Harem Academy

”Oh? ” Arlethias long, elf-like ears perked up. Although, she would have insisted elves had succubus-like ears. A point not really worth arguing, she had long ears and they had picked up something she found interesting. ”Why the hell would you try something thats notoriously inaccurate and unhelpful. Did you see something nice at least? ”

”No, I saw a starless night and a girl with a bleeding back, ” I answered, my eyes growing dull and unfocused as I remembered the sadness I felt upon seeing the woman weep under the empty sky. ”I lost her image before I could identify her, ” I was genuinely saddened by this. ”Then I was shown Welldark for just a moment before the sky devoured everything. ”

Willt put a hand on my shoulder and patted it two times in an encouraging gesture. ”Cheer up, its weird to see you in a gloomy mood. ”

”Well, Im intrigued by why the cosmos would show me, of all people, a specific woman, ” I told him, and rolled my neck. ”Then again, the fact that I didn see her face could make what I saw be any number of women that just happen to have that specific overlap of bleeding back. Divination really is a pain in the ass. ” Just as I pointed that out, the many bells of the gothic towers of Welldark began ringing.

The first day and I was already about to be too late.

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If there was one thing that immediately had me convinced that universities were better than schools, then it was the lack of a teacher checking if I was in my seat at the start of class. Not having to deal with mandatory attendance was a dream. Dangerous for someone undisciplined, but I very much prefered making my own decisions. I was willing to stand for the consequences of my mistakes, so I demanded some freedom.

Even if there had been someone to check if we were in our seats, there would have been no seat for us to sit down in anyway. Because we were so late, every last chair had already been claimed by someone. This left us, and a whole bunch of other people, with no other choice than to keep to the stair areas. Shoulder to shoulder, we stood with other students.

Welldark wasn known for being over-crowded, but cramming all freshmen into one room led to the same short term problem that online games experienced during launch. Somewhere around a thousand people were all gathered in the largest lecture theatre the university had to offer. With its circular structure and the slow elevation of the red-cushioned. black seats, it reminded me of an arena crossed with a cinema. A very luxurious, clean, indoor arena, with a wonderful black carpet and a starlit sky painted on the ceiling, but an arena nonetheless.

The circular area at the bottom only furthered this impression. It was much larger than any teacher could ever need to hold a presentation on, and even had a walk-around around the elevated, central ring. Stairs at every main direction of the compass allowed people to get from one to the other.

Up above hovered ten elliptical constructions. Roman letters counting from 1 to 10 were painted on their burgundy red bottom. Each was sizable enough to contain a small apartment worth of stuff. The only thing I could see for sure was a balcony attached to their fronts. I had to admit that I didn inform myself about Welldark as much as I perhaps should have, but I could guess that they served as the watchers position for some people that had earned themselves certain privileges.

”Why are those empty? ” Arlethia asked in a whispering tone and pointed at those hovering lofts. She was either more curious or even less informed than I was. ”We
e packed like charcoal down here. ”

Luckily for both of us, she had a boyfriend who actually liked to read up on things before getting deeply involved with them. ”Because none here have earned the right to use them, ” he whispered back and shifted a bit to look over the person in front of him. He was careful not to bump into anyone while doing so. ”Those coves are reserved for the ten strongest Anomalias among the students. ”

”Aaaahh, okay, ” his girlfriend waved with her spade-tipped tail before possessively wrapping it around his nearby hand again. Given the crowd were currently crammed into, that was an understandable gesture. ”I would have thought they would take a bigger interest in newcomers. ”

Those that currently owned the flying rooms may not have been there, but the sight of them was a silent promise regardless. Those that worked hard and were successful in their years in Welldark would be rewarded with luxury and only a limited number of people could come to earn the ultimate rewards.

I decided to finally concentrate on the speech that was being held, my eyes landing on the stadium-worthy screens, hovering below the centre of the ceiling, that showed the inside of the ring. The sole target of the camera was a man in the late stages of his forties, physically speaking. He was a truly masculine figure of towering height and build, with bull-like horns growing from the temples of his weather-tanned face. Covered by a suit, his thick muscles seemed able to tear the cloth at any moment.

Headmaster Taurus of Welldark, a person so respected in the interdimensional community that he had a star system named after him, was NOT addressing the batch of new students. His stern, human face was simply staring at the camera. I had picked the oddest moment to finally pay attention. The arena grew quiet and uncomfortable. Taurus presence was oppressive even on top of the staircase.

Finally, the perspective switched and I looked, instead, at a person I already knew from the application website. A woman with white hair and green eyes of an almond shape. Either it was a pure coincidence or she had some Asian Earth-blood in her veins, her pointy but not long ears showing that she was some kind of half elf. Wearing a white and black maid uniform of the more traditional than sexy variety, she stood tall and disciplined. I recalled her name to be Derilea.