Student Council President · Diabolo

By Fog City's terminology, she was probably a Muggle.

Xia Xiu made that judgment as he looked at the woman before him, whose face was unusually flushed and whose manner was exceptionally flustered.

"Um... well... my name is Camille Siffney." Camille introduced herself somewhat awkwardly to the boy several years her junior.

"Xiu. Xiu Abraham." Xia Xiu gave the name he used in the Heaven Lineage.

"Xiu, you seem to know where we are. You don't look panicked at all. Do you live here?" Camille asked the friendly Xia Xiu cautiously.

"I know this place, but it's my first time here. This is the supernatural enclave of Three Portlands. We were all invited here by Three Portlands. As for why, it has to do with a supernatural academy called Deer College. Unless something unexpected happens, we'll be classmates." Xia Xiu gave Camille a concise explanation of her current situation.

"Three Portlands... students at Deer College..." Camille murmured dazedly.

"Hoot, hoot-"

The owl flew onto Camille's shoulder and hooted at her, as though urging her to do something.

"I can't understand what you're saying!" Camille told the owl on her shoulder, exasperated.

"Hoot, hoot, hoot-"

The snowy owl also flew onto Xia Xiu's shoulder and gave the other owl a pitying look. Your student looks a little dim.

"Miss Camille, this is one of Deer College's Spirit Recognitions. It's an ether spirit from the [Ether Sea], and one of the college's familiars." Xia Xiu stroked the snowy owl, which narrowed its eyes in contentment.

Seeing this, Camille reached out to pet her owl too. Unfortunately, this particular lord and master clearly wanted nothing to do with her and pecked her hand with its beak.

"What was that for? If you don't want me to pet you, fine." Camille rubbed her pecked hand and huffed.

The owl couldn't be bothered with the silly girl. It simply spread its wings and soared ahead, and the snowy owl followed.

"Come on. Follow the Spirit Recognitions. They'll take us to Deer College."

Xia Xiu strolled leisurely after the two birds, and Camille immediately followed him.

Southeastern Three Portlands-Deer College, House of Languages.

"Fifty-six new students in total, eighteen of whom were admitted through recommendations," Mansur reported to Laugen beside him.

"Yes, I know. Bring all our future little deer over." Laugen smiled gently.

"Understood." Mansur instructed the Spirit Recognitions to bring all the new students over.

Soon, the many scattered owls headed toward the House of Languages with their respective students. The bewildered little deer were led there just like that, while those who resisted too fiercely were simply dragged along by owls gripping their collars in their beaks.

By the time Xia Xiu and Camille arrived, most of the new little deer had already gathered at the House of Languages.

Camille edged closer to Xia Xiu and tugged at the hem of his clothes, signaling for him to look to one side.

Xia Xiu looked in the direction Camille indicated, where several "foreign" students stood.

"Foreign" didn't mean they were from other countries. It meant they weren't human, or didn't look particularly human.

At the head of the group Xia Xiu was watching stood a girl two meters tall, with brown hair tied in a ponytail. Besides her height, she also had a writhing eyeball in the middle of her forehead.

Apart from the Three-Eyed Girl, several other nonhuman beings stood nearby: a fish-person walking upright, a puppy sitting on a flying carpet, and a gentleman wearing a suit but sporting four arms and eight eyes.

The Three-Eyed Girl seemed to notice Xia Xiu and Camille staring and turned to look at them. The moment Camille saw her looking over, she shrank behind Xia Xiu in fright. Xia Xiu, meanwhile, briefly lifted his hat and gave the Three-Eyed Girl an apologetic smile.

The Three-Eyed Girl nodded in understanding, then looked away. Xia Xiu spoke to Camille, who was hiding behind him:

"Camille, you can't act like that. Both Three Portlands and Deer College believe in openness and inclusivity. Deer College doesn't limit its admissions to humans. Look, there are even a few ghost students over there."

"I... I just haven't adjusted yet," Camille stammered. Everything before her was far too much of a shock to her worldview. She needed time to process it.

Just as some of the students began getting acquainted and whispering among themselves, a voice rang out in every new student's mind.

A figure floated above the crowd, drawing everyone's attention.

"Ahem, ahem. Since everyone's here, I'll give you a brief introduction.

I'm Deer College's student council president-Diabolo."

Psychic resonance, and attention redirection...

Xia Xiu also raised his head to look at Diabolo overhead, his brows slightly furrowed. He didn't actually want to keep craning his neck like a turtle, but unfortunately, the other man's memetic contamination had affected him, leaving him stuck in that pose.

"Deer College is a place of magic. Of course, you've probably figured that out already, considering those stupid owls beside you brought you here, whether you wanted to come or not."

"Hoot, hoot, hoot-"

"Hoot, hoot, hoot!!!"

The owls below hooted angrily at Diabolo overhead, but our student council president ignored the Spirit Recognitions' displeasure and carried on:

"Welcome, incoming freshmen. You're about to enter the worst four years of your lives. Well, possibly five or six years. Either way, they'll be awful as hell."

"During your time at Deer College, you'll experience horrors you've never encountered before: five-hour thaumaturgy experiments, tedious lineage lectures, bottomless mugs of cafeteria coffee, the all-seeing eyes of community security staff, and, lurking at the very end, the dreaded graduation thesis. Your physical, mental, and spiritual health will deteriorate. You'll churn out paper after paper with no regard for quality, each one's topic more obscure and incomprehensible than the last."

"You'll also have to face the annoying GPA Wraiths."

"Those black [Chatterclouds] you see flying extremely low around campus-the ones that like to hide beside hallway lights and cover them up, or float over the library questioning their existence. Yes, those are definitely wraiths, unless what you're actually seeing is a research paper that escaped from some weather mage's laboratory."

"Some theorists are always trying to prove these wraiths have no actual consciousness. They keep insisting they're just masses of resentment formed by students who couldn't graduate because they didn't earn enough grade points. If you ask me, they're being paid by interested parties to say that on purpose. Don't they know how terrifying it is not to have enough grade points?!"

"My goddamn life is falling apart, the world is ending, my girlfriend ran off with my buddy, and you're telling me that still doesn't count as an independent consciousness? Then what the hell does?!"

As Diabolo spoke, he began rambling. Just as he was about to continue down that increasingly off-topic tangent, he felt a chilling gaze upon him. He followed it and found Dr. Laugen pushing up his glasses and smiling at him.

"Ahem, ahem. Let's continue the freshman introduction."

"In a moment, we'll administer the new Meme Vaccine to all you little deer here and connect you to Deer College's lineage while we're at it. For the next few years, you'll be members of Deer College.

Oh, and those of you who got in through the back door can connect to the lineage too. Deer College has a shared lineage knowledge base. We'll authorize your access and give you the shared password later."

"Also, those of you abducted by the owls can apply for subsidies for your families. Deer College will send them money. Still, I doubt many of you will apply. The students the Spirit Recognitions seek out are all people with an extremely strong desire to escape their current circumstances."

(End of chapter)