The capable senior

 “I applaud your passion, but there is a reason you were given a day to prepare before beginning classes. Make sure to bring your textbooks next time.” Hugo kept his head low as the teacher continued to condescend him. As it turns out, having half unfinished notes didn’t reflect well on one’s first day.

“I expect you to have made up for today’s class by tomorrow, dismissed.” He nodded meekly, attempting to ignore the chuckles around him while hastily making his way out of the room, trying his best to escape the scene before he could make a fool of himself any further.

It was not to be however, as someone tapped him on the shoulder the moment he stepped outside the room.

“I’ll be taking my quill back.” It was the girl from before, an amused grin still plastered across her face.

“A-ah, right. Thanks.” Hugo clumsily took out the object from his satchel, nearly dropping it to the ground as he struggled to manoeuvre in his new, overly tight, clothes.

He heard a small ‘pop’ the moment he tried to close the bag, a button from his coat fell onto the ground.

The girl snorted at the sight, her lips twitching in barely held back laughter. “You’re new aren’t you?”

That was the understatement of the century. Hugo doubted anyone in history was as ‘new’ to something as he currently was.

“...Yeah.” He admitted. The girl hummed in understanding.

With a confident smirk she flipped her shoulder length brown hair. There was an awkward moment of silence, Hugo staring on in confusion while the girl maintained her pose.

“...”

With a confident smirk the girl flipped her hair…again.

Once more, there was silence.

“What?” Was Hugo’s very eloquent analysis of the current situation.

With a confident smirk she flipped her hair for the third time—Hugo did not miss the frustration that now tinted the motion. “Do feel free to ask for my assistance.”

Realization dawning upon his face, Hugo gave her a hasty bow he hoped wasn’t too egregious by aristocratic standards. “I-I’m Hugo. I’d be most grateful for your help if it isn’t too much trouble.”

“Arielle of house Valois. Follow me, I’ll show you to the library.”

He did as he was told, doing his best to keep up as they made their way through long winding halls that seemingly served little to no purpose other than being spacious and pretty.

When they eventually arrived at their destination, Hugo nearly hurt his neck trying to find the ceiling, such was the library’s sheer size. In spite of his effort to stay calm, he couldn’t stop himself from taking a stunned step back.

“Don’t worry too much about the size, everything the students use are here on the first floor.” Arielle reassured, walking through aisles upon aisles of bookshelves with a confidence that could’ve come only from years of familiarity.

“What are all the upper floors for then?” He had to ask, because there must’ve been at least thirty floors at a minimum, all visible from a single spot wherein one could see the glass dome at the peak of the building.

“Mostly rare books and historical records, handwritten rather than printed in mass.” She explained. Hugo didn’t even know printing presses existed in this world, though they evidently did as shown by the book Arielle handed him, perfectly even letters covering every page.

‘Stewardship: The management of rural and urban lands by Lord Lubecq.’ It said on the cover.

“What other classes are you attending? Ones that would require a book, I mean.”

“Aside from all the mandatory ones, arcane architecture and engineering—” He nearly bumped into Arielle when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. He was about to question her when she turned around with stars in her eyes.

The floodgates opened with no further warning.

“I’m also in arcane architecture and engineering! Why did you pick it? I knew you seemed like the type! Which do you prefer, architecture or engineering? Have you read Archmage Divara’s books on the subject? Did you know she’s a teacher here? Crazy right! To think we’re being taught by the fourth founder of magic! I was able to get a book signed by her, I can ask her to do the same for you if you want. She's really fond of me and says I have talent even though I don’t have any practical experience. Do you have any experience? I know we’re really young but archmage Divara says she had her first hands on experience when she was just fifteen, making the gonne she still uses to this very day—”

Hugo had long lost track of the conversation, everything after just the first sentence going into one ear and coming out the other with no processing in between. He desperately looked towards the librarian in a plea for help, but the man shrugged with defeated eyes as if to say ‘it is what it is’.

