Chapter 1.2, Accommodation

“Can’t believe you beat me again.” Chima laughed, while Alice was healing its wounds.

“Well, that was still a close battle, compared to last time.” He replied casually.

“Sorry for wasting your mana to heal me, Alice.”

“Oh, no… It’s fine. I’m sure Jayce has his reason.”

She was healing Chima’s wound without asking Jayce for a reason. But the fact that Jayce conversing with Chima as if they were friends was enough for her to heal it. Except for the serious battle between them where they almost killed each other in the process. Either way, they went back to their casual conversation.

“Oh-ho. Even though you’ve just met him?”

“Wait, how…?”

“I can tell by your scent. Pardon me for being rude, I assumed you’re Jayce’s new partner?”

“No,” he interrupted, “We just formed a party to explore and obtain ancient glyphs in this world, that’s all.”

“I see. Both of you will now have my permission to enter the next room, where the ancient glyphs lie.”

After Alice healed Chima completely, it bowed to her, thanking her for fixing its wounds. She responded with a bow.

While they were heading to the next room, they waved their goodbyes to Chima.

They found the ancient glyphs, carved onto the wall across the room from them. Jayce reassured her that there were no traps laid around in the room. She went ahead and began deciphering the ancient glyphs.

The ancient glyphs illuminated drifted in the air and entered her chest. Incantations of the newfound spell formed in the back of her mind: Miasma. She blinked a few times and looked back at Jayce, who stood to wait for her.

“Seems you’re done. Ready to head home?”

She nodded, and they went to a portal on the other side of the room.

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Alice opened her eyes, finding herself that she had returned back in reality, but for some reason, she felt as though she was lying on a hard cushion. She looked at what was beneath her only to find she was sitting atop of Jayce.

Jayce, who was still asleep on the floor next to the couch that she had occupied. She covered her mouth to avoid screaming and swiftly removed herself away from him. She returned the grimoire she had borrowed back to the bookshelf.

“Phew, we made it out.”

She startled and looked back. Jayce had awakened from his slumber on the floor, stretching his arms and legs to remove the strains.

As he did his stretch routine, their door suddenly opened. A man with white hair, wearing a double-breasted suit, entered.

“Jayce, I’ve brought all the ores and herbs that you’ve requested.”

“Lucius, you do realize that you can send familiars to deliver them to me, right?” He jabbed.

“Is it wrong to see my own son at this hour?”

“Correction: adopted son.” Jayce narrowed his eyes.

Lucius pretended to ignore his glare.

“Anyway, I’m here to inform you that you will be relocating to the new accommodation. This time, it is an apartment unit.”

“What?! I did not make any request.” He retorted.

Jayce had been living in a small house located at the outskirt of the Academy, keeping his research and skills as secrets from everyone. Due to the sudden announcement from his guardian—Lucius—it was going to be difficult to move his research materials and equipment to his apartment, subtly.

Ignoring Jayce, Lucius noticed Alice’s presence and continued his attack on Jayce, verbally.

“Alice, sorry for not noticing your presence. I see that you’ve met your new roommate.”

““Eh?””

They both exclaimed. They exchanged glances, then looked back at Lucius.

“Headmaster, wouldn’t it be unwise for me to live under the same roof with an opposite gender?” Alice began, aware that this would violate the academy’s rule.

“Don’t worry, Alice, Jayce may look mysterious on the outside, but rest assured, he is a kindhearted person. And here are the keys to your room and your student ID.” Lucius handed out the documents to her.

“Then what about my stuff? I need a few days to move them to the apartment.”

“I had summoned a few golems to help out moving your things.”

Lucius, however, had already set his move in motion.

Summoning familiar was a common skill for every adventurer. The familiars’ nature reflected their master’s personality, and sometimes they represented as their spirit animals. There were cases where adventurers were unable to summon their own familiar, so they are required to form a contract with familiars they had encountered during their journey if they wish to do so.

