Annabelle’s Bastion

The noises coming from beyond the dormitory doors told of how people took the news. Even standing outside, she could hear the confused shouts, anger, and occasional excitement.

But Anna wasn’t quite ready to enter.

She stood there, tossing out all of the leaves and twigs still attached to her clothes and body. Before she opened the door, she checked again, then again—nobody could know about her… tumble.

It wasn’t her fault! Who told that hooded woman to suddenly emerge from the forest right as Anna made a sharp right? It was a good thing she couldn’t fight today. There was actually a chance she’d lose after that devastating fall, especially after the strain on her barrier from sliding onto the stone road all the way into a tree.

On the positive side, however, was that she confirmed that her barrier was all over her body and not only at the impact points. Sadly, she needed to confirm again since she wasn’t exactly paying close attention.

Anna checked her body once again, nodding to herself before she pushed through the doorway. Immediately, she was greeted by a cacophony of voices from students gathered across the first floor and up to the second, even people on the steps. No way was she squeezing through that crowd—she’d have to wait for her handy friend.

She couldn’t even see Gromak beyond the ocean of people.

Her shoulder was tapped, earning a jolt of her.

“You didn’t fight,” Aria said, moving to Anna’s right side. “Good decision.”

Anna sighed. “You scared the hell out—” However, her eyes snapped up to Aria. “Wait, you were behind me? Since when?”

Her response was a light smirk. “Is your arm alright? You should be careful how you brace yourself.”

Anna coughed, and her face gained a few degrees. “T-that... let’s not talk about it, okay?” She couldn’t meet those mocking amber eyes.

However, Aria’s maintained smirk said that they were going to do anything but forget about it. “I think it’d be a good tale. You’ll always be the girl who—”

“Nope, nope, nope!” Anna vehemently shook her head. “How about I be known as Annabelle Frost, the girl who took a great risk in the name of discovery?”

Aria lightly snorted. “What did you discover?”

“I’m glad you asked!” Anna smirked. “I discovered… that the mana barrier is super inefficient!”

“Oh?” Her head tilted slightly.

Diversion successful; Aria was a sucker for combat and anything related. If they could create their own schedules, wouldn’t she be sparring every day? Actually, she probably would.

The crowd only got louder once the doors shut behind them.

“We’ll talk after. I can barely hear myself think.”

“Agreed.” Aria nodded. “Let’s move up.”

Handy friend acquired.

“Lead the way.”

It quickly became apparent that nearly everyone heard what Aria did to Jack. At first, people looked annoyed when Aria pushed past, but that changed quickly. They naturally gave way to her as she pushed into the crowd, and even those who obviously weren’t pleased moved when they saw who it was. 

That could quickly get out of hand—rumors could be deadly—but Aria didn’t seem to care at all. Anna made a mental note to clear the air before any bad actors could spin the tale.

Gromak wasn’t in his little reception area, and instead, a sign that read, “Don’t bother looking for me </3”

“A prank?” Anna muttered, poking the wooden sign. “Isn’t this a little too childish?”

“Obviously.” Aria pulled the sign and threw it behind the long bar. It hit the door that presumably led to Gromak’s room and fell to the ground with a thud.

“Hey!” Gromak suddenly shouted from his room behind the counter. “Little goblin, think I don’t hear you disrespectin’ my precious belongings!?” 

It was impossible for anyone to not hear that, and the students gradually went silent after his booming shout.

“You lot are way too damn loud,” Gromak grumbled, emerging from what looked like a bedroom and gently shutting his door behind him. He had a thick stack of papers in his arms and looked tired.

“We’ve been waiting,” Anna said.

“Bleh.” Gromak approached his counter and flipped through the pile of papers. He appeared entirely unconcerned about the desperation of everyone present. “I was doin’ somethin’ important for our continued operation. Give me a moment, you damned impatient twits.”

He placed the stack in a drawer beneath the counter and fell into his leathery chair with a heavy sigh.

Anna caught names on the papers, as well as a section for paths. It seemed like those papers were detailed information about the students he had to fill out manually later. Poor Gromak.

