Chapter 40 - The Beginning Of School

“Follow me, please.” Athreial said cooly, walking purposefully down the corridor.

“Yeah, yeah.” I muttered, too busy checking out my surroundings to care.

Thankfully, before I left Leanea’s office, she’d provided me with a little information. The school was split into three sections. The first, called ‘Supra’, was the upstairs section of the castle, where only staff and student representatives were allowed. This was the smallest section of the three, with only six rooms; the headmaster’s office, the teachers’ lounge, the student meeting room, the multifunctional room and the vice headmaster’s room.

The second section, ‘Infra’, was the bottom section of the castle. It was where the majority of the classes were held and had close to fifty rooms. They were organized in a winding, labyrinth like structure, making a specific room hard to find unless you knew the layout.

The final section was named ‘Extra’, and was the areas outside of the castle. This area was mostly used for outdoor, practical activities and during break times. Which I assumed meant magic practice. But that wasn’t all. There was a large, concrete area which students could use to play games in during their break and even a pool out the back.

I followed Athreial down the right staircase that led to the great hall, where the opening ceremony had been held. The corridors and space was eerily quiet. There was not a sign of life apart from another of those wyvern-humans that walked silently by.

It was a different story once we’d reached the Infra, though. Although the hallways were still empty, you could hear the chattering and lively noises behind every wall, where the students were being taught. Which reminded me.

“Hey, um, Ass-rail?” I jogged to keep up with him and tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned around and gave me a look that looked like it could kill. “My name is Athreial. Do not touch me.”

I sighed. “I just wanted to ask a quick question about what you said before. Why am I in class 1-F? What does that even mean?”

Without looking at me, he turned left into another corridor and replied; “The students of the School Of Anthropoids stay here for three years. Since this is your first year, you are placed with the first years. Cle’de is spending her third year here.”

Ok. That was pretty standard. “But why 1-F in particular? Why not 1-A?”

“At the end of the last school year, every student planning to attend this year goes through an assessment. That assessment has several aspects including magic, academics and physicality. Since you were not present for the assessment, you have been naturally placed in the bottom bracket.”

“I-in the bottom bracket-” I stuttered. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it. This reminded me of my childhood days. Due to having no magic, I had also been placed in the lowest class.

‘But this time, it’ll be different.’ I told myself. I had magic. I was strong. What happened before would not happen again.

“We have reached our destination.”

Our ‘destination’ was a classroom. I was surprised to see a real classroom- not just a renovated storeroom or something in the castle. But then again, this was a school. I wanted to ask Athreial about it, but it seemed that I’d already said too much.

As he pushed the door open, a pretty woman who looked to be in her mid twenties walked out. She had large, opalescent eyes and a cute button nose. Her long, brown hair was tied up in a single ponytail behind her. She wore a simple pink dress that flowed down to her ankles. Her skin was a soft white.

“Oh? You must be the new student.” She said, and gestured inside the classroom. “Please take a seat.”

I peeked inside the classroom, surprised to see a three by four setup of two-per-table desks. The room wasn’t particularly magnificent, nor fitting for such a fancy school. The teacher’s desk was up front, along with a large blackboard and a small black cabinet.

“You heard Miss Kleo.” Athreial said gruffly from behind me. “If you’re not going to move by yourself, I’ll move you by force.”

Jeez, what was with this guy and violence?

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” I replied, stuffing my hands into my blazer’s pockets.

Now came the most important decision of my school life. Where was I going to sit? I didn’t know whether these seats were permanent, but even if they weren’t, first impressions were still important.

I scanned the front row. All the seats were taken.

The second row. All the seats were taken except one, next to a young skeleton boy who was picking his nose. I didn’t think skeletons had boogers.

Yikes.

The third row. Most of the seats were empty, but unfortunately, every table had at least one person next to it. A demon girl, an elf boy, and a… a human boy? He was slightly older than the others, probably around fifteen to sixteen, and had pink hair. Which was weird, but I wasn’t one to judge. He also looked relatively normal, staring out of the window like he had nothing better to do in life.

I didn’t really like the look of him, but… I honestly wasn’t ready to deal with any biological interactions with other humanoid species.

Sighing, I trudged down the rows of desks and plonked myself down on the seat next to him. He turned, looked at me, then turned away once more.

Well this was great.

“Alright, class! Shall we continue with our lesson? Everyone please take out a pencil and get ready to write!” The teacher said, flashing a radiant smile.

I sighed once more. What was I doing in a class with a bunch of children?

Also, I realized. I’d forgotten to bring any school equipment. And what was this ‘pencil’ thing? The only thing that I’d ever used to write with was ink and quill.

I turned slowly to the boy next to me.

“Uh… Excuse me, but what’s a pencil? I tried to copy the teacher’s smile.

The boy ignored me.

“Hey. New kid.” The red-skinned demon girl to my right said. “You get your stuff under your desk. Also, don’t bother with Leon. He hates humans like you.”

