Other World's College Fair

About six hours later the carriage rounded a small hill, and out the window, Mich was able to see the first sign of civilization since he got to this world. The town was surrounded by a stone wall about 15ft high, and on the wall, he could vaguely make out figures standing on it, but they were too far away to observe them in detail, and as for the town inside the walls, all of the buildings were made of grey stone, with a few bigger buildings further inside the town. assuming that most of the smaller buildings were houses with each of them having about 2-3 people living in them Mich was able to estimate that around one million people lived there. this was absolutely shocking to Mich! In his last life, NewYork, one of the biggest cities in the world, only had around twenty million, and if a place with one million was only considered a town, then how many people are in a city? in fact, how many people are in this world!

If one million is a town, then that means the population must be much higher, and since Earth was already reaching its carrying capacity at less then ten billion, then Rues (the name of the world) must be much larger then Earth! and while this fact wouldn't really matter to Mich, putting together details, and facts like this is one of the things he loves most.

While he was working through his logic, they had already approached the gates, and most likely due to the aptitude testing only happening twice a year, there was a large crowd of about a few hundred if not a thousand people in line to get into the city. this meant that even though they had a long journey, it might take them all day just to get inside, that is for commoners, as the son of a baron, Mich's carriage was able to pass through a much smaller gate. Along with the wagon of commoners, who were able to mooch off of him to pass through the gate.

Now that they were inside, Mich had a much more detailed view of the city, and he noticed that his earlier assumption that all the buildings were houses was wrong and that most were businesses like bakeries or tailors, he even saw a bookstore, which while not being untenable for commoners, would not be something they would buy on a monthly, or yearly bases. Though his one million population theory might still be true as he saw some homeless people deep in the shadows of the alleyways.

As they were driving through the city, Mich who had been taking in the sights, noticed that something might be odd, and he wasn't able to put his finger on it until he saw a man in a suit of leather and iron armor with a spear on his back, drag one of the closer hobos deeper into the ally. when he saw that seen it was as if everything clicked in his mind! he couldn't quite remember what it was called, but he remembered that some major cities would limit what people could do on the main streets of cities so that they looked nicer for tourists. in fact, Mich started going a bit crazy on this theory, starting to believe that the homeless might be fake too! and that the government was using them to make it not look 'too' perfect, or maybe forcing them to beg for money, only to take it later!

Mich would have continued down this endless spiral of insanity, if not for the carriage stopping, and the door opening. outside a man in a black suit was bowing while holding the door open. through the original Mich's memories, he was able to identify him as the family butler, Gerd, who had been serving the Swordright family longer then he was alive, he also started to suspect that Gerd might also be a warrior, but he had no actual proof of that theory.

stepping out of the carriage, Mich almost tripped, his legs were pounding from the trip, and this was his first time actually standing since being in the body, combine that with the fact that his original body was much taller, as expected of a twenty-year-old, he wasn't used to legs these short. stumbling over himself as he tried to walk, Gerd looked over concerned and was looking like he was confused whether to help him or not, but in the end, he didn't move.

After he walked a few more steps, he got the hang of his new legs and started walking in a fashion acceptable of someone who just sat down for a long time. and as he was walking to the large building in front of him, he heard Gerd talk to him, in a crisp and neat voice.

"Young master, I will return on the hour, if you don't come out in twenty minutes I will assume you have been accepted to a school, and will leave. If so, here is some gold from your father."

as he said these words, Gerd handed Mich a red pouch embroidered with the family symbol, a flaming sword. as he opened the pouch to see how much money was inside, he decided that now was a good time to go over this worlds currency. in this world the standard term for money was gold, and the currency had two units, pieces, and coins, twenty pieces are worth one coin of the same metal, every ten coins are worth on pice of the next metal, with the metal being as such

copper

bronze

silver

gold

platinum

mithril

orichalcum

adamantine

to give you a sense of value, an average poor family of two can survive off of fourteen copper a week, and a middle-class family can make about five silver a month, so the 5 gold coins, 10 gold pieces, 15 silver pieces, and 2 bronze coins, was quite a fortune, for a standard family, in fact for a barony like the Swordright family it would usually be a lot, but the Swordrights owned land, which for barons, was very uncommon. But even then giving your second son over five gold coins, is still a large amount, and most likely if he wasn't accepted into a college, he would have to return it to the family.

"thank you"

Mich automatically responded, confusing Gerd, without realizing it. But Mich didn't notice it as he headed inside the building that had a large sample with a sword, and a staff crossed on it. which was the symbol for the government-funded magicians, and warriors association. the inside of the first room was large and was crowded with children being led by adults, into various doors on the sides of the room. And as he walked in a man came over to him and shouted while waving his arms

"this group fallow me!"

Mich turned around and saw that the others from his territory were right behind him! if Mich had to take a swing as to why, it was probably that he was the only one they knew, and as the son of nobility, he was more likely to know what to do. So he and the others ended up following the man into a smaller room with nothing inside other than two doors, with a stand-in between. on the stand was a stone slate with a handprint made of swirly runes. the man walked behind the stand and said,

"I'm going to explain this quick! come up and place your hand on the runes. If the edges of the paper I give you are blue, you have mana, if red then lifeforce! Go through the correspondingly colored doors, to get to the school screening room! On the paper will be a symbol for the element you have and a number, closer to five the better! Schools will have the entrance requirements on boards above there stands! Now we need to hurry so you in the front come first!"

When he said those last words, he gestured to me, so I walked forward and place my hand on the runes. as I did so I felt a tingle crawl up my arm, and into my heart, and brain, sweeping them before returning to the runes. after he handed me a paper. the paper had blue edges, and on it was a fire with a 2 next to it, and a whirlwind with a 1 next to it. the man saw this and gave off a high pitch whistle.

