-Chapter 31- Xyrus Academy

"WAKE UP!" I hear my sister yell as suddenly I feel a person fall on top of me, with the wind knocked out of me I curl up in a ball holding onto my stomach in pain.

¨You really need to stop doing that Ellie, you're way too old to be crushing me like this.¨ I manage to mutter out through the pain.

¨You better not be calling me fat brother?¨ I throw her off of me and walk to the bathroom so I can wash up.

It has been a few weeks since my sister's birthday. I had spent this time developing my mana veins so I wouldn't be an absolutely useless conjurer. Since I already knew the basic spells for earth and wind conjuration I wasn't completely useless as a conjurer, in the end, I planned to simply look like some kind of prodigy and live a normal life in the academy.

After I shower I get dressed in my new uniform, since I was a scholar mage I had received a different uniform from the battle mages. They had sent me a white dress shirt, a gray vest, a maroon string to tie around my neck underneath the shirt collar, and a pair of tailored navy dress pants. There was also a gold pocket watch attached to a chain on my vest's breast pocket.

I head down to the kitchen to eat breakfast with my family before I leave. My mother had the maids my favorite breakfast meals before I had to leave for the academy for a while. My father who wasn't at the table hurries in with sweat all over his face.

"Sorry I'm late, I was in the middle of a small breakthrough with my mana core." he sat down. "I really can't believe my son is going to school already. I can't believe it. Looks like we raised Arthur well, right honey?" my father smiled broadly.

"What do you mean 'we'? I was the one who raised him," my mom said back jokingly.

"I guess the only time I raised him is when he gets into trouble?" my dad asks.

"As long as you know," my mom states.

My father moving past the joke says to me, "You know, I'm still surprised that you wanted to attend Xyrus as a scholar mage, Art," my father mentioned, for the hundredth time in the past few days.

"I'm still taking some general courses on mana battling, but there isn't much for me to learn if it's just fighting tactics," I said.

We all continued eating breakfast while discussing the topic of me going to Xyrus academy. It soon approached the time for me to leave but I was stopped by my sister.

"Stop, before you leave I have something to give you," Eleanor says as she runs off in a rush, she soon returns with a small box. "It's a gift for you since you will be gone for a while." She presents me the box close to my face waiting for me to accept it. I take the box and open it, inside I find a dark green scarf. "My school was teaching how to sew clothing items, and I thought I could make you something. I chose green because it matches your wind element."

"Thank you, I really appreciate you giving me this." I smile as I put on the scarf. It doesn't match the outfit but I'd rather wear it and not match rather than just put it in my dimension ring.

After that, I say bye to everyone and head out to the carriage outside that was waiting for me. When I enter the carriage I see Lilia waiting there for me.

"New scarf?" she asks.

"Yeah, I just got it,"

"It doesn't match your outfit though," she says.

"I don't mind, it's a gift so I'll continue wearing it."

The carriage takes us across the city to the academy. I decided to ask Lilia a question, "What do you plan to do during your time in Xyrus?"

She thinks about it for a moment before responding, "I'm not sure, maybe I could try and join the student council or some clubs." I could see her doing those things, the role of a leader suited her well. She always tried to help people so I can easily picture her standing with the student council. "What do you plan on doing Art?"

"Hm, maybe I'll research the history of Dicathen, or study stuff on ancient mages in the library."

She looks at me with a bland look of disappointment, "What?" I ask.

"You really got into one of the most important schools in the continent, the school that trains some of the best mages, and you just plan to study about the world," she says bluntly.

"I do plan to study magic, it's just that I have some interests at the moment. Besides, we have several years to study here. I don't need to rush. Oh and just to remind you, make sure you refer to me as Arthur Bladeheart, it will get bothersome if people hear me called Leywin."

"I get it, I don't really understand why though. You are a skilled mage and a really strong fighter, it's not like being a commoner should matter." She says.

"You should understand by now that there aren't that many good nobles like you and your family."

"Just try not to get into trouble, I don't think either of us wants to hear your mother give you an earful on how you shouldn't be mean to people." Lilia sighs.

"Haha, you're right." The carriage then stops. Outside the window, I can see other students entering the front gates of the academy. The campus was enormous, Lilia and I stepped out of the carriage and began following the crowd of students. We are led to a large building that towers over us.

