She ran into the principal's office. The lady sitting behind the counter had murky blond hair with small beady blue eyes. She didn't look too pleased. She looked like she was about to swallow her whole.
"You were supposed to be here at seven." she barked. "What took you so long?" she asked aggressively.
" I am sorry, I won't be late again!" Ecatrina said sincerely.
"You better not or else-" she said.
" Or else what? " Ecatrina asked automatically. At that moment, she felt fearful. The principal's face turned red. She looked like the god of volcanoes Rashta, the god that people in the east believed in, but then the person who had been listening outside the door knocked. The principal's complexion changed.
"Come in," The principal said in an angelic voice. A young girl with wavy dark brown hair walked in. Her eyes were dainty brown. She dressed in a manner that Ecatrina hadn't seen on anyone but her uncle. Everything underneath was covered and the excessive wear of blue and yellow. " Mahir dear, this is Ecatrina can you show her around the school and make her feel welcome? ".
"Of course," she replied to her with a smile. Mahir seriously studied Ecaterina from top to bottom.
The principal stated with pride, "Mahir here is an excellent student, so you are in good hands." Mahir gestured for me to follow her.
As they were walking down the hallway, she stopped and spoke with a chuckle, "Why were you so late?"
"I set my alarm wrong," she answered.
"Are you serious? That is quite unfortunate. Either way, you are in room 505 the same as me," she said.
"This semester Our focus will be on the history and formation of this world, mythology, and magic", Mahir stated.
Ecatrina told her, "The course sounds easy".
"No, in this semester they will test your magic skills. Well, I…" they had stopped walking and just by her expression Ecatrina could tell that she didn't want to continue talking about the subject.
"Mahir, magic is just a minor convenience in life. Magic can't beat sweat, determination, and hard work ..." After she said that she was immediately filled with regret. This quote didn't come from her. This was something Axel would say when she refused to train the body and just wanted to learn about magic. A horrible thought started peeping into Ecaterina's mind.
Another question popped up in Ecaterina's head, "You are one of the blessed rights?"
Mahir nodded agreeingly and Ecaterina heaved a sigh of relief.
In this world, every human is born with an initial blessing and an initial curse. Initial Blessings are received from the gods. While the Initial curse comes from the spirit king. No, not every human some humans are indeed born without one and are heavily discriminated against in some countries. In most extremely religious countries such as Solia, they are publicly executed. As their existence in entirety is considered blasphemous. Ecaterina shuddered at the thought of this still happening.
Before they continued, she turned around and said, "When it is time for lunch, wait for me. I will show you where the cafeteria and the gym are located."
Mahir asked, "Are you nervous?"
"You will do good in this school if you follow these four rules. One study hard. Do an extracurricular activity. Three make good friends. Fourth you must not get the unwanted attention of others once you do you will be heavily ostracized by others. Usually, these nasty kids do it for fun." Mahir looked disgusted.
"Thank you…," She replied. She remembered Axel's great speech about how this school was the soul of liberty and goodwill between people. How this was the direct opposite of the royal army.
It took them a while to get to their classroom because the classroom was on the fifth floor. On the way up there, all Mahir did was complain about their teacher, Mr. Peon, but he seemed like a great guy to Ecaterina. She tried telling her what Axel always told Ecaterina. That a strict teacher is a good teacher. She laughed and stated that Ecaterina was good at sarcasm, unlike her. Since she laughed, Ecaterina followed and laughed with her.
As she entered the classroom, she saw her teacher. The teacher had a receding white hairline also he was very short like a dwarf and had brutish look, black eyes.
Mr. Peon didn't tell her to introduce herself to the class as she expected.
He simply said, "This is Ecatrina Adler be nice to her".
Another one of the precautions was that we had to change our last names and looks. Now Ecaterina appeared a bit chubbier and had dyed her hair in a bright red color like fire.
"Sit next to Afua. Afua raises your hand." Mr. Peon spoke coldly to Ecaterina.
In reply, Afua raises her hand to Mr. Peon's directions.
Then he put her in the back next to a girl named Afua. Afua had shaved dark curls on one side of her head and then combed to the other, and she dyed them nuclear orange near the end. Also Afua had bronze skin
"Let's start the class," Mr. Peon spoke. "Your parents paid a lot of money to send you here. This is a new school year so, do not waste their money, work hard!" He looked at Ecaterina and she realized coming in late had already placed her on the bad side of her teacher. With this, he began the lesson…
The lesson consisted of everything Ecaterina knew. Ecaterina was tremendously bored as he talked about how blessings and curses stem. These past few weeks Ecaterina was barely sleeping due to her suddenly moving to Solia. She was too nervous to sleep last night and barely got any sleep, hence she was not only late to school but she only had a few hours of sleep.
The air conditioner gently blew cold air towards Ecaterina lulling her to a deep sleep. Ecaterina tried to fight against the hazy atmosphere of the room. She tried hard not to let herself fall asleep. Ecaterina did not win this battle. Soon she was in a deep sleep.
Mr. Peon carrying a baton (often used to hit students who misbehave in conservative countries) walked towards Ecaterina. Instead of hitting Ecaterina, he smacked the baton against the surface of the Desk.
Bam!!