"a duel element huh? that's rare."

looking at the numbers he gave a small, sympathetic smile, and patted me on the shoulder, continuing to speak

"don't worry about being a two, that's actually the most common level of aptitude."

If anyone could believe what he just said, I would be amazed, thought Mich as he walked off to the blue door, only to stop when he was opening the door, because he heard a large shout.

the one at the slate was a handsome kid with short light blonde hair and emerald eyes, giving him a heroic appearance. the tester who at this point most likely had already forgotten me shouted out

"three affinities?! and two at five! and the third is an advanced one! you're a genius! a given defying genius! please! when you become powerful remember dave, the one who discovered you!"

The tester had tears in his eyes as he handed the paper to him. seeing this Mich had a deadpan expression on his face, and closed the door behind him. taking deep breaths through a clenched jaw he kept repeating a mantra 'i am not jealous'. and after saying it enough he truly believed that. he had a system that would allow him to upgrade and even gain affinities. He was sure that in the future he would have like eight systems!

Any thoughts he had about the blonde kid flew away when he exited the hallway he had entered. when he came out he saw a large number of stands with signs above them. looking at the people calling out to the kids walking by, reminded him of the college fair that his high school on Earth held, smiling at the familiar scene, he couldn't help but think that some things never change. the stands on the outer edge were small and had wooden signs with the elemental symbols crudely drawn on there with 1's next to them. people were desperately calling out to him, but he ignored them for now and kept walking.

As he got deeper into the fair, the stalls got bigger and had a noticeable rise in quality. and not just the signs, looking at the people manning the stands, the women, and men, were a step above the rest in appearance. in the 1's stands the people looked ok, but here the girls all looked cute, the men pleasing to look at. at first, he just wrote it off as a difference in money causing poor diets, and lack of cosmetics. That was until he got to the three's. the women and men were quite attractive here, not god or goddess level of beauty, but enough that they would turn heads when they walked by. and it wasn't just there faces being covered in better cosmetics, but the woman's' bodies were good too. the women had large breasts, and with some of the robes having low v-necks, Mich was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. when he got to the four's the number of people dropped drastically, there were very few people at the stalls, talking to the people there.

The reason for this was obvious. as he walked a little deeper he noticed while the stands had a large drop in quantity, the crowds there were gigantic! looking over everyone's shoulders, he was able to catch a glimpse of the women at the stand, she had long black hair, and purple eyes, with a cute mole below her left eye, and her large bouncing chest, she looked extremely seductive.

Looking at the stall next to it, there was a blonde woman with a slim well-proportioned body with blue eyes, she looked like an angel. though strangely enough, Mich was able to notice a few similarities between the two and the occasional death glares, they sent at each other almost confirmed his assumption that they were sisters.

But the booth with the biggest crowd wasn't the sister's ones, but rather a stall with the elemental symbol for all, with a five next to it. the name was Gryphon Royal Academy. and the woman there was stunning. she had long light blue hair and similar colored eyes. she gave off an air of grace and dignity. He heard the other guys in the crowd talking and heard some rather shocking information.

"Isn't that princess Cleo?"

"It's Cleosandra, Asshole! don't disrespect the princess like that!"

"sorry man calm down"

"-!"

Mich tuned out the rest of the conversation as he processed the info he had just heard. Princess Cleosandra or Cleo. was one of the three children of the current king and his only daughter. due to her beauty and magical talent, she had a large fan base in both the common folk, and the nobles, including the past Mich, who even knew some strange and specific details, such as her favorite color and food, and with this being a time where communication is underdeveloped, knowing these things about someone who you've never met before could almost be considered stalker-ish. and in his memories were some 'intimate' moments with her in his mind, which in our Mich's head firmly labeled the other Mich as a perv. he was about to walk back to the stalls with the appropriate requirements from him, but he spotted a familiar face walking up to the princess.

It was the blonde kid from his group! the kid walked up to the princess, who had an exhausted business smile on her face, most likely having dealt with about a thousand idiots all trying to talk to her. and when he arrived she opened her mouth to tell him to leave, but he handed her his paper, and when she saw what was on there, her eyes flew open, and she covered her mouth with her hands. she grabbed the paper in a hurry and stamped it. she quickly blurted out

"you're accepted! walk through that door!"

She then seemed to realize she had stamped his paper without even asking if he wanted to join, her face paled as she was about to apologize, but he had already walked through the door. She simply sighed in relief when she saw that. And seeing that the whole fiasco was done, Mich slunk away from the crowd, as they started talking about the kid who just got accepted into the top magic school.

Getting back to the 2's he frowned at the low quality of the stands in compared to the better schools, but sadly there wasn't anything he could do about it, so he just looked around for the best he could get. He looked at about thirty schools that would accept him, each of which had a variety of different subjects, with most of them being something he didn't know, and some which he couldn't even pronounce. In the end, he settled on a school called Emberbridge. Emberbridge offered a variety of low-level courses, such as enchanting, beast taming, and pioneering. he most definitely didn't select it because the woman manning it had a large chest and the robe she was wearing had a deep v-neck. Not one bit.

So he got his paper stamped, and walked into a room with a large number of benches, reminding him of a church with pews. About 1/4th of the benches had people on them, most were talking with one another. Others preferred to be alone, reading books, or catching some zs. though one couple was the exact opposite, as they were furiously french kissing each other, groping the other's body seemingly not being able to bear being apart.

Mich as a virgin was more than a little jealous at the man, who had a girlfriend to do such things with. But then Mich realized something. He was 15! that was an acceptable age to be a virgin in this world! Before he was a twenty-something loser, but now he was just an average teen. A smile crept up on his face as he became determined to get a girlfriend in the future.