In the carriage, it was explained to me that I would also have a backpack full of things to help me in Uepi. It carried basic essentials that would help me survive along with the princess if some situations called for it. Once we arrived at the Afure Castle, we stepped out of the carriage only for my face to be greeted by the king’s daughter. Her face had an expression that basically said “hurry up” to me. She was wearing nice clothes that consisted of a plain pink shirt that had its sleeves covered by a dark gray jacket she was wearing. She was also wearing a black skirt with white socks covered by her brown dress shoes.
The impatient look on her face gave away the fact that we would have no time to do some small talk before heading into Uepi. The princess handed me the cube that the mysterious cloaked person left for me and I gripped it tightly. There had to be a reason for me having this cube. No way would someone leave behind a mystical cube for no reason besides just giving it to someone.
I ignored these thoughts and continued to look at the cube. After I finished my continous staring at it, I was ready to say the words to open it. After all, it looks like i’m the only one here who can open it anyway.
“Cube, Explode!” were the words I blurted out for the cube to open. Nothing happened around me. However, the cube was starting to heat up now, and it’s heat was rising exponentially so I dropped it to the ground in order to not burn my hand alive. A blue circle soon appeared on top of the cube and a light came bursting from it. I stared in amazement as a oval-shaped hole appeared in the light, with the light soon vanishing, leaving behind only the oval-shaped hole. The inside of the hole, which was a white light, seemed to leave an enchanting feeling to it.
“Shall we head in?” The king’s daughter asked.
“We shall, my princess.” I replied.
“No need for formalities now, at this point you can just call me Zelia.” Said the princess.
Nodding in agreement, I walked towards the portal, with the princess ahead of me slightly until a realization came to me. As soon as the princess was about to step into the portal, I stopped her and turned my direction towards the king.
“How am I supposed to pick up the cube to take it with me?” I asked.
“That’s… actually a good point.” said the king.
This was a major concern because if i could not pick up the cube with me then I’d be stuck in Uepi forever. Which was not what I wanted out of the expedition.
“How about we try throwing something at the cube? There’s a chance that the portal isn’t connected to the cube anymore since that bright light vanished.” Zelia said.
That was a good theory, however, we didn’t have anything to throw at the cube.
Suddenly, the cube was knocked away by the king himself, who had thrown a small rock at the cube. As the princess had thought, the portal was no longer connected to the cube, which meant that we could get back to Golcon and not be stuck in Uepi forever. I went to go and pick up the cube with the princess following right behind me. I tightly clenched the cube in my hand before I went to go and walk towards the portal again. I walked closer and closer and closer until my face was almost touching the portal.
“You’re taking too long.” Zelia said and she grabbed onto the back of me.
I asked, “What are you doing back there?”.
“I’m doing this and you’re gonna thank me for it later.” and suddenly I was thrusted into the portal. Someone’s weight had also followed me too since I could feel some heavy weight behind my back. I had landed down on the ground of wherever the portal took us.
I really was in a different world.
I could tell by the texture of whatever this ground was that I really was in a place different from the Afure Castle that I was at just a little bit ago.
Surely, the princess wouldn’t be laying on me forever. I felt her getting off my back before I stood up. Turning around, I saw no portal behind us, which meant that we had successfully crossed over into Uepi. I turned back to look at what our surroundings were until I realized that we were just in a blank, white area.
“Hello there, you two. Please stand a few steps away from each other.” A female voice said to us from somewhere. Assuming that the person wasn’t in the room with us hidden, then maybe we teleported to some trick room. The princess however, had already began to follow these instructions, leaving us a few steps apart from each other.
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“Thank you. Now beginning analyzation of bodies." The female voice said.
We stood standing there for a couple of seconds while a big circle that could change colors swirled around us. After waiting, the circle had disappeared.
“Analyzation complete. Now sorting.”
The princess and I had no idea what to do besides standing still for a little bit.
“Sorting complete. Proceeding to teleport to Muei.” The voice said.
A white glow illuminated from the bottom of the princess and I before blinding us with an extremely bright light.
“Hello there you two! Welcome to Muei!” A female voice said.
Another location? This was turning out to be an odd sort of event, but when the white light vanished it left a girl with pale-blue hair standing in front of me. I blinked to make sure that I wasn’t imagining what I was seeing. Past the pale-blue haired girl was a wide school with a color scheme of brown, it certainly couldn’t be real.
“Where am I exactly?” I asked.
I heard a slight cough from the side of me and saw Zelia standing next to me as well. I guess this meant that me and Zelia had landed in the same place together. It was a cough to signify that her presence was not lacking.
