Even though he was born in the human lands, and never really stopped to think about it, Wolf was as much an elf as he was a human. Due to never being exposed to real racism, except Archibald’s misguided faith and love for the human race, Wolf simply considered himself a manling.

If anything, Wolf was glad he was a so-called mongrel, since it gave him a bit more neutral perspective. In general Wolf knew exactly who and what he was. He was Wolf, just like Wayde was Wayde, Anna was Anna and South was a drunkard.

When Wolf looked at a person he saw the person, not a member of a certain race. If there really was one supreme race, then the others would have gone extinct by now. Or to be more exact, they would’ve been eradicated.

The only times Wolf was actively forced to think about his heritage were moments like these, when someone shoved it into his face.

Due to his father, Wolf had decided that one of his future projects was going to be easing the racial hatred, if not its complete removal. He wanted to apply this to the world, but, for now, Wolf was willing to settle for the way Wayde felt towards elves.

The two boys chatted for a while when suddenly a knock came from the door. Since he was closer, Wolf just took two steps and opened it just as Wayde was about to shout ‘Who is it?’.

Wolf suddenly found himself face to face with a well dressed man in his fifties. His hair was cut short and his face looked like he’d just finished shaving. He was neither too tall, nor too short, which meant he towered over diminutive Wolf. The man stood straight like someone had rammed a broom up his butt, but other than that nothing about his physique was remarkable.

“Greetings Sir, my name is Jenkins. I am the chief butler and majordomo of the house Monaco. Do I have the pleasure of speaking with Sir Wolf?” the man spoke with perfect diction, and said everything in one breath.

On a subconscious level the boy was impressed with his lung capacity.

Wolf just stared at him for a moment, processing his appearance and words. Is this man associated with the Mage Academy? What do I know about the house of Monaco? Do I know this man? Have we had prior contact?

The answers were no, not much, no and no, in that order. Very negative and not the least bit helpful. Still, Wolf decided to be civil about this sudden visit.

“Yes?” he asked tentatively.

“Sir, my Lord Edward Monaco the Fourth has sent me to invite you to join our household as an advisor on all things arcane and to tutor our house’s next generation,” the fancily dressed man said calmly, once again without taking a breath.

Wolf was under the impression that this guy was a magic item from the same series as Glib. Only after shaking off this thought was Wolf able to process what this entire encounter was all about.

“Oh, not interested. Thanks for coming. Goodbye!” Wolf said as he closed the door right in the man’s face. He really disliked that snide look on that guy’s otherwise professional mug.

“Do you know anything about the house Monaco?” Wayde asked with a blank expression.

“A bit. They are some nobles, right?” Wolf had an ‘I really can’t be bothered to care’ look on his face.

Wayde couldn’t help but laugh. This roommate of his was a real piece of work. “He’s the majordomo of a Viscount’s household.”

“He said something like that. Does that mean he’s important?” Wolf asked offhandedly.

While he did find the whole thing amusing, Wayde couldn’t just watch as his roommate, and hopefully friend, committed social suicide like this.

“Most Barons are very polite when they talk to him,” he explained. “They don’t dare do anything that would upset him too much. You know, like, slam the door in his face. People generally consider that quite rude.”

In response to this lengthy explanation Wolf shrugged. He wasn’t sure, but his social standing was above the snobby butler that just looked down on him, both literally and figuratively.

Wolf was painfully aware that a large portion of the world was bound to literally look down on him for a very long time, so when someone acted the way this butler did, it triggered him quite badly. Seeing the way Wolf acted, Wayde laughed harder.

“I don’t see anything funny. That man is just a servant, isn’t he?” Wolf feigned ignorance.

He knew that in the novels they often mentioned that whenever you look at the dog, you should look at the owner as well. For instance, people from Roger’s Cornucopia now treated Rand and the people from Oakwood Freeland as if they were important, despite the fact that they were just a bunch of woodmen and a former bodyguard.

“Well, yes and no,” Wayde said with hesitation. “I can tell you that years ago, when I tried to talk to that man’s master, he didn’t even let me enter the premises.”

Wayde couldn’t help but recall an unpleasant memory from what seemed like a lifetime ago. In a way seeing a door slammed into the snobby butler’s face was really satisfying.

“Do you want me to go and beat him up?” Wolf’s face darkened.

He even rolled up his sleeves and looked like he was ready to do some slapping.

Mate, are you a Mage with great potential or a street thug? Wayde thought with shock painted all over his face.

