I put my bag and spear down on my bed and left the room. I had no intention of spending the first day inside; besides, it was best I looked around because I remembered nothing of the academy from the game.
As I stepped out of the building, the courtyard was already full of motion. Other first years were spilling out of their rooms to go on their own little tours in groups.
I made it three steps towards the Courtyard before I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. My eyes flicked to the right, and I saw Nico striding beside me.
'The hell?' I had neither noticed his presence nor heard his footsteps. My eyes narrowed. 'He's fast.'
"Exploring?" Nico asked, his hands were in his pockets, and his damp hair was brushed back to reveal his sharp features.
"Yeah," I said. "Figured I should learn more about the place."
Nico nodded once, like that was the only sensible answer. "Let me guide you."
I glanced at him. "You've been here before?"
"No." He slowly walked ahead and gestured for me to follow. "My brother studied here. A few years ago."
"That's lucky," I replied as I jogged behind him.
Nico hummed, "Somewhat."
We left the dormitory section and followed the main path downhill, boots crunching over thin snow that never quite settled properly on the Academy grounds. Every walkway and footpath was lined with magical pylons that helped melt and scatter the snow.
As we reached the end of the first walkway, the main campus came into view, surrounded by bare winter trees.
It wasn't a single building, the best way to describe it would be a complex.
A castle-like mansion of pale stone and dark rooflines at its centre, with four structures stitched into the perimeter of the main body like ribs, hundreds of windows staring out over the grounds. The architecture had a brutal elegance to it, and it also gave a sense that it was built to endure.
I slowed to admire the scene.
Nico lifted his chin toward the main structure. "That's the hub. Everything important branches from there."
"What about the four buildings?."
"The four main faculty buildings of the Academy.."
He pointed with a small tilt of his head as we walked.
"That weird looking tower in the Western wing is for mana and magic study. Theory, control, spell-work whatever you can think of." His gaze slid to the North. "That rotunda is the Weapons and Combat faculty. It's got sparring rooms, training halls and the cages."
"Cages?" I repeated.
"That's what my brother called them." Nico's shoulders rose a fraction in a shrug. "I've never been inside."
Nico continued and pointed to the east. "That third building is the Annex. A lab wing. Alchemy. Artefacts. Enchanting. They do all kinds of research there.."
"And the fourth?"
He didn't point at first. Nico waited until we walked closer and reached the gate of this building.
Standing in front of it, I could see that it was built closer to a bunker than a building.
Dark reinforced stone lined its walls. Only two heavy set doors served as its entrance, with one wide stair case leading downwards. It was flanked by carved pillars that hummed with magic visible to the naked eye. The air around it felt constricting, as if the building itself was sucking your breath in.
Nico finally answered. "The Demonology faculty"
I nodded slowly.
Nico's gaze lingered on the bunker for half a heartbeat longer. Then he turned away, jutting his chin to the distance as he beckoned me to follow along.
I walked away, eyes lingering on the bunker with a morbid curiosity till it left my field of vision.
We crossed over to the outskirts of the academy.
Paths branched across the grounds, connecting training fields, smaller lecture halls, administrative buildings, and quiet courtyards where snow gathered in untouched drifts. A couple of second years crossed our path at one point, their eyes sliding over us with bored appraisal.
Eventually, the campus's design seemed to shift. A broad structure rose ahead with pointed arches and tall stone ribs. It looked eerily similar to a temple at first glance.
My vision flickered as something flew past the corner of my eyes.
At first, I thought it was a trick of the light. But then I saw 'it' properly.
'Metallic eyeballs.'
Strange devices hovered in the air, palm-sized, polished silver balls with dark pupils that seemed like lenses at the centre. They drifted in slow patterns around the entrances and the perimeter, occasionally stopping as if focusing on a sound or a movement, then continuing.
I raised my brows. "Those are some sort of surveillance?"
"Security," Nico nodded, "The building ahead is the Grand Library. It's quite, closely guarded."
"Library," I repeated, unable to stop the interest from slipping into my voice.
"Largest on the continent. Or that's what some say at least."
"What do they keep in there?"
"Everything. It's rumoured to hold personal collections of archmages. Original grimoires. Restricted manuals. Histories that never got printed."
"Of course. You can't actually borrow any of those. At most, they'd let you read the books inside." Nico clicked his tongue.
"What?"
"It's a vault as much as a library," he added. "They track every single piece of text in there. Often...aggressively. "
Nico frowned as if recalling something.
I exhaled slowly, then nodded. "That's fine."
Nico's gaze narrowed a fraction. "Fine?"
"As long as I can read it. It'll be fine." I nodded.
For the first time, Nico's expression shifted into something almost approving. He turned away again and kept walking.
We pushed further east across the grounds.
Open fields spread out, criss-crossed with tracks and marked lanes. A gym building sat near one end, its windows fogged from warmth and bodies moving inside. Beyond that was a proper running track, snow kept off it by low, embedded wards.
And then I saw it.
A fenced-off building in the distance, squatter than the main campus but larger than the gym, built with reinforced walls and thick doors. The fence around it wasn't just metal. It was warded. The air shimmered faintly above it.
Nico glanced at it. "Second-year training facility."
I kept my steps even, eyes on the fence. "We're not allowed there."
