A Sinner’s Chance

We were greeted by a secretary sitting behand a wooden desk as we entered the main building who escorted to the admissions office where we talked to a counselor about the school itself as well as the options available for us. It reminded me quite a bit of the time I had signed up for college in the past and how it seemed more like someone bragging about why you should choose their school over another. In this world however it was much more straight to the point, as there wasn't really any competition other than general education facilities meant for orphans or the other less fortunate members of society.

The Academy had three main types of class archetypes available. Social classes that focused on things like etiquette, finance, history, and other courses that were deemed important for social endeavors, it was the least popular of the archetypes but also the one with the most students as the classes it offered were useful for all walks of life.

The second archetype was physicality, the courses focused on physical skills and there was a wide-range of courses available, from swordsmanship to blacksmithing, and even shadier endeavors like stealth and lockpicking, though it was encouraged to only use those Skills when in a labyrinth or if one worked with law enforcement.

The final archetype was of course, magic. They had classes for each level and Affinity, not just for learning spells, but also for things like magical theory and even enchanting or alchemy. Essentially if it required mana, the magic classes could teach something about it.

Unlike how school worked back when I was on Earth, the rules here were extremely lax. They cared little for those who only pretended to put in effort and as such everything here was merit based. As long as you could perform well during the mid-terms and finals you were free to do whatever you wanted as long it didn't break the rules of the kingdom. This meant you were free to attend or not attend whatever classes you liked and the only person responsible for your success or failure was yourself.

We were also warned that those who attended this academy were the best and brightest the kingdom had to offer, and while we got a free pass for admissions because we were from a duke's family there would be no preferential treatment because of that once we were officially enrolled. In fact, one of the main rules of the academy was that everyone was to be treated based upon their merits, rather than their background or other such factors.

Apparently there was a ranking system in place that tracked the merits of each student and recorded them so that they could be viewed and compared to everyone else in the academy. Earning merits was simple it could be done by small things like attending classes or larger things, like placing high during an assessment. The higher one's merits the better they were treated and the more access they had to special or unique training grounds, materials and even classes. Everything in the academy ran of a system of merits, food, lodging, equipment, it was both a form of currency and a way to track what one had a accomplished. As long as the school sanctioned it, it was even possible to gamble merits against other students, in the form of some kind of competition, whether that be a duel, or their placements during an assessment.

This of course came with the surprise that me, Gabriel and Kalista would be unable to live in the Eldur villa as we had previously thought until we accumulated enough merit to essentially buy that privilege. Once the explanation and paperwork had been finalized the admissions counselor congratulated us on our enrollment and told us that the final step was a practical measurement of our abilities and Skills. The counselor also asked if both Marian and Elaine would visit the headmaster as he had something to discuss with them and the other duke families that had already shown up.

As such the three of us split form Elaine and Marian as the counselor guided us to the area where our practical assessment would be held.