“What's this?” Zeke muttered out loud. Frowning, he brushed the item carefully in his direction. “...A box?” He got up from the floor, both arms cradling a square cardboard box.

The box was rather clean, seemingly touched often leaving no time for dust to gather. Zeke peered inside and saw two stacks of books. “Ah, these must be textbooks,” he deduced from one of the headings; ‘Theory of the Sword’.

Since he got what he needed, Zeke headed back into the hallway, trotting towards the library with the box full of books.

At his arrival, Circe opened the door to meet him, “I was just about to go get you,” she widened the gap for Zeke to walk through. "...What is that?" she said, scowling as she closed the door behind her.

"Textbooks," Zeke said as soon as he placed the box on the table with a loud thud. Several newspapers were lying open in front of him, he noted. “Seems like you also found clues?”

Circe nodded and took a seat, bringing one of the newspapers closer to her. “Aitheras Academy. Apparently half of it got destroyed in a fire last year, so it's been closed and under reconstruction.”

“A fire?” A scowl formed on his face as Zeke pulled out the books in the container one by one, reading their titles as he went. At the bottom, a large book took up the space of the two piles, “Oh, this is the handbook.”

Circe raised an eyebrow, “Looks a little too big to be called a handbook at this point,” she watched Zeke lay it down in front of her. The title read: ‘Aitheras Academy: School of Swords and Magic’, written in bold gold letters on top of a large castle-like structure, assumed to be the academy itself, “Oh, so this place teaches both swordsmanship and magic?”

“...This thing has mana on it too,” Zeke remarked as he flipped the pages. Despite its size, it wasn't as thick, “I can't tell what spell was casted, though it doesn't feel harmful. Maybe it's for some sort of feature.”

As soon as he finished, Zeke found a page containing a timetable with each subjects labeled in blocks. “Ah, this is where the mana is gathered,” his eyes landed on the schedule's head, and he read it outloud, “Schedule for novice knight Silas Salvador, school rank five six seven…out of a thousand students!?”

‘Schedule for Novice Knight: Silas Salvador. School Rank: 567/1,245. Overall Knights Rank: 3,447/5,429’

“That's probably only accounting for everyone that's a novice knight too,” Circe rested her chin on her palm, “Well, you're around in the middle, at least that's alright.”

Zeke sighed, “Looks like the timetable is tailored for each student, why couldn't that be implemented in real life?”

“Ha. This is a fantasy world, what do you expect?” Circe chuckled, “I'll have to check what classes I have after the royal banquet. I would assume I'm not in the swordsmanship classes.”

Zeke opened the book to another page, “Oh, this explains the rankings and grades.”

‘Aitheras Academy separates its students into classes depending on their desired goals: Swordsmanship for those who strive to become knights. And magic for those talented in mana. The academy does not discriminate between class, age or race.’

‘Note: Grades only separate the students by topics of study, and not their real strength.’

‘Swordsmanship Grades:

* Freshman (1 Year).

* Novice (1 Year).

* Intermediate (1 Year).

* Expert (1 Year).

*Students may skip or study for an extra year depending on different factors.’

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‘Mage Grades:

* Freshman (1 Year).

* Apprentice (1 Year).

* Adept (1 Year)

* Master (1 Year)

*Students may skip or study for an extra year depending on different factors.’

The page next to it talked about rankings.

‘Once a month, the rankings of students will be decided by different formats such as paper tests, duels, tournaments, etc. The students are only ranked within their grades.’

‘The Overall Ranking is decided in strictly a tournament format annually (future changes may apply), where all students in their respective field of study regardless of grade gather for a duel that could last the entire month.’

‘*The school rank is not to be confused with the official ranking issued by either the Royal Knight Commander or the Grand Magician.’

Zeke flipped to the next page after they'd finished reading, “Dormatories? We have to stay in dorms?”

