Magic school is a lot like regular school, but also different in every way. Colours, nerves, pre-cliques forming, and students that stood alone. As we walked through the throngs of students, they all had one thing in common.

They were staring at us.

“Hey, isn’t something weird going on here?” I spoke.

I could feel magic tickling against my skin. Every person around us had their eyes on me. Not all of their intentions were good.

“Please, this is normal. You should see it when I fight. You’ve never seen a crowd more biased.” Gerial shrugged off the stares. He peeked at me. “I can go invisible, if you want?”

I shook my head. “This is your home, and you should never feel uncomfortable here.”

I hadn’t realised just how uncomfortable it was to have the eyes of even a small group on you. I could see people sizing Gerial up, maybe as a rival, maybe as someone they could bring them benefits. Others had reverence in their eyes, and I saw them bringing their hands into the prayer position.

This was what was going to happen to me.

The puffer preened in the attention and held out his chest. He let out a chirp and kept on going, singing a song.

To distract myself I went over the school schedule that I’ve been given. I’d recreated it inside my system library for accessing anytime.

It was a better tool than earth's schoolbags, back then I had dropped my timetable into a puddle and ended up half an hour late to class.

Homeroom.

Period 1: Mathematics.

Period 2: History.

Break.

Period 3: Earth magic studies.

Period 4: Science.

Lunch break.

Period 5: Language studies.

Period 6: Metal magic studies.

It was…

A lot less magical than I’d imagined. Apparently, this world subscribed to a general knowledge education, with only certain sections being specialised.

Four of today’s courses were dedicated to general knowledge subjects, and only three of my subjects overall were specialized. Earth magic, metal magic, and symbol learning.

I didn’t have symbol learning until two days from now.

Mathematics had never been my area of expertise, and only the tiniest bit of science knowledge remained in my mind. At least half my day would be nice.

Maybe my language classes contained symbol discussions? I hoped so.

Today’s schedule was special. Instead of period five’s language class I would have assembly. We would all gather in the main hall, and then we would be greeted.

At least, that’s how it had gone in my old life.

Something brushed against my jacket sleeve. I turned to see someone with an angry expression on their face. They mouthed words at me.

‘Hoe my may’

That’s probably not what they said. I don’t know how to lip read.

“They said you should go away.” Gerial spoke. “What a strange person.”

I don’t know how he’d heard that. He wasn’t even facing the kid's direction. Then I remembered he used air magic. He could probably hear the tiniest of whispers if he was paying attention.

“I’m not agreeing with them, but I do need to get to class.” I scanned the hallway, but the stares of the students distracted me. “Where is 4E anyway?”

Gerial guided me through the twisted hallways like they were part of him. He was two years above me and had memorised the entire academy.

The crowd slowly thinned, although some of the students followed Gerial wherever he went. In the end he still turned invisible to avoid them.

“Freshmen are weird.” He’d grumbled. “Don’t let any of them near you unless they’re genuine. Some of these guys just want to use you.”

I was writing every bit of advice he gave me in the system library. Two years. The church would eventually determine I was a Marked one, but until then I was going to be kept a secret.

It was a practical decision, rather than a religious one. If I turned out not to be a Marked one then that would make me an impostor. Whether I’d deceived them willingly or not, they wouldn’t want others trying to copy what I’d done. Similarly, if I was a Marked one then they didn’t want people knowing before they could respond to their questions.

I had a feeling that ‘my’ guards would quickly turn their skills on me if I turned out to be an impostor trying to sneak into the church to learn their secrets.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the only gifts they'd allowed me had been sent by Gerial and aided solely in leveling my Mark.

We soon arrived at a stone door with a metal plate that read ‘4E’.

“Alright brother, this is your stop.” Gerial’s form shifted hazily in my mana sense. “Remind me to give you my own orientation about how this place works.”

“And William.” I spoke.

“Mr Wisdom is a legacy student.” Gerial’s tone was light. “I’m sure his dad has been preparing him for this his entire life.”

I was going to respond when a student walked by me and opened the door. I took a deep breath in. Now was a better time than ever to take that first step inside.

“I’ll catch you later.” I waved goodbye to Gerial.

Gold gave him a wave with his wing.

I stepped through the entrance, and the door shut behind me. Unlike the outside, hardly anyone gave me a passing glance.

I wasn’t surprised. This was only a temporary class. We would be placed in our proper classrooms after our measuring test was done.

Then we would be further ranked based on our abilities.

I was excited for both.

I scanned the classroom for a place to sit, and to see if I knew anyone. I didn’t. The only other person I knew was William, and he wasn’t here. Alyssa wasn’t here either.

There were a few empty places left in the room. I’d thought long and hard about this at home. I had one major issue.

I wasn’t sure how to make friends.

