JUNE ZEILRAN knows one thing: he is destined to live a quiet life in the servant's quarters as a half-blood in a territory of fairies. When the Imperial High Queen offers him a job he cannot refuse, he is thrown into a world of secrets and murder t...
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June's head swirled with terms and guidelines the moment he, Skalis, and Relius stepped out of the headmaster's office. Damn, the curriculum was more rigorous than he had anticipated. Skalis hopped on one foot as they trekked back to where the fairies claimed to be the best lunch space in the campus. Relius picked at his pointed ear, frowning when he didn't find what he was looking for. What that was, June wasn't inclined to know.
"Hey, by Insentura, you mean the first year, right?" June turned back to Skalis who paused to regard him.
The girl tapped her chin. "The first trench and the first three years, yeah."
There were three "trenches" they have to undergo in the curriculum and each trench has at least three years on it. The wiry man in his four-hundreds such as the Headmaster had explained that in his dimly-lit office filled ceiling to floor with shelves and tomes. If June was lucky, each year, he has three chances to take his classes and get remarks. If he wasn't, he would have to retain some of the unsatisfactory classes again in what's supposed to be his next year.
So when Skalis said she and Relius were retaking some of the subjects from Insentura, that meant...
"Is it that hard to get remarks here?" came June's next question.
Relius clicked his tongue, his blue hair couldn't have stood out more from the bare walls. "Depends on your performance," he said. "Some kids are naturals and some...are not."
June felt a light tap on his arm. He turned to see Skalis withdrawing her hand from slapping his limb slightly. "Don't sweat it," she said. "Most of the scholars here are reasonable. They know how to not waste the versallis they extract from the nobles."
Then why did Skalis and Relius fail in the first place?
He didn't have the heart to ask them so he just tamped it down and raised an eyebrow. "Is everyone really from those...families?" He made a show of rolling his wrist as he looked for the right word.
Skalis stuck her bottom lip out. "There are also some whose folks could afford the tuition," she said. "Merchants, inventors, artists, healers, brewers. Everyone came from unique backgrounds but I guess the common vein for most of us is because we were from families working in one form of the government."
June pursed his lips. His mother did tell him people unlike them existed in this island and that he should prepare to interact with them during his time in the Academy. What she didn't prepare him for was the fact that there were people from that background willing to speak to someone like him. What was he supposed to feel about that?
"How about you?" June jerked his chin towards Skalis.
Skalis sniffed. A dark cloud passed across her face. Before June could ask what was going on, Relius stepped in between them and threw an arm around June's shoulders. "Hey, you know what? I'll have you try this new flavor of dairycones in the Gammoth's Belly. I heard it's to die for!"
