Campus connection

Helena's visit was followed by another visitor who posed a stark contrast to her propriety. His uniform was sloppy and his posture was lackadaisical. Stepping out of his aerial vehicle, the first thing he did was stretch and yawn. It was obvious that he had been sleeping before they'd landed.

Spotting Anri at the door, the young man walked over and flashed a lazy smile. "Hey... Anri right? Helena got here before me so I'll just cut to the chase. The name's Levi, prefect of camp Cygnus. Most guys get taken in by her good looks so I've probably lost my chance to recruit you. Anyway, you might get a call from someone asking if I've come around. Do me a solid and let them know that I tried real hard to entice you to Cygnus."

"Sure," Anri replied.

"Thanks, see ya later then."

"Levi!" the old man's thundering voice stopped the prefect who was making his escape.

"Ah fuck..."

Anri was close enough that he heard Levi's pained curse.

"Yo cap-" the prefect turned around and saluted the old man.

"Don't you yo me, Guttenverg. I should call your principal right now and let him know just how much effort you're expending to recruit for Cygnus."

Prefect Levi dipped his head and smiled at the old man like he was embarrassed. "That won't be necessary, sir. I'll let him know about it myself if you insist on it."

The old man's memories took him back to a few years ago when he was a staff member at Starfield. Levi had been a problem child back then. Now he held the coveted role of prefect but everyone knew that he had been compelled to take on the responsibility. This said a lot about how much talent and potential his professors saw in him.

"Come right back here, cadet. I need to see you giving him a real recruitment speech."

A loud sigh ensued.

Anri decided to spare him the misery of it. "A speech won't do any good. I'll decide which camp to join after doing some research."

"Exactly," Levi drawled. "That's how everyone should decide."

The old man looked heavenward. God forbid Anri end up in Cygnus. Levi would enable his eccentricities, and that spelt trouble for the both of them.

"You sound like you're confident about your chances of getting in, Anri." Levi's lazy eyes were trained on the sorcerer like he could see through him.

"Fortune favours the bold, prefect."

"Ain't that something," Levi smiled at the solemn-faced Anri. "I look forward to seeing your performance at the battle royale."

_______

Starfield Academy was an enormous honeycomb structure built between Haider peak and Winnow lake at the foot of the snowy ranges of Mount Pleasant. This location was a hundred and fifty kilometres from the nearest town. Despite its isolation, the structure was well protected from enemy incursions.

Motion sensors and thermal cameras worked in tandem with a cutting edge energy shield dome and a multi-purpose combat system that could detect, assess and intercept incoming artillery. The greatest threat to the Academy came from the ground if enemy forces decided to rig the mountain with explosives. An attempt had been made during the initial years of the Academy's establishment but the danger was neutralised when the terrorists were detected by its widespread security system.

After that incident, Starfield made a few policy changes to protect its students better. In order to avoid unnecessary security threats, they decided that the Academy exams would never be held at Pleasant. This year, the first part of the exam was to be hosted by Fairmont College of astrophysics. Each candidate received the information on their communicators.

Thus, Anri was at the gates of Fairmont where the security guard scanned him from head to toe before he was allowed entry.

The teenager looked around the paved grounds of the college. There were many young people like him heading to their respective classrooms. He looked down at the digital copy of his admission card. Under his name and serial number was the classroom ID number - 1453.

"Does the college have so many classrooms?" He wondered. Anri wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. Unsurprisingly, he ended up bumping into another person.

"Watch it, asshole."

Anri raised his head and saw that he had bumped into a red-headed boy his age. The sorcerer was silent as he stared at the boy's forehead.

"Why do you not have eyebrows?" He asked the redhead.

"That's none of your business. Why do you have eyebrows?!"

"Because, unlike you, I didn't shave mine off."

The redhead gave Anri a look as dirty as sewer water. "You're lucky that I'm in a hurry. Piss off." Saying so, he began walking away.

"Wait," Anri called out to him. "Do you know the layout of this place?"

The redhead threw up a middle finger in response and then disappeared into the crowd of students milling about in front of a large entrance door. At the centre of the commotion was a girl that he recognised from television. Nova Ainsworth. Her fans were trying to get close to her but she had come with bodyguards who acted as a wall of meat between her and the clamouring fans.

From what he could see of her, the young lady was even prettier in real life. Today, she had donned a simple cable knit sweater with denim pants and comfortable white trainers. Her long black hair was twisted into a half-bun held together by a silver hairpin.

Anri was annoyed that he had to find another entrance since that one was completely blocked off by Nova's fans. He didn't envy her popularity at all.

"Hello student, are you lost?" A passing android asked him. The sorcerer hadn't interacted with AI's like this one. It looked like a human made of steel and silicon.

"Yeah, I have to get to room number 1453."

"Oh dear," the android tutted in a very regretful tone. "That's fifteen kilometres away from this location. You've come to the wrong campus, student."

His exam started in half an hour. "What?! Aren't I at Fairmont?"

"You're at campus one. Classroom 1-4-5-3 is at campus two."

Just then, Anri heard a shout.

"Oi, outta my way!" The redhead from before yelled at a group of girls, knocking one of them to the ground as he sprinted out of the gate. The look on his face was of unadulterated panic.

Anri immediately turned on his heels to run after the sprinting teenager. There had to be only one reason why the redhead was running out of the campus gates at full speed. He too was at the wrong campus.

The sorcerer was a fast runner but the redhead ran like lightning. Anri had to trigger a rune on himself to speed up. In no time, he was jogging next to the red speeding road hazard.

"You, redhead, are you heading to campus two?" He asked the teenager. After the months of gruelling runs that he'd endured, Anri's stamina had increased by leaps and bounds.

Redhead's eyes went wide when he saw Anri running next to him. He was shocked because no one had ever managed to keep up with his speed before, let alone catch up to him when he already had a head start.

"That's none of-"

"It's my business, forehead. I have to get to campus two as well."

"Don't call me forehead!" he snarled out.

"Then take me to campus two, fivehead."

The red-headed boy stopped running and Anri followed suit.

"If you wanna fight then say so, ya piece of dog shit."

"We're both getting late, idiot." Anri calmly replied. "Lead me to campus two."

His words reminded the redhead of what was at stake. Despair in his eyes, he took off in a panic again.

Anri facepalmed and followed the boy. He could flag down a taxi but it felt safer heading to his destination with someone who actually knew where to go.

"Fivehead," he called out to the runner. "We have fifteen minutes and fifteen kilometres to cover. Are you sure you can do one kilometre per minute?"

"God damn it!" The redhead shouted in response.

_____

Anri and the speeding teenager ended up sharing a Kite. The fully autonomous aerial taxi was expensive but it got them to their destination in less than five minutes. The teenagers split the fare in half between them and paid the appropriate amount of credits.

Anri disembarked first and made a beeline for the android that was welcoming students inside the campus. After asking it for directions, he managed to finally locate his classroom with a few minutes to spare.