“By Merlin’s beard! What took you so long boy!?”

The angry voice of a woman was heard in the distance, it was one of the teachers of Salusbreath, Irene. The teacher was wearing a long and elegant pastel blue dress and a large white cape decorated with golden arcane symbols that matched her white boots.

From her expression, one could tell that she was angry but with certain traces of concern. Irene looked at the sir of the mustache sternly, without even turning to see Matthew and Tryg, only to end up giving a sigh of resignation and relief.

“We are very sorry Miss Irene, it seems there was a problem on Merlin’s trip.” The sir of the mustache bowed a little in apology.

“I know, I was with Merlin's clone when they asked for help, but that's no excuse for being late. For a second I thought something had happened to you all.”

Irene motioned for them to follow her, heading straight to the castle on the hill.

“I'm afraid I had to wait for the young, Matthew and Trygve, to arrive. I honestly don't know what took them so long to get to the village.”

Irene looked at Matthew and Tryg for the first time in search of an answer but ended up paying more attention to Matthew, his face seemed very similar to someone she had met in the past.

Matthew and Tryg looked at each other for a few seconds and it was Matthew who decided to explain the reason for their delay.

“We're very sorry, Professor Irene, on our way here we were intercepted by many corrupted people…”

“…yes, yes, besides the witch we met just before arriving at the village,” Tryg continued.

“Witch!? “Did she attack you!?” Irene asked worriedly stopping her walk.

“Yes, but there’s nothing to worry about, we took care of her very quickly!” Matthew said proudly

“Yes, we even took care of urinating on her so she wouldn’t curse us later. It was an advice from my grandfather.”

‘urinate on a witch? What kind of advice is that?’ Irene thought

‘What kind of advice does his grandfather give to him?’ thought the man with the mustache looking at Tryg. ‘And why does he believe him?’

“I… whatever, we have to hurry, it’s almost time for the new students to be assigned to classes” Irene said, quickening her pace toward the school.

Matthew and Tryg followed Irene closely, finally entering the big city. The first thing they noticed was the large number of people in the city, but the most surprising thing for them was the great variety of races that lived there, humans, elves, dwarves, and even vampires. The scene was very cheerful although they could notice several people working in some damaged houses, they seemed to have been attacked.

“Hurry, you don’t want to be left behind and not be assigned to a class!”

After several minutes of walking through the large stone streets of the city, the four of them went out of the city through a large door that led to the path to the school. Although it was a small stone path, the four of them could walk on it without any problems or feeling cramped.

The path was very long, so long that they found some students resting on a bench. The sir of the mustache was the first to notice them and approach them.

“By Arlene's tits, what are you still doing here!?” The sir of the mustache exclaimed seriously.

“Sir! I have told you several times not to use that expression, especially not in front of the students!” Irene angrily complained.

“Everyone says ‘by Merlin's beard’ so I can also say ‘By Arlene's tits’. She is also a benign!”

“But it is not the same… enough, we do not have time to discuss this, let's go quickly.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The now group of 6 arrived at the doors of the huge school. Matthew looked at the castle in awe, he didn't know how he couldn't feel such a tremendous amount of magic from afar. The castle emitted a great amount of magic, flooding Matthew and Tryg's senses instantly.

"incredible..."

Irene just smiled at Matthew's comment, this was one of the school's greatest achievements, no other school could emit such power as Salusbreath did, so much was its power that even those who couldn't use magic or sense it could feel a great pressure when standing in front of the school.

Everyone entered the huge school leaving Matthew and Tryg even more impressed, outside the doors, the school was just a huge castle surrounded by a large wall that protected the school, but once they passed through the doors everything changed, the school was as big as the city they had just passed through.

The path from the gate led directly to a huge castle, the same castle that was on the hill, and surrounding the castle was a city that was divided into three different sections by a river that ran through the whole city. Each section of the city was decorated in a different color, dark green, dark red, and dark blue with each section having large training grounds for the students.

“This is the Salusbreath school, each student is assigned to a different section, the greens are control, the reds are will, and the blues are knowledge, each of them represents the rule of the three uses in magic. In a few moments, you will have to choose the section that you like the most and feel comfortable in, then you will be assigned a house in the section you have chosen. Although you will have to live with someone else, each house has a capacity of up to three people”

Professor Irene explained as she closed the doors they passed through, then she let out a sigh of relief and snapped her fingers muttering ‘we’re finally here’. Matthew and Tryg felt as if they were being pulled into the castle and everything around them became blurry, the next second everyone was inside the castle along with the other students who were waiting for the ceremony to start.

