One week before we start out journey, the villagers threw a celebration for both of us. Drums made from leather vibrates the air, melodies of flutes and singing makes one dances, the smell of different food of different tastes satisfies all cravings.

Some of the villagers even gave us gifts like pocket money, arrows and throwing knives from Mr Roswell, a thick hand-knitted sweater from Grandma Rachel and many more. The night was truly lively.

On the day we depart, the chief gave me a pendant, it was made of silver chain, and tied to it a black round stone - a mana core. As I wore them, I can feel some tingling sensation in my eyes. Chief brought a hand mirror to me and asked me to see myself.

Black hair and black-brown eyes - I look just like most of the villagers here. My snow white hair and sapphire eyes was completely hidden. To conceal my identity, chief gave me the magic device. At least, I won't attract any attention.

Lucas reaction was funny. When he first saw me with the same hair and eye colours as he did, he looked disappointed and immediately he says:

'You were cuter before'.

And for some reason, he panicked after he said that trying to correct his words.

'I-I am not saying you were cute. I am just saying you looked better before'.

Right. I think I am used to this behaviour.

The chief accompanied us to the stables, where the carriage waited for us. We got onto the carriage and journeyed through different villages and small cities. Stopping by once in a while to eat and rest at inns.

The people often look at us curiously, seeing two young people journeying by themselves. We eventually reached a big gate that was wide open with guards on the lookout. As we stepped into Floren city, what we saw was a street busy with life. So many different modern looking buildings, big glass displays and the odour of delicious food!

And what was most interesting are some people have a rectangular device on their hands. The guy over there waiting for food, that woman lining up to pay for her bread, and that kid sitting on the bench. They have the device and staring at them.

Is that what I think it is? Something like smartphone from Earth! No freaking way. Just how much did I miss staying in the village?

Lucas was even more surprised. His eyes wildly looking here and there with confusion and curiosity as he never went out.

The carriage brought us close to the train station. We gave him the pay and went our separate ways. We walked through the busy streets until we reached the station. There was few counters with a people attending it. We quickly approaches one of them.

'Good afternoon, what are your destination?', asked the lady.

"We are going to the magic institute miss".

The lady stared at the rings we both had on our fingers, and smiled.

'Oh, yes, the imperial institute. It must be nice to have talent. You young people must study hard or you will end like me', she said with a sigh.

Errr. Who asked?

We got the tickets for the train towards Starshear. There's about an hour or so before it stop by. And that means, we can walk around and browse the shops.

We went into clothing stores, magitronic (magic devices) stores, souvenir stores, the nearby blacksmith and we finally went into a desert shop. They sell crepes and ice cream!

It's been a long time I had dessert.

After the first bite, Lucas chew it slowly as if he's feeling every flavour coming from the crepe. He swallowed it down and words of praises came out of his mouth.

'Its sooo tasty! I can eat this everyday!'.

I chuckled hearing that.

"Lucas, you will turn into a boar if you eat this everyday".

Lucas continues to eat without a care in this world, finishing it in a blink of an eye. There's even some cream on his cheek.

"Lucas, there's some cream on your cheek".

'Here?'.

"No. Wait, let me-".

I stood up and bend over closer to him, wiping the cream off his cheek with my metallic thumb.

It's sweet, I thought while tasting the cream left on my finger.

I sat down and took the last bite of my creep. Looking at Lucas, I realised his face was slightly red and heated up.

"Lucas, you had a fever?".

He was silent for few seconds, then he replied quietly.

'N-no. I was just, tired'.

I was tired too. It's been a long journey for sure.

And so we finished our snacks and return to the station just on time. The train is comfortable. They keep the temperature just right with magic, the seats was covered with leathery skin, with soft cushioning. There were many passengers going in and out of the train. It's quite packed.

After walking through different sections of the trains we finally found the right seats. As we sat down on our seats, the trains starts to move.

The train slowly accelerated until it reaches a super high speed. And when it almost close to the next station, it decelerate to a stop. The ride was really smooth and make very minimal noises. I relaxed my shoulders and laid on the seat. Closing my eyes, I fell asleep.

...

