PS3554.I3 D57 1969b

At night, when he is lying on his bed in his room thinking about the day, Simon can not help but smile at the fortunate events. He faced no issues, even made a friend and had lunch with him, what could be possibly better. He has often heard from people outside the academy that there existed a classist system in place, where the class was dependant on your strength rather than blood purity or heritage ( he finds the two no different, as he believes that only those rich enough, having strong enough parents and influential enough will be able to be the strong).

The situation here is not as bad as he previously thought: the school is divided into seven factions centering around the Seven Stars, the seven most powerful freshman entering this school with rumored power to tival that of seniors. They are Sven the disciple of Archmage Valtia whose spells shook the Ivory Tower, Qloform the granddaughter of Chief Druid of the Southern forest whose affinity for spirits remains unmeasurabel, Durolinth Aresil III the ruby of the royal family whose beauty and intelligence captivates the men of the kingdom, Litmopar the son of Odisol the Chief Magic Engineer, Jung Jiugal the beastman prince from the East whose long ebony hair stands out in a crowd, Ivan Kopenich the son of the Nothern Dukedom, and finally The Saintess from the church of Solaris.

Janus's eyes were filled with a sense of longing seeing the last in the academy but Simon did not question him, believing that he will tell if he truly wants to do that. Aside from that, tomorrow will be his measuring day so Simon can not sleep. He is thinking about possible results tomorrow., believing he will get a decent score and be allow in most class. The hopeful boy thinks and thinks, his brain fallin into a slumber as time goes on. Night is so short, a rest is a must.

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" I went passed her this morning, yet she seemed to not remember me.... What did they do to you, sis"

A sound of pen being tapped onto a notebook cam be heard reverberating in the room. Its pace steady and sleep-inducing, yet caryimg so many heavy thoughts of the wielder that it becomes the alarm, keeping the person awake late into this beautiful night.

" Church of Solaris .... so rotten and power-hungry, hiding behind this facade of generosity and gregariousness theough charities and wide collecting of believers.... No, I am still too weak to fight against them, I will get stronger, wait for me sis."

It is the final thought of a restless person whose oceanic eyes remained hidden behind the golden locks.

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A student, whose appearance can rival for the title the most beautiful, looks at the moon far on the sky from her bed in a comfy pajama, her hair and tail sprawled all over the duvet. The hair shone the same color as the faraway masterpiece, blending with the creases and edges of the bed. Her two fox ears twitching in excitement of the upcoming years. Her red eyes scans the visible constellations, admiring the cleanliness of the environment to allow for this pleasure of star gazing. Solitude is her friend accompanying this session of stargazing, she is not complaining though as it has always been her friend even then inside the Palace of Earthly Honor. She knows this academy is her first step of being free from the restrains back at home, the first step in escaping the place she despises calling "home". She is still disbelief with how easily the Emperor has allowed for her to study in this faraway academy; she though he would send her away to somewhere desolate like the Shaolin Temple at the mountoun top of Mt. Fuxian.

She hates the weakness she felt when she begged for the opportunity to get away from that hollow place filled with hatred for her existence. She loathes the humiliation that came from being at the receiving end of her father throwing the airship ticket and the ammulet, the same way a rich person throws pennies into a beggar's hands. She cannot stand his facade of a loving father, asking her to take some servants with her ( she did not take any for none has earned her trust).

Now, she promises to herself, to become strong enough to not be look down on, to stand proudly beneath the starry sky that her mother used to offer prayers to the gods residing in the sky and to honor her mother's death on the bed with her survival.

That was enough for tonight, the girl thinks as her slender finger touches the notebook spread open the bed and closes it gently, her prized possession that her mother has left for her. The light from the mana lamp fizzels out, leaving the beauty buried beneath a layer of darkness, just like her tarred consciousness.

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" Ok students, I will say your name in order so come to the room if your name is called. Let me start.

Aberfold Dienst!!!"

