"So it seems we passed."
"It appears to be."
Elva and Viv stood next to each other, looking at the bulletin board where all the names of the accepted students were listed.
"...Out of the 300 students accepted, how come my written exam score was 295?" Elva looked at the next portion of the list, with a dejected face.
"Teacher will be shocked when he heard that you passed, we both didn't have much faith in you from the start, but it seems you exceeded expectations." Viv bluntly replied. "I was honestly anticipating a servant for the rest of my school time here."
"How cold, what happened to the boy clinging to me pitifully during the-."
"If you want to have a working mouth for the next coming years, I advise you keep it shut."
"Understandable." He abruptly shut his mouth, as he scanned the written exam list. "What ranking were you on the exam?"
"...Number 1." Viv calmly replied, looking at his name plastered all the way on top.
"Eh? How?"
Honestly, Elva wasn't too surprised, he's seen how Viv's progress ever since they were young. Though it was surprising that he was able to beat the Crown Prince himself by .2 of a point.
"It just happened, I guess." Despite Viv's calm demeanor, he couldn't help but feel uneasy knowing he had inadvertently took William's former ranking in the original game.
"I heard if you're number 1 on the rankings, you get special privileges until the next big written exam." Elva commented.
"Like what?"
"I dunno."
"Useless."
Turning away, Viv looked at all the students scanning the bulletin board. No one seemed to be able to match the name Vivillian Ambrosia to his face, which was something he was thankful for.
At that moment, a long, beautiful strand of light pink hair fluttered in front of his gaze."
"...!"
Widening his eyes, Vivillian looked at the owner of the familiar pink hair, who already wore the school's uniform around her.
Her sparkling, azure eyes were nonchalant as she gazed at the bulletin board, especially the written exam rankings. Holding a small notebook within her hands, she felt a gaze eyeing her as the beautiful girl turned and met eyes with Viv.
Lizzy Youtech, the female protagonist of LaD.
"..." However, after meeting Viv's gaze, her eyes slowly grew disinterested, as she turned and walked away.
"..." What the hell? He could've sworn she just gave him a dirty look just now.
Feeling confused, Viv scratched his head. Lizzy Youtech was a shining ray of light in LaD, a kind and gracious commoner who treated the rich and poor alike.
Maybe it's because she's still a child.
LaD did take place during the female protagonist's 16th birthday and her 3rd year of Einsvul Academy.
Depending on what you wanted to study at Einsvul, you would be set aside in different courses from others and you will have virtually no contact with any other departments. Then, you would stay there until your third year, that's when students will began integrating their classes, lunches, and social facilities together.
Elva had already decided to focus on magic and physical wellbeing, a course for those who wanted to become well rounded.
For Vivillian, because he had a low mana capacity, he was ineligible to enroll into full magic classes as he just wouldn't be able to keep up with the mana productivity.
Instead, he was able to enroll into a magic research and development study which was usually reserved for top students of every year. A blessing in disguise, possibly.
——
"I'm qualified for a better room?" Viv raised an eyebrow, as he talked to the dormitory receptionist.
"Yes! Because you have scored as the top student on the written exam, you may experience the privilege of having a private room to yourself, or you may invite a friend if you wish." The receptionist nodded, continuing.
"And don't worry, if you continue to score as number one in coming tests, you don't have to move go through the trouble of moving rooms from first year floor to second next year, and you can reside in your current room to make it easier to focus on other things until you graduate if your grades are consistent."
What good luck, it seems those so called perks Elva mentioned earlier did exist.
"Then, I'll gratefully-," Viv tried to speak.
"..."
Vivillian felt a pleading gaze stab into his face, in the corner of his eye, a certain brown haired, black eyed boy gave him a pitiful expression.
"...Add this guy to my room as well." He continued.
Elva silently celebrated, being sure not to be any more annoying for Viv, who begrudgingly let him share the room surprisingly.
