I shot her a look of doubt. It’s so comfortable though. With the night breeze on your scales and the clouds as your pillow, the air is by far one of the most comfortable places to sleep in.
“Do they perhaps sleep on small beds like the one you quickly kicked away?”
“No, that was a dog— Never mind. Humans sleep on beds this size,” she said, pointing at the larger bed next to her. “Speaking of which, as a ‘human,’ you’ll be sleeping on that one right there. Your side of the room is a little desolate right now, but don’t worry. Maybe we can go out tomorrow, or at least sometime before the school year starts, to furnish your side of the room a little.”
“That’s even more unnecessary than a bed. I need nothing that this realm offers...” Aside from the head of the Blade Saint.
“You never know. There might be something out there that’ll catch your eye. Come on, we’ll go out sometime, and it’ll be my treat.”
“I—”
“You don’t have to give me an answer yet. Just sleep on it, okay? But anyway, now that I’ve shown you to your room, I’ll show you how to get around the school.” Then, she walked toward a large mirror in the back of the room perfectly between my side and hers. “This is a mirror you can use to look at yourself, but also...” She trailed off as she came to a stop and tapped it. Suddenly the image rippled, and an image of a banquet hall appeared. “Ta-da! It’s a portal too! All you have to do is imagine where you want to go on campus, and it’ll bring up an image of what’s beyond the destination portal. It’s set up so that you can use the portal in your room to go anywhere on campus, but only those with authorization to come to your room can come through your room’s portal. For the record, we’re both registered residents of this room, so we’re allowed to come here without having to get permission.”
“Are all the mirrors in this school portals?”
“For the most part. It’s easier to see where you’re going and who’s trying to use it. But don’t worry, they’re all clearly marked, so it’s easy to tell which is a portal and which is an actual mirror. Funny story, there’s a good friend of mine who still thought a mirror was a portal despite the markings and tried going through it but just ended up crashing into it.”
“He sounds like a buffoon.”
“Yeah, totally,” she laughed. “Anyway, portals can get you from one side of this campus to another in a jiffy, so I definitely recommend them.”
“I assume you use this portal quite a bit, then?”
“Yeah. The school’s pretty big, and walking from one end to the other can take a while.”
Though that did sound awfully time-consuming, thinking back to everything she’d said about portal mishaps made me think that taking the time to physically move from place to place was a trade-off I was willing to take. If the portals had been constructed by elder dragons, I’d be much more receptive to the idea, but with this hodgepodge of species, who knew what kind of problems awaited me.
“I’ll pass,” I said.
“Why?”
“I don’t trust portals.”
She blinked at me, her eyes filled with confusion as she tried to process what I’d said. “You...don’t trust portals? Why not?”
“I have my reasons,” I huffed.
“The portals here at school are really convenient and secure. They always work.”
“Just because something ‘always’ works doesn’t mean it’ll always work without fail.”
“I...think you lost me.”
“Portals are not infallible. Though you may not have experienced any difficulties with them, that doesn’t mean they’re bound to work perfectly every time. You yourself have even listed some of the technical failures that have led to undesired consequences.”
“Yeah, but none of that—absolutely none of that has happened in the history of this school, not even being sent to the wrong place.”
“Maybe not yet. But there’s a first time for everything.”
“It won’t happen ever. Portals may be complex spells, but the professionals who set them up came up with a lot of safeguards to ensure that nothing will ever go wrong. For example, you can see exactly where you’re being teleported to, and it won’t let you teleport there if there’s any kind of obstruction.”
“You say that, but you still can’t absolutely guarantee that it won’t mess up.”
“I absolutely can. Are you okay? You sound like you have portalphobia.”
I froze. The word “portalphobia” had an equivalent in Elder Dragon, so I instantly understood what she meant even without the context. While it was true that I had an aversion to portals, I wouldn’t consider myself fearful of them. Elder dragons feared nothing, especially not some stupid magic where if even the slightest thing went wrong, you could instantly die before you knew it. I’m not going to let a stupid portal make me seem weak.
“Humph. You sound like you’re making generalizations about things you know nothing about. At any rate, this is the portal to the dining hall, correct? Let’s go. I’m famished,” I said, walking toward the mirror.
“Are you sure? We can walk there. It’s not a problem.”
“Of course I’m sure. As proof of just how okay I am with using portals, I’ll allow you to go first.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one to go first...?” She wryly smiled. “Although, I guess, since you’re new here, it makes the most sense for me to show you how it’s done. Okay, just watch. It’s already set to bring us to the dining hall, so all you have to do is step through like this.”
Then in the next moment, she stepped into the portal, and the mirror reflected an image of her in the dining hall. She waved at me, signaling that it was safe to join her.
I gulped. I’m a strong, fearsome elder dragon. With that, I stepped forward and entered the mirror.