"Now just swipe your medallion from the bottom left of the lock to the top right."

  Jun did as Cecilia said and felt her medallion grow warm in her hand for a moment before the lock opened with a click. Turning the handle, she pushed the door open, revealing a small common area with two small couches pressed against the wall in an L shape. A single light in the middle of the ceiling lit the room with a warm glow. As Jun looked at the light in the ceiling, it suddenly struck her that it wasn't an electric light. None of the lights she'd seen were electric, but had provided a steady glow just like the older bulbs most of the people in her home town had sworn by.

  Jun flinched as Cecilia slipped past her carrying a passed out Sara over her shoulder. The muscular woman casually carried the drunk elf through one of the open doors which Jun could see was a dark bedroom and casually threw the elf into the bed before quietly closing the door to a crack. Glancing between Jun and the light in the ceiling, the woman cracked a roguish grin, causing Jun to blush. "It's a glow stone light. I thought you might have seen them before, but this is the reaction most people who've never seen them before have," she said, mimicking a blank stare at Jun.

  Embarrassment warmed Jun's cheeks at the teasing, but it quickly faded. How did she explain that she was used to such lighting, but it was the nature of it that was completely unfamiliar? "I...I grew up with this kind of stuff, but it was different. It all just seemed so normal to me until I realized it wasn't..." she finally said.

  "Is that so?" Cecilia peered at Jun with a calculating look on her face, thinking for a bit before shaking her head. "Anyways, we can discuss this later. Those rooms are empty," she said, pointing out two doors identical to Sara's on the left side of the sitting room. "That's Sara's room, and that's mine if you need anything," she said, pointing to another closed door next to the room she'd placed Sara. "Bathroom's over there, we share it with the girls in the next unit over, so don't make a mess." With that, the woman yawned and headed to her room. "G'night, see you in the morning>'

  Cecilia's door closed with a gentle click, leaving Jun alone in the common area as her own tiredness began to catch up to her.

  Checking both of the empty rooms Cecilia mentioned proved both to be identical in layout with one minor difference. Both had a single bed just wide enough for one person to be comfortable, or two to be uncomfortable, next to a small desk and chair that were pushed up against the windows that looked out into the rest of campus. From the third floor of the building they were in, the height was enough to provide a view over the campus wall into the city beyond. A standing wardrobe was in the corner next to the door, and shelves were mounted to the wall over the bed. A mirror hung from the inside of the door of each one. However, the window of the one further from the front door lay open, letting in the cool night air, and Shiori was curled up on the bed, napping. "It's about time kitten," her Master said, getting up with a stretch.

  Closing the door to the room behind her, Jun nodded to the black cat and dropped her bag to the floor. She already knew she didn't have much to unpack, just her sleeping furs, the purse of coins she'd earned, and the clothes on her back, her war wand having been left in the care of Professor Nagai. "It's been a day Master," she said with a yawn.

  Shiori leapt from the bed, allowing Jun to quickly make it before stripping down and sliding into the cool sheets. The bed was lumpy and firm, feeling like it was stuffed with bundles of hay and a far cry from the spring filled mattress she'd grown up with, but after a month and a half of sleeping on cold stone, in trees, or in mud with only a tatty fur for warmth, it was heavenly. The sheets did little to add any padding, but the smooth cotton threads felt wonderful against her skin. The thick wool blanket was too warm for the late summer night, even as cool as it was, but made for an excellent pillow folded up.

  "Good night Master," Jun mumbled, her eyelids too heavy to keep open. As Jun drifted off, she thought she could hear the faint sound of wind blowing through trees.

  "Good night kitten," Shiori replied.

  Jun's dreams that night were peaceful, filled with the sounds of wind rushing through trees and a soft purple light.

  A series of sharp knocks on the door woke Jun from her slumber. The bright light of morning streamed in through the glass windows of her room, and the sounds of students moving through campus came in through her open window. Bleary-eyed, Jun sat up, blowing stray hairs from her mouth as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Half awake, Jun got out of bed and trudged bare-foot to the door, opening it up to see Sara in one of the Academy's uniforms holding a large package with a smile.

