Bookbound Bunny

"Right, I think that's everything?" Professor Elius asked.

Lily and both boys shook their heads; there were no further questions from either of them at this stage.

"Wonderful. Then, I'll hand you each a booklet for the electives. You can take your time to think about them but be warned that some of the class spaces may be limited. One of the benefits of passing your Familiar test early is getting first dibs, so you should exercise that right."

"Actually, then I do have another question," Arthur said out of turn. What other classes usually fill up first?"

"Beast Handling, and on rare occasions, Alchemy 101," the professor answered. "The Beast Handling is very popular, so the spots are taken up relatively quickly, especially amongst the girls who want to interact with the school's unicorn."

"The school has a unicorn?" Lily gasped in surprise before slapping her hands over her mouth. "Sorry," she whispered through her fingers.

The professor smiled and waved it off, "Yes, the school has a unicorn, among other magical creatures. Hence, the popularity. However, spots can open up after the first lesson, as the professor in charge sometimes lets students go if a student is giving the creatures a bad vibe."

"And alchemy?" Arthur asked.

"It's not as popular, but the spots are far more limited due to needing to have enough alchemical supplies and equipment for each student."

That makes sense. Some of Camilla's recipes required an entire cauldron to concoct, even if they only created a single potion. I can't imagine they can afford to have a classroom with hundreds of cauldrons.

[We should try to secure one of the alchemy spots. No doubt the resources could be of great use to us.]

Lily nodded. At the moment, she was leaning toward Enchanting, Alchemy, and Hearthcraft. It was a lot, but she wasn't against sacrificing some of her weekend time.

"Seems there's a lot of good options… but I really don't want to give up my weekend," Arthur grumbled.

"You can substitute your Personal Development slot for an elective, but obviously, you need to ensure you still make up for it," Elius replied.

And I might get to substitute my Spellcasting Fundamentals. I'm not too interested in that class, so I'd only be attending it for Arakil to grasp the current era's knowledge. There's a good chance he will say he's heard enough like he did with my lessons back at the orphanage.

"Anything else?" Professor Elius asked. When everyone shook their heads again, he paused and waited a bit longer before finally moving on. "Alright, all that is left for today is the selection process, and for that, we will need to visit the headmaster's office."

Lily and the boys shared excited glances with one another; none of them had met the headmaster yet. Lily herself only knew that he was one of the kingdom's most respected archmages, the same as the other magic schools' headmasters.

"Here are your booklets; try not to lose them," Beatrice said as she handed them out.

Lily gestured for Arakil to come closer, and he opened a section of his book. She placed her booklet between the pages, and Arakil shut the book, keeping it safe and secure.

It's a pity he can't eat other books yet. However, the professor might complain if he did.

"That's useful," Thomas commented. "I dare not try something similar with Yona; she will turn it into shreds."

"At least she's keeping your head warm," Lily replied in jest.

"Mrawr!" Yona cried out.

Beatrice and Elius escorted the three out of the classroom and began leading them up numerous flights of stairs. If this was the old Lily, with her frail constitution, she would have never been able to climb this many steps in one go.

By the time they reached the final set of stairs, the three of them were nearly gasping for breath. Lily had even started to cycle her Mana in an attempt to give herself a little boost but to little avail.

"Excellent; I'm glad the three of you made it without asking for a break," Elius said with a beaming smile.

"What? Why?" Arthur demanded.

"You'd be surprised how many would-be mages slack on their cardio, and you need plenty of energy to get through the dungeon."

[Yes, quite true. It's one of the many reasons so many mages turned to lichdom back in the day. Of course, halting the sands of time was the primary reason.]

"It looks like we have some good students this year," Beatrice added.

"I would have been fine if Sphii got off my shoulder," Arthur complained.

"Yona certainly didn't help…" Thomas agreed.

After a moment for everyone to catch their breath, they were finally led to the headmaster's office. The large door opened into a small reception room, although it looked like his assistant was missing as the table was vacant.

Beatrice went up to the secondary door and knocked loudly, "Fabrelis, are you there?"

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

There was a loud bump, followed by the sound of something falling over. The kids stared at the door inquisitively while Elius let out a small sigh.

"We've got three new students ready for selection," the professor quickly informed.

"Yes, come in, come in!" a cheerful voice echoed out.

Beatrice gave a little snort before opening the door and revealing the luxurious office inside. One by one, everyone entered, Lily and the boys glancing around and trying to find out what had caused the disturbance.

Maybe he magically cleaned up.

"I'm Headmaster Fabrelis; it's a pleasure to meet the three of you," he said, keeping his joyful tone.

Headmaster Fabrelis was a Felinia, as evidenced by the pair of black ears atop his head twitching at every little sound and the large brushy tail swishing behind him.

Rather than wearing a stereotypical mage robe, he was wearing a three-piece suit—a dark red vest, white shirt, black buttons, and pants. Unlike his black ears and tail, his shoulder-length hair was as white as snow and curling inwards.

He adjusted his spectacles and cast a scrutinizing gaze over the three students and their respective familiars.

[Oh—quite impressive and very interesting... So, this is what constitutes an archmage in this era, or is he merely masking his Mana? I'm tempted to pierce deeper, but I might risk being discovered, so I'll hold back for now.]

Please don't!

"Well, introduce yourselves," Beatrice said, causing Lily to flinch.

"Arthur, and this is Sphii."

Sphii was still sleeping. What a lazy bird.

"Lily, and this is Arakil."

"Thomas, and this is Yona."

"Mrawr!" Yona cried out.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. My own Familiar is over there," he said and pointed to the back corner of the room.

