Chapter 18

Late into the night, I had managed to get a little sleep. Two or three hours, maybe. Waking up early, I decided it would be appropriate to dress in my school robes, for orientation.

As Evelyn had directed, I made my way out of the dorms and towards the Southern Office, just to make sure that the room I was meant to go to hadn't changed.

The campus had much more movement today. Students were running around everywhere, getting to lecture halls for their own orientation. It appeared I made the correct decision to put on my robes, as everyone else had done the same.

After confirming where the special training class was, I felt much more confident heading to the building Evelyn and I had paid a visit to on our tour. Entering the building, I realized my guess about singling out the special training students with unique robes was correct for three reasons.

The first, it seemed all the other students were staring at me. Second, almost immediately, I locked onto the only other student wearing the same robes as me. Thirdly, it had seemed he also noticed me, as he was heading towards me, and quickly, at that.

Before I could decide if running would be socially acceptable here, he was upon me. Handsome dark tan skin, tussled coppery hair, and sea-green eyes. A clean shaven, sharp and defined chin, complimented by a beautiful, radiant smile. He had muscles that looked fit for a demi-god. The two inches of height he had on me felt like a mile.

"It seems you and I are birds of a feather," the man, who surely had been blessed by the gods, initiated conversation. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Nicolaus Quirinus. What should I call you?"

I was momentarily stunned by how Nicolaus introduced himself. He was so forward, and didn't speak with any of the measure I had to come to expect from the city folk. Once I had gathered myself, I spoke, "Cai, you can call me Cai. Caius Withide. It is very good to meet you as well."

"Withide, I'm sorry to say, but I am not familiar with that name. Where is you're family from?" Nicolaus spoke, sincerity in his voice. There was something about him that said he was a noble, but not the same as the others I had met.

My voice came out quieter than I expected, like I was embarrassed. That didn't make sense, why would I be embarrassed? "It's uh, I'm from a small village up in the north, called Lockwood. My family ran a farm, we weren't a noble family, or anything."

Was that why I was embarrassed? Did I want to impress this person? That was ridiculous! I didn't care what he thought. How was he doing this?

"Well, you certainly just got much more interesting, Caius." Nicolaus smiled, "As far as I'm aware, that makes you the only person in our special class who isn't of noble birth. That is certainly impressive.

Between you and me, I think most of them had their parents pay to get into this class. Oh, and that name, Caius? That is a talking point itself. It is a rarity to find people who use the Old Empire names outside of the older clans that have existed for several centuries. Do you know how you got it?"

Nicolaus had somehow compelled me to start walking with him, so we continued our conversation on the way to our shared class. "I don't know much of my name. My mother gave it to me, I suppose, but I never knew her. Does that also make you a noble? I don't mean to be rude, I just don't recognize the name. We get very little news of the Houses up north."

Letting out a laugh, Nicolaus assured me, "It is quite alright, Caius. You would be forgiven for not knowing my House, even if you were a noble. While our blood is old, there is very little exceptional about it.

We have no clan patron to make us powerful, nor does sorcerery flow through our blood, and we can never seem to get spell craft to stick. No, we are known for our exceptional warriors. Our spearmen. Every child of House Quirinus has been a warrior. Our crest is a spear, and it is a weapon we are all expected to learn to use.

The reason I am here, is because I have become a bit of an exception to my family's path. While I am decent with a spear, I have awakened sorcerery by chance. It is quite the blessing for me."

'He just, awakened sorcerery? Nothing in his blood? Is that why he thinks all the nobles paid their way into here, because that's how he got in?" There was much to unpack there.

Firstly, he was from a House known for warriors. While it was rare and difficult, it was possible for normal people to be as powerful as mages. It technically used magic, as techniques were used to imbue the body with mana, but the person didn't need any sort of innate talent with magic for it.

If most of his bloodline was capable of that, he was being humble when he said there was nothing exceptional about his blood. That kind of hereditary talent was not natural.

The other thing to pick at was his awakening of sorcerery. This was almost impossibly rare, but it still happened. It didn't necessarily mean he was a magical genius, or anything. It was more of a trophy, something to show off.

Now, if he was a natural-born sorcerer, and possessed a great innate magical ability, while also having the ability to strengthen his body like his forefathers had, he was certainly going to be a hero one day.

We continued to walk. making small talk the whole time. That was, until, we spotted another student, in our robes. He was tall, but had a lanky, bookish look to him. He wore large, circular spectacles on his face.

I glanced at Nicolaus, expecting him to go rushing to meet our 'new friend' like he had me, and for a second, it looked like he was about to, with a gleam in his eyes. A moment later, however, it disappeared, replaced with an ever so slight disappointment.

"Not going to talk to our fellow student?" I asked, curious as to his reasons.

"Look at his arms," Nicolaus asked, "What do you see?"

Unsettled a bit, I did as he asked. "I don't know. They're pale, I guess? Bony?"

"Exactly," it was like he was discontented. "In the Quirinus family, we spend much of our time working. We grow much of our own grain. We spend hours a day training. We train our bodies to the peak

Other nobles don't seem to do that, and they seem to have little respect for it. It's rare I find a high-born who realizes how difficult it is.

That boy? It's clear he hasn't seen a days work in his life. Of course, I'm not saying that he's weak. Chances are he could beat me in a fight easily. I just have little respect for their way of life, just as they do not respect mine." he took a moment to think, before adding,

"Ours, actually. You seem similar to me. That's why I ran up to you. Look at your arms, compared to his. You're muscled, tanned from the sun. I may be a noble, but I think I'm much closer to you than him.

Well, would you like at that! It seems we've made it to our class. Sorry to bore you with my rant, I'm sure you didn't expect to listen to some strangers personal convictions. Let's go meet our classmates."