“How should the kingdom deal with the desertification of the west?” That was the question of Hannah who took a liking to being the worst best teacher ever. As we were still drawing our plans at the chalkboard she was away to confirm if our timetables were correctly filled out.
“We can only beat it if we plant native trees there! Trust me, fast growing trees need more water and thus only increase the problems in the long run.” That was Luna’a proposal which was quite good, to be honest. That she read about desertification in the first place was a miracle in itself.
“We need to build canals from the water rich south to green it.” Diligent. Hardworking. That was the sixth prince. His plan was insane though as an irrationally large volume of dirt had to be moved. But we weren’t tasked with finding feasible solutions, but rather any solution whatsoever.
And I? I had drawn all of these plans on the chalk board because I was apparently the best one at that … even though I really wanted to propose my solution of building a row of catapults to transport the water. If even a single drop could be transported that way, I would be successful and could claim to have watered the plants.
But whatever, Hannah soon came back anyway with the corrected timetables, even though mine looked more like a mess than anything else. Whoever corrected these – probably the headmaster – spilt a bit of ink on mine.
“I think he wants to tell you that you cannot take combat courses without participating.” Hannah mentioned and pointed at the hole in the piece of paper, right where I wrote down Hannah’s course.
“I will participate? Trust me, I’ll show everyone magic they cannot forget!” I claimed and balled my hand into a fist.
“Fine … and I crossed out the history courses Luna didn’t take.” I was really thankful for her consideration. Peeking over towards the prince, I noticed he also took Hannah’s course. Well then, it was time to show a young prince what I was able to do with magic. Eventually.
First though, Hannah went towards the chalkboard, looked at the drawings I made and then turned around.
“And that concludes the first day. Please visit your courses tomorrow.”
“Aren’t you supposed to show us around campus?” Really? The prince was that eager to spent time with a teacher to go around the academy?
“Ehh … okay. Why don’t you form groups on your own and explore the academy in small groups? Like the idiots form a group, the good for nothings, the emotional guys … and the cool kids as well?” Suddenly, it dawned on me. Hannah probably never participated in any of these courses for real when she stayed at the academy and taught herself most of the time by using the knowledge the library provided. The thing was … all her knowledge about this school came from fantasy books.
“Your sister is weird…” Yeah, she was. But she was the good kind of weird. “And what about our task?” He asked loudly.
“Task? Oh, yeah, I liked the graphics. Nicely done whoever did it.” See? That was soley my achievement. “So do your thing. Bye!” And with that, she dashed out of the room quickly before the prince could ask any other question.
“So … I’m off with Luna.” I said and stood up slowly.
“Hey, wait! We were supposed to form groups, not pairs.” He said which did sound correct but also meant he liked to follow every rule. Strictly. But I was a nice girl, so I couldn’t say anything mean there.
“… fine. But only if you manage to get her on board.” I said, looked for the girl who was the least interested in socialising and directly found her in front of us. It was the little kitten who had her arms crossed in front of her, looked downwards timidly and didn’t bother with her neighbour at all. “You have one minute.” He basically scrambled to get in front of her while I strolled towards Luna giggling cutely.
“So … you are here because I am, correct?” She whispered quietly.
“Oh, Luna. That’s a very selfish and self centred view which I cannot approve of. I am here because … because of … truth to be told you are right.” I was at this academy for her and for these reincarnators who seemed to be the same age in general. But largely for her and I didn’t want to hide my motivation. “You are my precious friend and I won’t let my mo- … your mother stand in between us.”
“That’s sweet … but don’t you have anything else to do? Especially with these horrible things happening lately?” She asked and looked away in unease.
“Horrible things?” Was it time for detective Lucinda once more? Maybe another creature escaped out of purgatory by ‘accident’ ?
“You know … the suicides?” Oh … these horrible things. If she knew that I was the sole reason for these she certainly wouldn’t look at me this concerned … which honestly didn’t feel very good.
“There is nothing I can do. They chose to follow their faith and you know that I don’t favour any god in particular.” The saint was always supposed to be neutral as a voice for the gods of chaos and order, death and life, fire and water. “And besides, I need to learn stuff as well. This place is a vault full of knowledge and I want to read through all of that with you.“ She was a bit stunned as I said that, but soon caught herself as Louis poked at my shoulder.
“She agreed.” I turned around and looked at him in utter amazement. That development was seriously unexpected. Looking over my shoulder I noticed Luna smiling gently as if it was good that they would join us.
