《It's All the Messes in One》


 Chapter 1

    The morning light seeped into the room, I opened my eyes as I slowly got out of my cot, my head hurt from wearing mufflers all night as I needed some silences while the others kept on talking well into my sleep schedule. The others were still sleeping as I quietly prepared myself for the day ahead. I had woken up a whole hour before we had to arrive at the auditorium and I was going to enjoy what little time I had all to myself while the my other dormmates were still asleep. I took off my mufflers setting them on my cot before unpacking some more of my luggage.


    After a while of shifting through my embarrassingly unorganized stuff, thank god the others weren''t awake, I finally found my brush. My brush was truly my best friend, it was useful, it looked good, and it would never betray me. Every mourning it was so relaxing to gently and slowly comb my tail and ears, although some of my others of my kind would disagree and think of it more of a chore. I hummed myself a little tune as I continued to organize my stuff before settling and working on my tail.


    "Good morning, you couldn''t have kept it a bit quieter?"


    I blushed in embarrassment and turned around to see a somewhat tall, maybe average, I wouldn''t know, I''m far to the right on the short spectrum, human girl looking rather not pleased with me.


    "Oh, sorry, what was your name again?" I barely managed to stagger out.


    The very disgruntled and even more annoyed frustratedly sighed before stating, "Elisa. So... you really managed to go to sleep that early huh? Well thanks to you I guess we''re all getting up early as well, you know you could have just unpacked yesterday night like the rest of us."


    "I already apologized" I tried to defend myself, "and the others don''t look like their going to wake either." I said as I looked around seeing that the other two seemed to still be comfortably lying in bed.


    "Nope, I''m wide awake, Sandra, by the way, you ever just get that feeling when you know you should be getting up but you really just can''t? Also before she says anything," Sandra commented before glaring at Elisa, "it''s about time we all got up anyway, not everyone has the ability to laze around like you."


    I definitely missed some stuff when I decided to just go to sleep early to not deal with the others, they seemed to already have a social dynamic that I would rather be left out of.


    "Says you, I''m already ready, while you''re still all wrapped up in that blanket." Elisa retorted. I winces as her voice was a bit too loud for me as my ears were far more sensitive and also she was still standing directly next to me.


    "Hey, Elisa, quick tip, if you''re going to" *yawn* "-get mad at someone else for being loud, you mind not being even louder? Poor girl looks like she''s about to have a heart attack, just look at her covering her ears." The last one commented having gotten up while no one was paying attention. I hadn''t realized I had covered my ears but it might have just been instinct as I slowly let them unfurl from beneath my hands.


    "Thank-k you" I stammered out again, social interaction was never something I enjoyed, or was used to.


    Sandra who seemed to be too distracted by the conversation to actually start preparing for the day chimed in "By the way, what''s your name? You clocked out before anyone of us could ask."


    "My name''s Lilith" I said quickly, almost a bit too quickly as I sat down on my bed.


    Elisa, who looked even more unhappy asked another question, "So what are you? A cat? No wrong tail... A wolf?" in one of the rudest ways I could imagine.


    "Looks like a fox to me," The girl who I still didn''t know the name of answered for me.


    "Yeah-h, but I''m not just a fox," I tried before getting interrupted mid sentence.


    "Whatever, I was just wondering, just don''t shed over my stuff."


    "I''m not-t just an animal." I was beginning to cry as I tried to bury my face back into my blanket.


    "Great job Elisa, you made the girl cry, do you feel stronger now? Have your muscles grown two fold, not that would make a difference when you had none to begin with." One of the others said before the other one broke out into laughter and commented "Her muscles might not have but her ego has reached new heights never seen before!"


    Elisa stormed out of the room obviously not pleased with how the conversation was turning out.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "I''m Sylv, or that''s what everyone calls me. Elisa is a bit of a mess if you can''t tell, she wasn''t much nicer to us yesterday, and I almost envy you that you got to miss the entire thing but there''s nothing more satisfying then putting her in her place." She said as she stretched, "Hey Sandra, you getting out of bed or not? We have like twenty minutes left to prepare as I estimate it''ll take around another ten minutes to find the place."


    Sandra didn''t comment as she seemed to suddenly realize she hadn''t actually done anything besides talk the entire time. I looked around, my face dried from the tears as I exited the dorms. Sandra was an elf, while I didn''t get a good enough look at Sylv to identify what she was, every race looks practically identical if you squint hard enough.


    The hallway stretched along a grid pattern and I got lost several times before finding the auditorium. I opened the door to see some students having already found their seats as I walked down surveying where I should sit. If Elisa was here I hadn''t seen her despite her leaving the dorm first. I shuffled my way to one of the open seats far away from anyone who already found theirs. Slowly more people trickled into the auditorium, and sat down.


    Some of the staff had also arrived and ushered the others in straight lines forcing the other students to fill in like sardines until finally everyone was situated. I waited quietly while some other students whispered amongst what I presumed to be their friends. The boy who sat next to be looked at me curiously while I tried to not pay attention to them.


    "Hey," and my immediate thought was, ''oh no'', as I tried to pretend I didn''t notice but my ears betrayed me as they instinctively swirled to his position. ''Maybe he doesn''t notice?''.


    "I know you can hear me," And that was the fatal blow, I was going to have to engage another being in conversation, my worst fear.


    "Hello! Nice to meet you, um sorry, about yeah, uh, sorry," It was going to be really hard to explain why I ignored him earlier that didn''t make me sound like a complete freak, as I turned to face him hoping that the presentation would start soon.


    "Dude, gal, whatever, relax," He reassured despite looking nothing but confused, ''He already thinks that I''m weird, no, no, no''.


    "You''re not going to faint on me are you? Do I look that scary?" The now apparent cat based beast kin joked to me, "Rwar" he imitated a bear before laughing to himself.


    "Cat got your tongue? Get it? Hmmmm?"


    ''He didn''t even give me the chance to speak.'' I thought to myself.


    "Um, sorry, so who are you?" ''Why am I so bad it this? I just asked him like I was better than him'' I panicked.


    "Oh, I''m Lewis, Lewis Sanderton, and who might you be your highness" a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice.


    "I''m sorry about the way I said that, I''m Lilith."


    "Oh I was just messing with you, you''re fine." Lewis said still holding onto that smile. Although Lewis seemed fine I still felt like he was just pretending to tolerate me out of respect. While I was thinking about all the ones I''d already managed to screw something up, I was surprised as the announcer knocked on some sort of sound amplifyingdevice to get everyone''s attention.


    "Attention students and staff, the headmaster is about to enter!" Someone on stage announced. ''Ow my ears.''


    "Bit too loud for you? You''ll get used to it, and if does start affecting your hearing the medical staff here is real good, scarily so and who knows? They might make your hearing even better." He laughed while nudging me with his elbow.


    "Welcome new students and welcome back old students, welcome to your first days or first days back at Lansia Academy, we here promote the progress of students as you guys will become the new backbone of society''s future," The headmaster takes a breath, "You have all heard what''s required and all the basics already when your parents signed you up, so if you have any questions ask your teachers, janitors, or secretaries, just don''t ask me." Some of the older students laughed and commented about the headmaster with others around them.


    "With out further a do, you should know which classes you have from the sheet you got when you were accepted, you are all dismissed."


    Students began slowly shuffling own and that''s when I realized my mistake, I was going to have to wait a while for a path to clear with me sitting the furthest away from the ail.


    "That look tells me you realized your mistake, I''d know, I''ve made the same mistake." Lewis commented looking really pleased for some reason, "So I didn''t get a chance to ask you but all you k-nines look the same to me, not to be rude, just saying."


    "Oh, I''m a ''fox''" I respond, I personally didn''t enjoy being called just the name of an animal as that''s clearly not all that I am, but to be fair it was by far the quickest and easiest so I eventually just learned to deal with it. Lewis looked at me almost studying me until looking away and he seemed to have found someone he was looking for as he started chatting with them across a few chairs.


    Eventually the auditorium cleared enough for me to make my way to my first "class". When I arrived at the gym, because some demon decided my first "class" was going to be physical training, like I get the point but really? There were already a few people who were stretching as the coach had yet to arrive. The students gave me glances one by one all before each individually deciding to continue with their stretches.


    Not know what to do I just found somewhere to sit as I waited "patiently".


