I woke to the sound of knocking on my temporary residence's door. Well, banging was more apt of a term, as the hits against my heavy wooden door rattled the hinges and threatened to break it down at any moment. A deep voice could be heard from the other side.
"Caesar! Get up and open this door already!" I recognized the voice. I stood up and shook off my groggy mind before walking to the door and pulling it open. The fist that was about to pound against the door once more swung forwards, and instead of meeting the heavy resistance of the door, it slammed into the soft embrace of my face. The force of the hit caused my head to snap back and blood began to flow from my nose. "Oh, oh shit." The voice at the door spoke after punching me in the face.
I quickly looked forwards, reorienting my head, and pinched the bridge of my nose with a glare.
"Yo, dipshit. Why are you greeting me like this?" I spoke vitriolically, practically spitting the words at him. His black hair shivered slightly as he shook in fear at my words. His black rimmed glasses further emphasized the fact that his hazel eyes wouldn't meet my gaze. "Well, Thomas?"
"L-look, that was an accident. I was only trying to knock on the door a-and…" He looked downwards, still refusing to meet my eyes, and spoke in a lower, somewhat sullen tone. "I'm sorry, okay? It wasn't on purpose." He kept his head lowered and waited for me to speak. I smiled at his demeanor, it hadn't changed since coming to another world. He was someone who I considered a friend back on Earth. He was the quiet, smart student if you didn't know him, and the clumsy, kind-hearted guy if you did. Overall, he was a good person, one I enjoyed hanging out with. I was glad to see his face among the students summoned, even if we didn't get the chance to interact since arriving.
"I know it was, bro. I was just teasing you." I gave him a light hearted punch to the shoulder. He finally looked upwards and met me eye-to-eye. "So why were you banging on my door so harshly?" His eyes widened as if he completely forgot about his purpose in being here.
"R-right, we are moving today, in twenty minutes. We are heading to the academy. You know about the academy, right? You weren't there when James went over our plans." He spoke as I began the process of fully waking up, stretching my arms and legs before giving myself a good slap to the cheek to jumpstart my brain.
"Yeah I got the gist of things from Hera, and did a bit of research on my own, that's why I wasn't here for a while. Anyway, thanks for waking me, where're we meeting up?" I explained my situation to Thomas quickly and thanked him for thinking to wake me. I bet someone would have thought to do so eventually, but Thomas's kind-hearted nature made him think of me first. Honestly, Thomas was too naive for how old he is, choosing to believe the best in people over anything else, but I liked that part of him. Maybe it was my sadistic nature but it made me want to make use of his naivety in any way I could.
"Uh, in the common room, I'll take you there so follow me." He smiled towards me and turned to lead the way. "And maybe we can get some napkins for your bloody nose, it's still dripping." He spoke with a bit of guilt to his voice, after all he was the one who hit me. It was somewhat my fault as I opened the door so suddenly, but I wasn't going to tell him that. Instead, I'll make use of his guilty feelings however I can.
We arrived in the common room quickly after we departed from my room, after all it was just down the hallway from us. The other students were already gathered. When Jasmine saw my bleeding nose she quickly moved towards me with worried eyes.
"Caesar, are you okay? What happened?" She spoke with worry evident in her voice. She cast a suspicious look at Thomas, the only one who was around me when I arrived, before turning back to me. "He didn't do this to you did he? I won't forgive him if he did."
I laughed at her vitriolic tone. "Don't worry, it wasn't on purpose. This just sort of happened. That said, you wouldn't happen to have a napkin would you? This won't stop bleeding." She quickly patted her pockets before shaking her head with a sigh. It seemed I was out of luck with her. As I was about to ask others a bright golden light began to glow around my nose.
"Heal." Cardinal James's voice rang out, and my nose, which had a dull throbbing pain, felt a lot better. The bleeding stopped as well. Jasmine's eyes widened as the glow dissipated. I quickly checked my nose, using my hand to wiggle it around, and found that there was no pain at all. "How's it feeling now?" James asked.
"Much better. Thank you. Was that a spell?" I asked, interested. The only instance of magic we had seen was the light bomb from before, and that was the same as just a bright light. This time it directly affected me so I was very intrigued.