But with how Gromak behaved, Anna couldn’t tell if that was something to be worried about or an overreaction on their end.

“Sir—” a man shouted.

“Shut up, I’m gettin’ to it.” Gromak leaned forward and groaned a few times. It looked like he really didn’t want to do his job. “Okay, listen up, kids!” He paused for a few seconds for any lingering chatter to die. “You’ve all been told already, but they went and changed how your time in this lovely academy will go. You won’t have a strict schedule, and you can attend as many classes as your little hearts desire.” He shrugged. ”Shoulda been this way from the start. Basically—”

“Can we attend more than five?” Anna asked.

Gromak clicked his tongue. “Damn—let me finish, girlie.”

“Sorry.”

“Like I said, as many as your hearts desire. The goal is for you to choose the direction of your growth. What kinda mage you wanna be, what kinda weapons you wanna use, maybe you even wanna be a craftsman—we got that, too.” Gromak pulled out a device that looked like a sleek tablet and waved it around. “You have one of these bad boys in your rooms, where you’ll find all possible paths for you to take. There’ll be a guide, too, so you aren’t goin’ in too blind.” Gromak’s face suddenly twisted into amusement.”But that’s not the only fun part.”

The system seemed like schools on Earth. 

Anna liked the idea itself; she just wasn’t sure how to feel about the queue system it had. It would be arduous to maintain a top spot, after all—practically impossible.

Until their magic went beyond physical fighting, she just didn’t foresee a future where she could attend whatever classes she desired. The path system excited her, but they still hadn’t been told about magic outside enhancements. 

Anna raised her hand.

“Hmm...” Gromak chuckled, then waved his hand. “Fine, go ahead and ask.”

“We haven’t been told anything about magic. How can we be expected to choose the path we want? We don’t even know what kind of spells there are, how they work, or even the limits of anything.”

“Yeah, she’s right!”

“We know, like, nothing about magic at all!”

“What if we choose a path bad for us?!”

“How can we be expected to make the best choice here? Isn’t this basically fucking all of us over just because we weren’t raised around magic?!”

It was a bit frustrating that those were kept from them; magic should have been a day one class. Actually, it likely would’ve been Anna’s next class—but not anymore. Why not at least let them attend that course first?

“Yeah, yeah~.” Gromak closed his eyes and tugged on his long beard, looking deep in thought. Eventually, he nodded. “Earth is a unique case; you never heard of magic, so you don’t have the understandin’ everyone else has. I don’t think you lot understand just how strange that is. The goal was to get you used to the basics of the basics before touching on real magic.” He raised a finger. “No—that doesn’t just mean power and stuff. If it were that simple, you’d have jumped right into it.”

“Ah. I guess that makes sense,” Anna said, nodding. That was what she thought. “But what now? I’d hardly say we have a grasp on it.”

Gromak waved the tablet around again, saying, “The tablet is your new best friend; it has everything—an encyclopedia structured like a real class.” He dropped it on the counter. “They woulda had a class for teaching this, but contrary to what you might think, they are short-staffed at the moment.”

That was disappointing. 

Though it made sense, it felt like taking some of the magic out of it for her to learn through a device. They must have decided they didn’t want to have a class dedicated to solely catching them up on what was the norm. Were they pressed for time? Anna thought back to Alisha’s grim warnings.

Hopefully, that wasn’t the case.

“Sir, what was our Magic Knowledge class supposed to teach us?” a man asked.

Gromak reached under his desk and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Magic Education, the Dungeon Exploration, and the Otherworld Knowledge classes were only there for the first few weeks to catch you Earthlings up on common sense. Then, your first year would have introduced you to every branch.” He put the paper he was clearly reading from the back. “But that was deemed—rightfully so—nonsense! Luckily, they are gone; better to have you read up yourself using the tablet. You’d be able to use magic even without those classes. You know how many mages out there have shit mana control? Lots.” 

“Sir, will—”

Gromak shook his head. “No more questions; I got more to say, and you need time to read up.” He pulled out another piece of paper from below the counter. A paper he checked back every few words. “First, performance in combat class on Monday, academic performance, and in school-wide tournaments will determine your priority in the class queues, as you’ve been told. More importantly, we also have dorm competitions, where we’ll compete with the other dorms in a bunch of activities for rewards and, of course, for fun, You better win for me, or I’ll get put shit in your meat.”