    "Oh hey Lilith! I didn''t think I''d be in the same um, first class? What did they call it again? Well you get the point." I looked up to see Sandra leaning against the wall next to me before she continued, "I wonder what''s physical education going to be like? I heard from a couple of the others who''ve been here that this class is honestly just ''do whatever to make the coach happy'' and not in a good way." She continues to ramble as I stop paying attention to her and not before too long, the coach walks in through the door.


    "Welcome to your first day," The coach teased, with a frightening smile plastered across his face, ''This is going to be rough''.

 Chapter 2

    ''Why, why, why, why, why am I being the demonstration?''


    There I was, being used as the practice dummy for all the exercises, the coach said something about encouraging new students, about how showing how quickly a first year could get it left no room for this or that. It really was not a thing I enjoyed doing though, I envied the others, and especially Sandra (Like come on why me?), who just got to do half the work because I also had to do the exercises as well.


    I hated exercises, not because I thought they were useless, but because I thought whenever I did a plank my elbow was going to slide out on the damn wooden floor, though that might just be me being too skinny or having low pain tolerance. It didn''t help that the others always seemed to be perfectly fine with holding one for a minute, like it''s not that the exercise is hard, it just hurts. I had some many other things to say but it''s honestly better that I stop thinking about it.


    I also have a very bad sense of time, because what felt like an hour for me, apparently, was only twenty minutes.


    "So this will be your new routine you start every day when you finish prepping, it''ll go a lot faster without me coaching all of you and should only take around fifteen give or take for all of you to finish." He takes a breath before looking around, "So for the rest of the time you can all play tag or something while I finish the rest of my preparations for the next few days."


    The word preparation haunted me every time I heard it, for me it always held some kind of negative context, I never pinpointed the exact reason why but it always gave me chills hearing it no matter in which way it was used. I understood that preparation was necessary but one doesn''t usually connect necessary with exciting, at least not for me.


    "Tag!" I heard right in my ear, ''ow'', as someone tapped me on the shoulder breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked around to see who might be easy to get, it never mattered how old I was, tag will forever be something that I find close to my heart, when I was a child, and even now it gave me some irresistible want to join, and who was I to say no to the direct invitation?


    I saw someone to the left of me a bit further out then the others that seemed like a fun target and went after them. While chasing him I went for some of the other students who were along the path just in the chance i got them and could save myself some distance but with no luck. I was starting to feel as if this "class" wasn''t going to be so bad. Then when I tagged him both of us having fun and laughing I pushed him a bit too hard and I watched as if in slow moment his body tip over his front foot slamming him into the ground as he slid a bit further.


    The sound of skin sliding on smoothed wood sounded like the most horrifying screech of any monster in that moment, I stood there, with a look of shock and horror at what I had done.


    I started to tremble as I apologized, "I''m-m sorr-ry, I didn''t mean to." I didn''t turn to look around, I felt as if all the others were judging me as a danger to themselves, although I couldn''t confirm it, I felt as if their eyes were drilling into the back of my head thinking ab-


    "Tag you''re it!" He laughed. I had been too focused on worrying about what I did that I didn''t noticed that he had recovered and tagged me back, I felt a sense of relief flood through my body as I returned to playing with the others, but that sense of unease stayed with me through the entire period. No matter how much I looked around to see the others seemingly perfectly happy to continue playing with me, I still felt a sense of not belonging, as if I were only making their experience worse but I continued while ignoring those thoughts. I continued to enjoy the game while also being as careful as possible to not cause the other students harm even if that meant me getting hurt instead and every time they went "Oghh" and "Ahhhh" expressing their worry but my doubts kept on gnawing at the back of my mind until it was time for the next class.


    Sandra approached me then with a hint of worry on her face, "Hey Lilith, are you ok? Some of those falls looked pretty bad."


    "I''m fine," was the only thing that I could get out of my mouth, not matter how much I felt like the world was going to fall I couldn''t bring myself to express anything besides those two words.


    She looked at me seemingly reassured as we continued walking side by side with no words exchanged until we parted ways where she waved me a goodbye. I felt a pang of guilt from not acknowledging her wave but I shoved it out of my mind as soon as I could.


    I looked up to see the door, although it really wasn''t that big objectively, the fear it caused me of stepping into another room I didn''t recognize held me for a second as I double and triple checked that it was the right one. As I reached for the handle, the door seemed to loom even further over me before I turned and yanked it as fast as I could, only to discover it was a push door as I died even further on the inside. i turned and looked around and just convinced myself that no one saw anything before pushing the door open. The room was made of marbled white stone with seats arranged neatly in rows paired with another at tables in regular intervals.


    The man, who could be presumed to be the teacher for basic spellcasting turned and mentioned, "Seating chart over there take a look," He pointed at a sheet of paper laying on the first table closest to his desk. I walked up slowly and found that I was sitting in the back left corner of the room, ''my dream seat'' but then remembered that I''d have a seating partner anyway, my "partner" had the name "Reed" and I for some reason, failed to consider the fact that names don''t actually mean anything about a person unless it was given after they were born, it was more of a suggestion because I certainly didn''t fit what people would think of "Lilith" at least I didn''t think so. I imagined he''d be quiet and keep to himself for some reason, how foolish I was to believe that.


    Reed was not in fact a quiet kid, although he certainly was nerdy, but he certainly did not keep to himself. The class itself was fine, learning basic chant components like how to initiate what type of spell, the basics of targeting, how to finalize one, and of course, a contract that stated "The school is not liable for any harm received due to this class".


    Just then someone bursts in through the door and shouts, "Someone''s started a fire!"


    I didn''t know what to think. ''Already? It hasn''t been even a day!''


    As me and the other students started to get up from our seats I couldn''t help be notice that Reed and a few others just stayed relaxed in there chairs. The teacher, Richard, seemed to have a look of, acceptance? Tiredness? Resignation?


    Almost as if it''s happened before, "Everyone stay in your seats," All the other students started whispering to themselves, "Liz. Did anyone else you ''warned'' listen? No?" He slowly covers his eyes with his left hand, "Please stop disrupting my class." Richard shoos, the now embarrassed, girl out of the room.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "Don''t worry about it, my brother attended this place before as well, he told me that these ''emergencies'' happen all the time and to ''just do as your teacher says'' because ''nothing''s going to come of it''." Reed casually leans over to comment to me, I can''t help but have a look of confusion plastered over my face.


    I slowly turn to look at him as he relaxes in his chair after I fix my expression, no amount of shyness was going to stop me from asking, "What in the nine hells do you mean by that?"


    "Yeah, not really a secret around here, what happens happens is the best way to describe it."


    "Wha- Wha, why?" I stutter out, so many thoughts confusing me. First there was a fire on the first day, second, no one seems to care and views it as a mere annoyance, and third, how does Reed look so casual when he says that, am I the weird one?


    My head spins around with these thoughts not comprehending how this school with a "pretty good reputation" would be like this before someone interrupts laughing from the hallway, "Liz, see? I told you so! It''s just a fire, it''ll take a third of the school being blown up like when Lucas attempted ''To create the ultimate rainbow potion!'', in his own words by the way-" The person from outside the room who wasn''t visible seemed to continue trying to ramble on before Robert quite literally kicked "Liz" out of the room slamming the door behind them while mumbling "First years..."


    He seemed to notice my ears swiveling when he said that and gave me a glare as if daring me to do anything about it.


    ''Dad, have you truly forsaken me? I''ll do anything for any other school!'' I internally cried to myself.


    "Oooo, that''s the famous death glare Professor Robert is known for, what''d you do?" Reed mocked, as I did my best to ignore him.


    The rest of the class dragged along as he stopped focusing on teaching and began to go over what to expect in his class. He explained that if someone "dismantles the left wall", "Rearranges their desk", "Inverts the lamp," (No explanation was given on the last one when questioned further) that the poor individual would have to pay for the damages as well as do the punishment that ends up getting spun for them on the "Wheel of Doom" which was a glorified wheel on an axel he had strapped to the front of his desk. It had several colored sections on the wheel with a piece of cloth covering what could be assumed to be the punishments.


    Other than that I paid no attention to the class expectations instead doodling on a piece of scratch paper I had on me until the clock sounded.