The three's gaze homed in on the direction, and they spotted a large nest near an unlit fireplace. Inside the nest was a humongous yellow bird. She was easily larger than all three kids put together and was currently asleep with her head tucked into the feather folds of her neck. The feathers on her wings and tail had a hint of golden shimmer to them.

"Is that a chicken?" Arthur asked.

"Her name is Falan," the headmaster said. "And she's been my loyal Familiar for years."

[I see! Yes, he's nurtured his Familiar well; she has a tremendous amount of Mana. I still suspect he's masking his own, but this proves their hypothesis on using Familiars as a secondary battery.]

"Ah!?" Thomas cried out and began wiping at his head. "Damn it, Yona, are you drooling on me?"

Yona made a hissing noise as Thomas began swatting at her, but she remained steadfast in her refusal to leave his head.

Despite the disturbance in his office, the headmaster gave an amused chortle.

"I see we've gained some interesting Familiars this year. It's always a delight to see firsthand what oddities our students might attract. Pete and Rebecca's report alone didn't do it justice."

"It should be an exciting year, which I didn't think possible after what happened last year," Professor Elius said. "I can't wait for PMC classes to start."

"But before that, we need to get these three through the selection process," Beatrice said.

"Right, right, straight to business as always with you," Fabrelis said, shaking his head. "The badges are inside Falan's nest, so it's ready whenever you three want to begin."

"Pardon?" Thomas asked.

"Head over to the nest and reach inside, grab one of the badges inside, and you're done," Fabrelis explained.

"Really? In her nest?" Beatrice complained.

The headmaster gave a wry grin, "Of course. This way, there can be no cheating or stealing badges. I'd rather not have any of the factions trying to influence the results, especially not after what happened last year."

"I'll go first," Arthur declared and walked over.

He bent down and reached inside the nest, using his arm that wasn't occupied by his Familiar. If Falan was feeling anything, she didn't react as he dug through the nest for his prize.

"Do me a favor and don't reveal it until all three of you have picked one; it's more fun that way," the headmaster requested.

"Sure, sure…" Arthur mumbled as he kept rummaging. "Ah ha! Found the one I want."

He pulled his hand out, keeping it tightly clenched, and waltzed back to the group with a grin on his face. Lily glanced at Thomas, who appeared to still be wrestling with Yona and losing by her estimate.

"I'll go next?" Lily offered.

"Go for it," he replied.

Lily went over with Arakil floating behind.

[Hm… I don't sense anything out of the ordinary with the nest. So, it must be something entirely mundane. The chicken's Mana, while highly impressive, isn't enough to obscure my Magesight.]

Lily bent down and began reaching inside the nest; she fumbled around and felt many loose pieces of metal.

[Rather than fret, just trust your gut. I don't think there's anything we can do to change the outcome. Furthermore, it's not like we even know what we are trying to influence with so little information.]

Arakil's right; I'll pick one at random. I can't even feel a difference in their shape anyway.

She pulled it out and kept her hand clutched as she walked away.

"Just you left, Thomas," Arthur said.

"Right…" Thomas grumbled, the top of his head scratched up and ruffled.

He clearly wanted to remove Yona while he was grabbing his item, but he had to give up. He began cautiously walking over to the nest.

"Don't worry, Falan is a big girl," Fabrelis said as if having read Thomas like an open book.

When Thomas bent down, Yona made her move. She began frantically swatting at the side of Falan. Thomas was about to yell at her, but then he noticed how her failed efforts—no matter what the cat was doing, Falan was ignoring all of it, and Yona hadn't even ruffled her feathers.

"Mrawr!" Yona cried out, and to everyone's surprise, she opened her mouth and bit down on the chicken.

Lily gasped. Arthur laughed. The three adults had a variety of amused expressions amongst them.

"Mleh! Ptui! Mraa…" Yona began to make retching noises and eventually spat out a tuft of downy feathers.

Laughter filled the room at Yona's expense, as even Thomas chuckled at her deserved misfortune. Falan continued to sleep as if nothing had even happened, so he quickly took his opportunity to grab his selection. His hand went in and was out in seconds, retrieving the very first one he touched and coming back to the group.

"Right, you can all open your hands," the headmaster instructed.

Lily and the boys nodded and then opened their hands simultaneously, revealing three identical silver square badges.

"What? All that buildup and they are the same? Arthur replied.

Lily and Thomas were also quite confused by the situation.

[It looks like he cast an illusion over the items, but the Mana fluctuations match Falan perfectly. Although I fail to see why he went through all this effort.]

"Really Fabrelis?" Beatrice asked, her tone sounding tired.

The headmaster had a mischievous grin on his face, "I just wanted to ensure that cheating was impossible."

"Somehow, I don't believe you," Beatrice groaned.

Fabrelis coughed into his fist and gave an apologetic glance at the three confused students, "Alright, alright. Let's see what they've picked!"

He snapped his fingers, and the three badges ripped before their true form was revealed. Arthur's badge went from square to rectangle, except it was wavy like a flag. It was pure white in color, with three grey lines traveling along to match the flag wave.

Lily's badge became a circle, sapphire blue in color with a black spiral that immediately caught her attention due to the similarities of her Mana gathering method. Thomas' badge also transformed, and to Lily's surprise, it perfectly matched her own.

"That's one for Zephyrix and two for Maranix," Headmaster Fabrelis declared.

What? Lily tilted her head in confusion and glanced at Arakil.

[Appologies... I've never heard these names before, so I'm just as much in the dark as you are.]