I’m not saying I was friendless in my old school, but now I was an adult in an adolescent body. I wasn’t comfortable talking to new people my age.

Or should I say my size? Magic made things weird.

William and Gerial were exceptions. William had thought I had the same skill he did, and it bridged us with some common ground. William and I had also gone through… a lot. I felt connected to Gerial because we were both Marked.

I needed to find something to talk about with one of these people.

Wait. Is that…

I’d found someone with something in common.

I strode towards the chair nearest to the student I’d seen. She had waist length hair that was a combination of red and orange, like flames.

She was gazing outside the window, towards a large building separate from the main school, but then she turned towards me as I approached. Her eyes widened when she looked at my shoulder and a small red streak bounded from her hand to her head.

It squawked at Gold as we took a seat next to her.

“Hi.” I gave her a small wave. “That’s a cool bird.”

The puffer examined the new avian with interest. It was smaller than him, in fact, it was smaller than his belly. The tiny red fellow chirped into the air and then Gold chirped back.

I smiled. I’d never seen him communicate with another bird before.

The girl brought a hand up to her hair and her bird jumped onto her palm.

“What kind of bird is he?” I stared at it.

I don’t know much about birds, but I don’t think the ones on earth let out tiny flames every time their wings flap. Little puffs of smoke appeared in the air as well, and I wondered if it would hurt to touch it. The girl seemed to be unharmed.

“She's a phoenix.” The girl smiled. “Been with me since I was born.”

“A phoenix?” My eyes widened.

A genuine phoenix. Just like the myths.

What did that mean about the origins of the stories I’d heard on Earth?

“Yes.” The girl was proud. “Part of my bloodline ability.”

A bloodline? That made more sense.

I wasn’t sure how many bloodline families existed, but it was more than a few dozen.

“I bet it's hard to figure out what animals I like best.” She leaned forward.

“B-”

“That’s right, tigers.” She interjected.

She looked at me with a straight face.

I stared back.

Her face reddened, and her cheeks blushed until they started to match her hair.

“See, I was making a joke-”

“-I thought it was funny, I should have laughed.”

We spoke at the same time, and then stopped. There was an awkward silence, and then she broke out into a giggle. I followed with a chuckle of my own, and then the birds joined us.

“Okay.” I smiled. “Maybe I’m not as good at making friends as I thought I was.”

“Ditto.” The girl tucked her hair behind her ear. “My name’s Amanda. And this is Agni.”

“Andross, and this is Gold.”

“Gold?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“My surname is Silver. Get it? Gold and Silver.”

The reason hadn’t sounded as corny in my head when I’d offered the name to Gold. It was my turn to blush in embarrassment.

“Aw. He’s part of the family.” Amanda placed her free hand in front of Gold.

He eyed it curiously. Then his body shivered. There was a snack in her hands. She was bribing him with food.

It worked.

Gold gobbled down the snack faster than I could blink. Then he turned and looked at me with a hurt expression. He wanted more.

“If you eat any more, you’re going to explode.” I ignored his solemn gaze.

Amanda looked at us with a curious expression.

“Do you have a bloodline ability? I’ve never seen a magical beast behave like Agni before.” She asked.

I looked at Gold and he looked back at me. Technically, he had gotten his intelligence by eating part of my bloodline skill.

I could have pretended to have a normal bloodline. It was one of the plans my dad and I had come up with to explain my high mana.

Thankfully, we had found an easier plan.

The headmaster had agreed to keep my measuring results completely private, even from other faculty. The church had played a part in that, and Gerial too.

General measurement privacy between students was already an option. Not everyone wanted their details to be public knowledge.

“We’ve known each other a while.” I smiled. “He’s a good friend.”

“That’s great.” Amanda’s eyes lit up. “I’ve never met someone else with a bird before.”

Gold preened at her attention.

“The teacher is outside.” A voice shouted from the middle of the room.

It was a student I’d never seen before. His ear twitched, and I could sense magic shifting around it. His expression was serious.

Amanda and I shut up and turned towards the front of the room. We weren’t the only ones. It was the first day of school. I would take in everything the teachers said.

The mana around me grew wild. Within the stones, and in the floor, it rose to respectfully greet whoever was outside the room. I stared at it, and I noticed something strange.

The floor was vibrating. It was faint, but every second there was a small quake and the classroom shook. Then the door opened and the last conversations around the room died down.

A new person walked through the entrance and strode towards the corner of the room where the teacher’s desk was.

My mouth fell open.

In front of me was a person three meters high and made of rocks. No skin, no flesh, no bones. Pure rock. The only exception was a glowing orange light in his chest.

“I am Tago of the earth.”

The creature placed a hand down on his desk, and then sat down.

“I will be your homeroom teacher for this week.”