10 Chapter 9: Academy Life

Once again, the moment Sanzo opens his eyes, it isn't the marble white ceiling that he was staring at the prior night. Instead, yet another woman. And she happens to have a knife pressed right up to his neck, ready to dispose of Sanzo at any given moment she wanted to.

"I can't catch a fucking break, can I?" Sanzo swore under his breath, getting sick with these girls trying to kill him every time he wakes up.

"What are you doing here in Fleur De Lis, and one of the dorms of the elites?" She spoke coldly, almost derived from any emotion. The woman was dressed in a maid uniform, bright blonde hair that's tied to one side of her head, and piercing blue eyes that are staring down at his.

"Didn't Rachel explain to you about a delinquent being detained here?" Sanzo spoke in a lower tone so that the blade of the knife doesn't clip his neck.

"And you even know one of the names of the Masters... I will eliminate you this instant." She mutters and was going to slit his neck if he does not react quickly enough.

Sanzo squeezed his eyes shut and repeated 'ICE, ICE, I NEED FUCKING ICE!' In his head. The orb sprung into existence, catching the blonde off guard. She aborts the previous attempt to finish off Sanzo then and there but the knife was still way too close for comfort. He could feel the cold in his hands and magical energy flowing through him. He grabs onto the blade of the knife and instantly bringing the temperature down to -100C°. It wasn't enough to freeze the steel, but enough for the maid to let go of the knife in shock. But Sanzo did not stop there. He rolls off the bed and manifests his magical energy to form an ice ball that is meant to disperse upon impact, freezing whatever it will make contact with. The supposed target this time was this damn maid who tried to kill him.

"Sanzo, stop!" A familiar voice rings from behind him and an iron grip suddenly grasping onto his forearm. This causes him to discard the magical energy he invested into the ice ball and look behind him to see who interrupted him. It was Rachel, who was dressed in a nightgown.

"Estelle, I should have told you about Mr. Hisashi staying in one of the rooms in the dorms last night. But you were too tired to even respond to me, correct?" Rachel sighs and walks over to the knife and picks it up, walking to the maid and handing the knife back to her.

"Lady Rachel... My apologies. Last night, it was pretty hectic. The rest of the students were talking about this delinquent, yet I had no idea where or who he was. When I came to this empty room, I just saw him there." She explains and bows solemnly.

"It's fine, but Sanzo, why did you have to be so extreme?" She turns to Sanzo and asked with a frown.

"It was a knife to my throat. I did not want to die. I don't need any more girls trying to murder me the very moment I wake up." He did his best to defend himself.

"He's right, Lady Rachel. I was acting a bit irrationally, now I pay the consequence." She still has her head down.

"Look, I'll just make it up to you one time. It was a misunderstanding, that's all." Sanzo dismissed the issue as soon as he could, wanting to get on with what's next.

"I'll hold you to that, Mr. Hisashi." She smiles and bows one last time before walking out of the room, leaving Sanzo with Rachel.

"Well hello there." Sanzo looked over to Rachel, who was visibly upset.

"Stop with the pleasantries, lady killer. I brought this for you." She goes outside for a moment, then reenters with fancy clothes that were folded neatly.

"What's this?" Sanzo stared at her blankly.

"School uniform. Louise used her magic to create it, so you better thank her later." She lays the school uniform down on the bed.

"Is this even the right size?" He unfolds the top of the uniform and tried to judge if it would fit on him or not.

"She has her ways to find out. Who knows, maybe when she was trying to mess with that orb, she was secretly taking your measurements."

"What a sly girl," He muttered under his breath. "What will be happening today, though?"

"The Headmistress will address to the entire student body about your stay here. To avoid situations like earlier happening again. Besides, you have to be interacting with other students besides us Masters. Your life here will be better that way." She explained with a huff.

"Awfully kind of her." He couldn't believe it. But he couldn't complain, maybe his friends are in way worse situations than this.

