Leaving the hall...
"Aren't you tall, hmm~? Why don't we have some fun together when we get to the Institution? Just. The. Two. Of. Us."
Ms. Helmer was teasing Si Sheng the whole while they were walking together. Si Sheng didn't really mind, it was nice to have something to kill time with while they walked to the Institution, but it got annoying at times, especially when Ms. Helmer got handsy with him. He naturally had a repulsion to physical interaction with others. It was something that had happened to him when he was younger that left him unable to feel comfortable having others touch him.
While the two of them were flirting, the three elves that tagged along, Taro, Jara, and Beyra, were talking amongst themselves trying to block out the disturbance called Ms. Helmer.
"Taro, do you know what a human is? That's what the king called him right? He also said they were strong and sometimes stronger than elves. Do you think Si Sheng would fight me~? I want to fight a human to see how strong they are~," Jara was questioning Taro, who was awkwardly staring at the two flirting in front of her, about Si Sheng's race.
Being pulled into the conversation, Taro responded, "I haven't heard of a human before, but the elders seem to be wary for a reason. King Welfmire even went so far as to say that we should never underestimate them. As for Si Sheng's strength, I doubt he's all that strong despite living in the forest. It'd be a waste of time to fight him. You saw how he reacted when we found him, right?" Taro shared her opinions in response to Jara's questions and Jara silently nodded along. While she was curious about how strong Si Sheng was, she felt like it would be a pointless venture as of current. Jara also believed Si Sheng wasn't strong in the least bit and was just curious as to why the king put such an emphasis on never underestimating humans.
Beyra beside them didn't even look as if she had heard what they said and remained staring at Si Sheng's back as if staring long enough would make something happen.
Anyway, the five of them left the vicinity of the Council Hall and headed towards the Institution.
***
Heading north of the World Tree for around half an hour on foot, the group of five arrived at the gates of the institution. It was close to the walls, however, in a different cardinal direction from their entrance to Ljosalfheim. They had entered through the western gate and now were closer to the northern gate; the world tree was at the center of the city.
The gates were ornate, just like the gates to the city; the main difference was the size of these gates and the design. The design was of a trunk and the low hanging branches of a tree. Every leaf was painstakingly carved on the branches, the same went for the wood of the chocolate-brown trunk.
When they entered through the gates, looking down, they got a full view of the campus. From the position Si Sheng was in, he could roughly tell how big the campus was, along with Ms. Helmer's information, and he determined it was around 30 square kilometers. It was a fairly large campus with numerous dormitories, recreational areas, practice areas, lecture halls, etc. Anything you could think an institute should have, this place had it. Additionally, everything was luxurious. The dorm rooms were large, but they were shared with three other people—they also had coed rooms to boot. Following that, everything was equipped with clean and high-performance amenities. The classrooms had luxurious seats that were actually comfortable to sit on and the food was delicious, being cooked by elves from the Culinary Arts Department. Everything about this place was blissful; it was the complete opposite of Si Sheng's recent life of killing to eat and wiping with leaves.
"I could really get used to this," said Si Sheng out loud, expressing his satisfaction with how amazing everything was. He was especially happy that there were proper toilets where he could comfortably wipe. This was one luxury he was happy to see again.
"Um~. It's a great place, right? Of course, it is! I am the one running the place after all! Ahahahahaha..." Ms. Helmer was obviously proud as the Dean of the Magic Institution. With how favorably Si Sheng reviewed her "baby," she couldn't not be happy.
In the time that they had toured the campus, they had eventually made it to Bythre's office—the Dean's office. It was in the central building of the campus on the top floor, which allowed one to oversee the whole campus.
"Well, now that you've toured the place we should get the paperwork done and all that good jazz. You girls can leave now, Si Sheng and I will be busy for a while," said Ms. Helmer, making a shooing motion with her hands and telling Taro, Jara, and Beyra to leave.
Taro and Jara immediately left; while they were curious about Si Sheng, it wasn't to the point where they insisted on not separating from him, it was just like how someone was curious about an interesting thing they found on the internet only to disregard it and continue on with their day. However, Beyra was a little hesitant, showing a rare sign of emotion on her face, only slightly though, before turning to leave the office.
𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬.
After the door shut behind the three, Ms. Helmer went and sat behind her desk, put on a pair of reading glasses, and brought out a stack of paperwork. Apparently, they were all for the transfer procedure; the stack was three centimeters thick!
"Ugh..." Si Sheng groaned at the thought of filling out and reading all those papers. But, he had to do it, so he got to it and read over everything carefully, then signed.
He wasn't at all interested in legal and political processes, and found them rather tedious and not intellectually enriching. When he was younger he had been curious about politics and law, but soon gave up his inquiry into it after seeing what it was actually about. While Si Sheng could hold himself in a conversation about politics and law, he found political and legal arguments draining because of the doublespeak and semantics involved. He preferred a more straight forward approach, most of the time. The dancing around different topics without actually getting to the heart of the issues made Si Sheng frustrated and annoyed while trying to learn about how politicians and lawyers made their case. Additionally, they tended to rely on emotions and ad misericordia—an appeal to sympathy—or other appeals to persuade people, instead of facts which were logical. Let's just say, Si Sheng wasn't a fan.
The papers had various phrasings about stipulations, legal procedures, and other mumbo jumbo about elven politics. Si Sheng understood most of it because he was familiar with law due to learning about it on Earth. But, even still, some clauses were kinda weird. Like the one where he had to visit the Dean at least once per week outside of meals, or the one about him having to eat lunch with the Dean once a week. To be honest, all the weird parts were related to Ms. Helmer. Si Sheng didn't know what she was trying to pull, but he didn't care really care. If she wanted to see him every once in a while, for whatever reason, he wouldn't deny her. He had no idea why she was fixated on him so much, but it wouldn't hurt to have the Dean on his side while he stayed there. It wasn't like he was selling himself, the situation was beneficial to Si Sheng mainly. With Bythre, someone who had access to a lot of knowledge and resources, he would be able to quickly understand certain things that he had questions about, as well as gain general support from her, which he needed in such an alien environment.
The whole procedure took around 40 minutes due to the volume of forms. Si Sheng was already mentally tired when he arrived, let alone after filling everything out. Legal work really was a drag.
Despite that, he felt satisfied knowing that he'd be going to school and learning magic from the elves' best school virtually for free.
While Si Sheng was stuck in his thoughts, Ms. Helmer broke the silence, "Now that all the paperwork is finished, I want to officially welcome you to the First Elven Magic Institution. I am Dean Bythre Helmer and it is a pleasure to have you at this school." Ms. Helmer was very professional in her introduction, which surprised Si Sheng. Even at the Council, she displayed a coy and unprofessional demeanor, while, when she was actually doing her job, she was actually professional and serious.
"Wow... I didn't know you could actually be serious..." Si Sheng muttered in sarcastic disbelief.
"Huh~? Is a student talking back to a teacher now~? Should I punish him or not~?" Ms. Helmer responded to Si Sheng's sarcastic remark with an equally sarcastic and mischievous comment, breaking her previous mature and serious appearance.
"No need to take it that far, it was just a joke." Si Sheng quickly corrected himself to damper Ms. Helmer's "wrath." It wouldn't do him any good to make her rueful over a silly joke.
"Hah... Well, it's nice to have a laugh once in a while. You don't have to be so tense with me. Just think of me as a friend when it's just the two of us and call me Bythre. I haven't been in contact with a human since the war 400 years ago, so it's nice that you're here now." By the end of her spiel, Bythre was wearing a melancholic expression on her face as she was reminded of the past, her voice even slightly trembled as she said the last sentence.
"I see. It's nice to have friends; life would be boring otherwise. I'd gladly be the friend of such a beautiful woman such as yourself." Si Sheng replied to Bythre's request in a very formal way, slightly easing Bythre's downcast mood. He wasn't lying either. While he found most people dull and boring, there were a few that interested him. Bythre was one of those people, and she reminded him of a close friend from Earth. At this point, he was feeling similar to how Bythre was, longing for a close bond with another.
