Glan Natural Science Academy

   The queue moved quickly and soon it was Ryger’s turn.

Auen, who queued in front of Ryger, had already gotten a form from the person in charge. He faced a male tutor who looked less than thirty years old, and pointed to Ryger. “This is my friend Ryger, he has the Academy’s redbud flower contribution badge.”

The male tutor was dark-skinned and wore loose gray robes, or scholar clothes as Auen called them. They were what a normal commoner thinks is the standard look for a magician.

The tutor seemed to be very patient and good-tempered.

After hearing that Ryger had a contribution badge, the tutor looked towards Ryger and was about to say something when his gaze immediately shifted to behind Ryger. He was surprised.

“Huh, junior sister? Why are you here!”

Uh?

Ryger, who was holding up the redbud badge, turned his head to look at the girl who was holding the black cat behind him. It turned out that she was actually the enrollment tutor’s junior sister. Then the person she said she was looking for should be the enrollment tutor?

The girl spun her eyes while smiling livelily and naughtily. “Well, it’s so boring at home. School starts in 2 days’ time and I heard from Cayleigh that you’re welcoming the new students.  So I came with Cayleigh1 to see you. And also to look this year’s little brothers and sisters.”

As she spoke, this girl picked up the black cat in her arms and waved around the black cat’s two front paws while smiling mischievously. 

Under the ravages of the girl, the black cat posed like a maneki-neko2 and had lost the desire to struggle against her. It muttered, “Don’t use me as an excuse. Clearly it’s you that want to come out and play.”

“She works so hard every day. It’s only right for her to come out and take a short break!” This dark-skinned tutor interjected softly. He looked to be very fond of his junior sister and took the initiative to make an excuse for her. He then remembered that Ryger was holding the badge and came to his senses.

“Ah! Just a moment, junior sister3. I have to fill out the registration name list for these new students and arrange their tests.”

“It’s alright. Carry on.”

With a cheeky smile, the girl broke away from the queue, went to the side of this male mentor and looked curiously at the name list and forms.

The black-skinned mentor took the badge in Ryger’s hand and looked at it meticulously. After a moment, he frowned slightly.

The girl behind the black-skinned tutor held the black cat back into her arms and murmured: “But really, it’s a job that the Academy gave to the old man but you’re the one doing it.”

Following that, she found her senior brother looking at the badge with a puzzled expression. “What is it, senior brother. Isn’t it just a contribution badge? The Academy recalls some every year after the new students’ registrations. What’s so strange about it?”

“This badge doesn’t seem to be the same.” After scratching his head, the dark-skinned tutor looked at Ryger again and hesitantly said, “The material of this badge is silverink and tonarite4 which, according to the records, seems to be the badge specifications that the Academy used a long, long time ago. I’m not too sure about it myself and it’s probably better to consult mentor Kubo!”

“Father?”

The girl drew a circle with her eyes then looked at Ryger. As if she thought of something fun, she suddenly took the badge and laughed, “Hehe, since you’re so busy here I’ll do it for you!”

Without even allowing anybody to get a word in, the girl said towards Lei Luo, “Follow me.”

“Junior sister…”

The black-skinned tutor obviously still wanted to say something. But after seeing that his junior sister had already taken the badge and walked away, he ultimately shook his head and decided against it.

Ryfer followed his senior sister, feeling somewhat apprehensive. He had no idea at all about the specific origin of the redbud badge and didn’t think that the thing would be so eventful. He couldn’t resist looking at Auen who was waiting for him.

Auen waved goodbye to Ryger. ” I’ll go sit for the entrance examination first then! The Academy should arrange an initiatetutor for you, see you later!”

Ryger hurriedly said, “Okay!”

There were still new students coming over to register. Ryger walked behind the girl, crossed the square and arrived at the door of a six-storey building constructed from grey stones.

“This is the teaching office. It’s where the Academy’s mentors do their work.”

A fountain could be seen in front of the building’s main entrance. In the center of the fountain was a little boy holding a vase from which clear water flowed out into a large frog’s mouth down under. Red fish swam happily in the fountain.

Ryger followed the senior sister into the building.

Inside the building, the girl held the black cat in her arms while walking backwards facing Ryger. Although she wore a black set of scholar clothes, she didn’t have any of the rigorous look of a scholar.

“Hehe, I’m Enid5. What about you? You’re like the same as Satro, you know? Dorky.”

Ryger’s cheeks flushed, knowing well that his inexperienced look was she meant by dorky.”

“I’m Ryger.”

Enid smiled cheekily and was about to say something when a black-robed female tutor in front of her stopped, looked at Enid and said, “Watch where you’re going, kiddo. You’re so old yet you still don’t act seriously at all. It’s no wonder your father has a headache!”

“Aunt Kulya!”

Enid turned her head and grumbled “Why are you so like my father. You keep lecturing me whenever you meet me.”

This female tutor, Kulya, extended her index finger and poked at Enid’s forehead dotingly.

“If it isn’t because of how mischievous you are in the academy all day long. If you would put your heart into studying with your smarts, your old man wouldn’t just prattle on about his eldest apprentice all day long!”

The female mentor then muttered, “Hmph, he gets a star pupil and it’s enough for him to brag about for an eternity.”

Ryger could faintly see the little stars of admiration in the eyes of Enid who proudly said, “Brother Peerless is one of the most outstanding scholars since the establishment of the Academy. With his talent, he will definitely be able to enter the Royal Committee on Fellowship in the future!”

Ryger gained some preliminary understanding regarding Enid. Her father is probably a senior mentor of the Academy and has three disciples. The eldest one is very outstanding, the second one was the dark-skinned tutor at the new students registration area just now and the third one is this Enid here, who was also his daughter.

No wonder she could act carefree in the academy. To her, the Academy was her home.

“Yes yes, we all know that your big brother6 has set up an A-Cass mercenary group and that he has a bright future!” said mentor Kulya. “The semester hasn’t officially started yet, so why are you here? Don’t tell me you’ve decided to get serious and come to your old man for tutoring!”

Enid stuck her tongue out mischievously.  She looked at Ryger and said, “Satro is in charge of welcoming the new students outside and this new student here has some problems with his contribution badge. I’m bringing him to father to ask about it.”

“So it’s a problem with the contribution badge. Hurry up then and don’t make a mistake. Every contribution badge recalled by the academy must go through strict checks!”

After finishing talking, Enid bid goodbye to the female tutor and continued leading Ryger.

Since school wasn’t officially in session yet, the building was empty. Some portraits were hung in the hallway. The portraits were labelled saying that they were historical fellows from each principalities’ natural sciences academy. They were all aged elders who Ryger didn’t recognise.

Footnotes

I’m not sure if Cayleigh is male or female so I’ll use it Japanese in my translated-from-Chinese English webnovel. How exotic I don’t like using this. It feels unnatural. I initially translated this to as simply her name. But then I looked at how often its used in the future and that’s far too many times used for me to be comfortable changing it. I’m lazy. And this is a translation, not a rewrite.雷铁. Lightning iron/steel百灵. Bai Ling or Hundred Spirit. I chose Enid, which is apparently Welsh for spirit. Just to clarify, Enid has no blood brothers.