  "Good morning Jun!" the elf said with a smile as Jun blinked at her.

  "Mor—ning..." Jun mumbled, stretching her arms over her head as she yawned widely. As Jun opened her eyes again, she could see Sara's smile widen with amusement.

  "We really need to teach you some common sense Jun," she said with amusement. "You shouldn't just open your door without getting ready!"

  Blinking as she processed the woman's words, Jun started to blush as she noticed that she was fully exposed as she stood in front of the attractive elf woman. With a squeak, Jun quickly slammed the door shut in Sara's face, the elf's melodic giggling coming through the door. "Jun, this package is for you, it should help with getting ready!" Jun hid behind the door as she cracked it open just enough for Sara to slide the package in, which Jun grabbed with a single hand before closing the door.

  Her cheeks still warm, Jun cautiously drew the curtains in the corners of the room over her window then set the large paper wrapped parcel on her desk. A quick pull on the knot tying it shut revealed several sets of the Academy's uniform neatly folded with a pair of dark leather boots. The uniform consisted of a black colored, long-sleeved blouse and skirt, a wide white belt, and a long light blue jacket with polished steel buttons and silver. Several pairs of black leggings, socks, and a pair of dark leather gloves were also included in the package.

  Quickly getting dressed in the uniform, Jun looked at herself in the mirror mounted to the back of her door. Her hair was messy despite doing her best to comb it with her fingers, but the uniform was nice and comfortable. She gave a spin in the mirror, watching as the knee-length skirt and blue coat twirled out slightly, She'd tucked the bottom of her blouse into the skirt and cinched the belt around her waist, accenting her figure. Everything about it felt a little bit off, especially compared to how the other students she'd seen last night looked in the same uniform, wearing it still made her feel like a real student at a magical school, and she couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement fill her!

  "These clothes they gave you are mundane," Shiori said, yawning from where she lay curled up in the corner of Jun's bed.

  "Mundane? They feel pretty high quality to me though..." Jun said, feeling the fabric. She'd never felt clothes as well made as the uniform felt. They were

  "Not enchanted. I looked around a bit while you were with your new friends, kitten. Most of the students' clothes were mundane, but your friends' clothes, and all of those that had gold medallions, were enchanted," Shiori said, staring at the pile of uniforms sitting on Jun's desk.

  Heat and anger started to build in Jun's chest as she remembered her friends' explanations on how nobles got treated better than everyone else, the Registrar's muttered comments, and how the few nobles she'd met besides Gareth and Lane acted like she was little better than trash. "Those assholes! Of course they would do something like that too," she groaned, looking at her uniforms again. The new clothes didn't have the same charm they'd held a few seconds ago, and Jun had to fight down the impulse to throw them in a pile outside and burn them.

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  Her muttered plans of arson were interrupted by a bright purple flash from behind her as goosebumps broke out across her skin and the sound of a howling gale filled her ears. Whipping around to look, she stared as Shiori stood upright on her hind legs, her front paws held out in front of her. A strange glimmering gold sphere surrounded by glowing purple magical symbols hovered between her Master's outstretched paws. With a soft cracking sound, the sphere shattered into a pile of dust that emitted gold and purple sparks. Jun suppressed a shriek as she started to float in the air, her extra sets of uniforms and the gifted clothes from Grandma Deedee floating in an orbit around her. The glowing dust split into streams and shot out, liberally coating every piece of clothing. Jun couldn't help but stare at the jacket she wore as the powder seemed to be absorbed into the cloth, vanishing before her eyes.

  New magical circles surrounded Jun and each piece of clothing and shrunk down as Shiori slowly brought her paws together. As Shiori's paws met, the magical circles pressed into the clothes and vanished, causing each piece to pulse with purple light for a few seconds, before the glow faded and everything fell to the floor, Jun landing on her feet. Her clothes felt different, more comfortable, and somehow even finer than they had just a few seconds ago. Looking at her Master, she watched as Shiori slumped as she put her paws down and gave a wide yawn that showed off her fangs.

