The Academy

As he entered the fortified entrance of Clementine Academy, Aren saw a large compound at the front but it was only a part of fortified area. In the middle, was a dome shaped building from where black cloaked students would enter and exit from time to time. This was not the only building where students lived though, as he could also see other two buildings on the left and far behind of that dome.

Various unknown plants and trees grew on this green compound. There were also some huge trees as big as a six storey building. After they entered, Cowen led him towards a building situated at far behind. They met some students on the way. Some seemed to recognise Cowen as they greeted him, addressing him as 'Professor Cowen'.

After a while, they entered the buliding. Entering inside, he saw a small hall. There were some mages and mostly apprentices there. Cowen didn't bother with these people and led him straight to a room.

Inside the room was like an office . There was a rank 2 mage sitting on a chair. Seeing them entering without knocking, he was very furious. No one dared to enter the registration room without his permission. It seemed like these apprentices needed to be taught a lesson today.

As John stood up and was about to reprimand these undisciplined students, he caught sight of Cowen's face. Immediately he put on a flattering smile as he welcomed them.

"Professor Cowen, I didn't think that you would come here today. You should have informed me and I would have come to settle any matters for you. There is no need to come here personally."

John was relieved that he didn't make a move rashly. If he had, he didn't suspect one bit that he would have to immediately leave the Academy or worse case even be killed simply. Offending a rank 4 magician for no reason was one of the most foolish way to die.

"No need. I just came here for his registration." Cowen waved his hand and said, pointing one of his fingers at Aren.

John looked at Aren with a suprised expression. When children with talent were brought to register as an apprentice they would not have such luxury as Aren. A rank 4 mage was an important asset to any organisation so they wouldn't be assigned for such a small task.

John observed Aren from head to toe, looking at his simple but clean clothing, a rather taller build than most of the children and his enchanting appearance.

"What is your name?" he asked seriously.

Well of course he'd be serious as Cowen lead him personally. So John assumed that he was an important person.

"Aren Constantine." Aren's answer was quick but the next question made his mouth shut for while.

"From which family?"

He expected this question, so Aren looked towards where Cowen was standing finding him missing.

'Huh? Where did...?'

He looked around but didn't find any shadow of Cowen. He was gone!

John looked at this child, who was not answering his question and was dissatisfied with his behaviour but considering his relationship with Prof. Cowen, he didn't voice it out. He just looked at the absentminded Aren and after a minute got his answer.

"I...Umm... I'm not from any family."

John's expression changed hearing what Aren said and he had a look of understanding. If this child wasn't from any Mages families then it was acceptable for Cowen to personally bring him here. He then asked Aren about his aptitude and other basic information.

Half an hour later, Aren exited the registration room. He was now wearing the same type of cloak like other students here. It was fully black except for a tree shaped badge at the left chest area. This was the uniform here. He looked at the keys in his left hand, which were his room keys of the dormitory for apprentices. On his right hand, was a thick notebook. Its blank pages were light brown in color.

This was a spellbook used for recording spells. It was given to every mage apprentice and could be said to be an extremely important tool for any mage. Wands or staffs were not necessarily needed but spellbooks were a must for a caster.

Leaving that building, he entered the dome and arrived at the dormitory for junior apprentices. This dorm occupied the whole left side of the dome. Aren looked at the interior of this structure which was very bright because of a huge chandelier hanging at the top.

This dome was the dormitory for students ranging from apprentices to rank 2 mages and despite being like a football stadium on the inside, it was big enough to accomodate thousands of students in their individual rooms. As he was an apprentice, he didn't have the rights and status to climb the higher floors so he could only look at the mages entering and exiting from the corridors high up.

With the help of directions provided by John, Aren found his room. Standing on the hallway which was lit up by yellow magical flames, he looked left and right. It was unusually silent.

'Aren't there any dorm buddies coming to welcome me? Well, I guess this really is another world.'

Aren had anticipated this, so he wasnot disappointed. Pursing his lips, he inserted the key into the keyhole and opened the door.

Creak!

He looked inside and found that his room was quite spacious and it was clean too. It seemed someone would clean the rooms of students at least once a week.

Aren put his notebook on a desk and laid down on his bed. He found eight thick books and a small handbook called 'Rules and regulations of Clementine Academy'. Among the books, seven were academic and one was the most he needed called 'The Index of Runes'.

Aren hastily opened the book and looked at the pages one by one. There were elemental runes which would increase the affinity with certain elements, Psychic and illusory runes and even light or darkness runes.

