“Adventures card?” A guard asked.

“No adventures card. I am here to enroll at Havardr Academy.”

The guard looked her over, seeing her fine clothes, regal bearing, and educated speech, pegged her as a noble, though why a noble would enroll at Havardr was above his pay grade, he just wanted to finish his shift and go have a beer at his favorite inn.

“Take this street down ten blocks, than make a left. Cannot miss it.”

Smiling at the guard, “Thank you!”

Charmed the guard waved her through.

Walking into the district Emily immediately noticed how crowed everything was. The buildings loomed over the street five to eight stories high, most were narrow and long, the streets themselves were barely large enough for a single cart, and sounds of smithing rang out everywhere.

Almost every shop had weapons or armor displayed, even the ones selling produce. Most of the people walking around carried at least one weapon, and most wear armor. Making her way slowing down the street, Emily counted the blocks, and turned on the tenth block as instructed.

Eleven blocks later and she found out what the guard meant when he said you cannot miss it. The street opened into a large sprawling park and in the center high stone walls stood. Emily could see the tops of buildings and counted more than a dozen rooftops. A large manicured path led to impressive gates, and instead of ubiquitous cobblestones this path looked to be made of one seamless white marble stone with grey, black, and red flecks throughout, it was gorgeous.

Stepping onto the marble path Emily made her way to the gates.

“What can I do for you miss?” A guard asked.

This time the new guard wore fine attire of polished brown boots, black leggings, a crisp white shirt, a red vest, and a deep blue coat with a belt over it that held his sword. A patch on the left breast displayed a crest. The crest was in the shape of a shield, with the top left square white with a sword in the center, next to that square, on the top right, was an empty light blue square mirrored diagonally on the bottom left, and on the bottom right was an image of a rolled up scroll.

“Hello! I am looking to enroll in the Havardr Academy? Emily smiled winningly.

Nodding he waved over anther guard. “Please take this young lady to the administration building.”

“Thank you! And you are Mr?” Emily asked the first guard, still smiling. If she was going to be here for an extended length of time it was best to start making friends.

“Cedric Thornfield miss. This here is Squire Renwick Balen.”

“Thank you Knight Thornfield. I am Emily Warden.” Emily introduced herself, making a guess that the guard was a knight.

“Nice to meet you Lady Emily. I hope your time at the academy will be educational and help you get a good class for yourself, I must say you have an astonishing high mana count for your age.”

Using a skill to read another’s status screen was considered rude and intrusive in this world but it was a matter of course for guards to identify people and see if they were trouble, especially newly arrived academy kids.

“Yes I have been blessed with some traits that have given me some advantages and I hope to capitalize on the blessing by training diligently and raising my skills so I can receive a good class.”

“Well you have a good chance at accomplishing your goals at Havardr. I myself teach swordsmanship classes, you would make an excellent student though I feel you lean more towards mage classes?”

“Not at all! I hope to take every weapons class this school has to offer! Swords, axes, spares, knives, I want to learn everything!”

Both guards were momentary stunned looking at this refined noble girl under a hundred centimeters, weighing 18 kilograms wanting to learn so many weapons. Almost everyone just wanted to learn swordsmanship, and maybe knife fighting as backup.

“Well we would be happy to teach you anything you want to learn at havardr, we teach courses on a wide verity of subjects and you should find your skills reaching high.” The knight boasted.

With that Emily started to follow the Squire Renwick. Kids were packed on the walkway. Some laughing and joking with friends, others heads were in books cramming for a quiz, others were busy squabbling on parchment trying to finish their homework.

Emily was excited to go to school. She had never gone to any formal school in her old life, always studying at home and online. A ping of loss hit her as she thought of her father. Emily found she did not miss her old life much, this world was way more thrilling, but she wished her father was still alive and with her. They would have made a great adventure team, taking on dungeons, crafting together, and having a great time exploring this world. Emily hoped he also got reincarnated on another world and was living a good life.

“And we are here Lady Emily through though those doors you will find someone to help you enroll.” Renwick gestured towards large polished doors that arched to a point almost three times Emily height and just above the arch hung a large metal shield displaying the academy’s crest.

Nodding she thank Renwick and made for the doors.

The doors were extremely well balance and open without effort. Emily found herself in a large room with dark stained floors, high ceilings, gray stone walls, and numerous hallways branching off into the rest of the building.

Walking to one of the six desks, Emily waited for the lady behind it to acknowledge her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Welcome to Havardr Academy miss, how can I help you?” The lady asked professional, she was even wearing an outfit that would not seem out of place in her old world. A black skirt that fell just below her knees, black leather shoes, a white buttoned down blouse with the crest of the academy embroidered on the left breast, and the same professional demeanor of secretaries everywhere. Even a magical world filled with monsters bureaucracy is truly universal.

“Hello I would like to enroll in Havardr academy.”

“Okay miss, the yearly fee is ten small gold, this includes your room and board. If you cannot afford this rate you can take out a loan that the Emperor generously provides for new adventures, be warned that there are strict requirements for such a loan and you are required to join the army if a war breaks out and if you fail to repay the loan the Emperor will conscript you into the army until all debts are paid. The second option is to have the academy administer an abilities test and if we feel you have potential we would offer you a scholarship.” The secretary gave the memorized spiel in a somewhat board tone.

Emily just imaged how many time she had to repeat the whole speech. The most interesting thing about the spiel was the information about joining the army. Unlike medieval times when barely educated peasants were conscripted not knowing anything about fighting, here it was proven strategy.

