After I filled out the form, I was assigned a dormitory room. For some reason every student had a room located on the academy’s property, though in my case it wasn’t necessary as I had an entire mansion at my disposal. But since Shelly hat to write a report about that grimoire theft I figured, I should just explore the school grounds on my own.

The Boys dormitories were in the western part of the building. There was an extra door on the outside, but since I was already inside the main building, I tried figuring out a way into the building that way. At the same time I tried to explore the academy as much as possible. While the southern part of the building where the principal’s office was also located seemed to only contain rooms that were used by the faculty, the northern part was an entirely different story.

There were two wings, which had to contain classrooms and squeezed in between was a well-kept garden. There were a lot of wooden chairs or benches, some of which were occupied by students that stayed over summer, but there also were tables that students would probably occupy at lunch-time during warmer months.

What seemed odd to me though was that both wings certainly did not have enough room for classrooms, that could fit at least a couple hundred of students. The only other buildings I was aware of, were the girls’ dormitories, in the eastern building and the boys’ dormitories in the western building, towards which I was headed to.

I pushed open a swinging door, that led me to a wide corridor, that had at least a dozen doors on each side. Each of the doors had a number on them and the names of the students occupying them were also engraved below that number.

Shared rooms, huh?

After I took a closer look at a couple of those doors and realized that the three-digit numbers followed a pattern. Doors on the left side from were I came from started with a one, while doors on the right side started with a two. I figured that those must be the dormitories for the first two school years, and that I probably wouldn’t find number 314 on that floor. I spotted a flight of stairs at the end of the corridor that would lead me to the second floor.

After I got upstairs, I got to the end of the corridor to find number 314. I tried to ignore the lack of a 313 and instead just thought to myself, that even in another world people seemed to be superstitious. I read the names under the number. One of course was my own name, which was quite baffling since I signed the application form not even half an hour ago, the other one was that of my roommate.

I knocked on the door.

“Come in.”, a boyish voice said from the other side.

I opened the door and said: “Excuse me, I think I’ll be living here from now on.” Or rather not, I mused thinking about my mansion.

“Hi, I’m Raynard.”, the dark skinned boy greeted me from his bed in the corner of the room.

People of color, they do exist!

“Yeah, the door already told me. I’m Nathan.”, I said, taking a closer look at the room. And I immediately noticed the total absence of furniture in the right part from the door. The left was occupied by a huge bed, a gigantic bookshelf in front of which was some sort of beanbag chair. But the most puzzling thing I only saw, when I entered the room, and looked at his part of the wall next to the door.

There actually was a window showing a deep landscape, which should have been impossible, considering behind that wall was actually the corridor I just came from.

“Aside from the fact, that this is a pretty cool trick, why is it that only one part of the room is furnished?”

“Right, you’re a complete newbie. You can also do that ‘pretty cool trick’. Just put your hands on the wall.”

With nothing else left to do, I motioned to the wall, that seemed to be mine and put my hands on it.

“And now?” As I said that my hands sunk into the wall. I lost my balance nearly bumped my face against the wall.

“What the-?”, I said with a mixture of surprise and disgust. Imagine dipping your entire lower arm into a see of honey. It was weirdly sticky.

“Haha, yeah it probably feels weird.”

“It’s gross, but go on.”

“Now just let your magic flow, and imagine, what your part of the room should look like. Basically everything is possible!” I could not see his face, but he sure sounded excited.

I tried to imagine, what my old room looked like. I couldn’t possibly bring my game console to this world, could I? I decided not to do that. As far as I knew television and game consoles did not exist here. Who knew what would happen if I brought such advanced technology to this world.

In the meantime I already had created a bed that was inspired by the one back home. Though I made it look more medieval-style and less IKEA.

Next I created my own bookshelf. I figured having a couple of comics, books or even light novels from my world would do no harm. If someone questioned them I could just say, they aren’t from very well-known authors. Lastly I placed an armchair in the corner opposite to my bed. I liked sitting sideways on them and letting my feet dangle off the armrest.

With my work finished, I took a couple of steps back to look at my magnum opus.

It had a familiar feel to it, that made me feel at peace yet sad, given the circumstances.

“Was that your room back at home?” Reynard suddenly stood next to me.

“Yeah, it was. Still is.”

“Same here. That view from that window shows the exact same things I would see, when I looked out the window back at home.”

While our situations definitely couldn’t be more different, I was quite in awe by how considerate he was.

“About that bookshelf”, he asked, “did you try filling it up with books you read?”

“Of course.”, I answered.

“Won’t work.”, he said, taking a step forward and taking a book out of the shelf. “This magic only replicates things as much as you can remember them. And how likely is it that you remembered a book in it’s entirety?”

He handed me a random volume of American Kitsune and I proceeded to flip through the pages. Most of them were white, except for a couple of sentences that actually stuck on my mind.

“I tried the same, when I made my shelf, turns out I must actually buy books or you know get ahold of them some way.”

With a sigh I put it back into it’s shelf.

“Well so much for that.”

Suddenly he put a hand on my shoulder. “Let me show you something really cool. Get onto your bed.”, he said as he jumped into his own. After I also got into my bad he said: “Watch this.” and with a quick snap of his finger he turned the light of. Instead above our heads the ceiling gave of the light of what must have been a thousand stars against the backdrop of the dark cosmos.

“Wow.” In that moment I thought I might just stay here.

“So will you be staying here over the summer?”, he asked me.

“Not quite. I still have to collect some uh – what’d she call it – duty points?”

“Oh yeah, the summer homework thingy.”, he said with a troubled expression.

“How many points did you collect so far?” According to the principal summer break was only another month. He surely would have collected at least one point.

“Oh, eh ... not a single one.” His cheeks took on a slightly lighter skin tone, as he twitched with embarrassment.

“What? That’s not good!”, I honestly voiced my opinion.

“Yeah, thing is, I couldn’t find a partner. Most of the missions seem like something you shouldn’t take on alone.”

“Why is that?”

“A good portion of the students has already collected their points, or they are at home. Also I was hiding in my room for most of the time, because the final exams were really draining.”

“But there must be some missions that are easier to take on. I mean as a first year you would be pretty screwed from what you’ve told me.” I expressed my concerns not for the sake of the first years, but for my own, as I had basically no practical experience in using magic.

“And that’s exactly why first and second years don’t have to take on any missions. Heck, they aren’t even allowed to take part in the practical trimester.”

“Practical trimester?”

“Yeah, years three to six have the option to additionally take part in a practical trimester after winter break, usually in the form of tournament or such. But only, if their grades are good and not likely to drop due to extra pressure.”

I was so thankful for him not to question my lack of knowledge. “This school sure seems to be practice-oriented.”, I commented.

“Well, what use is there in knowing how to blow up things, if you don’t get to blow up things?”

“Wow, is this your real persona?”, I joked.

“Just you wait, until you see me in action.”, he answered with a smug expression. We shared a nice laugh, after which Reynard said: “Speaking of which: Maybe we should take a look at the mission board.”

“I take it, that we are now partners in crime?”

“You bet!” He stood up from his bed, and offered me his hand. I grasped it and pulled myself up on it.

Yep, I really could get behind the idea of living with him.