As for Viv, he wasn't too bothered that he had to share the room. In fact, he felt a little awkward knowing he owed Elva during that one time he felt sick, so this was repaying the favor.
With this, my debt to him is done, and I can continue on with my life guilt free.
Viv grabbed his stuff, unceremoniously carrying up the stairs and they made their way to the place where the receptionist had marked out on the map.
Their room was located on the East side of the large boys dormitory, which hosted all the first to fifth year students. Meanwhile the girls's dormitory was a distance away at the western side of the campus.
Going up a few flights of stairs, Viv felt burdened by the light bag that was slowly becoming heavier.
"I'll carry it." Elva quickly took the load off Viv's hands, letting him examine the miniature map in his hands.
"Let's go this way." Vivillian turned and walked up another flight of stairs.
Finally, they reached the near top of the dormitory, a few floors from the highest floor.
Using a key, Vivillian found his room number and opened the old white door.
"...Woah." A gasp couldn't help but escape from his mouth as he stared at the dorm.
From the doorway, you could see a beautiful dark spruce living room decorated with plush chairs that would lead into wide corridor where a pair of dignified, larger than average bedrooms would be found.
Not only that, the more Viv and Elva explored, they get more content they were with their living quarters.
There was even a personal study filled with sparsely filled bookshelves, an array of miscellaneous books scattered across the study, seemingly left behind from the previous owners of the dorm.
"...Please study well." Elva muttered dreamily, as he laid on his newfound bed.
"..." Viv's eyebrow twitched, this guy was enjoying it more than him.
Later that night, Vivillian found himself unable to sleep on the new bed, as he looked up at the ceiling, where the stars shone through the window and into the room.
"...Ah, it's a full moon tonight." He stared out the window, as he slowly got up and looked outside at the large campus.
After that incident many years ago, his frequent trips outside were erratic and nothing like his exciting trips to Royalty windows.
Instead, he opted to hang out around the streets as a bird, stealing street vendor food and flying away to eat.
The sound of bones creaking and breaking as they stretched was painful to hear, as feathers slowly emerged from the small ball of flesh morphing on the ground.
Vivillian's clothes fell to the floor as soon, a black bird emerged from the fabric.
Stretching his wings, Vivillian took flight and soared out the window, flapping his wings as he glided around campus.
Despite the late hour, some older students were permitted to wander around and party outside the capital as long as they didn't create a loud fuss. After all, most of the students who made it to senior years at Einsvul had proven themselves in countless exams, and passed every progress marking. Soon, those students would become the new top talents in their respective study.
He landed on a park bench, resting his wings as he stared at a small group of older girls, around 16-17 in age as they fawned over a lazily resting black cat.
"Awe, Inky is so cute today..."
"I think he's annoyed from all the new students haha."
"Are you angry Inky? Are you angry Inky poo~?" The girls giggled as they pet the cat, using their baby voices to mimic Inky responding back.
"I am very annoyed! Very annoyed!" One of them mimicked a very gruff voice, using her hand to move Inky's head up and down.
As the girls laughed, Viv observed the spectacle silently, before awkwardly turning away.
Now that he thought about it, he wondered what was the relationship between beast man and actual animals of the same kind...
Suddenly, Viv's feathers pricked him as he felt the cold air of danger arising. Instinctively, he flew up high into the air and took flight without looking behind him.
At that same moment, another cat, orange in color appeared, it was a rather fat cat and was quite round as it licked its paws disappointedly.
"..." That was a bit dangerous, and it would've been really awkward if he had been caught by a cat of that caliber.
As Viv flew around, he realized just how many campus cats there were wandering around freely.
Maybe it was a good idea to change into another animal.
After all, it would be troublesome if he was constantly in danger in being caught by a domesticated cat every time he landed to take a break.
Taking inspiration from his relatively human form, a brown cat soon emerged from a corner of the campus, its green eyes shining brilliantly like emeralds.