    "So have those forms turned in by tomorrow when you leave this room, I can''t teach you more until you''ve signed it, anyone who fails to do so will have to sit outside the door and do make up work, and it is a hassle for both you and me, so he those forms turned in."


    After leaving the room, I took one last look at the teacher who leaned against he desk, his face engrossed in a piece of paper I could not make out from the angle.


    I took out my schedule to find the next room, ''Room 12S? S?''


    Most of the other rooms only were labeled by numbers, I should have inquired about it when I received it but I figured I''d figure it out sooner or later leaving me staring blankly at my schedule. I looked around and found one of the staff members whose whole purpose seemed to just stand in the hallways and judge people.


    "Hey do you know where 12S is?" I asked shyly quiet enough that they might not have heard me.


    "Room 12S? The ''S'' rooms are all in the floor below, the stair way should be around the bend then to the left once you reach the wall." She said gently. I had expected something more demeaning, for some reason I thought she was going to be extremely annoyed as if I should have already known but she instead looked happy to help but I still felt embarrassed about needing help when it seemed no one else required directions as I quickly followed her directions hoping that if I moved fast enough, I''d leave everyone who might have noticed behind.


    I stared at the sign reading "Potions and Elixirs" and couldn''t help but think about "Rainbow Potion" as I giggled. I grabbed the door handle this time with a bit more confidence than last time and pushed the door in. There were no desks this time instead several fancy tools seemed to be scattered about with a open clearing where everyone who had already gathered were standing and chatting with each other.


    The teacher glanced over and waved for me to approach her, "Hello I''m your teacher, Miss Rueci, what''s your name?" She asked in a polite tone, completely different from how Robert had treated me when I entered his class.


    I blushed with embracement with her direct invitation to a conversation, "I''m Lilith."


    "Hey Lilith, so you''re a wolf beast kin? How wonderful! I always imagined how great it would be to have better hearing, sight, and smell, well maybe not smell, I can''t imagine how bad that''d get sometimes," I stiffly laughed not correcting her mistake, "So here you''ll learn how to make potions and the properties of the ingredients mix together to affect the final result, I hope to get to know you better!"


    She turned back to talking with the students around her before another person entered the room and she repeated a slightly modified version of her previous introduction.


    I settled in leaning against an open wall as the others ignored my presence at most giving me simple glances before finding something else to do.


    After a while the teacher claps to get everyone''s attention, "So everyone''s here now! As I''ve probably told you already, I''m Miss Rueci, this should be my first time having all of you and it''s always great to see new faces, I teach Potions & Elixirs I, II, and III before those of you who want to continue this subject pick a more specialized class where I teach Ingredient Discernment!" Now this is what I had expected the teachers to be like, helpful and kind, "Some of you already seem to know each other but I still want you all to introduce yourselves!"


    "Let''s start with Ema, there''s only twelve of you in this class so it shouldn''t take that long."


    "Hello I''m Ema, I''m a human girl, and my hobbies are chess, conjuration, and debating." Miss Rueci points to the next student.


    "I''m Ryan, I''m Ema''s boyfriend..." Ema play smacks him on the arm, "and my hobbies are chess and art," we laugh as Ema''s face blushes.


    The next boy starts on his own, "I''m Tristan, elf, there''s two ''Tristan''s, my hobbies are sword fighting, boxing, and..." He pauses deciding what to say next, "stealing girls," This earns him a tackle from Ryan who was clearly targeted by the last comment as the class continues to laugh as the instructor pulls the two boys apart.


    "Victor, um, I don''t really want to share anything else," he looks away from us as we stop giggling.


    "You sure? I promise these people won''t bite." Victor doesn''t comment staying in the same awkward pose, Miss Rueci sensing that she isn''t going to get anything else signals to me.


    I tremble nervously as I start to speak up, "I''m Lilith, I''m a beast kin," I intentionally omit the species, "I enjoy, um reading? And just spellcasting in general I guess..."


    The teacher nods as the next girl starts, "I''m Erick, I''m an aspiring businesswoman seeking to earn money through selling, a new product I''ll invent sometime!" She gives off a aura of confidence and relaxations that puts me at ease.


    Everyone turns to the next boy, whose mind seems to have wandered somewhere else before noticing everyone''s stares, "Oh sorry! I''m Luke, Dwarf, some of you might not be able to tell, I''m a giant compared to the others where I look like a short human. I enjoy dreaming, hehe, and making friends." The class giggles with him.


    I turn and see a familiar looking girl, the same "Liz" who had barged in during my previous class, "I''m Elizabeth, you can call me Liz, I''m a peacock based demi-human, wait I meant beast kin," I didn''t know what a peacock was, "My goals are to become a future professor like Miss, uh what was it again?" Liz nervously plays with her hair.


    Miss Reuci turns and repeats her name, "I''m honored, it''s a great job, keep on with that dream!" She turns to the rest of the class and jokes ,"Pay could be better though."


    "Hello, I''m Chris, dwarf, my parents are in charge of Fort Warken, I enjoy smithing and enchanting. Also Luke really is a giant, to me, I don''t know why I feel the need to say that," The teacher nods to the next girl.


    "Rachel, dragonborn, I enjoy cooking, hunting, and uh... nevermind," She relaxes looking around to find any judgement from us other students, after a while the teacher points to the next girl.


    "Hi, I''m Jessa... I enjoy fishing and hiking and oh yeah I''m a human." She hums herself a tune after finishing her introduction.


    "Hey, I''m Eino, I enjoy spell weaving, and weapon production, I could tell you exactly how the standard issue javelin is enchanted, its material, and whatever else you want." Despite his boasting he doesn''t look smug, instead looking genuine.


    "So now that everyone''s been introduced I need to go over some ground rules."

 Chapter 3

    Miss Rueci''s rules boiled down to two parts, common sense and you''ll know when you get there.


    Some of the rules that weren''t common sense included: Not throwing whistling plants into your your chosen vessel of liquid while they still scream, no using firesnapper as your heat source, no, we do not have enough oil for one of you to use it as your liquid base, and also its a horrible idea anyway until Potions and Elixirs III where we actually have funding, a towel is not an ingredient, among others, my head spun with too many questions after the first few.


    "So now that we have the rules out of the way, don''t worry I''ll explain them again when needed, let''s talk about the basics." She looks around searching for engagement, "So why don''t we start with something simple, what''s a potion?"


    ''The answer is obvious wasn''t it?'' But as I look around I don''t see other students raising their hand making me nervous.


    "Anyone?" The teacher repeated herself.


    I quietly speak up but not loud enough to the point where she might not even realize I was talking, "A potion is an essential part of any adventurer''s toolkit which gives an immediate boost or replenishment?"


    "Yes that''s mostly correct, a potion is specifically an item that is ingested or applied to an area that gives a temporary enhancement to the user or immediately restores a property of the user. There will be more advanced definitions later on but that''s all you''ll need to know for this year," She takes a breath considering how to continue, "The difference between a potion and a elixir is that an elixir is more generalized, technically potions qualify as elixirs but the common use case for each is different enough where people classify them as different things entirely, you''ll get into more detail next year."


    Miss Rueci looks around looking for understanding, "Good, so why don''t you all follow me over here?" She guides us over to a shelf full of random items, plants, and bugs, "This is where you will find what you need, under no circumstances are you to touch this without my express permission." She slowly closes the cabinets she had opened. I was curios of what everything she had was but I wasn''t going to act on it unlike what I heard some of the other students mummering to themselves.


    The professor continued to guide us through the room, showing us all sorts of tools we''d need to learn how to use throughout her class. After a while of her ushering us through her room the clock sounded, "There''s more I''ll need to show you as introductions took a bit longer than I was expecting, but we should be able to keep this class on track." Miss Reuci spoke to us.


    I walked over to the door not intentionally eavesdropping on the others'' conversations. They had a mix of topics some of which weren''t related to school as they had probably known each other before coming to Lansia.


    It was now time for lunch, the academy was too big to have everyone eat lunch at the same time so they had split it into multiple periods. I was in the first one, not that I minded as I usually never at breakfast, even at home, so a early lunch appealed to me. The cafeteria itself had a school built in buffet station as well as several other stalls for merchants looking to sell food to the richer among us.


