"Bon, ce sera huit kilobytes." The wagon driver put his hand out towards Beau.

"He said that'll be 8 kilobytes." Beau put her hand out towards me.

"What is a kilobyte?" I tilted my head at her, much to her dismay.

"H-Hey now, monsieur, don't joke about this." She darted her Eyes around the wagon's interior, "Y-Your jokes are stalling the poor driver, y'know?"

"No, I do not know." I shook my head, "I am foreign. Please explain to me what these kilobytes are, and how I can possibly attain them."

"Oy! Payez!" The driver started losing his cool.

"A-Ah, excusez-moi, monsieur ! Voici!" She then reached into her purse and handed him some hexagon shaped coins, "8kBs! E-Et mercí bou... coup."

By the time she had gotten around to thanking the wagon driver, he had already sped off after dropping us off at campus. The poor girl, I can't imagine just how much this must be affecting her. Still, if she had just wanted me to pay, why didn't she say so? What an odd girl, people like her are prone to getting scammed.

"H-Hey, never mind him!" She hastily tried to cheer me up, thinking I felt guilty or something, "P-People like him work tiring jobs around the clock, so it's obvious why he reacted like that! T-Though, for future reference, you should really learn the currency here."

"Ah, I came from Entropa." I explained as I took my pouch out, "And while I have spent some on the journey to here, I still have 65 Gold Coins on me. Where can I exchange them?"

"65 Gold... Is that a lot?" She inquired, "I'm sorry, I've never been to Entropa. Though it does look like a lot. O-Oh, and I don't mean that in a suspicious way! I-I'm not a thief who's gonna steal it, so don't fret! Actually, wouldn't me saying I'm not suspicious only make me look more suspicious? Argh, just forget I said anything, I'll shut up now!"

She's way too shy. Some sort of social anxiety is enshrouding her completely, suffocating her and disallowing her from talking freely. I wonder, is it a medical condition? Should I send a letter to Edward asking him about it? Ah, no, right now I should probably give him some space, huh?

"Beau, please do not worry. I will trust a Quartion with my life." I reassured her, "That being said, I can vouch that 65 Gold is quite a lot. If it means anything, 65 Gold is equivalent to 650 thousand Shils."

"Ah, I've been to Cardina. That means, with the current rates here, you've got around..." She did some mental math before furrowing her brows, "Only 650kBs? N-No, that can't be right? M-Maybe I miscalculated? There's no way you have so little... Ah, I don't mean to call you dirt poor or anything! It's just so little, you surely couldn't afford squat here! A-Actually, scratch that, if there's a will there's a way, okay!?"

She was talking a mile a minute, though thanks to her slight accent I could only just barely keep up. Still, that means the currency here is similar to the one in Entropa, though instead of 100 bronze being worth 1 silver, it's 1000. Still, this doesn't mean anything until I actually see how much everything costs here. Which reminds me, we've finally made it inside the main building of the campus.

"Alright! Thank you for filling out the admission form!" The lady working the counter then read it out loud, "So, to review! Name: Deram Meil, Age: 26, DoB: January 1st 1004AD, Race: Raamic? Sir, we can't accept this."

"Why not?" I looked over at Beau next to me as she facepalmed, her face bright red from second-hand embarrassment.

" 'Why not'? Mister Deram, the Raamans have all gone extinct hundreds of years ago, killed by the Carmen Empire. Look, I'll change it to "Abyssal"..."

Grabbing her wrist over the counter as she started crossing my race out, I had effectively caused a bit of a panic from the staff there. Though, before they could take any action, Beau was there to step in.

"F-Forgive him! He's a dirt poor Abyssal bumpkin who knows nothing of the school he wishes to enroll in! Still, at least let him have his way until he proves his knowledge on the written test!"

"Go on..." The lady behind the booth glared back at her.

"A-Ah, I'm sorry for calling you all those names, monsieur!" She sounded worried that I would get offended before turning right back over to the booth lady to fully elaborate her proposal, "Please, miss! Have him take the test! There's no need to fuss over the person's ID if he doesn't even have what it takes to enroll in the first place. Oh, no offense."

