh? That must be what her badge was for. Honestly she is just what you would expect out of a top student.

“Hi Mei! Nice to meet you!” I smiled warmly at her. “My name is Emily Moore, and this is my friend, her name is Alice.”

Alice looked at me, tilting her head slightly. Likely she had not been expecting me to refer to her as my friend, but I didn’t want to call her my maid or my servant, it just felt wrong.

To my surprise, Mei’s lips turned upwards into a slight smile. Not what I was expecting at all.

“Well, of course I know who you are, but I must say you are nothing like I expected, Emily Moore.” Her voice sounded like it had a little life to it now.

“What were you expecting?” I was genuinely curious what people thought of me. Also I wanted to know just how important I was supposed to be. This girl had basically just said it was obvious what my name was, just by looking at me.

“If… If I may be honest, I expected you to completely ignore me. People of such high standing would rarely talk to someone who isn’t of noble birth.”

Now I was just confused

“But you said that you’re the top student? That’s much more impressive than being born well off, isn’t it?” I said flatly.

Mei looked completely taken aback.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. Did I say something wrong? I mean I just said what should be obvious to anyone.

I looked up at Alice, who looked like she was trying not to laugh.

Alice cleared her throat

“Forgive me Miss Araha, but I think that you will find Emily is not someone who particularly cares about her status, or anyone else’s for that matter. I wager we are the final ones to come through given what time it is already, so could I entrust Miss Moore to you?”

This must have brought Mei back to reality.

“Oh.. Of course! Sorry I was really surprised there.” She was smiling at me now, it was hard to imagine that this was the girl from a couple of minutes ago.

“Well then, Emily I must talk to the faculty on your father’s behalf. Do you remember how to contact me in an emergency?”

Well, that’s a problem. There’s no way that the real Emily would have forgotten something like this. As it stood though, I had no idea what Alice was talking about.

I nodded my head. I mean after all we are just high school students, nothing that bad could happen.

“Very well, I will leave you two here then, do try to have fun on your first day of school.”

And then she walked towards the tall wooden double doors of the room. Now that I took a look around, the room was quite plain. It had doors that lead to what looked like a hallway, and a desk at the back with a door on the back wall, presumably for staff members.

“So Mei, would you like to be my friend?” I gave her a toothy grin.

Mei blushed

“I.. I’ve never really had any friends before. Just my brother really.” Geez, just where had the cold exterior gone. Instead of looking calm and collected she was now acting like a nervous schoolgirl.

Well, in reality she really was just a nervous schoolgirl.

“Then I get to be your first!” I teased her.

“Don’t- Don’t say it like that!” Mei was redder than an apple now. How adorable, she reminded me of myself when I was entering highschool.

“If you say yes then I’ll stop.” I smile again at her.

“Fine then! I’ll be your friend. It’s not like I didn’t want too anyways.”

I should stop my teasing here.

“Ok then! That’s settled, lead the way then Mei! I really am hopeless. Please take good care of me.” I bowed.

Her face fell a little, and she looked serious again.

“What are you thinking!” She almost yelled at me.

I stood there startled, what was she even talking about?

“Sorry, but what did I do?” I asked her.

Mei let out a sigh before responding.

“Emily, I am really grateful that you’re so nice. Even if you were doing it as a joke, for someone like you to bow to me, it’s a really bad thing. Even if you don’t acknowledge our social standings, other people will.”

I wonder if she had bad experiences with other “nobles” before. Her expression kinda seemed far away, like she wasn’t really focusing on her words.

“Ok I get it, I won’t do it again. But seriously, please treat me like we’re equals. I feel like most people here probably aren't going too.” If she was acting like this in private, I was starting to get worried. Was I like a princess or something?

She smiled again.

“Well it’s fine if you understand. The opening ceremony should be starting in a few minutes. Shall we get going then Emily? I’ll lead the way.”

“Please do!”

Well I guess it was time to go see what this school was all about.

“By the way, could you call me Emi?” I said as we started to make our way to the exit of the room.

“Absolutely not, we’ve only just met after all.”

Well, baby steps.