Do You Know How to Fly?
After walking with Selene for a while, something suddenly occurred to me.
In a certain sense, this academy was actually pretty fair.
At least on the surface.
There was no entrance exam.
Which also meant there was no entrance ranking.
And if there was no ranking, then at least on this first day, there would not be any of those painfully obvious divisions—who ranked first, who ranked last, who deserved attention, and who should quietly find a corner and exist in silence.
That sounded pretty good.
At the very least, I would not have a ranking board slammed into my face the moment I set foot inside the academy, reminding me just how small I was.
But after thinking about it a little more, that was not entirely a good thing either.
No ranking also meant it was hard to tell where I stood. I had no idea who was stronger than me, who was weaker than me, or whether I was average, below average, or so hopeless that I should seriously consider finding a less life-threatening career path.
It was both an advantage
and a disadvantage.
That was what I thought, before quickly letting it go.
No matter what, there was a much more important issue right in front of me that needed to be dealt with first.
I glanced at Selene walking beside me.
"Hey, Selene," I said. "Do you know how to fly?"
"Hm?" She turned toward me, blinking as if she had not quite understood the question. "Fly?"
Then she laughed.
"Haha, you're joking again. How would a student like me know how to fly? Flying is something only high-ranking mages can do."
"Then do those people know how to fly?"
As I spoke, I pointed toward a group of students not too far away. They were walking in little clusters, and none of them looked remotely like they were about to turn into birds.
Selene followed the direction I was pointing, then hesitated slightly.
"Hm... p-probably not." She gave an awkward little smile. "I don't think even second-years or third-years necessarily know how to fly."
I fell silent, then pointed toward the clock tower in the distance.
The hour hand had just passed ten.
The minute hand was pointing at fifty.
"Then why are you and everyone else so relaxed?" I asked. "There are only ten minutes left before the assembly starts."
I paused for a beat, then continued,
"And the hall is really far away."
"..."
"Is nobody here worried about being late?"
I was genuinely confused.
Very genuinely confused.
Selene tilted her head at me.
"Hm?"
I tilted mine back at her.
For a brief moment, a very strange atmosphere formed between us, the kind where both people seemed to be thinking the other had just asked something incredibly weird.
Then Selene suddenly laughed.
"Fufu, you really do have a talent for joking, Rain."
She even rubbed at the corner of her eye as if she had been holding back laughter for too long.
I looked at her.
She was not pretending.
She genuinely thought I was joking.
Inside my head, a long chain of question marks appeared—long enough to become a full literary work of its own.
Huh?
What exactly is going on here?
Seeing that I was still silent, Selene blinked and finally explained,
"Rain, the academy has its own transportation system."
As she spoke, she pointed off in another direction, slightly to the right of the road.
"You can get from here to the hall in just five minutes."
I followed where she was pointing.
And froze.
Ah.
Aaaaaaaaaah.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
So that was it.
That was the answer.
It was not that the students here could fly.
And it was not that the eleven o'clock deadline was just there to scare people.
It was that I was an idiot.
A small but painful silence spread quietly through my mind.
Then, using every bit of social survival instinct I had built up over the years, I did my best to keep my face completely natural.
"Ah, right. Haha." I let out a dry laugh. "Of course I was joking."
I even nodded once for extra authenticity.
"Yeah, obviously. How could anyone not know that?"
Selene looked at me and nodded on instinct.
"Exactly."
Please do not say that with such an innocent face.
The one who did not know was me, girl.
But by some miracle, Selene seemed to fully believe that I had just been teasing her. Maybe in her eyes, I was the kind of person who said outrageous things in such a calm tone that it took people a while to realize they were being messed with.
Honestly, this misunderstanding was not bad.
It was definitely better than letting her realize that I had only just arrived at the academy and did not even know it had a transportation system.
"Right. Haha."
I repeated it once more, purely to save myself.
Thankfully, she really did believe I was joking.
Otherwise, the first impression I had been struggling to preserve until now probably would have shattered like a glass cup dropped from the third floor.
It was fine.
At the very least, I had just learned something new.
Not bad.
After consoling myself, I followed Selene toward the place known as the academy's "transportation system."
Calling it a place was not entirely accurate. It looked more like a smaller plaza, arranged with circles of magic engraved into the stone ground. A few students stood waiting inside each circle. In the center of every one was a stone pillar about waist-high, its surface covered with glowing symbols that pulsed faintly, as if breathing.
One look was enough to tell me that this was the sort of thing where, if someone said it could launch an elephant to the far side of the academy, I would at least consider believing them.
Selene stepped into the nearest magic circle with practiced familiarity, then turned back to look at me.
"Just stand here."
I did as told.
The moment both of us stood still, the lines beneath our feet suddenly lit up. A thin current of wind brushed past my ankles, and for an instant the space around us gave a faint lurch.
It did not hurt.
It was not even enough to make me dizzy.
It was just that, for the briefest moment, it felt as though someone had folded space in half—and when it opened again, the scenery in front of me had completely changed.
I blinked.
"...Oh."
It really had taken only about five minutes.
Or more accurately, counting the walk from the guide board to the transfer area, it really was around that long.
Pretty convenient.
Also pretty damaging to my self-respect.
Selene turned to look at me, seemingly satisfied with my reaction.
"I told you."
"Yeah," I replied, keeping my tone as calm as possible. "Pretty convenient."
Then, in my head, I quietly added one more sentence.
Convenient enough to make an ignorant outsider like me look like some village idiot visiting the city for the first time.
---
The hall.
Big.
No, let me correct that.
Way bigger than it had any right to be.
That was the first thought that appeared in my head the moment I stepped inside.
