Eventually, Arthur and the guide led them into one of the academy's largest rooms—the library!
The library opened up like a small wooden cathedral!
This was a large cylindrical chamber that stretched upwards beneath a tall arched ceiling built from glass and silver stone. Warm sunlight poured down through the central skylight, the light spilling across the floor in soft golden patterns, illuminating the room with a calm, gentle glow.
Towering bookshelves lined the curved walls from floor to ceiling, stacked densely with countless volumes of old, leather-bound books, scrolls, and ancient manuscripts. Narrow ladders leaned against the shelves, allowing students to climb towards the highest rows where the oldest knowledge was kept and forgotten. A small gallery wrapped around the upper level of the room, its outer walls lined with even more books.
As Arthur explained that this was one of the dozen libraries in the academy, all the girls glanced up.
Suspended in the air, near the ceiling, hung the skeleton of a large whale-like creature, its long spine wrapping around the chamber like a serpent. Its massive bones were carefully arranged as if the beast still flew through the sky above the observers below, creating a unique atmosphere, providing inspiration. Occasionally, faint motes of magic light drifted lazily around the skeleton, dipping up and down, flickering in the light like drifting sparks.
Below, rows of reading tables filled the center of the hall.
Small stone golems moved quietly through the space, each one carrying stacks of books or organizing scattered records. Their movements were slow but precise, and their stubby little fingers were surprisingly gentle as they sorted and delivered a variety of things to patiently awaiting students.
Mm, what drew Petra's attention wasn't the golems but the students.
Many students sat scattered throughout the chamber, reading, writing, and whispering softly to one another as they studied. The entire room held a peaceful hum, with the turning of pages, scratching of pens, and the faint rustling of moving paper.
Several of them were gathered around one table, whispering urgently while flipping through thick books. One student held a book upside down while another jabbed a finger at a particular paragraph, clearly insisting they had found the right answer to something important. Across the room, a stone golem casually delivered a stack of books only for a distracted student to accidentally knock the entire pile over while reaching for something, causing the books to scatter everywhere…
Petra looked at these fools and frowned.
Her eyes turned.
The golem paused for a long time as if silently judging the situation, then slowly crouched down and began collecting the books again.
Meanwhile, above one of the tables, an enchanted book was refusing to cooperate with its reader, zipping across the room like a small comet. The student tried grabbing it several times, even jumping, but the book fluttered away each time like an irritated little bird.
"Hold still!" the student hissed, causing several heads to turn.
Petra watched the awkward exchange, and time passed like this…
* * *
Soon, classes ended, students shifted, and the next lessons began.
Their next stop was a 'garden-like' room.
This was an equally large room where nature and knowledge were mixed together.
The hall resembled a classroom-style greenhouse.
In the center of the chamber was a massive ancient tree, its thick trunk twisting upward like a sculpture. The bark spiraled down into smooth curves and knotted roots that gripped the stone platform beneath. From its crown spread a dense canopy of deep green leaves, forming a small forest beneath the tall ceiling, and spreading out to each desk, then hanging down like vines.
Towering windows lined the walls, their intricate frames stretching upwards into pointed arches that vanished into the vine-filled ceiling above. Large shelves wrapped around the room along the lower walls, filled with neatly arranged tools, scrolls, and small labeled jars. Some shelves held dried herbs tied in bundles, others contained carefully sealed bottles of powders and strange herbs.
Several long wooden tables stood beneath the canopy, their surfaces scattered with open containers, ceramic pots, glass vials, and small trays of soil and saplings. Living plants of every size and shape grew in clay containers, alongside delicate flowers, curling vines, tiny saplings, and strange herbs that rippled faintly with traces of spiritual energy.
Near one corner, an old painting of a forgotten figure watched over the room, its weathered face half-covered by creeping ivy and drifting dust
The air smelled faintly of earth, herbs, and sunlight, and despite being located within the academy, the space felt less like a classroom and more like a hidden grove or secret space.
Soon, the guide gathered the group of girls to look around.
They were given free rein of the room.
Looking around, Petra pondered.
Several students were gathered around a large table where an instructor supervised some kind of plant-themed experiment. One student carefully trimmed a glowing blue vine while another measured a packet of powder on a strange silver scale.
Then—
Something went wrong!
Swoosh! There was a sudden scream, and a few students looked towards the source of the sound with a strange stare. A vine had suddenly jerked upwards like a startled snake, whipping across the table and knocking over two jars in the process.
"Hey—hey! Don't—!"
Swack! The plant snapped its body wildly across the table before the instructor quickly jumped across the table and grabbed its stem, muttering a spell, causing the vine to slowly relax, letting the students calm down.
He pulled his body back, dusting off his chest before looking down at his freshly stained clothes.
He wondered if any of these substances would kill him if he ignored them until the end of class…
He frowned, then looked over and saw the group of young children looking at him like a fool.
They were clearly holding back their laughter!
Not only them, but the surrounding students turned away and pretended that nothing had happened, but they were clearly mocking him. As the source of the trouble, the green-haired snake girl who had messed up the experiment helped him clean up, and while this happened, Petra and the others took the opportunity to look around.
Time passed…
* * *
The morning ended, and some time later, Petra found herself on her tippytoes, peering through the small window of a closed classroom door.