We head inside the large building and see a large auditorium, Lilia and I take our seats at the back of the auditorium.

There were many Dwarves and Elves in the audience. It was nice to see this world try and progress and fight against discrimination like how my old world did so long ago.

As more and more students enter the auditorium and take their seats, the room gets so full of people that it sort of feels cramped. The auditorium by no means is small, it can easily fit this many people. I get absorbed in my thoughts, I soon get dragged out when I feel a soft tap on my shoulder to get my attention.

I look over to my right and look up to see a girl, she looks rather nervous but she begins to speak to me, "Um, is this seat taken?" she points at the empty seat to my right. Her movements are minimal as if she is trying to keep attention off of her. She was not doing so well at it though because most of the guys in the area around me are staring at her. She was certainly beautiful but I didn't bother thinking about such things.

(original artist: ZERONIS, she looks like that but in the school uniform and without horns)

Looking at the stage I can see a blurred cloud journey across the stage soon approaching the podium, the cloud of smoke soon took form in Cynthia Goodsky who stood behind the podium. It took a short while for the first years to notice her and they began talking even louder and some even cheering. It then became quiet, no noise could be made.

'She used sound magic,' I thought, amazed.

"Excuse me for my rudeness, but I hate speaking up. Not good for my throat; no it's not," She said in a pleasant voice. It seemed that the sound magic made it possible for us in the back row to hear clearly.

"I would like to welcome you all- the future leader, scholars, and powerhouses of Dicathan- to this humble academy. If you didn't know already, my name is Cynthia Goodsky. Please call me Director Goodsky, and do not be afraid to say hello when you see me around campus. Now enough about myself, I'd like to introduce you all to this year's student council. So please give them a warm welcome." She waved for the people behind the stage to come out.

One by one people wearing new unique uniforms walked out, I didn't recognize any of them. An elf girl walked out to the podium and gave a speech. She had pink hair and pink eyes which confused me. I didn't think such features were normal in this world.

She began her speech introducing herself as the student council president, the audience was filled with murmuring, most of the boys talked about her appearance calling her things like cute or pretty. Although when I looked at her she seemed rather off-putting. Her eyes, although a bright pink, were dull and lifeless as if she only saw past you. She clearly knew what she was doing and presented herself to obtain attention.

When she finished her speech we were directed to get their schedules and go to their dorms. When I got up Lilia had followed me around to talk since I was the only person she knew, so we decided to walk around the campus a bit and get adjusted to the new area.

We both had already gotten our schedules and were looking through them. I had classes like Fundamentals of Mana Theory, Practical Mana Manipulation, and Runic Language. The last one was an extra course I had asked the Director to let me take, it took place in the evening unlike my other classes so that meant I'd be taking it with upperclassmen. I had wanted to ask for more classes in the upperclassmen category but she told me she would need to look over some things before she could let me. 'What was that devilish woman thinking of doing?' I grew slightly concerned but knew that she wouldn't do something drastic.

Lilia and I continued looking around the campus when soon someone approached us, specifically me. They didn't even look towards Lilia, not for a moment. I recognized them as the girl who had asked to sit next to me earlier.

"Sorry to intrude but do you happen to know where the dormitory 1-F is?" She asks in a quiet shy voice.

"Um, yeah that's the female dormitory. I can take you there." Lilia says, but she gets ignored by the girl. She instead continued looking at me for the answer.

"It's just that way, Lilia can bring you like she offered." I didn't like these kinds of scenarios. I pointed over in the direction of the dorms.

"Is it fine if you bring me there?" She asks me directly.

"Sorry but no, I have a few things I need to take care of." I make up an excuse, this is starting to get a bit out of hand.

"Ok that's fine, you said it's over there right? Thank you, my name is Tessia Crestless by the way." She managed to find a way to introduce herself and then began to leave.

I didn't quite find what put me off about her, but she didn't seem consistent in the way she behaved. Off the way she spoke and acted she reminded me of a shy girl, but the way she spoke then sort of tried to command me to come with her didn't quite match how she came off to people. But then again I'm probably reading too much into this. I'm just here to learn about magic, not solve mysteries. If I were here for that I'd probably get some kind of talking animal and a van and go around solving mysteries for a living.