With classes all anyone needed to do was level up their class and ascend to a better one to become powerhouses. With classes the people themselves become walking weapons. Having people trained and leveled signing magically binding contracts guaranteed the Emperor could amass a powerful army quickly without fearing the same powerful people would defect to the other side.

“I have the funds needed to enroll, thank you for the information, it was most informative.” Emily smiled at the secretary, wanting her to know she truly did find the spiel informative.

The secretary smile became more warm and authentic. “Well miss I just need to ask a few question to fill out some forms with your information that will help us determine the best classes for you.”

So saying the secretary pulled out a stack of documents. Emily forced herself not to groan, could she fight a monster instead? That definitely should be an option.

“Now what are you interested in learning at Havardr?”

“Everything!”

The secretary blink at her, Emily held her smile. The standoff lasted two minutes until the secretary broke.

“Can you be more specific?”

“All weapons, short swords, long swords, great swords, axes, knives, daggers, blunt weapons, hand to hand combat, heavy armor, almost forget the spear and poleax!” Emily kept smiling as the secretary’s smile turned into a scowl and see stared hard at Emily.

“Young lady making fun of the intake forms casts a dim view on your chances to succeed at this academy.”

Waving her hands in negation Emily put on her best earnest face. “But I am being truthful! I want to learn everything! There is so much to learn and I need to learn it all before I get my first class!”

The secretary looked startled as Emily vehemently objected to her accusation of taking the intake forms lightly.

“Now miss calm down. I am sorry; too many kids think it is funning to lie on the intake forms, than they complain about the classes they are put into. I have had to redo too many intake forms.”

“That is quite aright miss, filling out these forms over and over must get annoying fast.”

“Yes, now let us start over. I am head secretary Eleanora in charge of managing every student’s records. If you need to change your class assignment or add new class I or one of the other secretaries will help you.”

Bowing slightly Emily replied. “Nice to meet you head secretary Eleanora. I am Emily Warden.”

“Nice to meet you Emily. Now let us get you sorted out. That is an expansive list of classes you are interested in how about we schedule you for swordsmanship and knife fighting first, and after you complete the basic skill acquisition you can come back here and schedule another weapons class.”

“That seems far.” Emily nodded in agreement.

“Now moving one what scholastic courses are you interested in?”

This was a tricky question because Emily did not want to sign up for any classes. Though it sounded conceited classes would just slow her down. If she had to sit and listen to lectures after she studied the books and memorized everything Emily would be bored to tears.

“None.”

Eleanor looked up from her forms and narrowed her eyes. “Emily I know the class room is not fun for someone interested as you are in weaponry but I strongly encourage you to take at least the basics in mathematics, reading, and writing courses offered here.”

Emily who had an advanced degree in mathematics in her old life, and several other degrees also tried to come up with an answer to this earnest plea.

“Eleanora I already have the required knowledge.”

Without saying anything Eleanor pulled out a blank sheet and started writing on it. Finishing it she slid it over to Emily along with her quill.

Looking at the page she saw an advanced mathematical question in the form of a complex hypothetical, the ones that start with, someone a boards train traveling at speed x and someone b boards anther train traveling speed x what time do they intersect. You had to not just comprehend the math involved but also have high reading aptitude just to figure out the math question. Emily figured it out in seconds and wrote the answer down, then passed it back to the secretary.

Eleanora face betrayed skepticism. Picking up the paper she glanced down at the answer Emily had wrote.

“I stand corrected again. You clearly have more training then I thought, just how old are you?”

Smiling she wondered if she should add her old age with her new body, even then she would only be eighteen.

“Five.”

This time Eleanora’s shock and disbelief was almost a scream. Thinking it was smart to help the poor woman get though anther shock Emily let on to one of her traits.

“I do have a trait called Prodigy.” Emily stated nonchalantly, putting on the most innocent face she used when she had to explain that the explosion in the basement had nothing to do with her and she had no clue just how those chemicals got mixed together. Emily had loved fireworks and decided to try making them. Just how she had survived to reach even thirteen was a mystery.

Eleanora jaw actually dropped and she was speechless for a moment before she started laughing shaking her head. The other secretary glanced her way wondering what was so hysterical.

Calming down Eleanora was finally able to speak. “I am not sure we should let you in, you might take over the school.”

“Is that an option?” Set the secretary into another laughing fit.

“Please stop, you are ruining my hard nose reputation.” Eleanora mocked beg.

Holding up both hands in surrender. “Okay Eleanora I will stop. I do not want your hard won reputation to be damaged. This secret will stay between us.”

“Thank you kindly miss, I do appreciate your discretion.” Eleanora said primly.

“Getting back to your trait, I have to say that is one hell of a trait and you wanting to learn everything makes so much more sense now.” Quickly filling out the rest of the forms Eleanora looked up.

“Now it is just the matter of payment.”

Emily took off her pack and dug around. She did not want a high level thief to make off with her bag of holding, and the money therein, so she had buried it deeply in her pack and then tied the pack tightly shut. Reaching the middle of the pack she unearthed the enchanted bag. It was another security measure, if someone cut open the bottom, clothes would fall out before the bag of holding.

Reaching inside, Emily felt around for five large gold coins, the equivalent of fifty small gold coins, and enough to pay her fee for a full five years. Emily wanted to prepay the full amount in case something unexpected happened, like having her money stolen.

Handing over the money, Eleanora put the money inside her own bag of holding without a word. Eleanora stood up gracefully.

“Let me show you to your room. The schedule will be worked out later and a detailed plan will be delivered to you once it is complete.”

With that Eleanora started for the main doors.