Academy of Legends [A LitRPG Harem Adventure]

I blinked awake, feeling more rested than I had in a long time. There was a weight on my chest, which I slowly realized was not because of anything I was feeling but an actual weight. At some point in the night, Alice had partially rolled over onto my bed, pinning my arm and draping her own over me.

That can’t be comfortable, I thought. She’d managed to kick the blanket down to her legs somehow, and her shirt had slid off of one of her shoulders, exposing an indecent amount of her breast.

Alice was still breathing with the soft evenness that told me she was asleep, though, so I took care to not wake her as I slowly disentangled myself from her. I fixed her shirt for good measure, too, slowly rising.

The first light of the day shone into the room through a window, giving me a view of a beautiful sunrise. Alice muttered something unintelligible in her sleep as I got out.

I couldn’t help the warmth that rose inside me at that. She looked so adorably innocent in her sleep, even with her clothing the way it was.

The thought came to mind that I could try using my Bond spell on her, but I decided against doing that before I got to know her more. Headmistress Laurent had gone to extremes to protect me. Alice had been vulnerable with me last night, and I wasn’t going to take advantage of that just so I could get some more magic.

Besides, I still hadn’t practiced Finger of Death.

Seeing that Alice was still going to be asleep for a while, I decided that I’d take some time to explore the campus myself. After washing my face and putting on my clothes, I updated that decision with the caveat that the first thing I wanted to do was find a place to get a fresh uniform.

I could now understand why Alice had looked so uncomfortable back at the prep school. After fully awakening, the heat was more evenly distributed, so I no longer felt like I might risk cooking alive from the inside out, but it was still very much present. The uniform was all I had to wear since everything Alice owned apart from some underclothes were very much meant for a lithe woman half a head shorter than me, and I realized now how thick it felt on me.

Before I left, I wrote a quick note just in case.

Going out to explore campus, hopefully find new clothes. Not sure when I’ll be back. Around noon, maybe? - En

I doubted she was going to be up for a few more hours. She must have been exhausted last night. After running our awakening ceremony and dealing with everything related to me… yeah.

And she was wearing this uniform the whole time, I thought. I left the uniform shirt unbuttoned. It wasn’t up to dress code, but from what I’d seen so far, this school couldn’t have cared less about what their students wore if they tried.

The pantry barely had any food in it, which I assumed meant Alice usually ate outside. We’d done the same at prep school. I mentally added mess hall onto the list of places I was looking for.

It was strangely peaceful this early in the morning. There were a few other Marked who’d woken up early, it seemed, but for the most part the hum of activity that had infused the dormitory hall the night before.

The residence hall was just that. A brief exploration of the place revealed no real facilities beyond the common rooms and halls with doors placed intermittently—oh, and two or three Marked women doing morning stretches giving me glances I couldn’t read.

None of them made an effort to speak to me, though, so I just waved politely and continued on.

Outdoors, it was chilly enough that I could actually function like a normal human being. I didn’t know where to go yet, but campus was large and full of beautiful scenery, so I just started on a run.

Back at the prep school and even long before, I’d made sure to get a good chunk of running in every morning. That was one of the few lessons I could remember both of my parents drilling into me. Learning how to run fast for long periods of time was critical. Nobody ever regretted spending so much of their time running when they were fleeing for their life from a city-killing monster on the fiftieth floor of a Tower.

Marking the residence hall in my memory, I started exploring. For how exclusive this academy was, the campus was very large. I passed by so many cathedrals and castle towers that I lost count.

One small gate seemed to lead elsewhere, though, so I ducked through it and found myself in a colorful field full of flowers and grass that I recognized as magical. It was penned in by more cathedrals, but what really caught my eye was the large lake in the middle. It was bigger than the pool we’d used for aquatic practice at the prep school, and the water was a serene ultramarine. Just being in here gave me a sense of peace.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Sitting cross-legged on the paved stone barrier around the pond, palms pressed together in front of her chest in a meditative stance, was Violet, the receptionist who’d brushed me off as a “mistake” last night.

She was wearing less now than she had been then, which I assumed meant that she had swapped out cooling-charm clothes for ones with other magical effects. Black and purple defined her look—black for the leather stockings that clung tightly to her thighs, briefs that were little better than underwear, and sleeves that went from her wrists to just short of her armpits and purple for her eyes, breast coverings, and hair, which she’d tied up into twintails that fell down past her shoulders.

Violet opened her eyes as I stepped in, either hearing me or sensing me with her magic.

“So it’s true,” she said, meeting my gaze. “The first Marked man in who knows how long.”

“Not a mistake after all,” I said lightly. “Sounds like you owe Alice a favor.”

“Seems like it, Mister…”

“Ward. En Ward. A pleasure to meet you again, Violet.”

