They arrived at the gate of Doof Academy and Kroft made Elena take the lead. She walked up to two muscular men standing guard in front of a ginormous gate. They were wearing matching black robes with an insignia of an intwisted triangle within a block void. You couldn't see their faces under the black hoods of their clothing yet Elena could feel the stares of them drilling through her.
"Excuse me, I need to talk to the headmaster."
"Do you have an appointment?" a raspy voice rang out from the darkness concealing the face of one of the muscular men. Instead of answering Elena showed a piece of paper to the two men. After glancing at the paper the men opened the gate and escorted Elena and Kroft into a small waiting room inside of the guard post. In the room was a desk and three chairs. Elena and Kroft sat opposite to an empty chair on the other side of the desk. After about 15 minutes a man arrived inside of the room. He gracefully slid into the seat across from Kroft and Elena and finally opened his mouth.
"Welcome Ms. Rogue, what has brought you to me?" the man spoke. He was a slim figure with a loosely fitted robe on him. He had an average look face that would seem as forgettable as an arbitrary citizen you pass on the street side.
"I come with the request of enrolling my friend in this school, I am willing to hand over parchments of favors from neighboring kingdoms of Praven." Elena answered the headmaster.
"A friend you say? I didn't know you were such a sociable person. Friends usually don't have other friends branded with slave collars either." The headmaster responded while tilting his head towards the neck of Elena that was covered.
Kroft finally spoke up.
"Sir if I may, I have saved the life of Elena and she has been indebted to me. Given the choice of how to have her repay her debt I chose for her to follow me until she could." Kroft carefully worded his sentences. Technically he was being completely truthful, he did indeed save her life from himself and he was the one who chose that she was indebted and had to pay it back. He wasn't sure what the man in front of him could do and he was already notified that unidentified energy was being spread out around him, so he decided that most likely it might be some sort of magic in order to gain information or to check for truths.
"Hmmm, is this true Ms. Rogue?"
"Yes."
"Alright, but as you know I can not just allow for anyone to join such a prestigious academy so there must be something else you are willing to offer in order for him to be accepted."
Elena and Kroft didn't respond for a few seconds. Kroft, understanding that Elena must not have anything else to offer, decided to step up.
"Elena fulfilling my request to join such an awe inspiring school would make us equal of our debts, so once she does I have no need of her anymore. How about her working for you so that she could achieve this. I could even relinquish the collar ownership to you for a time to make sure she takes up the position you want." Kroft spoke up.
The headmaster sat there for a minute and with a gaze of pondering. Finally he spoke.
"This would be acceptable, for how long will she work for?"
"What do you believe is appropriate?"
"10 years."
Elena's eyes widened as she heard the demands of the headmaster. She just wanted to put the life of a renowned "Information Gatherer" behind her. Yet here she is hearing that she might have to live out her prime working for the headmaster of a cursed school.
"No." Kroft responded swiftly. "That's much too long, you will also be receiving the favors of other kingdoms."
"5 years." The headmaster responded back without a second thought.
"1 year, no more, no less." Kroft responded to the headmaster.
"That is much too short, the amount of time needed in order for her to complete jobs is not yet determined."
"She has never failed to gather information from someone before. Wherever you send her she will complete the task successfully."
The headmaster sat there stone-faced, yet Kroft could see that he was craving the use of Elena.
"Fine, it's a deal." The headmaster reached out his hand and shook it with Krofts.
Kroft was shown around the school by the headmaster himself. The school was even bigger than a campus from Krofts previous world. It was humongous. Different subjects of magic had dedicated buildings built for them. Although the campus was big enough to school tens of thousands of students the headmaster informed Kroft that it was only home to around 300 students. The school was very exclusive, that or people believed the rumor of it having a curse on it. After explaining where the different buildings were located the headmaster informed him that he needed to choose a teacher to be taught by and also take a needed course of introduction along with the other newly admitted students. Kroft agreed but the headmaster said that it was too late to begin now and showed him to his room. Kroft was given a large room that included state of the art technologically and magical advances. Before the headmaster left he stood at the doorway of Krofts room and had a conversation with him.
"You most likely won't have another opportunity to talk with me after today as I am running an entire academy which takes up a lot of my time."
"Thank you very much sir for showing me around today."
"It was my pleasure Mr. Aldrich, by the way I'm not sure I have formally introduced myself. I am Reden, Mr. Dro Reden."
With that Kroft concluded his time with the headmaster and went into his room to finally sleep for the day. He put his head to his pillow and drifted off to sleep.
The bed creaked as Kroft jolted up. He was drenched in sweat and his heart was beating profusely. He swirled his head around the room to check his surroundings. After finally calming down he took a deep breath and lowered his head back down to the pillow. He had had a horrible nightmare. He was abandoned, set to be alone in a world isolated from the rest of life. When he returned finally to the rest of humanity he was still as isolated as ever. They looked at him with disgust, hatred, resentment. It wasn't him though, it was like he was watching the life of another through someone else's eyes.
What was that? Kroft thought to himself. He looked around one more time and decided it was time to get up anyway. Leaving the bed, Kroft prepared for a new day.