My last days were less dramatic than I’d thought, probably because we’d spent all our emotional availability during my birthday. There were tears and celebration. There were gifts and songs and tales of old times, most of which would be taken as whimsical retellings of folk stories anywhere else. Here, though, I knew they were real, and I had to admit there was some sense of expectation in hearing all those adventures.

  The following week saw me preparing for the eventual takeoff, including fixing myself enough clothes and magical leather to last for the year. More than once, I’d found myself dozing off on the couch in my bedroom, not sure if I was ready to leave this place. I had quite the view thanks to my wide windows, and the scenery of the royal palace was something else.

  Still, there was work to be done, which was why I spent most of my days with Radek, as he had broad experience with all kinds of academies. Knowing that he’d be accompanying me through the journey was a relief, to say the least. On the morning of my last day, we’d decided to have some tea by the grand terrace of the royal palace. It was peaceful and quiet there.

  “I’ve made a list of the goods we have to buy for your first semester,” he said after he took his first sip of tea, sighed contentedly, and pulled a sheet of paper from inside his ring. When he stretched it out, I took it right away and glanced down at it. “These will be necessary for the common classes.”

  Having read my fair share of magical school fiction, I’d expected to see a wand, books, and, to be honest, an owl or something. Instead, the list included what seemed like a set of torture tools. It went like this:

  A copper scalpel of excellent quality.

  A bottle of Sanguine Laurel leaves.

  A ring of holding with an inner space no smaller than a castle room.

  A bonesaw made out of at least Silver Grade quality steel. (Golden quality is preferred, but not necessary.)

  A pair of iron tongs. (Delicate enough for eye-work.)

  A set of Kolmin syringes. (To be purchased from Kolmin’s Apothecary in the inner city, the biggest shop beside the Westport Bank’s main entrance.)

  A Liquid Cape. (Students who were chosen prior to their acceptance by teachers of the Academy will be given one by their Masters.)

  Two pairs of leather gloves. (Either charmed with liquified mana or reinforced with internal energy.)

  And so on the list went, ending with a total of approximately thirty things, getting stranger and stranger still with each entry. By the end of it, I was filled with more questions about these particular tools than the school itself, which I must have displayed openly, since Radek laughed.

  “Where are we supposed to buy… all these?” I asked, confused as hell. “I’m not sure if I understood half of it. A pair of iron tongs? Delicate enough for eye-work? What?”

  “Oh, I know that one,” Radek said, one finger pointing right at me. “If I’m not mistaken, you’d use those tongs to remove eyes from different species of beasts and Demonlings. We had a similar class in Blaston as well. It was fun.”

  “Fun?” My eyes widened. “They made you dissect corpses in the academy?”

  Radek glanced at me as though the answer was obvious. “You have to know your enemy. That’s the least you should expect to learn in an academy.”

  “I guess you’re right,” I said helplessly. “What’s a Liquid Cape?”

  “Just a fancy name for leather capes that can change colors depending on a Mage’s mana sign or a Knight’s inner will,” Radek said. “I believe the Creator’s Academy gives every student a uniform, which makes it harder to tell the chosen students apart from one another. The Masters will brand those capes with their signs to make it clear. Think of it like a personal brand. Yes.”

  “Chosen students?” I asked. Since I’d been busy with personal training, I didn’t have enough time to learn more about the Creator’s Academy. Belfray thought there was no need to rush. I had everything settled for me, somehow. “You mean, there are different kinds of students there?”

  “Well, of course there are!” Radek said with a smile. “You have your normal cases, the people who are fortunate enough to be accepted but not quite talented enough to get a Master’s attention. You have the potential candidates who carry some degree of future promise. And finally, you have your chosen, who were already accepted by a Master and, in some cases, invited directly by said Masters to become students in the Academy.”

  “That sounds too complicated. I mean, how are they going to teach all these people if there’s such discrimination?” I asked, curious.

  “This is merely a starting point, Leo. Talent alone doesn’t make one a genius, nor does being a normal student mean you’ll stay one forever,” Radek said. “You’ll see disruptive changes throughout your Academy life. You’ll see the so-called geniuses fall, and unexpected talents rise from the mud. That’s the whole reason why the Creator’s Academy has joint classes for every student. Everyone’s going to get a chance to shine.”

  “So you say,” I muttered. “But still, you haven’t told me the name of my Master.”

  “That…” Radek said, looking uncomfortable for a second. “I’m afraid that’s not really a choice for any of us. We wouldn’t want your Master to get angry about something before you two even meet, eh? Better to play it safe. You’ll be seeing him in a few days, after all… hopefully.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Hopefully?”

  “Well, he’s a bit of an oddball,” Radek said. “That’s almost always the case with people who are regarded as some of the most dangerous men in existence. Don’t expect him to be all gentle and kind, or generous, like me. I’ve heard he once ordered a complete lockdown because one of his robes went missing, and it wasn’t just limited to the academy. He held the whole world of Taraks accountable for that particular robe until he found it inside his cabinet. Runemasters, indeed. They can be a terrible bunch when irritated.”

  “What about—”

  “Okay, enough,” Radek said, holding a hand up. “I know your brain is crowded with questions and full of uncertainties, but this isn’t the way we’re going to solve this. You’ll get to experience the Academy for yourself soon. Don’t worry too much about it.”

  “But I don’t even know the classes!”

  “Well, you know how to defend yourself. That’s something, right?” Radek chuckled. “And you look like a sixteen-year-old kid who went through hellish training. I daresay you have nothing to be scared of.”

