Rosdan Magic Academy

That night, I had a prophetic dream. Well, not exactly; it was a dream from my near past, only about four hundred years ago.

In it, a man asked me for help to educate children with magical affinity and thus be able to give young talents a better future.

Thinking that the time to put my plan into action was drawing near, I decided to accept the proposition as an investment. So I donated (lent) him an artifact on the condition that he spread my name.

Although I had already been counted between the gods of magic for a thousand years (I was the original, in fact ) and had a reputation that was hard to beat, if I wanted to get "believers" and face the goddess in the near future, I would need to magnify my existence as much as possible.

Now, it is true that I wanted to spread my name as much as possible, but as you will understand, to study magic, I need to go unnoticed. Which, in the situation I'm in, would be pretty tricky if I didn't have my artifact [Eternal Mystery].

The situation in question has a lot to do with my dream that night, which is why I said it was prophetic.

In these moments, I find myself in front of a statue that "tried" to look like me. If it weren't for the plaque, It could pass for the statue of any young man with my height and figure.

The plaque in question read: In honor of Argyros Dandel, the true founder of Rosdan Magic Academy and, without whose help, modern-day magical research would not have been possible.

As I mentioned before, from time to time, I helped the magical development of humanity by using or donating my artifacts. Still, I never imagined that it had been in such a direct way.

What other things will I need to remember in the future?

Argyros Dandel, Argy "RosDan" del. If it weren't for this plaque, I would have never noticed...

To be honest, I knew that one of my artifacts was in the city of Leirel, but it wasn't until I realized it was inside the academy that my worries began.

Who would have thought that the man who wanted to teach children hundreds of years ago would not only create a successful academy but also a whole kingdom and become its first king?

And, of course, only now I get to remember that his surname was Forlan…

Does anyone remember what he had for lunch every day of the past week? After hundreds of years of sleeping, I can forget a surname or two; I'm still human, after all...

Many things started to make sense, like how Lord Edward easily recognized my name. And the fact that Vitovinci mentioned he heard about me at the "academy."

I didn't give it much importance then; I thought it must have been an anecdote of some teacher.

To ease my worries a bit, I decided to re-inspect my cloak with appraisal.

[Eternal Mystery]

{Rank: A}

{Changes the way the world perceives the user}

{Minimum Magic Required: 10}

{Currently Used Magic: 50}

In short, thanks to this cloak, I can change my identity without changing my appearance. As will be understood from the description, it has many other utilities, but this is not the time to go into details about it.

It also has disadvantages; for example, since my name is quite well known, I need to use more magic than normal. But it is necessary, more than from someone who could recognize me (that would be difficult); I need to hide from spells that can identify my true identity.

Although my birth name is different, those types of spells can identify a being by what is best known about it in particular, like, for example, "creator of the famous spell [Ice Hands]." In my specific case, I'm sure it would be the name of "Argyros Dandel."

Of course, the academy also had those kinds of spells for security reasons, either at the different entrances or at the counter where I will register my information now.

-----------------------------------------

After quite some time of standing like an idiot in front of a statue that only showed what the first king of Forlan could communicate to the sculptor, I decided it was time to enter the main building located precisely behind it.

Luckily, I didn't need to wait much to start my studies as it was only a few weeks until the start of the academic year.

That particular day, the information about the admission exam was being delivered. So, my surroundings were full of aspiring new students as well as students from higher classes who came to enroll for this year.

While it wasn't unique to magic academies, if you were accepted into one, you automatically received the rank of "Magic Apprentice." And after six years of study (if you could graduate), you would receive the rank of "Spellcaster." Most magicians (which are already few in number) stay with that rank for the rest of their lives.

Truly talented magicians could become sorcerers or sorceresses. Rosdan Academy was particularly famous for having teachers who had risen even higher and been recognized by Forlan's court as wizards.

But the most famous magician in the academy was definitely Gyan Nelade; he was the headmaster of the academy and a proper "Mage," a rank even higher than that of a wizard.

Although there are prodigies that can advance in rank very young, Gyan Nelade, a middle-aged man, was one of the most common cases where age greatly helps magicians. Of course, if you can say that the few magicians in existence and even fewer higher-ranking ones are "common."

But well, I digress; as I went up the stairs that led me to the main entrance of the building surrounded by students (and future students), I couldn't help but remember the famous figure of the headmaster of the even more famous magic school that appeared in the books of my youth.

The main difference between the academy and that school (besides almost everything) was that the number of students here exceeded thousands. In addition to attracting people from all over the continent, future magic knights also enrolled here.

As I mentioned before, the academy has two departments, and its students are divided into "Magicians" and "Magic Knights," with the latter being the absolute majority. We should also remember the servants, who outnumber the members of the previous two departments combined.

Another difference was the age of the students. Of course, the Rosdan Academy accepted potential magicians of all ages. Still, the usual was to start when one was already of the age to enter the ancient high schools (approximately fifteen).

The studies then continue for six years until the students graduate as if they had gone to a university (if they do not fail, of course).

Now, I was doing all this mental math because I was trying to guess the ages of those I had just met in the main hall. They carried emblems of the academy in their hands to surely embroider on their clothes later.

Rosdan's emblem was a shield showing a key crossed over a book. The color of the shield itself changed according to the year the Magic Apprentice was in, and since the emblem of the two young in front of me was blue, this meant that this year was going to be their fourth.

Of course, I was talking about Lord Eberhard and the girl with hair as black as night. They still were looking at me with contempt...