19 School Life

The assembly of students was cleared up rather quickly. I found myself following Lily and James to the principal's office in the main building. During this walk I started to take in the grandeur of the Academy as Endyrion told us some trivia about it. Thankfully the topic of 'The Oni' didn't come up again. I assumed Lily would ask about it later when we were alone.

Most of the buildings were made of brick, and all of them were huge. Despite this, there wasn't a single vine or fleck of moss in sight. The buildings and walk paths were comprised of mana-infused brick much like the highway system between the cities, making it easy to clean them. The professors seemed to rotate the cleaning duty based on classload per day. It was a rather efficient system.

The Academy was older than the current royal family. It had roots as far back as 1000 years. When we finally reached the main building, the hallway was littered with portraits of famous headmasters throughout the years. Their style of dress and facial hair always varied, but one thing remained constant: they were all bald. I wanted to laugh. It must have been some strange tradition that only bald men were chosen to hold the highest seat at the Academy. Perhaps Endyrion was fated to become the headmaster purely because of his hair.

We finally reached Endyrion's office. It looked almost identical to the one he had at the Adventurer's guild. The biggest exception was the lack of a dragon skull, though. Apparently it was quite a feat for this country to have killed a rank 4 beast. That fact almost broke my heart. They were just so weak it hurt me. Clearly, a long term system for level grinding needed to be put into place as soon as possible. I wasn't good at organizing that kind of thing, but once I got full control over my strength, I'd bring up the idea with Lily and Endyrion. Those two seemed smart… Well, Lily seemed smart at least. At this point, I wasn't sure why anyone respected the old fart Endyrion, though.

There were three chairs set out for us in his office ahead of time. It seemed he didn't doubt that Lily would pass his little test. Was that overconfidence because he trained her himself? The way I saw it, Lily only won the fight because her sister was reckless.

I sat down in the middle seat. Lily sat to my right and James to my left.

"Okay, welcome to my Academy. You three are, by all rights, the strongest students of the freshmen class. Of course, Calliope here is the strongest student in the entire school as well," said Endyrion with a smile.

"James I trained your father. I'm assuming you want to take a curriculum similar to his, right?" asked the old man.

"Yes, I want to train in swordsmanship like my father but I also want to take introduction to mana control and spellcaster classes too," replied James.

"Why would you want to do that? You are quite amazing as a swordsman. You could easily become a top knight in a few years. Taking magic oriented classes will probably delay your development by at least five years," replied Endyrion.

James's face blushed a bit and I think he even glanced towards Lily. He definitely had a crush on her. I should flick him a few times later to help put some sense into his head.

"Well, whatever. I'll put you in the classes you want. Now, Lily, I've already prepared your curriculum. You don't have a choice in that matter."

The old man paused for a moment as he turned to look at me. His smile was unsettling.

"That only leaves our problem child. All the power in the world but unable to control it. What classes do you want to take, Calliope?" asked Endyrion.

"I want to take classes that will teach me mana and physical control. I also want to take classes on Healing Magic if you offer them."

I could feel Lily flinch when I mentioned healing magic. She was probably remembered my attempt on the day we met.

"Alright. I can handle the first two easily. The problem is healing magic. There is only one person in the entire Gransus Kingdom who can use healing magic. Her name is Gertrude Shiffle, and she's a professor on campus. The thing is, if she doesn't like you she won't teach you. I can put in a good word, but she'll want to meet you herself before she makes a decision."

"That's fine," I said in response.

"Okay good. Also, don't worry I took the liberty of informing all the professors about your situation. Some might be a bit antsy around you, though. Try not to mind it. It's really rare for a student to be higher leveled than the one teaching them," said Endyrion.

"That's fine. I'm getting used to the timid looks from people by now," I replied.

Endyrion looked down and wrote on three pieces of paper. Once he finished he handed each of us one.

"Here are your schedules. For the sake of… Security, I am registered as the advisor and homeroom teacher for all three of you. Your first classes begin in half an hour."

Endyrion opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out three small maps.

"Here are maps of the campus. You can use them to find your classrooms easier and navigate the facilities. I don't have Student Identification Cards done yet, but I'll have them delivered to your dorms by tonight. Without the IDs you can't enter any of the special facilities. Sorry about that, but there are some things even I can't help. If you really want to use the library or the training rooms today, just come ask and I'll take you there directly… Have a nice day and don't kill your fellow classmates."

His parting words were like a sucker punch. I wanted to hit him right in his wrinkled old face for it, but I refrained. I think if I didn't have James and Lily with me I might have at least flicked him.

