Mikayla, as soon as she processed the warning, dragged Keldryn away from what she hadn't quite believed was a railroad, frantically looking back and forth, half ready to summon the Black Knight. Fortunately, there was no sign of anything approaching, and once they were several metres away, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  Keldryn's tail bristled as he took in her state of panic. "What's a train and how likely is it to eat us?"

  Before Mikayla could respond, the secretary finally caught up with them. "Ah, ah," she panted. "Thank you. The Lady Ruogang was growing impatient,"

  "Is a train departing soon?" Mikayla questioned, peering at the station.

  "Yes, the Lady Ruogang has just dropped off her sister and is about to leave. You were blocking her egress. Thank you," the secretary sighed in relief once they were several feet away from the train tracks. "Are you two the Stranded party?"

  "Mikayla Aiadon. A pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Mikayla bowed her head. This was a magic university, falling back on formality seemed like the right thing to do.

  "Keldryn," her partner grunted with only marginally less hostility than he would use to address a Kaiju, and Mikayla side-eyed him with irritation.

  "Yes, good, we've been expecting you. My name is Abney, and -"

  There was a thunderous sort of clattering noise, and Mikayla looked past Abney just in time to see a bright yellow locomotive, with the tell-tale glow of a Core Projection and trailing a matching carriage, come rushing out of what she'd identified as a train station at the back of the administrative building. The wind it kicked up buffeted them as it sped past, sparks of Mana flying from the projected wheels where they met the tracks.

  Within seconds, the train had passed them by, speeding away to parts unknown.

  "Yup. That was a train. Wow," Mikayla nodded to herself. It took her a moment to realise that Keldryn's ears were standing on end, his tail puffed outwards, and Skyward Grasscutter was wrapping around his body.

  "What in the hell was that?!" he gasped, watching the train as it receded. "I thought we were under attack!"

  Abney pursed her lips. "Ah. No. That was a relatively recent innovation in Conveyance Core technology. You will have to get used to them, as we all have,"

  "Right. Right," Controlling his breathing, Keldryn dismissed his Armour and nodded. "I see,"

  "Perhaps we should head inside," Mikayla suggested.

  It wasn't long before they were in the lobby, where another secretary was waiting for them. "Good morning, and welcome to Cloudscraper Academy," she bowed. "Might I presume that you are Keldryn Thorntail?"

  "Yep," Keldryn confirmed. Mikayla had half expected them to be mixed up, but given that only one of them had a tail it would have been kind of stupid.

  "Wonderful. Are you two comfortable with being separated for admission process, or would you rather stay with each other while we do it one at a time?"

  Mikayla remembered belatedly that the loophole Asika had used to get Keldryn admitted to this school was claiming that Mikayla had developed an emotional dependence on him.

  "I think we'll be fine," Keldryn assured her.

  "Yeah, I, I'll be strong," Mikayla made a show of taking a deep breath. Hopefully she wasn't overselling it.

  They split up, each going with an attendant into a different office.

  "This shouldn't take long, since the Cosmic Scales have already arranged a lot of the paperwork," Abney assured her. "Your name is Mikayla Aiadon, correct?"

  "That's right,"

  "What level are you currently?"

  Mikayla wondered if she should be honest, remembering how she'd been warned about sharing her Level.

  "Oh, don't worry, we just have to know if we need to adjust your curriculum. Students are usually at Level 20 or higher when they enrol, but you were Stranded, so you're handicapped compared to everyone else, who had their entire childhood to gain levels,"

  Mikayla nodded. "Oh, is that all? Actually, I'm already Level 24. I've cleared the First Schema Lock too,"

  Abney's eyes widened. "Really? If you're lying - no, forgive me, that was out of turn, lying about that would only be sabotaging yourself,"

  Mikayla nodded more emphatically, her smile slipping.

  "You must have been in a lot of life-or-death fights to grow so strong so quickly. I'm quite impressed," Abney assured her, trying to cover her slip. "Ahem. In that case, there should be no issues at all with enrolling you in the upcoming intake of students. What about general knowledge?"

  "Only bits and bobs I've picked up," Mikayla shrugged a bit. "I'm sure there are big gaps in my knowledge,"

  Abney flipped to a new page of questions. "Do you know who the current emperor of Guili is?"

  "Nope,"

  "How many gods can you name?"

