Academy of Legends [A LitRPG Harem Adventure]

Though the night was chilly, Alice and I were both natural sources of heat, so I barely even noticed the whip of the wind blowing past us as we flew and increasingly dangerous speeds. Alice whooped with glee as the land blurred beneath us, the prep school fading into a dot in the background.

I tightened my grip on her reflexively, not wanting to fall off at the speeds we were going. Despite the speed at which she was taking us, the staff was stable, but my instincts were still going crazy. Flight had never really been my thing.

This, though, I didn’t mind too much. Alice nestled back into my arms, her warmth pressed against me.

“You can get closer if you’re scared, you know,” she teased.

Scared was a strong word. It seemed pretty fair to be a bit nervous about flying at a speed no human was meant to reach, especially when the only protective equipment I had was Alice.

Still, if she was offering, I wasn’t going to turn it down. Alice adjusted herself backwards, letting me press my front to her back. Her skirt rode up, putting the two of us in a bit of a compromising position. She didn’t seem to mind the contact, though.

“You seem a lot more forward than I remember you being,” I said, trying not to think about how a staff thin enough to wrap my thumb and middle finger around was all that was keeping us from breaking every bone in our body.

Alice chuckled, a hint of nervousness in her voice. “It’s been a crazy six months. After so long trying to live up to my sister, I got Marked and suddenly, I became free. I’ve been trying to find my place in the world since.”

“A lot of pent-up tension?” I suggested.

“Looks like I’m not the only one,” she said, wiggling her backside against me a little. A moment later, she buried her face in her hands. “Please forget I said that.”

My response was interrupted by a sudden weightless feeling as we plummeted, my heart leaping into my throat. Alice caught us before we could actually hit anything, fortunately.

“I’ll forget you said anything if you get us to our destination without nearly killing us,” I said.

Though her head was turned down, I could almost feel the redness in her face.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” I replied, trying not to let my mind drift towards what, exactly, she could do to make it up to me. “How long are we going to be flying?”

At first, I had expected for her to take us towards the Tower that the capital supercity was built around. That was where a fair chunk of the academies and even most of the kingdom’s people were, since many of the others were more prone to monster breaks and demon attacks.

We were nearing the dangerous outskirts of the city already, which meant we’d traveled something like a fifty miles in less than ten minutes. Just how fast were we going?

“An hour, maybe,” Alice replied, happy to move on. “Ascension Academy is at the base of the Demon Tower.”

“Near the front?” I asked, frowning. “That seems like a bad place to put the kingdom’s best and brightest.”

“Not when all of us are walking arsenals,” she pointed out. “Even I could dust the floor with most of Selene’s first years, and I haven’t even properly started going to class. You’ll be amongst our number soon. You’ll see.”

That was a strange concept. I’d been so ready to just become another piece of meat in the grinder that the front was, and somehow, here I was.

“I do have to admit that I’m curious as to how the school works,” I said. “I kind of knew how the other academies are structured, but I never paid attention when we were learning about Marked.”

“Really? That doesn’t seem like you. You were always on top of everything at the prep school.”

“Nah, not really.” I shrugged, then realized Alice couldn’t see me. “I was doing alright, but I wouldn’t say I was anywhere near the top.”

The Marked blonde hummed thoughtfully, the dragon-wing-ears above her tiara twitching. “Never seemed that way to me. You were a life-saver for me.”

I didn’t even remember ever helping her with any work, but if she wanted to compliment me, I wasn’t going to stop her. To be fair, I’d been open to working together with people, but I’d never really thought twice about it.

“Anyway, I’d tell you about the academy, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise” Alice continued. “Besides, I’m still new there, so I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know yet.”

“I can live with that,” I replied. “As long as I’m actually living.”

“Don’t worry,” Alice reassured me. “They’re very professional with the process there. There’s even a way to resolve it without their specialized equipment, though I hear it hurts a lot. I saw one recently. It was terrifying.”

I shuddered to think what would terrify the girl who apparently rode her dive-bombing staff for fun. “Yeah, let’s not do that.

We talked about inconsequential things for most of the rest of the ride, catching each other up on our lives. It was a bit strange to do that while she was practically in my lap, but I got used to it.

Eventually, another Tower came into view on the horizon, so tall that we couldn’t see the top even from our height. Dark clouds obscured its upper levels.

There was a city built around the Demon Tower, though it was much smaller than the capital supercity. I did actually remember facts about this place from prep school. It was one part civilian, one part military, one part mage.

“See that campus ahead?” Alice asked, pointing towards the base of the tower.

I did. It had to be nearly a mile across, and it resembled several grand castles more than a single academy. Bright magical torches outlined massive cathedrals and artfully constructed ramparts.

“That has to be bigger than the royal palace,” I said in awe.

“You should see it during the day,” Alice said. “Even with the Tower, it’s beautiful. You might want to hold on.”

“I’m already holding on,” I said.

“Don’t be afraid to squeeze a little tighter,” she said. “Us Marked are more durable than we seem.”

It’s not just that, I thought, but she must have noticed how her loosely covered chest was sitting on my arms by now. Oh, whatever.

“Thanks,” I murmured, increasing my grip.

We dove, Alice’s magic preventing the wind from whipping us too hard. She brought us to a stop in front of a long, well-illuminated hall built from what seemed to be magical stone of some kind.

“Here we are,” Alice said, slowing to a stop on the field just outside. “Part of this is dorms. I would have taken you straight to the front office, but I actually don’t know how to land there yet. Sorry.”

Somewhat reluctantly, I let go of her and stepped off. Alice simply made her staff vanish into thin air, landing on her feet.