“Hey, Ellie was your name, right?” I asked and tried to give the cat girl my hand shortly afterwards but she left me hanging, looking away from me and holding the elbow of her right arm. She wasn’t any good with others, that was for sure.
“Y-yeah. Nice to … meet you.” She looked at none of us, but rather found a lot of interest in the floor all of a sudden.
“Hey, Ellie, there is no need to be nervous. We are all friends here.” Luna commented friendly. Finally, the beastwoman looked at Luna for a second before she answered.
“I … see. Shall we … go?” We most definitely should. The others who were still inside the room looked at the prince and from time to time as well as her in envy. That alone was hard to chew for her, let alone hearing how a few boys made jokes about her ears which which definitely picked their voices up.
“Yeah.” Surprisingly it wasn’t me who took the initiative, but rather the prince. He noticed those stares as well and apparently didn’t want to bear them either. Calmly, he strolled out of the classroom with us in tow.
“Hey … I don’t want to pry into your life and if you don’t want to answer that’s fine as well, but is your family noble?” Luna asked once we were inside the hallway.
“Kind … of. My father owns the barony we live in … even though it’s more of a village.” Oh, I heard about that town. It was given to all kinds of beastman to calm the other races down somewhat and ease some of the racial tensions that build up over the last hundreds of years.
“So that’s how it is. How should I put it … I know there are a lot of nobles thinking they are in any way better than you because they are human, but that’s simply not the case, alright? If you have any problems with them, or with anyone else feel free to ask Lucy, …” I swear Luna wanted to add Louis into the mix right there, but chose not to do so in the end. “ … Lucy and me. We will help for sure.”
“Thank you …” I was sure Ellie wouldn’t ask us either because she didn’t want to trouble us, or because she didn’t think she was worthy of such thing. Well, I was sure Luna would step in anyway, so I nodded happily and ran ahead towards the prince who apparently forgot about us until he arrived outside.
“You are slow …” He muttered, completely oblivious to our conversation.
“That’s only because you basically ran ahead. Where do you want to go first?”
“The cafeteria? I’m kind of hungry.” Well, I didn’t know if I wanted to eat anything there, but it wouldn’t hurt to go there either. And so, I interlinked my arms with Luna who just came with Ellie, and walked behind the prince with my best friend. Surprisingly, the cat girl didn’t join us, but rather the prince which wasn’t entirely surprising considering her shyness.
“And, what are your aspirations here?” I asked Luna quietly.
“I want to avoid the mistakes done by our ancestors.” She explained deep in thought. Truly, Luna and history went hand in hand with each other. “And I kind of have to go here. You know … parents and stuff.”
I nodded, knowing that times surely didn’t change. Two hundreds of years ago, noble children also had to go to the academy. Louis was one of them … the old Louis. I highly doubted the two Louis I knew had anything in common.
Anyways, Luna and I were chatting and the other two walked in silence for the most part if the prince didn’t ask for directions. But finally, we were at one of the smaller canteens around campus and directly strolled inside, even though Ellie was more defensive than usual.
I understood the reasoning behind her feelings the moment we were inside the large room. Naturally, some gazes landed on me, but Ellie had to deal with the majority. And these gazes she had to to endure were not very kind.
“We can leave, if you want.” I proposed quietly.
“No it’s fine … I’m used to it.” Ellie said and demonstratively walked towards the line of people waiting for their food. Naturally, we followed her immediately and waited for our food together with her.
We go nothing special – a carrot stew with a bit of meat – for a fair price though. Under the gaze of whoever we passed, we soon found an empty table and sat down to eat our meals. It tasted horrible but that was to be expected. I still finished it as fast as I could simply to avoid tasting it any longer.
I must have been a little bit too engrossed in my meal as someone gently touched my shoulder, just as I finished.
“Young lady, is the seat next to you empty?” I turned my head around and stared at the rather handsome sixteen year old student who dared to touch me. He had blonde hair and smiled at me as if the world belonged to him.
“Greg…” The prince on the other side of the table growled quietly.
“Louis, it is still Gregory for you.” Gregory sat down very close to me on the bench. “Do you want to introduce me to these two beautiful ladies?” Louis closed his eyes bitterly and demonstratively turned his head away. “I thought so. My half-brother really doesn’t know how to behave … anyways, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Gregory Worchester.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, my prince.” Luna and I said basically in unison.
“Oh, please. Here in this academy, your own rank doesn’t matter. It’s all about your achievements in here.” The second prince explained and touched my hand which rested on the bench. Luckily I wore my gloves, otherwise he surely would have noticed something odd.
