Enrolling at the academy

I quickly got up in a hurry and started to remember the things that happened the day before.

I left the room and found the promised clothes cleanly placed next to my room. I brought them inside and took a look at them.

"Is this the uniform?"

It looked well made. For the most part white, but there was also occasionally blue, it added the certain something missing from the pure white, making it look special rather than plain.

I was never really a fan of white and in general colorful clothes. Most of the time I only wore black and didn't wear white at all. It was because I didn't think it suited me and because I didn't want to stand out by wearing colorful things attracting attention.

So although I generally dislike white I have to say that these clothes could probably make anyone look good, it was well made and after changing into the new clothes I noticed that it was very comfortable and easy to move in.

Alongside the clothes I was also given a sword, to be precise a katana. It looked elegant and the scabbard it was hidden in had the same blue as the clothes making it directly seem like a set.

It is probably the uniform, which is commonly worn at the academy and I have to say at least the clothes seem quite good at the academy.

After testing out the katana for a few seconds, swinging it around, imagining myself blocking a few strikes and counterattacking I was really content with it. The sword seemed like it had really been professionally made and it felt light, but that didn't really hinder it at all, the blade seemed like it was sharp enough to cleanly cut off a limb.

It felt lighter than my previous katana, which only makes sense.

It wasn't only because I had gotten stronger since I used the former katana for the last time, it was because this blade was just overall better made.

I felt like I had gotten a boost in speed, because it had been a long time since I last observed myself fighting with a katana.

I could feel myself improving in the cave, while I slaughtered the goblins, but I couldn't see it for myself so it felt really different using this katana now.

The other sword, the great sword I had taken from the Orzeth was still with me and although it was a usable sword it wasn't the kind of weapon I preferred. It was too slow and I just don't like a fighting style focused on raw power.

After that I got all of my other stuff in the bag and just kept the great sword with me for now, at the best I could sell it for money, at the worst I would just have to throw it away.

And that sword also automatically helped me get stronger just from having with me and swinging it around, so naturally I would keep it if possible.

After having everything I needed I concentrated on my surroundings and listened to the voices of the people around me.

Outside of the palace I could already hear quite a bit of noise, the people seemed to already sell their goods and other people just arrived in the city or went out to leave. But from what I could hear the hot topic was the academy on this day.

I already assumed that and hearing the voices of the people outside just proved my assumptions, after all it would the beginning of another year, where a lot of magicians would enroll at the academy and would, over the course of a few years evolve into the core figures of their respective noble households or even all of Raiken.

For some really lucky commoners it was also the chance to possibly help their family and themselves into a better life, it could easily be the difference between a life in poverty and depending on the skill of the child a wealthy and nobel life, which would otherwise be impossible.

Inside of the palace I could also hear a lot of voices, mainly talking about the princess, who would leave the palace today. Some of the servants talked about me, some having a bad opinion and most just being curious.

It didn't really matter to me, but I could feel out the mana flow of the princess easily between all of the servants in the palace.

And after leaving my room I walked towards the direction I had sensed her in. I walked up the stairs and walked through a lot of different corridors throughout the whole palace.

I could hear the whispers of the servants, all kinds of different reactions as soon as they saw my attire, realizing that I was the one, who the princess knew.

I didn't really care about their opinions anyway, so I just walked into the direction I had sensed the princess in.

When I almost reached her I looked in front and saw her standing on the balcony.

She looked relaxed and was just staring down onto the city, maybe a bit sad, but I couldn't really tell from where I stood.

I approached her, but then stopped again. I didn't know if I should wait for her to leave or if I should approach her. I chose not to approach her for now and let her continue. It was the last moment she would be here in a long time, so I didn't want to take that moment away from her.

I would've just went down again, maybe gone into my room and gotten more used to the new weapon, but I didn't even have to do that.

The moment I wanted to turn away she turned around and our eyes met. Of course she seemed surprised and her face also turned a little bit red.

She quickly tried to act like she wasn't surprised and approached me. She wore the same clothes as I wore, just optimized for girls.

It fit her unsurprisingly good, her white hair perfectly completed the pure white colour, which stood out the most and the blue also fit her eyes nicely. Just then I noticed that this outfit really fit he extremely well. It looked like it had been specifically made for her.

She looked absolutely stunning and couldn't help but get reminded of her beauty. I didn't really have a lot of time the day before to actually observe her, her master was always with us and only left after we reached the palace, I could also constantly feel the pain in my right eye making it impossible to really observe her.

But now that I didn't get distracted by anything else, I once again felt a certain connection to her, it made it hard to look away, these moments are so confusing for me that I somehow always begin to feel even just a little bit scared.