  Mikayla wracked her brain. "Cosmic Scales, Star-Fight Hegemon, Rainbow Ouroboros, Frank Axe . . I think Asika mentioned a 'Boundless Chimera' once?" There'd been a couple of others that she couldn't quite remember.

  Abney tilted her head. "I haven't even heard of the Rainbow Ouroboros or the Frank Axe. Must be northern cults. Still, five is not a lot," she shook her head. "How many member nations of the Termanian Union can you name?"

  "I don't even know what the Termanian Union is," Mikayla denied.

  "I see. How about the different types of professions within the Goliath Guard?"

  Again, Mikayla frowned. "There was Guardsman, Keldryn said he was trying to become a Ranger. There's also researchers, and branch heads . . and Dean? Right?"

  Abney was already shaking her head. "Guardsman is the collective term. Not to be confused with Watchmen, who stay assigned to the defence of their home settlement. But yes, Watchmen, Rangers and Researchers are three of the main career paths of the Goliath Guard. The fourth is Management, and there are other jobs that don't fit into any of those four,"

  "Right, gotcha," Mikayla watched as the secretary scribbled down something no doubt unflattering on her clipboard.

  "Who are the Four Heroes that founded the Goliath Guard?"

  "You're talking about Nicholas, Astralia, Carter and Yevgenia?" Mikayla clarified. "Not Nocturnus?"

  Abney scowled. "Yes, the Black Traitor was involved too, but we don't talk about him. How much do you know about the four real heroes?"

  On this count, Nocturnus had primed Mikayla with his historical anecdotes, so she was confident in answering, "Nicholas was the king of a city far to the north, who evacuated his people southwards. Astralia was the senior-most mage in Balmwind, and the creator of Cores. Carter was the king of the dwarves, and Yevgenia was a monster hunter who protected another big convoy of refugees until they joined up with Nicholas,"

  "Mostly correct. Dwarves have no king and probably never will, but Carter was an important figure to them," Abney nodded, sounding pleasantly surprised. "What about the Sendo-Han Dispute?"

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "No idea," Mikayla shook her head.

  "Right. Do you have any opinion on the relations between Guili and Kuna?"

  Mikayla could only look mystified.

  Abney looked at the rest of the questionnaire and shook her head.

  Something changed in her expression.

  "One last question, then," she said, looking directly into Mikayla's eyes. She was struck by the deep, flinty blackness of the yaoguai's gaze. "Where did the Kaijus come from?"

  Mikayla raised her eyebrows. "I . . nope, sorry, don't know that one either,"

  "Do try to find out. That is a very important question," Abney looked back down at the questionnaire and blinked repeatedly.

  "Right, well, you have massive gaps in your common knowledge. I don't think you'll need to catch up in terms of levels, but you definitely will need a tutor. We do have one lined up, but," Abney's lips tightened. "Well, it's above my pay grade. I'm sure you'll be fine,"

  Mikayla blinked. That was worrying.

  "Moving on. Part of your sponsorship by the Cosmic Scales includes a stipend for the purchase of food and other necessities, as well as improvements to your Core loadout. I'm kind of surprised that you already have a full set, actually," Abney glanced at the assortment of Rubies and Lapises that were set into Mikayla's Core Gauntlet.

  "Hm? I wouldn't say that. Five of these were taken from a man who tried to kill me. I'm not planning to keep them," Mikayla denied. "Maybe one or two, but the rest will go,"

  "I see. You're still ahead compared to our average Stranded student in that case," Abney idly mused. "Eh, the stipend's already set up. I do recommend that you spend it on upgrading your equipment or other things that will give you an edge. Cloudscraper Academy rarely requests that its students not use everything at their disposal, and wealth is simply another weapon. Upgrade your Cores, buy yourself a Neidan, pay for Technique tutors. Whatever areas you're falling behind in, shore them up,"

  "Right, will do," Mikayla nodded. So she wasn't broke. That was a relief.

  Once the last of the forms had been squirrelled away, Abney returned her to the waiting room. "We'll handle the rest of it, and your tutor should be here soon. Best of luck," There was something disingenuous about Abney's expression. A hint of deeply buried concern.

  Mikayla couldn't help but wonder why her tutor would evoke a reaction like that. "Is something wrong?"

