Wu has seen this before. In fact, Wu has seen it all before. The first time around. The proxy-Oxford that is the Infinite Academy is similar to his old university in more ways than one, and it appeared that things here are about as inspired by Harry Potter as Oxford was. As the chariot rattled off the ground with only Wu and Ita being Ville college's newest students, the two of them came to a damning realization. Either they start talking, or they shall suffer the dreadful silence together. And they don't want to do anything together. As the arena slowly disappeared from sight and Wu lost track of Lera's chariot, he decided to be the one to take the high way. "So...um...where are you from?" Wu asked, looking towards Ita who's sulking like a little baby. She glared at Wu briefly before turning her head away. "Stop talking like we are friends!" She spit out, "Hmph!" "Jeez. How old are you?" "Old enough!" Ita said, jumping onto the seat and pumping her fists towards Wu, "Stop looking down on me just cause of my size!" "S...Sorry..." Wu replied as Ita crossed her arms ovrer the flat planes over her chest, "Hey, at least we are talking. I am from Varous." "Oh?" Ita raised her eyebrows slightly, "No wonder your accent sounded Southern. I am a princess of Talonia! A fully grown princess, I'll have you know it!" The Kingdom of Talonia is a kingdom located just to the West of the Titan's Spine and the Northwest corner of the Eastern continent. Thus, for her, Varous is indeed Southern in comparison. And...perhaps she's just small in statutre. "Right." Wu nodded slowly before his gaze inevitably found itself onto her dirty dress. Seeing the mud on her white dress does make him feel a little bad, though why the heck would anyone wear a dress to a battle anyway? "Do you know what's the deal with our luggage?" Wu continued, moving his eyes away as Ita tried to cover up the mud patches as her face turned red. "STOP ASKING ALL THESE QUESTIONS!" She shouted, trying to rub the mud off the dress to no avail. If she were a Caster or a specific enough Manifester like Ver, she would have at least been able to slightly clean up the dress with a water Cast or something. "I do apologize about getting your dress dirty..." Wu sighed, scratching his head, "If it helps, I will pay for its washing, if it's how it works around here." Ita's expressions paused briefly before she turned towards Wu with a look of satisfaction. However, the briefest hint of a smile was quickly hidden away and she reached her small hand towards him, "Deal! It's a promise!" "I hope I didn't just give up all my pay..." Wu joked as Ita stuck her tongue out at him. The Ville College is located towards the outskirts of the Infinite Academy as the golden chariot seemed to have passed through countless other colleges in floating buildings before it slowed and descended through the air at last. Compared to the larger colleges that looked more like straight-up floating fortresses, Ville College is actually a petite donut-shaped castle, with only three distinct levels from the outside, a courtyard opening in the middle and a circular shape overall. A donut? A fat hula hoop? Either way, that's Wu's home for the foreseeable future. The lights within the buildings were brightly lit all around, and the golden chariot hovered over the top of the courtyards before the gates were opened, and Wu jumped off first from it as Ita followed. The drop appeared to have been a two-storey one and as Wu dropped through the air, his gauntlet roared into life before a small orb of the Wave is conjured up at its tip. Adjusting his body's orientation during the fall, he slammed the orb of the Wave into the ground upon landing before dropping his feet and hands down, breaking the fall and sucking the orb back into his gauntlet through the impact. Right behind her, Ita landed hard onto the ground, creating a small crater upon her landing. That was when the lights were flicked on all throughout the courtyard, and a Cast lit up from underneath their feet. Before Wu and Ita could move, long elastic rubber cables shot out from the ground and tied up their arms and feet. "Hey~ Fresh meat!" A posh voice came from behind them alongside a set of slow claps, and Wu and Ita's bodies were spun around until they saw a crowd of other students standing watch with a short boy with dark blonde hair being the owner of the posh way. From the first look, Wu can't help but notice his pointy jawline, flat chin, and thin slithering eyes, "Welcome to the Ville!" "I am already feeling the lovely embrace." Wu said, looking down at the cables around his body as Ita groaned painfully, "What is this?" "This is about setting things straight." The boy said, marching forward, "I am Charlie Watts, and this is my college. That means all of them here, and you two, are mine. Do you understand?" Seriously? Here too? He glanced around the room, pondering the level of power of the students around them and Charlie's own power. Is he just so outrageously strong that he alone dominates the entire college, or is something else going on here? The tension of the cables increased as the eerie silence lingered. A surge of power came within Ita as she broke through the cable with her white hair elongating and sharpening like knifes. Then, she spun around in tight circles, swinging her long hair around and knocking aside the subsequent cables sent forth by Charlie. "I am a princess of Talonia, and I don't belong to anyone!" Ita declared, dropping her arms to her side before she sent individual strands of her hair flying towards Charlie, attacking him from