Slight shaking from the train wake up. I felt a comfortable warmth cushioning my head.

I opened my eyes to realise I was laying on Lucas's shoulder.

And I noticed slight pressure on my prosthetic palm. Lucas was, holding my hand.

Eh?

It makes me feel flustered.

The light suddenly shone brighter through the window, casting more light onto his figure. I noticed he had grown into an adult.

Lucas had a growth spurt since last year. He grew even taller and his body becomes bulkier. And his personality, changed a bit. His voice too became deeper. He had a stubby chin from shaving the hair under them. Looking at him, I noticed the masculine features he had now. He was not someone one would say VERY handsome, but, he did look... attractive.

*Ba-dump*

Eh?

W-what am I thinking?

My cheeks were flushed, and my heart starts to beat faster.

I place my other hand on my heart, trying to calm it down.

It's, its just that he had been with me after I was abandoned. Right. I am, dependant on him. He were there with me. Taught me many things. And we spent most of our times together. I was just confused for a second.

Assuring myself, I calmed down. It was just a momentary confusion.

I relaxed my body, and laid on the seat once more.

Lucas hand was still gently holding mine. I don't want to wake him up so I let it be.

And, it doesn't feel bad.

***

Ding-Ding!

'You have arrived at platform number 1, Starshear Station. Please take your belongings before leaving the train. Thank you'.

The automatic announcement wake us up. Quickly, while still being half-asleep we took our bags and step out of the train. The view was almost blindingly dazzling. It was night time. And yet the station was bright with light from the magic devices. The train station was even busier than the one in Floren even at this time.

Both me and Lucas stretched out, letting yawn escape from our mouth. We went to the toilet to wash our face and then went to grab some food at nearby restaurant.

Fried rice served with prawns and diced carrots and peas. It is good.

After asking the Information Desk for direction, we were directed to walk along the station until we sees a sign written 'Imperial Magic Institute Students Pickup Up Point' and was told to wait there.

And like he said, we finally reaches the spot where some young people in similar uniforms was waiting at the spot. We approached them.

"Oh? New intake has arrived. Scholarship students huh?", a young woman with long brown hair tied in ponytail spoke.

'They look like country bumpkins', a young man suddenly muttered loudly.

"Hey, what your mouth. Why are you so rude to our junior here". The young lady hit the rude guy over his head with a knuckle.

"Sorry for that bastard's behaviour. He lacks the brain, please forgive him".

'OUCH! That hurts'.

Me and Lucas just laughed it off. The friendly lady chatted with us for awhile until a large vehicle stopped by. It have 4 wheels and large rectangular body. It looks identical to a bus. We get inside and was stopped by the driver for awhile, he asked for our proof of scholars and we showed him our rings.

We sat down on the last row, letting the vehicle carry us. We eventually passes through a large white gate with a signboard showing it's name clearly on it. We finally saw a very big building in front of us as it make a stop.

The nice lady showed us the way to the administration building. We keep going straight turning left and right following the signboards. We eventually reach a big hall. There were many empty counters except one.

A woman was sitting behind one of them. As we approached her, she asked for our rings and to identify ourselves.

After she tapped on some sort of device that looks like a desktop, she placed the ring on a small platform connected to the device.

"Alright", she muttered while looking at us.

She asked us to fill in some forms. We quickly fill it up in no time giving it to her. She typed in onto her device while looking at the forms.

"Do you have a bank account?".

Lucas doesn't seem to know much about how people in the city lives. But I can make an accurate guess about how people here live. This world is not so different from Earth after all.

The institute can, or have to make a bank account for the students. After all, they need a place to give scholarship money to the students.

I said no on behalf of Lucas, and she made new accounts for us. The lady then handed a silver coloured card, explaining to us how the card can be used. We can access a different currency, using 'Imperial Points'. The points can be converted to copper, silver, gold and platinum coins and vice versa. She explained we can go to the nearby bank to withdraw coins from bank, or withdraw coins from imperial points or store our coins in the bank or store our coins in the card as imperial points.

It takes a while for me to digest the words she says but I get it.

The card can also be used to do transaction directly with stores within the institute.

