Two days passed. In these two days, the quartet had been asked about what all had happened a multitude of times. The group kept quiet about the soldiers only stating Kayley’s dad found them and gave them some sort of special rings, telling them to stay away from the coast. They found a hotel in a city and practiced their magic only going outside occasionally. They made it very clear nobody used magic outside of their room and no mortal had seen any signs of magic.

As for how they escaped The Academy, they spoke the truth, only lying about the fact Amelia’s eye was hit with a spell when she and Villin were fighting a number of other students. Miss Valentine and the other magus that came to ask them questions all nodded and thanked them for their time, nobody questioned their words at all.

There was a magus that came to see if he could heal Amelia’s eye but he shook his head saying the magic energy from the attack had completely dissipated and there was no way to reverse it for the time being.

The group was also asked whether they wanted to go back to the first grade or immediately head for the second grade. “Is professor Crumb still teaching in the first grade?” Villin asked, he valued the professor very much and had much he wanted to discuss with him.

Miss Valentine shook her head “Some of the fifth grade teachers were sadly killed so a large number of teachers have moved up a grade, professor Crumb was one of them.

Hearing that professor Crumb was in the second grade now, Villin didn’t hesitate to move up. Even if he wasn’t in his classes he might still be able to fin the professor after class.

The others also readily agreed, even though Rein and Kayley weren’t willing to move up three months ago, the situation had changed quite a bit, all of them finished the first grade’s books and they were eager to learn more.

And so now there they were, standing in the halls of the second grade. The aesthetic of the school didn’t change in any big ways but there were still a couple of differences. For one, the walls were no longer illuminating the hallways, instead, there were torches hanging on the wall, Villin found it didn’t look as good as the first grade halls but didn’t really mind much, as for the torches, they didn’t radiate any heat whatsoever, you could touch the flames without getting hurt.

As they were heading toward the dormitories, the four of them were worried, they joined four months into the year, it was likely they would have the rooms multiple kilometers away from the dormitory entrance.

But when they arrived, this worry was largely alleviated. Once they went through the grade B door, they found there was a stairway going down far. There were ten floors, each of them with a hallway holding fifty rooms, that being said, looking from outside the rooms seemed to be a lot wider. Looking closer they noticed something odd, every door had five names on them instead of one, were rooms shared in this grade?

Passing by a few other students who were heading toward their own rooms, the group noticed something else that was odd. On the robes of these other students, below the school’s crest, was another unfamiliar one.

This wasn’t something they had on their own robes and it wasn’t the crest of another school. After some time passed they finally got to the fourth floor, on the third door they found the following text.

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This room belongs to the following individuals:

Elinoire Decorus (transfer month five) white

Villin Grey (transfer month five) white

Amelia Blackwood (transfer month five) white

Rein Bellua (transfer month five) white

Kayley Allius (transfer month five) white

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There were a few surprising bits of information Villin got from this. They would all be roommates and they would be together with the daughter of the headmaster of a rival school. As for the ‘white’, Villin doubted it had to do with skin color, he would have to inquire about that later.

Villin walked up opening the door, no key was required as the door would recognize its owners. In front of them was a relatively large room. The room had a lot of free space in the middle. On both sides of the room in the middle of the walls were a couple of desks with chairs underneath and a couch to relax on. In two of the corners were blue bunk beds made out of metal, it didn’t look all that comfortable.

Meanwhile, straight ahead, was a large king-sized bed, sitting on that bed was a girl that was by no means beautiful. She had a crooked nose, thin white hair, and a lot of acne. She was too skinny and her complexion looked unhealthy as well. The only positive thing about her appearance were her eyes. She had green eyes that looked incredibly intelligent and she was staring at the people who just entered the room.

“Who are you four?” she asked. Her voice was raspy, as if she had been a chain smoker for a long time.

Villin was surprised by her appearance but didn’t show it on his face “We’re your roommates, Elinoire I presume?” he asked.

