Chapter 9 – Now that my magic isn’t evidence for a series of thefts, I have to go to school.

Even though this society conforms to the standards of a basic medieval-like fantasy world, people here sure are smarter than we were a thousand years ago. This is due to it having an actual fleshed out education system, and with it comes compulsory visit of any educational institution. Mostly this is to prevent any possible damage caused by inexperienced magic users.

Such as me.

So, I must go to school, don’t I…?

“Well at least I managed to talk you out of this situation,” Shelly said, after explaining the whole situation to me. “Unauthorized magic use comes with a high penalty. How old were you again?”

“Fourteen,” I replied.

“Oh, so my effort was unnecessary, I see.”

“Why is that?”

“I thought you were much older, sixteen, seventeen maybe.”

I get that quite often. I’m rather tall for my age, but still I think you could read my age off of my face. It’s not like I have a beard or anything.

“Our legislation makes people accountable for magic-related incidents starting at the age of fifteen,” Shelly continued her explanation. “I decided, that it is best to enroll you into Ataraxia Academy.”

“Can you really just send me to school like that? I mean, I’m pretty sure according to the government I don’t exist.”

“Oh, it will be pretty easy to fake that.” Hearing a police officer talk so openly about committing crimes was quite baffling. “During summer fires happen quite often, and if I remember correctly, one just happened to be a few towns away in Silica, destroying the townhall, and with it many important documents.”

“Don’t they have some sort of back-up?” Not having one would be pretty inefficient in my opinion.

“Yeah, no it was quite a shithole, honestly. The town was simply too small for anyone to invest money into security measures. Normally a certain type of archive magic is used to exchange information between a town and the government or in between towns but that requires a physical spell binder, which in most cases is a book. Basically, the information is stored in that book and can be read by any person that is connected to that spell-binder, but not stored. Or at least no-one would think about storing such information, as it changes daily. No-one could provide the amount of mana to do such a thing.”

…

“Why do you know so much about this topic …” I was quite fascinated by her knowledge even though I only understood half of what she said. Was such a thing required for being a police officer?

“Oh, the mayor of Silica, he is my brother.” Well … how disappointing. “I once thought about becoming involved in politics, but I decided to dedicate my life to enforcing the law instead. Anyway, there should be no problem regarding your … existence. We simply say that the fire in Silica broke out shortly before you were about to move to Ataraxia.”

“I feel pretty bad, doing this.”

“Come on, don’t be a coward. This office so often reeks of illegal herbs and no-one questioned it, even though we share buildings with the town-hall.”

“You … what now?!”

Enforce the law? Who are you kidding, you only enforce the law as long as it does not affect you in a negative way.

“Well, whatever.” I decided to simply brush it off. “Let’s do this … I guess.” I stood up from my seat across from Shelly and wordlessly left her office.

The registration thankfully went without any issue. I guess next time, Shelly asks me to legally break the law I shouldn’t hesitate too much. Also, Raven who was with us during the appointment was my legal guardian now … I hope he doesn’t insist on me calling him daddy.

“By the way, I’ve scheduled an appointment with the headmaster of the academy in a couple of minutes.”

“Wow, thanks for telling me so early.” I hated being at the mercy of adults and their faulty planning.

But I obliged, because what else was there to do? So, we headed north for the academy. I’ve seen it from afar those couple of times I was actually able to step outside a bit and walk around the city. But getting closer to it, it became bigger and bigger, and it was the first time I actually could capture how big it was. Most of the buildings south of the academy were actually so big, they covered most of the academy’s smaller buildings from afar, making it look way smaller than it was. Those buildings were some sort of student dormitories, Shelly told me.

“Ataraxia academy is one of the biggest magic schools on this continent. Students from all around the world come to this school, that’s why these apartments were built. As far as I know the academy’s dormitories differ from those in other schools by being completely student-governed to teach our youth some independence since” – that part she whispered to me – “nobles these days can be quite spoiled, honestly …”

A broad road led up to the academy’s entrance which gave off the vibe of a noble’s mansion. The gate made of two lattice gates each bearing the emblem of the academy was wide open, even though the school was on summer break. The entrance to what appeared to be the main building was also open, either signaling that the school was indeed open, or because the air conditioner was broken. They certainly have air conditioners, without any doubt. Magical air conditioners.