“Not again!”

Tryg quickly covered his mouth, wanting to run to a corner to vomit, but was stopped by Professor Irene.

“Nuh uh, we don’t have time”

Professor Irene touched Tryg’s forehead with the tip of her index finger and emitted a white light which cured Tryg’s dizziness.

“These… transportation spells… are the worst thing they could have invented” Tryg said haltingly, recovering from his dizziness.

“Get in line quickly, the ceremony will begin in a few minutes”

The teachers entered a room with large silver doors, the doors had all kinds of arcane drawings on them. Although Matthew could not understand most of the drawings he could notice some of them which were used in teleportation spells.

Matthew and Tryg quickly went with a group of young people who seemed to be their age, all the new students who were lined up were of different ages and races, from 12 years old to 17 or 18 years old.

Matthew and Tryg began to talk about which section to choose and both agreed that knowledge would be ideal for them, while they talked Tryg could hear other students talking among themselves about what had happened to some students just before they entered.

“So the rumors are true?”

“Yeah… they were all under the big bridge in Salusbreath City when someone threw something weird from the top of the bridge.”

“I heard it was vomit that fell on them.”

“eww”

Tryg turned pale upon hearing the conversation, remembering the scream that was heard right after he vomited on the bridge that he was teleported to by the sir of the mustache. Matthew quickly noticed Tryg's change of attitude, wondering if he was okay.

“Tryg, are you okay? Are you still feeling dizzy from Professor Irene's spell?”

“No, no, I'm fine, just a little anxious for the selection…”

“Of course, it's normal.”

A few minutes later Professor Irene left the classroom, indicating to the students to enter in an orderly fashion behind her. All the students followed the teacher, entering the large hall which was divided into 4 parts, 3 parts were decorated in green, red and blue, in these places the students sat, and at the head were the teachers with silver decorations.

“Welcome, young students!”

A man who appeared to be no more than 40 years old, stood up from his chair welcoming the students, he had a well-kept brown beard and wore an elegant black suit with a brown tie, this man was the director of the Salusbreath school, Edward Mate.

“We are pleased to have you here, at the Salusbreath school, where you will be able to develop your full potential and live a dignified life free from bad influences. As the incredible teacher Irene has already explained to you, today you will have to choose your place in this school, either with the faction of control, will or knowledge. Yesterday you were given a tour of each faction so that you could check yourself and make sure you chose the right one.”

As Headmaster Edward continued to speak, Tryg pulled Matthew along, looking a little confused.

“A tour? We didn’t have a tour. I thought we all arrived today, during the day.”

“Me too… Merlin never told us we had to take a tour.”

The director raised his hand and snapped his fingers, drawing everyone's attention. Within seconds, a semi-transparent cloth in the color of the faction they belonged to formed in front of each faction.

“Now is when you choose your faction, you just need to go to the faction you want and pass through the cloth to confirm your decision.”

All the students quickly separated, heading to their favorite factions. A large portion of the students entered the faction of will, leaving only a handful of students who were divided between the faction of control and knowledge. Matthew and Tryg did not hesitate and quickly headed to the faction of knowledge where they were happily greeted by the rest of their classmates.

The older students quickly took the newcomers and led them out of the great hall, taking them to their respective dining rooms. Matthew and Tryg were taken to the blue area of the city along with the other new students who had chosen the knowledge faction, in the city they went to a large building that was adorned with several blue banners with the figure of a wolf on it, this building was the great dining room of the knowledge faction, here there were several citizens working as waiters and chefs.

"Welcome to the Knowledge Faction or also known as the Wolf Faction! This will be your home from now on and we will be your family, do not hesitate to ask for our help!"

One of the older students spoke, from his way of speaking and expressing himself, Matthew deduced that he was the representative of the Wolf faction, as well as the most respected student among them, after all, all the students fell silent as soon as he spoke.

“Let me introduce myself, my name is Jonathan Renn and I am the prefect of the wolf faction, if you need help or have any problems do not hesitate to come to me or my partner”

At that moment a slightly younger girl stepped forward and with a sigh introduced herself.

“It is a pleasure to meet new faces, my name is Sofia and I am the second prefect of the wolf faction, you can also count on me if you ever have a question or difficulty.”

Without much more to say Jonathan ordered everyone to take a seat, the food was made and ready to be served at any time he indicated.