Teerom hurriedly stuffed his tools into a bag as quietly as he could to not wake the sleeping orphans around him and rushed outside, where Paley paced about, waiting for him.
"Sorry!" He apologized as he ran towards him.
"It's fine. You're not that late." Paley reassured and prepared to fly him to the dwarves' hut.
"Wait!" Jurie suddenly burst out of the cottage and ran over to them. She caught her breath, then said: "Good luck," To Teerom with a smile.
"Thanks." Teerom smiled back, "See you later!" Teerom replied as Paley lifted them into the air.
"See you!" Jurie waved from the ground. School started at 9:00 a.m. for the orphans, but Teerom's work started an hour earlier at 8:00 a.m., which is why he left so early.
"You're not crapping yourself anymore," Paley commented, noticing that Teerom could look down without fear of the height now.
"All thanks to you," Teerom grinned. Paley felt like dropping him as a joke but remembered how mad Jurie got when he did it to her and decided against it.
"You're welcome," He said.
Once they reached above the city gates, they found that the old Wanted Posters of Paley were being taken down and replaced by new ones.
"Looks like there's a bigger fish than you, Paley." Teerom joked. However, his joke was short-lived, as he would find that the new Wanted Posters had both Paley and him. "What!?" He exclaimed, "Why me? What did I do?" Teerom failed to acknowledge that he stole three of the most valued books in the city.
"Maybe they thought it was only me who stole the books before?" Paley suggested.
"Maybe, but what do we do? I can't go into the city like this. They'll kill me."
"They probably won't kill you," Paley reassured Teerom for a moment before continuing, "They'll probably arrest you and torture you to find out my whereabouts. But, some Facimut Pulveris should help." Paley took out a bag of white powder.
"Is that the face-changing powder?" Teerom asked, and Paley nodded, "Isn't that toxic to the skin?"
Paley shook his head, "Bacha balanced the ratio of Somum to Retaxa, so it's not toxic anymore." Teerom took the bag and put his finger in; then rubbed the powder on his cheeks, forehead, and chin. Like Paley, his face shifted until it was only recognizable by those who knew him.
"Wow, that feels weird." Teerom massaged his slightly numbed face.
"I know, right?" Paley began to fly him further into the city.
"Wait, aren't you gonna drop me off at the gate?" Teerom asked.
"You need a pass to get into the city. Ask Aleisar to give you a Worker Pass; I'm pretty sure he forgot to give one to you when they visited us." Paley explained. Manoha often wrote about the adventurous ways she had to get passes into large cities. One of these ways was to steal any Citizen Pass, as they didn't have a photograph on them.
The orphans didn't have Student Passes yet, but they could get in and out of the city with Madella's Local Pass (it allows people in nearby towns to enter the city as they please).
The dwarves were already waiting outside when they arrived at their hut that lay on an isolated road.
"Ah! Teerom! You're finally here. What took you so long? And why do you look so different?" Aleisar greeted them, playing cards with the other dwarves.
"Sorry, I just saw my face on a Wanted Poster." Teerom rubbed the back of his head modestly. Paley fell into an awkward silence. You don't just tell someone you're on a Wanted Poster, let alone your employer.
Luckily, the dwarves found it hilarious.
"What have you done?" Battdur giggled.
"I stole a few books," Teerom answered honestly, but the crime sounded so petty that the dwarves broke out into laughter again. They didn't realize he'd stolen a rare copy of Quimnia's biography, an interpretation of Aneros' story, and a detailed book about demons.
In fact, now that Paley thought back on it, he realized that he'd lost that book.
"Anyways, we've got our first client today, so you better show off yer skills. Got it?" Aleisar held his hand out.
"I will." Teerom shook it.
The other orphans waited for Paley to return. Jurie and especially Rauba tried to ease their nerves. Indoors, Madella was making sure that the troublesome boys were ready. They wore your basic school uniforms: a blazer, shirt, trousers for boys; stockings and a skirt for girls (they were not allowed to wear anything 'masculine', a rule established by perverted council members). Madella also embroidered each of their names onto the right chest of the blazer.
