It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 146 - Beginnings

The craziness of the last week and being forced into Consolidating did not sit well with Aarav. He was commander of his destiny. But he admitted that such fail safes were to protect him from his own stupidity and he accepted that he had made some stupid decisions in the past.

Primarily, though it had turned out for the best was his falling asleep on the gryphon.

Who did that?

He could only blame his situation on temporary insanity but whatever had caused it, now he was reaping the consequences. Overall his station in life had risen and he was excited to see what came next.

Even if it involved returning to school...

So now he stood in the entryway to the Academy a bag in hand and Boren by his side suitably disguised as a young blonde human boy with a slightly squashed nose and blue eyes. Completely different from his usual appearance.

"I suppose we better get settled in?" Aarav said sceptically. He wasn't sure about this at all but if doing the mandatory year would give him a better understanding of the basics of this world it would absolutely be worth it. Not to mention that tournament coming up that Boren had told him about that would be a couple of months after the year ended. That was Aarav goal at the moment. Get strong enough to distinguish him and get into the tournament. From there he would be able to gain access to resources from multiple countries and hopefully gain enough that he could regain some level of human compatibility.

He knew it was still a long and winding road to get there but the Academy would be one of the major keys to unlocking his potential. What he wouldn't give to just be able to download the entire library into his brain right now. Maybe there was a spell for that. He would have to find out.

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The dorms were in one section of the west wing of the Academy and despite its reputation for equal treatment they were divided into the haves and have-nots. Students that could afford better accommodations were afforded such.

Such were the trappings of capitalism. While the Academy was for the majority of its expense sponsored by the Darfan government and by extension the royal family, it also received sizable donations from nobles and other benefactors from other nations to maintain its standard as the highest place of learning in the five nations. They would want some skin in the game regardless of its physical location.

Aarav would hazard a guess that intelligence assets were placed here by the rulers of other nations. At the very least they would have students from their countries attending and reporting back on anything interesting or news worthy.

Aarav for his part was not particularly interested in the politics and the petty games that the people in power played. Not unless there was a way for him to glean some benefit for himself from it. Boren seemed to be of a similar mind. Either that r he was truly oblivious to the things going on around him and simply eager to begin the new day.

With their cover stories of Aarav being a fairy and Boren being a commoner child they were presented with the lowest level of accommodation. The most basic and unfortunately due to their species difference they would not be staying within close proximity of one another. The accommodation requirements were simply too different. So Boren was in one of the local human dorms and Aarav placed in one of the alternative species accommodations where there was fairy sized rooms with fairy sized furniture.

Neither of the boys were clear on what would happen if and when Aarav's size started changing too drastically, the incident in the clinic in the palace still fresh in their minds. They parted ways at one of the cross junctions that had signs to the various sections of the building and agreed to meet later to discuss the plan moving forward.