“Miss, wake up, please. We’re going to be late to the orientation ceremony.”

  Alira woke up to Maria’s flustered voice and the girl’s warm hands on her back.

  At first, she could still ignore it the same way she’d always ignored the first few alarms, but this alarm clock named Maria also got louder, and her grip became firmer as time went on. Unlike her phone, Maria’s alarm function was more advanced as Alira felt her cotton cocoon of a blanket ripped off her.

  “Noo...” Alira moaned at the sudden cold, curling herself into a ball. Next, her pillows were taken away from her, leaving her to be content with hugging her tail instead.

  “Miss Alira, please!” Maria said, sounding like she didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

  Alira whined at her persistence, rubbing her eyes as she propped herself up. “You go first. I’m going to sleep some more.”

  “No can do! You will just skip it if I leave first. You can’t not attend the opening ceremony; we need to hear about our Roles to get assigned classes. Especially you, since you have a unique Role. There are many things to do,” Maria grabbed Alira’s hands, grunting as she pulled Alira off the bed before she lay back down.

  What a pain, Alira thought, but she felt bad about unnecessarily giving Maria a hard time. Only this time. After this, her plan was to skip any and all classes that weren’t alchemy.

  The two girls got ready. Well, it was mostly Maria, who had been prepared to leave since an hour ago, helping Alira get dressed and tidied up. Alira rightfully felt embarrassed to be helped by someone much younger than herself, but the academy uniform—while not as bad as a noblewoman’s clothing with her number one enemy, corsets—still had a hundred layers that would take her forever to put on by herself.

  First were stockings that reached just above the knee held by garters. Then, skipping the corset was a camisole and petticoat. Following that was a high-neck, long-sleeved white blouse under a black, fitted vest, paired with a pleated, knee-length black skirt. Finally, gloves and half-boots with thick soles completed the getup.

  The fact that she’d have to do this every day until she found her way out of this world only motivated her to hurry things up.

  After getting dressed up, Alira felt half of her energy drained and very much liked to dive back into her bed. It took all her willpower to prepare to step out, only for Maria to yank her right back in to do her hair, nagging about how improper it would be for a lady to have her hair down in public.

  If Maria knew that Alira would brush her hair like thrice a week during summer break, when she barely stepped out, the girl might just lose it.

  Alira gritted her teeth as Maria braided her hair into the simplest fishtail braid, finished with a bright green ribbon that matched her eyes.

  “Alright, can we leave now?” Alira asked. Maria nodded with a bright smile, admiring her work on Alira.

  As the two headed out with large strides, Alira’s thoughts drifted towards how they, those who were reading her—especially Guest1236—were feeling about this snail-paced slice of life.

  Too bad, I’m just attending a few classes before I can find my savior.

  Maria dragged her down a flight of stairs to the ground floor. They could walk around the campus to the central hall, but the ceremony would already be over by the time they got there. It had taken almost an hour to make it out of the dormitory area to the bulletin board, from which to the central clock tower would take the same amount of time. The Academy’s students would try not to boast about it, but everyone who’d been to the Academy claimed that it was the size of a small village.

  Fortunately for the two of them, in a world of magic and alchemy, there was no shortage of fast travel. They had more than one choice—teleportation arrays made by mages or transfer ports made by alchemists. For shorter travel within the Academy, teleportation arrays were much preferred for their comfort in contrast to transfer ports that tended to take a toll on the body.

  “Miss, did you know that only spatial mages who are third circle and above could draw the teleportation arrays as big as the ones in the dormitory buildings?”

  Maria asked as the two of them stepped into a teleportation chamber. Two lines of glowing circles between heavy curtains stretched on both sides of the hallway.

  “Third circle mages usually charge two Lia per each array—that’s my entire monthly salary before as a laundry maid, and his Grace is a generous master! Some of my friends who work in town earn less than a Lia...” Maria trailed off as her voice lost its power.

  Her gaze dropped to the ground, her shoulder slacking. Just before Alira could say anything, she shook her head and continued, “But the quality of their works matches their price! Each circle has a diameter of minimum three feet, and the buffer time spent in the sub-space is as short as one and a half seconds for any distance travelled less than...”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Unlike her usual self, Maria was loud and proud when it came to magic. Alira half-listened to her as they stepped on an array leading to the central hall; neon blue light instantly lit up beneath their soles from the chalk-drawn lines, their figures distorting into mirages. A world of white flashed before Alira, gone before she managed to blink.

  At first, it seemed like nothing had changed—the same scene of dark stone walls, thick curtains, and bright magic arrays—they were inside a teleportation chamber. Except when they walked out, they were greeted by a grandiose hall filled with scattered, straggly lines of first-year students in matching black and white uniforms. The space hummed with tension, dominated by the vice-headmaster’s energetic voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling.

  Against the polished grey quartzite floor, the latecomers’ hurried footsteps were spectacularly hard to miss, drawing darting eyes towards the pair. Alira accidentally caught the eye of the blonde woman on the high platform mid-sentence despite trying to dodge eye contact. She grabbed Maria, who was too busy marveling at the hall to notice the attention on them, and quickly ducked behind a denser cluster of students.