"One more thing. Experimentation will begin right after the general assembly, so prepare yourself."

"Got it. Where is the auditorium, anyway?"

"We will have to be discreet once again, so I'll walk you there once you're ready. Just head to the entrance of the dorms, okay?"

"Will do."

They exchange nods and Rachel exits his room, closing the door.

Sanzo did not waste any time and went to have a shower and brush his teeth. Strangely enough, isn't the world he was transported around the medieval ages? They have a fully functioning shower, faucet, washing machine, and toilet in the bathroom! There was even a lamp on the side table and a few light bulbs that can be turned on with a similar electrical switch that he is accustomed to already. It doesn't feel that different. He settles on the thought of asking about this later in the experimentation.

After dealing with his hygiene, Sanzo puts on the school uniform that has been sitting on the bed. He remembers the days of high school where a uniform was required. But this uniform felt a lot more expensive and elegant as if this is something that someone in the higher class should wear. He'd have to repay Louise now, it feels like he's going to a school dance in this attire. But that will be two women to repay now... He's got a small gut feeling Rachel won't enjoy it.

He finally finishes dressing himself up with the uniform and headed out of his room, and out of the dorm building. He ran into some female students along the way, but they would simply run away from him and storm out of the dorm building in fear.

He lets out a sigh as he meets up with Rachel once more. They talked while she was leading him to the auditorium.

"I guess I'm not welcome here just yet..."

"Don't worry, the misunderstanding will be cleared up later." She smiles brightly.

"You sure about that? These girls look like they've never seen a guy in their whole life."

"The students are indeed pretty sheltered... Maybe you'll just have to prove to them that you aren't a bad person."

"I can't do that alone. I'll be needing that help from the Masters. You guys are pretty popular from what I have seen and heard."

"We indeed are the academy's best when it comes to that particular magic, but that does not mean we are very influential. Noire may be loved because of her passion for her class, yet she is disliked by Support magic students since she is pretty strict."

"So if I can woo all the Masters, I'll gain the favor of the students?"

"You aren't wrong. But hey, what do you think will you be doing?" She squinted at him suspiciously.

"Of course nothing wrong. I just want to make friends with them, they seem like nice people."

"That would be pretty appreciated. It might not look like it, but us Masters don't have many friends."

Before Sanzo could inquire any further, they arrived at the back entrance of the auditorium. They were instructed to enter through there so it wouldn't cause a fuss. He had to sit in a guest room while the Headmistress and the Masters proceeded with the assembly. He watched from inside but made sure to not have his silhouette visible. The Headmistress was going over some announcements about schedules and other things he didn't care about. He was getting nervous though, his palms started to sweat, and his thoughts are racing. He was about to introduce himself to the whole academy.

"Now, regarding yesterday's events..." His trance was broken by those words. He observes Rachel taking a few glances in his direction but didn't make it obvious to the rest of the audience present. "This unforeseen newcomer to our academy will introduce himself. And yes, it is a male." The whole auditorium erupted into murmurs and chatter. To those who were not present in Sanzo's appearance, this must have been shocking. Though to those who have seen his laughable spectacle, it was a mix of amusement and anger. "Why was he welcomed by the Headmistress?", " That delinquent must have tricked the Masters with seduction!" There was a clear divide in opinions within the crowd.

Sanzo took the chance to finally stand up and walk out onto the stage. The whole room fell dead silent in an instant. All eyes were on him now, and the pressure was almost visible. The Headmistress moved to the side for the male to take center stage. He hid his hands behind his back to hide the fact they were shaking from fear. "I am Sanzo Hisashi. It's a pleasure to meet all of you." He was able to say without any stops or slurs in words. He takes a bow, seeing that bowing in this academy is also a sign of respect of sorts. He raises his head and takes a step back, letting the Headmistress be the center of attention once more.