We entered the main building and approached a row of chairs lined up next to a door that was so prominently not centered on the wall, it was kinda off-putting. Though it made sense, since the center of the room was occupied by a double staircase that went up from both sides of the wall meeting in its center against the backdrop of a large stained-glass window irregularly changing its colors. Below the staircase was an opening in the wall containing a winding staircase leading into the basement I suppose. Maybe secret library. Maybe torture chamber.

We took place on the empty chairs waiting for the principal.

After a couple of minutes the door to the principal’s office opened and I was greeted by two unexpected surprises. The first was Princess Abc existing the office, the second had to be the principal. Thing is I could not really determine their gender, as their body was entirely covered in blue feathers, their head sprouting a curved black beak. When the principal opened their beak their voice was surprisingly pleasant to hear, maybe because I expected an annoying squawk, but their voice actually came in the form a steady melodic sing-sang.

“I have high expectations of you, Lady Carelis. But that doesn’t mean you should put yourself under too much pressure.”

“Don’t worry, I will achieve the necessary score in no time at all, Principal Featherhead.”

“Kehe.” I did not quite manage to stifle my laugh. And that caused the princess to notice me.

“Oh my,” she said with a mix of disbelief and disgust in her face.

“Ah, I was already expecting you,” Principal Featherhead said, before Princess Abc was able to comment on our sudden appearance. “Lady Carelis, good luck.”

“Thank you very much,” she said, before approaching me, while Shelly and the principal exchanged pleasantries.

“What are you doing here?” she asked me.

“Oh, Shelly decided it would make sense for me to get some education. Well, it does make sense, considering I have no idea at all how … well anything here works, really.”

“Hmm, so you’ll be going to school next year, huh? But I wonder in which year group you’ll end up in.”

“Why?”

“Well, how old are you, fourteen?” She actually guessed my age right, so I nodded. “Well placing you in the same year as all those 12-year-olds would definitely be weird, to say the least, but then again, your knowledge is far surpassed by all of them.”

“Ugh, shut up,” I said annoyed, because she was right.

She giggled.

“You know, you’re the only one who'd tell royalty to ‘shut up’.” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I like that. It’s … new.”

It felt like she was complimenting me, but what kind of person would compliment someone for insulting them?

“Nathan,” Shelly called out to me. “We, er, have an appointment.”

“Right,” I said, and followed her into the principal’s office.

“If you need any help, I’m sure, Shelly will know how to contact me,” the princess said, turning around. “Bye,” she said, as she waved from behind.

I wasn't left with much time to wonder why she'd offer her help and for what.

In the principal’s office, Shelly explained the whole situation, or rather the lie she fabricated about the fire in Silica. As it seemed that fire also happened to destroy the school. Because of course it did.

“I see, that’s the situation we’re dealing with.” The principal sighed in exasperation. “The thing is, as one of the most prestigious academies on the entire continent, we don’t simply take students in at a whim. Normally you would have to take an entrance exam but that was weeks ago already. So, I’m at a bit of a loss on how to deal with you …”

“That’s what I thought. Which is why I came with a proposal,” Shelly suggested. "Back when I was a student we had to do these ... internships over summer. Is that still part of the curriculum?"

“Of course. Practical application of magic is just as important as theory.”

“What about making that internship his entrance exam?”

“That would work, but … school break has already started two weeks ago. How would he get an internship at such a short notice? Not to mention his internship has to be of a certain duration, which would mean, he'd have to start today.”

I took a quick glance around the room, before I asked hesitantly: “What uhh kind of interships are we talking about, exactly?”

“Oh, all kinds of them,” Principal Featherhead answered. “Working in the mines, the library, or, if your up for some more action, you could join the police. But as far as I know no-one applied for that one, isn't that right, officer?”

“Well, actually …”, Shelly murmured as we gave each other a quick glance, probably having the exact same idea at the same time.

Shelly cleared her throat. “Actually, Nathan here did help me solve a series of thefts recently.”

Principal Featherhead made an interested squawk-like sound that demanded further explanation.

“He helped me solve a series of Grimoire-related thefts, so if there’s any way, we can make that count …”

“Yes, I suppose that would work. I would need a full report from you Officer, then we could consider him one week into an internship, if you will.”

“That would be wonderful!” Shelly brimmed with excitement. She actually seemed more excited about this whole situation than I was. Or maybe she was just happy to have helped me.

“Well, then you just need to fill out the application form, and you’ll be a new student at Ataraxia Academy.”

She handed me a couple of sheets, and after a few more minutes and a bloody fingerprint later, I became a student at Ataraxia Academy.