AN: Hello, your lazy author present you chapter 39, enjoy!

PR by Bboybrian.

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I woke up at sunrise to find Muriem’s head on my chest and Kerrina's on my tummy. Looking at them reminded me of the fun we had the previous day. It was our last free day, and there wouldn’t be another for a while. We needed to go to Lana Academy today for the results of the entrance exams and the selection of our courses for the year. It was around 5.30 now and the academy would open its doors at 8. Since the girls were probably exhausted from yesterday, I decided to wait for an hour before waking them.

That's right! I didn't say much about the time in this world, there was something nice. Regardless of the season or the part of the world, the Sun always rises at 5.30 and sets at 16.30. Why? I noticed that during summer, the sun looks closer than during winter. I came to the conclusion that this planet isn't tilted like Earth, and its revolution around the sun is along an elliptic orbit. It's summer everywhere when we are closer to the Sun, and Winter when we are further. Though the seasons are less marked around the equador. No variations on sunrise and sunset, no inversed seasons between north and the south hemisphere.

Anyway, I prepared the bath and the breakfast, and went to check on Komodo. Before coming to the capital I would always spend a bit of time with him in the evening, and since coming here I have only treated him as either food or transport. He looked a bit lonely, and he was probably also missing the forest. Since Kerrina and Muriem would have fewer classes than me, I will have them take him to the nearby woods from time to time. I should try to cuddle him in the mornings as well since I was an early riser (usually). I'd then be free to spend my evenings on either alchemy or blacksmithing studies.

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The girls were pouting a bit after waking up, but a little cuddling was enough to bring a smile on their faces. After cleaning ourselves and eating our breakfast, we left for the academy on Komodo's back. We reached the academy a bit before 8, but there were already nearly 700 people waiting at the entrance. We kept our distance as there were quite a bit of people looking at me, probably still brooding over the magic test. After a while, the gates were opened and we were taken in front of a building that looked like a restaurant.

There were 10 stands with a sign in front of them each. Each sign had 2 numbers printed on it, and these numbers were a simple way of representing a range of numbers (e.g. 100 - 200). We were to follow the number printed on our examination results slip and join the corresponding queue. Those who passed the exam would then proceed into the building, while the other would just leave. We got in line in front of our respective stands and waited for our turns. The one in charge of my stand was the lady who tested me and led me to sir Sunderset's office, the assistant Natasha Harwoon. She greeted me with a bright smile and handed me my entrance certificate. I greeted her as well, and left for the building.

I took a look at the certificate. There were 3 parts: the first part displayed my name, age, and race; the second part displayed the scores for the written exam and the magic test. For the grammar, comprehension, general knowledge and mathematics tests, the maximum score one could get was 50. I got 43 in grammar, 46 in comprehension, 37 in general knowledge and 50 in mathematics. As for magic, there were magic aptitude, mana manipulation and elemental mana manipulation, all of which were ranked from 1 to 5, and I was ranked at 5 for all.

The last part displayed the different recommended courses to take, and the courses that were mandatory. It was mandatory for me to take beginner classes in fire, water, air, earth, body, holy and dark magic. I was recommended to take the beginner course for logic and rhetoric, Zanitra’s history and geography, as well as arithmetics and geometry. Upon entering the building, I found myself in what should have been the dining room, but instead of tables and chairs there were countless stands, arranged into 3 clusters.

A staff member who was at the door told me - and the few others behind me, that this area was for us to select our courses. The stands to the right were for the martial arts courses, the stands to the left were for the magic courses, and the stands at the back were for the society courses. We could get basic information about each course at the different stands. I decided to wait for Muriem and Kerrina before doing anything, and stayed near the man while looking at my paper with a serious, almost scary expression. I didn't want to be bothered during the wait.

Thankfully, they came in not long after. They both scored above 40 in grammar and mathematics, but dropped between 30 and 39 for comprehension and general knowledge. Kerrina got better grades than Muriem on all subjects except general knowledge. Still, it was enough to be accepted. They were recommended to take Zanitras' history and geography, arithmetics, logic and rhetoric. It had been planned beforehand that they would focus on the martial arts courses, and the society courses would be lower priority. So we went towards the martial arts section first.