“… what do you want?” Louis growled once more.
“Why are you so aggressive? I just want to explain these two beautiful girls that it is very unwise to get closer to you. He is … not good for you.” Gregory explained and smiled towards me which honestly weirded me out. He wasn’t my type in any way. It felt as if he was just showing off his achievements of being born with a golden spoon in his mouth and nothing more.
“We can make our own judgement.” I said and smiled back a bit. I didn’t want him to feel opposed by me, but I also couldn’t be seen as a total pushover.
“I’m certain of that. And I am sure you will make the right decision, because in the end, he is nothing but a fool following a dream of his. We have the same starting point … but he fell behind in every regard. Am I not right, my dear brother?” He asked and stared at the sixth prince mockingly.
“Just leave.” The prince said angrily.
“Like your mother left you?” It was quite obvious Gregory wanted to provoke Louis at any cost, probably to show who the superior one of these two boys was.
“You know very well why she had to leave.” Louis said and gnashes his teeth in anger. His hands were already balled into fists as he stood up furiously.
“To give you a better future … but look what you are now. A weakling who doesn’t know his place. Well then, Ladies.” Gregory said, stood up and walked towards two girls the same age as his. They were already chatting and quite touchy with each other as I turned my gaze back towards Louis who was fuming with anger.
“I … I think I should leave now.” Ellie stated, clearly not willing to be dragged into this mess.
“Ellie, if you leave now he will win. He wants to see Louis alone for whatever reason. And I am sure that one day our friend will tell us everything, but for now, we have to calm him down … and buy him better clothes so that he isn’t that easy to bully.” Ellie was almost apologetic as soon as I said that and nodded twice.
“My clothes have nothing to do with who I am.” The prince exclaimed a bit too loudly in my opinion, but at least he sat down again.
“I have seen my sister covered in blood and inside a ballroom dress. She is the same person on both occasions, but she is perceived as wildly different.” You are in what you dress in. I for example was very nice in my normal clothing, but sadistic whenever I wore something that covered me.
“I … can’t afford it.” The prince admitted quietly.
“I can lend it to you.” Luna proposed. She probably had the most money to spare, because I couldn’t access Tom’s money by feigning to be a normal person.
“How should the kingdom deal with the desertification of the west?” That was the question of Hannah who took a liking to being the worst best teacher ever. As we were still drawing our plans at the chalkboard she was away to confirm if our timetables were correctly filled out.
“We can only beat it if we plant native trees there! Trust me, fast growing trees need more water and thus only increase the problems in the long run.” That was Luna’a proposal which was quite good, to be honest. That she read about desertification in the first place was a miracle in itself.
“We need to build canals from the water rich south to green it.” Diligent. Hardworking. That was the sixth prince. His plan was insane though as an irrationally large volume of dirt had to be moved. But we weren’t tasked with finding feasible solutions, but rather any solution whatsoever.
And I? I had drawn all of these plans on the chalk board because I was apparently the best one at that … even though I really wanted to propose my solution of building a row of catapults to transport the water. If even a single drop could be transported that way, I would be successful and could claim to have watered the plants.
But whatever, Hannah soon came back anyway with the corrected timetables, even though mine looked more like a mess than anything else. Whoever corrected these – probably the headmaster – spilt a bit of ink on mine.
“I think he wants to tell you that you cannot take combat courses without participating.” Hannah mentioned and pointed at the hole in the piece of paper, right where I wrote down Hannah’s course.
“I will participate? Trust me, I’ll show everyone magic they cannot forget!” I claimed and balled my hand into a fist.
“Fine … and I crossed out the history courses Luna didn’t take.” I was really thankful for her consideration. Peeking over towards the prince, I noticed he also took Hannah’s course. Well then, it was time to show a young prince what I was able to do with magic. Eventually.
First though, Hannah went towards the chalkboard, looked at the drawings I made and then turned around.
“And that concludes the first day. Please visit your courses tomorrow.”
“Aren’t you supposed to show us around campus?” Really? The prince was that eager to spent time with a teacher to go around the academy?
“Ehh … okay. Why don’t you form groups on your own and explore the academy in small groups? Like the idiots form a group, the good for nothings, the emotional guys … and the cool kids as well?” Suddenly, it dawned on me. Hannah probably never participated in any of these courses for real when she stayed at the academy and taught herself most of the time by using the knowledge the library provided. The thing was … all her knowledge about this school came from fantasy books.