Both Alice and Jayce knew they had nothing left to retort.

“Headmaster…” She asked, keeping the conversation formal.

“Please, call me Lucius.” He suggested.

Alice hesitated for a moment. It was not because he was her roommate's guardian, but, rather, he was also the headmaster of this academy.

Silence slowly crept the room, she decided to address him by his name.

“Lucius, I had finished filling the application for the classes, so I was wondering if it is okay for me to submit it to you right now.”

“Certainly, I will make sure your application goes through the faculty.”

She gave the application papers to Lucius. Lucius, however, brought his lips close to her ear.

“Please take care of Jayce.”

Before Alice was going to question him, he immediately walked out of the room, leaving Jayce and Alice alone again.

They exchanged glances, then looked away. The situation was getting awkward, and the first person to break that silence was…

“Nice to meet you, Alice, I will be your roommate for three years from now, I think.”

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It was late afternoon—5:00 PM—Alice and Jayce found their apartment.

It wasn’t that difficult to find their apartment unit, although it was on the twenty-third floor of the forty-story building, thanks to numbers labelled to each unit. In addition to the forty floors, there were private training rooms, located in the underground section of the dormitory. The private training rooms were available at all time to every adventurer, and the entire internal surface of the room was sturdy and sound-proof.

Fortunately, with the advancement of magic application, there was an elevator system in this building, so they don’t have to walk up flights of stairs. But most adventurers preferred to walk up the stairs to improve their endurance and physical physique.

The accommodation was surprisingly large for a dormitory room. It had a bathroom, a large kitchen, a large dining table for six, a living room that was filled with boxes containing their belongings, a room containing the necessary tools and equipment for blacksmithing, and two bedrooms. Both bedrooms had an alchemy table, a large study table, a wooden chair, a single-sized bed, a large closet, a small cabinet and two large bookshelves.

“So, which room would you prefer?”

There wasn’t much difference as both bedrooms had the same furniture arrangement and they are next to each other. She thought about letting Jayce pick the room first, but during the time she spent with him in the grimoire’s world—he would probably refuse, so she decided to pick the room on the right.

After hearing her decision, Jayce lifted one of the boxes that were placed around the living room then entered the room on the left to unpack his bag while Alice did the same entered her room.

After unpacking their belongings, Jayce suggested Alice take a bath, and he volunteered to prepare and cook dinner. It wasn’t unusual for male adventurers able to cook nowadays. Cooking was an essential skill for every adventurer to survive in a wild environment.

Alice gracefully accepted his offer and went to the bath.

Jayce looked into his magic gloves for ingredients for their dinner. The ingredients he had checked were onions, mushrooms, leeks, a whole medium-sized chicken, four eggs, herb, rice and green tea leaves. After taking some time into consideration, he decided to make a full course meal dinner.

“Have to make a list to restock my ingredients,” muttered Jayce, washing the vegetables he just withdrew from his magic gloves.

After taking a bath, Alice wore her nightclothes; it consists of a white short-sleeved top and a pair of white short trousers. When she came out of the bathroom, she was greeted by an assortment of dishes laid out on the dinner table.

“I… didn’t expect to be a full course meal, dinner for you.”

“Well, this is your first time coming to this academy, so might as well go all out.” He went over to one of the dining chairs and pull it out, offering her a seat.

She accepted his offer and sat down. He then pushed the chair gently and went to sit on the chair across from her’s.

“So, what do you have in store for us?”

“We have steamed white rice, onion soup, pan-fried eggs with chopped mushrooms and leeks, baked chicken wings with herbs, and green tea—”

Suddenly, Alice’s stomach growled, she looked down, flustered.

Jayce pretended he didn’t hear that.

“Well, the food’s getting cold. Let’s eat,” he insisted. He didn’t want to keep her starving any longer.

They both started their dinner, but Alice didn’t know where to begin.