The voice, amplified by the sound spell Loudening, sweeps across the noisy hall, overpowering the chatters of students.

" What elective do you think I will be able to choose?!

Hey, stop saying that I will enter Theology, that is already bad luck. And you should be worrying about your prospect, I have heard

You lot over there!!! Stop pumping iron, your sweat is already stinky enough!!!

Thus as you can see from this formula, the resistance of material to mana ...

You want to duel Merocard?! Bring it on!

How much longer must I wait?! It has been hours!

...

"

A plethera of conversatiosn filled up the space, leaving the people there drowning in the symphony of exclamations, swearing, daily life cursea and many more. The displinaey members guarding the door do not care one bit about the noise as the academy priorities giving students autonomy on some matters like relationships and connections.

" How are you feeling? Great?"

" I'm fine Janus, I am just excited for the examination. I did not sleep much last night!"

Simon answers, the blond Janus knows he is lying about the last part as he had shared himself that he was a heavy sleeper and would find difficulties staying awake.

" Sounds good, so what are expecting the result to be and which department is already in your eyes?"

" Me? Ughh, Magic Engineering, Magic in general and some sideline Spirit and Alchemy. "

" What about you, Janus? I have shared mine, so you must do the same!"

" I am thinking of Theology, Knight and a dabble of other subjects, I haven't decided what I want to fill in the gap. "

" What a bummer, it seems we will be busy with different initaries. Still eating lunch with me? "

" Yes, and don't be that sad. I notice that you are not very fit nor muscular, so I am going to ask you this question only once and no backing down, got it?"

Janus asked, he is genuinely going to ask his pal to join morning training sessions with him. Simon gives a thumb up, his smile getting even more joyous and contageous. Janus can inlyonly shakes his head at the innocent side of Simon, a far cry from his haggard expression the first time they met.

A lot of people have entered the measuring room and most of them returns with a triumphant smile on their face, the exception's expression is hollow and aimless. The name is getting closer to their candidate numbers, the ones their introductory teacher has asked them to pick randomly the dah before.

" Emilia Warton!"

Someone pushes Janus to the side, sending him tumbling down but Simon managed to catch him. Pulling himself up, Janus takses a glance at the girl who has just brushed him. What he can see is her wild black hair covering her entire back and barely reaching the buttstock, her arms swinging forcefully.

" What a rude person, she didn't even apologize or tell me to get away."

" She is rude but I believe she is hasty to get into the measuring room, just let her be, it's not like we are going to meet her again."

" True... Anyway, you are pla...."

" Magic, Alchemy and Soi... Janus Litmus!"

" It is my turn now, wish me luck!"

Janus walks into the room, his steps confident and his posture straight. A few minute later, he returns brimming with light.

" The measure is a secret I have promised to keep so no spoilers. I am qualified to enroll in all the electives.

"

" Good for you then, will you wait for my turn?"

" Of course, I am looking foreard to hearing your results from

your mouth."

The two spents the next 45 minutes listening to the wailing and screaming of multiple people exiting the room. Simon is getting really worried about his prospect despite his friend's encouragements. Finally, it is his turn.

" Simon Erklart!"

He gets up and begins walking across the decreased crowd to reach the room. On his way, he passes the rude girl before. He knows no reasons or can find any why she is staring daggers at his friend. He touched the gilded handles and pushes. The room he enters is almost emptily painted white, with a singular birch chair blending into the background in the center. The door close themselves leaving Simon alone with the object. With nothing else to do, he sits, the surface of the chair grating against his pants and the contact is cold, to the point of freezing his pores. Simon suddenly feels his stomach churning and his heart racing, the rancid acid inside ready to be vomitted out. He ia not fine, and before he knows it, his eyelids have closed themselves.

< Winds blowing, something is inside the same room as you>

Simon wakes up immediately feeling a strange power concentrating in the pendant on his neck. He quickly gets up as if he was still in the orphanage and the headmistress was ready to beat him up. He takes a moment to think.

