Chapter 51: Ch51 – Helena the Mad

The principal shot up from her chair with alarming energy.

“Sit, sit!” she said, waving her hands enthusiastically.

Ryan glanced around. There were no chairs. Just stacks of books occupying every potential seating surface.

The principal didn’t seem bothered. She flicked her wrist casually, and two stone chairs near the corner of the room lurched into motion.

They dragged across the wooden floorboards with a harsh scraping sound, carving shallow grooves into the wood as they slid toward Ryan and Eleanor. No incantation. Just a simple gesture, smooth and deliberate.

The chairs stopped directly behind them.

“There we are!” the principal said brightly. “Much better.”

Ryan stared at the chairs. Stone. Solid grey stone, carved with simple designs along the backrest. They looked heavy, the kind of thing that would take two people to lift.

She moved them without a word.

High-tier mages could cast spells without speaking. But seeing it in person was different. Effortless. Casual. Like breathing.

What tier is she?

Ryan sat slowly, the stone cool and hard beneath him. Eleanor did the same, her expression was mildly bothered.

The principal returned to her own chair, which wobbled slightly as she plopped down into it. She leaned forward, elbows on the desk, chin resting on interlaced fingers. Her violet eyes gleamed with curiosity.

“So,” she said, pointing at both of them. “Heroes.”

Ryan nodded.

“From other worlds, yes? no? yes?”

Ryan glanced at Eleanor, who gave a small shrug.

“Yes,” Ryan said.

The principal’s grin widened. “Wonderful! I do love a good interplanetary arrival. Makes things so much more interesting.” She tilted her head. “Where from?”

“Earth,” Ryan said. “It is a world without mana, or elves.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “No mana at all? How dreadfully boring. And you?” She turned to Eleanor.

“Aquaneth,” Eleanor replied. “It has mana. It’s a world covered nearly completely in ocean. We worship Neptune, god of water.”

“Ah! Neptune. Classic. Very thematic.” The principal nodded approvingly. “And now you’re here. In my academy. Wearing…” She paused, squinting at their uniforms. “…military surplus from the mountains.”

Ryan glanced down at himself again.

The principal leaned back in her chair, fingers drumming against the armrest. “Do you have anything else? Clothes, supplies, luggage?”

“No,” Eleanor said simply. “Just what we’re wearing.”

“Hmm.” The principal stood abruptly and crossed to a cabinet on the far side of the room.

Please don’t offer us clothes like whatever you are wearing, Ryan repeated over and over in his head.

She rummaged through it for a moment, muttering to herself, before pulling out a small leather pouch. She tossed it to Ryan without warning.

Ryan caught it. The pouch clinked heavily in his hands.

“Ten gold crowns,” the principal said. She tossed another pouch to Eleanor. “Same for you.”

Ryan opened the pouch and peered inside. Ten gleaming golden coins, each one stamped with the image of a crown on one side and a mountain on the other.

“That should cover clothes, books, supplies, whatever you need,” the principal continued, already moving back to her desk. “Don’t spend it all in one place. Or do. I’m not your mother.”

Ryan had no idea how much the ten gold crowns in his hand was worth.

Eleanor, however, was a bit more understanding. Her fingers tightened slightly around her pouch.

“That’s…” Eleanor began, then stopped. “Thank you.”

“Yes, yes, thrilling gratitude, very moving.” She clapped her hands together. “Now! The academy.”

She launched into an explanation without waiting for a response.

“Classes begin at dawn. Well, technically they begin whenever the instructor feels like starting, but dawn is the general idea. You’ll attend lectures on all sorts, elemental studies, combat application, all the usual nonsense. There are practical training sessions in the courtyards, sparring matches in the arenas, and if you’re particularly ambitious, you can request access to the restricted libraries in my tower.”

Ryan tried to keep up, but the principal spoke quickly, words tumbling over each other in a chaotic stream.

“Dormitories! I’m putting you in Building Six, Room Twenty-Seven. It’s a shared room, four beds, reasonably clean. Don’t break anything expensive please. If you do, I’ll know.” She grinned. “I. Always. Know.” She then pulled two keys out of a drawer in her table, and through them over to Eleanor and Ryan.

“Do either one of you want to be knights as well as mages?”

Eleanor moved her head side to side, not interested at all.

Ryan however, was curious, “How would I become a knight? Is it worth it?”

