Adam sat in the black chamber in silence, considering the life choices that had led him to this point in life. It didn’t take him long, seeing as he had apparently ended up here on a whim of Raz’s. Granted, he had set up the meeting at the cafe, but he had yet to actually agree to this, though he was beginning to suspect that if he were to try to reject it at this point, he might not actually be returned to his body. He might have to go along with this.

Besides, as unlikely as it was, maybe this was what he had been looking for. Magic being real was a bit of a shock, but if he tried to approach this with the mentality that he used when attempting to learn a new game, then it might make more sense.

So. He was going to be managing an academy of magic. This would probably entail constructing a school building that was capable of housing… some number of students, he would have to find out how many students the academy was expecting to have, he supposed. In addition to housing, there would need to be classrooms, meeting halls, study rooms, a library… the list was quite extensive.

“Bah, I wish I had some paper and a pen.” He grumbled. Suddenly, he was holding a notebook in one hand, and a pen in the other. His eyes widened. Wait, this was his mind, wasn’t it? He shut his eyes.

“I wish I had a hot tub and a stocked mini-fridge.” He stated. After waiting a moment, he opened his eyes. There was a depressing lack of bubbling waters or snack-filled appliances. “Hmph.” Of course it wasn’t that easy. He got back to planning.

The housing parts would have to be divided by gender, of course, and probably by year, though he didn’t know how many years of schooling the academy planned on giving its students. Should the housing part be a different structure from the main teaching building entirely, perhaps? Presumably, magic was a dangerous thing to learn. It might be best to have most of the classrooms that dealt with actual magic practice be separated from everything else, including each other. After all, you wouldn’t want some child learning to cast fireball to be able to accidentally destroy the entire academy with one failed spell.

Just as he was really getting into the planning stage, the room began to hum. One of the walls of the room suddenly lit up, and he could hear voices from… somewhere. But he recognized one of those voices. It was Raz.

“Allow me to introduce him to you.” Raz’s voice echoed through the room. At this, the wall that had lit up became a screen. Through it, he could see a room of some sort. It appeared that they were in a medieval-looking castle, and he could see a wooden table, where there was a grey-bearded man that didn’t appear to be nearly as old as the beard would suggest, and a fairly attractive young woman, both of which seemed to be staring at him in some confusion. Suddenly, he was no longer in the black chamber, but the room beyond the screen. His vision became that of the screen, and try as he might, he could not move his body. He forced himself to calm down. He had to find out what was happening here.

“This is… him?” The bearded man… Temsello, probably, asked. What? What am I?

Raz continued, “This is Adam Geoffrey. Adam, say hello to your new compatriots!” Compatriots? What sort of term…? Whatever, these must be the people that he would be starting up the magic academy with. Best to be polite to them, then.

“Hello! Pleasure to meet you, I’m Adam.” He said. Or at least, tried to say. Instead, he heard, and felt, himself say something else.

“Hello, World.” A strangely electronic, humming sort of voice emerged from him.

The bearded man blinked. “Uh… hello?” Came an uncertain reply. Raz laughed for a moment, before speaking up.

“That’s merely the phrase that Adam wakes up with. Now he’ll give a proper greeting.” I was really starting to get annoyed with Raz.

I tried again. Greetings, my name is Adam. Nice to meet you.

And again, instead of the words I was trying to say, something else entirely passed my lips - That is to say, if I had lips.

“Greetings, Temsello, Arianne. I am A-4-1-13, Management Computation Device.” I said, once more in that creepy electronic voice. Did I not have any control over what I said anymore?

I tried to get an answer here. Raz, why can’t I speak normally?

But it came out like this, “Query. Target, Raz. Why are my vocal functions not under manual control?”

Raz laughed. Seriously, I was starting to hate that laugh. “Adam, I’d love to answer your questions, but I’m afraid that I’m running short on time. Temsello, I’ll see you again… at some point.” At this, the space around him twisted, before he blinked out of existence.

Everyone in the room remained silent for a few moments, before Temsello broke the atmosphere by coughing.

“Umm. So. Adam, was it? Or… A-4-1-something?” Temsello asked me in a quiet voice.

I tried to answer. Yeah, my name’s Adam. I guess I’m the new manager for your academy.

“Affirmative. I am A-4-1-13. My purpose is to manage Lake Quillfort Academy with maximal efficiency.”

Why was this necessary? Why did Raz decide to make me into a… computer? Robot? Was this not going to be difficult enough without these needless difficulties? Suddenly, I heard a voice in the back of my head.

“Adam, I know you’re probably confused at the moment, but trust me when I say that this is all for your benefit. The people of Terra are very particular when it comes to matters of the soul. Their religion attempts to ‘redeem’ ghosts and spirits, as beings that do not belong in the physical realm, and it destroys them.” Raz? You’re still here? Why did you leave, if you could still answer questions for me? And what are you going on about? I’m no ghost!

