"Good Afternoon! Potential Students of Fyrthorn Academy! Welcome to your introductory orientation! I'm Dorian Leonharst, your orientation lecturer!"
Boisterous words came out of the mouth of the literal lion-faced man as he made his way across the stage of the auditorium. An expression of pleasure was present on his face, likely due to the puzzled faces of the students, an expression that had been caused by his words.
'Of course they would react like this.'
Though I had skipped this cutscene many times, I had sat through it at least once and thus knew about this new 'surprise' that had suddenly been introduced.
"Confused?"
He spoke, a devilish smile creeping up on his face as he adorned himself onto the pedestal that was smack dab in the middle of the stage.
'Only now will they learn... about how hellish this academy truly is.'
And the man who will lead them to this conclusion was the man in front of me, the person with quite the sadistic smile currently present on his face, 'Dorian Leonharst'. Though it might seem like it now, it was actually quite the fitting name.
'Good thing I'm sitting far away.'
The man was a combat instructor, and that too, a strong one; from my recollection, he would also soon become the head of the combat department. Though I knew of him due to my experience in-game, it was also evident by his animalistic and built body that barely fit into the specialized formal suit he was currently wearing.
Other than this role, though he currently appeared sadistic, he was actually quite softhearted and was thus kept in charge of the first-years. He was currently putting on a show.
'He's doing this to deter unprepared students from joining the academy.'
The life in the academy was not just unicorns and rainbows; it was something that required an honest commitment, especially with the advanced classes that would be held far in the future. If someone was going to this half-heartedly, they would just waste their own time and leave broken, unable to finish what they started.
But his role was not limited to that, though only I knew of this... He was also a potential 'hidden piece' due to his unique backstory and could also be immensely useful for both the storyline and my own purposes... But that was a matter of the future.
'Focus on the orientation.'
I mentally reprimanded myself, goading myself into paying attention instead of recalling information that wasn't pertinent to my current situation as I watched the man in front of me begin to speak.
"My... You couldn't have expected to be admitted to the most prestigious Fyrthorn Academy just by receiving a mere certificate that says so... Could you?"
He looked at the now, expectedly finicky students as he continued to speak with a wicked smile, ignoring the murmurs of confusion and disarray that had started to surface in the auditorium due to his prior statement.
"It's Deja Vu! Even the reactions are the same! I didn't think you children were so naïve! It amazes me every year that not even one student, regardless of which continent they come from, questions just how they easily got into this academy. Not one."
He wasn't particularly wrong about his claim; it was quite a wonder how no one would have noticed this oddity, especially given how truly dull the admission process actually was.
To my knowledge, there were two—rather plain—ways to gain admission into Fyrthorn Academy. The first method, which was utilized by the MC and likely most others, was a series of simple tests common to both nobility and commoners, which, though might have been hard, if passed, allowed you to obtain this Certificate of Admission relatively easily.
'But given my condition over the past few months, I couldn't have used that method... That left...'
The second method, though much more rare, was even more unrestricted and easier, at least for well-connected nobles; it was to obtain a 'LoR' or a Letter of Recommendation from the higher-ranked faculty members from any of the departments present in the Academy.
'But then who wrote my LoR?'
LoRs couldn't just be written by anyone; you would need it to be written by heads or at least deputy heads of the departments to be applicable. Beside this, the students that you recommended needed to perform well as they, though not officially, represented your standards, and if they underperformed, you would likely end up getting looked down upon by other faculty members within the academy.
Hence, you would need to have explicit faith in the student that you recommended; thus, you would only gain a recommendation if you knew the necessary faculty and that faculty honestly believed in your potential and performance. Most of the time, this was only reserved for family members and disciples of said faculty members.
'But as far as I recall, this child doesn't have any family here.'
The only other family member, from my knowledge, who had attended this academy was Leon Eliziere, the elder brother of this child, and he had already graduated.
'Then just who?'
I pondered this question as the boisterous voice of a student, likely that of a rather dull one at that, interrupted my thoughts and Dorian's speech as he asked an inane question.
"What do you mean to say? Are you implying that I'm not a student of Fyrthorn Academy? B-But I passed all the written and physical exams!"
Though his question was useless, he echoed the current sentiment of the majority of dumbfounded students within the auditorium as they all looked at the man on stage for answers.
"There it is again! Deja Vu! I swear, every year there's one of you as well who asks the dumbest question, the answer to which I've just told you! But if you'd still like me to clarify—no, you are not yet part of Fyrthorn Academy."
