"Urgh."
Julius' vision was blurry.
He inspected his surroundings and as his eyes finally cleared out he understood that he was sitting down on an oak chair in the middle of a storage room.
White marble shelves had been placed around him, housing a variety of strange fanatical assortments like black frog legs and strange blue flames.
The last thing he remembered was gulping down some sort of liquid from a crystal. It seemed like he had blacked out.
He looked forwards, and then finally realized that someone was standing right in front of him.
"Nice sleep?"
It was Silver.
The professor with grey hair, frustratingly charming looks, and what now looked like to be an entirely grey attire.
Julius' tongue felt drowsy.
"What did you do to me?"
Silver shrugged soundlessly.
"We just asked a few questions and you replied truthfully."
Julius wanted to retort but Silver shushed him by holding a hand out.
"Wait just a minute. I'm not done."
Julius sighed. Allowing Silver to continue.
"You'll be glad to know that we extracted the truth out of you and discovered that Eaglemat did indeed send you here with the intent to save the Lighthause House."
(Changed the name to Lighthause since Lighthouse house just sounds dumb.)
Silver squinted his eyes.
"Commonly the way to enter a house is to enter the barrier where your spirit will be judged. But as you have bypassed this, we've decided to just dump you in the Lighthause house."
"As for how you bypassed the barrier..."
"Well, just consider yourself on watch for now..."
Julius looked up with dead eyes. His anxiety was skyrocketing. He desperately needed to know if they had discovered that he was an outer world or that he had a system.
"How did I bypass the barrier?"
Silver laughed darkly.
"According to you, it was something out of your control, but don't think that you've fooled me even if you've tricked Gistani. I know that you slipped through that barrier once and that you can probably do it again."
"Watch your windows, boy."
A few seconds of awkward silence ensued.
The two held an odd moment of eye contact.
"You may now leave. It's currently morning so just head straight to the Grand Hall to fetch yourself some breakfast. Sit in the area with a tower crest hanging above it. It'll be the worst-looking one."
Julius hissed as he left.
"Thanks."
A firm hand landed on his shoulder.
The grey-haired man humored himself.
"You're welcome."
Julius shook his hand off and left the store room.
Realizing he was in some sort of classroom filled with seats, desks and potion stands Julius swiftly headed out through a swerved-open door.
His back ached from a poor night of sleep and his eyes felt oily.
It wasn't that difficult to find the Grand Hall as a disastrous amount of muffled chatter was leaking out from it through several beige-yellow walls.
Julius turned a few corners until he saw two huge royal oak doors that seemed to have been built for giants.
The sound had reached an all-time high. The Grand Hall was right behind these doors.
Julius looked around, feeling stuck.
The huge royal oaks before him were shut tightly.
Two huge golden door handles were present in the middle, far above Julius.
Julius noticed a violet magic circle at a human height in the middle of the doors.
He murmured to himself as he strolled right before it.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
Not knowing what else to do, he placed his hand on the magic circle, flat. No reaction occurred.
After a few static seconds of waiting, something awakened within the doors.
A few cinematic sparks of violet lightning lashed out as the doors opened before vanishing tracelessly.
Like the heavens parting, the doors noisily and majestically began to mechanically swerve back gradually.
A huge metal-clenching sound stretched out.
A small cloud of dust rose before seemingly dissolving in the air.
As the doors opened, Julius felt hundreds of hot gazes on him.
Hundreds of students were sat at 4 almost endless birch tables. An assortment of breakfast delicacies had been laid out and munched on already.
In the middle of each table was a flag pole, holding a flag that contained a unique mark for each table.
Julius steadily and as calmly as he could, walked over to the pole with a tower on it. It was on the very right end of the room.
He received several odd gazes as he stumbled toward the bottom end of the tower table. He wanted to slip away from his hot spot of attention as soon as possible.
The room had become deathly quiet it was only after Julius sat down and the mechanical oak doors shut that the chatter made its return.
Julius heaved a sigh of relief. His entire body ached once more from the pressure. Just looking around everyone seemed to be wearing the same attire as him which was always a good sign. There was a multitude of ages but no one below 12 and no one above 18.
Julius hadn't celebrated a birthday in a while but he ought to be around 15 to 16 as of now.
Julius acknowledged a large grouping of superior staff seated at the front of the Grand hall enjoying cuisine on a whole nother level as to what was in front of him.