  "What was that, Master?" Jun asked, eyes darting between the ring of clothes around her and the exhausted cat in front of her.

  "Enchanting. Not something I'm good at," Shiori said, her voice strained. "Your clothes should be good enough for a beginning magic user, until your body catches up anyways."

  Jun's excitement was back and stronger than ever. Enchanted clothes?! She couldn't help imagining her clothes glowing with magic and peered closer, trying to catch a spark of magic, but the cloth still looked and felt much as it first had, if a bit more comfortable. "Enchantments? What kind of enchantments?" she asked her Master as she rested her head on her paws.

  "Basic ones like your friends and the other students. Durability. Cleaning. Minor repairs. Some other stuff. It won't replace real armor, but better than nothing. Now no more talking, Sara's waiting out there for you and I need sleep." Emphasizing her point, Shiori got up and crawled into the folds of Jun's blanket, leaving only her back paws and tail hanging out.

  "Thank you Master," Jun whispered, watching as Shiori's tail swished in acknowledgment. Moving to the door, Jun opened it to see Sara and Cecilia look up at her from their seats on the couches.

  "Wow, the uniform looks good on you Jun!" Sara shouted exuberantly.

  Shiori's voice filled her ears with muttered curses and threats of soup, sending a shiver of horror down her spine. Quickly shushing the elf, Jun pointed towards her bed.

  Peaking around Jun from her place on the couch, Sara could see Shiori's paws and tail sticking out from the blanket and an understanding smile spread across her face. "That's so cute!" Sara whispered, pointing at Shiori for Cecilia to see.

  Cecilia nodded with a smile at the sight and got up, waving around a few pieces of paper as she motioned for Jun to follow.

  As quietly as they could, the three women left their room, Cecilia in the lead. It was only after they were in the hallway that the woman spoke. "Sara and I got letters this morning instructing us to make sure you got registered for next term's classes and completed all the pre-student evaluations," she said, handing Jun a sheet of paper.

  As Jun read, Sara produced a comb out of nowhere and started attacking Jun's hair. She tuned out the sharp pricks of pain as she let Sara deal with her hair and read the schedule printed on the paper out loud. "Arcane Theory test, Arcane Skills test, Physical Fitness test—ow!— Combat Skills test, and General Knowledge test?" Jun said.

  "Done!" Sara said, stepping away from Jun. The elf had braided her hair and pinned it up so her hair wouldn't get in her eyes if she moved.

  "Great," Cecilia said, nodding. "Now we need to move, your first test starts in 15 minutes and it's on the other side of campus!"

  Gasping for breath, Jun ignored the whispering and glances from the crowd of students around her as she struggled to recover as she stood outside the classroom in the Arcana Building. Sweat dripped down her brow from the mad sprint her friends had led her on across the campus and they made it with just a couple minutes to spare. The other students were all wide-eyed and most were wearing bronze medallions, though several sported silver medallions and even a couple of gold ones. Finally catching her breath, Jun pushed herself up just in time as the door of the classroom opened, revealing a stern middle-aged man wearing a dark grey suit and tie.

  "Get in and find a seat, you have 1 minute," he barked as he turned around and marched to sit at a desk in the center of the room.

  Shuffling in with the rest of the students, Jun saw that the classroom was built in a stadium style, with stairs leading to rows of seats. She chose a seat in the middle of the room, far from any other students. A sheet of paper and several pencils were on the desk in front of her, but before she could do more than look at it, the man in the suit rapped on a chalk board at the front of the room and cleared his throat. "This is the entrance exam for Arcana Theory. Do your best. You have 2 hours. Cheat and you'll be expelled. Violently. No questions. Begin."