“You’re in Muei, a place for the magically gifted. You were sent here from the teleportation room that determines whether you’re capable as a magic user or have the potential to use abilities.” explained the female. When i think about it, this girl doesn’t look that much older or younger than me.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, whoever you are. My question is, what are we going to do here?” Zelia asked.
“The name’s Kuzi for future reference. What we’re doing here is getting you assigned to your dorms and getting you suited for when the school year starts. My info logs tell me that your names are Zelia and Zaikoto, correct? Interesting names if I’ve ever heard any.
“Anyways, this school was meant for those with magical potential and will include daily classes for four days with a fifth day being for studying. The two other days of the week are weekends, which allows you to allocate your time as you please. We also have occasional breaks.” Kuzi explained this with a very informative voice, which was welcomed. However, the fact that this Uepi place really is just two places separated is fascinating, and the fact that not everybody could have an equal shot at being at one location versus the other was interesting as well.
“If you would follow me please.” Kuzi said to direct us towards the path we were going to head towards. As we approached the school, it made more sense for the school to be this wide for the dormitories inside.
“The dorms are sorted by gender, however, since school hasn’t started yet then we’re allowed to just walk around.”
I guess I’ll follow this person around to get a gist of the school so I know what I’m actually doing here. Plus, I hopefully wouldn’t be jailed for doing something I had no idea I could be jailed for.
---
A couple of hours has passed since the tour with Kuzi and I’ve been laying in my bed trying to sleep since. I can’t really sleep though since my brain is a little puzzled at the info I was told today. It turns out that the school year starts in about two days from today which isn’t that long. In this world, it’s currently September 01, a Saturday, in the year 2010. Zelia and I had two days to prepare for the school year. We agreed that we would go back to the entrance of the school to open the cube once again after a hour from when the tour ended and head back to Golcon.
“Can I come in?” a voice said.
“Sure.” I replied. If I was being honest, the voice sounded like someone that I would know well.
“Hi there Zaikoto!” said the ecstatic voice of Kuzi.
I wasn’t too happy to see Kuzi right now nor was I angry at her since I was just having a think session. I’m not stupid enough to not know that there’s most likely a bigger reason for her coming into my room than just to say some greetings to me.
“Is there something you need?” I asked.
“Hahaha, straight to the point are we? Well, truth be told, I need some help.”
“Help? Is someone after you?”
“No, it’s just that I don’t have a person to study with for magic so I was wondering if, um, you would like to be partners in that area.”
That was a odd way to phrase “Can you help me with studying occasionally?” but I had no reason to decline.
“Sure. I see no reason why I should refuse after all.”
“Oh my, thank you Zaikoto! I promise it won’t be a decision that you’d regret later!”
“Why would I regret studying with you?”
“It’s just that, in my previous school, I wasn’t well liked. I was just considered someone easy to pick on if that’s an easier way to put it. I hated every second of it, and when it came to choosing partners for group projects, I was always excluded. It’s just not easy, you know? Some people can be very cruel..”
“Why did people pick on you?”
“I was the person with the highest grades in my school. People didn’t approach me though, I don’t know the reasoning for it, but maybe it’s because they thought I’d be rude or something since I had the highest grades in the school. It sucked a lot. When I heard that I was able to become one of the people to greet new students to Muei, despite being a new student myself, I was really overwhelmed. It finally felt like the things I did in my life paid off for once, which was nice.”
“Have you asked other people to be your study partner?”
“N-no. I just thought that maybe you would be my study partner because you’ve been the kindest person I’ve met while trying to help students get prepared for Muei.”
She was blushing as she said that.
“What about some other girls? You couldn’t have waited this long to pick a partner like me.”
“Like you? The other girls who registered for Muei were mostly in friend groups, and if they weren’t, they were extremely rude. It was odd to see, but nonetheless I do look forward to being at this school.”
“That’s… quite the backstory you got there Kuzi. I’d like to stay, but I have some plans with Zelia so I’ll have to be heading out now.”
“Have fun with Zelia! I’ll see you around later Zaikoto!”
“I’ll see you around too, Kuzi.” I flashed a quick smile before walking out the door to go and meet Zelia.
Uepi doesn’t seem like a bad place to live at. I don’t know much about what happens in Uepi but I do know that I’d enjoy my time here for sure. With girls like Kuzi existing here too, it sort of excites me at what could happen here if I stayed for a long while. But that wasn’t my point, I was moreso pondering about why the cloaked lady would give me a cube to such a nice place when I’m sure that there are bundles of deserted locations for the cube to travel to. Only a deeper investigation would help this theory.
And it was up to me and the princess to help find it out eventually. Kuzi might be able to assist us too, but that’s just a small possibility.
A possibility that I would look forward to.