I stopped for a moment just past the entrance and looked around. The ceiling was so high that it gave me the feeling that if I spoke here, my voice might take a few extra seconds just to reach the top. Massive columns stood in rows along both sides, supporting the entire structure with a level of grandeur that bordered on excessive. Pale stone flooring stretched all the way to the front, where the speaking platform had been set up.
I genuinely wanted to ask just how many students they had that they needed to build a hall this large.
And that question was answered almost immediately.
In front of me was a sea of people.
Students filled nearly the entire hall, standing in groups and rows that occupied most of the space below. Their conversations blended together into a dense layer of sound, but not a chaotic one. It was more like the surface of water rippling beneath countless overlapping circles.
There were so many people.
I am not joking. I swear.
Even by rough estimate, there had to be at least a thousand.
And what was even more terrifying was that even that many people still were not enough to completely fill this hall.
If the first-years were already like this, then just how bad was the full student body?
The thought sent a faint chill down my spine.
Good thing there was no ranking during enrollment. If I had been thrown straight into some kind of hierarchy chart in the middle of this human ocean, I was pretty sure I would have instantly felt like I had drifted out of the stream of life with no idea where to swim.
"It's kind of overwhelming, huh," Selene said softly beside me.
"Yeah." I nodded. "That's a ridiculous amount of people."
We moved a little farther in and stopped at a spot that was decent enough. From here, we could clearly see the speaking platform up front.
That platform was just as oversized as the rest of the hall, raised high with broad steps. A podium stood at the center, along with a few decorations that were probably symbolic of the academy. I figured that sooner or later, some teacher, principal, or other important figure would step up there and deliver a grand, inspiring welcome speech for the freshmen.
To be honest, ceremonies like this were the same everywhere.
Whether it was my old world or this one, people really did love gathering large crowds together and then having someone stand above them to say a lot of words that most of the audience either would not remember at all, or would only remember in the form of the final sentence.
While I was still thinking that, a figure slowly stepped onto the platform.
He wore dark formal robes and had a tall build. He was not exactly old, but he carried the sort of stern presence that came from someone accustomed to standing in front of crowds. In his hand was a magical microphone—or at least, I assumed that was what it was, because it looked suspiciously similar to a microphone.
He raised it.
Then he spoke.
"Welcome."
His voice was steady, not particularly loud, and yet somehow it echoed through the entire hall. The sound spread evenly into every corner, so clear that even from this distance, I could hear every word as if he were speaking right in front of me.
I glanced around instinctively.
No speakers.
No amplification devices of any kind that I recognized.
Magic really was convenient.
"Welcome to Astral..." He paused for the slightest moment. "You precious uncut gems."
Uncut gems, huh.
I sincerely hoped I had at least a little potential in me to deserve a title like that.
At the very least, I hoped I was not just some ordinary rock that had somehow gotten mixed into a pile of jewels.
That would be a little embarrassing.
The speech went on.
He talked about the academy's history, its mission, its honor, its responsibilities, how the new generation would become the future of the empire, and several other things that I was technically hearing, but not retaining very much of.
It was not that the content was bad.
It was just that... an opening ceremony was still an opening ceremony.
No matter what world you were in, it had this strange power to make drowsiness feel completely justified.
So I stood there listening in a half-awake haze, only catching the occasional line that sounded important. Beside me, Selene seemed far more attentive—or at the very least, she looked like someone genuinely trying to listen.
At around twelve ten, the speech finally came to an end.
I practically wanted to sigh in relief.
It really was not all that different from opening ceremonies in my previous life.
The only difference was that there was no ceiling fan overhead making that annoying rattling noise.
After that, freshmen like us were guided toward the room where we were supposed to receive our "necessary communication devices."
That phrase alone was enough to make me curious.
Communication devices?
It sounded half like technology and half like a magical artifact. And considering how this world worked, it was entirely possible that it was both.
The distribution room was not far from the hall, just as the guide board had said. From the outside, it looked fairly spacious, though still nowhere near as enormous as the hall we had just left. Groups of students moved steadily inside in an orderly flow.
The moment I stepped through the doorway, I felt something strange.
The paper in my coat pocket suddenly turned hot.
Before I could react, it shot out on its own as though some invisible hand had yanked it free, then floated in front of my face.
And then—
Fwoosh.
It caught fire.
I froze.
"...What now?"
And it was not just me.
All around me, everyone else's paper rose into the air and burst into flame as well. In an instant, countless little flames were floating through the room, burning brightly before fading out as though they had just completed their final task.
Wait a second.
Everyone had one too?
Ah, right.
Of course.
If even those who enrolled through money needed some form of proof of identity or eligibility, then it made perfect sense that they would also have some kind of invitation letter or certification.
I had only just reached that thought when something dropped out of the ashes of my paper.
Out of reflex, I reached out and caught it.
A watch.
Yeah.
I was not seeing things.
It was literally a watch.
It sat neatly in the palm of my hand, cool to the touch, with a dark strap and a design simpler than I expected, though also more refined. While I was still frozen there trying to process what had just happened, the face of the watch suddenly lit up, and a transparent screen appeared above it.
Faint.
Half-illusory.
Very much in the style of this world.
I looked down.
Student Name: Rain
Blessing: Combat / Support Type
Class: 1B
Dorm Room: 621 - H3
I read each line slowly.
The name was correct.
The class had already been assigned.
The dorm room too.
Everything was so clear that it left me with very little room to convince myself this was just some weird mistake of fate.
I stared at the watch in silence for a few more seconds.
Around me, murmurs from the other students began to rise. Some sounded curious, some excited, and some were already trying theirs on right away. Beside me, Selene was staring at her own device with a look of surprise and concentration.
As for me, I simply closed my hand lightly around the watch.