With his raven-black hair and red eyes, she wouldn’t doubt it if someone told her he was already enlisted in the military. Calling him a boy felt more off than putting salt in tea, considering his bearlike frame. It was hard to believe he was only sixteen like Mia. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the bearlike boy exchange his red enrollment slip for a red tie.
The Magic Department was yet another special department. Only the most elite of the elite gathered there, for a reason separate from nobility—only those who possessed high magic potential from birth were admitted. Imagining him unleashing magic made the air prickle and tingle around him. Mia put a small space between them.
Isea Kingdom once led an army of mages into battle against the neighboring kingdom of Radius, defeating them to unify the peninsula. The military had gained political authority as a result, and had the Magic Department established at the Academy in order to further strengthen the mage battalion for taking on other enemies within the continent. Magic students were treated as national treasures. It was said that every citizen of Isea Kingdom possesses some form of magic, but only one in every thousand would be talented enough to rival the gunpowder and technologically advanced weaponry from the neighboring kingdoms. The Magic Department’s unique standing was immediately apparent by the fact that magic students were required to take only one entrance test—one that measured their magical prowess.
Mia’s frown broke at the sound of the receptionist’s voice. “You forgot to sign your scholarship application here.” He held the paper out to her.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” She frantically scoured through her bag to find a pen, earning a loud sigh from behind her.
“Why don’t you at least keep a pen and notepad on you? What’d you even come to the Academy for?” The owner of the voice retrieved a pen from his chest pocket, abruptly thrusting it at her.
“Th-Thanks.” Mia lifted her face to express her gratitude and found herself staring right into frustrated eyes the color of fresh verdure, hidden beneath his platinum bangs tinged with blue. He shoved Mia aside and stepped forward. Clenched in his hand was a blue enrollment authorization slip.
Green is pharmacology, purple is law, red is magic…which means blue is for the Medical Department.
Mia’s stiff expression softened, feeling some camaraderie with the boy. After all, the Medical Department and the Pharmacology Department were both said to have been created as an afterthought, for supporting the Magic Department.
A mysterious disease known as “Angel Tears” once ran rampant throughout the ranks of the Mage Battalion. Isea Kingdom’s church-run medical clinics had been powerless to cure it. The kingdom thus invested everything into researching a cure to prevent the loss of their greatest military forces. The first domestic Medical and Pharmacology Departments of the Academy were founded as a result. Departments created for the sole purpose of supporting the Magic Department—due to such origins, people treated those departments as inferior. That said, the entrance exam for admission into the Medical Department was ten times more difficult than Pharmacology.
But that doesn’t change the fact that both departments require working your butt off to get in! Unlike the others… I’m positive he must’ve put in backbreaking work to get accepted by the Academy too!
Mia very much wanted to talk to him now, but before she got the chance, she was interrupted by the receptionist. “Here you go. Once you get your orientation papers, take a seat and wait for the ceremony to start. Oh, but you should drop your trunk off at the dorms first. Orientation will begin without you if you don’t hurry.”
Discouraged, Mia lifted the trunk off her feet. She glanced around, but no one else had their trunks with them. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to try her luck and ask, “Excuse me, is it not possible for me to take my trunk in with me?”
She didn’t care about the trunk, but her bag was a memento from the person who had raised her. Everything important to her was contained inside—she couldn’t relax if she were away from it for even a moment.
“No one’s going to stop you from bringing it in, but it’ll get in the way. Where would you put it? Drop it off at your dorm please.”
Mia immediately retreated upon seeing the receptionist’s frustration with her. She understood this argument wasn’t important enough to pick a fight over, so she retrieved a single letter from her bag and safely tucked it away in her chest pocket. The letter was the one thing she could never bear to lose.
When she looked up again, she had been pushed out of the line, and the receptionist was no longer paying attention to her. He seemed to have his hands full assisting the medical student next in line and was clearly uninterested in dealing with her further.
“Excuse me! Where’s the dorm?” Mia shouted loudly.
Only one person reacted in the auditorium—a beautiful woman standing near the door smiled at her. She was the only female receptionist and donned a pair of curious blue-tinted spectacles. A composed glimmer in her purple eyes added to her charming image as a woman of intelligence. On her chest was a nametag with the name Einz written on it. To its left was “Assistant Professor”, indicating that she was a faculty member. The faculty hierarchy, Mia remembered, began from assistant professor at the base level, followed by lecturer, associate professor, and ending with professor as the highest rank. She was at the bottom of the professor food chain, which explained why she was put to work at the registration desks.
What a pretty lady. I wonder what department she teaches for.
Professor Einz smiled at Mia, who was caught up in observing her. “Go straight to the south and turn right when you come out at the belfry. It’s at the end of the street.”
Red rushed to Mia’s cheeks at her gentle smile. She’d been worried she was being slighted because of her position as a pharmacology student; her fears cleared with her kindness.
“Thank you very much!”
“Hurry along now,” she urged Mia.
Mia bowed her head politely before dashing off with her trunk thunking behind her.