Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

The next morning, the skies were completely clear, the winds were blowing strong from the north, and they had a clear shot out to sea.

The four of them were expected in the harbour at sunrise, or they'd be left behind. Dr. Arnau's ship was leaving on a tight schedule. Wulf led the way across the wharf, carrying his backpack on his shoulders and holding his storage pendants around his neck—now with his shirt buttoned up overtop of them.

Kalee, Seith, and Irmond trailed along behind, each with a backpack of their own possessions.

They wove between dock workers and dodged trundling wagons as they approached Dr. Arnau's caravel. It was a small, wooden ship, about thirty paces long, with a single mast in its center. Triangular sails luffed on its masts, not yet angled into the wind, and crested shields hung on the railings, all the way from the raised stern great cabin to the bow. The shields were magenta and divided up into three sections, with a lion's head in one, a tree in the other, and a war-hammer in the last.

The Arnau family crest.

In his last life, Wulf hadn't known Dr. Arnau as a professor, only as his master. She'd been forced out of the Centralis Academy for some scandal. According to her, a rival professor had accused her of plagiarising her eighth year dissertation (falsely accused, of course), all to cover up and discount Arnau's claims about the rival professor's favouritism amongst students. Much like in Istalis, those with powerful enough families could get away with practically anything, including murder.

In that regard, it wasn't going to be any different. Wulf and the others were going to be on the back foot.

The four of them walked down the pier up to the Arnau's caravel, the Sinta Velia, then climbed up the gangway and stepped onto the main deck. There were six other students standing on the deck, and all the others had donned their Centralis Academy uniforms. For the boys, a white gambeson with the rank badge pinned above their hearts, and for the girls, mostly the same, except they also wore brown skirts that ended just above the knees. All wore a thick cumberbund around the waist, perfect for hanging pouches from.

Judging by their ages, they were third or fourth years who had been promoted to the Centralis Academy for their last days of education. Wulf, Seith, Kalee, and Irmond were the only first years, and they were by far the weakest.

The other six students were all Irons, no matter the sub-variation of low to high. They regarded Wulf and the others skeptically.

"Sorry," Wulf whispered. "Hadn't had time to put on our uniforms. I hope we're not late."

"You are not late, Mr. Hrothen," came a voice he'd never forget. Dr. Arnau marched down from the quarterdeck, wearing modified faculty garb: a heavy white gambeson with a touch of gray embroidery to distinguish her from the students, thick brown trousers, and a sash. She'd modified the gambeson to be sleeveless, and wore a harness to support her heavy hammer on her back.

Her rank badge, pinned in the same spot as everyone else's, denoted High-Gold. An invisible, indescribable pressure radiated off her. It was like she made the air vibrate just by existing.

It was what powerful Ascendants always felt like

"If you were late, you would have been left behind. You are, however, not in uniform," Dr. Arnau continued, raising her vambrace (with enchanted parchment attached). It was made of stone, the same polished granite as her war-hammer's head.

Technically, neither are you, Wulf thought, but he kept that to himself. Casually, he reached down to his hip, where he'd been keeping the pouch of ashes.

But she was alive. Right in front of him, stern features and all, blonde hair glimmering in the sun. It was kinda weird to be carrying around the ashes of a living person. Even if, in his last life, he'd never met her this early, he expected that everything would be different. Hell, she was even speaking differently. More prim, more proper. He'd only met her after she found herself exiled to Istalis last time.

That's what being a disgraced professor did you, Wulf supposed.

"Apologies, ma'am," Wulf said, and Kalee, Irmond, and Seith muttered the same.

"You ten will sleep in the cargo hold," Dr. Arnau said. "I don't expect any of you to have an acute knowledge of sailing, and with a ship like this, there is not much room. Stay out of the way, make yourselves comfortable in what little room you can find, and prepare yourselves for your new lives at the most prestigious Academy in the world."

She turned back to Wulf, Kalee, Seith, and Irmond, and said, "As for your Oronith, the Silent Wraith is being loaded onto a hulk. You will see it when we clear the bay. It will arrive a few weeks after us, but I must say, it is unusual for a group of first years to claim an Oronith, much less crew it at…Copper and Coal. We will be watching your careers closely, both for external tampering, and because everyone will want the glory of teaching you four." She crossed her arms. "Watch your backs."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Snapping her fingers, she signalled to the crew. They were all mortals, and they wore assorted sun-yellowed tunics and straw hats. "They're all here. We may depart. Mr. Callaros, you have the helm."