The princess, who was done with everything she wanted to do and was ready to leave was even more so shocked.

I didn't even notice him there, did he wait for me or did he just arrive? And how does he look so good in the uniform? Why does it feel so natural, but also so weird? Why can't I think of anything else?

I didn't notice it, but she had it way worse than me.

"D-Did you wait here for me?"

"I just arrived, I didn't want to disturb you, so I thought of leaving, but it seems like you are done already."

"I already spoke with my father and I am ready to head out, do you feel rested?"

"Yes, the bed was really comfortable, it's been a long time since I slept so good. And the clothes are really comfortable and I am also very content wit the sword, thank you very much, princess."

She began to blush again, seemingly unable to control her emotions. It was honestly quite entertaining and also cute.

"Yori, why do you keep calling me princess?"

She was obviously in a hurry to quickly change the topic.

"Well, you are a princess, in fact of this very kingdom. And I don't know your full name, so I just thought it would be right to be polite."

I was sure that she just didn't plan on telling me her name for whatever reason and also I didn't really pay any attention to it, but to my surprise she seemed even more flustered than before.

In fact what I didn't know was that she had completely forgotten to tell me her name. She was sure she already talked about it, but now that she realized that exactly the opposite was the case she couldn't help but blush again.

"I-I didn't tell you yet? I am very sorry."

She really is cute, a princess, who would probably not need to apologize for anything in this kingdom was actually saying such words to me. She is so pure, it's really rare to see someone like that.

I had finally realized how affected she seemed to be, making it even more mysterious to me.

"You don't have to apologize, but if you would feel better if I called you by your real name than I would of course gladly do it, I just didn't know it yet."

Actually I was pretty sure I already knew her name. When I observed my surroundings just a few minutes ago I had heard some people talking about the princess and calling her by her real name. But of course I couldn't just say her real name without even having heard it from her, it could be seen as rude, so I just.

"O-Oh, my real name is Katsumi Raiken."

A cute name, somehow fitting.

"Well then, Katsumi. Are we ready to go?"

Never have I met such a princess before, well it's not like I really did meet any princesses before, but still, she doesn't seem like a normal princess at all. Although I felt like it was better like that.

"Yeah, master should already be waiting for us."

And so we walked through the castle. I was already used to ignoring the opinions of random people, but everytime Katsumi heard the servants, who we just walked by whisper something she couldn't help but blush.

I felt bad for her, but at the same time didn't think it was a good idea to force her into talking with me or anything, so I just enjoyed the sunlight shining through the windows while examined the palace.

It was a pleasant day and before I didn't really concentrate on the palace at all, so seeing all of the different luxurious pictures of different people hanging on the walls made me curious as to who they were.

"Are you interested in art?"

Katsumi couldn't help but observe me occasionally with quick glances, so she noticed me looking at the pictures of these people and took the opportunity.

She told me about the different people who had been painted down over time. Some were kings, some were heroes and some the princess didn't know about.

It was a good topic, where I just had to listen to here only occasionally ask a question as we were walking down the hallways.

It felt quite good to see her beginning to feel less uncomfortable around me. I didn't really care, but as she was still 14 years old, it was normal for her to still care about unimportant things like the opinions of people, who know nothing about the situation.

And as she was explaining in a few minutes we reached the gates to the palace.

I had already felt his mana a long time ago, her master was already waiting and today he seemed a lot more relaxed and when he saw the princess in her uniform, he even seemed to be quite happy.

He had always wished for her to change her attitude to life after "that" happened, but at the same time he could understand her. He had already lost hope, but when I appeared the day before he had an idea and although he doesn't trust me, he was at least thankful to me for changing the princess at least to a certain extend.

He couldn't understand it completely, but after sorting out his thoughts he would just treat me normally and as long as the princess wouldn't be in danger he would even be willing to change his opinion on me.

"You're here, very good. Now then, are you ready to go?"

"Yes, master."

"Yes."

"Then, let us go."

I still don't know if he really is worthy to teach me, but at least I can acknowledge his strength, so we will just wait and see.

And so we walked through the city, the gazes of practically everyone were quite annoying for me personally, but the princess was still so pure that she blushed practically the whole time, which lead to her looking onto the ground most of the time.

There were some people, who cheered for the princess, wishing her good luck and just in general everyone seemed to be very nice to her, a respected princess, kind, beautiful, nice, nothing really not to like about her.

On the other hand some people were once again mumbling to themselves or to the other people, who I was, how unworthy I was to walk besides the princess and how I was able to wear that uniform.