Humans… like me? Wasn’t he a human himself? And who was she calling a kid? I was clearly much older than her!

Regardless, I still thanked her, and placed my hands into the little tote tray underneath my desk. Inside were three, stick-like objects, as thin as my finger and long enough to line the length of my palm. It was made of wood and the end of the object was sharpened to form a black edge. Was this the so-called ‘pencil’? It seemed more of a weapon than a writing device.

Slowly, I pressed the tip of the pencil against the paper. Nothing happened. I looked over to Leon, who was scribbling away. With a little more force, I drew a line on the paper. A grey line magically appeared.

This was completely different from an ink and quill.

Too busy being amazed by the pencil, I didn’t realise Miss Kleo had sidled up beside my desk. “Do you need any help, June? I hear you missed the opening ceremony and are from Erobeus.”

“I’m alright, thanks.” I said briskly. It just wouldn’t do to act frail in front of this pretty lady.

She gave me a forced smile and nodded. “Alright then. I’ll continue the lesson now.”

I turned back to my parchment, pencil in hand.

“Everyone, please copy this down onto your paper.” She turned to the chalkboard and drew two columns of five words each.

Fire Water

Earth Air

Life Death

Light Darkness

Space Time

Wait a minute. Wasn’t this the-

“These are the ten elements that make up all worlds. They are split into two categories, primordial and disparate…”

A cold hand clutched my heart. It wasn’t sadness. It was the feeling of being alone.

Back then. Back then, when I had heard these exact words, I’d been happy. With them. With a family that made me feel like I was a part of them. A family that was always laughing and enjoying each other’s presence.

I gripped the pencil tighter and furiously drew the shapes and symbols onto the paper. All this feelings did was fuel my determination to control the void and get back to them. And to do this, I needed to progress along my path.

According to Eve, at least.

But that wasn’t all I could do.

If I studied hard in this magic school and increased my understanding of magic, maybe I could find a way too.

The rest of the lesson flew by. Although I hadn’t learnt much from Winter, it appeared that this ‘beginner’ magical theory was really the lowest of the low. After all, this was the first lesson. A bell rang an hour later, signifying the end of the lesson.

Dejectedly, I trudged out of the classroom, planning my training schedule when I got home. Ever since I’d become a potato, I’d never had the luxury of time to daydream about what I wanted to do, so this was a first.

“Hey. Mister. Wanna hang out with me?” A girl’s voice called from behind.

I turned around and came face to face with the red-skinned girl who told me to leave Leon alone. Honestly, I felt out of place within the school. The students weren’t all that young- they were around eighteen years old- but they had strange customs and habits that really made me wonder.

For example, I could barely look at this girl in the eyes without staring at the two, small black horns on her head.

“Uh, mister? Are you ok?” She stretched upwards and waved a hand in front of me.

“Yes, I’m fine, thanks.”

“So, do you wanna hang out with me?” She repeated.

“I mean… sure?” I agreed hesitantly.

“Aw come on, mister! Try be a li’l more ‘lax around me! I won’t bite!” At this, she flashed a set of brilliantly sharp teeth. “I’m Tathreiragyl. You can just call me Tath, though.”

She caught up and walked beside me. “So what’s your name, mister?”

“Uh, I’m June. Nice to meet you… Tath?”

She grinned and forcefully interlocked her amr with mine. “Nice to meet you too!”

Well this wasn’t the worst situation to be in. She was below the average age- and height for a student of the school. Setting aside this, it’d be useful to have someone who could show me around the school and knew a thing or two about it in general. Now that I thought about it, wasn’t this a great opportunity? School was a place with many people. People that were ready to make friends. People that were ready to give me faith.

“Tath, where are we going now?” I asked, striking up a conversation.

[You have established a connection with Tathreiragyl.]

[You have earned {5} faith from Tathreiragyl.]

“We’re going to our next lesson, Mister June. Practical magic!”

No wonder why she sounded so excited.

We walked in silence for a few more minutes, following Miss Kleo through the winding corridors until we made our way to the entrance of the great hall. So far, Tath had been the only one to talk to me. The rest of the students whispered in their own groups, occasionally shooting me dirty looks.

“So, Mister June,” Tath said, looking down, fidgeting with her hands.

“Yes?”

“Do you want to be my friend?” She asked shyly.

I blinked. Why did she have to ask it like that?

But whatever. If it was for the faith, I’d do anything.

“Sure. But can you tell me why everyone is staring at me like that?”

As I sooke, the ones who’d been close enough to overhear immediately looked away.

“Well, that’s because you’re human, mister.”

Wait. Did I just hear that correctly?

“What do you mean ‘it’s because I’m human’? Isn’t Leon human?” And the mayor? And the Harding family?

“Aw, come on, Mister June.” She nudged me playfully. “Surely you know of the eight races? Gods, fairies, elves, upper earthen, dwarves, the undead, demons, and higher demons? Leon is a fairy!”