Angela’s expression soured, she grew angry at the way they were treated.
“It is true. I’m not lying, go on, test him.”
Gilliam was starting to piece together what was going on here. Angela knew something was going to be special, powerful or somehow fancy with him even before she met him, and she was quite surprised when she found out that he could use all elements.
Based on her explanation a few days ago, a mage using all seven elements was so unheard of that they are just mentioned in stories and legend... The receptionist might be a bit rude with things but her reaction wasn't completely wrong.
The receptionist stared at Angela’s dare, seeming to wonder if she should humour them or not. In the end she turned to Gilliam.
“Tell me, young man. Your friend here claims that you are a Heptagon mage.”
Gilliam looks back at the receptionist with a deadpan serious expression.
“And she’s correct, what’s your point?”
He didn’t mean to come out as rude, he tries not to but it was hard to not be a little bit crass in response to her behaviour.
The receptionist was taken back a bit, it almost seemed like this hit a nerve and she was about to go into a rage-fit.
“I can prove it if you wa*” his simple idea of just casting all spells would prove it, it's what convinced Angela but the receptionist had other ideas.
“This is a waste of my time, leave before I call security.” She wouldn’t have any of this. Seeming to be so certain that this was impossible that she wouldn’t even humour the idea.
Angela pointed at a pin on her chest, Gilliam hadn’t noticed her put that on. It was a disc of three materials, seeming to be copper, silver and gold where the circle shape has a band cut out of the center which is then made silver, the left of it is copper and to the right of it is gold. On top of this disc were seven triangle shapes, much like the pizza shape, in Angela’s case all the pieces were a dull metallic grey except the lower-left piece which was pure white colored.
“As a graduate of the Academy I want to speak to a teacher.”
This seems to have activated or called on some law or rule, the receptionist looked furious but at the same time she calmed down a bit verbally.
She inhaled and let out a deep, annoyed sigh. “Very well. Wait here.”
There were no pleases or politeness to her tone, this was a crass ‘you win this round’ kind of tone.
The receptionist got up from her chair and walked over to the central column staircase before she started walking up the two flights of stairs, entering a door up there.
Angela had a mixed expression, she seemed annoyed that this happened at all but also a hint of a smirk in the mini win she ended up getting.
Calming her emotions she turned to Gilliam. “One of the teachers should be more willing to humour us, at least I hope so.”
She didn’t seem convinced by her own statement.
Gilliam didn’t pay her insecurity too much though, worst-case scenario he could just walk up to some random teacher during outside-time and flaunt his spells. It’s... arrogant and obnoxious but it would instantly prove everything and get them heard at that point. At least that’s what he thought, it made sense but he couldn’t really say that he had done something like that before. Alternatively he had a massive mana-pool according to what Angela stated in the jungle, so if he just sent some massive spell somewhere... Though that could be interpreted as an attack so... Perhaps not as good.
These thoughts were poorly hidden behind the guise of taking in the sights of this place. Though it was not what he was focused on, it was still an impressive place. The weirdest part was how everything seemed to be just a hollowed out massive single chunk of stone. If you were to build this the normal way it would have bricks, or several slabs somehow needing to be joined, though not a problem in itself you would easily see it by the stone’s natural pattern breaking up. But here it was clear that it was just one chunk, the lined patterns stretched across the walls and ceiling. The wings of the academy that he saw outside had the same thing going for them, although they were their own unit, to so speak, so not part of the central or outer wall’s single-rock-build. But it is insanely impressive nonetheless.
The large room was silent as they waited, luckily it didn’t take long before someone came down. Gilliam threw the man that came down a glance, he was about his height, slender and old, long white beard and hair, black robe and was carrying a staff that looked like an upturned tree with the roots holding onto a crystal orb. He was carrying a wooden box in his other hand.
Angela looked very happy to see him, so this had to be someone that could believe her.
“Ah, Angela, it’s good to see you again.” The man smiled at her as he came closer, first now Gilliam could see that he also had a pin similar to Angela, his had a white disk and of all the triangles only the upper left was colored yellow, the others were a dull metal.
