After I got done with my entrance exams in a rather timely fashion, I had noticed something whilst mentally self-reviewing my answers in the nearby coffee shop on campus grounds.

"Oh no! I put a minus instead of a plus on question 19 because I was in such a rush! That would mean I have gotten the answers 1/294 instead of 294! Man, I cannot believe how rusty I have gotten. Stupid Meil, see what happens when you do not revise for 5 whole years?"

"Uh, that's great and all, sir, but this is a coffee shop." The waitress tapped the pen on her tiny clipboard, "What'll you want, and no, before you ask, I'm not on the menu."

"Huh? Why would I ask such a thing?" I furrowed my brows.

"Ah, never mind that! It's just...! Sigh, people can be weird sometimes because they wanna hit on me during work hours." She suddenly changed tones, "I'm sorry for being so on edge, sir. It's been a long day..."

"No worries at all, miss! You are quite lovely, however I find the campus to be a place of study and self-improvement, and God knows I do not need a woman for that." I joked before sighing in relief, "Actually, I was more so worried that you said that because of the color of my skin or something."

"H-Hey now, what's all this?" She squeezed the soul out of her pen as she went to shut me up, "First you flirt, then you try and get me fired for racism? Listen, I get being on edge, since as you can see I'm a bit tanned myself, but the people here genuinely aren't like that."

"They are not?"

"Mhm, not one bit." She smiled, "I can tell from the way you haven't spoken a single word in Simpletonese that you're foreign. I am from Cardina myself, and I was super worried the people here would make fun of me or something, but looking back, I've really only ever been treated with kindness and affection. Give them a chance, scholar, and you'll have a way better time than I did at the start!"

Hm, is that so? I guess after years of being in environments like the prison and Entropa, where the Carmen troops would be all too quick to put you down for being a darker shade than them, I too had gotten a bit jaded from the comments. This lady, she says she's from Cardina, and due to the same defensive behavior as me, she had a way tougher time trusting others and incorporating herself into the new world. For me, as someone who's goal is to get as many new friends and acquaintances so that I can properly set up a base of sorts for Nelly to come in when the time comes, this advice is extremely valuable. I should make a point to regularly visit this coffee shop.

"You said you're from Cardina, right?" I smiled at her as I looked at the menu, "Onda, može jedan kapućino? Hvala, molim te."

"Pff, what's with that? You know Cardinic?" She felt flattered by my attempt to speak her tongue, however still corrected me about the final part, "In the case of thanking someone, just "Hvala molim" is enough, though. Still, you did pretty well!"

"Hvala molim." I then parroted her words as a joke.

"A-Ah, I guess that one's on me. In that context, just "Hvala" is enough." She scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"Languages are hard..." I deflated on the table, "In comparison, maths is way easier..."

"Haha, to each their own, I guess." She took my menu, "Then, I'll be back shortly with your order, sir!"

"Oi, Jelena! Stop chatting with the customers and do your job!" The person working the shank yelled.

"God, stop rushing me! I'm getting there!" She shot back.

So her name is Jelena, huh? I can't remember what exactly that name means in Cardinic, as I've only ever learned some basic phrases from Lune, however I do believe I've heard of an animal named a similar way to her. Though I imagine being named after an animal is kind of rough in its own right. She must be a real, what was the word again...? Baksuz?

After being handed my coffee, I continued thinking up what my next plan of action should be once I get myself enrolled. The test I took was for Dimitri Uni, the Department of Mathematics. Now, my goal here is to find a way into the Library of a Thousand Passages, but I don't think rushing things is the way to go about this. No, instead I should focus on amassing powerful connections with the professors here. Get on their good sides, be active and regular on their classes, maybe put an apple on their desk or something. Though, I think Edward told me something about me being too forward at times, and that puts people off. I guess I'll have to drop the apple plan, then.

"There you are!" Mademoiselle ran up to my table, "Dieu, just where in the world did you run off to?!"

"Oh, mademoiselle, have a seat." I said as I sipped my coffee in peace, "And just for reference, I didn't run off anywhere, you were the one who did."

"... I-I guess that's true." She poked her fingers before returning to the topic at hand, "I-In any case, sorry about that, but we need to go!"

"Hm, what's wrong?"

"I-I dunno, but... something is definitely not good!" She elaborated, "Remember that test you took just an hour ago? Oh, what am I saying, of course you do! Well...!"

"Hey, hey, calm down." I slid the coaster with the coffee cup on it over the table, "Here, take some of my coffee and calm down. It's quite tasty and energizing."

"N-No..." She slid it back over to me, her face bright red, "T-That's a bit... B-Besides, I don't even drink coffee!"

"How old are you?"

"Uhh, 22?" She tilted her head, "Why ask, all of a sudden?"

"22 and still not drinking coffee..." I made a mental note.

"H-Hey, just what are you making a mental note on!?" She sat up all insecure, "S-So what if I don't drink coffee at my age! It's bitter!"

"Sugar and milk are both things you should look into." I then gestured for her to sit back down, "Now, have a seat and calmly tell me what's going on with that test. Quickly now, the people are staring."

Looking around at all the other customers and staff of the coffee shop staring a hole through our table, she jolted before bowing her head lightly to apologize before sitting down, her bosom slamming the table due to the stool's shortness. This led to even more Eyes being pointed at her, although I can imagine that is for a completely different reason.

