Heimarian Odyssey

Chapter 156: Princeton Imperial Academy

The Imperial Academy was also known as Princeton Imperial Academy. Locke walked into the campus slowly while holding the letter of introduction that was written by Angelina and signed by the Faustian king.

"Hello, how can I help you?" asked a lady who seemed to be a staff member. The lady was wearing a green academy uniform with an identity card pinned onto her chest. Unfortunately, Locke didn't know enough Aomarian to know what her name was.

"I'm going to the Perseverance faculty," stammered Locke in amateurish Aomarian.

After hearing what he said, the lady was surprised. She then smiled and said, "Let's go, I'll bring you there."

Locke, a low-rank Knecht, was grabbed by an ordinary lady just like that. Along the way, he felt that the lady might've deliberately or unintentionally touched his palm.

The lady was just decent-looking, but it might be due to her work uniform and her Aomarian identity, so Locke didn't mind her slightly inappropriate behaviour.

Princeton Imperial Academy was huge, its area covering almost the entire town. There were even a park and a meadow on campus, as well as a racecourse for knights to train their equestrian skills. The academy had six sub academies -- two for casters and four for knights. Perseverance faculty was ranked second among the four. Locke had been informed about all that by Lucy, the woman from before.

Lucy's diligence made Locke extremely uncomfortable. What he didn't know was that everyone who was enrolled here was either wealthy or a noble. Lucy thought that he'd just walked into the academy by mistake, but he turned out to be a real deal.

Lucy was just an ordinary merchant's daughter. She was given a staff position there just because her father was close to a client that did business with the academy. However, just by being a staff member was envied by many citizens in the capital. Every girl in the capital dreamt of being swiped off their feet by their prince charming and living an affluent and happy life with them.

Although Locke wasn't handsome, he had good qualifications. He was tall, sturdy, thanks to the battles he had fought in. In Lucy's opinion, he was already a tall, rich and handsome man.

Locke couldn't figure out Lucy's intentions at the moment. He was initially reluctant to become Angelina's study companion because he hated reading and studying. But after hearing a word or two from Lucy, he found out that the cultural courses were only a small part of a knight's training and most of it was actual combat instead, much to his relief.

After bringing Locke to his destination, Lucy bade him farewell reluctantly. A staff member like her had no right to stay at the faculty buildings for a long time. "189, Endon Avenue." She told Locke her address before she left. Only the gods knew whether Locke remembered it.

After shaking off the enthusiastic Aomarian lady, Locke walked into the large five-storey building, letter of recommendation in hand. He ignored the curious gazes and stood in front of the admissions office calmly.

After knocking gently on the door, he heard a middle-aged man call out. "Come in!"

Locke pushed the door open and went inside. The room was about two hundred square metres wide and had around ten wooden tables within. At each table was a busy staff member.

Locke walked directly towards a middle-aged man with a beer belly. He was very sure that the man was the one who'd called him in just now as he wasn't doing any work, instead just looking at Locke curiously.

"Hello, I'm newly enrolled," said Locke respectfully. As he walked closer towards the man, he realised that he was actually a Ritter.

Perhaps this was proof one's weight was proportional to their strength. Anyway, he felt that this man was stronger than Xif but weaker than Garon.

The middle-aged man took Locke's letter of introduction and his visa, opened them curiously and looked at it. He then closed the documents.

"Did you bring any magic items that can hide your strength with you?" asked the man.

"No, Herr," replied Locke.

"A low-rank Knecht?"

"Yes."

"Take this with you and report yourself to Class 3 of the second grade!" The man threw a school badge on the table and showed him the door.

After Locke left, the staff members in the admissions office began to process his admission matters. They were all busy dealing with these in the past few days. Some of them began chatting with each other. "Oh? He's from Faustian."

"Faustian only nominates a person every three years. Why would they nominate a kid like him?"

"I've no idea. Maybe he's the illegitimate son of the king?"

"Probably. That makes sense."

Under the guidance of a staff member, Locke finally found his classroom at the corner of the fourth floor. He entered a huge lecture hall which had around thirty people in it, all seated far apart. A curly-haired man stood on the podium; he should be Locke's instructor.

Before Locke could introduce himself, the curly-haired man yelled, "You're late! Find yourself a place to sit!"

Locke walked towards a spot on the left side of the middle row in the classroom.

"Hello, my name is Henry!" said the freckled kid. His seat was only one vacant seat away from Locke's.

"My name is Locke." When the kid introduced himself as Henry, he thought of Henry who was in charge of the baron's transport team.

The curly-haired man spent the entire morning talking endlessly on the podium, mostly going over school rules and regulations. Locke only managed to hear a rough approximation of what he'd said because he was talking too fast.

Luckily, Henry was a local and a talkative person. He summarised everything their tutor had said to Locke.

"You cannot just start fights in the academy. You have to apply for a duel if that's the case and there must be at least two tutors as witnesses. You must complete 120 credits a year, otherwise, you'll be ordered to drop out. Damaging school property is not allowed. No harassing the school teachers..."

"If you can't remember all of the rules, you can take a look at them at the entrance gate." Henry smiled.

Locke could remember the academy's entrance vividly. When he and Angelina entered the school, they were dazzled by the text that took up half of the space on the wall. A mere look at it and he could feel his head pounding.

At noon, they followed the crowd to the cafeteria for lunch. The Perseverance faculty cafeteria had three floors, but everyone was free to choose either one.

Locke and Henry went to the lowest floor. "We can't afford to eat on the upper floors!" said Henry.

Throughout his chats with Henry, Locke found out that he was the direct descendant of an Aomarian viscount sent there to study by his family and was a baronet himself. When Henry discovered that Locke was from Faustian, he became extremely interested in his story. He hadn't been abroad before in all his life.

Though Locke was currently only considered a descendent of nobles in Aomar, Henry didn't treat him indifferently. This made him feel like Henry was a worthy person to befriend.

Locke didn't have much to do in the afternoon, so he just strolled around the campus. He then walked to the entrance of the campus and waited for Angelina to come out from the caster academy.

Unlike Locke, who'd only made friends with Henry the entire day, Angelina was obviously more popular. She was surrounded by a group of girls, attracting the attention of countless male students outside the campus.

"Who is this?" asked a girl with long, red, wavy hair and a very attractive figure next to Angelina.

"My fianc!" Angelina smiled, walked towards Locke, and kissed him on the cheek. The group of girls stared in awe.

After bidding farewell to their friends, Locke and Angelina got into the carriage that had been arranged to pick them up. The coachman was a shadow guard jarl, a high-rank Knecht. He cracked his whip at the horse, and the carriage moved slowly towards Sanschel Street.

Locke didn't understand why they had to travel to and from school in a carriage when they lived only three streets away from their house.

"It's to keep up appearances for our status," said Angelina.

Almost every student who walked out of the academy had a carriage waiting for them. Locke guessed that the road outside the academy was wider than the other roads was because it had to be wide enough to accommodate the carriages.