The sound of birds chirping outside of my window woke me up. Opening up my window a fierce beam of sunlight shot into my eyes causing me to squint instantly.
"Ow!"
The fresh air from outside would normally be enjoyable...if not for the fact my eyes were facing the wrath of the big burning star in the sky!
'Seriously why do I have to go to school again!? I barely made it out alive in my previous life.'
Last night after Alan's explanation I went straight to bed feeling extremely dejected. Even though I was in a fantasy world It seemed magic would still be a foreign concept for me.
'Why is my luck so bad UGHHHH. Well on the bright side it's not like I can't use magic...it's just gonna be hard.'
With no way to tell the time I had to rely on my intuition and the chime of the bell. I usually woke up at seven in the morning every day and that fact hadn't seemed to change even in this world.
The bell chimes 5 times a day, One for 6 in the morning, another for 8 in the morning, one for noon, 6 in the evening and midnight. And granted I haven't heard the 8am bell it was safe to say I was in the clear.
'I should probably wash up quick and then check on Orphelia.'
Afterall,
her perception of time was worse than a summer ant.
'Welp time to get ready.'
.
.
The women's dorm whilst being in the same area as the male's, it was still a few blocks away. I couldn't fault the academy for taking this type of precaution; however, I also couldn't deny that it was extremely annoying to have to walk that far for Orphelia.
'Seriously if it wasn't for the fact I didn't want to risk her being late I'd just ditch her again.'
"Halt! What do you want here Dirius Hendrix?"
Breaking me out of my internal rant was a rather large looking security guard standing at the gate to the women's dorm. Judging by the disdain held in the guard's mouth when he said my name I could instantly tell
we had some sort of history.
'Sigh. Why the fuck is my life SOO HARD!?'
I plastered on a fake smile onto my face before responding to the guard.
"Apologies sir, I just wanted to check if my sister was already up. Classes start at quarter to nine and I wouldn't want her to be late."
"I don't believe you. Go away."
'Seriously?'
Internally sighing I tried my best not to let my expression falter before responding.
"Sir, I don't even have to go inside if you don't want me to. Please just check if she's awake for me?"
"...Alright."
"Thank you."
The guard left as I just stood waiting awkwardly at the gate, receiving judging stares from female students leaving for school.
"Sorry about the wait. You're sister already left with her friend."
'OH MY FU—
***
"Sooo Orphelia. Care to tell me how you managed to wake up on time?"
I was smiling but my eyes sure as hell weren't. I wasted a bunch of time getting to the girls dorm just for her to not be there so I was honestly a little upset.
"Well, Tera and I are roommates so she woke me up."
"I can see that, it was a rhetorical question."
"Wait.. were you worried about me or something~?"
"N-No I wasn't. I just didn't think you'd be able to get up on time."
"Oh~ isn't that adooorable!"
"Shut. Up. Give me my care back you witch!"
'Ughh She's so irritating.'
"No can do lil bro~. Plus you like the occult anyway. You belong to my coven since I'm the older one. Join my sect and together we shall use dark magic since were like the cursed ones y'know."
I started tuning this crazy bitch out after a while since she kept rambling on and on about spooky shit while doing hand motions like a crazy person.
'Actually I think 90% of the people in class right now probably think this bitch is crazy.'
"Sis. Look around. You're being hardcore judged right now."
"...Do I look like I give a shit? I already said I was going to stand out and do a complete 180. Bitch Orphelia was already batshit, I'm just crazy in a different font."
At this I deadpanned
"...Your font is comic sans. Not a good look mate."
"Bro please. Couldn't you atleast give something classy like Allura!?"
"Allura is for dignified people. You're a fackin dipshit mate."
I switched my accent to an Irish one to be even more disrespectful; honestly I wanted Orphelia completely offended at the moment for pissing me off.
"Well if I'm comic sans then you're Callibri LIGHT! And that Irish impression was terrible!"
"Suck your mom ya twat. Fack do ya mean I'm Callibri light? I'm atleast a Cambridge."
"Oooh Cambridge~, so you wanna edgy huh? Also we have the same mom asshat. The only thing Cambridge about you was that one photoshoot you took with a Nirvana song as the background track."
"Look, I'm not 'Edgy' I prefer the term 'Mysterious'. Also you know damn well that photoshoot was cool."
At this point the class had filled and everyone was staring at us wondering what the hell we were talking about. We had gotten so absorbed in or argument that we forgot more than half the terms we were using, didn't even exist here.
"Alright enough chatter you two idiots. Time for class."
'Oh my gosh, my glorious goddess is here!'
"Aye Aye miss Rein!"
I saw Orphelia stare at me incredulously before muttering something along the lines of 'Fucking simp.'
