Chapter 526: Student Discipline

Arc was pissed at Owyn.

She hadn’t really felt the weight of her responsibility with him until "shit hit the fan," as her Father was wont to say. Thus, because she’s lost track of him and he’d somehow managed to wander directly into one of the few places she’d told him not to go, she’d had to sit with him for four hours as Amarena interrogated them both.

It was humiliating. It made her feel like a child again and brought back all sorts of bad memories.

By the end of it, she was mad enough that even on the day they were to start at the Academy, Owyn knew to stay well back from her as they walked there with Anko chaperoning them.

So much for being treated as an adult.

After a long, tense walk, Arc and Owyn took their place in the lines to receive their uniforms, and, thankfully, Anko elected to disappear at that point.

Relaxing a bit, Arc browsed her options and wound up choosing the light half-jacket with a high collar favored by those on the knighthood track and pants, in addition to the uniform skirt. As a special student, she received both her chosen uniform and her formals in colors of very light grey, practically white, with a red shoulder cord that indicated her first-year status.

She also received one pair of boots, one pair of running shoes, and one pair of formal pumps - which she vowed never to wear. On the way out, she wore the boots and her new day-to-day outfit out of the dressing area, carrying her formals and regular clothes folded in her arms. The skirt was a bit short but she enjoyed the swishiness of it.

At the end of the line, she waited until Owyn finished, and he came out wearing almost the exact same thing as her, but sized for giants and colored in standard-course blacks trimmed in red. It left a rather striking impression, given his white hair and green eyes.

"You cleaned up well," Arc noted with a slightly embarrassed cough after he caught her staring.

"Uh, thanks? You look pretty much the same- ow!" Her kick to his shin interrupted him. And that was when another student wearing greys approached. They were a lanky sort with extremely pale skin, black hair, and piercing red eyes above the high collar covering the bottom half of their face. On their shoulder was a third-year’s yellow cord.

"You are... Arcine?" they asked.

"Yes?" Arc answered. "Who are you?"

"Good. I am... Vang. Vang Mazh Kar’rn. You’re the last... one. Come this way and you’ll learn about your... duties." The way they paused before the last word almost each time, in addition to their already slow speaking cadence, did not seem to be an affectation. But it was still a strange way to talk, and his tone seemed slightly hostile.

"What should I do?" Owyn asked.

"Go find your room or something," Arc replied, leaving Owyn standing in the hall as Vang gestured for her to walk ahead of him.

"Right. Find my room..." she heard Owyn talking to himself as she followed the senior student.

Through the halls of the Academy, Arc was led to a little side room where a dozen or so students were gathered, all wearing greys, and sitting on the couch, with one seat to spare, were Raven and Snow.

Thankfully, Arc didn’t have to sit next to Raven, who had somehow already customized her uniform with an integrated black half-cape covering her right, as she took her designated seat.

Once she was comfortable, Arc started checking out the other special-class students as they chatted with each other. Each seemed rather... unique... compared to what she expected to see of students at the Academy.

There was an elven girl with long, straight black hair and yellow eyes. Her jacket had the body made up of uneven strips that fell to her hips.

She was talking to a skinny but sturdy-looking dwarf whose uneven, auburn hair was burned together at the edges, and her uniform had little red and orange flame patterns sewn at the ends of the sleeves and the hem.

Vang loomed over them both, before leaning in to address the dwarf quietly, and that was when Arc finally noticed that his fingers were tipped with black claws that identified him as either a demonkin or some variation of beastkin. Given his mostly elven appearance, she felt the former was likely more correct.

Arc didn’t have time to look at anyone else before Vang finished whatever he was saying and the dwarven girl stepped out of the conversation, her hands coming together in a single clap for everyone’s attention.

"Alright, Specs! Everyone’s here, so let’s begin!" she began enthusiastically. "Everyone who’s still here knows their jobs, but this semester we’ve got three newbies. Everyone say ’hello’ to Revan, Snow, and Archie." She gestured at each name in the wrong order, only managing to get Snow right because she was sitting in the middle.