"Yes ma'am!" a sailor called from the quarterdeck. He whistled with his fingers, and the crew—about thirty sailors—leapt to action. They scurried around the deck, hauling on ropes and untying the ship from the mooring cleats. The sails angled into the wind, and the ship sloshed away from the pier. It slowly picked up speed as it crossed the bay.

The other students broke away from the line and descended down below deck. Wulf leaned over, looking down the hatchway. There was only a deck and a half of space below, and all for cargo storage and crew quarters. Lanterns swayed, lighting the room, but it was cramped, and it already smelled stale and stuffy. He didn't want to imagine what it'd be like after a few weeks at sea.

No way was he going below deck just yet.

He'd never been on a ship before. His knees didn't know how to act, and his regular, stiff, land-legs made him stagger across the deck as he approached the bow. There was no raised deck at the front, only a railing and some winches for the ropes. The crew scurried around, trimming the sails and keeping the wind astern.

He found a length of railing where there was nothing else around, no ropes and no winches, then leaned on. He didn't feel seasick. If he could pilot an Oronith without throwing up, he could handle the waves. He'd get used to it eventually.

They crossed the bay, passing the morning traffic of approaching cargo haulers. The port never slept, even if the sun was just rising.

As the hills pulled away and they cleared the edge of the bay, Wulf looked back and forth across the shoreline, and he blinked in surprise. Something about seeing the Confederacy from this angle made it look both massive and tiny. The hills didn't seem quite as tall when spread out over a couple miles, but the shorelines stretched as far as he could see.

In a bay to the north, a half-mile away, a different ship was leaving. It was a hulk—named for its size and its size alone. It was a catamaran, but each hull was the length of an Oronith, if the Oronith was laying down. Sails hung off spars on the ship's sides, and sure enough, the ship carried an Oronith.

The Silent Wraith.

The hulk was still large enough to carry the Wraith, but just barely. He could imagine the giantwood beams straining and bending to support the Oronith's weight. But giantwood was stronger than most regular trees. Almost as tough as steel but less brittle, and light as regular wood. A perfect ship-building material, but its use in Oronith weapons made it rare. There were only a few hulks, and those were all in service of the Centralis Academy.

Wulf held his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun as he watched their Oronith depart as well. They hadn't piloted it since the fight at Clegghold, and as he promised the others, he hadn't done any work on it over their (admittedly short) summer break.

But it was still an old Oronith. It might be…different than the others, though he didn't really know how or why. A higher tier, sure. He hadn't done enough experiments to determine anything else. It'd need repairs, though, and they needed to get some elements of it up to the modern specifications.

Hollow footsteps thudded on the deck behind him, and Kalee stepped up. "The others have gone below deck to stake out a spot for us," she said. "Watching Wraith?"

"They better not sink it," he said. "That'd be a pain. We'd have to find ourselves a new legendary Oronith to take over."

Kalee chuckled.

"I was kinda serious," he said. "Wraith was more powerful, tier-wise, than any Oronith in Clegghold. It's an insane advantage."

"Do I need to remind you?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm insane."

"Mhm." She hung her head over the railing and looked down at the waves.

"Is something wrong?" Wulf asked.

"I got a letter from my mom. Standard congratulations, all that. But they're coming to visit me in Centralis."

Wulf swallowed. "Oh. What…are you going to do when you meet them again?"

"I…don't know…" she whispered. "It's been thirty-seven years since I last saw them, and we didn't exactly have the most pleasant parting. But, then again, they're not the same. I've already permanently altered everything, even by them coming to visit me. That must make them different people, right?"

"I'm not an expert in this matter," Wulf said.

"I can't shake the feeling that a few years' difference won't change anything. They're still the people who traded me to a demon-spirit for their own freedom."

Wulf leaned closer, then placed a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know what to do either, but we'll figure it out. You still have time to think about it."

"Yeah." She didn't pull away. "But, hey, look. Enough of that. It's gloomy. I don't want that. You got plans when you get to Centralis?"

He smiled. "I don't exactly have a tour guide, but I plan to go exploring plenty. And I'd bet there's plenty to learn about alchemy in an ancient city like that. Even if they don't practice it any more, I'll have so much to do." He folded his fingers together. "I…am permitted to keep working on magical advancement, now, aren't I?"

"No one was stopping you," Kalee joked. "There just wasn't much time when we were roaming around the countryside."

"Of course, of course." Wulf pushed away from the railing. "Alright, then, Ms. past-Artificer. We've got plenty of time here, trapped on this ship. Would you mind if I picked your brain about storage pendants? I'm going to need to keep my alchemy equipment hidden very well going forward, and I figure I'll need more room. Lots more room."