The academy was split into four sections, in the northeast, was the main academy building in which we had taken our exams. To the northwest was the campus dorms, although you did not have to live in the dorms, most students did because of convenience. I was just happy I did not have to live in an inn anymore.

  My dorm room was my own personal one, thanks to the fact that I was in the top ten in the entrance exam. The southwest was an open field and a few courts for practice. The southeast was an assortment of extra school buildings including the dining hall and kitchen; there was a gym added onto it and an assortment of what looked like small classroom buildings.

  After having placed my stuff into my room and sorting everything the way I liked it, I went down to the third square. The school was dealing out the necessary equipment and books for the students to learn, I went to get my own, but after I had gotten the writing implements and a few more thing I found out that almost eighty percent of the necessary textbooks was only in the library and most nobles just bought their own before they enrolled.

  ***

  “Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you that before the test.” Thomas said as we were walking to the first class that we had together. “But don’t worry we bought your books with ours, it ought to be delivered this afternoon.” He added quickly after seeing the slight twinge of irritation in my eyes. Neffie had decided to continue giving me the rundown of how the school worked, presumably disappointed at her brother’s thoughtlessness.

  “The school curriculum has five years and it starts of as freshman, junior, sophomore, high grade, and graduate. The first two years are usually there to fix bad foundations and help teach the basics. But if you succeed early, they put you straight into sophomore.” She had said when I asked why there was such a diverse number of badges on the students’ shoulders. I had one on my shoulder myself, which had the school emblem crossed with the character for one.

  Neffie was not going to join our swordsmanship class so she headed off. Thomas and I went to the que and after heading into the class sat down in the middle of it, the desks and seats was staggered upwards to allow everyone to see the blackboard in the front. I had later learned that most of the innovations that this school exhibited was because of its founder having had been a summoned hero, the same one who had defeated the demon king a thousand of years ago.

  The professor came into the class and silenced the class with a short command. “Be quite!! Now this is not some market place play or some nobles’ entertainment, this is an establishment of education. If you do not want to learn then get out.” She said, the anger in her words evident. The class became deathly silent as a response.

  “Now your first few weeks here will not be spent using your swords at all, you need to learn how to read swordsmanship in the first place.” She added getting into the teaching mode that soon droned on to the first lesson. The rest of my classes went essentially the same, though all the students in the magic class was already good at their own unique magic, we still had to start from the basics again.

  After the lunch bell rang all the students went to the dining hall. Each year was separated by the tables, but it was also more separated by certain groups of students. ‘Guess even in this world there is going to be the social groups that exist in every school.’ I thought rhetorically. ‘That’s a given human psychiatry has always loved thinking it’s better than others.’ Adviser quipped in response. Thanks to adviser things were going swimmingly because all I had to do was let him memorise the information it saw and I had time to think on other subjects.

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  There was an arithmetic class, but it was boring, because they also started with the basics, for those who had not gotten the best scores in the test. After the classes ended, most kids went to find an after-school club I decided to first go and find Neffie and Thomas. On my way over there was an altercation waiting for me.

  “So, you think you’re a big shot huh.” Some cliché dumbass decided to ask me. “Excuse me do I know you.” I asked hoping that I could just ignore them and move on with where I was heading. “you peasant asshole, how dare you cheat and take the young bosses spot on the rankings.” he had said his face red with anger. “first of all, I did not cheat second of all I don’t even know who you are talking about.” I said still not in the mood for nonsense

  “The Young boss Juande von Vestia, was supposed to be in the top ten, you obviously must have used some sort of trickery seeing as he is not even in the hundreds and you as a peasant are in the top ten.” He said his hand twitching to his sword. Adviser finally said something. ‘Why don’t you just take care of him and move on.’ His suggestion thou logical felt wrong.

  After a bit of trying to reason with the man he grabbed his sword ready to supposedly defend his bosses honour that I had supposedly stolen. His arguments made no sense and I was not in the mood for nonsense. So, as he attacked, I ran through the hall at an increased speed and escaped the issue. Not worrying about the consequences. Which was a mistake.

  I finally found Thomas and Neffie who was on their way the club selection area. There were hundreds of clubs ready for people to join and all you had to do was sign your name on the correct form at one of the recruitment stands. They had told me to find one that I would enjoy instead of just following them so I went and earnestly searched for one that looked interesting.

  After a bit of searching, I decided against the ones that already had a huge number of students at them, most of which the reasons were obvious the students were either entering because of the one handsome guy for most of the girls and then the boys even made a bigger fuss for the girl known as the campus goddess who was supposedly part of the calligraphy club. I decided to avoid the overcrowded clubs just in case.

  That is when I found her, the girl I had helped outside in the city, another one of the top ten scorers in the entrance exam. She was standing at the recruitment booth for The Magic Advancement club, looking deep in thought probably considering whether to join. The club sounded right up my alley. I came to stand next to her signing up.

  “Hey nice to see you again.” I said casually breaking her revery. after she focused on my face, she blushed so hard I thought she was turning into a tomato, “oh, yeah h..hi” she stammered seeming to have lost her previous braveness. “Ar…re you joining this.” club she said looking at my submission form. “Yeah, thought it sounded interesting.” I said ignoring her obvious shyness and continued talking to her as she signed her own submission form.

  After signing it the one who took our forms told us which of the classroom like buildings they were in, it seemed the only purpose of those buildings was the clubs. It was there where I met some of the best friends I would have in this live which included Misha. In the club there was five others already, a swordsman who said he wanted to learn enchantment to become better at wielding his sword, an alchemist major in his sophomore year, and an arithmetic’s major in his high-grade year. They all introduced themselves in turn.

  “I’m Brad.” Said the swordman. “Names Demetri.” Said the alchemist, which made me almost chuckle out loud. “I’m James, now don’t disturb me I’m working on this problem.” The arithmetic’s major answered trying to focus on what looked like a very difficult math problem.

  I knew I would get along with this crowd. Misha and I introduced ourselves. Things were going well as conversation became easy between us and we spent quite a bit of time talking before we all headed to our dorm rooms to end the night.

  And thus, my first day at the academy past, mostly without me revealing my hidden strength I thought feeling proud of myself. A feeling which would be dashed come morning, but my dreaming self had no knowledge of it.

  ***