“So, what’s your deal?” she asked, still not moving from her position. “What affinity did you end up with?”

“Headmistress Laurent informed me that it’s best to keep that quiet,” I said as pleasantly as I could manage.

“Oh?” A devilish grin formed on her face. “Then maybe you can show me instead.”

My newly awakened magic senses prickled, the hair on the back of my neck raising as a dark cloud formed above us.

With a violent crash that nearly threw me backwards from the force of the sound and a shower of light, a purple bolt of lightning slammed into the ground not two feet in front of me.

I looked up to see the cloud already dissipating, then looked back down to see that Violet hadn’t moved.

“That flower never did anything to you,” I said mildly.

If she thought that was going to scare me off, she had another thing coming. Unlike most of the sheltered classmates I’d had in the prep school, many of whom would have been sent scurrying off by that, I actually knew what violence was.

“It’ll grow back,” Violet said. “So, that was me. What about you?”

I wasn’t actually sure, but I obviously wasn’t going to admit that in front of her.

Bond, I knew, but I was not going to attempt to do that with her. Headmistress Laurent had used her magic power to make it a less intimate bond than it could be, and even then I could feel the connection between us.

That spell had come to me naturally, so I hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed with Finger of Death.

I pointed upwards, drawing on my mana. Interestingly enough, trying to cast Finger of Death pulled on aspects of Bond as well.

Dark energy formed at the tip of my finger and shot up towards the sky in a thin, silent beam. It faded before it could get much further than the top of the cathedral next to us, but in its wake, the air felt charged in a similar way to Violet’s spell.

“Ooh, now that’s interesting,” she said. “That’s the Headmistress’ spell?”

“Think so.”

She nodded to herself. “Nice to meet you, En. I should reintroduce myself. Senren. Violet Senren, but you can call me Vi.”

“Were you testing me?” I asked, quietly ecstatic with the spell I’d cast. It was much stronger than I thought I would ever be capable of managing.

“Who knows?” she replied flippantly, winking at me with that same frustratingly cute shit-eating grin. “Tell you what, you can come around again some time and I’ll see if I can help you make that spell any better. I can show you some prettier things, too.”

She squeezed her chest with her arms with that last sentence, making her cleavage pop out more.

“I’m not that easy to sway,” I said, amused. “You’re trying to get your piece of history, aren’t you?”

“Guil~ty,” Vi said, stretching out the word. “We’re all going to be part of history. We’re Marked. Can you blame me for wanting a closer look at a once-in-a-millennium miracle?”

“I’m not saying no,” I replied. “I’ll leave you to your meditation now, but I might take you up on that offer.”

“See you,” Vi said sardonically, waving with her fingers.

I jogged off, going back the way I’d come, ducking into the gate, then abruptly paused when I saw two floating gems approaching me at speed.

A moment later, those two gems hit me and I stumbled back, landing on my ass. They tumbled as well, accompanied by a feminine yelp that was more surprise than pain.

I scrambled to my feet, confused, then realized what had happened as the form of a girl that I vaguely recognized appeared, ass on the ground with her hands catching her against the wall.

“Thigh highs girl,” I said, surprised.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Nothing,” I said, extending a hand. “Are you alright? Do you need…”

I trailed off, my brain finally catching up to what my eyes were seeing.

The reason I’d blurted that out was because she had, in fact, been the one I’d recognized as that—the one girl who’d been wearing nothing but long socks during our trip in. She was still wearing nearly nothing. Her thigh highs were a sky blue now, drawing my eyes to her very bare thighs. She also had nothing covering her tits except for two X-shaped gems over her nipples, which I finally realized were what I’d seen hovering in the air.

Invisibility magic. If I was guessing right, her socks had some kind of charm applied to them to disappear alongside her, but the gems hadn’t.

She accepted my hand up and practically bounced to her feet, shaking long platinum blonde hair behind her back. “Thank you! You must be En, right? The entire campus is talking about you!”

“Morning, Daph,” Vi said from the pond. “You here for flowers?”

“Yes!” the fair-haired beauty exclaimed, practically jumping in excitement. “I have a new ritual that I’ve been dying to try out.”

“Go on, then,” Vi said. “I won’t stare. Try not to hit the new guy again.”

“I don’t mind if you look!” Daph said boldly. She looked down to me. “Or you, either! I’m Daphne, but you can call me whatever you’d like! Daph, Pheenie, thigh highs girl, whatever you think suits me best! Have you been around campus yet?”

I had no idea how the world had fit this much energy into one woman, but her positivity was nice to see. At least one stranger immediately sizing me up like a nightstalker would fresh meat.

“Not yet,” I said. “I just got here last night, actually. I was running around looking for a place to get some new clothes. This one’s a prep uniform, so…”

“Oh, we can’t have that,” Daphne said, turning towards me swiftly. “Come with me! I’ll show you to the tailor’s. Have you eaten? We should get breakfast!”