Anna couldn’t care less for the dorm competitions, not with other things taking her concern—only Gromak seemed to care. The enthusiasm he had was not spread to the students.

“Why did it change so suddenly?” a man almost too far back for Anna to hear asked. He sounded upset, reasonably so. He likely lost his first fight, and those who lost likely felt the worst about the upcoming system.

“Time—we don’t got an infinite amount of it. We either sent you back home with wiped memories or made you deal with it like men. Both were options, actually.” Gromak then clicked his tongue but sighed afterward. “You woulda been told about this at the entrance ceremony, but politics prevented that. Some wanted it to be a preset path, some wanted you to choose, and some wanted it to be far more violent. In the end, they—at first—decided you could take those five courses for a few months, get your little feet wet, and then maybe transition into what it is now. But our oh-so-glorious headmaster finally got control enough to scrap that nonsense. Really, all this is just accelerating the plans.”

“Why weren’t we told at the entrance ceremony?”

Actually, Anna recalled Nora specifically mentioning their schedules were only temporary. She just didn’t put two and two together until the news.

Gromak shrugged. “I’m just a Dwarf, how the fucks would I know?” He tugged his beard for a few seconds, then nodded. ”Maybe because you humans tend to get whiney when things get a teensy bit unfair. And, make no mistake, this system ain’t fair. You may get taught the same thing, but who teaches them is a big deal. The rewards for tournaments and various other activities will make that chasm grow.”

“I thought Bastion needed us, why would they—” A distraught girl started.

“Ah, wrong! Some guys probably fed you a bunch of shit, but no...” Gromak pointed at them. “Bastion doesn’t need you. They could pull in tens of thousands with a few words, and they definitely wouldn’t be as needy as this batch. Hells, you’d probably be among them, like eager dogs.” He snorted, shaking his head. “They could throw you into the fire immediately, and you’d still jump in. This whole academy is just an experiment. You go on and do well, they’ll keep it runnin’, but if it ends badly... well, this place can always function as a command base.”

As much as that sucked, it was only natural. Most of them being in the academy in the first place was a testament to that truth. Anna herself was a case for it. If Alisha just asked her to join Bastion immediately, she’d likely still have said yes with little hesitation. As Gromak said, even if it meant jumping straight into the fire.

The changes should have been expected, given that Aria mentioned the schedule working differently than she thought and the many, many buildings scattered about the island seemingly with no use with their current schedules.

“Go to your rooms and check the tablet; the scheduling won’t change until after your combat trial on Monday, so you have a week to get your shit together. Whoopie! A week off! Don’t humans love that?”

“Mister—”

“Nope!” Gromak slammed his ledger shut. “Go, or I’ll boot you out. This ain’t a fuckin’ daycare, and I’m just the messenger. If you got questions, ask one of the teachers or use the device. Go on, lest you miss out on some juicy classes!”

His words activated the rush.

A mad shuffle ensued, a rush to the top floors. Aria and Anna were the only two to stay in front of Gromak. Anna wasn’t in a rush, but she’d for sure get injured in that stampede. Aria actually stood a little closer to her, likely to prevent a mishap—adorable.

Once the crowd cleared, Gromak groaned toward them. “What do you two want?”

“This is how it should have been from the start; I have no issue,” Aria said.

“So you stayed because your roommate stayed?” Gromak quirked one of his burly brows. “How cute. And, what do you want, girlie?”

“Sorry, I know you said no more questions, but I just have a few things I’m curious about.” 

“Hmm.” He smiled. “Does this turn you off from magic, girlie?”

Anna immediately shook her head. Literally, nothing could turn her off from magic. “No, I think this is probably better in the long run, though I hope that nobody is getting left behind.”

“How kind of you,” He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know about your Earth schools, but the teachers on this island—even the weakest of ‘em—are more than capable of teaching even the dumbest of you.” He snorted. “They could make a dog into a proud Bastion mage; that’s the point of the academy and the resources poured in.”