Bacha spotted Paley flying elegantly in the distance. "Guys, he's here." She called the boys outside. Madella grabbed Paley's uniform and waited with them.
"Hey. You guys ready?" Paley took his shirt and trousers off as he landed.
"Of course!" Adimia was as excited as he was nervous about going to school. The girls were simply wondering why he was taking his clothes off in front of them.
"Wow, you're really skinny, Paley," Reben commented as Paley took his uniform from Madella.
"I know. I'm planning to join Teerom in his workouts soon. Hopefully, I'll get really muscular." Paley joked.
"Good luck at school." Madella held his head up and kissed him on the forehead, "And sorry about the blazer." She also gave him her Local Pass.
Paley noticed that the P on his name was much bigger than the rest of the letters. "It's only a mistake. I'll be fine. Anyways, we should get going. Love you, bye." He began walking with the other orphans. He didn't want to fly them all, because it would've completely exhausted his mana, and he probably would need some in school.
"Bye, mom!" The orphans waved at Madella and walked toward the horizon. As they walked, Paley noticed that Rauba was fidgeting restlessly.
"You nervous?" He asked, and she nodded, "Same. I think I've been to school in the past, but I'm still kinda anxious. Want some advice?" She nodded again.
"Imagine something nice. I like to imagine a breezy, flowery field of grass with a small cottage atop a hill. The sky is a beautiful blue and the clouds are whiter than white." As Paley described it, Rauba envisioned it with closed eyes.
It helped greatly, and she managed to take a deep breath. "Thank you." She smiled.
"Man, I forgot to go to the toilet." Adimia grabbed under his trousers uncomfortably.
"School should have a toilet, right?" Amasha asked.
"Obviously, otherwise, they'd have students crapping themselves every day," Jurie answered.
"I can't wait to learn about all sorts of herbs and potions and powders and- stuff!" Bacha was the only one completely excited.
They arrived at the school forty minutes later at 8:45, during registration time. The school day went would go like this; pupils were allowed to be on school grounds from as early as 8:00, during this time they'd write their name on a class registration board; then, they'd be seated at 9:00 to begin the school day. School ended at 2:00, but students could stay behind to study extra. Though, only one or two people would actually stay behind.
The building was situated on the east of Gouon. It was a large wooden structure with two floors and a playground, which was more of a field than a concrete ground. They entered onto a clean stone path that led to the front entrance. (The entire thing has a very medieval look)
Children were running around out here, maneuvring around tables placed on the grass. A few of them stopped to look at the new arrivals, especially a group of boys wearing House Crests (A noble family's emblem) on their uniforms. There were four of five of them, sitting on one of the tables in the corner of the grounds, shooting daggers at Paley especially.
Paley locked eye contact with them for a moment but deemed them a waste of time and moved on into the building with the orphans.
"Wow..." Adimia and Amasha's mouths were wide open in awe.
The floor was a reflective dark wood. The corridors were wide and tall, making the air feel fresh and breeze-like in the summer. On their right was the reception office, where they had to inform about their new arrival. It had a big window to talk into with a door beside it for the receptionists.
Beyond the reception, on either side of the corridor, were classrooms for all sorts of subjects: magic, maths, the sciences, and Rismian (the universal language spoken by everyone. Most countries have their own traditional language, but every country is required to teach Rismian to their citizens.)
"Hello," Jurie greeted one of the receptionists: an old woman wearing spectacles that had chains of silver hanging from the sides whom she could've sworn she'd met before. Neatly ordered books and papers lay on the desk in front of her. Many more were stacked in columns further into the reception, where the other receptionists were writing away on documents.
"Hello," The old woman replied, surprisingly animated, "How can I help you?"
"Mrs. Yilba?" Jurie suddenly recognized her.
"My, is that you Jurie?" Yilba replied, suddenly ecstatic.
"What happened to you? You used to look so young!" Jurie laughed.
