Something about Shia was strange. I felt it the first time we shook hands. And I felt it even more as she dragged me forward. Her hands… were warm. They were tender. And she’d been quite nice. It didn’t feel superficial but, why… why did I feel this way?

Why can’t I trust her?

With Shia I made it to the faculty office in the blue roofed building. The red one was academic, the green one too. Black, the dorms. But then what the hell was white roofed one? It was literally the tallest building in the whole city too!

Anyway, the blue roofed faculty office: It was pretty white and clean inside, marble floors; mostly empty. Shia took me to the registrar’s office. Once there she demanded more information regarding my enrolment. Yes, demanded!

Staggered at his feet, the scrawny middle-aged registrar ran back into some storage room and came back with a thick file. “Let’s see… Sobi, Soka, Soler… yes, Soler A. Barack. Special enrolment. Four classes. History, Literature, etiquette and… spirit taming.”

There was a pause for the last one. Spirit taming. Wait, wait- “I thought generally you needed to study 8 subjects?” They had more subjects; swordplay, fiend taming, even some technology-based classes. And of course, magic! The one frigging thing I was looking forward to!

“Special enrolment students are exempt,” he said. “We could squeeze you into any class you want to take but if you fail in them…” He didn’t finish.

I had a feeling he saw through my circumstance. “Thank you,” I said.

He nodded. Shia though wasn’t satisfied. “I would need a stamp and your signature.”

“You want to rent books?” The registrar asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to just buy-”

Wait, was she asking his permission to get the books from the library or something? Den said the academy lent books for a small fee and gave me some coins but he didn’t explain how to get them.

“I’m not looking forward to using my family’s money, if I can help it,” I said. “I’d rather earn that money myself.”

The registrar examined my face for a good twenty seconds before smiling. “I see.” And then merrily stamped some papers and handed them over to me.

We strolled out in pleasant moods. Or so I thought. “That was unnecessary,” Shia said. “You almost made it out that your family doesn’t love you and you’re trying to go independent.”

Wait… “Yeah, didn’t think that through.”

Shia sighed. “Well, I’ll walk you back.”

“Technically we’re both headed to the same place,” I said.

It was somewhat dark outside. But they had a lot of street lights. And the city was bustling with activity. I could hear the laughter in the air. Okay that was a stretch, but it was a fun atmosphere. And wait, students were still out and just having fun and stuff.

“How long can they stay out?” I said.

I had a vague recollection of Gerar saying something about Midnight curfews.

“All night if you want to.” Shia didn’t let go of my hand. “Though you’d have to inform the dorm keeper in that case; she gets cranky if you go missing after midnight.”

“There’s a dorm keeper?”

“Yeah. And you don’t want to make her angry.”

“Noted.”

We made it back to the dorms. I spotted a familiar guard. He hadn’t moved from that spot the entire day. Was he going to spend the night here too? As I wondered I saw another guard who looked very similar to him take his place. Both guards exchanged some words as they stared at us and nodded as we passed by. Weird.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The dorm was brighter. Almost like a modern-day building. Somewhat blinding actually. Come to think of it, my room didn’t have lights though. So, students required to bring their own magical devices then? Made sense, considering there was nothing in my room apart form a bed and a table.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Shia took her leave.

“Goodnight Sis.”

“Shia’s fine.” She was gone.

She did not bid me good night though. Not that I minded. Strange.

She was so chirpy and stuff yet by the time we finished and parted ways, she was… in a foul mood. Oh well, even if she was pretending, at least she wasn’t actively trying to harm me. For now….

Oh wait, dinner…

To no one’s surprise, the canteen was jam packed. I could always not eat tonight… I mean, I had some left-over hard biscuits in my bag anyway.

***

I woke up early in the morning. I tried sleeping last night but could hardly sleep. As sounds died out, my thoughts kept on bottling. All the worries I’d suppressed came back and… and made my heart race. Would Den reach Mom in time? Would she be alright? Would everyone still be there when I go back? Maybe skipping dinner on top of that wasn’t such a great idea.