  “What about the Golden ranks?” I asked. That was the one question I kept constantly butting my head against. “You told me people will try… things. What if I cross lines with a Golden Mage or a Golden Knight? Not all students are going to be at the Silver Grade, right?”

  Radek looked me in the eye. “That’s a stupid question.”

  “Why?” I scowled.

  “What do you mean, ‘Why’?” Radek nearly rolled his eyes at me. “What would you do if you came across a Golden Rank beast? How would you react when, say, you’re out walking on a fine morning and a Diamond Fanghorn decides to take a nip at you? You do whatever you can at the time, with the resources you have on your person. There’s no universally accepted answer to your question. It depends. You just have to be prepared for it.”

  “I didn’t mean it that way…” I felt drained and completely out of it as I took in a breath.

  “You’re trying to cover all the corners and get a clear picture of every possibility that could, or would, happen to be on your way. I understand that, but you have to understand, as well, that you have to be realistic,” Radek said. “Life doesn’t work that way. You can’t be sure about anything, really. It’d be the same in the Academy. I can’t tell you that no Golden Rank would bother to pick a fight with you, nor can I ensure the Diamond Rank students would leave you alone. What I can tell you is that you have the means to take those things on. Or else we wouldn’t risk sending you off to the Creator’s Academy.”

  “How can you be so sure?” That was the part I didn’t get. Why did these people believe so dearly that I had whatever it took to handle those things on my own?

  “Because you’re a damn Runemaster,” Radek said, shaking his head. “And a fine one, at that, if you’re not aware of it. Your mere presence will be the talk of the Academy. You’ll get eyes on you, and yes, some of them will want a piece of you, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be alone in a den of wolves. That should be the last thing you’re worried about. They say a Runemaster’s call is similar to that of a grandmother’s cooking. You just can’t resist the temptation. That’s one constant that never changes across the Planar System.”

  “Really?” I blinked up at him. “Do they say that?”

  “I’m sure they do.” Radek winked at me. “After all, the Planar System is basically endless, right?”

  “Right…”

  ……

  After that morning, the rest of the day passed with me pacing around the royal palace. I was informed the new folk of the Palark Empire—yeah, we’d become an Empire now—wouldn’t feel the absence of their King. Already, the word was that I had strong people behind me. That wasn’t a lie. I never felt like a true ruler, anyway. I was never meant to be a King.

  Not yet, at least.

  I ate a lot. That was something I’d done back in my first life when things got a bit too much for me to handle. Food had a magical effect on me. Eating delicacies somehow calmed my mind.

  Not today, though. I couldn’t stop staring at Nell, who was busy flying above Sangdon's skies. My Mother’s dear pet would be my ferry to the world of Taraks. I guessed there really was no way out of this. I was going, either way.

  So then, make peace with the situation. Sounded simple enough. I had Beatrice with me and my newly replaced Grade 3 Runes. I had enough magical leather to last me through the year. I had my Practical Runes and then some. I had the Undying ever ready to fix whatever was wrong with my body.

  What I didn’t have was a good benchmark. As in, I wasn’t exactly sure about the power ceiling I should expect in the Academy. It wasn’t like the place would be riddled with nobodies. This was the number one Academy across the Planar System, and that was true for both Mages and Knights.

  My pondering sessions went on like this until I found my way back to my bedroom, where I stood before the long mirror. I was, as Belfray and Radek kept saying, a freak of a child. Standing at a good 5.5 feet, which, considering my age, was nothing short of monstrous. My long blond hair spilled freely down my shoulders. I had a pair of blue eyes gleaming with inner light, and a single dimple on my left cheek. My nose was small, and my eyebrows were sharp.

  Compared to my facial lines, I had a somewhat rugged disposition. As in, I looked battered and bruised, but not in a way that screamed, “I just got my ass kicked by a Celestial Knight this morning.” I was just that—a tired Knight who carried the signs of his training on his person.

  This growth spurt happened after my Bloodline manifested itself. Golden Song of the Paragon, as it was called, was a mysterious thing. Belfray thought the golden color by itself indicated nothing. His theory was that my Bloodline was in a transition phase, meaning that gold was not its original color. It would soon take on a consistent hue that fell in line with the recordings of the Empire’s long-lasting legacy.

  As of now, it was like a companion that told me to fix myself in times when I needed a little push, which was why I couldn’t understand why it decided to stay silent right now.

  Was this because it found nothing wrong with my current circumstances? Did it believe I was doing the right thing by going to the Creator’s Academy?

  Then again, what choices did I really have in my hands? It was true that I’d made good progress with my Runecraft by myself, but ultimately, there was no one around here who could teach me more about being a real Runemaster. Not to mention I’d been raised in a bubble of protection, as Radek put it, which made me a touch ignorant about the realities of the world.

  I had to experience them personally. Fancy that. I had to become a real adult this time, and that thought terrified me. Even though I was a thirty-year-old man back in my first life, when I thought about it, I was never really an adult. Sure, I earned a living and had my own place, but other than that, I basically isolated myself from the outside world. That made it so that I didn’t have to bother with anything that was remotely human, save for the few interactions I had in online games.

  This time, though, I had no way out. I was doing this, one way or another.

  There came a knock on the door. It felt more like a sudden bang that thudded against my heart. I felt as though I’d lived through this exact moment before, and when I turned my head to glance at the entrance, I saw a blond woman standing there like a statue.

  “It’s time,” Mother said, her face strict. “Come on, Leo.”

  “I’m coming,” I said with surprising ease. I supposed that was bound to happen since I’d spent weeks dreading this moment, and it seemed I had consumed every inch of my own anxiety through the process, leaving not a single bit for the last farewell.

  What a blessing.

  ……