"No need to be rude." Yilba joked. "Then you must be Madella's other orphans! She talks so much about you, especially you," The old woman pointed to Paley, recognizing his crimson eyes from Madella's description of him in the letters that she sent, "Paley, right?"
Paley nodded, "Are you friends with mom?" He asked.
"You could say that. When she was younger, I took care of her for a time." The old receptionist said, "I came back to Lusitra just yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to meet her. Say hi to her for me, will you?" She said to Jurie, "I miss her a lot."
"Why don't you come over and surprise her?" Jurie asked.
"I can't... I have all this work to catch up on." She pointed to the stacks of papers behind her, "But I will sometime, definitely." She smiled, "Anyways," She reached below her desk and took out a set of papers, "Fill out these forms, but not this part. Madella needs to sign this one." She pointed to a signature box at the bottom of each paper. Each paper had one of the orphans' names on top, so Jurie quickly handed them out.
She filled it out first, then Adimia, then Amasha - with a little help from Jurie -, then Reben, Bacha, and Rauba. Paley was the last one to fill his one out, but he was stuck on the section where he had to write his birthday.
"Just write the day you joined the orphanage," Jurie suggested. A few weeks after Paley arrived at the orphanage, he wrote down the day he washed up there to cherish it. He never thought it would become his birthday.
"If I'm right, you joined on the..." Jurie thought hard, trying to recall the date.
"The 2nd of September." Paley wrote the year 6646, having taken away twelve years from the current date: 29th March 6658.
"Perfect." The receptionist took the papers in and stashed them away under the desk, "Go to the headmistress' office. It's upstairs at the end of the corridor. And welcome to Hillred School."
"Okay, thank you." Jurie bowed. The receptionist waved at them as they walked towards the end of the corridor. She sighed, smiling.
The orphans turned right and walked into a longer corridor that had a set of stairs at the end. They went upstairs and found the headmistress' office. Jurie knocked nervously and a muffled voice called out from within.
"Hold on! I'll be right there." The mistress said, quickly tidying her office. She suddenly opened the door, a sliding door, and ushered them in.
"Hello," She greeted.
"Hello," Jurie bowed and entered the room. There was a young girl with short black hair, sleeping on a chair in the corner of the room. She was about the same age as Paley.
"Dillie! Wake up, they're here." The headmistress shook the girl awake, who woke up and stared at Paley half-asleep as the headmistress sat down behind her desk. Paley looked around the room, noticing that it was mostly featureless apart from a few plants and three paintings of past Quimnias.
"Hey! You're the flying bastard!" Dillie jumped to her feet and pointed at Paley.
"Me?" Paley played dumb. She approached him and opened his eyes, letting his entire red iris show.
"I told you he's real! Look, he has those evil red eyes too." Dillie said to the headmistress, who was now deep in thought.
"Dillie, I told you so many times, there's no way a little boy can fly around like that." The headmistress replied.
"I'm telling you. He's the one who stole the books from the library. He's the one who's been flying around all over the place lately. I saw him at Yadalee's marriage! He was staring down from a house-" When Dillie asked Yadalee about the red-eyed boy that she saw, watching the marriage from a rooftop, Yadalee replied with Paley's name. She said that the only red-eyed boy she knew of was Paley.
The headmistress and Yadalee were good friends, so now that the headmistress thought back on what she said, she began to believe Dillie. But, before Dillie could finish her sentence, Paley made her fall backward with Air Magic and caught her. He went up to her ear and whispered coldly: "Say anything else and you'll regret it,"
That was the first time in a while that Paley had felt panicked, and, mysterious to Paley, it bought out his old self. Dillie stiffened up with a mixture of fear and a feeling of butterflies in her stomach before she stood up by herself from his arms.
"Sorry, I just realized he had green eyes." She bowed at Paley apologetically.
"It's alright," Paley felt bad for threatening her, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that." He quickly whispered.
"Dillie." The headmistress sighed, "Just go and show them around."