So finally passing the city gates was kind of a relief to me.

"Won't people be able to follow us and find out where the academy is? After all everyone saw us passing the gates and anyone could follow us."

I already knew the answer, but I wanted to find out what the old man would answer, the truth, parts of the truth or a lie.

"It's not that big of a secret and the people wouldn't dare to follow us, there are certain preparations for that case."

At least he wasn't lying, but also not really saying anything at all. The 'preparations' were the same people, who were also stationed in the forest the day before. I could feel them since we came closer to the gates.

In the shadows, in houses near the gates, on the walls around the city.

"We are also going to take a detour again, yesterday we did the same thing, there is a actually one faster route, which leads to the academy, but it is rather hard to find and like this it's easy to get spotted in this open landscape, so people wouldn't try to follow."

That's kind of interesting actually, I guess it's used in cases of emergency or when you need to head back and forth between the academy and the city as fast as possible.

As we were passing through the open landscape and the forest I noticed more and more people hidden in the forest, observing everyone who came near.

Some were actually so good that they didn't make any sounds and it made it hard to accurately locate them, only because they were also a lot stronger was I able to locate them, their mana was a lot easier to locate, but If it is like this it would also be possible that I wouldn't be able to notice someone with good assassination capabilities, but also not too much strength. The people I was able to notice were probably assassins, because of how good they were.

"Watch your steps, we are about to pass the barrier."

This time I tried even harder to see the barrier than the day before, but it was only possible, when I came really close to the barrier. If you knew where the barrier was located you could see the slight distortion in space, but it was completely impossible to do so, when you don't know anything about it.

And after passing through I saw the academy again, but now something was different.

The academy was bathed in a different kind of light, instead of the evening now I was here before noon. It showed the academy in a completely different light and from further down the path, passing the gates I could hear more voices.

It was quite noisy for me, so I didn't concentrate on my sense of hearing and rather looked in front with my eyes and examined the different people I could hear.

The academy was already filled with people, mostly children my age or a bit older. You could tell apart the nobles from the commoners easily. They didn't really interact with each other and almost every noble was accompanied b an older person.

Probably their respective master, who trained them since a young age just like the princess, maybe their father or a brother, who has a high standing within the family.

There were also differences in the colour of the robes, which everyone wore. At first I thought the clothes I got were a common uniform at the academy, but it seems like I was wrong.

Almost every commoner wore a brown uniform, it was also the most common colour, so I guessed it was the colour, which stands for the worst talent.

Looking around a bit more most of the nobles had red robes, it was the second most common colour and probably also stands for the still not really great talents, but still better than average.

Then there were black robes, they were a bit more unique having red mixed in. In my opinion they looked the coolest, but because I was already told that the lion class was the highest I could guess that it was the already quite good talents and almost everyone was a noble, they were also quite popular, surrounded by other nobles, who mostly wore red robes or some were standing in groups, isolated from the other nobles.

I couldn't say for sure, but they looked like they were quite arrogant. Well, I shouldn't let myself be influenced by the common prejudice that nobles are all arrogant.

And then there were very few people, who wore white robes. At this point I couldn't really guess who was a commoner and who was a noble, because most of the white robes were not interested in the others at all. Though there were some nobles with white robes, who seemed to enjoy the popularity.

There was one white robed student, who was secluded from everyone else, he seemed to not want to be bothered and looked down upon his blade like it was really tiring for him and he just wanted to get it over with.

"Is there a ranking for the robes depending on colours?"

I asked Katsumi just to clarify my thoughts.

"Yes, the ranking is brown at the bottom and then red, black and white. There's also purple robes, those are the two strongest students from their respective class and only they have the chance to move up to a higher class. Because the white robe is already the highest possible the two strongest students of the year wear a special robe. You rarely see it, but it's supposed to a white-black uniform, representing the two strongest classes. They also change if you are a second year at the academy of higher, so you can easily tell, which year someone is in."

Getting that clarification made me understand the commotion before and right now.

When we passed the gate and the first few people noticed us it got really silent for a few seconds after everyone looked at us.

Everyone, including the white robes, even the secluded guy, who couldn't be bothered to look up before, turned their heads to see for themselves.

"It's the princess!"

"And who is that other guy standing next to the princess?"

"Oh my god, they are both white robes!"

"Wasn't the princess not interested in the academy, did she change her opinion?"

The different voices were all repeating roughly the same questions.

The arrival of not one, but two white robes at the same time was shocking for everyone, even the strongest students and their teachers.

And to make matters even more complicated it was the princess and one boy, who no one knew... well at least at that point in time.