"Right settle down everyone! Let's get right into it shall we. Today we we will finally be continuing on from the basics of the Odos."
Apparently in the first year of Laertes you are only taught the basic theory of the Odos and mainly focus on regular subjects such as Arithmetic, Economics and Sciences. Of course these are taught in high levels despite being the first year.
The reasoning for this is so the Academy can get the regular subjects out the way and focus solely on magic from the second year onwards.
I was glad for this as having finished school one in my past life I had already known most if not all of the subjects they would teach; so even if the original Dirius slacked off in them it shouldn't hamper me much.
"We'll start off with Fortuna. As you all may already know, Not everyone is blessed with a nature in their Fortuna; however, Do you know about the factors that determine what that nature is?"
I was paying my full concentration to this class as I barely had any knowledge on the magic system of this world. Which reminded me, I forgot to tell Ali-Orphelia about what I learned of the Odos. I could only hope her friend Tera told her.
"Yes ma'am! The factors that determine the nature a Fortuna holds are: Your growth environment, Mindset, Place of Birth and most importantly Luck."
"Correct. Good job Leon."
'Tsk. Leon just scored brownie points with miss Rein.'
"To expand on that I'll explain each factor a bit more. If a child were to be grown up in an area known for storms and fierce winds, wouldn't that child be accustomed to windy areas?"
A resounding "Yes ma'am." echoed throughout the room.
"That's how you're growth Environment affects your Nature. Still confused?"
I looked around class to see if anyone nodded but no one did, whether they were confused but shy to ask or just understood I wasn't sure. I was confused however but just before I raised my hand to answer a rotund boy seated in the front answered for me.
'Thank you chubby guy whose name I don't remember!'
"Alright Borus, well to put it simply...a person who grew up in a windy area is likely to feel more comfortable with the wind. If you feel more comfortable with the wind your magic nature is more likely to be wind. Even though it's split into different factors it truly mainly boils down to your mindset."
Basically what she was saying was even though they say it's multiple factors that affect your Magic nature it's really mainly your mindset. I can understand what she meant; however it made more sense to say your magic nature is determined by your mindset and leave it at that. The other factors were really just subfactors of your mindset.
"As you lot already may have guessed, place of birth is basically the same as growth environment; however, we have chosen to make it a separate factor because even though you are born in an area doesn't mean you grew up there. For example: A child is born in an extremely hot area. To be healthily born that child's body ultimately had to grow accustomed to that heat before being spit out of the womb in order to not die of heatstroke."
I was busy taking note of everything she said, completely immersed in her explanation.
"I shouldn't have to say but as you may have guessed that child's Nature would probably be Fire."
I assume that place of birth is separate from growth environment due to the fact that even if that child born in the hot area grew up in a windy area there was a chance that he'd feel a subconscious comfort with heat that he wouldn't necessarily feel with wind.
"Lastly mindset. Self explanatory. Someone with a hot temper and unshakeable will would probably have a Fire nature. Someone calm and unmoving in the face of adversity would probably have an Earth Nature."
This posed a few questions in my mind. As such—
"Yes Dirius?"
"What about changing nature? Is that possible? Like let's say for example a person was put in a different environment that forced them to adapt and change their mindset."
"..."
The class was staring at me silently.
"D-Did I say something wrong?"
'Being stared at is soo embarrassing. I shouldn't have asked.'
"..No. I just. Didn't think you'd actually ask a good question. Well anyways, the answer to your question is yes but different from what you may think. You're going too deep for the first class we'll get to that later."
"I see. thank you miss."
"You're welcome"
She smiled lightly at me.
'Wait did I just score some brownie points with miss Rein!!?'
While I was internally celebrating Orphelia raised her hand to ask another question.
"Yes Orphelia?"
"Right miss, you explained how factors can affect your Magic nature but ultimately you haven't told us how you can confirmed a person's magic nature."
"...Another good question."
The class was in disbelief that the idiot twins were actually making sense for once.
"Well to answer that; The Sielu or Magic core is split into four parts creating the shape of a four leaf clover. Each leaf represents an Element and the larger a particular leaf is mean it's your Magic nature. The northward leaf is water, East is wind, South is fire and west is earth."
"Thank you miss. So basically the largest leaf is your Magic Nature."
"Correct. There is an exception though, due to cursed people having six leaves the structure of the Sielu is offset; leaving the person's magic nature indeterminable."
"Can't they just use that fancy tool the Chairman has to peer at the person's Sielu?"
'Fancy tool?'
"Ah you mean the Selioma? Unfortunately it doesn't work on cursed people."
Interjecting miss Rein, Kurt yelled.
"Ha! Get it Hendrix dipshits? Basically you're fucked! BHAHA."