Chapter 114: Two years

Kai stood in the front court of House Valerius with a travel case reduced to essentials and the Ring of Infinite Storage doing the real carrying underneath. Duke and Neet waited by the gate in formal black, both too composed to look affected and both failing at it in different ways.

Evander’s royal carriage occupied the street beyond the gate.

The prince himself stepped down in travel-formal attire, less ceremonial than the ball and more intentional than dinner, and looked over Kai with open satisfaction.

"Are you ready to go?" Evander said.

"Ready as ever" kai replied.

Duke moved first.

"Young master. The household accounts are balanced through the next quarter. Shop reports will continue on schedule. If any issue requires your seal, I will hold it for our next contact."

Kai nodded.

"Good. Do not be too harsh on the workers, they are trying thier best."

Duke’s mouth twitched.

"Only if necessary."

Neet stepped in next, more tightly wound.

"I can still accompany you to the barrier."

"You are accompanying me to the barrier," Kai said. "Both of you are. After that, no. The grounds beyond are restricted."

Neet clearly hated the rule and hated accepting it more.

"It is a two-year study," Kai added. " I am not going on exile. If an opportunity presents itself, I will come back. Keep the house standing until then."

"Yes, master," Neet said.

Duke bowed deeper than usual.

"We will see you soon."

Kai held for a second longer than practicality required, takimg in the scenrey and residence he might not see for the next two years...then turned to the carriage. Evander offered a hand he did not need and looked devastated when Kai ignored it and climbed in on his own. Duke and Neet mounted their own escort positions for the first stretch, and the convoy left the estate behind under a sky still pale with early light.

The capital thinned gradually.

Market gave way to wider roads, then to the cleaner outer districts, then to the long reserved route that ran toward the secluded academy zone on the outskirts. The farther they traveled, the less the city felt like a city.

Evander broke the quiet first.

"You chose ranked evaluation."

Kai kept his eyes on the road.

"I chose not to enter as a protected student, i am still going to take the recommendation of course."

Evander laughed under his breath.

"Good. They eat protected students alive in there and i mean they would literally eat you alive"

"You sound as if you went through it yourself."

"Trust me, you don’t want to know."

Behind them, Duke and Neet maintained formation until the final checkpoint before the barrier zone. There the royal carriage slowed, and a perimeter officer came forward with a board and a hard stare that softened the moment he recognized the prince. Evander did not linger on ceremony. He presented the recommendation seal, confirmed Kai’s identity, and secured the passage authorization with the efficiency of a man who expected doors to open and was rarely disappointed.

Well...he was the Crown Prince afterall.

Then the convoy stopped for real.

The Academy Barrier stood ahead in a wide arc across the approach road, less a wall than a layered field of pale gold and glass-blue light rising from inscribed stone posts into the air. Through it, the land beyond looked slightly displaced, as if the academy territory occupied the same geography and a stricter version of it at the same time. No casual traveler would mistake it for open countryside.

Kai stepped down.

Duke and Neet dismounted at once.

This was the line.

Kai faced them both under the barrier’s low hum.

"This is far enough."

Duke inclined his head.

"We will maintain House Valerius until your return."

Neet’s voice came quieter.

"If anyone inside fails to respect you, give me a name."

"That is not how this works" Kai said, then softened despite himself. "I will see you both when an opportunity opens. Two years is long. It is not endless."

Duke bowed.

Neet bowed harder.

Evander remained by the carriage, watching the exchange with interest he did not bother hiding.

Kai adjusted his coat, checked the permit seal one last time, and turned toward the barrier alone.

The field resisted for half a breath when he stepped into it, reading seal, identity, and authorization in a pressure that passed through skin and bone alike. Then it accepted the recommendation route and let him through. The sensation snapped off as cleanly as a closed latch.

When Kai looked back, Duke, Neet, and the royal carriage were already on the other side of a shining threshold that made distance feel longer than it necessarily was. He raised one hand once. Then he walked on.

The land beyond the barrier was quieter.

A paved approach road curved between ordered trees and low warding stones toward structures that only gradually revealed themselves as a full minor city rather than a single campus, Kai couldn’t count how many they were.