I wasn’t particularly hungry but I was groggy as hell.

Yawning, I tried my best to wipe my face and headed off to the bathroom. I half expected it to be smelly and there be a line. But there wasn’t. Most students hadn’t woken up yet. And since there were multiple toilets, there was no line. The same for the shower rooms which were directly opposite to the toilets. Anyway, this place also had running water, so great!

Since I was at it, I also took a shower. It was winter and I didn’t sweat much, so I didn’t smell much either. But I hadn’t had a proper shower in a while and yesterday I was running around a bit too hard. So, it didn’t hurt. The water was freezing though, “Acchoo!”

I put on some warm clothes and headed out. I didn’t see a sun but I did see some red in the eastern sky. Not empty, there were people here. Mostly just training and stuff. The city was also waking up and some students were coming in from the streets. Guess they lived nearby.

Anyway, I stretched and ran around. Basic morning routine. Just one lap around the academy had me out of breath though. How much of that was from fatigue and how much from my lack of stamina, I didn’t know. But it couldn’t go on like this. People of this world were strong as monsters, I couldn’t surpass them, but I could at least try to keep up.

“Oh, ya wake up early too Sol?” Kiddy voice.

Mike, the redhaired kid from yesterday.

“Yeah. I run around and stuff.” I was pretty much out of breath though.

“Nice~!” Pleased, he nodded to himself. Incidentally I’d caught him running around before I came and he wasn’t even sweating much. Even at this age dude was amazing.

Maybe I’ll be like that too if I keep up? I mean I still had a few years, right? Mike was probably ten- hmm, “What grade are you in Mike?”

“First year.”

Oh? A little late for first year though, right? “How old are you?” I asked.

“Six this year.”

The… what?

Shellshocked. The word came to mind. I was taught that wasn’t a very good word and use just shocked or stunned instead. It still came to mind though.

This guy was six, was already a few inches taller than me, looked way fitter and had the stamina of a horse~!

Argh… this so wasn’t fair!

Still… sigh. “Me too. I would start my classes from next week.”

“Nice, nice.” He was smiling so innocently, ignorant of the fact I was jealous of him. Made me feel a little guilty.

“I can’t run well, so I’ll go exercise some more and head back.”

Most of my exercises were basically push-ups and pull-ups though.

“Still got some runnin to do! Catch up later!” Excited, he darted away.

That said, I did some pushups, followed by some planks and stuff and then headed back. Shouldn’t I have showered after exercising? I messed up, cause now there was a line.

Sniff, sniff. Well, I didn’t really smell that bad. I could always just wipe off the sweat with a wet cloth anyway. Yeah, let’s just do that.

So, I did that, casually strolled into the canteen which was mildly crowded and ordered my food. The same stuff I had yesterday. The food was pretty mid though. I guess Shia wasn’t kidding when she said the other canteen had so much better food. I couldn’t just waltz in there though.

Sigh.

Also, the food cost 1 Copper and 5 irons. They cost 2 coppers if you bought two portions. So I suppose from here on out, I’d be buying two portions, aka, 4 items; two milk, two bread. With my current financial circumstances, I could probably live on this for at least a year if I was careful. Can I save even more money if I did some shopping instead though? I mean, I was growing and needed a lot of meat. The milk here was fine and a good source of protein but I needed more!

*** A/N***

(Working Syn)

Allen is whisked away to another world after hugging a train a little too tight. He has the option to start fresh, go on an adventure or maybe even settle down with his new elven family. This new world is full of potential but is hounded by a church controlling the entire nation. What’s worse Allen or rather Sol, has no real potential and is thus a target of the church and could very well be erased in the future. He can train, and hope to prevent that. Or at least that’s what he thought until a certain incident shook his very beliefs and forced him to accept that he is powerless to stop the church, he is powerless to protect the people he held dear.

Forced to retreat to Scalion Academy, Sol is given a choice to live. To survive. But instead, he chooses to start a cult. The cult of a fake god. At least that was supposed to be the case until one day… the god decided to pay a visit to him.