"He will be staying with us for the time being. For those who witnessed the incident, he was supposedly summoned, correct? We did some investigation and found no trace of a summoning being done by a student at that time." She explained to the now confused crowd. "Furthermore, for those who witnessed it as well, he is incredibly adept in harnessing magical energy; and that peculiar orb that he has." And right on cue, the orb magically appears to the left of Sanzo, now slowly patrolling his proximity like always. "The Masters and I have decided that he must be kept within the academy until he is ready to leave of his own accord, or we can find a way to send him back wherever he came from." She concluded.

The students within the room were divided once more. Some understood his unfair situation and simply accepted how this was all going to go. Some were suspicious of this man, vying that he had an ulterior motive of some sort. Yet they were indifferent since it didn't concern them. But unfortunately, there was a majority who were against this man's very existence. And they weren't afraid to voice it out at that moment.

"Outrageous! You bring a man to Fleur De Lis to care for him?! He will be nothing but trouble for us all!"

"If he is so great at magic, let him duel the Masters, one by one!"

"Men are nothing but perverts that only think about indecent things... This year is going to suck.."

The shouts and gossips were getting overwhelming, and Sanzo looks over to the Masters as if telling them to do something. It was quite embarrassing and unfair.

"Order!" Amber suddenly exclaimed, manifesting a spear made out of dark energy and hurled it into the ceiling. This, in turn, emitted a high pitched squealing noise that no one can bear for more than a few seconds. Once the room was distracted by the commotion, Amber made the spear dissipate into magical energy and the ringing stopped.

"Now then. This assembly has been concluded, return to your classroom at once." The Headmistress spoke and the students who were seated stood up and exited the room in an orderly manner.

Sanzo was escorted by the Masters to a vacant classroom on the first floor of the school building. Once they entered and the door was sealed behind them, he took a look around and examined the room. It wasn't as outlandish from the outside, that's for sure. The floorboards and walls were made out of light materials like wood. For it being an Elemental magic classroom as well... It's certainly confusing.

"Now, pull it out." Rachel suddenly filled the silence.

"That's what she said." He made a reference to something in the far distant future with a smirk, but the rest of Masters seemed to know what he was talking about in the general sense.

"I didn't know you were that straightforward, Rachel." Louise was the first to express the sentiment and nudged at Rachel a bit.

"O-Oh shut up, you know what I mean. The orb, for heaven's sake..." She responded with a bit of a flush appearing on her face.

Sanzo's orb materializes and they quickly got to work with testing out how it works. He was instructed to sit on the teacher's desk while the Masters surrounded him quickly.

"If it is most resistant to magical attacks, what if we just-" Louise abruptly swings her staff so that its shaft would strike at Sanzo's side. A metallic thud was emitted.

"OW! You didn't even warn me!"

"Sorry... So that's at least one theory out of the way." Louise smiled sheepishly.

"How about dark magic?" Rachel asks the group.

"What about it, Master L'erechel?" Amber speaks up, seeing she is the Master of the magic.

"Well, see if it drains his life force."

"Wait what?!" Sanzo was utterly confused about what was going to happen to him.

"Excuse me, Mr. Hisashi." Amber manifests a needle made out of Dark energy and promptly stabs it into his hand. It only pricked for a bit, but Sanzo felt a greater pain a few seconds later. It's as if the needle was taking away his very soul bit by bit. In instinct, he removes the needle from his hand and threw it across the classroom.

"I am pretty sure it does... I was scared for a moment there." Sanzo was addressing Rachel, who wore a content look on her face.

"Next up, can the orb absorb more things?" Rachel took a few steps back, putting her hands together and slowly forming a fireball that would soon grow into a concerning size. Again, she did not even warn the poor guy. She launches the fireball at him, the other Masters promptly lunged away to preserve themselves. The fireball made contact with the orb, and the orb slowly but surely consumed the whole mass of fire.

To check out his newfound power, Sanzo thought about fire and held out his left hand, and magical energy started emanating from it. He held out his right and thought about ice, and the corresponding element's energy was resonating as well. A cry of surprise came from the Masters, who closed the distance again and were in awe.