Cardinal James smiled. "Correct, to be exact it was an application of my Healing skill. The most basic kind, suitable for treating a bloody nose." He seemed proud of his display and liked the interest we showed. So even a Cardinal can have pride. "Anyway," he cleared his throat to grab everyone's attention before speaking, "now that we are all gathered, let us first distribute your individual guides. Each of you will be getting a high ranking priest as your guide in order to help you acclimate to this new world, me and Hera will be included, but aside from us there is one other Cardinal and seven Bishops waiting to serve you all. We have already chosen who we will guide, so I will bring in the others in a moment. Can I have you all line up against the wall to make the process faster?"
We quickly moved against the wall farthest from the door, there was more than enough space for us to line up comfortably. I had Thomas on my left and Jasmine on my right as James opened the door. Hera led the way, and seven women and one man followed. They quickly spread out and came to a stop in front of each student. Jasmine had a female priest in front of her, while Thomas had the only male priest in front of him. For me, Hera stood in front of me with a smile.
I smirked slightly before speaking. "How did I know it would be you?" I spoke without hiding my pleasure. After all, of all the priests in this room I was the most comfortable with Hera. Her smile widened after I spoke.
"Well, originally I was going to be assigned to one of the women and James was going to be your match, but after last night I figured we'd be a better match. Are you disappointed?" She said with a mock pout. I laughed lightly, I was far from disappointed. This meant I could admire her beauty at any time, something that appealed to me greatly.
"Not at all." I spoke, my smirk shifting into a full on smile. I quickly looked around for who Cardinal James was matched with, and saw him standing in front of Cameron with a predatory smile on his face. It seemed that James wanted to fix Cameron's behavior after seeing his personality yesterday with the King. I pitied Cameron internally, he was going to have it rough for a while. The woman in front of Alex also looked strict, it seemed they were going hard on the two.
"Now that we are all paired, I'll leave guiding to the priests. Heroes, please listen to these fine priests in front of you, they will only be of help to you if you follow their lead." Everyone nodded in acknowledgement. "Good, then dismissed, you should get to know your guides before heading to the academy." The other priests quickly led the students out of the room, James included, until it was just me and Hera in the room.
"Well, introductions are unnecessary for us. So what do you think? Should we head straight to the academy then?" Hera quickly asked for my opinion. She was correct, we were already rather friendly with each other so there was no need for the introductory period that everyone else was having.
"Yes, let's go. I'd like to explore the campus and maybe meet some of the staff if I can." Hera smirked at my answer. She seemed satisfied with what I said. She turned around and motioned for me to follow.
"You really do always think ahead, I like that about you,'' she said with a small wink. I opened the door for her and motioned her ahead with an overexaggerated bow. And just like that we headed towards the academy with a friendly atmosphere.
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The Academy's location wasn't known to anyone except people of the highest level in government and the school staff, namely the King and Queen, and the two Headmistresses of the Academy. In order to keep the location a secret, the only way to get to the Academy was by a teleportation gate. When I asked Hera what a teleportation gate was, the explanation I got was rather simple. It was a device created by those with the Magical Engineer Class in tandem with those who had the Spatial Magic skill. The purpose of the device was simple: get a person or object from point A to point B instantaneously.
The only people who know the exact location the teleport gate comes out at are the people who placed it, and those they told. Using this, the Academy's location has been undiscoverable since its creation. The reason for this secrecy was simple: the Academy contained the best and brightest of the Haliborn Kingdom, if it was attacked the losses of the Kingdom would be nearly insurmountable. Despite the peace that had enveloped this era, precautions were always taken to ensure safety, and this was one of them.
I appreciated the safety measures that the Kingdom took as Hera and I stepped on the teleportation platform. The conductor, the one in charge of activating the gate and making sure there were no malfunctions, gave a thumbs up towards us and mouthed 'Good luck' before a bright glow emanated below me. I looked down only to be hit with a sense of deja vu, the glow was created by the same circle that had brought me to this world, or at least a similar one. As I pondered the similarity the glow began to overtake me. I closed my eyes, ready for the bright light this time, and waited for the magic to take me.