Norneau Academy Of Magic

The bottom-most floor of the Academy turned out to be quite spacious. The room was decorated with portraits of great mages and witches, and life-sized statues depicted faceless men and women holding up each of the classic elements and the interactions in hand. The floor was decorated with plush purple carpets that had gold patterns.

A raised platform of stone held a massive circular desk behind which sat three students. The two at the back seemed to be sorting mail, while the one at the front looked awake and annoyed.

"Testing?" she asked.

"Yes, we're here to drop off our-" Brigit started to say.

"Name?" she interrupted.

"Kir Gale," Kir spoke up for himself.

"Gale..." The girl started looking through what appeared to be a book of names. "Got it. Floor 80 for the test. You'll be in Rainier's group."

"Who's Rainier?" Kir asked.

"Big guy. Blue hair. Can't miss him," she replied. "Go up one floor and take the lift." Before Kir or his moms could reply, she called out "Next!" and Kir turned to find that there was an entire gaggle of students making their way up the stairs.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Kir asked as his moms guided him to the side of the room and up the stairs.

"Probably stayed overnight at the Knight Academy. Good way for the Knights to recruit, hehe," Darlae replied.

Brigit shrugged. Anyone who turned up a chance at the Arcane Academy for the Knight Academy was at the very least sparing the professors wasted time, in her book.

"Next!" They heard from downstairs as Brigit summoned the elevator, a short while later, the round doors slid away to reveal an open sky beyond the tube of clear glass, braced with gold-painted metal with a gold frame at each floor.

The doors closed, and the elevator began to smoothly ascend, giving Kir a full view of the lake and its far shore the higher and higher they got. With the sun now risen, it left a golden impression in his memory, and for the first time in a long time, he was reminded just how beautiful this world was.

The trip to the 80th floor was over before he had a chance to fully absorb the majesty of the land spread out below him, and he left the elevator to find himself in a large stadium that put on display just how wide the hovering tower really was at its center. He could have put almost two football fields side by side to reach the other side of the circular building, and there were four more towers attached.

The stadium had row upon row of seats leading upward, with a lectern in the middle of a circular stone stage rather than anything particularly sporty.

Looking at the seats, Kir saw that every single one of them had a fold-out desk attached to the side, a style that felt far too reminiscent of Earth to be a coincidence.

On the stage were several older people who appeared to be professors, and Kir saw much younger people off the stage towards the bottom of the sixteen separate columns of seats.

Kir's moms led him down before asking him to go find his group while they talked to some of their old friends.

Kir walked around the circle as his moms made their way onto the stage, drawing happy exclamations from a few of the people there. As he walked, he noticed a tall boy with light blue hair that faded into purple and then pink, a circlet resting jauntily on his head. He was sitting with his arms on either chair next to him, sleeping like he didn't have a care in the world.

Clearing his throat elicited no response, and so Kir tried poking the boy on the shoulder.

He came to with a bit of a snort, "Wha- I'm up. Is it time for the free food?" the boy said.

Kir chuckled. "Sorry to break it to you, but no. I assume you're Rainier?" he asked, trying on a winning smile since this was the second student that he was meeting.

"Yep, that's me." The guy stood up, and Kir was surprised to be loomed over after finally being of a height with his moms. Rainier was at least two and a half meters tall, and he stuck out a hand in a friendly greeting.

Kir took the offered hand and shook it, careful of his claws.

On Rainier's head, the jaunty little circlet started to glow and rise off his head, hovering for a moment before they parted hands and it slowly drifted back down. "I, uh, it normally doesn't do that. Old family heirloom, hehe," Rainier said awkwardly, before clearing his throat. "Um, right. I'm Rainier Eros... but people just call me Rain. I'm a second year. And you?"

"Kir Gale," he smiled, taking a more casual stance as he came to see Rainier was entirely not-caring that he was a demonkin, "So do I just sit anywhere?"