"We're not allowed inside," Nico corrected. He veered slightly, heading toward the entrance anyway.
I frowned. "Nico."
He looked back. "We're not going in."
"Then why are we walking toward it?"
He shrugged like the answer was obvious. "To see it."
I let out a quiet breath through my nose, but naturally followed along.
"Ilgar said that we aren't allowed to use them. He didn't say we couldn't look at a building. Besides, I am not crazy enough to try going inside" Nico looked at me with a sly smile.
We stopped near the fence line, still a safe distance from the gate. I could feel faint vibrations through the ground now, rhythmic pulses that made the air buzz. Magic. Impacts.
'Someone inside is sparring hard enough to shake stone.' I held my hand out and felt the faint rhythms of mana trembling in the air.
Nico tilted his head, listening. "They're training."
"No kidding," I muttered.
After observing for a few minutes, we both turned, ready to leave.
That was when the door burst open, and a body came flying out.
A boy hit the ground in front of us with a thud that made the snow puff up around him. He slid a short distance, boots carving a thin line, then stopped face-up at our feet with his chest heaving.
His face was flushed and furious, eyes wide with shock and pain, hair sticking up like he'd been grabbed by the scalp and thrown.
For a heartbeat, none of us moved.
Then the boy sucked in air, coughed once, and tried to sit up like his pride was the only thing still intact.
The training facility's doorway remained open behind him.
-
The boy who'd been launched out of the facility finally dragged himself upright.
His uniform was the same as mine, only now snow-streaked and wrinkled where he'd skidded across the ground. He spat once, like he could spit the humiliation out with the blood taste.
'First year?' My eyes narrowed, and I looked behind him. 'Did he try going inside?'
Moments later, a second-year stepped out of the building.
He was taller, built lean with long shoulders. Shoulder-length yellow hair fell in loose strands, bright against the darker edging of his uniform. His eyes were a clean, cold blue, and he looked tired in a way that didn't come from training.
He sighed once, like this was a routine inconvenience.
"I told you, stay away from the facility," he said with a frown, running his hand through his hair.
The first-year boy bristled instantly. "That's bullshit. I can fight. Let me back in!"
"We don't have time to babysit weaklings", the second year replied, already half turning back toward the door. "Don't try to sneak in again."
His gaze flicked past the boy and landed on Nico and me.
"And what the hell are you two doing here?" he asked.
Nico answered without hesitation, "Just looking around."
The second year's gaze raked over us; he rolled his eyes. "Look from further away."
With that, he turned back toward the entrance.
The first year snapped, "Wait."
"Let me try again," the boy barked, stepping forward.
The second year paused just long enough to look over his shoulder.
"For the last time, this is for your own good," he said. "Walk away."
The boy's face twisted. "I'm not scared of you."
The second-year student paused and pursed his lips. Then he replied. "You should be. Because if you come inside again, I'll kick your ass again. This time, without holding back."
His eyes sharpened into something colder as he stared the first year down, and for a second, the air near the entrance felt heavier.
The boy flinched anyway. Not physically, but in the way his bravado faltered for half a heartbeat before he forced it back into place.
He grunted, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and glared.
The second year disappeared back into the training facility without another word, and the door shut behind him with a solid click.
Silence settled.
The first-year boy stood there breathing hard, bruised along the cheek and lip.
"What the hell are you looking at?" Feeling our gaze, he snapped at us
Nico didn't even blink. "You getting beaten up."
The boy twitched like he'd been slapped again. His hands curled into fists. "You think you're funny?"
Nico's voice stayed bland. "No."
The boy stepped closer, snow crunching under his boots. "You want to fight?"
Nico looked him up and down and shook his head once, already turning away. "Not interested."
The boy scoffed and threw another string of insults behind us as we walked. Taunts, curses, threats that were mostly noise. Nico didn't react. He didn't even glance back.
"You should visit the infirmary," Nico added and walked away.
The boy's eyes then snapped to me, and I shrugged, following Nico back. The deeper we moved back into the open grounds, the more the Academy's hustle and bustle returned. The hum of wards, the distant scrape of students on stone paths, the low murmur of groups forming and reforming.
When we finally reached the crossroads where we'd started, I spoke.
"So that's all?" I asked. "What about the rest of the buildings?" I looked to the south and could still see some places we hadn't bothered to visit.
Nico slowed, thinking for the first time like he had to actually search for an answer.
"I don't know," he said. "Never bothered to ask my brother more than that."
I nodded, "When did your brother graduate?"
Nico stopped walking.
For a second, his face stayed neutral. Then his eyes shifted slightly, focus going somewhere that wasn't the courtyard, wasn't me, wasn't even the Academy.
"He didn't," Nico said quietly.
"Huh?"
He started walking again immediately and didn't look back. "I'll see you around."
Then he turned down a side path without waiting, hands still in his pockets, coat hem moving with each step like nothing had just been said.
I stood there for a moment, watching his back recede into the flow of first years and stone paths.
'He didn't.'
Something in my chest tightened. I could feel that I had accidentally overstepped my bounds. A part of me was apologetic, another was more morbidly insisting that I chase him down and ask more.
I exhaled slowly and let the questions go; instead, I turned to the open grounds and strode towards the Great Library again.