Moving Up in the World

“My Lady, and.. Uh… My Lord?”

The lazy wizard receptionist nervously wrung his hands as he saw a young boy he only vaguely recognised accompanying the youngest daughter of the city’s Lord.

Mia’s knight–Dame Diana–shook her head firmly. “He’s not a Lord.”

The lazy wizard cleared his throat, “ahem, right. Lady Mia, congratulations on your passing at such a young age. I am here to guide you to the introductory lecture.”

Lady Mia nodded. “Thankyou, you may lead the way.”

Levi shot the wizard an irked look. Upset he was being ignored, but not wanting to make a problem of it.

I passed at the same age!

The young lady did keep shooting Levi glances as they walked next to each other.

She kept speeding up a bit until she was in front of him, then going back to normal pace. Levi kept increasing his pace to match her, but she just kept doing it.

Eventually, the Knight and Wizard were jogging to keep up with the children, weakly attempting to direct them where they needed to go.

The wizard, between breaths, “My Lady, left!! Go left!”

When they ended up at the classroom, neither the kids nor Dame Diana showed signs of tiredness, but the wizard was a mess.

Levi was trying to suppress a grin as Lady Mia was trying to look upset with him.

The wizard opened the door for them before saying his goodbyes. Muttering as he made his way down the hall.

The room was similar to the room Levi had taken his test in, if a bit smaller.

A staggered wooden classroom with a blackboard up the front and ceiling lights not too different from LED lights on Earth.

The classroom was about half filled, reflecting the ages of those who had taken the test - anywhere between older teenager and late middle age. The youngest besides Levi and Mia being a girl who could have been 15 or 16.

A navy blue robed woman up the front of the room, behind a lectern, noticed their arrival and turned with a large smile.

Almost too large. Levi thought.

It was weirding him out, but he assumed the woman was looking at Mia. He wasn’t sure why Mia deserved so much attention, she was just rich. They also kept calling her a “Lady” when she was only his age.

”Lady Mia! I am Magus Ventrissa, I will be conducting today’s induction lecture. Congratulations on your entry to our Scholarium, I will try to live up to expectations!”

“Well met.” Lady Mia nodded, as if such attention was normal.

Levi didn’t understand some of those words, but he nodded too. He understood he was being looked over again.

Mia walked up to the desk at the front left of the room, and Levi opted to sit two seats away – not knowing Mia all that well and assuming she didn’t really like his presence.

Mia blinked at him, and the Knight gave Levi a pointed look.

What am I doing wrong now?

This continued until the young lady crossed her arms and turned away from him, saying nothing. Dame Diana took position behind her.

The lecturer began speaking after a few more people entered the room.

“I believe that to be everyone who passed this month’s entrance test.” She clapped her hands, and the lights dimmed.

‘Oooh’s and ‘Aaaah’s could be heard. Levi was surprised but not impressed. Mia made a show of keeping her expression even.

Then, some magical circuits started glowing white at the front of the room, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

“I thought it might be best to celebrate some of the high performers of the entrance test.”

The lecturer slid a piece of paper onto a spot on her lectern, and the words begun to shine across the blackboard in bright white letters.

1st. Magical Theory: Lady Mia Willow

1st. Written word: Samantha Glory

1st. Mathematics: Levi

“Excellent performances. Especially for Lady Mia, being only nine years old.” The lecturer smiled again, and clapped her hands - eliciting enthusiastic clapping from most others in the room.

Levi rolled his eyes, then he noticed Mia looking at him again, upset. He just sighed.

The lecturer turned the lights back up, and began the actual induction.

—

To summarize, the institution didn’t work the same as a school or a university. It was more a hodgepodge of various scholars, wizards, mages, adventurers, and various common folk who wanted to pick up a bit of knowledge to further their trade.

Dedicated magic users came in two main varieties.

Wizards differentiated from mages in that wizards focused more on magical theory, study, and exploration, whereas Mages focused more on acquisition of existing spells, efficiency, and output.

Mages were generally more well known and regarded, due to their exploits, but Wizards were the ones doing the real work behind the scenes.

Suffice it to say, adventurer magic users were most often Mages. There were wizard adventurers, but they often only went out to do academic experiments during easy contracts.

At least, this was how the lecturer put it. Levi was smart for his age, but the most he got out of it was that Wizards were boring, Mages were cool, and that if he was going to protect himself or his friends, find his way home, and see his mother again.

He was going to have to be a Mage.

The lecturer then went over what classes were available to take, the cost of dorm living, and various other formalities. This all took a couple hours, and by the end of it, Levi’s brain was pretty much cotton.

Too much information.

He went to stand up, and saw Mia doing the same. “Mia?”

Mia hmphed and didn’t turn to look at him.

