Alois caught me as I left the building. “So, how did it go?”

“It went so well I got two,” I told him with a smile, “The second one is a present just for you.”

“So that sneaky Headmaster pulled something after all,” Alois sighed, “What are they? Tell me at least one is a trading territory.”

“They both are.”

“That is good… I think we can handle this, but give me the details when we gather everyone together,” Alois said with a wave.

“Busy again?”

“Yeah. The Headmaster is meeting with his summon today so he is making all of us take on part of his duties for the afternoon,” Alois explained.

I nodded and then paused. “The headmaster’s summon?”

“You didn’t know? Oh yes… you were bad at summoning magic. Basically once you summon something you tend to summon the same something every time. Since time for them is different they can be really useful. I haven’t summoned anything yet, but the headmaster summoned a human from another world.”

“You can summon humans, huh…”

“Don’t worry, they just return when the spell ends,” Alois assured, “It isn’t really like kidnapping… unless the summoner dies.”

“I know that much,” I retorted, “I just had no idea humans could be summoned.”

“...I will leave you to whatever incredible thoughts just entered your head,” Alois said, and vanished as usual. I still don’t know exactly what he does but I do know it is more stealth magic rather than transportation.

But Alois had been right. It had brought to mind something for me. My existence for example, and why I was here. Could I have somehow been summoned? Then again it was something more akin to reincarnation than summoning. 

“There was no way what happened to me was summoning,” I muttered to myself.

“What was it that happened to you?” Caleb asked, stepping from around a corner with a grin. He had clearly been eavesdropping on purpose.

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“Why would you care?” I shot back. This wasn’t good. Caleb may have fallen to my last argument but we still didn’t get along. He was the last person I wanted to have the reigns to my secrets.

“If I tell you, then will you tell me?” Caleb asked, “But first we should go somewhere safe to talk. Keane has a nice place.”

“Keane? Alright, but I will only exchange information up to the level of information you give me,” I agreed.

Caleb nodded and led me to the medical research building. Rather than a dorm, it was a collection of labs and offices, and it seemed like we were headed to one of the labs. Caleb knocked on the door and then just barged in.

“Shouldn’t you wait-”

“Keane gets too invested in research to notice knocking,” Caleb interrupted and gestured to the topic of conversation, who was currently reading a hardcore description of a plague that broke out near the border seven years prior. 

“I see that,” I muttered. “So, why are you suddenly so interested in my past?”

“Because I think it might be something similar to mine,” Caleb said, “You said something about summoning right? Well, I am not from this world.”

That was not what I was expecting. “You mean, you also reincarnated here?”

“Reincarnated?” Caleb asked, “I don’t know but the place from my memories couldn’t be more different. For starters, the sky was purple, and the plants were more blue than green.”

“We definitely aren’t from the same place then,” I decided, “but you were right. So why are we discussing this in front of Keane?”

“Because he is the same,” Caleb said, “Apparently he used to be the top chemist of a famous warlord or something.”

“Not too open about his exact past huh?” I asked. 

Caleb nodded.

Meanwhile, my mind was spinning. Perhaps I was naive, but it never occurred to me that people could be reincarnated from more than one world.

“So, are all of us from different worlds?” I questioned.

“Absolutely,” Keane said, finally looking up from his giant tome, “You are far too relaxed to be from mine, and you just said Caleb’s sounded unfamiliar. Not only that, but Caleb’s race were all telepathic, and your results on telepathy magic were subpar.”

“How do you know my results?” I demanded.

“Because I somehow had better compatibility than you, even though I don’t have a drop of magic.”

If our scores were similar I guess it made sense. 

Suddenly Autumn entered the room. “Hold on, did you guys just tell her? I told you to wait for me!” he complained. 

“I tried,” Caleb defended, “but Ms. Cookie here is impatient and rude.”

“And you aren’t, Mr. Book?” I shot back.

We glared at each other for a moment before Autumn broke us apart. 

“Anyway, I thought you should know, since you already know about me,” Autumn said.

Caleb paused. “Hold on, Autumn, you mean she knows about you but you don’t know about her?”

“What?”

I flinched slightly as Caleb spilled the beans. Autumn’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“Actually… I think I am also from the same world as you,” I admitted to him.

Caleb stretched, “Now that you mention it, my roommate is suspicious as well.”

“Your roommate?”

“Alois.”

“That’s right… There aren’t enough headmaster candidates to make a dorm for them so they tend to stay with the other candidates…”

“Why would you say he is suspicious?” Keane asked.

“Well… because he is Alois, I guess. I can’t really give you too many details without permission but it has to do with his eyepatch that he had me make.”

“That is incredibly suspicious.”

“Oh yeah,” Caleb said, heading for the door, “Alois warned me earlier that we are all leaving for Nobility in two days. Hope you packed. I already have everything I need to activate the territory gates.”

Uh oh… Not good. I was so stressed about today’s discussion that I forgot that there were still more surprises. 

“I will let everyone know,” I replied and quickly left.