They seemed to bow to each other, was this the proper way to greet someone in this world? Gilliam hadn’t actually properly met that many people yet.
“Is this the young man?” the very wizard looking man asked as he turned his focus to Gilliam.
Angela simply nodded rapidly, the man must have noticed as he just continued talking.
“I do sense something from you, but tell me; are you really a Heptagon mage as Ms. Lark says?”
There was a clear tone of disbelief in his voice, but also some curiosity mixed in. His voice was calm but oddly commanding.
“Yes, Sir.” Gilliam replied not really realising that he added an honorific. “I get that it’s unlikely so I can understand her disbelief:”
Though he didn’t really excuse Ms. Lark’s behaviour, he did understand it.
“Well, we have a very simple test for that-” he smiled as he let go of his staff, which remained standing in place almost like it was still held. The man drew attention to the wooden box in his hand instead.
It was a very ornate wooden box, perfectly cubical with all corners and sharp edges covered in golden protectors.
He tilted the lid to the side, letting the golden hinge do its job to reveal a seemingly multi-layered glass or crystal orb inside. It was resting on a specially made pillow with a slot in the center.
“Place your hand on this.” he commanded with a smile.
Angela looked very interested in the situation but there was also a sense of victory in her eyes.
Gilliam didn’t see a reason to not comply, he assumed this was some sort of magical sensor thing, he had read about them in stories back home. Reaching out and placing his hand on the orb first had nothing happened, there was a slight tingle in his hand. Then suddenly there was a bunch of different colours scintillating inside the orb, it glowed stronger and stronger of the various colours to the point where it was hard to even have it in your sight.
Gilliam averted his eyes but kept his hand there, he assumed that the man would move the orb away or something if it went bad.
This went on for a few seconds before Gilliiam felt that the orb and box was pulled away from him, the bright light that illuminated the room faded instantly and it was again possible to look in the direction of the box.
The old man looked shocked, like.. Well, like he had just confirmed that Gilliam was indeed a Heptagon-class mage.
He stammered as he tried to start the sentence before eventually succeeding.
“I.. I’m.. Y... You are a Heptagon mage, with incredible potential at that!”
He looked happy, ecstatic even, this calmed Gilliam a bit as for a second there he wondered if something was wrong.
“Yes?” Gilliam asked, he was happy to know that he had incredible potential and getting confirmed that he indeed had all the 7 elements but he was still a bit uncertain what the next steps in this process were.
Angela broke in, letting the man process this a bit, leaning towards Gilliam a bit and whispering. “The brightness is your magical potential, the colours are your elements.” She smiled at the simple and oddly logical explanation.
In that case, given how incredibly bright that glow was, Gilliam apparently had incredible potential indeed.
Gilliam nodded at Angela as a response to the explanation, but he was still a bit confused.
“So... now what?” he smiled sheepishly. He did know that at some point he was supposedly to become a hero or do some great deed or whatever it was. But he could barely capture a rabbit with his current abilities so anything more amazing than that wasn’t exactly available to him.
Angela had explained that she wanted him to get at least the basic tutoring in the academy, so this was probably the first step of that.
The old man managed to almost calm down and compose himself.
“Well. First things first. My name is Ledels Saleg, I am the headmaster at the academy.” He gave a proper deep bow, so it would seem that this was indeed a greeting form.
“My name is Gilliam Gibson.” Gilliam responded as a reflex. He intended to introduce himself regardless but this came a bit on the same automatic reflex than a planned event, taking himself a bit off guard.
“Well then, Mr. Gibson. If you want to, we would very much welcome you as a student here at the academy.” Ledels smiled widely as he finally remembered to close the wooden box with the orb in it.