    Food was ten bronze pieces for a plate with selections like bread, rice, generic vegetables, maybe a soup for and extra five, and if someone was willing to pay an extra silver, any assortment of meats they had on stock. I personally craved meat but I didn''t exactly have the money to afford what I didn''t need so I grabbed myself some rice and steamed vegetables and sat myself far away from other people. The tables weren''t crowded yet as I had arrived early compared to the others and I sat down enjoying my "meal".


    It only five minutes before I heard something to my left and instinctively ducked as scalding soup flew across my head, some splashing out and drenching my ears and food. I turned my head to see someone who was dressed so fancily that it hurt my eyes fighting with some one else who seemed just as "uptight" as he did.


    My ears burned as some of the liquid had ended up splashing on me but it didn''t bother me enough for me to go to the healers. I watched the two get into a fight, the one who haphazardly threw the bowl of soup that still singed my ears, it still stings, accused the other of "not understanding his place".


    ''Nobles, can''t even deal with other nobles, why do they expect us to deal with them,'' I cried slightly as this was going to be something that I should have expected.


    The other person argued that even though he belonged to a more powerful family, he''d be dead before any support could arrive, to that I cried even harder. Me, being what is called a "commoner", made my realize I really should just avoid drawing attention to myself to avoid people with power.


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    The "soup guy" stormed off, I know I shouldn''t call him that, even in my head, but no one would know right? I turned my attention back to my food as my ears, that still were stinging, drooped seeing the soup having splashed all over my food, I normally wouldn''t complain but the soup did not seem appealing to me to begin with, and much less now that it was cold and completely covered my now soggy bread.


    I looked around preparing to just take the loss and throw my now wasted food away as I noticed the person who''d gotten into a fight with "soup guy" seemingly unfazed with the who situation. It didn''t help that he was also the reason that the hot liquid was thrown in my direction as I felt resentment for how uncaring he was about the who situation, person didn''t even check to make sure no one else was harmed.


    The resentment faded soon enough as I calmed myself knowing that I should have been used to being the collateral in these situations regardless of involvement as I couldn''t do anything to the upper class without risking execution. My mind wandered as I sat there after throwing away my food when I felt a shudder with how nonchalant both the people were about murder and how they treated it so casually if death was natural to them.


    ''I really shouldn''t get involved with anyone,'' and that''s how my fear of politics began, two noble brats fighting each other while treating life as a game, while I didn''t want to be one of the innocent townsfolk caught in the middle between the hero and the dragon who has to die as cannon fodder. I kept looking around and relaxed as everyone had already settled in and began enjoying their meals while I passed the time by internally complaining about nobles and how unfair it was.


    The rest of lunch dragged on as more people finished their meals and got up and left, I had also at this moment decide I was going to get going as I picked up everything I had personally brought and made my way to the next class.


    The room was pretty large, almost as big as the gym and it was a class I personally requested behind my parents back. They''d been quite unhappy when they inevitably found out but ended up relenting convincing themselves it was too late to change classes. The class itself was sword fighting, it was something I always wanted to do as a child, since all the boys around always picked up sticks and pretended to clash with swords but I wasn''t allowed to because I was a girl.


    But now here I was, standing in front of the door of what my parents had always told me was unfit for me. But now that I was here, it made me scared, like I was going to be the one who didn''t fit in, maybe it was a mistake to chose this class despite how persistent and excited I was when my parents acquiesced, but something wouldn''t let me quit as I walked into that room.


    I was early with only the instructor and a few other boys who seemed extremely excited being in the room. They turned to see who the new person who entered the room was and even when seeing a girl their smile didn''t falter.


    They seemed, excited?


    "Hi! I''m Luke, not we don''t get a lot of people in this class so the more the merrier!" I thought for a moment about how he said that they didn''t have many people in sword fighting? It had always been my dream, and again despite the words being meant for encouragement, it made me worry.


    What if I was truly the weird one who brought everything down, I sometimes just wanted to fit in but I always made others have to accommodate me, even when I didn''t do anything, my tail always meant they needed special seating, my ears making people have to control their voice.


    Then the coach cleared his throat and turned and told me, "What are you waiting for? We have attendance," In a voice that made it almost seem like he was trying to act tough, I couldn''t help but giggle a little in which the others joined in.


    Another of the boys asked, "So what made you join? A lot of people view swords as for the weak and outclassed by magic and only suitable for the common people," It hurt me a bit with the word "common people" which so commonly described my class in society but I didn''t let it show, it had taken so much for my parents to send me here and I wasn''t going to waste it, "We don''t usually get girls here either, and I don''t mean that it a bad way," He continued trying to be encouraging.


    Another one of them chimes in, "Yeah, most of the others are so focused on outclassing everybody else in magic that they don''t care about their hobbies anymore."


    Despite my reservations about some of the careless things they had said, I felt connected like I was an outcast with them and that let me comfortably start, "I joined because of when I was young I always watched the boys in my town play fight with swords..." My earlier confidence starts to fade as I begin to hear myself speak, and I feel as if I''m being mocked by myself but to my surprise the instructor is the one who interrupts me.


    "Nothing wrong about following childhood dreams, if anything it shows your integrity and determination to continue pursuing this path," I don''t mention anything about my earlier doubts, the instructor smiles, "Pick out a sword before the others get here, they don''t fund my class enough for everyone to get top quality sadly." The coach shakes his head jokingly.


    I hurry as everyone returns to talking to themselves sometimes sneaking curious glances at me as I try my hardest to not listen in to their conversations but I can''t help it.


    The boys talk about competing, talk about how I''m a girl, but never once do they talk about me with distain or negativity, they seemed encouraged, almost as if they weren''t too sure themselves and me joining had helped them as well. After a while, a few more people enter the room but I don''t pay much attention to them. I count twenty or so in this class, it''s larger than my previous two but that might just be because they forced everyone into one or two groups.


    After everyone picks out a wooden sword from the crate the coach calls roll call as we line up and while looking around I notice one other girl who''s also in my class, ''Wait isn''t that Sylv?''

 Chapter 4.1

    I didn''t bother to question why Sylv was here, I had my own reasons and her reasons were probably better than mine anyway. The swords themselves were standard wooden short swords as we were only using them for training hopefully.


    Sylv seems to notice me to as we lock eyes before we both silently agree to pretend we never met, at least I believe that''s what we both want. As he lists names and organizes us based on year I fiddle with my sword, the "blade" was somewhat worn, the guard had a few chips in it, and the handle could possibly give me splinters but over all it was better than the others in the box.


    While fidgeting with the practice sword the coach called my name to give me my position, "Lilith, on the very left." I slowly walked over trying my best to pay attention to nothing but the sword I was holding. I didn''t want to talk to anybody at the moment as I was afraid that they would make fun of me even though they were super supportive just earlier.


    While I stared at the sword wondering how much it''d hurt to be bludgeoned by it during spars I heard a familiar voice and flinched preparing for something to come my way, "Hey Xavier, how''s it been?" With a hint of something I couldn''t put my finger to mixed into his voice. Even without looking I knew the boy was the "soup guy" and I assumed that Xavier was the other person he''d been in a fight with during lunch, ''Of course my luck is as a bad as always'' I complained to myself.


    Despite it having not even been a minute they''d already managed to get into an argument, they compared titles, power, wealth all while swinging their swords recklessly, well soup boy was being a bit more aggressive than who I assumed was Xavier. I knew better then to watch but the other students who had already been moved to their sections were also watching so what''s the harm in one more? I could guarantee the instructor had heard all of it but because of the situation of it being two nobles he had to just do his best to ignore the petty squabbling which was honestly quite amusing to me.


    They talked about wealth that I couldn''t ever imagine, magical artifacts, family heirlooms, and the need for treasuries, although I doubted I''d ever reach that high I couldn''t help but be enchanted by the allure of dreaming that one day I could live the same carefree life they had. Keep in mind, I had no idea how nobles actually lived and behaved, most of what I heard was hearsay.


    I scanned around to make sure I hadn''t missed anything as I was reassured by all the other students, including Sylv, intently watching the fight. During their fight the instructor had managed to find some excuse to let them continue and not to interrupt, which I could only assume was not wanting to get on any of the noble''s "bad sides". While they fought I couldn''t help but subconsciously rub my ears which were still very sensitive to touch from the mild burns they had received earlier.


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    The instructor had returned after only a minute seemingly forced back into teaching us and he slowly "calmed" the nobles down which was closer to pleading for them to just move on as everyone was waiting on them. I doubted that me and the other students having to wait for them was the reason or something that the nobles would care about but honestly it was a good excuse that left little room for them to continue as they settled back into line.