Anna sighed. “So I’ve been told, but still, I’d definitely prefer to be taught by someone like Nora.”

“Nora, huh?” Gromak nodded. “Yep, her classes would be the best; she designed the whole damn thing. Still, subpar classes would make all the resources they poured into this behemoth worthless. Ain’t nothin’ worse than wasted resources. Nothin’ at all.”

That was further relief, especially knowing Nora designed the syllabus. It took a little pressure off getting to the top spots… but Anna still only wanted Nora.

Although, she realized others wouldn’t know Nora was the best to learn from. Maybe that was an advantage.

“I don’t have any questions about the system; it’s how colleges on Earth work. Other than the priority thing.” Anna said. “I just want to ask about the dorm stuff.”

“The best part! “ Gromak slapped his table. His eyes shined. “They’ll be great! But, sadly, there ain’t much I can tell you other than that it exists! Oh, and do not worry because it’s not meant for any academic placement stuff. But special rewards and ego are perfect benefits, wouldn’t you say?”

Anna pensively nodded. They could be fun if there wasn’t any immense pressure. “How big are these dorm competitions? Are they ALL the dorms? There’s around 200 people in this dorm alone.” 

There had to be around ten thousand students across all the dorms. What kinds of competitions would use that many people? She hadn’t fully comprehended the sheer scale of the academy and just how many people were on the island.

“Ah, I see.” Gromak paused for a moment, likely recalling the details. “These competitions should span a few months and are gonna be held between semesters. Oh, and it’s an opt-in kind of thing. We might be able to do our own internal things to decide our competitors.” He shrugged. “Like I said, I can’t say more, and I got lots a work to do.”

Anna had more to ask, but she could tell that Gromak was only staying because it was her. “Thanks, I’ll stop bothering you.”

“No problem, girlie; go check your tablets now.”

“We will,” Aria said, pulling Anna’s hand. “Come.”

“Eager, aren’t you?” Anna smiled.

“Of course. This is what the classes were supposed to be.”

“Good luck, girlies.” Gromak left into his room, his door clicking behind him.

“Well… I guess I get to learn about magic like this.” Anna sighed.

“It’s better like this; we were learning what is common sense to every world except for this one.”

“Yeah, still. I guess I wanted it to be more personable, you know?”

Did that also mean that every new student after their year would have to read about magic before starting the academy? Or maybe they had plans to give more time between recruitment and starting for education. It didn’t seem fully thought out. A problem that only existed due to Earth’s bumpkin status.

Maybe they wanted to spread magical knowledge to Earth? That was what Anna would do—slowly.

“I prefer choosing the path I want,” Aria said.

“Me too, but that’s not what I mean.” Anna shrugged. “Well, it’s whatever, I guess. Lead the way, ma’am.”

Aria nodded and led them silently to their room with some speed in their steps. Once there, she quickly shut and locked the door behind her.

There was a mounted tablet on both their desks.

“Ooh~” Anna moved to her tablet. “How modern.”

The tablet was a large, curved, rectangular object that felt like a slab of some kind of metal. No cameras or anything, just a device with golden lines along the edges and a gold circle at its back. It was attached to Anna’s desk, which likely indicated its status as school property, even long after she left.

So much for a handheld - Gromak wasn’t very good at giving information. The thing was securely nailed down.

“Is this science or magic?” Anna asked as she poked it a couple times. “No buttons?”

“I’ve never seen this device before,” Aria said, and she was carefully investigating every detail of it, as fascinated by it as Anna.

“Dang. Maybe it’s a new innovation?” Anna rechecked the sides, confirming no buttons were present. “How do you turn this thing on?”

“Our rings are unique identifiers.” 

“Like a fingerprint? That’s awesome.” Anna put her finger on the back, in the middle of the golden circle, and then called on her mana. Her pitch-black ring extended around her palm, emitting its low hum. “Uh... nothings— OW!”

The golden lines along the tablet shined, and Anna felt something akin to an electrical current that made her snap her hand away. 

“Are you alright?” Aria asked beside Anna with her hands up as if ready to catch Anna.

