There was one thing I believed was not true for just me, but for almost anyone who had lived long enough.
Education mattered.
At the very least, that was true in both my previous world and this one.
If there was anything that helped a society grow in the most sustainable way possible, it was education. It might not be the fastest path, and it definitely was not the most glamorous one, but it was almost always the most reliable.
In my previous world, education was practically mandatory. More or less everyone had to start school at the age of six, go through twelve years of basic education, and then spend a few more years in university if they wanted to go further. It was not just a system. It was almost a default route for a person's life, built to help people develop from awareness to ability.
In other words, knowledge was the foundation there.
And because it was the foundation, people had no choice but to make sure it was built well.
This world did not take education lightly either.
It was just that their understanding of it was a little different.
Actually, quite different.
Most of the major academies here focused on only one thing: helping students grow stronger.
Sure, there were people who entered academies to study knowledge about the world, history, academic magic, or similar fields. But there were not many of them. At least, not compared to those who came here because they wanted more power, better chances of survival, or a higher place in society.
Thinking about it carefully, that was not hard to understand.
In my previous world, knowledge was the ultimate form of power, far beyond most other things, so naturally education centered around knowledge.
But here, in a world where magic, monsters, mana, blessings, and all kinds of dangers existed—things that could kill a person faster than a final exam ever could—what people pursued was obviously different.
Here, strength came first.
Knowledge still mattered.
In fact, it mattered a great deal.
It played a role in everything, from administration, research, and production to the military and even the way an entire empire was governed. Even so, what most people in this world sought was power born from strength.
So, in essence, the academies here were places that taught students how to survive in this world.
How to become stronger.
How to use mana.
How to make use of their blessings.
And maybe, how not to die too early.
That was why most academies only opened their doors to those who had already turned eighteen.
Before that, people could choose not to study at all.
Or, if they were nobles with the means and proper guidance from an early age, they would be taught all sorts of things within their families—etiquette, history, territory management, even basic magic. But in the end, most of that was still just preparation for the day they reached greater power.
That was more or less the philosophy here.
It sounded practical, but honestly, I thought it made sense.
After all, a world with monsters roaming outside did not really have the luxury of romanticizing education.
It was right about then that my feet touched the station platform.
Rubbing at my still-drowsy eyes, I stepped off the train. The midday sunlight immediately poured down over me. It was not harsh enough to make me frown, but it was not gentle enough to be called pleasant either. It felt as though the sun was simply carrying out its duties with perfect seriousness.
"So I'm here."
I murmured to myself as I narrowed my eyes and looked ahead.
A vast city stretched out before me.
The City of Dusk.
Or rather, the place everyone was far more used to calling by a much easier name: the Academy City.
This place was considered the crystallization of the empire's ambition, dreams, and achievements. If you were a citizen of the Sun Empire and had never heard of it, then either you lived in complete isolation, or you had never really paid attention to the world around you.
Dusk was the cradle of warriors, knights, mages, and even some of the empire's most prominent nobles.
A city whose name alone was enough to make people look at you a little differently.
And right now, I was standing here.
At the entrance to that very place.
In my hand was the letter of admission that had followed me through the entire journey.
No matter how I thought about it, it all felt a little strange.
Someone like me, carrying an old piece of paper, walking into a place praised as the pride of the entire empire.
If this were the opening of some novel, I would have assumed the author was trying to emphasize the contrast between the protagonist's background and the grand setting behind him.
Unfortunately, I was not entirely sure I was actually the protagonist.
Thinking nonsense like that, I followed the flow of people through the street.
Buildings lined both sides of the road, stretching toward the center of the city. Restaurants, cafés, magic tool shops, libraries, inns, neat rows of tall buildings, and signs glowing with magical light hanging in order above storefronts. Some things, at a glance, almost made me forget I was in a fantasy world. This place was far more modern than I had expected.
Then again, that was not really strange.
Magic in this world was so powerful that it had wormed its way into nearly every corner of daily life. Once that kind of energy became the foundation of society, it was only a matter of time before infrastructure developed in a direction shaped by it.