" No, I have not stay in any orphanage, why is my memory changing?!"

He looks at his body, checking for any thing out of place before setting his eyes to the surrounding. The terrain has creases in it, the opposite of the smooth and measures tiles of the academy. Just as he is about to poke a protruding part, the ground shakes as if alive. He then feels a strong force pushing him to the ground. With no frame of referrence and his head kept down, he has no idea of what is happening. Moments later, he can now look up, his gazes matching the thousands staring back. In front of him was a human face, a woman to be exact, with every features. He can see bookshelves upon bookshelves covering the monotonous sky like locusts in a swarm when the catastrophe strucks.

" How can you be here, little child? This place should not be accessible to any being."

The being asks, its voice soothing akin to that of a mother. Simon is compelled to answer truthfully, his eyes staring at the god-like entity before him.

" I don't know ... Can I go back? I measuring test is still in happening. And who are you?"

" Of course you can, but before that..."

An orb of light appears following that line, its outside tempered in a pristine darkness and its inside pulsing, Simon feels it with his core. The orb, floating in front of him, suddenly speeds up and enters his body, merging completely without any damages to his vessel. Still awestruck by the fact that something has entered his body non-consentually, Simon must have made a questioning face as the being explains the purpose of the ball.

"It is just a gift from this lonely Librarian. An access privilege to them. You can borrow the books, but you must keep our meeting a secret."

The Librarian said, its countless eyes hint at the bookshelfs floating over there. Simon quickly thanks the being as a habit and it chuckles before sending him back. A grand magic circle opens beneath Simon's feet, its life pulsing through the complex gates and locks.

" You are a peculiar but prudent and humble. I will adjust the result of your core measurement test to be normal. What do you wish for?"

" Oh... I want to learn in Mafic Engineering, Magic, Alchemy and Spirit. And what do you mean normal?"

" Despite not having the organ, you can still affect the flowing Will in your place to bring forth your wish, manifesting it in reality. Oh, you may not understand that; to simply put, you can still use mana despite not possessing a core to do so."

" Oh ... And what is normal anyway, I don't really have a clue what a genius or a normal person's core differentiate on. "

" Well, the inner structure of the core will normally only allows for the optimal pathway of a few channeling methods like knights and magic engineer in your place. Genius's core will be flexible, malleable even, to accommodate every thing thrown at them with a certain limit before your existence is saturated with ideology and beliefs, also knows as habits. Yours, however, allows for more than that. And discovering that out and utilizing it will be your burden."

The half the eyes wink at the final part, the remaining staring back. The circle is ready, signalling it by litting up wholely. Simon knows it is time to go, so he bid farewell.

" Thank you Librarian! I will visit you as soon as possible."

The being gave him warm eyes before sending him away. He cannot listen to the final words the Librarian have said to him.

" This is the only gift I can give you ... my little boy."

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" Your result is around 1024 Sievert with some slight uncertainty, strange, but hey, I am just a student council memebrer. Let me jog it down quickly. You are qualified for these courses, let me tick them for you. Please go out and get to the registration committee. The direction will be given to you. "

Simom walks out of the room, his hand instinctually holding the piece of paper detailing his measurement. He is still lost in his mind looking back at the memory with the being calling itself Librarian. He is somehow familiar witht the thing considering how well something that outmatched him treated him with care and patient.

" Oi man, wake up!"

Janus gives Simon a small push with his broad shoulders.

"Yes yes, I am awake now."

" We are already starting to be the last to get to the registration table! Hurry up!"

"YES!"

Simon answers, following Janus's death sprint. The two run across the vacant hall, turning corners by gripping the convexed pillars. Finally, they reach the location, their faces awestruck at one person there. A pretty tanned girl with teal hair, cute freckles and a rounded glasses dressing in a sport uniform a bit too tight, sticking to her lean body and showing perfect abs and muscles, is sitting at the table.