Anna opened and shut her palm but felt no abnormalities. “I’m fine, but a bit of warning would have been nice.”

“It registered you?” Aria muttered. “Fascinating.” She placed her finger in the circle on her tablet.

That was the first time Anna saw Aria’s pure golden rings shine. It was a mesmerizing glow that nearly distracted Anna from seeing Aria’s muscles tense with the current. 

However, Aria didn’t make any sounds, and the effect faded. 

“Good?” Anna asked.

Aria nodded. 

“Showoff,” Anna joked.

They both returned to their desks.

The screen was still grey, and it stayed that way for a few minutes longer.

Just when Anna was about to assume they had to do something more, it flashed white for a brief moment, then revealed a black wallpaper with a mithril shield surrounded by a similarly colored ring. Scattered across the larger ring were smaller ones with a staff inside them.

“Yes!” Anna exclaimed. “Mine’s on!”

Aria’s turned on seconds later, and both engulfed themselves in the device.

“How modern,” Anna muttered. 

It had 6 applications; Bastion ID, Academy, Encyclopedia, Notes, Contacts, and Help. The first one Anna checked out was Bastion ID.

When the new screen opened, it was just a white page with her name, race, origin planet, and rank as an Academy student. There was supposed to be a picture, but there was just a question mark in that box.

Anna pushed the X on the top right and moved to the Notes app, which worked exactly as she expected. It pulled up a blank page with a plus icon, presumably used to add notes.

Next was the Contacts app, which didn’t show anything but Gromak at the top with the title Dorm Manager next to him. She could add more via the add button, presumably using the number 02 she saw at the top. 

“This is all pretty standard stuff,” Anna said. “Does this number in contacts mean I’m the 2nd student? What’s yours?”

“01.”

“Woah.”

On the surface, it seemed like a minor thing. But there’s no way it was a coincidence that she was the second student in all of Bastion Academy!

She had already forgotten about her supposed special treatment, which now included Alisha’s personal recruitment a whole year prior and the student ranking 02. Furthermore, she could consider having people of Thagrin’s and Nora’s caliber as her first teachers an odd sign.

The number only brought it up again. 

“This is officially weird.”

Aria nodded, but her eyes never left her screen. “It is odd—they had me go pick you up.”

“Right, and my class has people like Thagrin and Nora teaching us. “ Anna snorted. “Well, had.” 

Then again, that gave her a hunch. One that, if true, would be way too big a deal for her to simply toss it into the figure-out-when-told basket.

“Odd,” Aria reiterated. “We can ask later.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll tell us.”

Aria lightly shrugged. “Their answer will be an answer, regardless if it’s truth.”

Anna chuckled and shook her head.

All they had to do was deny, deny, deny. What could Anna do, then? A lesson she learned from trying to get obvious answers from her Father about some of his… illicit activities.

Regardless, it wasn’t worth worrying about yet. Special treatment could only benefit her, even if it was of dubious origin and didn’t make much sense. She might just be exceptionally talented—one in a million!

Next on the list was the help icon, which Anna pushed next.

However, her screen went black, and text appeared asking if she wanted to reach out to an adviser with the options of yes or no.

“Nope!” Anna quickly left that, lest she pressed something she shouldn’t.

“What?” Aria asked.

“You can reach out to a mage with the help button.”

“Oh.” Aria lightly shook her head. “Wasting your time. Go to the encyclopedia. It introduces... everything,” Aria said. “Read it; you’ll be busy for a while.”

Anna didn’t want to reach out anyway - there was joy in finding a path herself without someone else dictating it. And now, the world was literally at her fingertips.

“Thanks, Mom; I was just about to.”

Anna opened the app, which brought up an introductory text that included a guide to the encyclopedia, but locked it until Anna pressed the option for the introduction. Which led to a lesson-like chain called Introductory to the Magic World - For Humans.

She completely forgot about the duel with Jared, the battle being of such insignificance that she easily brushed it aside when the meeting time passed. It would definitely make him—and Ashton—unreasonably angry, but they would be moronic to think it wasn’t warranted.

Besides, that guide got Anna and Aria entranced for hours into the night, even forgoing sleep until the later hours.