Alira plopped down on her newly assigned queen-sized bed, planting her face into the soft pillows.

  The dormitory room for two was as large, no, way larger than the entire dormitory unit she’d rented out together with Jian and three other people. The closet she shared with Maria alone would take up half the living space of the unit. Yet, the man who had been their guide, assistant Professor Jaspal, had apologized for the ‘inadequate’ living space.

  Then again, this room, despite its ability to comfortably house an elephant couple, was still smaller than the room she had back in the duchy’s main palace. She sure would have been tempted by the luxuries of a princess’s life if she liked her own life back on Earth just a little less.

  I miss my room and my neat little hoards.

  Alira felt her mood dampen at the thought. Maria’s voice sounded from the side, muffled by the pillows her face was buried in.

  “My Lady? Maybe we could see more of the Academy? Sir Jaspal only had the time to show us around the training center and the hall... I heard the Academy’s library is the biggest in the Duchy. Would you like to see it? A walk might... help ease your mind?”

  Alira pushed herself up, a frown creasing her brows. “Sir Jaspal made a point. Three times. ‘All students are equal within the Academy walls. All students must respect the professors.’”

  The assistant professor had said that mostly for Alira, now rumored to be utterly loved and spoiled by the duke. They said the duke had all his meals with his adopted daughter since she arrived at his palace. Whispers mentioned an annuity of eight hundred Lia per year, marriage dowry, a villa for her personal country retreat, and much more.

  Alira sighed, thinking it couldn’t be any more wrong. He was merely tying her down, keeping a close eye on her.

  “So! Drop the ‘my lady’—unless you want the lecture again,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Either way, I’m not the least bit interested in this place, so go explore by yourself if you want to.”

  Maria scrambled upright, shaking her head like a flustered puppy. “I-I couldn’t do that! But miss Alira sounds alright? But I can’t leave you alone! His Grace was very clear. I’m to stay with you so that you’re not... uh, by yourself.”

  Alira flopped back down, burying her face back into the pillow. “I’m sure he said ‘when you can’. Not ‘stick to her always like an octopus’. So, off you go. Shoo!”

  “...octopus?” Maria echoed, barely audible.

  Do they not have octopus here? Alira recalled that there was an octopus-like, Cthulhu rip-off Divinity, but not octopuses? That was funny.

  She tried to sleep, ignoring Maria’s gaze burning a hole in her. She could understand the young girl’s feelings—this was Maria’s first time outside the palace, not to mention it was the Academy. Alira might have been just a little curious if she wasn’t worried about getting attached to this world and shaking up her will to leave.

  It’ll definitely feel less guilty to walk away from strangers than it would from friends.

  It wasn’t so easy to pretend that Maria’s silent pleas weren’t bugging her, but the carriage ride had effectively drained her out. Alira hugged a pillow to drift to dreamland until a growl snapped her wide awake. The almost beast-like noise came from her stomach.

  “My Lady, I mean, Miss Alira, maybe have your lunch first before resting?”

  Unfortunately, the demand of her stomach couldn’t be ignored as it kept sleep away from her. Just like that, she had no choice but to head out.

  Alira’s heels clicked against the marble tiles, light footsteps bouncing down the long corridor. The corridor ended at a central landing where an ornate dark wooden handrail surrounded a stairwell wide enough to park two cars. Three other corridors branched off from this hub, each of which was lined with dorm room doors and stretched down the building’s wings.

  The high ceilings with ornate molding extended far out of reach, even on the top-most floor where she was. Lively voices echoed, bouncing all the way up from the floors below.

  Alira approached the blue-carpeted staircase and descended two flights to reach the cafeteria on the ground floor. Unlike her floor, reserved for the nobles and rich kids, the lower floors were far more animated with groups of chattering teenage girls.

  The dormitory buildings were gender separated. That meant she had no chance of meeting with the novel protagonist, Raine, who was currently in disguise as a boy.

  Best not to get involved with the plot at all.

  Alira took large—but elegant, her etiquette instructor’s nagging voice still ringing in her ears—strides towards the food court with Maria following a step behind. A pair of cat ears turned, hearing a couple of footsteps approaching from her back.

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  Knowing she couldn’t bolt without ruining the Ravon duchy’s image, Alira turned around with a silent sigh to a group of girls. From the list of nobles crammed into her brain, she matched the girl in the center to the family painting of Count Orllel, who ruled over Astrail Town nearby as the Duke Ravon’s trusted vassal. She was his second daughter.

  There was another reason Alira recognized her in particular. Lillian Orllel. First character killed in the Dual Point of View. Her death was the point where the novel’s tone began shifting to a darker one.

  “Nice to meet you, Miss Ravon,” Lillian greeted, placing her hand over her chest instead of the curtsey she’d normally have to do. “I’m Lillian Orllel. My father mentioned many things about you.”

  Alira doubted that. Let alone the count, even her ‘father’, the duke, barely knew her.

  So far, she had categorized people’s attitudes about hybrids—specifically a hybrid who’d become a duke’s daughter—into three, from what their eyes held towards her. Pity. Jealousy. And lastly, contempt. Lillian’s violet eyes definitely held the third.

