Even after all these months, I've visited Urald only a handful of times, and every time it was for going to the market with Mom and nothing else. She always made sure to keep me near her, as if I would disappear when she doesn't look.

Behind her everlasting smile, she must be anxious because of what happened to me in the past. That why I never complained.

But today is to be recorded as a turning point in my life as I'll go to school! Just kindergarten that's true but still, school! Each of those puny humans shall fall in the grasp of friendship, nobody will be spared. Or I would say but I don't really know what to do, to be honest.

I mean, yes, countless of my lives were experienced as a child but in the end, I'm still an adult in mind, so befriending children simply feels weird. And children often can notice when there is something unusual.

But I guess there's no point worrying like that. I'll see what happens when I get there. The worst result would be being socially excluded so it's not that bad.

The trip to get there last about 25 minutes with the carriage. For this reason, I'll stay in Urald for 3 days and come back home for the weekend.

To be honest, I think it's a good idea. The forest is good but having a change of environment from time to time is nice too. And living there will give more opportunities to meet new peoples or see new things. Even if at the beginning a lot of people came to our house; during these 13 months at most 2 came and it was only brief.

"Are you excited about your first day of school my little fae?" Mom said, getting me out of my thought. "I bet you'll make a lot of friends!"

"Yes, I am looking forward to it."

"Always so serious eh? What happened to my joyful little girl?" She said with her arms taking me in an embrace. "I hope you'll like it."

"I am sure I will Mom." I said as I snuggled into her arms. She always was quite comfortable, maybe it's in the genes?

We are near our destination. Through the windows, we can see the city's life take its course.

Merchants selling wares behind their stalls to citizens, children running together, and even little armored groups of people patrolling, guards without doubts.

The kindergarten is deeply located in the city but strangely as we get closer everything seems the quiet down. The surroundings change too, the buildings get less stone and more wood.

Maybe this area is the old city, who knows? Though I don't see any monuments or buildings standing out.

I take back what I just said, there is in fact, one that stands out, and our carriage just stopped in front of it.

When Mom said I was going to kindergarten I really didn't imagine something like that. I mean… when you think of a kindergarten the first thing that comes to mind is a nice little establishment with a big playground for the children to play, not a freaking CASTLE!

From the silver gate at the entrance, a long paved path surrounded by trees and flowers of all kinds extends to the impressive building where it passes through an archway to what appears to be a garden from what I can see here.

The castle is about 300 meters long and is kind of separated into 3 parts. There is the middle part which is far bigger than the other 2, at least 8 meters tall while the others on each side are about 6. As expected of a school, the main building on the middle is decorated with a large silvered clock with crystal blue hands on the top of the facade.

Quite fancy for a school.

"Mom is that… my school?" I asked with a hint of doubt in my voice.

"Yes, why?"

I sighed. "Well, it is slightly bigger than what I imagined for a children's school."

"Ah, that. I should have warned you before, sorry. This place is not only used as a kindergarten but also to teach on every level. Every student of the city and even beyond come here to learn you see." She told me. "You see, hundreds of years ago Urald used to be the capital of Arelm and this place was the royal castle. Since the capital changed, they renovated it to make it a place to learn."

"If Urald can be proud of one thing besides spice, it's clearly the quality of its education." She added.

I certainly remember reading something about the change of capital but I didn't expect they would use the castle this way. I thought it would be used as some sort of museum like Versailles rather than that. I guess the country set its priorities right.

"I see." I nodded. "Then where is the area for me?"

"The castle is for the older students sweetie." She said. "Your is a little building in the garden. The academy thought it was better to put it here where it's surrounded by vegetation."

That's cool, at least I'll not get myself lost trying to find my way in this big castle.

We make our way to the garden. Asides from us there is a lot of people here, more than I have ever seen in one place, parents holdings their children's hands, people of all ages in uniforms walking around and even some with swords and staves.

The garden is even bigger than the front side, far bigger. To say the least, there is even enough place to fit some kind of athletic field and a big stream in the middle. The kindergarten is near the entrance of the garden, on left. It's all in wood and pretty nice to see. Right next doors there is the dormitory where I'll stay 3 days a week.

Because yes there is a dormitory. For the kids living far away, it's tedious or simply impossible to make the round trip every day so they stay here.

In my case, I could do it but I decided to stay here to change my surroundings. And it's just for 3 days, the last day of these short weeks is spent at home because there is no class.

Having weeks of only 4 days will certainly feel weird at the beginning but I bet I will get used to it in no time.

As we approach the building, we discover a man standing in front of the doors, parents and their children stop to walk a few meters before him. Counting the one behind us, there's not a lot of people here, 15 children maximum counting me and their parents. I know kindergarten is not mandatory but I still expected more, even more considering it's free.

As the minute pass, an increasing number of parents begin to leave their children. Alone, most of them head toward the man who welcomes them with a smile while the others look at their parents walking away with a varied pallet of emotions on their faces. Some of them will not see their parents before a long time unlike me who live near here.

Now the only adult here besides the man is Mom. Maybe she waited as long as she could before leaving? I feel her grip on my hand tightening a bit before she gets on one knee at my height.

Her head on my left shoulder. "See you soon my little fae, be a good girl, and make a lot of friends. If you have a problem don't hesitate to tell an adult." Sniffling a little, she concluded. "I love you."

