0800 HOURS
ALPHEIM
MISTILTEINN ACADEMY
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS.
It occurred to Ilise that this was her first time using the school's front gate. She had gotten a glimpse of it two weeks ago, but journalists and other students were clogging up its entrance. Now that the excitement surrounding the entrance exams had faded, things were much more quiet. Idyllic, even. There were a few students out on the lawn playing frisbee, while others sat outside having breakfast. Ilise saw quite a few couples under the trees, and wondered just how lax Mistilteinn was about public displays of affection.
Things were awfully. different this time round. Bianca wasn't there to guide her along, and neither did she have someone else to lead her through the winding hallways of Mistilteinn's campus. Siegfried had messaged her the night before to tell her that he'd had to come to school early, meaning that they wouldn't be able to meet up at the gates.
She consulted the timetable that Bianca had passed her. Her first lesson would be held in an clubroom - but which one? There were countless auditoriums, laboratories and classrooms in Mistilteinn. To make things worse, nearly all of them were segregated into their own wings. Said wings could be anywhere from halfway across the campus to deep underground, in a repurposed segment of Helheim.
Ilise was so occupied with consulting her map that she didn't notice she'd almost walked straight into the fountain. Someone grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back just in time, preventing her from tripping over the rim and falling in face-first.
"Thanks- Siegfried?!" She almost stumbled back into the fountain.
"Woah, woah, woah! Relax, Ilise. I didn't save you just so you could end up falling back in." He scratched the back of his head. "Surprise?"
"You said you couldn't make it!"
"Yeah, well, Professor Nygard made an exception. He said if I got my work done quickly, he'd let me take a little break. So here I am. Enough dawdling. I'm using my precious break time here, y'know. Can I see your timetable?"
Ilise passed over the slip of paper to Siegfried. He tried to whistle like Toby did when he was impressed, but all that came out was a strangled choke.
"Sorry. Still working on that. Your schedule is packed. You've got like, all the worst teachers. I guess Evans isn't that bad and you do have Nygard, but wow. You're taking every single advanced course there is. Can you handle it?" Siegfried ask. "Oh, who am I kidding. Of course you can." He pressed Ilise's timetable back into her hands.
"I'll show you around. Your first lesson's not for another half an hour anyway. And it's..." Siegfried ran his finger along the grid. "With Nygard! Not bad, not bad. 'Least you'll have a good first lesson here. You're in my history class. So is Rei, apparently. Here. Lemme take your bag for you."
"How'd you know?" Ilise asked as they carried on down the cobblestone path. Siegfried had slung her bag over his shoulder. His back nearly buckled at the sheer weight of it. Ilise doubted she would've been able to carry it had she not casted a minor Hyperkinetic spell before she left home that morning. If Siegfried wanted to play the gentleman, Ilise was perfectly fine with that.
"He showed up early to study." Siegfried managed to force out a few words. "Gods, Ilise. What did you put in here? Your entire dumbbell collection?"
"My textbooks. You did say I had a crammed schedule." Ilise said matter-of-factly.
"No one carries all their books to Mistilteinn on the first day unless they want their backs broken."
"Well, you wanted to carry my bag. Consider this penance for the time you said you could see my panties."
"But I don't even remember it!"
Their little back-and-forth went on for quite some time. By the time it was over, Ilise had come to terms with the fact that Siegfried was perhaps not the best person to organise a welcoming party. When they'd gotten to the trophy cabinet, it became painfully obvious that Siegfried had absolutely no idea about any of the accolades Mistilteinn had received.
"And this one here is the Best Waffle Award, which our cafeteria won last year." Siegfried said proudly.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure that's the trophy for a badminton competition." Ilise glanced skeptically at the racquet. It did kind of look like a waffle.
"Badminton, waffles, who cares? Now this one is the one that matters." He made a grand, sweeping gesture, similar to the one Bianca made whenever she was trying to impress people. Not that she needed to try, of course, but she'd always told Ilise that it was good to make an effort.
