Welcome to Arcane Academy

"Lynett Maedis Whiteheart! You're finally here! I've been expecting you!" A skinny man heartily exclaimed as he saw me walking in, accompanied by the chief secretary.

He was the headmaster of the Arcane Academy. Seated in his office, he already appeared somewhat tall, but when he got up to greet me, I saw how tall he really was. He wasn't intimidating, though. He was lanky and his cheek bones gave him a skeletal look. He was also much younger than I expected. Even though he had some facial hair, he didn't look older than thirty.

"You've been expecting me?" I inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, yes of course!" The headmaster replied enthusiastically. "It's always a pleasure to accommodate a new student, especially one as talented as you! I've heard a lot about you."

"You did?"

"Yes. The marquis he... Uhm, what was your relationship with him again?"

"Niece."

"Right, niece!" The headmaster repeated. "Well your uncle spoke very highly of you, Lynett!"

That's a little hard to imagine. I had very few interactions with my uncle but I know he's not the kind to brag a lot, especially not about me. Although I don't think that he despise me, he definitely doesn't hold me dear to his heart. Actually, he went through so many troubles to hide my existence it was hard to imagine him suddenly commend me.

"He told me you were full of surprises!" The headmaster continued. "Even though you never attended a school before, you still managed to get an apprenticeship! That's very impressive! If you knew how many of our students are trying to get one… We're doing our best to support them, but it's not an easy task. Masters are picky about their disciples, especially ones as young as you!"

An apprenticeship? What kind of lies did Uncle Jack tell him? I don't mind the lies -actually, I'm even grateful that my uncle made up such a story instead of me- but I would have appreciated if he warned me beforehand.

The headmaster looked at me with bright eyes, full of expectations. "Also, there is something I'm really curious about. May I ask?" He inquired with a candid smile.

"Sure," I nodded.

"Which deity blessed you?" He asked.

Taken aback by the question, I widened my eyes. I knew people were naturally curious about my eyes, but no matter how much they wanted to know, they never asked anything about them. There seemed to be some kind of taboo around the subject.

"Ah, sorry," the headmaster immediately apologized, as he saw my expression. "As I thought, it's a little rude, isn't?"

I shrugged. I didn't particularly mind the question, it was just unexpected. To be honest, I've never really understood why it was such a delicate matter either.

"You see, I'm a theologian," he explained. "You could say that my job is to study deities and anything connected to them. And although it's been going on for years, if there is something that we don't understand well, it's when a child is blessed."

The headmaster marked a pause and nodded to himself, stroking his chin. Then, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth as he patted my shoulder in a friendly way.

"I apologize again if I was too direct," he said."But I'm a researcher! It's difficult for me to hide my enthusiasm after meeting a chosen one, especially one like you!"

I tilted my head to the side. "One like me?"

"You're Aoban's sister, right?" The headmaster asked, seemingly not expecting an answer as he continued. "I've worked with a lot of chosen ones before, but it's my first time coming across siblings who were both blessed!"

Ah, right. I had forgotten about this little detail. I knew this was going to raise some questions one day. I don't regret blessing my brother or my mother, but a family of chosen ones isn't something that goes unnoticed.

"There must have been some special circumstances, which is why you were both blessed." The headmaster noted. "I already asked your brother about this before, but he doesn't seem to know much about it… I was hoping that maybe you could enlighten me on this point."

I shook my head. "Sorry… I don't know much either."

The headmaster dropped his shoulder as he let out a disappointed sigh. "I see… It can't be helped then."

I feel a bit sorry for him, but well… As a theologian, this man can be both helpful and dangerous for me. I have to be careful of what I tell him. Besides, even if I wanted to, I'm not sure I can really help him. I'm not a real chosen one after all.

"Headmaster, the form," Mrs. Kelly suddenly reminded him.

"Ah, right!" He exclaimed.

Recalling the reason of my presence, the headmaster headed to his desk and took out a sheet of paper from one of his drawers.

"It's not going to take long," he said, giving me the registration form. "Most of the fields have already been filled. I'm just going to ask you to check, and sign at the bottom of the page."

I took a look at the form. As the headmaster said, it was almost entirely filled, providing basic information such as my name, my age, or my legal guardian. After checking that everything was correct, I noticed the blank fields at the bottom of the page, which immediately reminded me of the status window. Main-class, sub-class, but more importantly, magic affinities.

I looked up at the headmaster, who was waiting for me to sign. "Uhm… The blank fields…"

"Ah! Don't pay attention to that," he said. "Since we have no precious records of your abilities, and since you didn't pass the entrance exam, you can let them blank for now. We'll fill them as soon as our teachers evaluate your level."

Hearing this, I furrowed my brows. Depending on how they were going to do that, it could be bad for me.

The headmaster smiled warmly at me. "You don't have to worry. If you're as good as I've heard, you'll have absolutely no problems!" He said, seeing the concern of my face, as he probably thought I was worried about my future performances.

I shifted my gaze back on the registration form. Besides the fields concerning my class and my affinities which were left blank, everything else was filled correctly. I checked one more time that there were no mistakes and signed at the bottom of the page.

"Perfect!" The headmaster exclaimed, as I handed him over the form. "Welcome to the Arcane Academy!"