"Without ever touching a tome, he can replicate the same energy. This is terrifying." Rachel stated, the other Masters nodding in agreement. "Now, Sanzo, do you even know how to use it properly?" It was a dull question, but something that got them thinking.

"I'll give it a try." He gets off the top of the table motioned them to move to the side. First, he gets both hands to be manifesting the same thing: fire. He tries to recall his experience with magic when he was in the previous world, which was unsurprisingly from fantasy books and some computer games that featured fantasy settings. The first thing he does is try to replicate Rachel's fireball, with one hand this time. The ball started small, but he committed more and more magical energy into it, it grew exponentially to the point it was larger than Rachel's previous fireball. He hurls it into the wall and watches it dissipate back into magical energy.

And he wasn't done with just that. He takes a few steps forward to make space and distance with the Masters. He manifests raw energy into his hands, not taking any form. He then plunges his hand into the ground, planning to spread it around him to create a hellfire effect around him. And so, it did. A perimeter of scorching flames soon surrounded the man. He looks back up to the Masters with a satisfied look on his face as the flames eventually died down due to the magical barrier installed within the classroom. Though a short moment after, Sanzo felt a surge of blood rush to his head, and then out of his mouth. He felt incredibly weak and fell to his knees.

"S-Sanzo..!" Rachel cried out and rushed to his side, holding him so he wouldn't completely fall over. The rest of the Masters panicked as well, looking to Louise with her staff.

Louise moved to Sanzo and raised her staff. Green energy resonating from the top of the staff and drifted into the boy. In almost an instant, Sanzo felt considerably better from the sudden fatigue and bleeding. He leaned into Rachel for support and stood up slowly. "G-Guess I can't go too crazy yet... Ack..." He wipes the excess blood off of his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Jeez. Don't scare us like that..." Louise sighed a breath of relief and loosened the grip on her staff.

"But I must admit, Mr. Hisashi knows what he's doing. Where did you come from exactly?" Noire started a line of questioning.

Rachel guided Sanzo to a seat and the rest of the Masters sat in chairs around him. "Let's see... I am from a planet called Earth, and the country I came from was Japan." He seemed hesitant to reveal all this information to them, but it might help later down the line when figuring out a way to get back somehow. "The reason why I can visualize my magical actions and execute them is that... We have these things called fantasy books. Fiction, to be exact. Authors would write up a world where magic is dominant and this world is like all the others I have read about. We even have video games, but that is something you guys would not understand." The others listened Intently, curious about this world that Sanzo came from.

"Oh yeah, I also have a question, what's the date and year today?" He asked all of them.

"It's the 17th of the 7th month of Imperial Year 850." Rachel was the first to respond.

"850?! How do you have electricity already?! There are even a shower and a washing machine!" Sanzo expressed his disbelief and looked surprised.

"Well, there's a lot we need to explain," Rachel responded. "First of all, you are on the planet of Jaralosa, that's the name of the continent anyway. Secondly, you are in the Commonwealth of Landorf, the most technologically advanced nation in the world. We have harnessed the very mana we possess and turn it into power. With this power, we can power appliances, and the like that would previously need coal or another type of fuel."

"I see. So do you guys know what a telephone is?" He was referring to the really old ones that were inconvenient and seldom worked at all, needing telephone lines as well.

"Tele-what?" They all said in unison, clearly not knowing what it is.

"Ah, it's something that lets you communicate with someone else over a long distance without the use of letters."

"Advanced Support magic users can do that, but that's it. Something like this tele-whatever would be good for us." Louise remarked.

"Ah well, forget about it for now. So uh, Fleur De Lis, right?" Sanzo noted.

"What about it?"

"Is it French?" Sanzo was completely disregarding the fact that he was in another world and asking this as more of a whim since it was pretty obvious the moment he heard it.