"B-But then... Why did I spend all that time studying and practicing? What was the point of all those tests?"
The student asked, spiraling with doubts and disbelief at the words he was hearing.
"Ah! You went from a dumb question to a smart one. It would appear that you're not quite as dumb as I'd expected! It seems there's hope for you yet!"
The man playfully snickered, causing his off-white mane around his neck and face to shuffle around before continuing on with his explanation upon seeing the displeased face of the potential student.
"Quite the spoilsport, aren't you? Fine, I'd be happy to answer that for you—the fact that you're here isn't completely useless. It's a means of qualification, an opportunity for you to prove your worth by temporarily entering the academy and participating in the real test."
"What real test?"
The student, though still displeased by Dorian's prior insult, didn't lose his ground and immediately countered with the obvious question on most students' minds.
"I haven't heard about anything like this..."
"What do they mean real test? This is pure fraud!"
"My cousin also went to Fyrthorn, but he didn't mention anything like this! I'll give him a piece of my mind when I see him again."
"W-Why did I expect that the admission would be so easy? I knew I should have trusted my gut! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"
The auditorium erupted with murmurs at the boy's question. Echoes of doubt, frustration, and disbelief could be heard among the apparent student candidates.
-Stomp!
A swift thudding of his foot created enough noise, not to mention a large gust of wind that swept the auditorium, silencing the crowd instantaneously.
"... I had other matters to address first, but I'm guessing all of you would like me to clarify exactly what this real test entails."
His question was near immediately answered by the swift nodding of heads from the potential student audience present in the auditorium.
"Then I'll begin explanations regarding the Acceptance Tests. But in exchange, I must ask for absolute silence. I'll answer any and all questions after I finish. Don't worry, I'll keep it short."
Immediately after speaking those words, he pulled back the cuffs of his suit jacket, revealing a similar device that had been awarded to all of us potential students before entering the academy premises on his furry wrist and tapped away at it.
Near instantly, a holographic presentation popped up behind him. Upon it's appearance, he put his wristband-like device away and began to move towards the meticulously prepared presentation, which at the moment had details on differing branches of the academy on it.
"Like most of you already know, you have been assigned one of the following branches, in which you will specialize if you get in: Commerce & Political Sciences, Medicine & Healing Sciences, Alchemy & Technological Sciences, and of course, our most popular course, Combat & Mana Sciences."
"Though all of them are technically 'sciences', as per their differing names, they all offer totally different experiences and curriculums that mold you in different manners and hence will all have different Acceptance Tests."
"Unlike the plain, and rather boring, tests that you have passed to have entered into this academy, these will be much more difficult and specialized, both per branch and also per student. As such, it should be obvious that this is not some sort of plain test like you passed before."
"I'll give you an example, say one from the branch of Medicine & Healing Science—for one of their candidates, the student was asked to rewrite a Holy Scripture that made it better utilizing light mana."
"No way!"
"That's Sacrilege!"
"How could they do that!?"
'They're mad, understandably so.'
I thought to myself, looking around at the aggravated students murmuring about their displeasure.
In this world, like any other, there were a verity of religions that were praised and hailed in many corners of the world. Each of these religions had their own holy scriptures, the only difference between Earth and here being that these scriptures had actual, visible, and utilizable powers when recited and utilized by those who had the appropriate constitutions.
As such, many people who followed these religions would obviously be angered upon hearing that these words that they respected were being, at least in their eyes, mutilated under the guise of 'rewriting' them.
In this sense, he had picked an apt example that portrayed the severity and difficulty of these tests. Not to mention the ingenuity you would require to actually fulfill these tasks-
"I do believe that I asked for absolute silence, did I not?"
He asked with an odd sense of calm, but with his animalistic teeth poking out of his mouth while he did so. The sight of which not only silenced the students but even managed to earn a few shrieks of horror before doing so fully.
"... Not to worry, when we ask of such a culturally displeasing task as a test, we take permissions from the head institutions that represent that culture before doing so; this includes the specific religion from which the aforementioned scripture was taken from."
"Moving on; I'll explain how each of you will receive your own Acceptance Tests and how long you will have to complete them."
He spoke as he removed his watch-like device from his furry wrist and held it out above his head as he switched to the next slide of the presentation.
'There it is... The Watch.'
I had known of this device even before I had received it; how could I not? This device, despite its rather plain and analog name, looked like a digital watch and was, in my honest opinion, the most important device in the game. I would even go so far as to say that it was more important than any other possible device and artifact in the game.