  That piercing gaze lingered on her for a heartbeat longer, even after they merged into the group. The vice-headmaster continued without missing a beat.

  “...Each one of you, regardless of your status and identity, will one day become a pillar of our Empire. Some of you will become trusted vassals to nobles. Some will ascend the mage tower. Some will step into the alchemy society...”

  Alira stifled a yawn. At least she was late enough to have missed most of this inspirational rambling.

  The vice-headmaster clasped her hands, the clap resounding through the hall to jolt awake Alira and other students dozing off. “That’s all I’d like to say. I’m sure some students are thoroughly bored with my inspirational ramblings by now. Let us move on to the last agenda on today's ceremony.”

  Alira came back to herself at the vice headmaster’s words. For some reason, she felt like the woman’s eyes were on her when she said inspirational ramblings, but Alira was too groggy and didn’t care enough to make sense of it.

  “During your first year, everyone will have to attend classes in fundamental and basic of both alchemy and magic regardless of your major,” the vice headmaster said, gesturing to the two people standing beside her on each side. “Professor Daw and Professor Sigor here are the heads of the alchemy and magic department respectively.”

  Only now did Alira notice the two professors who were on the stage along with the vice headmaster. A middle-aged woman with the air of a noble and an Elf, a very young one, who looked no older than fifteen in terms of human appearance.

  “Other than that, the Academy will also equip you with everything you need, ranging from many useful skills to life-changing knowledge. We will also help you with the one essential aspect of everyone on Staywes. Your Roles.”

  The crowd came back to life at the mention of Roles. Compared to the theoretical study of established paths such as alchemy and magic, Roles were far more exciting to students as the abilities from the Roles were tailored to suit each person.

  “The Academy offers small, personalized classes for most common Roles such as Artificer, Warrior, Merchant, and so on. As for those with unique Roles, you may choose from a list of professors specializing in the study of Characterization and book for individual sessions as needed. We understand that unique Role bearers may prefer to take advantage of your individuality. The role of the Academy—” she said, sniggling lightly.

  “—pun employed intentionally, is to help you in all ways we can. On behalf of the Academy, I hereby assure you that the professors will not disclose any information regarding your Role unless permitted by the Role bearer.”

  The vice-headmaster nodded towards a man with flame-red hair standing to the side of the platform. The man waved his hand, summoning a stack of paper which flew towards certain students with unique Roles including Alira.

  Alira grabbed the paper with the names, accomplishments, and schedules of professors available for her to choose from. She glanced around and quickly spotted Raine who stood out with short pitch black hair. Darker hair was uncommon in the western continent where the Efestarr Empire was; apart from Alira and Raine, she noticed no more than three in the hall of about two hundred people.

  He—as the novel referred to Raine in book one and two when she remained disguised as a boy—stood at the far front. Alira could tell it was him even as his back faced her and despite only being able to see him partially through the crowd. The protagonist had his way of catching eyes.

  Raine was also reading through the same content that Alira was, as a unique Role bearer of the Protagonist. Both Protagonist and Unreliable Narrator Roles were tricky to deal with and disclose to others. Even more so in Alira’s case, she wondered what would happen if anyone connected the dots and found out Staywes, their world, was actually inside a novel, and that there were those reading their lives as a source of entertainment.

  “Miss, who are you planning to choose?” Maria asked.

  Alira shook her head much to the girl’s disappointment. “I’m good on my own.”

  She folded the paper and shoved it into her pocket. She had no plan to figure out her Role. All she needed was alchemy to deal with the bind on her so that she could get someone to kill her and leave.

  The opening ceremony came to an end with the vice-headmaster recommending the professors to the unique Role bearers. Her enthusiasm came from the fact that all unique Role bearers played a large role in history and the ones inside the hall would, no doubt, do the same in the Empire’s future. For better or worse.

  Alira glanced at Raine, who was still glaring at the paper like it had offended him, but she knew that was just his resting face. She needed to find a way to give some tips to the protagonist—the least she could do since she wouldn’t be staying to help him save the world.

  That way I won’t feel too guilty for leaving.

  “Miss, do you know him?” Maria asked.

  Oops. It seemed she’d stared for too long. Alira shook her head, peeling her gaze away from Raine. She saw a glint flash across Maria’s brown eyes as if she had reached an enlightenment of some sort.

  “Ah, I see...” she said, nodding like she could understand Alira’s thoughts.

  You see what? Alira ignored the young girl who was showing more and more of her peculiar habits. “Anyways, let’s go back to our room. I’m going to nap—”

  “Students from First Class, please gather here,” a woman’s voice resounded through the halls despite all the chattering students. Alira turned to find that it was Professor Daw who had spoken.

  A few other professors, including Professor Sigor, the red-haired man, and the other people who had been standing in front of the student crowds, called out for the students to gather around.

  Alira threw a glance at the door, but before she could think of leaving, Maria was faster to grab her hand, dragging her toward where their other classmates were heading.