“Ah yes, you are new to this world, of course you don’t know. Basically knights internalise their mana, they use it to strengthen their bodies. Mages externalise it in spells.” She took in a breath before she addressed the second question. “And it is definitely worth being a knight! Especially if you plan on killing Elves! After all, a knight can be more useful than a mage of the same tier!”

She then tutted to herself, “In a fight that is, not so much outside of combat.”

“So? Want to be a knight?” She asked.

Ryan carefully nodded his head, slightly unsure about his choice.

“Good choice! I’ll have someone… or something bring you your itinerary. Knight stuff is much more strict than over here so for that stuff lessons start… whenever they start?”

Ryan looked at her with a puzzled expression.

What the fuck is she talking about?

“On to the rules!” the principal continued. “No fighting outside designated areas. No fighting in the designated areas without supervision. No unsupervised experimentation with volatile spells or potions or whatever. No sneaking into the restricted sections, like the mana animal pens, without permission, though I suspect that won’t stop you. It never stops anyone.” She sighed dramatically. “Oh, and curfew is four hours past sunset. Technically. Nobody really enforces it, but if you get caught wandering around at midnight covered in soot and smelling like burnt hair, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Ryan blinked. “Is that… a common occurrence?”

“More than you’d think.”

The principal stood again, this time walking around the desk to a large map pinned to the wall. It showed the academy grounds in meticulous detail. She tapped a section near the edge.

“Dining hall is here. Open from dawn to dusk. If you miss meals, there are some splendid restaurants in the city, but it’s a walk. Library and your lessons are in the building where we are now. Training grounds are scattered, just follow the sound of explosions.”

“Explosions,” Ryan repeated.

“Mostly controlled ones.” She shrugged.

Eleanor’s expression remained carefully blank.

The principal spun back around, hands on her hips. “Questions?”

Eleanor spoke instead. “What year are we?”

“There are no years,” the principal said. “Just three tiers, first second and third, and these aren’t mage tiers, just academy stuff. Then you graduate. For now you’ll be placed in some introductory tier 1 courses until we assess your actual skill levels. After that, we’ll adjust accordingly.”

She moved back to her desk and sat down, already reaching for a stack of papers. “Oh, and one more thing. If you need anything, advice, help, someone to yell at, feel free to visit. My door is always open. Metaphorically. But sometimes literally, depending on whether I remember to lock it.”

She smiled warmly, then her expression shifted.

“Now.” She made a shooing motion with both hands. “Out, out! I’m about to set random stuff on fire and I’d rather not explain to the military why I incinerated their ’precious’ heroes on day one.”

Both Ryan and Eleanor stood quickly.

“Thank you,” Ryan said. “For all… of that.”

“Yes, yes, very touching. Off you go!”

They hurried toward the door.

As they stepped out into the stairwell, the principal called after them. “Oh, and my name is Helena! Please try not to die here!”

The door slammed shut behind them.

Ryan stood on the landing, blinking at the closed door.

Eleanor looked at him. “She’s insane.”

“Completely,” Ryan agreed.

They turned toward the staircase.

And froze. Now there were stairs going up to higher floors… there wasn’t previously.

They looked over the edge of the banisters. Their heads twisting up and down.

The stairs were…very different.

Before, they had climbed what felt like endless flights, spiralling upward floor after floor after floor. Ryan’s legs still ached from the effort.

Now, the staircase descended in a smooth, gentle curve. Only a few flights. Maybe three floors’ worth.

Ryan leaned over the railing and looked down.

The entrance hall was visible below, much closer than it had any right to be.

“The tower shrunk,” Eleanor said quietly.

Ryan stared. “Did she… move the room?” He paused. “Without us noticing?”

Eleanor didn’t answer. She just started walking down the stairs.

Ryan followed, his mind spinning.

By the time they reached the bottom, Ryan’s legs, thankfully, felt fine. No burning. No exhaustion.

They stepped out into the entrance hall, and Ryan glanced back up at the tower.

It looked exactly the same as before. Tall. Imposing. Stretching high into the sky.

But somehow, they’d descended in minutes what had taken them nearly half an hour to climb.

“She’s a show off,” Eleanor muttered.

Ryan nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

He gripped the pouch of gold coins.

Whatever tier the principal was, it was possibly higher than the field marshal at the military compound.

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