“This will be your dorm room.” Nina knocked on the door, “You will be sharing with Ms. Coral Lancaster.”
Alarea waited next to the secretary Nina as a series of loud bangs echoed from beyond the door, a pair of footsteps rushing towards them. “Hello-” the door opened revealing a young woman the same age as she, dark blue hair in a complete mess as a toothbrush dangled out of her mouth. “Ahh! Ma’am! Goodmorning!”
Her demeanor changed instantly as she saw who was waiting on the other side of her door, back straightening to attention. However rather than professional it looked more comedic, as her toothbrush fell from her mouth leaving a stain across her loose fitting nightgown, one of its thin straps having fallen off over her shoulder, as it crashed to the floor.
“A good morning to you Ms. Lancaster,” Nina clearly didn’t care about her appearance, or if she did she chose to ignore it. “This is Miss. Alarea, I believe you were informed that she was to be your new roommate. Please make sure to show her around.”
“Oh right, forgot about that.” Coral went to give an awkward giggle, however Nina’s frosty stare made it get caught in her throat. “I will do my best Ma’am.”
“See to it that you do,” she turned her attention back to Alarea. “Do make sure you apply yourself. I will be keeping my eye on you.”
With those cryptic words she took her leave, the clicking of her heels echoing through the dormitory corridor, students quickly shutting themselves in their rooms as she passed.
“So ahh..” Coral laughed nervously, picking her toothbrush back up and putting it back into her mouth after giving it a quick blow. “You're the new girl then? Come in, come in, and please don’t mind the mess I forgot to clean.”
Alarea followed Coral inside, the small twin bed room looked as if a tornado had blown through it, clothes and textbooks scattered everywhere. Even the small bathroom attached was filled with a pile of discarded clothes and random bits of rubbish.
“I was used to having the room to myself so kinda let my hygiene standards go..” she rubbed the back of her neck, hastily cleaning off some mess from one of the two beds. “I’ll clean it all up, I promise. I just didn’t have much notice that a new student was moving in with me.”
“It's no problem,” Alarea said as she took a seat on the newly cleared bed, sighing in pleasure as she sank into its soft cushioning. “This situation was kind of thrown on me as well, so I understand.”
“Miss. Foster may have already introduced me, but the names Coral Lancaster,” she introduced herself as she swept her foot across the floor, pushing everything back over to one side of the room.
“Alarea,” she introduced herself. “Hey, do you need a hand? I'm more than happy to help.”
“No no,” Coral waved off her offer. “Ooh, there was something for you delivered last night, a uniform I think. I put it in your closet.”
Alarea reluctantly climbed up out of the bed that seemed to want to swallow her whole, not that she was opposed in the slightest, and made her way over to a small closet that was placed against the wall on the other side of her bed. She opened its two doors, a pristine and freshly pressed uniform hanging inside.
The uniform was a three piece set, firstly a plain white shirt, secondly a pair of tapered black dress pants, a streak of gold embroidery running down the outside of either leg, and finally a black vest like suit jacket, its lapel bringing the same gold colour that accented the pants. She ran her hand over the stitched academy emblem on the jacket's left breast, a pair of crossed swords over a shield, Karaeth Academy written underneath atop a flowing ribbon design.
The fabric was soft to the touch, not irritating her skin in the slightest like the cheap clothes she wore before. She slipped into it, its form wrapping snugly around her as if it was tailored for her specifically.
“I'm not a fan of mages but even I admit they have some good ideas sometimes,” Coral said from the side as she watched Alarea’s amazed face as her uniform morphed to fit her body perfectly. “There’s a spell woven through the fibers that fits the clothes perfectly to the wearer.”
“Sounds expensive,” Alarea responded as she stretched in her clothes, moving her body around and yet not feeling even the slightest resistance.
“Ha, don't you know it,” Coral laughed as she finally finished stuffing some of the easier to clean mess into her own closet. “If you want another uniform it costs 100 Achievement points. So try your best not to lose or get it damaged.”
“Achievement points?” Alarea asked, confused.
“Oh right you wouldn’t have been here for orientation.” Coral began explaining for her. “The easiest way to get achievement points is from test results, a fail gets you nothing while a C gets you 10, B 15, A 20 and the top three students in the year each get an additional 50.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Alarea nodded. “Is there any other way?”
“Yeah but it's a bit harder,” Coral scratched her head. “First off there is a job board in the main lobby for each different year where you can earn points by doing simple tasks like cleaning or tutoring a younger student, although the latter doesn’t apply to us. But you only earn scraps, one or two points per week even if you fill them out everyday. Secondly there is a dueling arena that ranks all the Academy students, however only from the top one thousand and up do you start earning points, and only some monsters from our year's class A have managed to get a spot.”