The three of us compared schedules on the walk out of Endyrion's office. We all had the same first class: Basic Mana Control. After that Lily and I had Skill Manipulation while James had Swordsmanship. The final class of the day was called 'Obstacle Course', and that all three of us in it. I didn't have a fourth class, but James and Lily each had Dynamic Combat. My fourth slot was left open in case I could get Gertrude to teach me Healing Magic.

We walked across the campus, making sure to memorize the building locations where we would have classes as we went. After a short trip, we arrived at Firestone Hall. After climbing four flights of stairs we found room 418, the location of our Basic Mana Control class.

The classroom was designed much like one from my past life. There was a large chalkboard in the front and escalating seating as one moved further back. The room was currently packed with students. I recognized a few from the entrance exam. I could hear all manner of whispering and murmuring as innumerable stares were directed at me. I wished I could make them all just shut up.

We took some seats near the back. The professor entered quickly and started a lecture immediately. It was awful. He didn't say a single new thing. Everything he said was something I already knew. I looked to my side and Lily was out cold. I never took her for a slacker, but it seemed she was as bored as I was. James, on the other hand, was absorbing the professor's every word.

After the first class ended, Lily and I bid farewell to James and made our way to our first real class: Skill Manipulation. Skill Manipulation wasn't held in a classroom. Rather we had to go to 'Training Field 3'. The class was outdoors due to the dangerous nature of Skills.

Lily and I arrived about the same time most of the other students did. There were only about ten of us, altogether. I didn't recognize the other eight students at all.

"Oy, you two. Are you Freshmen?" asked a woman. She was a tall girl with brown scraggly hair. She had a scar across the bridge of her nose and a mole on her right cheek. She was wearing a long-sleeve tunic and rough, brown pants with a gray bowler-style hat on her head. Frankly, her outfit was ridiculous and completely out of place in the fantasy setting. Was this what this world's delinquents looked like? They dressed like 1920 gangsters?

"Sell," whispered a quiet girl next to the wannabe gangster, "Stop. That girl there is the demon Calliope!"

The whispering girl was dressed more 'normally' with a white and blue dress and leather low-heeled shoes. Her hair was black and braided down both sides. Her face was thin but she had a strong chin.

"So, Mel? Who gives a shit if she killed some low class Adventurers? You act like I couldn' a'done the same thing," retorted the gangster girl.

"You could beat A-ranks, but not five at once Sell."

"Tch. You, freshman. My name's Sell and I'm level 25. Around here, I'm the boss. I don't care how strong people claim you are. You got that?"

I think a vein was going to burst from my forehead. I glanced to the side but Lily looked even angrier than I did. I wonder if it's because the two recognized me and not her. Either way, they were insulting us both.

I noticed there was a metal training dummy not far from us and a fun thought popped in my head.

"I think," I said as I walked up to the dummy, "That you should be calling me the boss from now on. Miss Sell."

I crushed the metal dummy's head with a single hand. It made a terrible noise as it collapsed in my palm. There were times when it really was good to be unable to control your own strength.

The gangster girl named Sell immediately took a step back.

"What the… I mean! S-so what! You're a little strong. I'm still your senior here. You better start respecting…"

I interrupted her by squeezing my hand as hard as I could. The metal crunched up into a tiny super-dense ball. She stopped talking when it held it up to show them.

"Lily, which way is the nearest ocean?" I asked.

"Uh, East I guess… Why?"

"I don't want to accidentally have this fall somewhere populated," I replied.

I crushed the rest of the metal dummy in an instant using both hands. It formed a ball around the size of a basketball from my past life. Squeezing with all my force, I made the ball look rather smooth as if it were originally that way straight from the forge. It was immensely heavy, but in my hands it felt like a pebble.

I dropped it in front of everyone and it dented the bricks below. Sell's expression was strange, but it was focused entirely on me. I bent over, picked up the ball of metal, and then I threw it.

I didn't hold back anything. I threw the ball at about a 45 degree angle up and it vanished. The air cracked as it took off, the sound barrier shattering with a BOOM. It passed the horizon in an instant and the tailwinds almost took the girls around me off their feet. Sell fell over backwards on her shaking knees. I looked down at her and met her eyes. She immediately prostrated herself.

"Y-you're the boss, boss."

Yes, that was more like it. Lily was struggling to control her laughter. I could only think of my display as insurance for the future. I wanted the story of my 'power' to spread so the other students would leave me alone. The last thing I wanted to do was get involved in something dumb because a bunch of teenagers thought they have something to prove by antagonizing the demon who slaughtered five men.