Though it looked like a common, rather pointless accessory, it was actually a literal masterpiece, built by on and improved over time by the various faculty members and headmasters of the academy; at least it said so in its in-game description, and I fully agreed with this description.
Though this device was chock full of features, the real reason it held this title of masterpiece was due to but one feature, in my opinion, the one that mattered the most—Status Detection.
It was a self-explanatory feature—it allowed you to view your own status, basically allowing you to understand your physical, mental, and manasical condition, not to mention identify your own strengths and weaknesses and build upon them. It even had an apt description for your abilities, traits, skills, and much more.
Though it might seem like a useless ability, it was anything but. Especially given that once you knew how to, you could modify it to check other students, faculty members, and even enemies statuses as well. Though those last two parts were a little more complex to achieve and required certain knowledge to be used... currently it didn't matter. Unfortunately, this knowledge wouldn't be useful as of yet.
'We won't be informed of this feature... At least not yet.'
I too wanted to immediately check my status by using this device, learning what I had to work with given my body and understand if, by any chance, I could also see the progress of demonic energy on my body as well, or if any sort of clues or hints could be ordained by what I could observe on it.
But for now, it's access would only be limited to it's most basic functions when turned on, something that was yet to occur given that the device was shut-off and unusable on my wrist. Though thankfully, this wouldn't be true for much longer.
"As you all know, we don't permit hand-held devices or modern communication devices within the confines of the academy. Instead, we use this..."
He snapped his fingers, and near immediately a holographic screen, that was likely only visible to me, popped up in front of me as I felt the watch start to work, with a gentle, almost unfeelable vibration on my wrist.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶ Welcome, Student Unknown!
▷ Time: 11:48 AM
▷ ***
▷ ***
▷ ***
▷ ***
▶Note: Initialization incomplete - Majority Operations Suspended.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
"This is a pioneering technology developed by the academy for your use called Watch. Despite the name, it has many features, many of which have been derived from your regular hand-held devices. But at current, since you all haven't officially entered the academy, even after you gain access to this interface, the features will still be rather restricted."
He spoke into the unattentive ears of the student candidates who were all poking and prodding in front of them, likely trying to make heads or tails of a holographic screen similar to that in front of me.
"Still, gaining access is a different matter. As you can see, at present, you cannot interact with the hologram or even access the device. To obtain these privileges, you must initialize the device, which can be done by tapping twice on the watch's face and holding your finger down on it for 5 seconds. But I would recommend you wait until evening-"
He spoke, now crossing into the realm of information I was unaware of. All I knew about this initialization was another black screen at the end of the cutscene and also the in-game day, after which text that showed [Initialization was completed by Cyrus]. Given this lack of information, I was ready to pay more attention, but unfortunately his explanation was interrupted.
"AARGH!"
A sudden scream emerged from the crowd that warranted the attention of most of the students within the auditorium. Even I looked over with curiosity and concern.
'It's the same idiot who was asking the inane questions.'
He looked unconscious, slopped over in his chair, and was now being looked after by the concerned nearby student candidates who were seated next to him.
"Haah... Every Single Year... Don't worry, he's fine. He just initialized his device without fully hearing me out."
He spoke as he guided the few leftover attendants on standby within the auditorium towards the slumped-over student. Observing them make their way towards the unconscious teen, he continued on explaining to the other—now alarmed—children what had just happened.
"This device works on your Mana Pattern, which, if you don't know, is something unique, akin to your fingerprints, that you naturally exude—basically unconsciously. The device needs to remain in constant contact with your skin for at least 6 hours to fully gauge your Mana Pattern. Only then should you initiate the device; if you end up doing it before then, that happens."
He spoke, pointing to the student who was being carried out by one of the attendants, slumped over the attendant's back.
"Not to worry, his condition is temporary and occurred due to the fact that the device attempts to quickly recognize your mana pattern when you prematurely initiate it; it does so by sucking all the mana inside you instantly, causing you intense pain. Thus he's in a state of mana exhaustion; he'll be fine after a good rest."
"You can all just tap the watch's surface once to make the hologram appear and reappear. I'd recommend you do so and pay attention to what I'm about to say."
With those words, he waited as the 'potential' students tapped their watches once and stopped pocking at the air in front of them before continuing.
"Now, given what just happened to that child, I would recommend that you wait until evening until you begin initializing the device... By that time, initializing it should be a painless process. But that aside, coming back to the matter of the Acceptance Test. You will receive your tasks that you need to accomplish on your initialized Watch tomorrow."