“Your sister is weird…” Yeah, she was. But she was the good kind of weird. “And what about our task?” He asked loudly.
“Task? Oh, yeah, I liked the graphics. Nicely done whoever did it.” See? That was soley my achievement. “So do your thing. Bye!” And with that, she dashed out of the room quickly before the prince could ask any other question.
“So … I’m off with Luna.” I said and stood up slowly.
“Hey, wait! We were supposed to form groups, not pairs.” He said which did sound correct but also meant he liked to follow every rule. Strictly. But I was a nice girl, so I couldn’t say anything mean there.
“… fine. But only if you manage to get her on board.” I said, looked for the girl who was the least interested in socialising and directly found her in front of us. It was the little kitten who had her arms crossed in front of her, looked downwards timidly and didn’t bother with her neighbour at all. “You have one minute.” He basically scrambled to get in front of her while I strolled towards Luna giggling cutely.
“So … you are here because I am, correct?” She whispered quietly.
“Oh, Luna. That’s a very selfish and self centred view which I cannot approve of. I am here because … because of … truth to be told you are right.” I was at this academy for her and for these reincarnators who seemed to be the same age in general. But largely for her and I didn’t want to hide my motivation. “You are my precious friend and I won’t let my mo- … your mother stand in between us.”
“That’s sweet … but don’t you have anything else to do? Especially with these horrible things happening lately?” She asked and looked away in unease.
“Horrible things?” Was it time for detective Lucinda once more? Maybe another creature escaped out of purgatory by ‘accident’ ?
“You know … the suicides?” Oh … these horrible things. If she knew that I was the sole reason for these she certainly wouldn’t look at me this concerned … which honestly didn’t feel very good.
“There is nothing I can do. They chose to follow their faith and you know that I don’t favour any god in particular.” The saint was always supposed to be neutral as a voice for the gods of chaos and order, death and life, fire and water. “And besides, I need to learn stuff as well. This place is a vault full of knowledge and I want to read through all of that with you.“ She was a bit stunned as I said that, but soon caught herself as Louis poked at my shoulder.
“She agreed.” I turned around and looked at him in utter amazement. That development was seriously unexpected. Looking over my shoulder I noticed Luna smiling gently as if it was good that they would join us.
“Hey, Ellie was your name, right?” I asked and tried to give the cat girl my hand shortly afterwards but she left me hanging, looking away from me and holding the elbow of her right arm. She wasn’t any good with others, that was for sure.
“Y-yeah. Nice to … meet you.” She looked at none of us, but rather found a lot of interest in the floor all of a sudden.
“Hey, Ellie, there is no need to be nervous. We are all friends here.” Luna commented friendly. Finally, the beastwoman looked at Luna for a second before she answered.
“I … see. Shall we … go?” We most definitely should. The others who were still inside the room looked at the prince and from time to time as well as her in envy. That alone was hard to chew for her, let alone hearing how a few boys made jokes about her ears which which definitely picked their voices up.
“Yeah.” Surprisingly it wasn’t me who took the initiative, but rather the prince. He noticed those stares as well and apparently didn’t want to bear them either. Calmly, he strolled out of the classroom with us in tow.
“Hey … I don’t want to pry into your life and if you don’t want to answer that’s fine as well, but is your family noble?” Luna asked once we were inside the hallway.
“Kind … of. My father owns the barony we live in … even though it’s more of a village.” Oh, I heard about that town. It was given to all kinds of beastman to calm the other races down somewhat and ease some of the racial tensions that build up over the last hundreds of years.
“So that’s how it is. How should I put it … I know there are a lot of nobles thinking they are in any way better than you because they are human, but that’s simply not the case, alright? If you have any problems with them, or with anyone else feel free to ask Lucy, …” I swear Luna wanted to add Louis into the mix right there, but chose not to do so in the end. “ … Lucy and me. We will help for sure.”
“Thank you …” I was sure Ellie wouldn’t ask us either because she didn’t want to trouble us, or because she didn’t think she was worthy of such thing. Well, I was sure Luna would step in anyway, so I nodded happily and ran ahead towards the prince who apparently forgot about us until he arrived outside.
“You are slow …” He muttered, completely oblivious to our conversation.
“That’s only because you basically ran ahead. Where do you want to go first?”
“The cafeteria? I’m kind of hungry.” Well, I didn’t know if I wanted to eat anything there, but it wouldn’t hurt to go there either. And so, I interlinked my arms with Luna who just came with Ellie, and walked behind the prince with my best friend. Surprisingly, the cat girl didn’t join us, but rather the prince which wasn’t entirely surprising considering her shyness.
