Having arranged the meeting time, Dr. Schneider handed Shard a folder containing information about the academy. With hurried steps, he left the room, clearly having something urgent to attend to.
After the doctor left, Shard didn’t open the folder immediately. Instead, he leaned back on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, summarizing the day’s events and recalling every detail in his memory:
“In the worst-case scenario, everything is a scam, and the doctor is actually a cultist trying to sacrifice me. But the likelihood of that is low,”
He thought, patting his head.
“What do you think?”
[I can be trusted.]
“But can I trust you? For example, can you tell me who exactly you are?”
[I am you.]
“You’re definitely not another part of my consciousness as an arcane practitioner; that much I’m certain.”
Shard gloomily looked at the ceiling pattern made up of colored blocks and geometric shapes, then turned his gaze to the rather nice crystal chandelier. He guessed at Bill Schneider’s income and realized it must be a substantial amount of pounds.
“No matter how you look at it, there’s too little information, or rather no source of information at all, so I’m stuck listening to others’ claims.”
From his considerations, Shard felt that the doctor could be trusted. All the information he had received since this morning didn’t contradict one another or lack logical consistency.
Moreover, what the doctor said made sense. Meeting someone willing to guide ordinary people to the extraordinary and mysterious forces wasn’t a simple matter. Shard had already learned a bit about this epoch: the extraordinary and mysterious were not apparent, with humanity’s civilization focusing on the thriving steam industries. The mysterious and extraordinary were just a small part of the civilization’s shadows.
From this perspective, Shard felt grateful to the doctor, who had shared precious knowledge without asking for any money.
Shard admitted to himself he was interested in the St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy. The Three Great Arcane Academies and the Five True God Churches were the only formal pathways to becoming an arcane practitioner, and these were the methods he would consider.
The academies and churches each had their pros and cons. Currently, the academy approached him first, and Shard also doubted his identity as a transmigrator. Compared to the more leniently managed arcane practitioners, the church was more likely to see through his identity, especially since the doctor had made it clear that gods truly existed.
He didn’t know the power of the deities but didn’t rule out their “omniscience.”
“I can accept St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy, but I still need to see what information that [relic] can provide.”
He made up his mind internally, knowing this choice might not be the best but was his own decision.
“Let’s take a look at this then.”
With this thought, he was about to open the folder when the door suddenly opened without a knock. Shard assumed it was the doctor returning early, but a young woman walked in, surprised to see Shard sitting there.
“Sorry, I thought Dr. Schneider…”
She appeared to be around 20 years old, the most beautiful girl Shard had seen since arriving in this world. With long blonde hair and green eyes, she was a genuine “blonde-haired, blue-eyed” beauty. She exuded a quiet charm, like a student or a teacher, dressed in a plain dark blue dress with a butterfly-shaped hairpin as her only accessory.
“Sorry.”
The blonde lady apologized immediately after her initial surprise. She was about to close the door again but paused, her emerald eyes looking curiously at Shard, making him a bit self-conscious.
“That glow… are you awakening as an innate talent user?”
Now Shard understood why the doctor instantly recognized him at the press building yesterday; it seemed arcane practitioners saw things differently from ordinary people.
“Really a talent user?”
Despite her surprise, the blonde lady remained composed, studying Shard with her beautiful eyes and smiling slightly.
“Bill really found a talent user? When did he get so lucky? Did he use a weird [relic] to borrow luck?”
“I…”
Shard wanted to say something, but the lady shook her head at him:
“Sorry, in our small group, only the fifth-year doctor can recruit students, so I can’t tell you anything until you formally enroll. This is part of our contract with the academy, and we must follow the rules.”
She stepped back, holding the doorknob with a friendly smile on her face:
“But St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy has excellent conditions. You were really lucky to meet the doctor within 72 hours; give it serious thought. Oh, and if you do join St. Byrons, remember, don’t choose the chemistry major.”
With that, she nodded and closed the door from the outside.
“One of the four in Dr. Bill Schneider’s correspondence arcane practitioner group… Did she truly just bump into me, or is she acting?”
Sometimes Shard thought he was paranoid, but in a completely unfamiliar world, he believed this was a way to survive better.
“By the way, a school that teaches mysticism has a chemistry major?”
He unwrapped the string around the folder and saw the more detailed academy materials. On top was the promotional leaflet the doctor had shown this morning, followed by the actual enrollment documents of the academy.
As Shard flipped through the thick stack of materials, he understood it more. St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy had 10 specialized colleges, each with its own teaching methods and specialized knowledge:
Chemistry College, specializing in herbalism and potion making;
Mechanical College, adept in mental abilities, cultivating alchemical skills;
Astronomy College, training diviners and star-gazers;
Ancient Literature College, interpreting runes and teaching ancient languages;
Mathematics College, for rituals and spells, and arcane studies;
Folklore College, studying pre-Sixth Epoch history, collecting ancient and modern literature, proficient in the [Enlightenment] element;
History College, training investigators and temporal retracers, proficient in the [Blasphemy] element;
Library Management College, training keepers and custodians, responsible for containing [relics]—the academy’s strongest specialty, proficient in the [Whispers] element;
Theology College, teaching theology, researching the old gods’ history, proficient in the [Miracle] element, and usually handling collaborations with true god churches;
Political Economy College, not open to correspondence arcane practitioners, thus no information provided.
Using common academic names for the specialized colleges of St. Byrons, rather than simple terms like “Containment College” or “Arcane College,” allowed correspondence arcane practitioners to reasonably explain their studies in the ordinary world, reducing the exposure of the academy to the general public.
Through these materials, Shard realized that the doctor’s explanation of the arcane practitioner system had missed some important details.
For instance, once an arcane practitioner fully awakens, they produce a soul sigil based on their soul trait, also called a “core sigil.”
The core sigil is engraved in the hollow center of the destiny ring, not on the destiny ring itself, which relates to the arcane practitioner’s advancement. The content of the core sigil also influences the academy’s recommendation for joining specialized colleges.
For instance, Dr. Schneider’s core sigil, Shard speculated, likely related to “mind,” so the doctor probably belonged to the Mechanical College.
“So, before becoming an arcane practitioner, I can’t decide what I will study. But, traveling through time?”
He shook his head, feeling once again the unique culture and system of this steam era through the enrollment documents.
He carefully read through the thick materials, memorizing important information, then repacked the documents into the folder and stood up to place it on the office desk in the room.
This guest room only entertained important visitors, and many papers were scattered on the office desk. The doctor probably hadn’t had time to organize them and wasn’t worried about Shard peeking, as most were about the clinic’s operations, and a few were written in languages not commonly used in the Northern Kingdom.
Unfortunately, Shard found himself inexplicably able to understand those strange scripts—proof he possessed a unique ability to comprehend written languages.