“Ehh, maybe I’ll just stick to the job board for now if I need any achievement points,” she said, not yet rating her chances to reach the top thousand of students very highly. The students here were the best of the best from the entire nation, some even traveling from neighboring kingdoms. And that was before factoring in the fact that it was all years, not just her fellow first year students that were competing for spots.
“Yeah that's fair,” Coral said as she started changing into her uniform herself, Alarea having to avert her eyes as she did. It seemed what Coral had said about not being used to sharing a room was true. “Anyways since we’re first years we have all the same classes, electives are only available from the second year up, so I’ll be able to show you around.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Alarea thanked as she slipped on a pair of shoes that were included in her closet, although not before confirming with Coral that they weren’t a pair of hers that she had forgotten were in there. “Although you did mention not getting my uniform damaged, do we have something else to wear when we are in practical training?”
“Oh right, yeah we do. I’ll bring you by the commissary before our Combat Training class, since your new your first set should be free.”
“I don’t mind free,” she commented as she walked over to a tall mirror, looking herself up and down dressed in her fresh new uniform. If she hadn't cut and dyed her blonde hair red then she would look practically the same as she did back before she left her family, although it would be a loose fitting dress rather than a well fitting suit like uniform that clung close to her body’s curves.
“You look good in that,” Coral commented as she came up behind her. “Much better than in those clothes you were wearing before.”
“Thanks,” Alarea said, a small smile growing on her lips.
“Anyways we gotta get to the cafetera if we want food before they close their breakfast service,” Coral said as she grabbed Alarea by the hand and led her back out into the hallway, quite a few other students now milling about. Her stomach lightly grumbled at the thought of good food. Even if she had just eaten before she would hardly call that food, and besides, she barely touched it anyway.
The two made their way down a series of staircases and out of the building into a large open courtyard, a fountain settled in the middle of a cross shaped path cutting through a patch of grass. Coral led them across the courtyard and past a few students that were seated on the side of the fountain into a pair of large open doors on the other side.
Alarea entered a busy cafetera, six rows of large tables stretching down the room's sizable length. Coral led her towards the side of the hall where a large bar stat with a number of staff members serving food to a continuous line of hungry students.
“Here,” Coral grabbed a tray and handed another Alarea. “Get whatever you want, everything here is free unless you want to purchase something custom made.” She motioned with her head up to a large board above the serving station, a list of exotic dishes alongside a price in achievement points displayed on its face. “But that's a bit too rich for my blood, even if beast meat is said to be incredibly good for you.”
Alarea had to pry her eyes away from the menu, not yet even having a single achievement point to her name. Instead she turned her eyes to the food before her, loading up a plate full of eggs, sausage and bread, as well as filling a bowl full of various fruits.
“Hungry are you?” Coral laughed as she filled her plate with a noticeably less than Alarea.
“Ha, yeah,” Alarea laughed as she noticed that she was making herself look like a country bum, however her hunger outweighed any sense of pride she might have. “It’s been a while since ive had good food.”
“Sounds rough.” Coral said as she led the pair over to a bench where a duo already sat, one boy and one girl.
“Hey Coral,” the boy said, giving her a wave. “Who’s your friend?”
“Ah right,” Coral placed her tray of food down and motioned to Alarea. “This is Alarea, she just moved into my dorm this morning.” She then motioned to the duo already seated. “And this is Edward and Sofia, both are fellow members of our class C.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Alarea gave a small curtsy, as good as she could anyway with a heaping pile of food in her hands.
“Wait, you moved in with Coral?” The man, Edward, asked, confused. “I haven’t seen you around the academy, were you in a different class or something?”
“No, I was just recently admitted to the academy.” She said without much thought, however it brought some shocked expressions from the seated duo.
“You were accepted into the academy late?” The girl, Sofia, asked. “I didn’t know they did that. The academy has always been very strict on only allowing new students to enter at a certain time every year. Why did they let you in? Are you like.. Royalty?”
Alarea almost laughed at the assumption that she was in any way related to royalty. While her now noble family may have been rich, they’re origins were as humble merchants. Besides, everyone knew that there was only one place that could call themselves a royal family, the tyrannical king from the neighboring Eagle Kingdom had forbidden anyone else from taking the title of royalty. He would have taken the title of emperor if not for the mages of the Ivory Tower coming down to contest such a claim.
“I'm not quite sure myself,” she admitted as she took a seat, finally placing her pile of food down on the table. “But I'm here now, so I’ll make the most of it.”