"Hence, I recommend that you initialize your Watch today, since the deadline to complete your tasks is just one week. The later you initialize your Watch, the later you get to know of your task."
"And regarding the rules, you are free to do absolutely anything... Ask your fellow students for help, ask the faculty members, or even get the task done entirely by someone else. Other than direct or indirect coercion, you are free to do anything. The only constraint is that you cannot leave the island or contact other people outside the island during the time that your test begins."
"With that, I'll start to take questions..."
At the mention of taking questions, nearly all the hands in the auditorium shot up, prompting a quick response from Dorian.
"... Only 5."
Those words laid a slight damper on the already stiff mood, as some students took down their hands in hopes of getting answers later on, naturally.
"Ok... You."
He spoke, pointing to a girl with spectacles and a bob-cut made of bluish-grey hair. She immediately got up and asked.
"Student Victoria Feldman! Sir, could you elaborate on what exactly these tasks will entail and provide any more details?"
"No. You will find out tomorrow, and you're not a student yet; still just a potential student."
"B-But.."
"Sit down."
Her hopeful question was shut down immediately, and that too, with a backhanded insult to beat. She sat back down, huffed, as the man continued to pick someone else amongst the curious crowd.
"4 to go... You in the front!"
Now pointing to the black-haired girl, his words prompted her to get up and ask her question.
"Student Debra Ellsworth! Sir, could you explain what will happen if we fail this test? Will be sent back without any compensation?"
"Failing this test means you won't be able to attend the Fyrthorn Academy, but that doesn't mean that you'll be sent back without compensation. We have partner academies on all continents, and if you fail, you'll be sent to one of these academies, just on a different continent; not the one you've come from."
"But then fees-"
"Fees will be reduced as well, but this trade-off isn't too bad; you'll get to have a similar experience, especially if your branch is in Commerce & Political Sciences.. And again, potential student child, you're not a student yet."
"How did you know my branch-"
"Sit down, next."
He interrupted her for the second time, causing her to sit down, though this time the girl had a satisfied expression, likely at the sound of reduced fees for a similar experience.
'She'll likely fail on purpose then.'
"Next... Far in the back, yes, you!"
Amidst the growingly panicked crowd at his seemingly daft answers, he pointed to a blonde male sitting far behind me, causing him to stand up and ask his question.
"Potential(?) Student Stuart Delran! Sir, how did you hide this test and the apparent transfer of students to partner academies? Wouldn't we would have come to know of it before long if that was the case?"
"Are you accusing me of lying, potential student?"
"N-No sir! Just curious."
"What do you think? If you were to fail in the test and were transferred to some other partner academy... Would you inform your parents, relatives, or even friends of what happened? Would you want to face their looks of pity and displeasure?"
"... No, but what-"
"Exactly. Personally, I would bet that you would make up the excuse of a random scholarship for the reduced fees and other changes in your experience. But it's understandable, after all no one would want to disappoint their prideful parents."
"B-But that doesn't explain anything; what if I wanted to tell my parents?"
I knew of the answer to his question, though it wasn't well known—one of the future plotlines is based on the premise that this student was searching for. Though for now, it was currently just a well-kept Academy secret.
When the students accepted the Certificate of Admission, they had to sign a few documents, and the academy would sneakily slip in something—a new document that was still rather unknown in this world.
"...Mana-Contract."
It was a contract specially developed for this singular purpose by the academy, one of its kind, and though it only had mild effects, it was enough to prevent someone from talking about what the academy didn't want known, especially if the emotions of the person affected aligned with the contract even a little bit.
It was quite similar to hypnosis; even with hypnosis, you still couldn't make someone do something that they truly didn't want to do, but if they wanted to do the task that they were being hypnotized for even a little bit, they would follow it without question.
And of course, what teenager would want to tell their parents and friends that they failed this new exam, the first they ever took within the academy, and ended up getting expelled from the big, prestigious academy? Obviously they would, at least in some part, want to hide the truth from them. This allowed this particular contract to take effect easily, preventing them from revealing this truth to others.
The explanation aside, the name of the contract slipped out inadvertently from my mouth; was it due to fatigue or just a plain unforced error was still unknown to me.
But these words warranted a sudden, momentary glance filled with extreme surprise at me from Dorian. Immediately realizing this, he returned to his normal fake demeanor and carried on as if nothing happened.
'I hope that was just a coincidence.'
I brushed it aside, expecting that it would have been impossible for him to hear the words I had just mumbled given how far away I was; besides, I had just mumbled them and not even said it properly. Though I didn't know if I was right, Dorian, though with a worse persona, replied to the question lodged by the student who was currently standing behind me.