“Follow me,” she said, opening the door. “I think I know the way from here.”

I was not ready for the inside. Logically, I had understood what Ascension Academy was as well as what their dorms would be like, but I didn’t fully process that until Alice was leading me by the hand through a living space populated entirely by the Marked.

The central hallway passed through multiple common areas, and heads turned as we walked past. Beautiful, dangerously powerful women—all of them hand-picked by the gods—broke out into whispered conversation as we passed by.

“Right,” Alice said, a bit awkwardly. “Most of us, uh, haven’t really seen a man in the school. Ever.”

That made sense. Though I didn’t know much about Ascension, I did know that everyone here was Marked. It was the gathering space for them, faculty and students both.

I did my best to not spend too much time gaping. It was rude to stare, especially in someone’s living space. Almost everyone here was in some state of undress, whether it was in a “uniform” like Alice’s, pajamas, or in one particular stand-out case, wearing nothing but a pair of knee-high socks.

Even if I did my best to not stand out, it was impossible not to. I felt the eyes of every Marked in the hall on my back, all of them probably asking the same question.

What is he doing here?

To be honest, I was asking myself that too.

We weren’t in there for too long, at least, since Alice found the path towards our actual destination pretty soon after, but I found myself wondering if I was actually supposed to live here.

Ultimately, we came to a stop in front of a small cathedral with ADMISSIONS written on it in magical script. The doors opened on their own.

The night air was growing chillier, but after that intensely close ride, I found that I was steadily continuing to heat up. Thank the gods we’d gotten here through a fast method.

“Alice,” the receptionist, a purple-haired woman who, judging by the open textbook next to her, was also a student, said. Her eyes flicked to me, narrowing into slits. “And the man.”

“En,” I introduced myself. “Nice to meet you.”

“Violet.”

A bit on the nose there, no?

“You knew we were coming, Vi?” Alice asked.

“Rumors spread fast,” Violet said, looking back to her textbook. “We got your report a while ago. She’s waiting for you already. Try not to embarrass yourself too bad. We all make mistakes.”

I disliked Violet immediately, even if she was hot enough to make the entire capital swoon. Was she brushing me off as a mistake? Alice’s mistake, at that.

“I’ll bet you a favor that he’s Marked,” Alice said. “I know what I see, and I trust my eyes over what the books say is impossible.”

“You’re on, newbie,” Violet said, grinning. “Now get moving. You should’ve been in her office five minutes ago.”

“Come on, En,” Alice said, pulling me along. “Sorry about Vi. She lost a sister to the front recently. We all grieve in different ways.”

“To the front?” I frowned. “I thought having a Marked in your family exempted you.”

“See, you were paying attention,” she said. “Her sister was Marked, too. We’re powerful, but we lead dangerous lives. Here we are.”

We stopped short in front of an ordinary-looking wooden door, which also opened before I could reach out for the handle.

Inside was a deceptively large office, its walls stacked from the floor to ceiling with books, potions, and all kinds of magic paraphernelia. A single desk sat in the center, and three open tomes currently hung in mid-air as the woman behind it mixed fluids in a flask with nothing but a flick of her finger.

“Headmistress Laurent,” Alice said, dropping to one knee.

“At ease, Miss Lark,” came the reply.

Headmistress Laurent waved a hand, and everything she’d been handling but the flask flew back onto the shelves. She seemed only a few years older than us, but as a Marked, she could have been anywhere between two and two hundred years older and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Unlike many of the others I’d seen, she had something approaching formal wear—a black corset with intricate patterns stitched into the torso, a long slit skirt of the same color, and stockings, all contrasting her snow-white hair.

The Headmistress was nothing like the leadership at other academies, I was sure. To be fair, I hadn’t seen them, but I was sure that whoever managed Selene didn’t regularly wear a cocktail dress that gave students an admittedly nice view of her generous cleavage.

“En, correct?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, snapping to attention. I wondered if I should salute or bow or kneel like Alice seemed to want to do, but I decided against trying to replicate customs that I was yet unfamiliar with.

“You can dispense with the formalities, Mister… Ward. Abandoned at birth?”

“My parents both were, bless their memories,” I said. “I was told you would know what to do with me?”

Laurent looked at Alice, who seemed to shrink into herself before the Headmistress nodded. Alice breathed a sigh of relief.

“That is correct,” she said, holding up her flask. A potent red liquid sloshed around inside. “Sit down. Drink this. You’ll need it.”

I looked to Alice, who nodded effusively.

“You may leave, if you’d like,” Laurent said. “I know it’s getting late.”

Alice shook her head. “I owe him this much, at least.”

“You make it sound like I’m about to go off to war,” I said, taking a seat and accepting the drink. It smelled and tasted like cherries, and a pleasant cool spread through my veins, temporarily suppressing the heat within.

Alice took one of my hands in both of hers.

“You’re going to be okay,” she whispered into my ear.

Bright runic patterns flashed into existence around me, then passed into my skin.

Then came pain, so much pain—and then black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was on the floor, Alice straddling me with a concern in her eyes.

“Thank the gods, he’s alive,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Laurent exhaled deeply. “Good. I was unsure if the ritual would work on a man.”

I couldn’t muster up the energy to get mad at that. I could barely find it in me to sit up with Alice’s help.

Text scrolled across my eyes.

Proficiency unlocked: Nexus.

Spell unlocked: Bond.

En Ward has been Marked.

Laurent’s eyes widened. Alice gasped.

“Well,” the Headmistress said. “This is going to be an interesting year.”