“N-no, I know nothing about the subject, I simply picked it because it caught my eye.”

Disappointment flashed across Arielle's eyes, but she returned to excited self in a single moment. “That’s fine! I can help you catch up on coursework. It’s really simple once you understand the fundamentals, all of it is logical one way or another, which may seem really weird when we’re talking about magic but it makes total sense once you grasp the difference between personal and ambient mana and how it interacts with each other—”

She continued to talk at him, and Hugo found himself understanding less and less with each sentence. The only attempt he offered at resistance was an unsteady raised finger that went down back after a single second.

“S-So, what books do we need?” Hugo eventually asked.

When the fire in Arielle’s eyes blazed even brighter, he knew that he had made a mistake.

“Funnily enough, there’s no standardised textbook due to how new the field is, the only books written on it are all by archmage Divara and they’re all considered to be below the required quality for standardisation, which I say is complete nonsense! It’s quite difficult to discern how she writes her notes but once you understand it’s way more interesting than those drab stewardship books. You can practically feel the passion with each pen stroke from her books! And the editorial passages from her assistant are really insightful! I could honestly write a book analysing her books. Oh! there’s also the fact that—”

At one point, she had taken a seat and Hugo, for a reason that is incomprehensible even to himself, had followed suit rather than attempting to run. He must admit, Arielle’s ability to maintain a one sided conversation with no external input was highly impressive.

Archmage Divara, mana inscriptions, invisible organs, giant leaf cutter ants for some reason?

The topic of conversation shifted at least once a minute, and Hugo nodded along with an ‘ahh’ and ‘is that so?’.

He made some futile attempts to keep up at the beginning, but almost an hour in and his brain was barely functioning.

“Hmm, yes. The sky is very blue today.”

“What?” That somehow seemed to snap Arielle out of her rampage, the girl now looking at him in confusion.

“N-nothing. Please continue.” Much to his relief, she shook her head.

“No no, you should hear these from archmage Divara herself, it’s a mystical experience I assure you. I just wanted to give you a basic overview to make sure you have something to work with.”

He nearly bashed his head into a wall at the word ‘overview’. What were the actual lectures like then?!

Hugo did his best to hide his thoughts, clearing his throat in an attempt at keeping his composure.

“Indeed.” Was all he could say.

Arielle gave him a smile bright enough to blind a man. “I’m glad you’re joining us two! New blood is always welcome in our small class. Anyways is there anything else you need help with? It’d be great if you could make more time for archmage Divara’s lessons, I’ll help you get everything else settled so you can optimise your focus! It simply wouldn't do to waste more time than necessary on all the pointless classes. Once we’ve settled them you can ask archmage Divara for further reading materials, she’s very open with sharing her personal journals.”

She was still speaking at a rate of one sentence per second, but Hugo was finally able to get his brain back in working order…somewhat.

“I-ah. I’m quite concerned about classes like etiquette and ball room dancing.”

Arielle repeatedly nodded in understanding with each word, giving him a thumbs up when he finished speaking.

“Don’t you worry! Your capable senior here will teach you all about it! We have a test tomorrow so you can watch me and see how it’s done!”

If the current conversation was anything to go by, then the teaching methods will most certainly be dreadful—but he could probably pick up a few things just by watching, and Arielle seemed passionate and capable if nothing else.

Just maybe, he was in good hands.

The morning after, he watched as Arielle got repeatedly yelled at by her teachers, spilling tea twice during etiquette and stepping on her partner’s toes at least a dozen times while dancing.

She still marched up to him with a confident smile. “See that junior? That’s how you do it.”

Hugo pointed at the piece of paper in her hands. “It says you failed the test.”

Arielle hummed in mock interest. “Well, nothing I can do about that now. Anyways, let's go to our arcane engineering class!”

She promptly crumpled the paper before grabbing Hugo by the collar and dragging him along.

Maybe he wasn’t in such good hands after all…