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"R-Right!" She blushed, acting as if nothing had ever happened, "Finish your drink and follow me! The booth lady took your test to the professor who made it and requested for you specifically. Actually, she burst into my dorm room and told me to come find you in an hour max, otherwise I'd get a rank down, so please hurry it up."

"Alrighty." I swigged the cup all at once, "Shall we get going then, mademoiselle?"

"Ah." Her face said she wanted to ask if chugging it was okay, but she stopped herself on account of the timer put on us both, "N-Never mind, let's go!"

***

"So, who is the professor that graded my paper?" I asked as we bolted through the campus.

"It's... him!" She grunted.

"Him?"

"Argh, y-y'know, him!" She rolled her Eyes, "The one that must not be named!"

"I refuse to believe a dark magician graded my paper."

"N-No, he's much worse!" She then finally explained, "It's the worst professor on campus! His grading is horrible, he gives stupid trick question in every test he hands out and worst of all...!"

"Worst of all?"

"He gives each of his students annoying nicknames and absolutely refuses to remember your name unless you have good grades in his subjects!"

Oh, so just your standard, run of the mill professor, I guess. Then again, I've never met a real professor before, but this is exactly how my peers back in Oden described them. So wait, is she saying that such professors are a rarity or something, given she called him "the worst of all" just now? Because if so, then I'm already super content with the idea of enrolling here. I feel like it'll be quite easy.

"So what's your nickname?" I asked as she knocked before opening the door to the professor's office.

"Four-Eyes! What took you so long?" He loudly called out to her, "So, is that the guy everyone's been talking about?"

"F-Four-Eyes..." She fixed her glasses, pouting as she replied to his question, "Y-Yessir! That's monsieur Meil Deram!"

"Alright then, leave us be." He shooed her out of the room before addressing me, "Sigh, alright kid, who gave you the answer key?"

"Answer key? There was no such thing..."

"My ass there wasn't!" He slammed the table loudly, "You telling me you got a 95 on the test in just 10 minutes?! Not even Selzion himself could do that if he descended from Mount Ivrys! So just be honest with me, who gave you the answers ahead of time?"

"Sir, please calm down." I tried de-escalating the situation, only to catch a crayon that was flying towards me.

"Alright, write on the board: The Augmented Firestarter Pistol, shortened to AFP, is a device now all too commonly used all across the world in strife zones' arsenals. Assuming the barrel is a perfect cylinder with the diameter of 2,5cm, if we cut it in half, how will this affect the slug's trajectory?"

"Wow, there is so much wrong with that question." I sighed as I wrote everything down on the board, "So for starters, AFPs are nothing more than pistols, and have mostly gone obsolete in the battlefield, as they have been replaced by their stronger and bigger counterparts, namely shotguns, snipers and assault rifles. Second, there have only been 2 strife zones ever since the AFPs inception, those two being Sulfury and Southwestern Entropa, so saying "across the world" makes you sound uneducated."

"Excuse me!?"

"Sir, learn some manners, I am the one talking right now." I shushed him before continuing, "Next up: The standard diameter of an AFP barrel should not be considered a cylinder, as a real AFP's muzzle opens up near the end for easier reload. Finally, an AFP uses musket balls and gunpowder, not slugs. Those are reserved for shotguns."

"Ah, so you some sorta' soldier, are ya'?" He gave me an odd nickname, "Alright then, Skipper, if you're so smart, gimme an answer!"

"The answer is...!" I said as I finished up my detailed drawing of an AFP to scale on the board before drawing a line through the middle length-wise, "If we cut the gun in half, it will just not work at best and explode at worst. Though if you really must know, the musket ball will almost certainly always get sent deep into the ground in front of the user, given its position in the AFP."

"...Correct, Skipper." He got up to commend me, "You got every part of that trick question right. Not even a Quartion like Four-Eyes back there got that question right, since she was so focused on following the numbers on the question and using all sorts of complex formulae instead of just using simple logic."

"I see, I still think you are just trying to save face on account of you messing the question up." I explained, "Still, did I at least prove my knowledge now? Can I enroll in Dimitri Uni?"

"I guess so, Skipper." He patted me on the shoulder strongly before opening the door of the room, "Oi, Four-Eyes! Take him to his dorm! He passed!"

"E-Eh!? H-How did you know I was here!?" She whimpered under his mighty stature, "A-And what!? He passed, just like that?!"

"Yep, I'll even let him skip a few ranks and get him straight up to Nonim! I'd say he earned it!"

Glancing repeatedly between me and the professor, she couldn't at all believe that I had managed to so easily get on the "worst professor's" good side. Huh, now that I think about it, I don't yet even know his name.

"Sir, just one question: What's your name?"

"Hm? Did Four-Eyes not tell you already?"

"No, she just called you "the one that must not be..." "

"S-Shhh! Ha-ha, that's enough of you!" Four-Eyes, I mean mademoiselle put her hand over my mouth as she dragged me away, "T-That was just a scholarly joke, y'know?! His name is Gex Jethro, got it? Good, okay say goodbye now~!"

I feel like I'm just getting dragged around the entire time by this girl. She really has a surplus of energy, though I imagine that can't be good for her heart.