“…sure,” I said, unsure how to deal with someone this bright and sunny, especially not when she was, for all intents and purposes, naked.

“Save me a spot, Vi. I’ll be back later!”

“Will do, Daph,” Violet said.

I followed thigh highs girl—Daphne, shit—out of the field and back onto campus proper. She led the way at a reasonable pace, and she did not turn invisible again, which I had to admit was very, very distracting. Her chest and butt were not immune to the laws of physics, and every step she took made her figure sway.

“Do you usually walk around like this?” I asked her.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Even in the Tower. I’m great at turning invisible, but it costs way too much to put invisibility on clothes. Besides, my magic makes me more durable, so it’s a great combo.”

“Seems like it could get, uh, awkward,” I said, eyes involuntarily flicking down to her breasts again. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for appreciating the view,” Daphne said. “I don’t mind. I’m sure you don’t, either. You know being Marked kind of does that? Lowers your inhibitions, I mean. Gets you closer in touch to the real you?”

“Is that… so.” I hadn’t noticed much in the way of that yet, but I was still new to this. There was some level of appeal to the idea of being like Daphne and simply not feeling shame or embarrassment, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t the type of person deep down.

“Yep! Oh, here we are.”

Even the service workers were mostly Marked, though according to Daphne, there were a few that were just female mages. The tailor had evidently been told to expect me, because she already had a male uniform for me that she just needed to resize.

“This one is basic,” she said, patting me on the shoulder and eyeing me from head to toe before nodding, satisfied. “Cooling and light protection only. Come again when you have a more specific request.”

I couldn’t be dissatisfied with the new uniform. It was like a less formal version of military gear, and it was easy to move around in. It was very much a mage’s clothing.

Interestingly enough, nobody even blinked at Daphne’s nakedness. I supposed that seeing scantily clad women was already common enough that they were ready for her.

“This is your first year here, right?” Daphne asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “You?”

“About to start my second!” she chirped. “We’ll be in some of the same classes, though, because I’m way better at doing things than I am at studying them.”

“I look forward to it,” I said honestly.

And not just to look at. Her magic was genuinely quite interesting. If I could learn that spell… that was a conversation for another day.

“Let’s see you say that again when you’re on a group project with me,” she joked.

I shuddered, exaggerating the motion for effect, and she laughed.

Breakfast was, in fact, in a mess hall, though it was apparently not the only place we could get food on campus. People were starting to wake up, and they began filtering in. There were about a dozen other Marked eating at the same time with us, all of them casting looks my way.

“Don’t worry about them,” Daphne reassured me between bites of her own meal. “You’re unique, which is great, but all of us are going to have to adjust.”

“I sure hope everyone adjusts,” I said. If there were any more eyes on me, they were going to stare a hole right through my body.

The food was heavenly. I had to wonder if they’d put magic into the pancakes and sausages, because they were like nothing I’d had before, light and fluffy and bursting with flavor.

“Right?” Daphne said when I mentioned the taste to her. “Perks of being a Marked. Isn’t this great?”

Eventually, I told her that I should probably go and see if Alice was awake, to which she fervently nodded.

“I should go pick those flowers, too,” she said. “Listen, class starts in a couple weeks, but would you like to meet up again soon? I’d love to get to know you more, En.”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll probably be around the place you saw me and Vi in the mornings anyway. Other than that, I still need to figure the place out, so I’ll just be exploring”

Daphne made me promise to meet her again tomorrow before leaving.

Her energy was infectious. I was actually looking forward to seeing more of the campus, even though I’d never bothered with the prep school. I hoped Alice could show me some.

When I got back to our room, most of the academy was awake. They left me alone for the most part, but I could tell that they were all talking about me.

I did my best to ignore them and made my way to the door, where I stopped short, hearing a distressed sound inside.

Shit. Is Alice okay?

I threw the door open and lunged in, my new spell ready to cast—

Alice was lying on her back on her bed. She was half in uniform, if you could call it that, but she’d hiked her skirt up so it was ruffled around her waist. Other than that, she was naked, using one of her hands to grope her own tits. The other was on her staff, which was not by her side like I expected it to be but instead protruding from between her legs under her messed-up skirt. The lewd, wet sounds emerging both from beneath her skirt and her open mouth made it transparently obvious what the motion that staff was making was for.

I closed the door behind me quickly, wanting to preserve her privacy, then realized I was on the inside of it.

Alice rolled her head over. Our eyes met.

“Bad time?” I asked stupidly.

Her legs started shaking, and a moan escaped her throat. Under her skirt, a glow of pink light indicated that her staff’s magic had activated, and that moan extended into a long, lewd keen.

Still locking eyes with me, she came.