The classroom was empty. After all, Rowayne was two hours early for no particular reason, just that the apartment was very empty, so there was nothing much to do there.
Looking around the classroom, every seat had name tags. Rowayne's name was at the very front. He also found Ariel and Shen's names-a nice coincidence—but Rowayne didn't like the idea of being at the front. Also, a good way to make friends was a conversational back and forth.
And theoretically, it should be easier to befriend someone you have already talked to, so Rowayne's hands 'accidentally' slipped on his nameplate, ripping it out.
Several more accidental rippings and 'fixings' later, Rowayne found his name on a middle-row seat, which was now 'coincidentally' adjacent to both Ariel and Shin. What a coincidence it was… good thing there was no evidence proving otherwise.
Rowayne went to his new seat and drifted to sleep, only to be woken up by a hypnic jerk.
The class was almost filled. He looked around; some were busy staring at their phones, while others were either looking around the class or talking with other people.
'Friends already? Damn, I missed my chance. Nothing to do about it, I guess.'
Shen wasn't here, so he turned left to face Ariel.
"Oh. Didn't expect to see you here. Looks like we ended up in the same class."
She turned to face him.
"Oh, hi, it's not really a coincidence though."
Rowayne tilted his head to show his confusion.'What does she mean? A stalker? An assassin? Did she sit next to me on purpose? Am I a target? Is the empire onto me? No, that's impossible—'
"You didn't notice? Everyone here was on our bus."
'Oh. Never mind.'
Rowayne was bad at remembering faces and names.
"Oh."
Then his thoughts drifted to the screaming girl on the bus.
'We will have to deal with that for a whole year? Hell no, I wanna change classes already.'
Before they could speak further, a man who looked around the age of mid-thirties walked in. He was wearing a suit and looked tired, as if he would fall asleep at any moment.
"Yawn~ Good morning to everyone here. My name is Victor Burns, and I will be your homeroom teacher. I generally teach basic to advanced magic theory, but you guys won't have that in your course for the next 3 years, so I hope you don't cause any trouble, for my sake and yours."
He then handed a stack of papers to the front-row student.
"Distribute the written material about the rules amongst yourselves, and since the academy has its own laws, I recommend you look through the forum or ask for a physical copy in the library for future reference and to avoid any misunderstandings."
The student from the front row passed the papers along. It was the same one everyone had received with the invitation, but with slight key differences.
He then handed a stack of papers to the front-row student.
"Distribute the written material about the rules amongst yourselves, and since the academy has its own laws, I recommend you look through the forum or ask for a physical copy in the library for future reference and to avoid any misunderstandings."
The student from the front row passed the papers along. It was the same one everyone had received with the invitation, but with slight key differences.
Like the apartments were basically the academy's dormitories. All students were required to live in the dormitories, no exceptions. Students could not leave the academy's campus. The campus was equipped with various facilities.
It had its own clubs, café, theatre, arcade, among many other things a student could enjoy growing up.
Mr. Victor then continued.
"If you don't already know, your student IDs will work as your credit cards. You should have already received 600 points." (A/N ~ 1 point = 1 USD)
"Points will be deposited automatically into your account on the first of every month, starting next month."
"While you can use your points without restraint, it is recommended that you exercise restraint. But your points refresh every year, so there is also no point in saving them."
" In case you do run out of points, do not worry, as there is a free quota on daily necessities, including food. But I personally would not recommend the synthetic food. While they have enough nutrients to keep you going, you would not like the bland taste and rubber-like texture, but that is solely my personal opinion."
The lack of paper money solved many students' problems, but it also made it hard for those with spending habits to continue their own habits.
He looked sideways as if thinking about something, then continued.
"So to summarise everything, for the next 3 years you won't be leaving this castle. After that, you will be transferred to another location where you will study alongside 5th and 6th years, after which you can choose to leave the realm or continue to university here in the academic realm. Beware though, the academic realm's university only covers two courses: monster hunting and gatekeeping, and their teaching methods differ drastically from here."
His gaze landed on Rowayne, and he added another remark.
"Even if you cannot see any cameras, make no mistake — the whole campus is under proper surveillance."
So there was evidence suggesting otherwise, but the academy probably didn't care enough to expose Rowayne's earlier accidents.
"Alright, that should be enough. Any questions?"
A student raised his hand. His nameplate read—