"Yep!" Rainier answered, "Though, you may want to sit at the back of this row since you got wings and a tail. I mean, all the seats are good for that sort of thing, but it's typically better not to be blocking anyone. Us tall boys gotta look out for the littles, know what I mean?"

Rain's smile was infectious, even more so because Kir could feel it coming from a genuine place.

"I'll just... go back there then," Kir said.

Stella popped out of his hair right as a short, blond girl ran up to Rainier.

"So... he seems nice," Stella yawned. "Flamin' gods I feel better just being here."

"His name's Rainier," Kir replied. "And remember what we agreed."

"Yeah yeah, he's all yours. I can smell the stink of angels from here," Stella replied.

"You're saying he's an angel?" Kir asked.

"Nah, angelkin. Otherwise that halo of his would be floating," Stella said from on Kir's neck as she climbed out. "Guy with a face like that's gonna be a freakin' lodestone for girls... but I can tell he hasn't much going on in the brains department."

"What makes you say that?" Kir asked, a bit annoyed but also curious.

"Just look at his big, oblivious face," Stella replied as Rainier finished with the blonde girl only to be met by another three girls, one of whom was a beastkin with serpentine features. "He can't even tell those girls are falling all over him. I can smell the horny from here... or is that just you?"

"Stella, go do something else," Kir snapped back. "I probably shouldn't have you around until after the tests."

"Alright, alright, I'm going. Sheesh," she complained, taking off from his shoulder and fluttering until she arrived at the distant ceiling of the arena, where many open windows let in the light.

Kir felt himself relax all the way down to his tail as soon as Stella was gone. He tried to smile as the blonde girl came to sit near him, and she returned a nervous smile in turn.

"H-hi..." she introduced herself. "I'm Ann..."

"Kir," he replied. "Don't worry, I don't bite."

"I saw you... um... before..." Ann held her arm at the elbow as her other hand scratched behind her ear. "Sorry about-"

"Hey, girl. This horn-head bothering you?" A smug-sounding voice sounded from the column of seats behind Kir.

Approaching them was a guy dressed in clothes that screamed of wealth, his white undershirt open like he thought he was hot stuff, even though he definitely wasn't even a student yet.

"Not really," Ann started to say, before the guy cut her off.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you from this villain, or my name isn't Claud van Ingshire... the Handsome!" As if on cue, a light breeze blew the man's cape at the snap of his fingers, before abruptly dying out.

Kir snorted and started laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" Claud raised his voice, only to shrink back a little as Kir stood to his full height.

"If that was supposed to be wordless casting, then you really should have practiced more instead of trying to pick a fight with that nothing-technique," Kir growled. "So why don't you just go back to your group and stop bothering us."

Behind Claud, several groups of people had stopped to stare, some of them glaring at Kir, others just clearly interested in seeing if there would be a fight.

"You dare stand up to me and refute my greatness? You seem to wish for punishment, knave. Now-"

"Hey, Kir," the familiar voice of Rainier interjected. "Hey, uh, new guy. Sorry about this, but they're asking me to make sure you two have a seat. I know things are exciting on the first day and people want to make friends, but we're almost done seating everyone so the tests are going to start soon." He pointed a thumb behind him at the professors on stage.

"Thanks, Rainier," Kir said, moving back to his seat.

"Hey, no problem," Rain patted Kir on the shoulder a couple of times, and both times his halo glowed just a little. Kir noticed for the first time that Rainier had purple eyes fading into light blue. "And remember to just call me Rain," he finished with a light punch on Kir's arm.

"You got it, Rain," Kir punched him back a little, before taking his seat.

Looking to his left, Kir saw that Ann had retreated to the far end of the row, and she was talking with the girls in front of her.

Kir sighed, but didn't have long to think about the mystery of what Ann had been trying to say before the stage was taken by an old-looking elven woman, who cleared her throat before amplifying it to the rest of the stadium.

"Welcome to Norneau Academy of Magic..." she began.