We would be given 2000 imperial points each month to spend as part of the scholarship program.

Afterwards, she took two large sized black boxes from under her desk and two keys from another drawer giving it to us.

"Your room number is stated on your keys. Just outside there's a signboard showing where the dormitory is. There's also a canteen nearby the dormitory if you re hungry. Orientation day will begin on Sunday morning at 9 am. There's a guidebook in the box, be sure to read it later. Enjoy your stay", the lady politely smiled at us.

We moved according to the sign posts, finally reaching the male dormitory in 5 minutes. There were two different buildings slightly spaced apart from one another.

Sapphire Dormitory was the building designated for us. The other building next to it is Alexandrite Dormitory.

There are a total of 8 floors. There is a device- a platform- that can float up and down carrying students across the different floors. Its an elevator okay?

We stepped on the platform, a dim glow illuminate the floor beneath. Pressing the number 6 at the side, it carried us up to the sixth floor.

Walking some distance and turning two corners, we reached our apartment. In the apartment, there were a living room connected to 3 rooms. Each room is for 2 people, so there's 6 people living together in an apartment.

In the living area, there was a big couch facing a short table, a place to hang out. There's also a pantry area, a dinning table, cooking stoves, sink, cooking utensils, a washing machine, a dryer and a big fridge. There's a glass sliding door leading to the balcony. It had a great view from this floor. We can see the administration building, the academic building and the sport complex.

We placed our sandals on the shoe rack, and went inside our room.

Huh. We actually had different rooms. We were neighbours though. I and Lucas entered our rooms to unpack stuffs.

The room was small, but it does have a walkable space. Its more or less a 10m x 5m space. We each had our own locker and small desk table. There is a bathroom too, with a bathtub at that. The 2 beds were on opposite wall to each other.

Lucas had a roommate, from the way there were stuffs on the other table and in the locker. But the owner wasn't there.

You know what. This looks like an ordinary dormitory to me. Where is the 'Imperial' part.

Well, it's free after all. I am sure the fancy looking Alexandrite dormitory are 10x better.

I start to unpack the little things I had. We both only carried bow, backpack and a handbag after all.

I unboxed the black box given to us by the lady. There was a bracelet, a small rectangular device, a set of earphones, 3 sets of uniforms and a small guide book.

After unpacking and arranging them in my locker, I take out the book, lied down on my bed and start reading.

The bracelet is a magic device that can be used to open a dimensional storage that can store different items with limited space.

The rectangular device is a mobile phone, literally. We simply need to channel our mana in order to use them. We can access the network of information, all stored in Imperial Tower where a magic device was placed and used to store and send all information connected to similar devices. It can also be used to do one to one messages and calls.

While reading the guidebook, I learnt all sorts of information. There's a sport complex, training complex, academic building, administration building, and leisure complex. A shuttle bus can be used to travel to these places. The book tells the facilities and services available in each different locations.

As I browse through the book, I heard the door creaking.

'Heyyy'.

It was Lucas. He climbed onto my bed, asking me what I was doing. While he's here, I asked him to bring him his phone and so he did.

I taught him how to use them. There's actually very few videos can be accessed. And they were slow, the picture is pixelated, and the frame rate is so low its feel cartoonish. And most of them are educational videos produced by this very institute, like demonstration of magic.

Probably, this device is still in its early phases and age of social media and content creator haven't rise yet.

We can access music and different books and texts.

I sent a text to Lucas for fun.

___

Bell: Hello

Hi : Lucas

___

As I browse through the phone, a yawn escapes my mouth.

I haven't bath the entire day so I take off my cloths, covering them with a tower. Taking off the necklace that chief gave me, my hair turned its colour to snow-white. My eyes turned to sapphire blue, reflecting the moonlight coming from the window making my eyes glimmer like jewel.

A gaze can be felt casted upon me.

"Lucas?".

'You think you re handsome?'

"What?".

'Show-off'.

"What are you even saying", I laughed it off and get into the bathroom.

After I finished taking my bath, Lucas had already left my room.

With clean and fresh body, I went to bed while thinking of places I wanted to explore tomorrow.