"None taken." I nodded calmly before addressing the booth lady, "I am Meil Deram, author of countless scientific, literary and social studies. My repertoire is beyond the scale of any normal human being's, and my only goal is to enroll in here, as I believe that this place is the only one that will truly accept me when I say "I am a Raaman." I know it is the truth, so please allow me to take the written test."

"Hm, he's certainly verbose. For a bumpkin, that is." The booth lady then smiled, "Alright, then pay the test taking fee of 1MB and I'll show you to your room."

1MB? That's... a thousand kilobytes roughly. Even with the fortune I've amassed from my life to now, I just barely have over half of that. Looking over at Beau, she was practically melting on the floor from the anxiety and pain of having to whip out another loan for me, but I stopped her before she had done so in favor of showing the booth lady the check from Cecily and Lune.

"T-T...!" She could barely believe what she was seeing, "Ten thousand Gold!? B-But, no, with the current exchange rates...! Sir, where did you get this kind of money!?"

"Huh, you're actually rich!?" Beau did a double take, "S-Sorry for shouting all of a sudden... T-Then, why'd you make me pay for the wagon fare to here?"

"He abused the goodwill of a Quartion to get here for free!?" The people around us were disgusted, "What a disgusting man..."

"Are..." I pointed to myself as I turned to the rest of the room, "Are you saying that because of the color of my skin?"

"..." The room went silent, "N-No, sir. C'mon, let's leave him be..."

Huh, I didn't actually think pulling the race card would work so well. I'll have to thank Edward for telling me about that little tip. Right, who'd have thunk it, to just ask the person giving me a hard time if they were acting like that because of my skin. That's such an out there idea, but when you realize that the people here really don't want to be branded as racists, as it could ruin their reputation at the University, it really does start to make sense.

***

"Hey, I don't mean to sound rude, but where exactly did you get that money, monsieur?" Beau whispered as we were heading to the exam room.

"My fri...family." I explained, "My family is paying for my tuition. They said they do not mind paying if I help their daughter when she enrolls in a couple of years."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Their daughter?" She tilted her head, "Ah, so she's your sister then? How nice of you to take such good care of her!"

"No, you are wrong..." I began correcting her, however the booth lady had already found me an empty room to take the exam in.

"Mister Deram, please follow me into the exam room. And miss Archambeau, please wait outside for the entire duration of the exam."

"Ah, no, I'm not affiliated with him." She shook her head, "I just happened to find him struggling out on one of my expeditions and thought to help him get situated. A-As you can see, he's not really that well-acquainted with Simpleton quite yet."

"Expedition?" I inquired, "So you were scoping out for enemy bases?"

Confused, both ladies tilted their heads at me. Finally, after a long pause, the booth lady corrected me, "You... said you came from Entropa? Right, a war is being waged over there, so you must still be recollecting your army training. Sorry to burst your bubble, rookie, but there are no soldiers here, only scholars."

"I am the Rebellion's General." I said flat out.

"Stop with the lies already!" The booth lady shut me up before grabbing me by the wrist, "Just get in, you're wasting everyone's time here with your chronic untruths! Had your family not paid us this large sum of money, I would have told you to get the hell out a long time ago!"

She had tried and tried to drag me inside the exam room herself, however I just couldn't seem to budge. Obviously, I don't mind listening to her and following her wherever she needs me to go to, but I will not be made a fool of. I promised myself to live a free life where I will kneel to no one after I escaped that godforsaken prison, and I will definitely not enter the room if she plans on dragging me there.

"Get... in!" She then started pushing me from behind, which still didn't work, "Do you want to take the damned test or not!?"

"M-Monsieur, please don't anger the staff and just do as they say." Beau advised.

"Beau, no worries." I assured her, "I have time."

"No the hell you don't!" The booth lady got a cunning idea, "The time started counting down the moment you agreed to take the exam, meaning every second you dawdle here will be a second less to calculate all five pages of this here mathematical exam! Muahahahahaha!"