These runes were divided into three types mainly common runes, advanced runes and special runes. In this index there was no special rune as those were strictly controlled by various families. These special runes were the lifeline of magus families so there were none in that index.

After he finished browsing through most of the advanced runes, he closed it and started contemplating. He had completely disregarded using those common ones. Those runes were only for apprentices having low aptitudes. As he had the highest grade aptitude, of course he would like something more advanced.

But even after musing over it for an hour, he still wasn't satisfied with any of these. Its not that those runes were not good but if he engraved one of those he'd would be at a disadvantage against the mages having engraved special runes.

'I think Professor Cowen might help me with this. He knows about my talent so he surely wouldn't let me engrave these. He might have already prepared something for me...'

As Aren was hoping for Cowen to give him an awesome rune, a door knock interrupted his fantasies.

'Who could it be? It's evening already...'

Aren stood up and opened the door. Outside he saw a small girl standing patiently. She was also wearing black cloak but her face wasnot concealed unlike others. Looking at her small height of about 140cm, Aren assumed her to be also a student.

When the girl saw him, she was slightly suprised. This fellow apprentice in front of her was almost as tall as her seniors. Did he stay as a junior apprentice even after he became this old? But she was informed that he was a new student. The girl was confused but her slightly smiling appearance didn't change.

"Hello Aren, I am Rina. You are the new student, right? My room is next to yours so I've been assigned to show you around the academy. Are you free right now?"

"I see. Hello littl-Uh... Rina. I am totally free right now. I was also about to ask someone how to get to the library." Aren answered, secretly heaving a sigh of relief.

'Crap! Thank god I didn't call her little girl. I am also a small boy now, no longer in my late twenties. So I need to act like a small boy!'

Closing the door, he followed Rina as she led the way. She was a talkative girl so on the way she asked Aren many questions, giving him no time to think about runes anymore.

Getting outside the dorm, they headed to the Gothic style castle. This place was even more spotless and luxurious than the one Cowen led him to. Looking around he was pretty much sure this was the main building.

"Oh! so you are a natural aptitude holder. I am from Fagulon family. Professor Mark Fagulon is my father." Rina was chatting cheerfully. Her earlier doubts about Aren were also gone when he told her that he didn't belong to any family.

After Rina finshed showing around, they finally stopped at the library. It was packed full with books and didn't lose out to Gilbert Library in terms of size.

"Alright. This is the library. If you want to ask something later, I'll be at the dining hall." Then also telling him to quickly borrow the book he needed from the library, she went on her way.

Aren looked at her disappearing petite figure, then turned around. He went straight towards the knowledge section and started browsing through them. In the Academy's library, there was no need for any cards or identifications as everything was under the surveillance of magical arrays. If someone dared to cause any trouble, then he or she would surely be punished.

Aren looked around. There weren't many students here as everybody was having dinner at this time. After checking various books for half an hour, he came across a very interesting book. It was a journal of a rank 3 mage from 250 years ago. There, he described how he found the runes of time and space. He had also drawn those runes in the last page. He got interested in what that mage was saying so he decided to borrow that book.

Coming before the librarian, he asked about borrowing that book. The librarian casually took the book, flipped the pages and returned it but seeing the author's name 'Anthony Dickson', he decided to warn him.

"You can borrow it for three days but I would recommend you to not to read this book. You see the Author's name, his every book has made many apprentices go mad and led them astray. Also don't try to engrave or enchant the runes in any magical items mentioned in this book. If it is just a reference for other things mentioned then that won't be a problem."

Aren was startled when the librarian warned him but as he was curious he decided to just read it once.

With the book in his hand, he went to the dormitory. That was also where the dining hall was for students. He first kept "Anthony's Journals" in his room and went to dine.

He also found Rina and her friends there. She had already finished eating so she complained about how late he'd been. After dinner, Rina introduced Aren to her friends. He also got to know his other dorm mates. Three were seniors and other four were juniors just like him.

Senior apprentices were those who had reached the threshold for advancing. They knew many apprentice level spells and were about 15 to 20 in terms of age. For a Junior to become a senior they must master 5 apprentice level spells and study magic for more than 2 years in a reputed school or academy.

While chatting with Rina and others, it was already nearing 10 o'clock, so he bid them goodbye and returned to his room. He changed his clothes shiftly while his gaze fell upon the open book. On the left page of this book was a drawing of an equilateral triangle and on the right page was an inverted triangle. These triangles, however, were not ordinary but instead looked like third dimensional pictures if observed closely.

Below both of these triangles were long paragraphs of complicated characters which sometimes looked like greek and sometimes Japanese katakana. Although those languages from earth were ancient, he still had a deep impression of them.