“That’s me.” The girl said, the two of them were clearly sizing each other up. Villin wasn’t smiling like he usually did when he met a person. It wasn’t because of her looks, but her name instead. She was the daughter of Decorus’s headmaster, and well… he didn’t exactly have the best impression of them.

After a few moments, Villin finally spoke up “Alright then, let’s get this over with. Don’t touch my things and I won’t touch yours. If you do touch my things we’re going to have some serious problems.”

Elinoire looked him in the eyes “Even though I generally don’t run away from problems, I agree, don’t touch my stuff and I won’t touch yours.”

Both of them became quiet once more as they stared at each other in the eyes. Both of them didn’t feel this way but the other three who came in felt the silence was uncomfortable.

“I’m Kayley, nice to meet you,” Kayley said, trying to make the hostile feeling go away.

But Elinoire didn’t seem interested in that. She and Villin both looked away at the same time after which the girl laid down in the bed again. Villin spoke to the others as if she wasn’t there.

“Alright, so, first things first, let’s split the spoils we got from The Academy. The payment for professor Richard should come in a little while so we can have a look at that when the time comes.”

As he was speaking the others all took out their own crystal holder and Villin transferred 2500 crystals to each of them. This was a fair split.

“As for the spell books, we can test the market first and decide what to do with it then. For now, let’s just keep it in the room as it is our collectual property,” he said as he took out the spell models. Even though Elenoire wasn’t looking, Villin still made sure it looked natural when he took them out of his backpack, he didn’t want her to know they had spacial storage.

He put about half of the spell models on one of the desks and drew a magic array around them while he continued speaking “Other than the classes we can continue doing things as we did them in the hotel. At least we have proper resources now to do things like pill-making and playing ‘Cut And Crease’. As for the wands, each of you can take a spare, sell it, or keep it, all up to you.” Villin said as he took out the remaining wands they had.

Each of them also received a second grade wands that had the same properties as the ones they currently had so the value went down quite a bit.

“What classes are you all planning to take?” Amelia asked as she inspected the wand.

“I’ll be taking the magic array class and the ‘magus etiquette’ one.” Rein said.

Magus etiquette was a second grade optional class explaining things such as how to receive guests, how to dress when being invited, how to dance, etcetera

“I’ll be taking enchanting, magic arrays, and pill-making.” Kayley took the same classes as the last grade.

“I’ll also be taking the same classes as last year, I am planning to also join the ‘Cut and Crease’ team though. I’ll also be having a look at the clubs to see if there’s anything interesting now that I have the funds.” Villin’s words were clear and the others nodded as it is largely what they expected “What about you Amelia?”

When asked herself Amelia didn’t look like she was all that sure “I’ll have to see, Pill-making is a must and I’m also going to be going for the ‘Cut and Crease’ team, but other than that, I’m not sure yet.”

Villin nodded, he knew she focused quite a bit on gene solutions usually but it probably wouldn’t be an option this time around.

“Say, Villin.” Kayley began as she thought about something “You know how we always spent time studying the nodes within out webs, I think there’s some real potential there, we should consider making a club.”

Villin thought for a bit. It was clear Kayley wanted to go through with it but he wasn’t sure yet “Let’s see what this year’s ‘studies of the web’ is like. If the book doesn’t explain the kind of things we were discovering we can think about it again.

Kayley nodded as she was content with the arrangement.

The four of them just stood there for a bit then, unsure of what to do, after a while Villin broke the silence “Right, let’s check our chests and retrieve our books… Where are our chests?”

They all looked around the room for chests similar to those they had in the first grade but they couldn’t spot any.

“You have to earn them.” Elinoire suddenly said as she sat up from the bed. “I only arrived yesterday but I heard from the second grade onward you have to earn most things. Right now your schoolbooks and meals will remain in the mailing room until you retrieve them.”

Villin looked at her and then frowned before speaking to his friends “Let’s have a look at how this grade works first, so we don’t run around like headless chickens.”