Sensing that Alice was in the pinch, he made a recommendation.

“You can start with the onion soup, then the eggs, chicken, and rice together. You don’t have to worry about table manners. I don’t really mind about it.”

She felt relieved, and they both resumed their dinner in silence. After finishing dinner and washing the dishes, they were back at the dining table, drinking their green tea.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but how can you casually eat the food that I just cooked knowing that we had just met? Including the time we had spent in the Grimoire’s world, and not to mention, we are living in the same apartment unit.”

That question didn’t even cross her mind, except for the latter.

“You didn’t seem to be lying the moment we met, so I trust you.”

“I see.”

He folded his arms, leaning back to the dining chair.

“Anyway, what’s with your fighting style? You were a thief class, as suggested by your twin blades, but you’ve suddenly switched to an archer class.”

This time, it was her turn to ask a question.

He brought his gaze toward his sheathed scimitars that were placed at the living room and brought them up on the dining table and sighed. He couldn’t talk his way out of this after everything she had witnessed.

“To answer your question, my vocation is neither a thief class nor an archer class…”

“Huh…?”

She tilted her head.

“Alice, are you aware of magic circuits?”

Instead, he replied with a question.

“Yes. Magic circuits are a crucial part of adventurers’ body system. It allows us to perform spells and skills related to their respective class.”

“Correct. Now, what is your magic circuit based on, and what can you do?”

“Magician. I can perform offensive spells, defensive spells, support spells, curses and cure ailments.”

“Now that you’ve understood about magic circuits. To answer your question, I have four magic circuits—”

“—Eh?”

As she was about to take a sip of her green tea, her hands abruptly came to a halt.

“Eeehhhhhh?!”

She stood up, eyes widened, both hands on the table.

“You don’t have to be that surprised. As for the weapons…” He sighed.

He held them up and brought both hilts together. The runes on both blades illuminated, and they combined into a bow with a click.

“…This was done with isolation gravity magic rune, engraved on the bottom hilt of each pommel. For the bowstring, it was made of mana, activated by runes crafted at the tip of the blades, the same property as magic arrows.”

The weapons that Jayce possessed were a pair of black obsidian scimitars. Each blade was strangely curved and there were parts of the blades that allowed it to function as a bow. Most swords, in the market, were made and sold to adventurers were linear.

“…”

Alice was at a loss for words as she was still processing the application of magic onto weapon design and functions.

“Ah… The magic arrows I’ve used were produced from a magic circle, drawn on my right magic glove.”

He placed his bow down on the table then showed his right hand to her. There was a magic circle sewed with white strings at the palm of his magic glove, but…

“…The string used to draw that magic circle is not made of normal string. And I don’t want to get that into too much detail. Anything else?”

After explaining his weapon designs, he disconnected the links between the scimitars, sheathed them, and sat back to his chair and resumed drinking his green tea.

That brought her senses back to reality and she brought a question she had in mind ever since their first meeting in his room.

“Are you in a guild? How many members are there?”

“Yes and none.”

“None? But why?”

She couldn’t help asking. Considering the vast collection of books and grimoire, and the skills she had witnessed, students will be willing to join his guild.

“I’ve cast a cloaking spell on the entrance of my guild room. I only recruit adventurers who are able to see through the illusion and enter the guild room.”

He refilled his cup with green tea and took another sip.

“If that’s the case,” She steered her gaze right into his eyes, serious expression across her face. “I would like to apply to join your guild.”

“You may, but on one condition.”

“That is…?”

“Don’t tell anyone about my magic circuit. That’s my only condition.”

“Deal.”

She didn’t leave a fraction of a second to give a second thought; she extended her hand towards him.

He took her hand, his hand was strangely warm, perhaps it was because of the green tea, and shook it firmly.

“Welcome to my guild: The Liberators. Also, welcome to Adventurer Academy. Hope I won’t hold you back.”

“Thank you for having me, and please take care of me.”