  Jun hurriedly picked up a pencil and started going through the test papers in front of her, having flashbacks to her time in community college on Earth. The first half of the questions were multiple choice, but many of the questions she found strange. Shiori had coached her on the basics in the forest, but few of the answers provided made sense according to what she'd learned from Shiori. Shrugging, she just started selecting the answers closest to what she'd learned from Shiori, hoping she was right.

  The second half of the exam asked several short answer questions, and referenced concepts she'd never heard of, like "Lumere's Principals of Mana Collision" and "Catalytic Entropy" that she was forced to skip, but she was able to answer a few that touched on topics Shiori had drilled into her.

  2 hours later, Jun's hand was cramping as the stern man rapped on the board again. "Pencils down," he yelled. Jun immediately finished writing her last sentence and put her pencil down, shaking her hand. A loud boom and screaming filled the classroom as Jun whipped her head around, looking for a place to hide from the sudden violence, only to see one of the students, a young man with mousy brown hair wearing a silver badge, struggling weakly against a series of glowing chains wrapped around him and dragging him from his seat, shards of wood from the desk in front of him littered across the front of the classroom. "I said pencils down!"

  "Don't you know who I am! I'm Baron Ghislest's heir! How dare—" the young man's rants were choked off as more chains wrapped around his mouth and throat.

  The exam proctor made a beckoning motion and the chain wrapped student was dragged in front of him. "I said cheaters would be expelled violently. You cheated anyways." Squeezing his hands, the chains began to constrict, the young man's struggling growing frantic. The popping snap of bones breaking and the young man's muffled, screaming sobs filled the room as his right arm bent the wrong way.

  Ignoring the sobbing man, the proctor turned to look at the rest of the students as they flinched in a wave, Jun included. "Bring your papers to the front and leave them on the desk. You have 2 minutes."

  Hurrying to comply, the remaining students quickly gathered their papers and dropped them in a haphazard pile on the teacher's desk. Jun's bad luck reared it's head and she found herself at the back of the line, her spot in the middle of the room trapping her as the students near the ends of the rows rushed to comply and flee the room. Dropping her paper on top of the pile, Jun hurried from the room as the young man's sobbing grew louder and he thumped to the floor, the chains vanishing.

  "Pathetic," the proctor spit on the floor next to the young man as 2 guards walked passed Jun and picked the cheater up. "He's expelled, throw him and his stuff out the gate." As the guards hurried to comply, the proctor made eye contact with Jun as she realized she'd frozen to watch. "Hurry up or you'll be late to the next test. You don't want to be late."

  Her mouth dry, Jun could only nod as she hurried out the door to where her friends were waiting. "I know that look," Sara said quietly. "Professor Marcos caught a cheater, didn't he?" she said as they lead the way to the next of Jun's tests.

  Jun nodded slowly, her heart still pounding and mouth dry from the sudden violence. "I-it was a boy with a silver medallion..." she whispered, the boy's screams fresh in her mind.

  Cecilia shook her head as Sara sighed. "Someone always tries it, and it never ends well. Not unless they're a high noble anyways. Anyways, the next test, they'll want to see any spells you might know. Just show them the spells you used in the forest and you'll be fine!" Sara said brightly, trying to focus Jun on her next test.

  The trio soon entered a large room in the building that looked like a gym with target dummies at one end, with many of the students Jun recognized from her theory test waiting in a group with others. Saying their goodbyes, Sara and Cecilia moved off to the side as Jun joined the other new students, her stomach doing flips as she waited silently. She could hear quiet whispers recounting what had happened in her test room between some of the students she recognized and several she didn't, but a hush quickly spread over the students as the door opened to admit four men and a woman that Jun recognized as Professor Nagai.

  "Students!" one of the men, another middle-aged man in a black suit stepped forward and called for attention. "This is the Arcana Practical exam. When your name is called, you will step forward and demonstrate your spells on the targets. Any attempt to disrupt another's test will be met with violent expulsion from the Academy. This is your only warning." The man stepped back into line with the other proctors as another man wearing glasses and a light grey suit stepped forward holding a clipboard and cleared his throat.

  "Adam, son of Myron, you're up!"

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