    "So let''s start, how do you hold a sword?" some of the students scoffed at the question but on one responded out of respect. I hadn''t noticed that some other people had come in and taken over the other groups until now.


    The instructor continued "Anyone? Some of you seem very confident, why don''t one of you volunteer?"


    A somewhat tall man walked forward, I couldn''t see much from the angle with other students blocking my line of sight as well as only seeing the back of his head. I could tell he was moving and swinging his sword but I couldn''t see the sword itself clearly and especially couldn''t see his hold on his sword.


    "Why don''t you turn around and let the others see? I know how to hold a sword, there''s nothing to prove to me," The guy spun around his face filled with indignation as if the mere act of interacting with those he believed were beneath him was physically harmful. He held his sword with two hands firmly on top of each other.


    "So can anyone tell me what''s wrong with it?" The boy''s face contorted slightly. We, well the others, started to murmur among each other with no actual consensus with the nobles seemingly too stuffed up with their own business to care, while us "commoners" had no idea. After a while the demonstration tired of the mockery that some of the other students had started, the boy rested his sword to his side leaning on it slightly.


    The coach having noticed this decided to just share the answer, "So what we are starting with is a short sword, although I doubt many of you will stick with it as you buy yourselves real weapons, but you still have to know how to know to basics of every weapon as well," He pauses looking for understanding in our eyes, "So Mordred here is holding a," he pauses for emphasis, "Short sword, which is usually held with a single hand, can anyone tell me why holding it with two hands is not optimal?"


    The other students mutter amongst themselves as I contemplate the problem. It''s hard to focus but I come up with my own idea that the handle being so small makes it too hard to grip but that doesn''t feel like the whole reason. I glance over to my left with Sylv talking with some of the others having gotten off topic and can''t help but look at the two stuffy nobles hoping they won''t end up causing any more trouble.


    The coach glances around as I hear someone clear their throat ready to speak.

 Chapter 4.2

    My first impressions of the guy used as the example were mixed, on one hand he had been extremely cocky but on the other hand I could only imagine how embarrassing it was to be an example of what not to do. After a long back and forth with everyone going in circles did the instructor finally say that he technically also wasn''t holding the sword wrong either, and that it was just a matter of how one preferred to weald a weapon.


    I couldn''t help but feel a little cheated by how long we''d spent, (Despite it only have been five minutes), he''d "wasted".


    The instructor than continued with the rest of his lecture which I quickly ended up tuning out instead worrying about what had happened about in the past, as I tried my best to not think about embarrassing things in the past as if that would magically cause everyone to learn or remember despite how no one here could probably read minds, but that slight chance was all that was needed to stress me out as I missed what was probably important information.


    After a while, when the instructor dismissed us, I had barely managed to gather anything he said, mostly tidbits from the other students were discussing while they were walking out. Not only that, I was even more confused on what I should do with the training sword in my hand, looking around I saw some other students just walking out the door with them and I tried to convince myself to just do as the others did. However, there''s always that tiny feeling I have where i feel like some people just had special situations or something, even though every students had left had taken their wooden training sword with them. It was the kind of stress that also left little room for me to ask because everyone else seemed to get it and if I asked it''d make me look... well... idiotic.


    It took a second for me to finally decide, after more and more people left, to just go with the others not considering what I was going to do after leaving the room. The sword had a sort of heaviness to it that I knew wasn''t real, sure it wasn''t something that I could just juggle around like a small ball but it also wasn''t heavy enough to make me unable to carry it around the entire day if necessary as I instinctively grabbed my tail a bit with my free hand while it was at my side.


    After walking out into the open I felt like I was being judged, specifically me, even though I was with others who were walking normally unbothered, I felt my grip on my own tail tighten as if my hand moved on its own. I had learned it wasn''t a really popular class, but I felt like even more of an outcast for some reason. I felt even my follow classmates boring holes into my skull even though when I turned around to look as inconspicuously as possible no one seemed to be paying special attention to me. Some people I ended up locking eyes with but it was more of the accidentally just meeting eyes while observing a place kind of thing, nothing special.


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    I hadn''t forgotten about the two other idiots, I mean nobles, but I couldn''t find them in the crowd so I presumed they had been some of the first to leave the room after being dismissed but the worry about what I should do myself reminded me to think about what to do with the sword in my hand. It was going to be a problem for me as I still hadn''t considered what to do with it beyond just laying it across my part of the dorm, before I had a bright, totally not going to back fire idea of asking Sylv.


    It was by sheer luck, for once I hadn''t been kicked while down by RNG, that she was just in front of me as I very lightly tapped her on the shoulder, only to immediately begin worrying and regretting my decision, ''She''s going to think of me as a weirdo, she''s going to make fun of me, she''s-".


    "Lilith? Want something?" Her voice had a somewhat comforting but firm undertone to it while also being quiet enough to not stress me over others hearing our conversation. She seemed more casual than when we were at the dorm to as if she was just tired in the morning as well.


    I decided that it was too late to back out anyway and started, "So... I was wondering... uh, um, what we''re supposed to do with," I raise my hand holding the training sword slightly, "this?" I immediately felt like I did something wrong as she took a second to think, although directly her expression was neutral, I began to think of all the ways that she might negatively react as I started to have a sinking feeling throughout my body.


    "Oh the swords? I''m just putting mine on my bed for now, the instructor really didn''t tell us anything beyond ''just take them''." She said in a neutral tone giving no further context that somehow cared a bit of understanding, probably just from the context of her words, I rationalized. I still felt a feeling of dread despite how clearly it was made that my question had by coincidence, not stupid, I still felt as if people were judging me as if by the sheer thought of me not originally knowing it''d make others think of me as... I mentally shook my head trying to rid myself of those thoughts as I quickened my pace.


    I had been so focused on trying to clear my mind and not bumping into other people before i realized I had just walked past my dorm. After walking back awkwardly, and pushing open the door I observed the room was empty as I had probably ended up leaving Sylv behind or she''d somehow finished everything before me but I hadn''t immediately noticed it and it wouldn''t end up mattering and thinking about it would just be weird, and... I again I had to shake my head this time physically to get it all out of my head, no one was here, at least I hoped, I didn''t bother checking as I just leaned the sword against my bed''s frame before decided to just sit down on the increasingly inviting mattress and think for a moment.

 Chapter 5

    Something about the mattress made me want to just sink into it, before feeling the pressure on my tails which always made it impossible to enjoy the simple pleasure of lying on one''s back, like they always make it look so comfortable, the simple ability to enjoy something "so normal". So I ended up laying there, on my side, staring into the wall not really thinking anything.


    With a lot of effort I barely managed to get myself to read the clock. This was a break time for me which I had chosen after not a lot of contemplation for a reason that I forgot but that didn''t mean I regretted doing so, I was enjoying my time relaxing and doing nothing productive.


    Sometime while I had been lost in though Sylv had opened the door and left her sword before leaving presumably to her next class. I didn''t know how I managed to not notice her but at least she was able to tell that I didn''t really feel like being bothered as i continue to lay on the bed. It was a lot of fidgeting in finding a position I could comfortably stay in while not ruining my fur which I had brushed this morning but at some point I had decided to choose comfort over that as I gave into closing my eyes as well.


    It was like sleep "lite" where I felt like I was sleeping, somewhat, hard to describe, but also completely aware and awake at the same time, probably something more natural to me because of experience or lineage. The room was quite, enough so that even my ears could barely pick out the machinery and the people talking probably several rooms away. Every so often, even though I knew it hadn''t been that long, I force myself to look at the clock which ticked at most three minute every time I checked.


    The room was a bit cold to be honest but I had neither the strength or care to cover myself in the blanket I was comfortably laying on as I started to think about my past. I don''t really remember my parents that well to be honest, like I remember them but I always felt like I didn''t actually know them. They were defiantly great parents but still, it felt wrong as I didn''t feel any real personal connection with them. They claimed to be "foxes" "just like me" but they never showed any feature of well, any beast kin. They had claimed it was magic that they used because of several convoluted reasons but at the end of the day they treated me with the same love as any parent would so I had never cared much for the truth, it was only now while I had a lot of free time did I think about this stuff that any of it came to mind.