Levi found Mia very confusing. “... What did I do wrong?”

Mia started moving to leave, so he grabbed her arm. “Why are yo-”

A big metal hand grabbed his arm, the one he was holding Mia’s with. He released Mia in surprside, looked at the metal hand, then traced it up to the big Knight.

Uh oh.

Dame Diana, face visor lifted, was a young woman with black hair and hard features. She had an authoritative tone. “Hands off the young Lady.”

Levi gulped, terrified. "Um, sorry.”

Lady Mia looked exasperated at her knight. “Diana, stop it.”

“He grabbed you, Lady Mia. That’s not acceptable.”

Mia put her hands on her hips. “Yeah. But I can tell him that myself. He’s still a child.”

You’re a child too… Levi was still hesitant to speak.

The knight looked sceptically at Levi. “Still, Lady Mia, it’s my job.”

“Diana! I said it’s fine, let him go.”

The steel claw unlatched from Levi’s nine-year-old arm, and he lowered it back to his side.

Lady Mia turned to him, and grabbed his hand herself. “This way, we’re going to eat lunch.”

—

In an outdoor cafe, one of many surrounding the Scholarium, capitalising on the foot traffic of its wealthy students and staff, Levi and Mia sat.

They were enjoying some strange bread dish under the watch of Mia’s Knight.

Mia began, “Let’s do introductions again. My name is Mia Willowen, I’m not a proper Lady yet, but I will be when I turn 15.”

“Uh. Well I know you’re not a lady yet, you’re the same age as me.”

“No, not lady - Lady, like a noble Lady.”

“Um. What’s a noble?”

Mia paused. “My father is in charge of the whole city! That’s what it means.”

“Oh, is he the mayor?”

“No, he’s a Viscount.”

“... Is that like a mayor?”

Mia pinched her nose, which Dame Diana seemed to find quite funny, since Levi heard a chuckle which she tried to play off as a cough.

“Nevermind my family, what about yours?”

Levi’s face fell, and he struggled to find the words at the sudden change in topic.

Sudden for him, at least. “Uh. Um. My uh, my mum lives far away and my dad is, um.”

Lady Mia, adept in socialising–for her age–picked up on Levi’s tone and moved the conversation away from that.

“You were the highest performer in maths? You must have spent a lot of time studying?”

Levi, still hung up on the previous question, shrugged. “Not really.”

“Not really? Then how did you get first place?”

Levi shrugged again, “It was pretty easy.”

It really had been pretty easy. Even for a nine year old. The hardest question had been simple multiplication.

Mia leaned forward, “So you’re just a genius?”

Levi had been like third best in his class, so maybe? “I guess so?”

“You’re not very insightful, Levi.”

“Not sure what that means.”

The young Lady sighed, lunch untouched, having one of the more engaging conversations she’d have all week.

—

While Oliver sat behind bars, Levi attended school, and the professor helped cover for Oliver.

Emilia’s father was meeting with Lord Willowen

“Marland.”

The Lord sat in a large seat, it was red, silk, and seemed quite soft.

To an Earther, it might seem like a throne.

It sat behind a large wooden desk, exceptionally smooth.

The head butler bowed at the waist, “Yes, my Lord?”

The Lord, violet hair half grey in his advanced age, made his distaste clear.

“How is it, Marland, that I come to hear of your petty political games from any source but you. I have a report here about a prisoner in extended custody at your request. What is going on, I don’t have time for these games.”

Marland Steel, Emilia’s father, spoke exasperatedly. “My Lord, it is a small matter.”

Lord Jason Willowen pounded the desk with a fist. “If it’s a small matter, why is it still a matter at all!”

“There are extenuating circumstances, my Lord. My daughter-”

“Put an end to it, Marland. The city has a reputation to uphold. Stop meddling!”

“This involves a criminal act, my Lord–”

“Shut up, Marland!”

The Lord’s black robes began to shine in swirls of yellow and blue, complicated magical diagrams embroidered into the clothing, highly detailed patterns and stylistic arrangement.

The shining lights were beautiful, and, to those knowledgeable, somewhat inefficient. For show.

But Jason Willowen was a Lord of the Empire, his father had built this city. Even if his robes were inefficient, he had large stores of power he could personally access at any point he wished. Inefficiency was no problem at all.

“Marland, I hear of an attack on a merchant caravan, not two day’s ride from the city. A group of bandits, Marland.”

“I am familiar with the matter, Lord Jason. The guardsmen are preparing to set out as we speak.”

“Send the prisoners Marland, all of them.”

“... Why?”

Lord Jason Willowen plucked the ink pot off his desk and threw it at his head butler, only for it to be deftly sidestepped.

“To save city resources, Marland! Just do it, I’m in a bad mood.”