“And, what are your aspirations here?” I asked Luna quietly.
“I want to avoid the mistakes done by our ancestors.” She explained deep in thought. Truly, Luna and history went hand in hand with each other. “And I kind of have to go here. You know … parents and stuff.”
I nodded, knowing that times surely didn’t change. Two hundreds of years ago, noble children also had to go to the academy. Louis was one of them … the old Louis. I highly doubted the two Louis I knew had anything in common.
Anyways, Luna and I were chatting and the other two walked in silence for the most part if the prince didn’t ask for directions. But finally, we were at one of the smaller canteens around campus and directly strolled inside, even though Ellie was more defensive than usual.
I understood the reasoning behind her feelings the moment we were inside the large room. Naturally, some gazes landed on me, but Ellie had to deal with the majority. And these gazes she had to to endure were not very kind.
“We can leave, if you want.” I proposed quietly.
“No it’s fine … I’m used to it.” Ellie said and demonstratively walked towards the line of people waiting for their food. Naturally, we followed her immediately and waited for our food together with her.
We go nothing special – a carrot stew with a bit of meat – for a fair price though. Under the gaze of whoever we passed, we soon found an empty table and sat down to eat our meals. It tasted horrible but that was to be expected. I still finished it as fast as I could simply to avoid tasting it any longer.
I must have been a little bit too engrossed in my meal as someone gently touched my shoulder, just as I finished.
“Young lady, is the seat next to you empty?” I turned my head around and stared at the rather handsome sixteen year old student who dared to touch me. He had blonde hair and smiled at me as if the world belonged to him.
“Greg…” The prince on the other side of the table growled quietly.
“Louis, it is still Gregory for you.” Gregory sat down very close to me on the bench. “Do you want to introduce me to these two beautiful ladies?” Louis closed his eyes bitterly and demonstratively turned his head away. “I thought so. My half-brother really doesn’t know how to behave … anyways, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Gregory Worchester.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, my prince.” Luna and I said basically in unison.
“Oh, please. Here in this academy, your own rank doesn’t matter. It’s all about your achievements in here.” The second prince explained and touched my hand which rested on the bench. Luckily I wore my gloves, otherwise he surely would have noticed something odd.
“… what do you want?” Louis growled once more.
“Why are you so aggressive? I just want to explain these two beautiful girls that it is very unwise to get closer to you. He is … not good for you.” Gregory explained and smiled towards me which honestly weirded me out. He wasn’t my type in any way. It felt as if he was just showing off his achievements of being born with a golden spoon in his mouth and nothing more.
“We can make our own judgement.” I said and smiled back a bit. I didn’t want him to feel opposed by me, but I also couldn’t be seen as a total pushover.
“I’m certain of that. And I am sure you will make the right decision, because in the end, he is nothing but a fool following a dream of his. We have the same starting point … but he fell behind in every regard. Am I not right, my dear brother?” He asked and stared at the sixth prince mockingly.
“Just leave.” The prince said angrily.
“Like your mother left you?” It was quite obvious Gregory wanted to provoke Louis at any cost, probably to show who the superior one of these two boys was.
“You know very well why she had to leave.” Louis said and gnashes his teeth in anger. His hands were already balled into fists as he stood up furiously.
“To give you a better future … but look what you are now. A weakling who doesn’t know his place. Well then, Ladies.” Gregory said, stood up and walked towards two girls the same age as his. They were already chatting and quite touchy with each other as I turned my gaze back towards Louis who was fuming with anger.
“I … I think I should leave now.” Ellie stated, clearly not willing to be dragged into this mess.
“Ellie, if you leave now he will win. He wants to see Louis alone for whatever reason. And I am sure that one day our friend will tell us everything, but for now, we have to calm him down … and buy him better clothes so that he isn’t that easy to bully.” Ellie was almost apologetic as soon as I said that and nodded twice.
“My clothes have nothing to do with who I am.” The prince exclaimed a bit too loudly in my opinion, but at least he sat down again.
“I have seen my sister covered in blood and inside a ballroom dress. She is the same person on both occasions, but she is perceived as wildly different.” You are in what you dress in. I for example was very nice in my normal clothing, but sadistic whenever I wore something that covered me.
“I … can’t afford it.” The prince admitted quietly.
“I can lend it to you.” Luna proposed. She probably had the most money to spare, because I couldn’t access Tom’s money by feigning to be a normal person.