Once it was closed he again grasped his staff that was still standing on its own, it seemed to ‘unlock’ from its standing position as soon as he touched it.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Well.. yes... I guess so, isn’t that why we’re here?” He didn’t seem sure of what to really respond. On one hand Gilliam just wanted to sleep, on the other he really wanted to get better at magic. Angela did explain the idea for him to train but... Didn’t this cost money? Or did this world have some free tuition thing?
“Good, good. Let’s get you registered.” Ledels seemed a bit too eager about this in Gilliam’s mind. Though this seemed to further their goal it just felt a bit odd.
Not that he had anything else to do, and he really did want to learn more about magic.
Ledels didn’t waste any time and had already walked to the reception by the time Gilliam was ready to respond.
Fumbling in some drawers he took out a few pieces of paper, a small bottle of ink and a long feather.
“Just sign this and we’ll get you set up, and don’t worry about the cost, we’ll waive it for you”. He smiled surprisingly happily.
This rubbed Gilliam the wrong way, though it was a good thing that they were willing to do this it just felt a bit... Too good to be true. Nothing is free and everyone has ulterior motives, though a very pessimistic view on life it’s something that’s hard to not get used to in the modern world of Earth.
Taking the papers and very casually starting to glance over them, he replied to the old man.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful for this but... Ignoring the cost of something like this feels too good to be true. What’s the catch?”
Though Gilliam tried to be an honest and polite man, this ended up a bit blunt and to the point.
The headmaster’s smile faded a little, he still looked positive all things considered it still seemed to bring him back down.
“There is no catch, th-” he was interrupted by Angela that tapped her finger on the receptionist’s desk, grabbing their attention.
“What Ledels meant to say-'' she started explaining, looking at the headmaster with narrow eyes before turning towards Gilliam with a more pleasant and honest expression. “-is that you are a Heptagon mage, this will bring not only the school a lot of prestige, but him as well for registering you when you were turned away at the door. To be honest this is basically a publicity stunt, you will potentially be paraded under the guise of special training but, hoping to gain your favour if that will be needed they are giving you this as a publicity thing-”
Smirking a bit she turned to Ledels. “-Isn’t that right, Mr. Saleg”.
The tone at the end was almost mocking, but at the same time oddly satisfied.
Ledels cleared his throat and ran his hand down his beard before sighing.
“You really are your father’s daughter.” He looked defeated and frankly a bit annoyed. It seemed like she had removed some veil revealing the stage-magic trick he tried to perform.
“You get free tuition but in turn become a kind of advertising for us. To be honest the cost of your full three years if you take them all will easily cover the advertising this could have been. Not to mention odds of the school being gifted by the nobles for just meeting you... well... She covered it quite nicely.”
Though his tone was honest he still seemed a bit embarrassed and defeated.
Only now Gilliam could actually read the papers he was given, they seemed rather straightforward and logical. Signing that the school is of no responsibility if he gets hurt, that should there be a need for it he could be drafted to defend V’ida against... yeah, pretty standard and what you would expect from the paperwork tied to a training school with military ties.
Gilliam considered this and thought that the worst one could be that if there was a war or something weird, he might be drafted, but he didn’t have any proper ties in this world nor did he have any family to take any punishment. Though he might be socially stunted this didn’t really seem like a problem.
There was no penalty of dropping out, at least not for him, the major issue is that you don’t get any money back from the remaining time but since this was covered anyway it didn’t actually matter.
Reading through everything twice to make sure he didn’t miss anything, he filled in the information he had available. Family, next of kin, location of birth and such details that were tied to Earth was... It just didn’t feel right writing down the facts.
After all of that was done he handed them over to Ledels who looked at them with a raised eyebrow.
“You missed a few things here, where you’re from, family, next of kin. All of these are important details.”
He had a strict tone, it seemed like they were actually important.
“I don’t have any of those here in Lisica.” Gilliam replied proper honest, a part of him wanted to just waive them but a part of him wanted to subtly test the otherworlder aspect on someone not aware.
Ledels looked a bit confused.
“That.. doesn’t make sense, do you have amnesia? Did you come from the Mist?”