“What? I can’t beat him up just because of his master? We can wait for him in a dark alley and–” Wolf started explaining how things were done out on the street, as if Wayde wasn’t already familiar with how things were settled in dark alleys.

“No, no, no stop! Do you really beat up people that annoy you?” Wayde asked with incredulity, looking at Wolf's seemingly frail frame.

“Only if they are really, really annoying.” Wolf grinned slyly.

“You cheeky brat! You were messing with me!” As Wayde shouted they both started laughing loudly.

The truth was that Wolf was horsing around and being serious at the same time. If the man had really offended Wayde that badly, then Wolf didn’t mind breaking an arm or a leg. It’s not like he hadn’t done something like that dozens of times before. In fact, he’d done much worse.

“Oh, man… You know, most students get kicked out of here after five to twenty years. I think I won’t have a dull moment for a couple of decades with you around,” Wayde said once he stopped laughing and caught his breath.

“Yeah, I’m a real joker… But more importantly you said something about the academy?” Wolf was quite a bit interested in anything related to how long one stayed at the Mage Academy and how that whole thing worked. Unfortunately, this information wasn’t in the information he’d bought years ago, and he never really considered it until now.

“I can give you a short overview,” Wayde asked and after Wolf nodded he continued. “To stay at the Mage Academy you’re supposed to advance your Mage Order at least once every five years. Otherwise you get kicked out.

“So, you in particular are expected to be a Mage of the Fifth Order by the time you hit seventeen, Sixth Order at twenty-two, Seventh at twenty-seven and so on and so forth. If you can’t do it, you get kicked out.

“Nobles naturally return to their families and then continue doing their best to advance their Order, but it’s considerably more expensive than paying tuition. As for others, it depends. If they had paid their own tuition they are free to do whatever they want. Those that didn’t, have to work off their debt towards the Mage Academy.

“You’re such a genius that someone will soon approach you to discuss your stipend. That’s people literally trying to get you indebted to them for the sake of your future potential. That butler just now was one of those people.

“The beggars that have the potential to become True-Namers are also being approached right now, as for what kinds of offers they get… Well, they are being invested in to become cheap labor that has knowledge of magic–”

Wayde obviously had a lot more to say, but a sudden knock on the door interrupted him mid sentence.

Wolf, who still stood by the door, opened it with an annoyed look.

In front of Wolf stood a well dressed man in his late forties. His black hair was cut short and he was clean shaven. He was neither too tall, nor too short. He stood straight, but otherwise didn’t have a remarkable build. If you ignored the exhausted look, he was a spitting image of the annoying fellow from a couple of minutes ago.

“Greetings Sir my name is Dobby. I am the chief butler and majordomo of the house Menlo. Do I have the pleasure of speaking with Sir Wolf?” The man said his piece in one breath in a fairly familiar tone, albeit the voice was a tad different.

Wolf looked at him for a moment, thinking that this man looked like a younger brother of the recently departed Jenkins.

“Yes?” Wolf said, already having a feeling where this conversation was going.

“Sir my Lord Henry Menlo the Eighth has sent me to invite you to join our household as an advisor on all things arcane and to tutor our house’s next–”

“No thanks! Goodbye!” Wolf slammed the door once more.

“That would be a Count’s butler,” Wayde pointed out.

“I don’t care. Go on,” Wolf said and motioned Wayde to continue his explanation, but a knock came from the door less than a minute later.

“Greetings Sir my name is Albert. I am the chief butler and majordomo of the house Helvetica–”

*Slam!*

“Greetings Sir my name is Walter. I am the chief butler and majordomo of the house Arial–”

*Slam!*

“Greetings Sir my name is Lurch. I am the chief butler and majordomo of the house Damascus–”

*Slam!*

“Greetings Sir my name is Samwise. I am the chief butler and majordomo of the house Georgia–”

*Slam!*

Wolf suddenly found himself besieged by various chief butler and majordomos. They had practically identical statures, hairstyles and clothing. The only slight variation was the face.

Are these guys multiplying through mitosis? Wolf couldn’t help but wonder where this band of doppelgangers had crawled out from.

Wolf was already annoyed by the unending stream of people looking for him to become an advisor on all things arcane and to tutor their house’s next generation or whoever.

“How many times have they cloned this man?!” Wolf had gotten to the point of opening the door only to slam it shut once he saw a well dressed man between thirty and sixty years old. He already knew their script by heart, so the only thing that changed in the template was the chief butler’s name and the name of the person who sent them here.