    These thoughts were always uncomfortable because they truly deserved my unconditional love but something deep down prevented me, it was hard for me to accept these thoughts as I struggled with this anxiety as if these mere thoughts were enough to make me a horrible daughter even if possibly adopted. But there was always the other possibility... ''No'' I told myself, it wasn''t ever worth considering it as I quickly switched what I was thinking about, or more accurately, stopped really thinking much at all choosing to once again relax in blissful thoughtlessness.


    After long enough when the clock had finally hit the time when break was over, I begrudgingly pushed myself up and just sat there for another minute watching the clock. After that minute I finally pulled myself off of the bed as I wobbled myself over to the door and pulled it open. I had half expected the hallway to have changed but it was just as empty as I had always seen it (the three times I had) with doors with neat little plaques labeling them.


    It was the first time I had really bothered to observe them instead of hurrying somewhere hoping I was late. The hallway looked fancy at first glance but with further details I could tell it was lacking some stuffy but this was for the new students I rationalized and honestly it was more than fancy enough for me who had lived in relative impoverishment where my parents had told me that they and their parent''s and their parent''s parent''s had saved to send me where maybe I could make enough to send all my future children to this school as well. Honestly, it felt flimsy but as I thought about it the more the doubt of being a horrible child kept creeping into my head as I pushed any suspicion out of my head.


    That reoccurring thought, the fear of being a horrible person and specifically daughter was always so oppressive in my life. Every time I fought with my parents, every time I got into an argument, although again they never specifically instilled it, their compassion for me made it inevitable that this guilt would begin to build up, where I believed I was good enough for them, that I had already failed... This time I slapped myself "awake", I needed to actually clear my mind now, something to distract me so these thoughts and doubts would go away for now.


    Luckily my class was just around the... corner? I walked backwards a bit retracing my steps, ''no this is definitely where the map says...'', I walked back to the corner as a bit of embarrassment started to build up. ''It''s still just a wall, what was I thinking that something would change?'' I continued to stare blankly at the wall.


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    After looking at it for a couple more moments, it was still just a wall...


    "Hey any idea where... Oh..." I heard someone approach me try to begin to ask.


    "What... an interesting... uh..." The short-ish boy continued trying to avoid any embarrassment.


    With a little bit of courage I responded, "Nope, no idea, heheeehehe...heh..." if nothing else it at least saves him I tried to justify but on the inside I was burning up with embarrassment. I look back at the map they handed out to all the students, and again nothing changed, it still said that the room should be right here.


    The boy walked a bit forward as if analyzing the wall, ''It''s just a wall...'' and with a sigh he leaned into the wall, like literally into the wall as with a startled yelp I heard a dull *thud* as I winced back a bit with him having disappeared from sight. With all this time my incredible genius, or lack there of, hadn''t bothered to even investigate the place, ''I''m just too tired from just waking up...'' I resigned myself to this humiliation. The class itself was "Problem Solving and Improvisation in Spellcasting", my parents had spent a lot of time trying to convince me that it was worth it and the school had labeled it "not mandatory but highly recommended" when sending out class registrations.


    I personally didn''t get the importance because all the already famous and well known spells were famous and used because they were good, why would I need to learn how to improvise I thought to myself. But after a whole lot of once sided arguing of my parents I finally gave in and decided to just get it done with first year.


    The entire wall was probably there to be a kind of first lesson and I had managed to completely and utterly fail it and my anxieties were now peaked imagining my other classmates or not even, just other people at the school laughing at me for being so useless. I stood there motionless until the same boy from earlier called out to me.


    "Hey! What are you waiting for?" As if he himself didn''t feel much of anything after "failing" the first "test" as well. With a little hesitation I carefully and slowly walked into and through the wall after closing my eyes. I had half expecting the wall to be real despite witnessing that it wasn''t just a moment ago.


    The classroom itself wasn''t anything impressive, it was just desks and rows of seats... that didn''t accommodate for my physical needs... It''s something you learn to just recognize when something isn''t going to work specifically for you and in this case it was chairs that didn''t accommodate my tail forcing me to sit on the very edge to try to not crush mine. The boy who''d I''d witness fall through the wall had just moved to a random chair and sat in it near the front and begin to immediately look at me with a... look, I couldn''t tell, probably because I was never good with facial expressions to begin with.


    The teacher herself was relaxed in her chair with her eyes closed while it seemed we were the first two in the class. The other student finally seemed to give up and stopped looking in my direction before pulling out a book and flipping through it. With a bit of time I found myself at the back left corner of the class sitting very uncomfortably with my head laid across the desk taking inspiration from the teacher to close my eyes and quickly found myself daydreaming.


    It was kind of hard to focus on my thoughts as I heard more and students enter the class all in their own unique ways, some had fallen through the wall like the first boy, some just walked straight through having either watched or known before hand, I wouldn''t know my eyes were still closed, while I heard some interesting noises possibly from pushing, arguing, or simply just talking from outside the room.


    Not before too long the teacher had finally decided to call attendance as she started to list our names one by one as I almost ended up missing my own, which would have been embarrassing. I still hadn''t raised my head as I continued to try my best to relax before the teacher finally started her lesson, which I also didn''t pay attention to. All I heard was "syllabus" and I immediately zoned out, she hadn''t even bothered to start any introductory questions or games and just immediately started to explain rules which only made me even more disengaged and tired than I''d already been.


    I had been so disengaged in fact that I didn''t notice her walk up to me and literally hit me, IN THE EAR, with a roll of paper and then she just walked back up to the front like nothing happened, she didn''t even say a word in acknowledgement. That interaction only made me despise her even more as not only was it extremely rude, to be fair I was being disrespectful too, but also it hurt like hell because my ears were sensitive. And so, I ended up spending the rest of my class aggressively doing my best to ignore every single word she said. Of course I still felt very embarrassed but my sheer anger kept me from worrying about that at the audacity for her to use THAT as my punishment, but honestly I would have preferred that over her calling me out but I wasn''t going to admit that.


    In the end, I learned nothing, not what I should have done, about other people, nor anything the teacher said in class. It was the least useful, and perhaps one of the most, possibly irrational, angry moments of my life. The little test at the very beginning had given me some hope that maybe she''d be a good teacher and I had been proven wrong as I continued to pout internally while making my way to my next classroom.


    It couldn''t possibly get worse than the last class I thought to myself, half hoping for myself to be wrong out of pure spite against myself.

 Chapter 6

    I could call my day ruined already but to be fair, I had completely brought it upon myself to hate the last class, no matter how hard I tried to lie to myself I know that half of it was at least my fault that I hated the last class but there wasn''t anything to be done about it now.


    There really wasn''t anything special about my next assigned class which was going to be the last for the day before I got dinner then free time. Unlike the last door this one was completely normal like every other room before then but I instinctively approached it a bit more carefully than I had for the classes before. The room was unfortunately like every generic sit and get lectured room so far but at least one of those had been somewhat fun while the other had been... well I still hadn''t forgiven that teacher.


    One thing that people get wrong about having impeccable hearing is that just because I can hear something doesn''t mean I''m listening or paying attention. And one of the best ways for me to fail to pay attention is distracting myself with my own thoughts, and so there I was, standing right in front of the door blocking the other students behind me until finally one of them tapped me on the shoulder.


    That''s all it took to make me realize what I was doing and before they could open their mouths, presumably again, I quickly ran as fast as possible to the back corner of the room to hide from the shame of it and to my relief no one pressed the issue further. The class itself was more of a wrap up for me, there wasn''t really anything else to choose besides specialization classes none of what really interested me. The class itself was "Contracts and Spirits" which was a popular class. I didn''t need a companion, or more accurately another one, my tail was already conscious enough on its own but since I already had one empty slot and I didn''t want to waste my parents'' money I decided to just pick something normal that others wouldn''t judge me for, at I hoped no one would.


    I was here relatively early as I had somehow managed to not get lost or take a wrong turn for once. People often associate being early to class as being excited for class which I think I had disproven to myself as I seriously would have rather done nothing this period if not for the guilt of not doing as much as I could with my tuition. The room itself was relatively cold despite the time of day not that I minded too much but it was still uncomfortable, and I could hear some of the other students starting to complain amongst themselves.