all angles with a dashing swoop. "Haha..." He took an interest in her, his eyes scanning her thin body before he casually swiped up with his hands as a wall of bricks rose up from the ground, blocking Ita's attacks. Then, two other slabs formed from Ita's side before Charlie sent those collapsing in, attempting to make her tiny body even thinner. "AHHH!" Ita screamed, shoving her hair and arms out to the side as she resisted against the two slabs of bricks when Wu broke free from his cables and leapt towards Charlie. "I think that's enough playing around." Wu said when Charlie turned around, his face twisted and eyes sharp like blades. "It's enough when I say it's enough." Charlie projected his voice outward, swirling his fingers around when the ground suddenly rocketed up underneath Wu, knocking him off balance and straight into the air before the rubbery cables slashed through the air and whipped him right across the body. At the last moment, Wu powered up the embedded bubble bubble and shielded himself from the whip that would have tore him a new one. Then, he switched to the ranged attacks with his gauntlet and knocked down the walls besides Ita before landing back on the ground. "Well, don't we have a fiery pair?! Excellent! Three cheers for Wu and Ita, our newest members!" Charlie said, suddenly changing face as the crowd of students cheered in synchrony according to Charlie's commands, "Hippip!" "Hooray!" "Hippip!" "Hooray!" Wu noticed Ita's tensed expression and her rapid breaths before trying to check if she's alright. However, she ignored his questions. Her chest slowly inflated with rage as she glared at Charlie with a deathly intensity. Though for some reason, Charlie seemed to have lost interest in the fight already. "Now that we have seen your strengths, let's get this initiation started!" It became immediately clear that within the tiny bubble of the Ville college, Charlie is the absolute boss of everything. Then, the power structure underneath him appeared a little muddier, as one of the other senior students named Olivia guided Wu and Ita on a tour around the college building. "The bottom level is the public area, where you socialize, train, and work." Olivia explained as she took Wu and Ita through the various common rooms, canteens, storage area, work station, and library, all located on the ground floor, "You have access to all of this area, apart from the ones with special labels on it." Wu tilted his head slightly, and Olivia guided her painted nails to the set of special rooms with various symbols of roman numerals (or this world's equivalent) on it. He and Ita shared a confused glance before the loli pointed out the obvious. "Most of them have special labels on it?!" Ita said, "Even the library!" "You heard what I said." Olivia said coldly, "That's the rules. Don't blame me." "Somehow, I think these rules are made up by Sir Charlie?" Wu said sarcastically as Olivia glanced at him with a icy expression before moving on. The Ville College also have access to their own section of the forest grounds right beneath the college building, and a set of college-owned golden chariots can take students down into the woods for more large scale training exercises and material gathering. "You will be given a standard stipend from the Academy as a whole, but twenty percent of that will be kept for college maintenance," Olivia said, not allowing Ita and Wu any more time to protest before taking them up a level to their rooms. Located right in the corner of the corridor, their cramped rooms are a maximum of six square meters each. Wu raised his eyebrows slightly at the sight when Ita nearly flipped out. However, by the time she came back out from the room, picking up an identity Cast and a weekly schedule that was left on the single desk in their room, Olivia had already left them, leaving behind a written note on their doors: 'Initiation drinks at the canteen in one hour.' "This is bullshit! Fuck this!" Ita grounded her teeth together and pulled on her white hair as Wu simply stood there in silence and ran his finger down the stains on his door, "I will make a call, and I will get this shit sorted!" "Ah...I feel like that won't work here..." Wu said, turning to face Ita as she looked right back at him with her glare and frown, "Charlie is the one we need to work through, one way or another." "I suppose you are right this time! But this is bullshit!" Ita stomped her feet and pointed to the room, "And what is that bed size?! I can't even turn around on it without falling off!" Wu nodded knowingly before a light smile floated up his face. Ita's a princess after all, and all of this is completely new to her. However, things are honestly exactly what he expected ever since the first moment he saw Charlie. "Come." Wu said, turning around and waving his hand, "Let's go take a look around." "Hmph, why should I follow you?" Ita asked, though she still followed Wu nonetheless. They tried to explore a few of the other hallways, but the Casts embedded into the doors all caught out their identity casts and rejected their entry. They then tried a few of the rooms in the lowest level, and it's all the same result. Wu knew for a fact that he can slip right through if he didn't carry the Cast with him, though he decided to keep that part of him under wraps. Ita spent the next hour complaining to Wu about how improper all of this is while Wu cleaned up his room, wiped away the dust and opened the only window. Then, as the midnight lights of the Infinite Academy were switched on all across the network, it's time for their initiation.