‘Dormatories are separated by fields of study and gender. All grades stay in the same building, only on different floors. The layouts for all dormatory buildings are shown below:’

Two upside down L shapes were broken into straight pieces, each block signifying the dorms with blue being the boys’ dorm and pink being the girl's. On the left stood the mages' building, while on the right was the knights'. Other infrastructure, including stores, a maintenance center, and even a blacksmith for the knights, was situated in front of the buildings primarily to offer the students whatever services they could require.

“Girls on the sides, and boys get to walk a lot further to get to their rooms,” Circe laughed, “I like this layout.”

Zeke rolled his eyes, but otherwise remained silent as he turned the last few pages. Most of them didn't provide any other necessary information, only listing the subjects that the academy teaches.

Then he got to the last page, and his eyes instantly went wide. “This…is a dorm key,” Zeke picked it up, noting the number ‘245’ carved into the metal, “...I get to take it home? I thought the academy would hold the key for the students.”

“Dunno, maybe Silas stole it.” Circe shrugged, “How did it even hold itself inside the book? There's no pocket or anything.”

Zeke placed the key on the back cover, and immediately it snapped onto it as if pulled by a magnet. “It's magic, not magnets.”

“If it's something that came with the book then I guess they just give the students their dorm keys.” Circe leaned back.

Zeke spoke, “...That's all, right?”

“Yep, and I guess we're free for the rest of the day. Should we go out and get our academy uniforms fitted? I doubt Ruelle outgrew hers though.” Circe began cleaning up the table, folding the newspapers and gathering them into one stack.

“I actually want to do something first,” Zeke answered as he placed his textbooks back into the cardboard box, “I can probably push to level twenty, so I'll get that done today and we can go out again tomorrow.”

Circe faced Zeke with a raised eyebrow, “Where are you going to get experience points here?”

“How else?” With a still expression, Zeke stared at Circe, “By cooking, of course.”

.

.

.

After Zeke returned the textbooks to their original place under his bed, he met up with Circe in front of the main kitchen. Since it wasn't time, only a few staff manned the place, mainly keeping it spotless in preparation for the next meal in a few hours.

Walking inside, Lilia instantly turned towards them, “Ah! My lord, my lady! What might you be doing here?”

Circe offered her personal maid a smile, “Hello Lilia, we would like to use the kitchen for a moment. Could you please step out?”

“Oh,” Lilia's eyes briefly landed on Zeke, but they snapped back in an instant. By then, the other servants had taken note of their conversation, “Of course, my lady. May I ask what you plan on doing? I'd like to be of assistance if I could.”

“Ah…” Circe glanced at Zeke, “Lord Silas wanted to cook for me, so I'm here to watch him work~ Is that a problem, Lilia?”

It took the maid a moment to answer, her eyes still widened, and her forced smile didn't hide her surprise, “Not at all, my lady! We will be taking our leave now.”

As quiet as the wind, the servants all went out of the kitchen, leaving the entire space for the two to use. Zeke looked around for a moment like a soldier accessing his battlefield. “As expected of a noble's kitchen, there's a lot to work with.”

Circe watched Zeke stride across the room, heading for the prep table. “...You seriously know how to cook? What dishes do you usually make at home?”

Zeke shrugged and answered, “I sear steak for myself. I also like making spaghetti bolognese, but mainly I prefer meat.”

“Those seem easy to make.” Circe crossed her arms with a raised eyebrow.

Zeke's brow lifted as well, “Because you asked what I usually make? I mean, I can cook any meal as long as I have the recipe,” he opened the large refrigerator behind him; its technology courtesy of magic judging from an intricate circle drawn on the side. “...since cooking doesn't yield many experience points, I'll have to make multiple dishes. Do you have anything you want to eat?”

“Chicken,” Circe replied almost instantly, “I kind of crave chicken right now.”

“Bet,” Zeke straightened himself after sweeping his eyes across the full contents in the fridge. “I'll make a course meal, I guess…though I have no idea what's in a course meal, I'm winging it.”

Circe's eyes narrowed to a slit. Can you really blame her for not believing that Zeke can cook? Silently, she prayed the kitchen did not catch on fire.