    I was lucky to be wearing something akin to a long sleeve shirt and pants, the school didn''t have a uniform to my relief, not out of thought but just because that was the first thing I''d found at the top of my luggage. There are a few things I''d never get and one of those was fashion, I didn''t understand the appeal of more frills on dresses, best colors, or more revealing cloths (I honestly thought everything the nobles wore was disgusting, maybe it just physically hurt my eyes) but it wasn''t my place to judge what the upper echelons of society wanted to do.


    The class itself was a mix of all races and levels of society not that they interacted much with each other but it was nice that no drama had happened yet despite the diversity, my parents always told me that I should avoid rich or important people for that reason and they weren''t wrong from what I''ve seen, not that I was complaining that my ears weren''t getting assaulted as collateral at the moment. There wasn''t anyone that I recognized, ''big school'', I thought. It wasn''t that I really wanted to share the class with someone in specific but it felt kind of weird to only have one class together with only one dorm mate for some reason.


    In a few moments after everyone had found their seats and mostly quieted down, some more than others (Front row, two left of my seat was still blabbering and I could hear everything he was saying), but otherwise everyone was ready, I think. It took another minute for the person in charge, I didn''t know to call them professor; instructor; or teacher, yet to finally get the last student to stop talking before he started the begin his "speech".


    "Welcome to the class, I''m Mr. Noct, look around you, chances are none of you are going to have the same experience in this class as your fellow students. You don''t choose your spirit, partner, or whatever else you want to call the being you''re going to summon as your companion but they choose you. Just know that you can''t choose what becomes your partner or anything like that, congratulations, it''s magic. Well anyway I''m sure none of you are going to listen to me ramble on for another twenty minutes about what you should expect so here are the key points: You cannot change the identity of your companion, even if they die, you just in a sense ''recreate'' them, it''s the exact some living being, same soul and everything, you will regret mistreating it or them for this reason; You will be unable to separate them from yourself after summoning your companion; You''re companion can be whatever you want within reason, a pet, a partner ''in crime'', a friend, whatever within reason, otherwise you will be expelled if you do something outrageous, I can''t believe I have to even say that but you teenagers are idoits," Despite how serious his face was he still managed to convey that it was a bit to lighten the mood, "Do not attempt to harm other''s summons, that will be treated as if you assaulted the student themselves, you''ll explain yourself to the headmaster, believe it or not, he actually does his job most of the time; You''re summons, except on the first day, are expected to obey academy policy as well, the first day is given as a kind of vacation to learn how to control your new partners for life, none of you are going to walk up to me and go ''my summon blah blah blah'', I''ll tell you ''and my summon is telling me to tell you to go to the headmaster''s room''; There is no preferential treatment in my room, it probably won''t be the same once you leave my class but while you''re my student for this subject you will and should not be treated differently then the others for whatever the reason unless common sense dictates otherwise, I''ll give one example where someone would be treated differently real quick because otherwise some of you wouldn''t understand, I once had a student who his name was Paul, his name wasn''t actually Paul but I''m calling him Paul, Paul was as stupid as you can imagine, picture anything stupid and idoitic, Paul probably did that, Paul was kicked out of my classroom because he was a douchebag, that''s as far of a difference in treatment any of you should expect; And finally common sense, if you wouldn''t do it while no one is watching, or something that''s going to get you in trouble, don''t do it, it''s honestly all just common sense but it''s not like common sense ever stopped any one of you gremlins." After the entire, very passionate, speech, he took a exaggerated deep breath and sat back down in his own chair.


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    In my opinion he was the kind of guy who you couldn''t tell was sane pretending to be insane, insane pretending to be sane, nor insane thinking he was sane pretending to be insane and honestly it was kind of refreshing. He seemed to have already formed some kinds of relationships with the other students as he "intently" stared at some of the others during his Speech. I hadn''t really been paying attention to him before the speech but I could see a small bird like creature perched on his desk that at I had initially thought was a kind of ornament but was now clearly alive in some way.


    I had all but forgotten about my attempt to stay angry earlier as I had secretly found his speech very entertaining although I didn''t show it.


    "Oh by the way that''s the entire class today, I know right? So short and sweet, I wonder why the other instructors don''t just do this as well." Mr. Noct joked a bit more before leaning forward and focusing on some paper on his desk. I couldn''t see the paper itself not because I couldn''t focus on it but because of the angle, turns out having the eyes of a fox makes your eyesight really good, not as good as a bird but still better than a human''s or even an elf''s. Although I wasn''t able to actually see the paper and I no matter what I wasn''t going to be able to do so, I wouldn''t stop trying while still trying my best to be as subtle about it as possible, I didn''t know why I felt like doing so, just that I did but I ended up giving up after a while.


    I really didn''t have anything to do during the time after his speech until the period was over so I just ended up fidgeting with my ears, tail, and hair while occasionally looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to my general vicinity. I tried my best to give courtesy to the other students by ignoring their conversations as I knew that they weren''t actually being that loud for what they were used to but I would sometimes end up focusing on a few words before realizing what I was doing an snapping out of it.


    It felt surprisingly short for the remaining time despite the fact I wasn''t really entertained but I quickly made my way back to my room, not for any particular reason, its just that I didn''t really have anywhere else to go, my dinner time was the tail end in contrast to my early lunch schedule so I just ended up relaxing on my bed for the entire duration until I heard the door open. I shifted my head and neck a bit to see who entered recognizing it as Sandra and Elisa, ''the jerk'' which was a note I had some point unconsciously attached to her mentally, they weren''t talking with each other as they both awkwardly shuffled into the room while Sylv was no where to be found.


    It was a relief that neither of them seemed to want to engage in talking as they both quickly moved over to their respective corners and started organizing whatever, not that I paid any attention to what they were doing after I confirmed it didn''t involve me. It wasn''t that I was no longer concerned, I was always worrying about how others felt about me, it''s just that in this case I didn''t have the energy to do anything at all as I just laid on my stomach and buried my face into the pillow. It was awkward but I was used to awkward situations before so I didn''t mind but I didn''t know about the other two as I could feel my tail slowly swishing behind me fanning the back of my neck, that''s why its always been my best partner, it knows what I want when I don''t even know what I want.


    Sadly I had judged incorrectly when I thought the other two girls would speak as Sandra ended up trying to start small talk with me.


    "Hey Lilith, so how was your first day?" She sounded natural and I was a bit jealous because I could never be so unworried in my own questions and at the same time I was too scared to seem like a jerk to not respond either and so I defaulted to my natural response.


    "Tired..." That''s all I could manage to say and I felt quite satisfied to end the conversation there before realizing that it wasn''t even a proper answer to the question. I ended up holding my breath hoping that she would either not notice or just gloss over my response and let me be free but I wasn''t going to be let off the hook that easily.


    "Yeah must be rough, physical education was rough for you wasn''t it?" She tried her best to continue a conversation and I began to realize I wouldn''t be able to dig myself out of this one but I still tried by not responding.


    "Hey I know it might be rude to ask, but what do those ears feel like?" I knew she was just being nice and that I normally wouldn''t care about that question anymore than "how are you?" or "how you feeling?" but I couldn''t help but start to scheme a bit about how I could use it to end her attempts at conversation before I felt an incredible wave of guilt shutting that thought process down.


    "Oh yeah... they''re really sensitive..." Which was about all I could muster to say to be polite.


    Sandra sensing that the conversation wasn''t going to go anywhere decided to stop pushing as I heard a sigh before I heard the thump of someone flopping onto their bed. Elisa had been quiet the entire time which I was content with, I didn''t have the energy to check on why though.


    After what felt like not enough time, I looked at the clock and decided it was time to head over to the cafeteria. Sandra had left earlier trying to ask me if I wanted to go with her, but after a few words she gave up and left with Elisa, who had silently accepted the invitation. This caused me to reconsider my thoughts on slightly her. Elisa hadn''t shut the door on her way out which I had only noticed when I sat up which made me panic as I quickly shut it and prayed that no one saw my embarrassing in which I had some point ended up balling myself up like how an actual fox would sleep, it was a guilty pleasure for me, and honestly I shouldn''t even feel guilty by doing so but I always had that internal anxiety. I stretched a bit after sitting up, slowly stood up, and headed to the door.