  Alira nodded in acknowledgement. “Nice to meet you, Miss Orllel. I hope your older brother’s recovery is coming along well.”

  Lillian’s bright smile faltered for just a moment. The number of people who knew about the heir of House Orllel falling ill from mana deficiency could be counted on ten fingers and maybe a few toes. By kindly showing that she was one of them, Alira hoped the girl would back off.

  “Thank you for your well wishes, Miss Ravon,” Lillain said, recovering quickly. Just when Alira thought she could escape, the girl pressed on. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what breed of cat were you mixed with?” She caught herself and added hastily, “I’m just curious—I absolutely adore cats.”

  Don’t ask it if you know it’s rude.

  Alira didn’t care personally, but in a world where most people considered it courteous to pretend not to see a hybrid’s animal characteristics, the girl was being painfully obvious with her attempt to dig at Alira. Lillian was hiding behind an ignorant but innocent face.

  “Then you definitely won’t like me,” Alira said matter-of-factly.

  “What—?”

  “I’m not a cat. See this bushy, well-groomed tail?” She flicked it for emphasis. “Obviously a dog.”

  Alira turned away, leaving behind a cluster of confused girls. Please, no more drama. She beelined to grab her lunch with Maria before settling in a hidden corner with two empty seats.

  Hybrids weren’t completely uncommon; from where she sat, she counted a dozen or so in her view. Ironically, as products of misused alchemy, most hybrids were greatly favored by the Will, the ruling Divinity of alchemy and alchemic practices. A Concept Divinity, one with no consciousness, to be more specific.

  This only became the fuel to further misuse to create more such individuals.

  Alira herself was upper-gold ranked—hopefully that would help in dealing with the duke’s alchemic bind on her.

  Still, it was understandably hard not to stare at pointy ears, long tails, some with even horns and hooves. Especially eye-catching were those with huge wings taller than themselves stumbling through the hall.

  “Miss Alira,” Maria whispered, looking more bothered than Alira was. “Next time, I can help bring your meal to your room.”

  Alira hummed in agreement. Having fewer interactions was the strategy to not get attached.

  Every single meal she’d had in this world had been lavish feasts accompanied by a variety of desserts, yet it didn’t stop her from craving her usual meals, cheap cup noodles bought in bulk. Humans sure were strange, though it could just be her.

  After lunch, the two headed out of the dormitory building to indulge Maria with a walk around the campus for once and for all. She could also use this chance to check out her assigned class schedule at the bulletin board in the Academy’s heart.

  Stepping out, the sun had fallen off the zenith, but still glared a bright yellow in her face. Alira raised to cover her eyes, which had gotten more sensitive to light since she’d become a cat-girl. A cool shadow cast over her the next moment, shielded under a soft pink parasol Maria had taken out from who knew where.

  Maria flashed an embarrassed smile at Alira’s curious gaze. “I know a little bit of spatial magic. A sub-space! It’s the first spell I learnt. It helps with housework whenever I need to carry things around since I can store some items in my sub-space, though it’s quite limited.”

  Spatial magic. One of the rarest and hardest to master.

  “Thanks,” Alira said.

  She wondered if Maria was a secretly OP character that would appear in the fourth or following books of the novel she hadn’t read. She couldn’t help but feel curious about what had happened to the girl in the original timeline after the original ‘Alira’ died quietly in the palace.

  Was Maria also ‘her’ personal maid in the novel? Did she meet her demise at Raine’s hands like many of House Ravon members did?

  Did Maria also get to attend the Academy in that timeline? If not, Alira hoped that Maria being here would result in a good side effect of her actions.

  Magical school was no doubt a wonder to see, for all its students of different species. The world, at least in the western parts, categorized people as either humanoid or non-humanoid. The former was recognized as an ‘intelligent species’ accepted by the society, including elves, ogres, dwarves, hybrids, and ‘normal’ humans.

  In a world like this, humans appeared ordinary more so than ever. Still, they were just as alive as the ones back home.

  There wasn’t a lack of strange artifacts, some as talkative as a sword or a cloak could get, floating spellbooks with alchemic circles projecting from the pages, and Spirit Familiars as small as ants or as large as a monkey-tiger-snake chimera.

  Even Alira, who had seen familiar settings in hundreds of fantasy manga, couldn’t help slowing down to marvel at such a world. Each conversation and each architectural masterpiece tightened the knot of heat that had settled in the pit of her stomach.

  What a shame that so many of the people and buildings would end up in ashes...

  She promptly decided to find a way to pass on everything she knew about the future from the novel to Raine before she left. No doubt it would help him prevent some, if not all, of the tragedies if he knew about them in advance.

  Just another way to lessen her guilt. It was doable enough. She just had to figure out how to make him believe in the information somehow.

  Alira finished her short trip and found herself in front of the bulletin board before she knew it. Under First Class were students with either privileges or scholarships. Naturally, Alira found her name in the same section as Raine. Their first class right after tomorrow’s orientation was Introduction to Basic Alchemy.