“Well, in Silverhound, we have ten Marquises, ninety seven Counts, one thousand and twenty Viscounts and I’m not exactly sure how many Barons, but let’s just say ten thousand as a ballpark number.

“So, all in all, you can expect around eleven thousand butlers to come knocking. They look nothing alike, they just have the same general description that comes with the job,” Wayde explained helpfully.

He was endlessly amused with Wolf’s plight, and didn’t see a reason not to poke fun at him in this situation. It was the exact opposite of his mother taking him to beg from various nobles and the best she could hope for was that they pay for her services after they were done abusing her.

Wolf heard another knock at the door and groaned. “That’s it! I don’t care anymore! What’s the punishment for killing a stray civilian again?”

“Expulsion, unless they attacked first. After which you face imperial law. You’ve said the exact same line three times already.” Wayde rolled his eyes at this silly roommate of his.

“Then you open it. Tell them I’m in the crapper! Those people were slamming their doors in your face, so getting payback should make you happy.” Wolf ran into his room. He slammed the door just as loudly as did when those butlers started their one breath introductions.

“I guess slamming doors has already become a habit of yours!” Wayde yelled after Wolf with a snicker, but still moved to open the door.

“And if you’re asking me to open doors and shoo away people for you, you’re basically asking me to act like your chief butler and majordomo, which isn’t nice…” Wayde muttered, but stopped complaining once he’d reached the door.

He put on his civil face and after taking a breath opened the door.

Instead of a middle aged man in a black suit, what waited for Wayde was a young lady roughly his age. She wore the Mage Academy’s student uniform, which the academy required and issued to all of its students.

She was a pretty little thing, even though she was a bit on the thin side. Her face was covered in cute freckles and for some reason the charming smile turned a bit awkward when she saw Wayde.

The beaming face turned confused and even somewhat disappointed. It was as if she’d expected to see someone else, but there Wayde was, ruining her mood.

“May I help you young miss?” Wayde asked, doing his best to sound as slick as possible.

Fuck! I should’ve combed my hair, he panicked. Did I wash my face after breakfast? I’m still in my clothes, not the uniform. My clothes are expensive, but she’s also a noble, so is there any point to show off the fact that I’m wealthy? Stop it, you’re not even wealthy, you’re flaunting other people’s money! You’re just the most successful beggar in the city…

The young lady just stood there for several long moments, giving the nervous Wayde enough time to have a number of internal dialogues with himself. He debated whether he should compliment her looks, and he wondered what should be the first step towards getting to know this pretty little thing.

A normal and composed person would start by giving their name, as well as asking the girl for hers. However, every man who had ever found himself in Wayde’s spellbound position, knew that finding the right words was next to impossible.

“I’m looking for Wolf?” she asked with some confusion, but the hopeful look returned to her eyes.

“He’s in the cra… toilet,” Wayde stuttered.

I almost said crapper! Damn you Wolf! Wayde cursed. Wait, if she’s looking for him, maybe I should have told her that he said that he was in the crapper for anyone that’s looking for him?

“He’s in… the toilet?” the girl asked with a slight pause while giving Wayde a look with one brow raised. “Tell him that his second friend ever is here to see him.”

I sure hope that he's the Wolf I know. Anna thought to herself. But, the name is very unusual, and he’s a talented young beggar. How many people like that are there in Silver City?

Wayde on the other hand seemed oddly relieved. They are just friends! Great!

“Give me a moment, I’ll call him,” he said with a bright smile.

The youth approached the door and wanted to shout. But at the last moment he decided against it and just banged the door loudly three times.

“Tell them I’m in the crapper!” Wolf shouted loudly enough for the person waiting in the hallway to hear.

“It’s not an ironed out old man! It’s a girl! She said she’s your friend!” Wayde shouted back, while suppressing his laughter.

“Anna!” Wolf shouted and opened the door.

He excitedly ran towards Anna, rushing past Wayde, whom he completely ignored.

As soon as Wolf got out into the hallway he hugged his friend, who was quite a bit taller than he was. “Anna! I haven’t seen you in ages!”

Anna on the other hand blushed as the pipsqueak she once knew lifted her up and held her waist.

“What do you think you’re doing?! We’re in the hallway, crapper man!” she exclaimed, dearly hoping Earthmother would swallow her as soon as those words left her mouth.

And yet, despite her embarrassment, she couldn't help but think that having Wolf hold her like this felt really, really good.