I

The first day had a rather relaxed schedule for everyone. First years, especially. Ahead of them were only three hours of homeroom, after which they would witness the annual exhibition of Rosewood Academy’s vast collection of beasts, monsters, gemstones and plants from the botany house, laboratories, and stables.

The 1st of A class’s homeroom teacher was an older and rather sweet bright-haired woman named Ms. Woodbead, who also worked as a Calligraphy professor. Her first order of business - as she said - was to get everyone acquainted and on friendly terms with each other, so she simply let them talk to each other for the first period after giving everyone a short and sweet introduction of herself. She then plopped herself down on her seat and starting reading…something.

Augustin considered walking up to Nanami but decided against it. To him, the idea of approaching a stranger on his own initiative wasn’t one he was most fond of. So, in the end, he spent the entire period talking to Vincent.

“There’s rather no particular reason I should pursue a conversation with her, now, is there?” Augustin reaffirmed to himself internally. And so, he decided to strike up a conversation at a later date.

“Hey, Augustin, come here!” Vincent called out to him from the fourth row. He had long abandoned him after the first ten minutes or so to connect with his classmates. And so, he spent the rest of the period socialising with his new classmates…on paper, at least. In reality, it was Vincent who did most of the talking, with Augustin just being there as an ornament.

Following the first period, Ms. Professor Woodbead gave them a rundown of the school year, school and dorm rules, the general curriculum beyond just various classes - such as excursions, festivals, celebrations, and contests - before eventually, time ran out.

Students began scrambling for the exit from the classroom despite Ms. Professor Woodbead’s futile attempts to calm them down, before she threw in the towel and silently left the classroom as well. What was the destination? The fabled annual Rosewood Exposition Festival.

The Rosewood Exposition Festival is an annual tradition that takes place on the first school day and shows Rosewood’s vast collection of rare animals, monsters, plants, gemstones and is accompanied by the almost-universally loved fairings such as Penance pastries and various fish dishes prepared from the daily catch of local fishermen, who were big fans of the event as well. Albeit for other, more greedy reasons, of course.

The event was generally only observed by present and former students who came to relive memories. They would keep themselves entertained by visiting makeshift stalls made by students to introduce and disclose various facts and novelties about the said object.

Naturally, the gemstone exhibitions were the most popular since nothing can beat humans’ cavemen mentality of being attracted to shiny things. Despite most of the rocks being without significant value and only assisting those that use them for magic, they were nevertheless a treat to watch.

In reality, many precious stones that are highly valued for jewellery are also valued for their usability in conducting magic, but for obvious reasons, the school decided to not simply have a bunch of them out on display. Whether they actually had a supply of them or not…that’s a question that can be neither confirmed nor denied. Regardless, they weren’t for show.

Augustin was a man with a rather great thirst for knowledge, so he was planning to take his time regardless. The food didn’t interest him all that much, but he nevertheless also hoped to try some cuisine he would seldom find in his northeastern estates of Alvaria.

In great pleasure, and with a faint smile on his lips, he attended the animal exhibits, where they were kept in makeshift enclosures. Animals he had heard of before but hadn’t seen were bound by chains as various students performed various tricks with them or explained trivia.

Well, he had seen some of them before. Just on his plate. A lot of rare monsters are prized for their meat, so it’s only natural one of the most prominent noble families in Alvaria would taste it at least once.

For starters, the fearsome giant boar with a black hide and three horns known as the Fleshmincer, whose horns are important in traditional Alvarian medicine and alchemy. Since it’s a dangerous beast that can’t be domesticated, such materials are highly priced. Their meat is rich and savoury, with a certain level of chewiness to it, thus frequently finding its way to a noble’s plate.

Another such animal is the feral man-eating horse known as a Thrace. Their meat isn’t nearly as prized, but still somewhat of a luxury since it’s rarely preserved well. These horses are a prime example of a monster that roams the Alvarian forests and threatens villages, so the consumption of its flesh is considered taboo amongst most people. They tend to burn their corpses immediately after slaying them and only retain their hooves as material and eyeballs as an alchemy component - it’s said that old druids could create the best aphrodisiacs only with a well-preserved Thrace eyeball. Such irony that, in the end, the man-eating monster is used to increase the number of humans.

Hold up, does that count as natural selection? Since humans are their sustenance and they need them to survive…

Eventually, Augustin retired from the animal component, having grown bored of the raccoon dogs performing tricks that he had already seen at the family’s estate and moved to a floral garden. As he leaned on the fence to observe some of the more common flowers, he stopped someone out of the corner of his eye.

“Ms. Underland…was it?” he asked nonchalantly as he leaned on the fence, looking at a particularly well-made flowerbed of light pink, burgundy red and white carnations. The flowers - although not native to the area - are popular amongst local florists, so the Penshire Carnations are therefore quite famous across the country. Moreover, they’re artificially flowered even when out of season so that they can be sold year-round. How, you might ask? Well, the answer here is - like with many other things - magic.

“That’s correct. And you’re…if memory serves, you’re Mr. Vigil, is that so?” Nanami responded, also leaning on the fence, her head resting on her hand.

Silence ensued.

“So…not big on words, huh?” Nanami asked.

“Not quite right, Ms. Underland. I simply came to introduce myself. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“I see…well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The two continued leaning on the fence in silence, unsure of where to move the topic, until it dawned to Augustin why he came here in the first place.

“Ms. Underland, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. I’ve seen and talked to many noble and burgeis (wealthy independent farmer and merchant) families. But I’ve never heard of any Underlands before. Are you here on scholarship, perchance?”

“Yeah, it is so. I’m not from any big family. Got here through scholarship and aid from Lord Utterend. Think he said he sees potential in me or something like that. I just accepted the offer and, well, now I’m here,” she explained.

“I see…well, it’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” He accepted her explanation and turned back to himself.

Nanami waited for a few moments before asking. “Tell me, Mr. Vigil, do you enjoy gardening?”

“Not particularly. We do have a park back at the estate, but it’s managed by professional landscapers,” he responded as he swapped attention to another flowerbed, this one consisting of artificially-coloured orange and white roses. It’s possible to change the colour of a rose with magic when it’s still a bulb. Possible variants are orange, white, green, and brown, whereas blue is unattainable. At the edges, a thin strip of cornflowers blossomed.

“Ah, I see. I think you’re missing out. It allows you to invoke memories of your homeland even when far away. Try it out, maybe you’ll like it,” she chipped in. “Hold on, you have your own private park? That’s pretty cool! Must be a well-off family, huh…” she whispered under her breath.

Augustin recoiled in surprise at that statement. Nevertheless, he felt a bit warmer on the inside hearing it. “Thank you for the offer, but I don’t think I’ll be getting homesick anytime soon. Regardless, I have other things to concern myself with during schooltime,” he commented.

“Is that so? Then, what do you do when it’s not schooltime? I doubt you just sip tea and eat pastries like stereotypes would dictate.”

“...I shall pretend I didn’t hear that. You’re severely underestimating the potential a post-lunch tea ceremony with sweets has with passing time alongside friends,” he said, mildly complaining as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Hah, true that!” Nanami laughed heartily. “Can’t say I’ve ever done it, but it does sound like a fun experience. Speaking of tea, ever heard of chrysanthemum tea?” she asked absentmindedly.

That name was a first for Augustin, so he shook his head. “Cannot say I’ve heard of it before,” was his solemn response. “What’s it like?”

“...no idea.”

“That’s the answer you’re going to give me after asking the question yourself?” He voiced his disappointment.

Why Nanami asked that, he'd learn quite awhile later. But for now, she seemed like nothing more than a strange and somewhat loose-minded commoner girl to him.