"What's with those lines~? You a playboy or something?" After she said that, she slightly giggled, showing that she was alright to Si Sheng. Nevertheless, Si Sheng got his first friend after arriving in this world and it happened to be the Dean of the First Elven Magic Institution to boot. It certainly was a good start.
***
"Now that all the transfer papers are in place, we should get a uniform made and after that's tailored, get you to your room and introduce you to your roommates. While the uniform is being tailored, you should stay in my room, since you don't really have anywhere else to go; you can't stay in the dorm without first formally enrolling, meaning, getting your uniform. By the way, there's only one bed in my room and no real furniture, so we'll have to share the bed. Think you can handle that~?" Bythre laid out a list of things Si Sheng needed to get done, as well as the news about his living situation, trying to tease him.
To be honest, he wasn't too bothered by it, after all. He'd been sleeping on a bed of rock for the past two months or so. Compared to that, having to sleep in the same bed as Bythre was fine, as long as he got to finally sleep in a bed again. "It doesn't matter. Do whatever you want, I just want to sleep in a bed again."
"Hmm~?" Bythre let out a sneaky, questioning sound as she smirked at Si Sheng's words. She was both curious as to why Si Sheng was so aloof and unfazed by the prospect of sleeping in the same bed and his remark about sleeping in a bed again. She knew he came from another world since the world tree declared him an Otherworlder, but she had no clue what type of world he came from. Seeing him talk about wanting to sleep in a proper bed again got her curious about that, but she buried the topic for a later time.
After they had this short talk, they headed toward the school's tailor to have his sizes measured and have them start making the uniform right away.
Along the way, Si Sheng noticed the students walking around campus. Also, he noticed them glancing his way as if they'd seen an alien. To be fair, seeing the Dean walking around campus with a tall man, who wasn't an elf, wearing leather armor while carrying a stone spear and stone knives would look kind of weird since the elves didn't wear this kind of armor and it was a campus, not a military district. In short, the two of them walking through campus stood out like a sore thumb.
There were inaudible whispers from the students all around them and the stares of everyone they passed.
"Don't mind them. Elves haven't seen or interacted with humans in around 400 years, so the newer generation hasn't seen one or don't even know what a human is. To them, you might as well be an alien, since they have no idea what you are." Ms. Helmer cleared up Si Sheng's questions before he asked them.
One thing he had deduced over the short time he'd spent with the elves was that a big war happened some 400 years ago and their interactions with humans were cut off completely, to the point where the younger elves don't even know what a human was. He didn't know the specifics of it, but the fact that the war happened and the state of the outside world was unknown to the populace suggested the leaders were deliberately suppressing knowledge of the outside world, the war, and humans; for what purpose, Si Sheng didn't know.
Moving on from this thought, Si Sheng and Ms. Helmer eventually stood in front of the tailor's shop on campus where he'd be getting his measurements taken for his uniform.
"I wonder what your three sizes are~? You've got a pretty big chest, I'm so jealous~~." Ms. Helmer was teasing Si Sheng before they entered for his measurement. Si Sheng found her teasing cute, and he got a nostalgic feeling from her and once again thought of one of his friends from Earth. He missed her, but Ms. Helmer was here, and she wasn't, so he didn't lament for too long.
"While we're here, we should get you some actual clothes. You can't keep wearing this armor everywhere, now can you~?" Ms. Helmer made the suggestion about getting him clothes outside his uniform and Si Sheng agreed, it'd be kinda awkward to go around everywhere wearing leather armor. He'd probably be kicked out of many establishments before even getting his second foot through the door. He also couldn't take it off since he didn't have any clothes underneath. Over the time he had spent on the mountain, his clothing had degraded to the point where they weren't even usable, thus, he just didn't wear any under his armor. So, the whole while he only had armor to cover up.
"Let's do that. But first, let's go in." Feeling they'd spent too much time in front of the entrance to the shop, Si Sheng opened the door and went in, making sure to duck as to not hit his head on the bell hanging from the doorframe.