"That's an academy secret; not to worry, it's nothing harmful or illegal."
"But that's not an answer-"
"Sit down!"
He spoke voraciously, forcing the boy behind me to immediately sit down with a frazzled expression.
'He definitely heard it... Damn it.'
His mood suddenly got worse, and though you could attribute it to the manner in which the boy behind me had initially phrased his question, it was much more likely that he had somehow heard what I had said given the timing of his mood worsening, though I still didn't know why hearing those words made him mad.
'Thankfully, at least he doesn't seem to want to act on it.'
Though I didn't know why, he acted as if he didn't hear me as he continued on picking people with questions for him to answer while disregarding the confusion by the people in the auditorium, attendants, and potential students alike at his worsening mood.
"You! girl with the overgrown beige hair."
He pointed to a person on the opposite side of the auditorium and waited for her to get up and ask her question, still looking ticked off.
"Potential Student Henrietta Dawson! Sir, does this mean that other students from the remaining 3 continents present on the academy have already cleared their test?"
"Oh my, we have quite the intercontinental rivalry here, don't we? My, this has made me feel much better from the horribly insinuating questions mere minutes ago... But yes, they have. All 3 continents. You're the last continent in line this year, child."
The continent that this set of students came from was the Western Continent, and like the names indicate, there were still Northern, Eastern, and Southern Continents, and all of them must have had this year's students face the same process that we were facing now and would do have to further on.
"T-Then can I ask if my friend pass-"
"No, you cannot. Student's identities cannot be disclosed to outsiders, which, since you're not technically a student yet, are one of."
"I just want to-"
"Sit down."
'Oh no.'
I think I recognized that girl, and not in a good way. She was one of the-
"Last Question... You!"
Interrupting my train of thought and ignoring the still-standing student with beige hair, Dorian moved on pointing at a Raven Haired boy in the back-left corner of the auditorium, who adorned a unique, hanging earring.
"Potential Student Florian Ratel! Sir, you said we have to wait for 6 hours before initializing the 'Watch', are we free to roam around and explore the academy till then?"
The boy asked the question, as many other children at the premise, suddenly forgetting about their predicament, looked at Dorian with hopeful excitement, awaiting a good response from him.
Unfortunately for them, his sour expression suddenly turned devilish as a large, toothy grin returned to his face.
"I still have a lot to explain, potential students! 6 hours won't nearly be enough to cover all the material I have left to teach you!"
With those dreadful words, he told the child to sit back down and continued on the lecture as he began to explain in details the intricate working, timings, locations, departments, and much more as the others groaned with boredom. But I listened on, still with relative disinterest, but still paying just enough attention to soak in the necessary information.
***
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
▶ Welcome, Student Unknown!
▷ Time: 7:21 PM
▷ ***
▷ ***
▷ ***
▷ ***
▶Note: Initialization incomplete - Majority Operations Suspended.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
It had been seven hours, as the man's lecture of an orientation finally ended. People with jelly for legs walked out, cursing at the academy's name while exiting the building, only to be guided into buggies and shipped off to their respective dorms.
I too arrived at a magnificent building in this fashion, was awarded a key, and was informed that this was just a temporary allocation since my admission was not yet final before being shown to my room.
The room was magnificent, with a plethora of luxuries—marble walls, intricate architecture, exquisite furniture, and even a large attached bath—truly worth the name of Fyrthorn Academy. But unfortunately, this splendor was at the moment all but lost on me.
'I'm exhausted.'
Given that I had to pay attention during the whole orientation and couldn't even doze off slightly, it only increased my fatigue. Though I had learned a lot of necessary information from the annoying long orientation, the built-up fatigue caused by my fragile body, cursed condition, and again, from this annoying long orientation, had caused me to reach the physical limits of this new body. I desperately needed one thing now—sleep; everything else could wait.
But of course, though I was in a tired trance and craved a lengthy slumber, there was yet one more thing to be done before I could finally get my well-deserved rest.
'I need... to do... the initialization.'
Barely recalling what I had to do, I wearily followed the steps I was taught in the orientation while walking listlessly, disregarding the pain of the slight prick I felt from the watch as I headed towards the material object I currently craved the most. The magnificent and ever so alluring bed.
'Finally... How I've longed for you... my dear slumber.'
The thought crossed my mind as I collapsed into the indescribably comfortable bed, unbothered by the fact that I didn't have the energy to even change me clothes as I fell into an unrivaled sleep.