The Masters took a good look at each other and shook their heads in unison. "I have no idea what that language is," Amber spoke up for once. "But the native language in the Commonwealth is Laytano. But we use Common a lot more since it's the universal language." She explained.

"Common?"

"The language we are speaking right now. What is it called in your world?" Noire chimed.

"Common is known as English, and Laytano is French."

"I see. How many countries are there in that world?" Noire asked further.

"About 195, I think. Not sure."

They let out a cry of surprise once more. "N-No way... That is way too many. We only have 9 here."

"Now that is way too few." He abruptly stood up and manifested ice magic into his hands. "I feel better now, I'll keep trying out the magic I have."

"Please be careful and not overexert yourself." Rachel stood up as well and held onto his shoulder in worry.

"I will. Why are you so worried about me, anyway?" Sanzo looked behind him.

A bit of red appeared on her face as she shoved him slightly and looked away. "I'm just worried our test subject won't be so potent later on, t-that's all."

"Whatever you say." It was painfully obvious to Sanzo, but it's way too early for things like that.

He takes a few steps forward and remembers the very first encounter he had with Rachel. He did not use the magic that was in his hands since he didn't want to hurt anyone. He even ran away since he was well aware of what they would do to him if he resisted extremely. Now he snaps back to reality and focuses on what he wants to do. He had to be conservative this time if he does not want to fall over and pass out though. He focuses his magical energy into forming icicles around him, 6 in total as a modest number. Then he drives his hand forward, the icicles following the general direction of where Sanzo wants them to go. The icicles collide with the wall and shatter, leaving behind residual mana. Next, he points at the wall with his index finger. He concentrates a compact amount of energy on his finger, wanting to replicate a laser beam. The energy was building upon his finger, and he waited until it reached maximum capacity until he released it, a laser beam making a clean hole in the classroom's wall. Thankfully, the metal reinforcement was enough to stop the ice beam, it was close though.

"Woah!" He stumbles back from the initial recoil of the blast but Noire was close by and helped him regain his balance.

"Sorry. I nearly broke through that metal, though." Sanzo regained his composure.

The rest of the Masters meanwhile were astonished at the damage that the male had caused.

"I think this is quite enough for today, don't you think?" Louise asked the other Masters, using her magic to repair the wall back to its original state.

"I agree. We don't want to anger the Headmistress by letting such a beast destroy a classroom." Amber responded harshly.

"Cut him some slack, that was incredible." Noire shook her head.

"That will be more than enough to report to the Headmistress later. For now, let's have lunch at the rose garden. Noire prepared some baguettes with tea for us." Rachel addressed to all of them.

"I wanted to make Mr. Hisashi feel welcome so..." Noire smiled brightly.

"That's very kind of you. Oh, and just call me Sanzo." He wanted to get formalities out of the way as soon as possible because it will feel uncomfortable after a while.

"Does that apply to me too, Sanzo?" Louise teased and got close to him, grasping onto his arm.

"Sure, why not."

They cleaned up the mess they made in the classroom and headed out of the school building, going behind it to see the rose garden. Some tables with overheads and chairs have been littered around just in case anyone wanted to eat or just leisure around there. They settled down on a table that had enough chairs for the 5 of them. On the table, was a basket that contained a generous amount of bread. There were even fancy cup holders for the tea they were going to have. Noire excused herself for a moment to prepare the tea in the kitchenette.

"Oh right, Louise." Sanzo looked over to her.

"Hm?" She looked confused.

"How were you able to make this uniform so quickly?" He was aware that she used magic according to Rachel, but he wanted to hear it from her.

"A-Ah I just used my magic to modify the fabrics we already have on hand." She seemed unusually nervous.

"How do you know my exact size then? Even a professional needs the specifics, you know." He pressed on.

"That's a lady's secret." She winked and smiled sheepishly.

"Ah well let's leave it at that. Just know that if you need a favor or anything then I'd be happy to oblige. I'm indebted to you." He proclaimed, even though he knew the consequences that will be brought by the woman beside him.