As Marx once said, the economic base always develops alongside the superstructure.
Though I was not entirely sure how he would react if he actually saw a city full of magic like this.
He would probably stay silent for a long time.
Or write another book.
Either way, the fact that this place reminded me of my old world in so many ways still felt a little strange. Not unpleasant, exactly. Just off, in a way that was hard to describe. Like stepping into an unfamiliar room, only to find a few oddly familiar objects placed inside it.
If someone asked me what my first impression of the academy was, I would probably have to answer honestly that I did not know.
I genuinely did not know.
Most of what I knew about this place came from the stories told by merchants at Sydney Port, and merchants' stories were famous for one thing: they should always be listened to with caution. Out of every ten parts of truth they told, maybe seven were usable. The remaining three were usually added to make the story more interesting.
Even so, the fact that the empire valued this place so highly was enough to prove its worth.
At least, in theory.
I kept walking through the crowded street. Every now and then, groups of teenagers around my age passed by me. Most of them were dressed far more neatly than I was, and the excitement on their faces was obvious. Some were with their families. Some were carrying luggage. Some kept glancing around nonstop as they walked, exactly like tourists stepping into a new land for the first time.
I watched them for a while before quietly drawing my gaze back.
For some reason, in the middle of all that bustle, I felt strangely calm.
Maybe it was because even now, I still did not fully feel like this was something actually happening to me.
Or maybe it was because worrying too much would not help anyway.
I tightened my grip on the letter in my hand.
The paper was old, but the edges were still stiff. It reminded me that none of this was some dream I had during a long train ride.
I really had made it here.
And if I was already here, then maybe the only thing left for me to do was keep walking forward.
"Ah... there it is."
I murmured softly.
Ahead of me stood a massive gate.
Above it, a line of large letters was carved into the air itself, shining with such a faint light that at first glance it looked more like an illusion than something real.
Astral Academy.
Just two words, yet they carried a strange feeling with them. It was not exactly pressure, and I could not quite call it awe either. It felt more like standing in front of a place you had heard about so many times that, before you even entered, you had already unconsciously given it some special meaning.
If someone asked me whether I liked school, I would say yes.
At least, in my previous world, I had never hated it.
But if someone asked me after I had already graduated whether I wanted to go back and do it all over again, then my answer would definitely be no.
Humans really were strange creatures.
Or at least, I was.
I lowered my gaze a little.
Below the great gate, long lines of people were crowding their way inside. Some looked so tense their faces had practically frozen. Others carried themselves with far too much confidence, as if stepping through this gate alone was enough to put a glorious future right into their hands. There were also those who stood apart from the rest, naturally keeping their distance from the surrounding crowd.
Like me.
It was not that I did not want friends.
It was just that the years leading up to this had been difficult in too many ways, and in that kind of life, making friends always sounded much easier than it actually was. When a person was too busy thinking about how they were going to survive the day, some things naturally got pushed aside.
At the very least, I still hoped I could make some friends at the academy.
Maybe.
I did not know exactly how many students each year the academy accepted.
But judging by what I was seeing right now, even a few hundred would probably be a conservative estimate.
Just the stream of people crowding through the gate was enough to show me how enormous this place really was. And that was only the outside. From a distance, the entire academy looked like an independent fortress sitting in the middle of the city. High walls, long stretches of architecture extending deep into the grounds, towers rising against the sky—together they created an impression that was both solemn and properly extravagant.
I had once heard people say that the academy alone occupied nearly half the total area of Dusk.
Back when I was still in Sydney Port, I had taken that as the usual kind of exaggeration merchants loved to throw around.
Now that I was standing here and seeing it with my own eyes, I was starting to think maybe they had not exaggerated all that much.
This place was ridiculously huge.
That was where my train of thought came to a stop.
I drew in a quiet breath, tightened my hold on the letter in my hand, and stepped through the great gate.
"Time to go to school."
I said it out loud.
Then I kept walking forward.