" Hello, can I register for my electives? Here is my result?"

"No! No no no, the result is yours to judge yourself objectively but to register is your personal preferences and decisions. I am Dolores, here is my name card. Please check in the boxes in front of the electives you want to study. "

The pair of boys pick up the name cards arranged into a stack at the side closest to them. It seems she is their senior, third year in the six available years, and a student in the Knight Department. They each pocket the name cards, raising a chuckle from Dolores. Janus begins first and ends first, waiting Simon on a side.

" Hey uh .... Senior, I thought you would be exercising or training yourself in swordmanships rather than sitting here and checking registration. How come?"

Simon asks and does not really expect an answer. That is just one of his random question following his intuition and curiosity seeing how the rumoured memer of the Knight Department is sitting here and not doing something to get atrongwr obsessively.

" Just call me Dolores! And I am here is because of the extracurricular point?"

" Oh, so how much are they offering? I want to earn them."

" Don't even think of getting my point farming job. Besides, seeing how excited you two are with the system, I will tell you something earlier than needed. The extracurricular points can be earned through achievements in dungeons explorations beside the desk job. You two will make a great duo in these places. Just ask any seniors in the food court, maybe buying them a container of juice, and they will chatter easily. I am already spoiling you free of charge! Now get out and let me carry the paper to the Headmistress. "

Dolores picks up the stacks of registry papers before running aaway at high speed. Janus and Simon can only turn away and begin making their ways back to their dorms.

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" One more Simon! One more push up! You get it!"

Scrap the idea of them going back to their dorm room, they are now visiting the Departments in the academy. They have already visited the Spirit Department in a seculded corner of the academy; its presence guarding the purity and holiness of the spirits of nature in the vast North forest. The two have asked to go on a sight seeing tour deeper into the place but they were rejected citing dangers for students and themselves. It appears spiritual contracts must be filled and checked in isolation to maintain absolute clarity of one's innerself.

The next place they visited was the Magic, Magic Engineering and Theology Department. Each of the building is the same style to maintain safety and ensure ideal conditions for expiriments, studies and other research but differences in terms of space allocation and exteror aesthetic. The Theology building has statues and scriptures beneath each of them, all lies neatly along the path of the large park area before the building, Simon reads from the booklette that it is to promote healthy rest according to the Scriptures of mainly Solaris. The Magic Emgineering Department holds a public exhebition of past success and funny failures, one notable one Simon could find was a mana-powered engine that can works underwater, the thing was displayed inside a water tank and installed onto a flipped boat that would move when he pressed a button outaide. About the Magic Department, it is the most normal from the outside, but it sets itself apart via a series of underground test chambers open for hired by anyone( mostly in this academy are final-year student and teacher/researcher-but-receiving-wage).

They are close to one another, centering around the Grand Library where books and research papers about different fields can be found inside. Janus and Simon did a tour of the place, the forme's mood waning due to how sleep-inducing the technical books were and latter's determination to camp inside for an entite night. Simon was kicked out by the golems doong maintainance work due to how noisy their chatter has been. He managed to borrow a few books on magic, so no complain from a satisfied Simon.

Now they are trying the Knight Department's training ground, they are folicking around with the many challenges they make up to have some sort of a competition against one another in terms of physical strength. Simon is curious about his limits but he is confident that between him and Janus, the score will be similar. The reality cannot be any further than that. While Janus is on his 6th set of push ups and burpees, Simon is heaving, his breath as hot as a kiln while only at the 3rd set. His body protests so much that he cannot muster anymore strength to even finish the final push-up. Janus's encouragement gets Simon fired up and the latter does one more push-up.

The entire scene is witnessed by other Knight students, their eyes concentrating onto the two strangers suddenly barged in and began doing exercises, but they do not raise a complaint. Dolores, after returning from her job at the office, is surprised seeing the last two students she met here in the public training area. She figures out the competition they are having from nosy bystanders, and she thinks of a brilliant idea to pull in a talented kid, Janus, as seen from his form, muscles development and stamina.