He had not gone far before a figure stepped out from a reception post near the first inner gate. Kai unmistakably identified it as a goblin immediately, he had seen enough of goblin media to know. It was just that this goblin had a huge presence of awareness.

The goblin was short, sharp-eyed, dressed in a fitted academy courier coat that had clearly survived both ink and irritation. His ears angled back the moment he saw Kai, and his mouth settled into the expression of a professional.

"Name," he said.

"Kai Valerius."

The goblin checked a slate, snorted once, and jerked his chin down the path.

"Recommendation intake. Figures. Come on, pretty boy. I am not standing here while you admire the trees."

Kai blinked.

"Charming."

"Dont call me charming, your looks would have worked for you outside but not here now keep up"

He turned and started walking at a brisk, no-nonsense clip. Kai followed immediately, trying to keep up with the goblin.

"Do you have a name, or should I cajj you hostility in a coat?"

The goblin shot him a sideways look.

"Brannic. Reception guide. Temporary handler for external admissions. Do not get attached. I do not do tours twice."

"I was not planning to."

"Good."

They passed the outer reception ring first, a sequence of verification arches where academy staff in neutral gray confirmed barrier passage, recommendation seal validity, and identity against intake lists. Kai presented his authorization at each point and watched the process stack itself into clear structure..

Beyond the arches, Brannic cut toward a broader plaza dominated by a pale stone hall with open doors and a constant flow of clerks, attendants, and new arrivals.

"That is Reception Hall One," Brannic said, pointing without slowing. "All external candidates go through there first. Recommendation, examination, achievement, special measure. Different desks. Same misery."

Kai took in the movement around the hall and internally concluded that there were an awful amount of pe

"And after reception?" Kai asked.

Brannic counted off on thick fingers.

"Intake confirmation. Construction preliminary scan. Route assignment. Dormitory allocation. Then evaluation scheduling if you are not one of the soft-entry plants." He glanced at Kai. "You recommended?"

"Yes."

"Then someone important likes your face or your future. Congratulation. The general students will hate that."

Kai almost smiled.

"I requested ranked evaluation as well."

Brannic actually stopped for half a step.

"Did you?"

"Yes."

The goblin looked at him with something closer to respect, or at least reduced contempt.

"Maybe you survive the month, then. Come on."

Inside Reception Hall One, the structure became even clearer. Long counters divided by route banners. Recommendation under gold. Open Examination under blue. Achievement under red. Special Measure under black. Clerks called numbers and names with the emotional range of people who had seen every kind of arrogance walk through the doors and had became numb to it.

Brannic marched Kai to the gold counter and slapped the slate down.

"Valerius. Recommendation route. Requests general evaluation track."

The clerk on duty looked up, assessed Kai in one long pass, and held out a hand for documentation. a short crystal pass over Kai’s sternum.

"Provisional intake accepted," the clerk said. "Dormitory assignment will follow after route locking. Evaluation date issued at next desk."

Brannic already tugged him onward.

They moved from provisional intake to the evaluation desk, where a second clerk scheduled Kai into the ranked assessment sequence.

Only after that did Brannic lead him out through a side colonnade overlooking the deeper campus.

From there Kai saw the true nature of the Academy, the many buildings...the students.. it was enormous, magnificent and intimidating.

Brannic stopped at a marked junction stone.

"This is as far as I drag recommendation boys on day one. You wait at Holding Annex C for dormitory allocation and the welcome packet. Try not to get recruited, robbed, or married before lunch."

Kai glanced at him.

"Does that happen often enough to need the warning?"

"You have a face that makes stupid people creative," Brannic said. "I am being efficient."

That statement sent Kai into deep thought as he wondered what exactly that meant.

Brannic turned to leave, then paused without looking back.

"Welcome to the Academy, Valerius. From here on, your bloodline, your sponsors, and your pretty hair matter less than what you can do under real competition. Remember that and you may become tolerable."

Then the goblin walked off, coat flaring, already irritated at the next task waiting somewhere behind him.

Kai stood alone at the junction stone with provisional intake confirmed, ranked evaluation scheduled, and the sealed settlement of the Academy spreading out in every directed path before him. .

Two years.

He adjusted his coat and walked toward Holding Annex C.