  "No, of course not. If anything, you should be thrilled that the Lady Han has agreed to take on the responsibility of being your tutor," Abney sounded like she was trying very hard to be sincere. "I shall go and fetch her. We've kept her waiting for long enough,"

  With that, she left the room, closing the door behind her.

  Mikayla relaxed into the couch, humming. The mention of being able to afford upgrades was strangely exciting.

  With a flex of Willpower, the Black Knight wrapped around her body. "Hey, Nocturnus. We should think about upgrading my Core loadout. Two Armour Cores, five weapons and a Shield is a bit unbalanced, even if I wasn't already planning to get rid of most of Flyreh's Cores. What would you recommend?"

  "Will you finally take my advice and obtain a bow?" Nocturnus immediately retorted.

  "Only if you can give me a good reason not to get a gun instead,"

  Nocturnus scoffed. "Such weapons are beneath the Black Knight,"

  Mikayla summoned up the Cannon Core. "We've got this as a slow and heavy ranged weapon. A bow would just do the same thing. We'd get better flexibility out of a gun,"

  "What about the issue of noise?"

  "I was thinking about that. Keldie's a scout type, he's light and sneaky. Well, by giant robot standards. Being quiet matters to him. You, and by extension I, am big and bulky. Honestly, how often have either of us tried to sneak around and succeeded?"

  "Bah," The grumpy ghost didn't have a counterargument for that.

  "There is something I'd kinda like, though. A Companion Core of my own. Like Keldie has Bluebell," she hummed, picking at the Armour Core of Brass-Beat Brawler.

  "Then get one. You've got room for it," Nocturnus shrugged. "That won't affect your fighting style much, though. I am loathe to admit it, but you're doing quite well with the sword and shield combination. I believe that you are looking at this from the wrong angle. Rather than diversifying with more equipment, you should look into buying Techniques that will allow you to make better use of your sword and shield,"

  Mikayla nodded. "That's a good point. I've done a couple of clumsy shield bashes, if there's a proper Technique for that it'd be way better,"

  Nocturnus was lost in thought for a moment. "Actually, do not be too hasty to buy Techniques. I find it quite likely that Cloudscraper will teach you some as part of your tuition. Perhaps the best purchase you could make would be a new and improved Shield Core. That one you claimed from Flyreh's collection is quite simple,"

  Mikayla conjured it, feeling the white-red projection in her hands. "Identify," she tried.

  [LAPIS OF SHIELD (CORE): Expend Mana continuously to conjure a Shield. Enhancements: Goliath]

  She paused, a dawning suspicion creeping into her thoughts. "Can Cores have enhancements other than Goliath?"

  "Of course. There were a few early attempts circulating even in my day. Fun little tricks such as flaming swords or whips that crackled with lightning. I'm certain that after two hundred years of development, there will be plenty of options,"

  Mikayla nodded. "Alright. Guess it comes down to seeing what we can afford,"

  They heard footsteps outside the door, and before Mikayla could dismiss the Armour, Abney returned to the room.

  She blinked. "Why are you wearing your Armour?"

  "It's, um, comforting?" That was a bad lie.

  But Abney seemed to believe it. "Oh, gosh. I see. Well, um," She trailed off, and there was a cough from behind her.

  Abney stepped aside, revealing another yaoguai. Her skin was a bright pink, her muscles slim but well-defined. She was wearing a red tunic with yellow fringes that hugged her body tightly, with matching shorts that only hung to the knee and sneakers - which Mikayla was surprised to see, given how medieval this world was. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail that hung to her shoulders, and dark green eyes went wide when she saw Mikayla.

  "Ah, yes. I would like to introduce you to Her Grace, Yevgenia Han,"

  Nocturnus choked.

  "Nocty? Buddy? You okay?" Mikayla whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

  "That's . . Yevgenia,"

  Yevgenia seemed no less surprised. Canine fangs appeared between her lips as she disbelievingly mouthed, "Black Knight?"

  "She has the same name as your old friend?" Mikayla guessed.

  "More than that! She looks identical! Younger. That is her! It is not possible. But . . that is Yevgenia,"

  So, uh. Nocty's girlfriend came back to life and is going to be Mikayla's tutor. Be honest, did anyone call that?

  Also, yes, Yevgenia is the girl in the new cover art for Book 2!

  Find out how this happened right now on my Patreon!