After that, just like the other, she took her way back outside, throwing glances behind her shoulder every few steps as she rubbed her eyes.o

I hope she will lose these eyes one day. The eyes afraid to see me away.

With Mom nowhere to be seen, I join the other already waiting for me. As a line is already formed I simply get at the end of it and wait for the child in front of me to start walking.

Although I can't see him from where I am because of the children blocking the view, I hear him clapping his hand before a distinct sound of heels makes its way to my ears. Someone, the man surely, open the wooden doors and everyone begins to enter.

The inside is pretty nice, there is a range of multicolored coat hook on both sides of the corridor.

As there are no doors for the rooms in this same hall, I can a bit the inside and it's quite normal. A lot of tiny chairs and tables, walls with colorful drawings on them, and after a sneak peek I see there are even toys.

The brown-haired man stops before the entrance of one room and clears his throat. "If you have a coat, put it on one of the hooks here, then line up in groups of two."

The before silent kids start to move around with a racket. Some are waiting before the professor with someone by their side while others, like me, choose a place to hang their covering. Thanks to my magein I don't really need a jacket against cold, at least the kind of cold we have here, but Mom insisted for me to take one "just in case".

It only needs a minute or so before everyone is waiting silently by the wall for the professor to do something. The kid next to me is a boy a speck shorter than me, he has short tidy black hair and green-blueish eyes.

I'm still surprised by how silent and ordered the other kids are, I expected cries at their parents' departure or at least one throwing a tantrum for whatever reason, but none of that happened. Maybe because it's the first day? Some people are shy and gentle the first day but as soon as it's the second one, their behavior makes a 180-degree turn.

After a moment of silence feeling like an eternity, the man finally speaks up after clearing his throat. "You can enter, choose your chair well because you will keep it for the year to come."

With only the sound of our shoes, everyone enters the room. I place myself in an isolated chair. As much as I want to have friends, I'm still uncomfortable with this kind of situation.

In this room, there are 3 big (but short in height) tables with about 8 chairs to each, which is more than enough for our little number. Everyone but me and another girl occupies the 2 tables near the professor desks. The girl and I sit facing each other on our own table.

Luckily the professor doesn't say anything so that not a problem for us to be alone here.

Now that everyone is sat, I quickly let my eyes travel the room left and right. My previous approximate was about right, we are only 13, which is fine because a bigger class would also probably mean more noisy kids, and I am of the kind who silence.

I'm quite surprised to see a blackboard, or the thing which is used as one as it isn't black. Plus I don't see any chalk anywhere or eraser but a sort of pen.

Our professor who was waiting for all of us to sit, walks through the room and gets on the little platform where his desk is.

"Hello everyone. I will be your professor for your first year, I am Ciro Nial." He said as his eyes looked at each of us. "Now, everyone will present themselves in turn."

I don't know who invented the whole "present yourself in public" but I hope for their suffering.

In a blink of an eye, the other 2 tables were finished with their presentations. Too focused on mentally cursing the unknown scoundrel, I didn't pay attention to any of it. At least I will listen to the girl in front of me.

"Hello everyone, I'm Praede Jeola." The little girl in front of me announced, seemingly cramped.

Now it's my turn, every pair of eyes turn toward me. It's weird to hate and love receiving attention at the same time. But I'm quite sure I don't like this kind of awkward vibe in the air I'm sure only me is feeling, so I'll just answer promptly. "Hello. I am Silvia Quel."

Professor Nial clapped his hand. "Good, now that everyone knows each other we will begin our first lesson, alphabet."

I'm pretty sure that if Mom suggested me to come here it was for everything but learning. I never particularly hidden my ability to read, it would have pointless and a pain to do so, so I'm certain she has a rough estimation of my knowledge as the books I read were the ones from her study.

The capacity of our professor to make all these symbols rhymes is quite impressive I must admit, although the song is quite interminable. Yuck, now it's stuck in my head.

The other kids seem to like it too. Timid Praede is singing with a smile on her face without a care for what anyone who could be listening think and the others begin to show a bit of their personalities on their face.

Even the professor replaced his serious expression with gentle smiling eyes.

We repeated the melody a few times, Ciro pointing the symbol as we sang them on a big piece of paper hanging on the blackboard before it was time for the pause.

"Time for the pause, you can find toys on the shelves there. The pause is 30 eops long" He said as he rolled up the symbols' paper.

Eop is just the name they use for "minute". Coincidentally they last 60 seconds here too.

Besides a few of us who stay on their chair to further get to know each other, everyone runs towards the shelves to get a toy to play with.

To this kind of occasion, I brought with me a book to read because toys are not really my thing.

The book is [Bites and Drool] by Calisse Vraner, it's a cookbook where a lot of stuff about basic ingredients and techniques are spoken of. With it, I will not have to guess what I work with anymore.

Plus I just like the way this book is written. It's pretty clear and fluid to read.

I feel eyes observing me. I raise mine from the white pages of my book to see Praede looking at me with interest.

"Do you need something?" I asked her.

"Ah, hum...sorry to have interrupted you." She excused herself. "No I don't need anything, I was just curious because you can read."

At this point, we should just get acquainted.

Closing my book, I answered. "Ah that. I appreciate books so I learned to read in order to understand what I read."

"Woah, you are the youngest person who can read I know." She said with sparkles in her eyes. "By the way, even if we already presented ourselves, nice to meet you. I'm Praede Jeola."

"Likewise, I am Silvia Quel."