"W-What!? B-But that wasn't what happened when I enrolled?!" Beau bit her tongue from the panic before turning to me, "A-And stop calling me Beau! That's a male name!"

"Hm? But your last name is too difficult to pronounce on a daily basis?" I said, "Sigh, for future reference, please let us just call each other by our first names?"

"No! Any and all marriage proposals are absolutely forbidden on campus territory!" The booth lady shouted.

"N-No, h-he's just foreign! He doesn't know what he's talking about!" The girl with the masculine nickname hastily corrected her, "Argh, never mind that! Monsieur, you're running out of time!"

"Alright, alright." I finally stopped all their shouting before just asking the booth lady flat out, "How much time do I still have?"

Checking the device on her wrist, she smiled before revealing, "Too bad! You spent too much time flirting, and now you only have 15 minutes left! Though if you want to, you can still try for a result your rich parents can hang up on their fridge-!"

Snatching the test papers out of her hands, I clicked my pen and began speeding through it whilst leaning up on the wall next to her. Both the booth lady and the girl with the masculine nickname couldn't believe how fast I was writing, so they just looked on as I flipped page after page. Soon after, I had clicked my pen to close it back in before handing the booth lady my finished test. Glancing back and forth between her wrist-timer, me and the test sheets, she was simply left absolutely flabbergasted.

"By the way, you mentioned my parents were rich or something." I corrected her, "I do not know my birth parents, my adoptive father Joseph was killed by a stupid noble girl, and my new family has just recently lost the father. I believe this falls under student discrimination and failure to read into the applicant's background, both serious offenses on your part that may result in expulsion if I take this case to HR. Please, before spitting slurs, I advise you check your facts."

Beau, I mean, the girl with the masculine nickname had then asked the bewildered booth lady if any of my answers and results were true. Her response was that she can't possibly review it all so quickly, so she hurriedly ran to get her superior to help her. Makes sense, she's only a Decim, so she's no genius either. On the other hand, Beau was ecstatic.

"You were so cool back there!" She praised, "Dorry for doubting you, oh, but I guess I don't even know if any of your answers are true yet... B-But with a performance like that, I'd definitely accept you! What's more, you still had 5 minutes left on the clock!"

"Thank you, girl whose name sounds masculine. Ack, I just cannot get used to calling you that..."

"Pfft!" She chuckled, "I didn't tell you to call me that, silly! Oh, sorry for calling you silly just now, you're not, you're actually quite serious. I just want you to know that being on a first name basis with someone is mostly reserved for m-married couples."

"Is that so?" I thought of all the people whom I've accidentally wedded throughout my life apparently, "Then what should I call you, if neither Beau nor Kiria?"

"F-First name..." She blushed before banishing the thought, "J-Just Archambeau is fine."

"Screw that, you do not call me Deram either." I protested, "And since you call me monsieur, I will return the favor in kind and call you mademoaizelee."

"Eh?" She did a double take on my pronunciation, "You mean mademoiselle?"

"Ah, so that is how it is pronounced." I made a mental note, "Apologies, I studied the language and can perfectly write and understand it in written form, however verbally..."

"Ah, right, the tests here are taken in Entropic due to its global usage, but if that's the case I guess there weren't any worries on that front either. Still, you're quite odd. Even odder if your answers on the test give you a pass."

"Do not fret, mademoiselle, everything will be fine." I then noticed her hiding her face from me, "Ah, is something wrong, mademoiselle?"

"Y-Your voice is kind of... Y'know?" She said in a weak tone, "How do I put it... Your accent is e-enchanting, to say the least."

"Thank you, mademoiselle." I smiled as she finally couldn't take it anymore and bolted out of the room.

This was fun, I got a lot of work done and managed to find out a lot of new things just in my first day here. Though, I was told before the booth lady started ushering us to the exam room that it might take up to a week for them to review my answers, and since mademoiselle ran away, I now don't know where I should go to next. Maybe I shouldn't have cranked my accent all the way to the max so soon, it probably sounded jarring to her, hence why she ran away. Oh well.