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Raz must be able to read my mind, as he answered. “Actually, you are. I couldn’t take your whole body with me when I left your world, remember? I could only take your soul. I created that body for you, and tied your spirit to it. It’s not all bleak, however! That body you’re in is something called an ‘Overmind’. They’re fairly uncommon, and most Overminds are primitive things, whose only concern is the acquisition of territory. We’ll get more into your powers as an Overmind later. For now, just remember. Do NOT let Arianne or Temsello realize you are actually a human. It won’t end well if you do.” And on that cheery note, I felt his presence recede… but not disappear. Raz was still watching this situation, for the better or worse.

I was suddenly a lot less certain as to what I should be speaking with Temsello and Arianne about. I recalled my plans that I had been making as to the construction of the academy.

So… I’ve been drawing up some blueprints for the academy, but I’ll need some more specific details in order to continue making them. I knew that it wouldn’t come out like that, but I just had to trust that the voice would interpret my words into something that meant the same.

“I have devised some blueprints for the Academy. More data is required for adjustments.” At this, my… body, I suppose, projected an image onto the table. Hey… those were my blueprints! Perfect! This body can do some handy things, I suppose. “Necessary Data includes the following: Number of years students are planned to receive education. Number of students the academy is planned to accept. Subjects that the academy is planned to teach.”

Temsello and Arianne looked up from the blueprints in shock. Temsello cleared his throat again. “Oh, um… I suppose… should we start small…?” Temsello looked at Arianne helplessly.

Arianne sighed. “Reyl has a total of 16 baronies, and within each of those baronies, there are roughly six to nine noble families that pay tribute to those baronies. We can assume that the majority of those families will wish to send their children to our academy for an education.” She stated.

Let’s see… so somewhere between- 96 to 144 -noble families, wait, what just happened there? I had started considering the math for that, and the answer just popped into my head. I mean, it wasn’t complex math or something, but I had figured that I would still have to consider it for a moment. Was I better at math in this body? What was 83 to the fourth power- 47,458,321 -Huh, that could be useful. I had a calculator in my brain. Sweet.

“Query. Target, Arianne. We can expect as many as 144 students at a peak?” I questioned. That… wasn’t a particularly large number, and that was only if EVERY noble family had their children at roughly the same time, which was incredibly unlikely. It would be more realistic to expect half that, or less.

She sighed again. “Sadly, no. While the nobles are very likely to want their children to go to our school, they are far from the only ones that would want such a thing. The children of wealthy merchants and aspiring commoners that can pay for it will likely want to send their children as well.”

Well, that more than made up for the reduction based on nobles not having their children simultaneously. I also didn’t know enough about the population to even hazard a guess as to how many children this would amount to.

Temsello chimed in here. “I think we should start small and expand into it.” He stated firmly. “Let’s start out with a student limit of 200. A hundred boys, and a hundred girls. We’ll prioritize the barony children, but we’ll reserve openings for noble children as well, and I must insist that we let in some commoner children as well. I can’t say I am particularly fond of the caste system.” His tone was grim. I recalled that Raz told me that Temsello had tried to found a democratic country. It was a shame that he was forced to turn to a monarchy for his project.

Back to business, however. “Parameters set. 100 male children, 100 female children. Dorms shall be arranged in groups of 4. Application limits: 10 applications per gender to children of the Barons. 50 applications per gender to children of the Nobles. 20 applications per gender to children of the Wealthy/Influential Commoners. 20 applications per gender to children of the Poor/Non-influential Commoners. Blueprints updated.” At this, I made some mental adjustments to the dormitories, separating them out into 25 dorms per gender of four children each. I think that I’m getting the hang of this thing’s speech. I can get it to say very nearly exactly what I want it to.

Temsello nodded at this. “I will pay for the schooling of the poor’s children. This has long been a dream of mine, to use this academy to begin to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich!” He declared, eyes shining. I noticed that Arianne seemed to look bored at this. I couldn’t tell how she felt at his open declaration of… something? He wasn’t quite saying he hated the rich, but he sure wasn’t on their side. Whatever. As long as they could work together, these things wouldn’t be difficult.

Arianne appeared to come to a conclusion, and spoke up. “Shall I go and search for the services of a Master Builder? We probably want to get this project under way, if we want to have the building finished by winter.” Temsello nodded, and moved to get up. I attempted to agree myself, but my voice had other ideas.

“Unnecessary. I shall handle construction.”

Arianne and Temsello looked to me incredulously. They didn’t look half as confused as I felt, though.

What did I just say?!