"Oh my, trying to make a move on me already?"

"No, I just figured I'd need to repay you."

He felt a sudden pinch on his right cheek and a visibly infuriated Rachel to his right. "Yeah, right, you seductive serpent..."

"Calm down Rachel, you just have to do something kind to him then he'll repay you," Louise smirked and teased her.

"For heaven's sake..." Amber wasn't having any of this, and the rest of the group settled down. Noire soon returned to the table with a set of teacups and a kettle of freshly made tea.

"Here we are." Noire puts down a teacup in front of each person present and fills it up with black tea.

The group started to consume the bread within the basket while waiting for the tea to cool. They conversed about nothing in particular, but it was mostly just Louise doting on Sanzo until Rachel rebukes her for being too aggressive. When Sanzo observed the girls were drinking their tea, though, he prepared to take the first sip of his. He's never really had any proper tea. There was this one time where it was just green tea with ice inside and it tasted horrible, but he's sure this would be way better.

"This is delicious!" He had to express his surprise in words. This was probably the most expensive beverage he has consumed in his life so far, excluding someplace that overprices their coffee so much that even the high middle class like him couldn't afford to go there regularly.

The girls would look at him, confused as to why he was so taken aback by the tea. It was true it was delicious, but they would consume this tea pretty regularly considering their status and posh demeanor.

"What's so good about it?" Rachel was the first to speak up.

"Well in my world, a single cup of this tea would cost me a small fortune." He responded and took another sip and was also consuming a baguette.

"Now that you have mentioned your world, you are a student, yes?" Noire called back to the exchange yesterday where Sanzo kind of just shrugged off the question. Now it's coming back to bite him. "What are you pursuing in your studies, Sanzo?" She calls him informally for once, which caused him to soften up.

"In university, I was studying to become an engineer. People who oversee the construction of buildings and machines alike. We are responsible for most of the infrastructure and public works that reside in our world." He provided a vague description of the job just in case they did not know what it meant.

"An engineer, huh? So someone like the one who invented the Mini-train?" Louise perked up with almost sparkling eyes.

"What's a mini-train?" Sanzo asked, never hearing of anything like this before.

"It's a public vehicle my father invented. We would lay railroads on the streets and place a mechanized cart in one point. It runs on magical crystals and even pure mana if the driver is a mage." She explained with enthusiasm, having pride in her father's work and achievement.

"That's pretty amazing. Do you guys have regular trains?"

"All the rail work is done, but all that's left is the train itself. So in the meantime, he made something on a smaller scale for the public to use."

"That's a pretty good move from your father. He's going to make big profits from that alone."

"Oh, no, it's free. Why would he charge people to ride on something so beneficial?" She tilted her head in confusion.

"So he's that type of businessman, huh. He is going to single-handedly revolutionize transportation, yet he is not planning to monopolize it..." Sanzo trails off, reminiscing about his days of running as fast as possible to get to high school since he didn't even have enough money for the train fare.

"So what will be happening tomorrow?" He addressed to the other girls to avoid being questioned any further about his other world experiences.

"We'll be making preparations for this year's dance. Danser Jusqu'à L'aube, we call it. It will be held at the end of the month, and one of the events the students are looking forward to." Rachel explained. "Usually, it would be a chance for the girls to spend time with their dear upper or lower classmen but..." She trailed off and looked to the side.

"We've got a man in the mix now," Amber remarked, looking over to Sanzo with a flustered expression.

"Better pick wisely, Sanzo." Noire had an unusually terrifying look on her face.

"Or you will regret it." Louise joined in as well. All eyes were on him, and their gazes are amusing yet life-threatening.

"Give me a break..." Sanzo sighed.

And thus, the rest of the day proceeded uneventfully. Sanzo still had to be quick with his movement as the rest of the students will run and hide from him. That has to change and soon. And the dance at the end of the month, it will certainly be thrilling. Getting out of this world can wait, he has the earn the favor of the ladies. Somehow.