Ray

“As that may be, I will need to fill out certain forms before I can give you your schedule.” the girl said, removing a paper from somewhere. Ray had no idea how they were removing things out of nowhere.

“Now, who is your sponsor?” the girl said.

“Umm, sponsor?” Ray hesitantly asked back.

The girls sighed in exasperation, saying, “The person who bought this letter for you.”

“Oh, um, Aunty Ariana. Marchioness Ariana, that is.” Ray answered. The girl raised her head, clearly surprised.

“And the Marchioness is your aunt?” she asked.

“Well, no, she is, ugh, my adopted mother.” Ray answered.

“Ah. And do you have any blood relation to her?” the girl asked.

“Not that I am aware of.” Ray answered.

“I see. And you were a part of the Mage Academy program, correct?” Ray swallowed, the dreaded question was here.

“Yes.” he answered.

“Hmm, the Marchioness has requested that your records be kept private, so I can’t transfer any credits to you. I fear you will need to earn them all again in the next six years.” the girl stated.

“Yes, yes, that’s fine.” Ray answered. Just about anything was better than everyone knowing that he had failed.

“Now for the classes. The classes at the College are voluntary. The teachers decide whether to let you in. And I fear that no teacher will let a paid student in, without charging a big fee. The fee is pretty much expected, to be honest, most paid students need extra help to even score the bare minimum after all. The College, of course, takes a portion of this fee, the rest goes to teachers. What you will be able to do, however, is access the library and give exams on the subjects.” the girl said.

“But isn’t that unfair? A student from a lesser background would always have a harder time than students with a better one in this arrangement.” Ray remarked.

“Yes, it is quite common for students from weaker backgrounds to be forced to learn a few classes themselves. I expect you will find some in the library. Do take advantage of it, Mr. Rosenmund, the library is almost entirely stocked with books unavailable to the public. Though it is unlikely you will graduate, the knowledge you gain here will be very valuable.” the girl said.

Ray had no doubt about it, but the matter still worried him. The brochures had made the College seem so good, but now it had turned into something that actively favored certain students over others. But Ray could not say that he wasn’t used to it. The Mage Academy program had done the same.

“Umm, which way is the library?” Ray asked.

“The library is that way, but we’re not quite done here. The College has a rule that each student must take at least 13 classes each year, seven of those are compulsory, but you need to choose the other six." The girl said, handing him a list.

Ray went through the rather long list, looking at the subjects. The subjects ranged from sword fighting to Swordsmanship to The history of Human magic. The wise decision, of course, was to take the theoretical ones, the ones he could just learn from the book. And for once in his life, Ray took the wise decision and chose the theoretical subjects.

But in particular made Ray hesitate, Art of Magic. Just a few days ago, Ray had gone into the forest and risked his life to learn this, and here was the chance again. But he couldn’t. The exams would no doubt be too hard for him, and he was unlikely to pass with access to the class, let alone without it. And he already had access to the library,, so he could look up the books anyway.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Sighing at his circumstances, Ray handed the girl the form back. The girl looked through it, noting his choices.

“Hmm, good ones. A bit on the theoretical side, but at this point it would benefit you more. I would suggest you take Mana Manipulation instead of Herbs and beasts. The latter is one of the more difficult subjects on the list, the professor is known to deliberately fail candidates just to make them learn more. And the course content is over two hundred books, so…not the most preferred in the college.” the girl said.

Well, that was nice of her. Ray would have died if he had to learn two hundred books and then deal with a professor that wanted to fail him.

“The ones which have professors teaching them are usually harder, professors are usually retired alchemists that have grand ideas about how good their students must be. The teachers without the title on the other hand are Alchemists still working who teach here for access to the library and other materials and don’t really care about what they are teaching.” the girl said.

“But if they don’t care, then couldn’t I get in?” Ray asked, hopeful that he had found a loophole in his situation.

“No, the situation is enforced by the Dean. And he has the habit of asking teachers why they are allowing students into their class. I doubt any will allow you in without a hefty fee.But if you really want to go then there will be a class selection in ten days and another every month. The teachers often kick students out, and some prefer to attend only a select number of classes.” the girl replied, “Now, any questions?”

Ray did have one. “The clothing, you have a white robe, I have a blue one, and I saw that most students have gray ones. And the man at the gate mentioned that I was student grade…?”

“Ah yes, that. I see that you didn’t have many friends in the Academy program either, or you would know this. The admissions into the College are divided into three types. The first and the one you heard about, is the standard admission through the program that leads to a student grade admission.”

“The fee is waived, and you gain access to the library, the labs, and classes. The second is the disciple grade admission, the one I am. The admission is achieved by paying an extravagant fee to the College after you get admission to the College program, and I get a private tutor from among the professors from it. And of course, there is the status factor.”

“The third is the understudents. The students that arrive here from outside the Academy program, though were usually a part of it, just scored too low on the test to get admission. The understudents have to pay fees for every class they attend and lab that they use.”

“But they are still talented enough to pass the Academy test. The reason paid seats are hated is that they are often relatives of powerful people that failed the Academy test and do not belong here. The College will, of course, not fail you on purpose. But I do hope you know that it is extremely unlikely that you will succeed here, there is a reason the Academy does not even consider failed students.” the girl finished, looking at Ray closely while dropping her warnings.

Ray gulped as he said, “Well, I, uh, better start getting to the library. I have to start studying for the exams and all that.” And promptly started walking in the direction of the library.

“Wait.” the girl said, making Ray turn back, “the compulsory subjects list and your id card, they won’t allow you into the library without it. ” Ray took the list, smiling awkwardly as he made his way towards the library.

The library was easy enough to find, no one would miss the ten feet tall open doors that led to a rather spacious hall. A bit too spacious. The library hall covered what must have easily been a kilometer, but most of it was seating.

The books were kept in pillar-like structures throughout the library that served as shelves. Ray could barely see the ceiling, let alone chose books from it.

“Hello, can I help you?” a gray robed boy asked Ray, looking impatient.

“Yes, I just want to use the library.” Ray said as he handed him the id card.

“Thank you sir, please pick any book you wish. Just levitate it to you, and it’s yours for three days.” the boy said, letting Ray through.

Ray nodded as he stepped into the library. The levitation made for a rather harsh problem for him. The lack of mana. Ray could not manipulate books down, he did not have the man to do so.

But he wasn’t about to let that get in his way, there had to be at least one book about his subjects on the ground level. Ray could just use it until he reached a level where he could levitate things down.

As it turned out, he had underestimated the amount of books there. The majority of them were on subjects that involved fighting of some kind. An unreasonable amount of books on herbs. And of course, many, many, guides on magic.

But Ray did find a book that was important to him. The Art of Alchemy: The introduction. The course textbook for the Art of Alchemy class for first years. Sighing in relief, Ray took the book out and made his way to the nearest empty chair.

But his relief was short-lived. The book was not a manual, no. The Art of simple Alchemy was just that, a book on the simpler potions that Ray had to prepare in his first year.

A practical book, but a useless one for him that had a very limited amount of experience in Alchemy. But more than that, it meant that the College expected students to reach Tier 3 by the end of the year, something Ray was not sure he could do.