"Okay. That's huge. Did you win it?"
Siegfried's outstretched arm was pointing at the biggest trophy in the entire cabinet. It was almost as tall asIlise was, and probably weighed much more than she did. Its details were embossed in gold, and the victors who'd brought it home had had their names carved into its base.
"Huh. I don't see a Kallen Siegfried here."
"Oh, you're looking at the wrong one. That's the Annual Carwash Spring Cleaning Championship. What I'm talking about is this bad baby."
Ilise realised that she'd been looking at the wrong arm. Siegfried was gesturing at a tiny golden goblet. She had to crouch down just to get a good look at it.
"Kallen Siegfried. Victor of the... Annual Neighbourhood History Contest?"
"Eeyup. Proud torchbearer of the Mistilteinn History Club." Siegfried moved his arm a bit, so Ilise could see the whole row of goblets. Some of them were golden, some were silver, and others were bronze.
"That's really impressive, Siegfried." Ilise said awkwardly. It was hard to consider anything impressive when her sister was Bianca Rossweisse. It hadn't exactly come as a surprise either, when Bianca's name was among the ones carved into the big trophy.
"I know, right? We nearly lost it that year. The last question saved us." Siegfried prattled on, oblivious to the fact that Ilise was trying to be nice. He went on and on as they ventured down the hallways. He was no Rei when it came to making long speeches, but Ilise was seriously considering listening to one of Rei's strategy talks over Siegfried's overly embellished description of the Mistilteinn History Club's grand victory.
"...And that's how we pummelled High School No. 32 into the ground. Oh, oh! Did I tell you about 33?"
"Yes. Yes you did, Siegfried." Ilise said. "Hey, aren't we already here?"
They were outside a door. A small banged-up plaque read 'Professor Nygard', and underneath that, scrawled in marker ink, was 'has completely lost his marbles'.
"What's up with the 'lost his marbles' thing?" Ilise asked.
"A bunch of students from the other clubs came over and vandalised it. You see, people don't really like Professor Nygard that much. He's a bit of a conspiracy theorist. I probably shouldn't be saying this to a Rossweisse, but he thinks Yggdrasil is going to bring about the end of the world or something like that. He's a nice guy apart from that though-"
The door swung open in their faces. Ilise let out a small 'eep'. Siegfried was completely unfazed.
"Morning, Professor Nygard."
"Kallen, my boy. Come, come. There are enemies nearby. I heard someone mention the name Rossweisse. They've come to silence me, haven't they?"
Professor Nygard was a hunched old man with bushy eyebrows and a scraggly beard. His rheumy eyes were mostly blocked by the thickest pair of glasses Ilise had ever seen. Most of his hair had gone, with only a few cloudy wisps remaining.
"About that, Professor Nygard. This is the girl I was telling you about. Meet Ilise Rossweisse."
The professor brandished his cane.
"Did that vice-president girl send you to kill me? Did she?"
"N-no, sir-"
"That's professor to you, young lady!" Nygard thumped his cane into the carpet. He squinted at her.
"Kallen, what did you say her name was again?"
"Ilise?"
"Hmm. The records never said anything about an Ilise," The professor mumbled to himself. He reached into the depths of his tweed coat and pulled out a small journal. After scribbling something down its cluttered pages, he shoved it back inside and marched up to Ilise.
"You look like a decent girl. Don't got the build for an assassin either. And Kallen seems to like you. Hmrh. Back in my day, they always said to never let an enemy into your camp. But keep your friends close and your enemies closer, I say! Come on in, Miss Rossweisse. Take one wrong step, and his cane goes up your little hiney. If you're thirsty, I've got some tea on the stove."
The professor puttered back inside the room, leaving the door wide open.
As she and Siegfried entered, Ilise patted her butt.
"Is my hiney really that small?"
"I wouldn't think about it if I were you."
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