 Chapter 7

    Dinner itself was quite refreshing, I had chosen something basic as I wasn''t that hungry and really couldn''t afford to spend much either. Sandra ended up kind of forcing me over to "her" table with a few others who looked just as awkward as I did with each other. Despite that she somehow managed to keep everyone else talking, at least one at a time but still struggled to make the others talk amongst themselves while I sat there only adding the occasional comment or chuckle which seemed to satisfy Sandra arbitrary quota. I felt honestly kind of sad for her as she kept on trying her best to keep everyone happy, I had been able to piece together everyone at the table, oh yeah, I somehow missed Elisa being there, not that she talked much either, she just looked annoyed if I were to put a name to it, were just a bunch of other students that Sandra had meet and found nice to hang out with.


    There were topics about specific classes, thoughts on teachers, and rumors that circulated not that I paid much attention to rumors, but they weren''t rude just kind of funny so I played along quietly. I heard them discuss about one of the newer teachers being caught taking bribes from noble families but not getting fired due to their backing which I just had to accept as a part of life at this point. It wasn''t confirmed, confirmed, but all the students in her class for third period had collectively stated that they saw a paper on her desk detailing the entire case when she left for something (Not mentioned), which I found quite careless on her part. The name of the teacher was Mrs. Paris, not a name that I knew but I guess it was an interesting enough topic which finally got some of the more sociable members as the table talking, which I ended up somehow being dragged into the conversation.


    "By the way have you heard? Apparently one of the noble families publicly defended her by saying that what she did was ''fair''."


    "What really? I doubt it''d just be one then."


    "I mean news, doesn''t spread fast, the most efficiently priced messaging we have is horseback, so who knows when we''ll here about more?"


    All this talking ended up attracting the attention of one of the supervisors who quickly told us off for discussing rumors embarrassing us all. Everyone mostly ended up eating in silence after but at least some of the others found conversation topics between themselves which made it feel a bit less awkward.


    Elisa was the least vocal in terms of opinion on the topic but not of voice, maybe she came from a wealthy family too I thought, not that it mattered to me, well maybe a bit but otherwise there wasn''t anything else notable.


    After a bit I finished my meal and quickly went back to my room not having considered what to do with my free time as I really couldn''t bring myself to lay back down on my bed. The academy had a field and everything but I wasn''t exactly comfortable presenting myself to the public like that, it wasn''t that I didn''t enjoy sports, surprising as it may be to others, but that the part about joining others in sports is what made it a bit hard to get involved.


    I ended up sitting there alone in my room as if expecting something interesting to magically happen, I mean magic does exist, but not in that way and after enough time I ended up relenting and making my way slowly to the doors outside, not exactly a long walk but stairs are annoying.


    The field itself was many sections dedicated to different sports, events, or other things not that I was confident enough to approach any of the choices I had. I ended up sitting on a bench next to the door trying my best to seem normal, despite failing, and just watching which honestly I found entertaining enough.


    It continued on like this with my occasionally switching what I watched as I internally noted Sandra joining the others in some sort of ball kicking game, Elisa not being present, and Sylv over in the corner of the field if a bit too distant even for my eyes to see what she was doing. The time seem peaceful as students went about their own forms of entertainment before a large *boom* sound could be heard from over besides Sylv. The other students quickly turned their attention to it as some of the students curiously approached while others just decided to return to what they were doing.


    I personally was curious enough to investigate, from a distance of course, as I made my way behind the crowd that was beginning to gather. At the center of the commotion was a gang of students, a human, two elves, a cat(As much as I hate the derogatory term, it''s true that it''s much faster to use, at least mentally even if it makes me feel a little guilty myself) that looked a bit too familiar, and a dwarf waving some kind of weird banner, the wind folding it made it impossible to read but it was brightly colored in red, yellow, and white from what I could see. The familiar cat was off to the side which ended up being my focus because that''s the only person I could recognize with his name being Lewis if I remembered correctly.


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    The boys themselves didn''t seem to be doing anything suspicious beyond the banner they were waving as they just stood there as if having a picture drawn of them. I couldn''t exactly pin down the emotion I was feeling at this point shock, horror, fear, anxiety, excitement? Maybe it was a mix of both but the situation itself was distracting enough to pull me away from worrying about that.


    Eventually they stopped holding the same pose, honestly looked uncomfortable, as they started to quietly laugh and looked around to see all the attention they had garnered. Lewis himself seemed to look at me a bit longer as if he was trying to remember my face before quickly moving on, fluid enough that you could miss it if you weren''t looking for it, which most people wouldn''t be, like I''m actually so jealous that there are people who have the ability to be so careless and yet so natural like this at the same time.


    During this time they had at some point thrown out little strips of paper which after looking around to make sure no one was watching, I don''t even know why honestly, I picked one up and stuffed into my sleeve for later.


    After the initial shock the other students started to disperse randomly and only dispersing faster with one of the teachers absolutely lightening the group up with colorful (although not vulgar) language about there actions but something told me that they were enjoying it more then anything. With another staff member incoming I decided that would be the best time to leave the place before I might be caught up in something that I didn''t exactly want to be a part of.


    Having left the scene mostly unseen, at least not any more seen than anyone else I was hoping, which was probably just the paranoia but that''s not something I can just fix as I slipped back inside the dorms to maybe find something else to do.


    When I had initially come here the place had been overwhelming and it still was but there had also been something that secretly caught my eye that I tried my best to not seem overly excited about, the activity room and club rooms. Again, as I child I didn''t exactly live a wealthy life but I had lived mostly comfortable enough comparatively, it still makes me feel guilty when I complain about everything I couldn''t have when I was younger, that I couldn''t exactly complain either, as I did have it better then most of the other "lower class" demonstrated best by my ability to attend the academy at all.


    The funny thing is because there were so many students of "lower class" (I learned to just accept this term, it''s something you get used to if you''ve lived your entire life with it), we were made to arrive early so they could pull us aside and explain everything we were supposed to do differently or not do at all like washing our own clothes amongst other everyday chores that we''d maybe have grown accustomed to.


    It was a quick half hour course that only helped to set the scale for me of how much better wealthier people lived. My parents had made sure I''d understood what I was getting myself into but I thought some of it could be chalked up to them just having grandiose and inflated dreams about how a "proper" academy or school would differ from what I would normally have gone to but it turned out that they hadn''t been thinking big enough unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way I wanted to look at it.


    But bringing myself back to the present I couldn''t help but look in the direction of the sign as I walked past it wondering if it was really feasible or "ok" for me to visit those rooms as I just told myself I''d ask one of the staff later.


    There wasn''t anything that happened as I walked, I went passed a few people chatting amongst themselves usually about their own classes or where they wanted to go to have fun as I tried my best not to listen into their conversations, it was a bad habit of mine because unless they specifically watched my ears they wouldn''t know and even then most of the time I''m noticed is because my tail is wagging uncontrollably, it''s embarrassing and I don''t know how to stop it and it doesn''t wag just because I''m happy or something, there''s a lot of reasons that I don''t even remember the list, and one thing ends up turning to another as I end up locking eyes with them and they think they''re the one''s who first looked at me starting the awkward stare but I know I''m the one who looked at them first when I was listening in and one thing... yeah, the point has been made. I don''t necessarily want to do it, but I''ve developed this bad habit and now I have to suffer because of it, I internally let out a sarcastic celebratory ''yay'' in my head as I rubbed my face while standing in front of my room''s door.


    After heading inside and sitting down the little slip of paper ended up slowly fluttering out of my sleeve as I tried my best to grab it out of the air but it always ended up fluttering away at the last second which is somehow one of the more frustrating things I''ve found in life, small pieces of paper falling slowly in the air.


    After attempting it grab it at least six times and causing it to go higher in the air every single time, it finally landed on the ground which started the second most annoying part about small pieces paper, trying to pick them off the floor, especially when I didn''t know if it was dirty or not and no matter what I did, it would always end up bent, folded, or crinkled in some way by the time I managed to get it off the floor. So with this knowledge I let out a small sigh as I pinched the center of the paper and picked it up to read.


    The writing itself was hard to read but after a moment of deciphering it I just accepted in my head that it read "Vote Tristan for student president," I didn''t know what ''student president'' was at least not in the moment, there was still more on the paper but at this point the frustration made me end up just tossing it as I didn''t really feel like reading it. And so once again I was laying on my bed without a real goal or anything, which always feels like a waste of time, but also too comfortable to just not once started.