My eyes flew open, the brief moment of panic that came from falling into a microsleep in an unfamiliar place vanished as I surveyed my surroundings.

I was in the same burnished waiting room of deep brown wood, the maroon cushioned furniture was comfortable, almost unnervingly so.

I felt it was strange that the military officer that led me here just left me in here all alone for what had to be tens of minutes. I supposedly had something called a 'bad track record' so I can't really understand why I would be left in here alone, or why the accommodations would be so inviting.

Unless this was some kind of technique to psychologically disarm me before unexpectedly shocking me and knocking me down to a vulnerable state...

I surveyed his surroundings with blatant suspicion.

"AHA!" I whipped around out of nowhere, looking down behind the large couch, only to turn back around in disappointment when I failed to locate anything or anyone. I then slowly stood up, and began peeking under all four couches and chairs.

'Nothing in the corners either... but if they genuinely wanted to surveil the room without being able to tell from the inside I imagine there are plenty of ways to do that but...'

I gave the room another wide sweeping gaze.

'Something feels off. It's not just a feeling either, I'm sure of it, there's definitely something in the air. It's not unnerving, but it isn't pleasant either. It's just different, like the air I'm breathing in is deeper somehow, could it be some kind of slow acting psychedelic alteration of my perception?'

I dropped to the ground, laying myself out like a starfish. As the minutes began to tick by once again, I periodically swung my legs up above my face, touching the ground behind my head with my feet. It was a satisfying motion, and helped to maintain an alert state of mind.

Even though I was fairly on edge, I'm pretty sure that I like this place. It's definitely much more comfortable than my home or school ever had been. Certainly my 'mother' would have been quick to berate me about how I was behaving strangely, acting a fool, being a nuisance and more had she been present.

It was nice.

Having some time to myself for once, even if I wasn't sure how alone I actually was. Clearly they were intent on keeping me waiting, whoever was running the place.

Of course, as soon as I had begun enjoying myself, it had to come to an end.

The door opposite which I had entered glided open gradually, revealing a slim young man in some unique, obviously scholarly, attire looking down at a... clipboard?

The man's attention was apparently entirely occupied by the thing, that he didn't even notice me on the floor as he entered the room.

As he walked forwards, I decided to pass on sitting up and greeting him and instead just decided to keep on laying there. It was comfortable, and who knows maybe he would by some miracle miss me.

Alas, it was not meant to be, as his eyes piercing blue eyes suddenly snapped onto mine.

"..."

"..."

"um..."

"..."

"hello?"

Suddenly it dawned on me that I had yet to acknowledge his existence.

"HI!!"

"..."

'Ahh yet another slip up, I am still laying down on the ground, he may be confused by my conduct.'

I casually worked my way up to an, upright... position. Finally, I looked at the man again now that I had made it onto my feet and smiled widely.

"Kid who- are you- why are you in here right now??" The man wasn't even sure what general probing question to go with.

'Oh I see! So that makes two of us then!'

"I have absolutely no idea."

Getting a better look at what he's holding, I conclude that it is very much not a clipboard, and more like a scroll pulled and clipped onto a thin tablet.

With a heavy sigh and a palm across his brow, the man got a hold of himself and spoke again.

"Did you find your way in here yourself?"

"No. Some soldier looking guy led me here."

"Wha- huh? Why would anyone like that even... you know what-" The man's face scrunched up, clearly not able to make sense of the situation.

"Okay," he heaved another sigh, "when were you left in this room."

"As of right now, about fifty-six and a half minutes."

"...right, do you know why you were BROUGHT here?"

"I am supposed to be enrolled here, to my knowledge."

"I fucking knew it, how in the hell did those proctors manage to MISS and entire ass HUMAN BEING. My god I'm going to throttle someone tonight I swear... you're here to be tested for the warrior's course right?"

'The warrior's course? That is a strange name isn't it.'

"Yes, I believe so."

The man looked down at me with a strange look.

"Okay, I guess I have to help fix this, just follow me for now okay?"

"I understand."

With a few more grumbles and rubbing of the temples, the scholarly robed man escorted me through the door, and led me out into the middle of a cathedralesque hallway. The architecture was entirely different from the practical, straight cut exterior I had seen on the way into the base.

The halls were grand, and many tall highly decorated wooden doors and open entranceways dotted the path, the masonry of the surrounding stone from the floor up to the ceiling achieved an impeccable perfection as though the entire place was formed from just a single rock.

The air was not cold however, and there was a comfortable underlying warmth accompanied by natural light filtering in from somewhere unseen higher up, these things remained constant while the patterns of the elaborate columns and arches repeated every so often. After a turn through a large opening to our right, the strange majestic architecture only continued, this time the entire wall to our left being replaced with open air.

The finely engraved stone floor met lush green grass, followed by finely trimmed hedges and fanciful exotic dwarf trees. The path which continued into the distance for hundreds of meters ran alongside a vast courtyard which ran quite wide as well from how far away the pointed spires could be seen.

'I can see that the building reaches quite high from here, high enough that I would've been able to observe the oddity on my way in, and even past that there were definitely some distant portions that shot way higher into the sky. This is far beyond the scale of the building I'm supposed to be in... this makes absolutely no sense, where could I possibly have ended up.'

'Maybe the psychedelics took over and I never even noticed, hah.'

From only the few intriguing bits I had witnessed I was only left to imagine what kind of tasteful secluded paradise could be found within.

But, before I knew it we had taken another turn to the right, followed shortly by a left into a spacious upwards spiral staircase. Which, after some climbing, featured a swath of window designed to fit the curved wall boasting beautiful ornamentation at the borders, the view gave an almost comprehensive overlook of the impressively large courtyard. Many small clearings featuring places of rest, some occupied by other diversely dressed individuals engaged in appreciating the arrangements of captivating flora which I had never seen before.

The majority of the space seemed to filled with a mixture of something similar to Japanese Maple and Blue Chinese Wisteria, the bizarre but enchanting contrast weaved an amazing, breathtaking scene.

Still, a decently sized chunk in the middle remained obscured, a hexagonal golden frame rising up past the decorative flora into an elegant marble domed top, completed from the bottom to the fascia in thick elaborate latticework which seemed a deep, reddish, mahogany.

The view disappeared as our ascent continued, and finally we made our way out of the second exit we encountered, finding ourselves within a much more moderately sized stretch of space.

At the end of the more cozy hall, the man knocked incessantly on a thick, dark door.

A delayed response carrying poorly contained annoyance rang out, "One moment~"

There was a heavy thump between long moments of silence, followed by a lazy set of footsteps, before the door was finally pulled open, revealing a stunning casually dressed woman sporting a solid lean musculature and gorgeous waist length yellow blonde hair currently pulled back into a ponytail.