For the martial arts department, there were 7 basic classes. The sword and dagger class, for the uses of different swords, daggers and knives. The polearm class taught the uses of various staves, spears and halberds. The axe and hammer class, for the use of axes, maces and hammers. The ranged weaponry class offered lessons about bows and throwing weapons. The exotic weapons class, for gauntlets, chakrams, nunchakus and the likes. The hand-to-hand combat class, mostly for kick-boxing and wrestling. And the scouting and tracking class, for recon and survival in the wilderness.

Kerrina selected the sword and dagger class, the hand-to-hand class and the ranged weaponry class. Muriem took the hand-to-hand class, the polearm class and the axe and hammer class. Her last 2 are for her to improve on her halberd and hatchet skills. Whether it will be the beginner or the intermediate class would depend on the test that is to take place in the afternoon. Then, we headed towards the stands of the magic department. There was a basic magic course for those who can't draw elemental mana, elemental classes for each elements, compound magic, circling, enchanting and even alchemy.

Some courses are only available once another beginner course has been completed. I couldn't learn compound magic without completing beginner elemental magic, and I couldn't learn enchanting without finishing beginner compound magic, so for magic I'm stuck with the mandatory classes only. Finally, we went to the stands for the society department. There were many courses - grammar, logic and rhetoric, trading, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, architecture and engineering, Zanitras' history and geography, Premean history and geography, human languages, elven language, dwarven language, music and dance, and drawing and painting.

I wanted to space things up so that we wouldn't have to spend too much time in class. There were things I could learn later from the girls, and things I could teach them later. I selected Premean history and geography, and intermediate arithmetics and geometry. The girls took Zanitras history and geography, and to finish, Muriem took music and dance, and Kerrina took astronomy. Kerrina’s level in mathematics as determined by the test was high enough to skip beginner arithmetics and geometry altogether.

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With that decided, we had some time before the martial arts test in the afternoon so we decided to have a look around the academy. Some places were off-limits, but we were still able to see most of the academy. On each side of the staff building were the magic classes building and the martial arts classes building. Next to the magic class building was the magic training ground, and next to the martial arts class building was the martial arts training ground. Behind the staff building was the restaurant, and behind it was the society department building.

Next to the restaurant, behind the magic class building was the library and the magic workplace, and on the other side of the restaurant was the academy smithy and the engineering workplace. Near the society department building and the engineering workplace were the 2 male dormitories. On the other side, near the society department building and the magic workplace building were the 2 female dorms. Behind the society department building was the arena, and near, against the protective wall, were the stabbles and dens for the monsters. There was some space between the building, and several small parks and relaxing areas. All of this was surrounded by the white walls with rune-like carving.

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Shortly after noon, it was finally time for the martial arts tests. Since it was to determine whether the student would take the beginner or intermediate class, there wasn't much tension in the air. The students had to spar for a bit with any assistant instructor of the course they wanted to take. That assistant instructor would then determine the ability of the student and which class he would attend. Kerrina and Muriem displayed their abilities to the instructors, and were both told to apply for the intermediate classes.

We went to the staff building to register our courses and get our timetables for the next year. Looking at our timetables we noticed that we would never have more than 5 continuous hours of lessons, nor would we have more than 4 hours of the same type of teaching, meaning no more than 4 consecutive hours of martial/magic/society classes. Each class lasted 1 hour, and there were no more than 7 hours of classes each day, from 7 to 15. The afternoon of the last day of the week would always be free time.

With all of that taken care off, we left the academy and had a quick trip to the nearby forest for Komodo, then went back home at dusk. Classes will start the next day.

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AN: I had a bit of trouble with this chapter. At times like this you revere the beings called "PROOFREADER"!

... And yes, I got lazy and didn't write the girls' detailled scores...