Gilliam vaguely remembers something about the mist when Angela gave the massive information dump the first day, to be honest she said so many things that he had problems remembering almost all of it. This was also before he believed in any of this so it was even harder to pay attention.
“I-” As soon as he was to reply Angela broke in by just speaking for him.
“Comes from a complicated background, given what you get from this let’s just write down that he came out from the mist.”
She had a manipulative smile, seeming to clearly know some backdoors or almost blackmail-like points. Or rather, considering that this tuition is a freebie for Gilliam but is a massive marketing and PR campaign for the headmaster personally as well as the school, this was not just blackmail-like. The little devil had him there.
He again sighed deeply and scribbled something on both copies of the contracts, then signed both of them before handing one copy to Gilliam.
Looking over them he saw that as Angela suggested, he was listed as ‘None’ for a lot of the personal details and the reason was listed as ‘Misted’.
He made a note to talk to Angela about this later, given how easy this excuse was to use in this context it might be good to have in pocket for the future.
“Right-” Gilliam announced as soon as everything was in order. “-Now that the paperwork is done, what’s next? I’m not entirely sure how this school works...”
Though he had studied in his life before, all mandatory years for kids and youths back home, as well as vocational studies within computing and coding, this didn’t mean that it translated exactly to a magical school in another world.
“First you take this-” Ledels answered as he wrote a few things on some papers and fished out a pamphlet and a key from a drawer, handing both to Gilliam. “-this is a simple map over the school grounds, having a bit more detail than the one you have there-” he pointed at the folded paper in Gilliam’s pocket. “-I suggest getting something to eat and just resting today. There will be a lot of information in the room, I’ll send for a tailor so we can get you in uniform and ready for tomorrow. Meet up tomorrow at 4-1-1, there will be some introductory classes there. You’ll spend most of the day there.”
Looking at the map it had a small explanation of how it worked with the wings, fields, levels and whatnot.
The key he got listed 3-3-45, meaning that he was in the third wing, third level, room 45. Since 45 was an odd number it was on the left side with your back towards the tower.
A simple system, following similar logic as cruise ships, certain roads and neighbourhoods back on Earth...
It was only the afternoon at this point, though there was more time left of the day, the thought of food, rest and pre-reading a bit to prepare and talk to Angela a bit was more interesting than staying here and talking.
“Ok... I like the sound of that... I think I’ll keep to myself for the rest of today...” Gilliam sighed, though he was incredibly interested he didn’t want to be ridiculed on day one so he wanted to just learn more about his cover story as well as the school as a whole.
“Oh, that’s no problem, we can get your food to your room” Angela smiled happily, it seems she was intending to come with him from the start, making him asking her to come and explain was just unnecessary.
“I’d like that.” he smiled back at her. Though the headmaster didn’t lie or exploit him too much, he still held back some details that would be considered properly honest. So though he got free tuition he still couldn’t place his trust in the headmaster entirely.
Not that he could trust Angela absolutely either, this was the fourth day he knew who she was so... However she was higher on the list than the headmaster at the moment.
“For now let’s go.” Angela nudged him on, stopping the headmaster from starting a new sentence, even though he seemed like he had planned to start one.
Without waiting Angela started guiding him to the stairs along the wall marked with a large 3, but also with SouthEast and some other numbers.
Though they got some weird looks on the way from the few students that were walking these hallways at the moment, there wasn’t the need for more than a nod or casual greeting. No complications had them reach the room easily enough, the key unlocked the door without issue and Gilliam got a feel for the standard of this place.
The room was rectangular, deeper than wider. A window at the end wall opposite of the door. A bed in the corner near the window and a cupboard with two large doors to the other side of the window. A small desk with writing utensils, a chair with it, a smaller gathering table with three chairs, a standing mirror and a set of drawers with what looked like a working sink.
Angela pushed him in and closed the door behind her.
“So... I think we need to talk a bit...'' She sounded very serious but she still looked calm and her normal self. Perhaps this was not as serious as it sounded?