Prologue

She looked up at the tremendous gate before her. The gate was twenty-meters tall and ten meters wide. She then looked around, students equipped themselves with weapons and apparels she had never seen before, chatting with their party or friends while entering the Academy, probably about their recent quests or strategies to tackle their next quests. She had a blonde-color hair, length up to her waist. She was equipped with a white witch hat, a white robe, a slung magic bag, and a staff.

“Excuse me. Is your name Alice?” 

A young lady approached and asked her. She wore a pair of frameless spectacles, a double-breasted suit, a skirt at knee-length, and a pair of black shoes. Her hair was tied into a ponytail with a sapphire-blue ribbon, probably to prevent her hair from obstructing her view.

“Yes. Nice to meet you…umm.” Alice answered cheerfully but abruptly halted as she was uncertain of the newcomer who had approached her out of nowhere. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

“Oh. Pardon me. Where are my manners? My name is Lysette, I'm the principal’s assistant.” She apologized and bowed slightly.

Taken aback, Alice gestured her there wasn’t apologize needed.

Steering the conversation back to the topic, “I was assigned by the principal to lead you to his office. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask.”

Along the way, Alice asked her about the Academy’s foundation. At the same time, she noticed the silver badges she had seen on students’ arm sleeves.

The Adventurer Academy had no uniform for students. Students were free to wear their usual ensemble, but they had to wear an insignia.

There were four kinds of insignias. The warrior insignia had a sword in front of a shield; the thief insignia had a pair of daggers forming a cross; the magician insignia had a book sling on a staff, and the archer insignia had a bow and arrow.

Despite that, the academy didn’t implement the strict apparel regulation, except the fact that students must avoid wearing something indecent, and weapons were not permitted in classrooms. The weapons were to be stored in the school’s weapon storeroom, and students had to fill in the paperwork whenever they store or withdraw their weapons from the faculty.

The Academy’s layout was like a maze. Every time they made a turn or two, Alice looked back, only to find a wall behind them.

Alice was glad she didn’t attempt to visit the Principal’s office by herself. Although there were maps displayed on some walls occasionally, the maps were so detailed that one might take some time to comprehend.

“It seems you noticed the changes.” Lysette interrupted Alice’s contemplation. “It was the Academy’s defense mechanism; it alters its layout to prevent enemies attacking students, lecturers, and Principal. It will either lead the enemies back to the front entrance or trap in one place so that adventurers or lecturers will apprehend them.”

She nodded.

Judging from Alice’s expression, Lysette couldn’t help but smile at how serious and excited she was.

“So, did you manage to settle the issue?” Lysette asked because she was informed about her situation a week ago by letter.

“Yes. The villagers are safe and sound.” She assured.

This wouldn’t be possible without the help of other adventurers, who defended the villagers against the dire wolves.

“They destroyed about half of the crop fields… luckily, they weren’t a lot of casualties, so it took a few days to mend the injured villagers and restore the condition of the field with the help of alchemists.”

In exchange for their services, the village chief offered them food supplies. Obviously, they would be happy to accept the offer, however, they had another problem that required their attention. A few members of their party stayed behind to mend the wounds and restoring the field back to its original condition, while the remaining members of the party went ahead as scout their targets.

“I see… I’m glad to know that the villagers are safe. Thank you for your assistance.” Lysette abruptly halted at the front of the door and produced a key from her hand.

“…?!”

She was surprised. The key that Lysette was holding had just materialized from her hand just a moment ago. Curious, she scrutinized her hand, she noticed there was a gem embedded in the glove.

“Is that…?”

“Yes. This is the newly invented magic gloves by one of the Academy’s students.” She replied to her unfinished question while inserting the key into the keyhole.

The key she was holding was no ordinary key. It had runes engraved all over it.

The door was enchanted from the beginning, a type of defense magic where it can be bypassed only by a key with specific runes to unlock the door.

Click Click Click

Multiple locks were unlocked in quick succession. When the sounds stopped, she turned the doorknob and opened the door.

The room had a large wooden table, sculptured with detailed designs on every side of it; quill holder on the right-side corner, farther away from the occupant’s point of perspective; four large bookshelves lined up at the west side of the room, and two couches facing each other with a low wooden table between them, placed in front of the office desk. However, the headmaster – the principal – was nowhere to be seen.

“Boo.” There came a voice beside Alice’s right ear.

“Kyah.”

Alice yelped, jumped and twisted her body away from the sound. She took out her staff that was strapped to her back. With a short incantation, three ice spears had formed around her, taking aim whatever was behind her, ready to fire at will, but…

The intruder groaned in pain as he was bending down on both knees while hugging his stomach with both arms. Alice saw Lysette’s hand, still clenched in the form of a fist.

“Lucius, how many times do I have to tell you about scaring our new students?”

“Come on… Lysette… you know as well as I do that I’m not a big fan of having formal conversations with our students.”

Alice was shocked that Lucius was the headmaster of the school. He seemed to be in his early twenties; he had white hair and brown iris eyes. He wore a double-breasted suit, a long pair of trousers and black shoes.

Come to think of it. Isn’t Lysette about the same age as Lucius? Judging by their conversation, they must be close or a couple at best—

Lysette gave a sharp glare at Lucius. He felt tense and immediately took his job seriously.

“My name is Lucius, headmaster of Adventurer Academy. I’m sure you’ve met my assistant Lysette. You must be Alice?” He bowed theatrically, with his right hand close to his chest and the other straightened to his left.

Alice replied to him with a bow. Then, she gave a proper introduction of herself, and report the conditions of the village that she and other adventurers had helped during her journey.

The headmaster listened to every detail of her report. Once she was done, he had asked Lysette to provide an orientation to Alice.

“Classes will begin next week. So the first thing you have to do is consider the lists of available classes that might suit your needs.”

She handed her the documents, listed with every subject and schedule she needed.

“You have by night time to think about it. You don’t have to worry about applying for accommodation, we already prepared that for you. That would be all for today.”

Alice gave her thanks to Lysette and Lucius before making her way toward the exit. As she was about to reach for the doorknob, the headmaster called her. She turned around to look at him.

“Welcome to Adventurer Academy, Alice.”

She returned his welcome with a smile and exited the room.