"Actually, I’m Arcine," Arc said, raising her hands. Several of the other students were snickering a little. "Everyone just calls me Arc, though."

Raven stood in a huff. "And I’m Raven, not ’Revan’. I’m not some edgelord in a mask. Hmph."

Now that’s the darkness calling the shadow black. Arc thought uncharitably.

The dwarvish girl took it in stride though. "My apologies," she scratched the back of her head with a nervous smile as the straight-haired girl glared down at her. "Anyway!" she clapped her hands together once more, "Welcome to the Student Disciplinary Committee. I’m Kyan, and this is the girl who should be in charge, Margaret." She gestured at the elf.

"You know I can’t run the student council and look after your pyro ass," the brown haired elf sighed, before introducing herself. "I’m Margaret, of course, and my specialty is cutting."

"Oh yeah, right, my specialty is fire," Kyan snapped her fingers, covering her hand in true fire. Arc sensed she was protecting herself and feeding the flame with magic. "Go ahead and introduce yourselves and tell us what you’re good at. Tell us if you’ve got true knowledge of something, but don’t explain." She let the fire go out.

Despite the redundancy of it, Raven stood and reintroduced herself as "Raven Black. Blood mage. So of course, I know all about blood."

"That explains so much..." said a squirrelkin girl from the back of the room. Raven ignored her and sat.

Snow shook nervously before answering, "I-I’m Sn-Snow Urvikin. I’m, uh, here because... because water..."

That’s funny, I thought she was specialized in plants, Arc thought as Snow suddenly turned to her with pleading eyes. She had no idea what that was about, but felt an urge to save the nervous pangolkin by reintroducing herself.

"I’m Arc. I guess I’m a maven."

"You guess?" a male elven second-year said.

"I’m still figuring out what my mavenry covers," Arc said.

"How are you a spec-grade then?" the elf continued, his stare growing hostile.

"I just know some things. True things. Not that I can use them." Arc said, desperate to escape scrutiny before her full identity became a subject.

Unfortunately, Fate, through Raven Black, refused her wish. "She’s just being coy. Arc’s a Gale. From the House of Stars."

Arc was not prepared to be outed so soon. She paled as everyone’s expressions changed. Most simply went wide-eyed, especially Kyan. But three, including the male elf, looked offended.

"Politics," he scoffed.

Embarrassment finally decided it was its turn to take over, and her face burned red as she swallowed hard, fighting herself not to cry or lie or throw herself at Raven, the absolute bitch, seeking the catharsis of a bloody murder.

"Alright. Alright!" Kyan called out sternly. "It shouldn’t matter who Arc’s related to. We’re all here because the Chancellor believes that power comes with responsibility." She gestured, and Margaret produced a folder. "Event schedules! Make sure to deconflict any club activities, since you will need to patrol at least eight."

Everyone received their copy of the same sheet. Some grimaced, and Arc saw why when she got her own copy. The event list was packed. Every weekend had some sort of event on both days, and half of them took place off-campus or outside the city, which meant a lot of walking.

But Arc didn’t mind the exercise, and near the bottom of the list was an event that made her heart beat faster.

Dragon riding!

Raven shot to her feet. "This is ridiculous! You can’t just abduct us and tell us what to do with our free time!"

Margaret cut in front of Kyan to respond, "Did the Chancellor not tell you you had to contribute to the well-being and safety of the school?"

"Yes, but I thought she meant in general. Stopping fights and whatnot."

"Oh, you’ll do plenty of that," Kyan shot her a razor-smile. "But this committee is responsible for special students, and if we don’t look after each other... well, that means you’ll be on your own." She said this to Raven, but her gaze shifted to Arc for a long, uncomfortable moment. "Which means you can explain anything that goes wrong to the resident mage hunters instead of us."

Raven swallowed her pride and sat. Behind Margaret, Kyan wore a strained smile as she tried to take back the room. The moment Margaret looked away, Arc felt a chill run along the back of her neck.