The lecture hall expanded like a grand chamber that was designed for learning on a monumental scale! This room alone could fit hundreds of students, perhaps even thousands! This single auditorium required dozens of doors, and there were dozens of these large lecture rooms within the academy. Rows of curved wooden desks descended in a tiered structure facing toward a central stage, forming a large semicircle that focused every seat on the instructor's platform below. The architecture of the room carried the elegance of an old academy. White stone walls framed the massive space above dark wooden paneling, while an upper balcony circled the hall, allowing additional seating and standing space from above. The entire room was both orderly and imposing, forcing the speaker to cultivate a very domineering aura.
At the front of the hall sat a large wooden stage, recently cleaned but worn down from many decades of use. A sturdy lectern rested on its center, while several large chalkboards stood behind it. A pair of rolling boards sat nearby, ready to be turned and filled with new rune diagrams, spell formulas, and complex magical calculations.
Looking at this, it reminded Petra of a University Math class!
It was currently in use, meaning that Petra and the others could not enter...
-
Before long, the tour guide ushered the girls ahead.
The group passed a wide observation window that looked directly into one of the academy's large lecture halls. Inside, the atmosphere was completely different from the rest of the school.
Students filled the seats in chaotic clusters.
Parts of the huge hall were filled shoulder to shoulder, while less appealing positions were bare.
Some students were loudly arguing about spell theory, while others hurried down the aisles, carrying notebooks and pens in a rush. A few students had already started practicing magic at their desks, while an inexperienced boy was even attempting to levitate a small orb above his hand.
Petra turned her eyes to him.
She watched as his constipated face crumpled and the orb dropped.
He tried again…
But it dropped again.
This continued over and over again.
Nearby, another student leaned over and said something that clearly wasn't helpful, causing the first boy to shoo him away.
The boy glared back, then left.
Near the front of the room, an instructor was already writing across a large board, seemingly ignoring the noise entirely.
Petra watched for a moment.
She could tell those classes were about to begin.
She hummed…
Mm, so this was what learning here looked like? Interesting… (Fantasy World School) It was messy and chaotic on the outside, but there always seemed to be an underlying order constantly present.
The guide clapped her hands, pulling the visiting group back together as she spoke.
"Alright, girls! Let's keep moving!"
Their attention was pulled away from the classroom.
The green-haired children quickly gathered again and followed her down the corridor.
* * *
As the day passed, they continued to visit one place after another.
They went to the Rune Workshop, Calligraphy Room, Grand Hall, Outer Park, Alchemy Room, Dining Hall, Dormitories, Common Rooms, Magic Weapon Range, several Workshops, the Laboratory, Garden, Meditation Hall, Infirmary, and the Indoor Magic Arena!
As time continued to pass, it was soon time for a break…
-
The female guide eventually led the group out of the academy and into a large open field.
Beyond the door outside stretched a wide training field, which appeared as a large expanse of trimmed grass completely surrounded by a series of small practice areas. A few scattered trees grew along the rim, their shade forming quiet resting spots where several students could sit or sleep under the shade, and the distant ring of magic circles and cast spells could be heard.
The female guide casually waved her hand.
"Feel free to rest here for a moment, girls. We'll continue shortly."
With her words, the group of green-haired children quickly scattered across the grass, many of them dropping down eagerly after the long walk through the academy.
Petra wandered around, eventually finding her way to one of the shaded patches beneath a tree, sitting down. A moment later, Mimi plopped down right beside her. She reached into a small bag and pulled out a small cloth bundle.
Petra tilted her head, looking over.
"I brought some snacks!" Mimi exclaimed, a proud look on her small face!
She opened the bundle to reveal several small sandwiches wrapped in paper, causing Petra to nod.
Soon, a few more little girls joined them, all taking out their respective snacks.
The girls quietly shared their food while watching the field, looking around with their big black eyes. Around them, the others chatted excitedly about everything they had seen so far, their tiny legs fluttering occasionally as they shifted on their butts with excitement.
While chewing, Petra's gaze drifted across the training grounds, lost in thought.
"Mm…?"
Not far away, a familiar figure stood among a group of students.
This was the girl named Hesta.
The horse girl moved from one student to another, nervously asking question after question.
"D-did you see this bow anywhere?" she asked, holding up a paper portrait.
Seeing what was on the paper, it was clearly drawn not too long ago.
The students shook their heads, causing her to frown.
Hesta hurried to the next group.
"What about you? Did anyone bring a bow here earlier?"
Another student shrugged, then walked away.
Her ears drooped as she continued her search.
Petra quietly watched for a moment before returning to her snacks.
Nom-nom-nom!
Time passed.
After a while, Petra leaned back and looked up towards the sky.
The peaceful blue expanse above the academy stretched out infinitely overhead, but as she watched, her eyes narrowed slightly.
The clouds were shifting. It was subtle, but there was a faint gray that crept across the horizon.
Petra chewed a few times, lost in thought.
"…A storm is coming," she muttered quietly to herself.
Munch-munch-munch!
Beside her, Mimi blinked a bunch and followed her gaze upwards.
"Huh? That's weird, there shouldn't be…" But before she could finish her words—
Swoosh!
Something suddenly slid past, then sat down beside them with a heavy thud! Mimi jumped, but Petra leaned away, looking at this big sister who suddenly appeared.