" It's you two! Can I join too? I have heard of this competition going on!"

Not giving the target any time to refuse, she grabs Janus's hands, pullinng him to another spot and begins the competition (one-sidedly). After 5 minutes, desperate wailings from his friend causes Simon to burst out laughing from his spot leaning onto a nearby tree. Beside him are various upper classmen all watching the unfolding torture session.

" Is this normal here? I mean they have been going at it for quite some time. "

" Nah, leave her be, we must thank that guy for taking up the spot. She is one of the top dogs in this place but is nice to everyone so we don't really mind her forcing others to go through hell with her. Hell, her eagerness rubs off on us to make us train even more! And you? Why are you visiting this place? "

" Well, I am just curious to witness the rumoured Knight Department. I have about the 'crazy muscleheads' running amok in this place"

" Good good good, you are clever enough to not trust everything saud to you. "

A white- haired dude, leaning on the tree with his elbow, answers Simon's question. Another, with a scar along his lower eye lids and seaweed hair, asks Simon for his purpose, and everyone exclaims at how intelligent the boy truly is, not letting prejudices to govern his belief. Hearing the compliment, Simon can feel his face getting hotter by the embarassment. He decides to tackle the conversation into another subject matter.

" So I am looking to train my stamina up, can I come to your place in the evenings, I may be wasting your time but can you please guide me? "

Viewing this kid as their younger brother that is asking to be trained, everyone in the Knight Department quickly agrees with a wide grin.

" Don't worry kid, we will take care of your body nice and simple. And you are not taking that much time off of our schedules since that time will be when we are doing commission and someone will have to stay home to rest enough! Please come by our place !"

That concludes the small conversation Simon has with the seniors. A few minutes later, Dolores brings back a corpse, his face haggard and wet from all the sweating happening before.

" That was fun! Can we do something like that weekly? "

Facing the wide grin of Dolores, others can only laugh akwardly before resigning to another new item on their schedule. They are friends and have fought together in dungeons for years so their bonds are really something sacred to each of them. Without it they would have drop out and return to the world as weak knights, tarnishing their name and the academy's reputation.

" Let's me take him back to the dorm! "

Simon says before lifting an exhausted Janus, the latter's arm hangs over the former's neck. That afternoon, a rumor of a black murderer disposing a corpse of amanynoble starts to be circulated in the social circles, with mamy speculations of hoax, supernatural phenomenon and more as something this weird at the start of the school year is unprecedented.

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Dinner is a small meal of poached egg and a fruit sandwich, whose content flows like jam but the freshness of a sweet fruit still lingers. Simon has gotten his schedule from Dolores when they left the training ground. Tomorrow's morning is Magic 101, held by Prof. Anopto at 9 in the morning, so he is now reading the books he has borrowed: Basic Introduction to Mana, Basic Mathematics for Magic Calculation and Introductory to Matters and Interactions. Starting from the first book, he is reading about the history of mana research and development of the ways people have managed to harvest natural leylines and mana flows for their benefits. The math book details about describing mana paths, transformation and properties via mathematical tools like the trigonometry functions and derivatives for environment annalysis and system's future prediction. It also raises a conjecture about the intelligence of mana as a collection of cognitive waves in the ideological soul space, interfering constructively to produce the wanted result via the manifestation of events. This require energy which is taken under the form of mana. Simon reads and has no idea what that part is about as his foundation is not firm enough. The last book spells out the basic mechanism of interactions between objects, from the flow of densely packed mana particles effusion to the different 'charge' property of mana determining the interaction between different charged objects. Finding the book slightly understandable, Simon decides tomorrow to self-learn the basic knowledge first before diving into these technical book.

He lies on his bed, his consciousness drifting into sleep after 16 minutes. Night is at its strongest, the temperature drops to a cool level. Now, he is dreaming.