Julius got a plate from a depleted pile and snatched a few poached eggs.
He prodded the eggs tamely before a light cheery voice marauded his ears.
"Nice entrance."
Julius looked up gloomily.
A boy with a feminine face and stringy blonde hair that ran down his neck was hurriedly wolfing down a baguette. He couldn't have been taller than 5'3 and was most definitely an oddity.
He seemed far too laid back to Julius. But that probably made sense, Julius told himself. Not everyone had just fled from such high-tense situations.
"You get much sleep last night?"
Julius coughed tiredly.
"I don't-? Probably?"
The blonde boy stuffed down the last segment of his baguette before moving on to some finely roasted chicken slabs.
"Cool. You don't look like you slept much."
Julius felt irritated.
'Am I getting gaslighted right now?'
The boy looked up at Julius in puzzlement.
"Didn't see you 2 days ago at the opening ceremony. Or yesterday. Where were you?"
Julius furrowed his brows.
"Busy."
The boy nodded.
"I see."
He reached into his pockets swiftly, pulling out a yellow badge with a black tower symbol engraved.
"Put this on, they gave me two. I mean everyone got two but... I feel like they wanted to give me specifically two. You know?"
Julius' hand twitched as he took the badge.
"Thanks."
He slowly pinned it onto his green cotton long-sleeve shirt.
Julius looked around the table, wondering if there was absolutely anyone else to communicate with. Even a talking pot would do.
All he saw were sunken eyes and semi-depressed teenagers.
Julius chirped towards the feminine blonde boy across from him.
"Why the hell is everyone so... Depressed?"
The boy smirked.
"Heh. They've already given up. But fear not, you're just like me. Not even falling off the highest peak will stop the climb for people like us."
Julius tapped his hand. He still hadn't received an answer.
The boy cleared his throat.
"Ahem."
"The Magecraft house is for those talented in magic, those built for the path of wisdom. Or so they say..."
He glanced over to the table with a wonky staff presiding as the symbol.
He tried to stop a smile from spreading on his face.
"In reality, it's just for those who got handed down Magic Legacies."
He continued.
"The Blade house is for those skilled in weaponry. It has a big distaste for magic and is probably the second-strongest house. It would be the strongest if not for..."
He pointed over Julius' head.
Julius looked back in uncertainty.
"That place. That's the dragon house."
When Julius looked back he saw a table full of the elite. Or at least he got that impression at first glance.
"The Dragon House is for the best in every category. Essentially, they just snatch the most potent from the Magecraft and Blade house every year. They're just a big bundle of either fat talent or extreme work."
Julius nodded gradually.
"Alright-."
The boy bit down on a charred sausage, almost devouring it in one bite.
"And then there's us. Honestly, I don't even know why I'm here. I'm probably the most talented light magician in this place. But that doesn't matter. The Lighthause house has nothing special. Just a bunch of people who barely made it into Ruloy."
He looked around in amusement.
"Half the people here couldn't lift a blade or weave a spell to save their life."
Julius was intently listening to the boy when he saw a group of people on the table ahead, the Magecraft house pointing at him and murmuring.
The boy followed his sight and chuckled grimly.
"Oh, by the way. You have a target on your back now."
Julius scoffed. It had to be a coincidence.
"And why is that?"
The boy shrugged.
"Maybe you shouldn't have opened the Titan doors through the magic circle. Even if you looked kinda cool, you just alerted everyone that you have a potent mana pool. Since our house is the weakest, the other houses love to pick on it and remove the few bright lights that shine within it."
Julius checked his system and his eyes almost fell from their sockets as he read his mana storage.
Mana: {47/500}
Julius cursed.
"Goddamn it."
The boy tousled his silky golden hair freely.
"Hey, I mean who else can you really blame? You could've just stopped powering the magic circle after there was room to slip in but you made sure the doors were sent wide open."
"You essentially spat on the pride of every student in this hall. You made a flashy entrance instead of just taking the doors at the sides of the hall. It'll sting even more that a Lighthause did the deed."
Julius looked up as he felt like dissolving into the atmosphere.
"Aren't I a lucky one..."
The boy looked at Julius strangely.
"Not really."
"Shut up."
AT: You may be wondering, why did this novel go from normal fantasy story to system levelling story to hogwarts.
Yeah I'm wondering the exact same thing too. Trust the process, not the riverwater.