As soon as they passed through the door, they found a large lecture room with long curved tables and individual chairs! Each row was positioned on a higher step than the one in front with individual chairs. It was the mirror image of a lecture hall. Something that somehow made her feel nostalgic. Did she perhaps attended a school with a lecture hall before coming to this school? A familiar tall elderly man stood infront of the podium as everyone found a seat. However, she looked down and notice Grim was struggling to even stick his head over the table edge!
Perhaps she ought to go find something for Grim to sit on.
As if thinking the same thing, Deuce handed her a few heavy textbooks and whispered, "Try these. They were under the tables."
"Thanks." She responded gratefully and quickly stacked up the books so Grim could sit in them.
As they did so, Ace's shoulder shuddered as he struggled to hold back laughter, especially after Grim finally took a seat on top of the books.
"Pfft-!"
However, a swift glance from the teacher towards their direction shut him up as Hoshi and the remaining three quickly shifted their attention back to him nervously. The elderly man began, "I am your History of Magic teacher, Mozus Trein. And this is my familiar, Lucius. You are here to learn the rich history of magic, and how it has sculpted the world which you now so easily take for granted."
"Looks like it's another batch of unruly children…"
She looked around in confusion upon hearing a strange voice. However, upon looking around, the source was nowhere to be found.
"Hm?" The voice noted curiously as Hoshi looked for the source once again, "Class has only begun and there is already one kit fooling around?"
This time, she found it much to her own surprise.
There, in his arms, sat a large fluffy black and white Persian cat, Lucius. The cat stared straight back at her as she stared back in confusion. Lucius looked back at her in surprise as she heard the professor continue and returned her attention to the lecture.
"Did… Did she just understood me? Wait. This kit is the mysterious female human. Can she actually understand animal linguistics already?"
Female? Was her cover already blown?!
However, Lucius hesitated but quickly seemingly changed his mind much to her relief. In his eyes, there are always a large number of kits with a strange and unusual talents. In fact, so few lacks any talent at all, that's it's become so boring...
He's already seen a small number of young kits who even grew up speaking animal linguistics. Why should he be surprised by another one?
The only difference was that this one is a female kit. It was already strange enough that the school only accepts male kits. Now that it brought in a female kit, everyone is making such a big deal out of it.
Looking around, he could see a few number of side glances towards her direction as he huffed in disdain. Thanks to the new addition, every other kit won't even pay him and Trein any attention and it's only the first day of school!
Unfortunately, Hoshi couldn't tell what Lucius was thinking nor did she realize her cover was blown already!
Lucius sighed and got to his feet as Trein continued explaining the rest of the curiculum. He then hopped onto the table of a few Savanaclaw students and gave them a low growl, "Are you listening?"
The students looked to him in surprise, "Huh? What's up with this cat?"
"Huh? Didn't you hear?" One of them whispered, "That's the professor's familiar... Wait-!"
"AHEM!" Trein's voice interrupted them as he continued firmly with a swift glance towards that group, "I grade based on classroom behavior as well as the quality of work. Don't let me catch you sleeping. Now, let us open our books to page fifteen. This section concerns the magestones discovered in the Dwarfs' Mine…"
"Mrrrrooowww..." Lucius spoke again as he sat back onto the podium.
The professor took out a piece of chalk and began to write onto the chalkboard as he continued, "As knowledge and awareness of magical energy began to spread across the globe from this point, this year is considered Year One of the Magic Era."
"Mrrrrooowww..." Lucius cried out again and yawned.
As if contagious, Ace yawned too while Deuce was busy away writing onto his notebook and quietly muttering to himself, "Fascinating... "Dwarfs' Mine"... Mhm, mhm... "magical energy"…"
Hoshi became so absorbed in the class that she began asking some questions after reading the textbook briefly, instantly earning her the title of teacher's pet.
"Maaan... When do we get to the classes where we blow stuff up with magic?" Grim grumbled quietly to himself as he recalled the warning the other students received.
As he complained, the group hardly noticed the intense glare they were receiving from said students from the back seats. Seeing this from the podium, Lucius growled softly under his breath, "I can sense more trouble brewing..."
Hearing this, Trein took another swift glance at the students just in time to catch the same group shifting their eyes away in the direction of the four. He was uncertain, but he always believed in his familiar's senses, and, if this were true, he may have to start doing some patrols around the school grounds more often, which is more than what his aging body can handle now compared to when he was younger.
…..
When PE came around, Hoshi was given a new pair of PE clothes that fit her nicely. With the cold temperature, she kept the sweat jacket on, which was large enough to hide her small frame. As she was about to walk out of the empty teacher's lounge, she paused as she could hear some sounds of scratching along the walls. A familiar shiver followed by a sense of disgust ran down her spine as she quietly wrapped up her uniform and slipped out of the room as quickly as she could.
"Hoshi?" Deuce looked to him in surprise, "What's wrong?"
She looked up in confusion as Grim walked up to her, "Hey! What's wrong with ya?! Ya' look as pale as a ghost!"
"I-I-I do?" She responded in surprise and touched her cheeks.
"Did something happen?" Deuce questioned worriedly.
"That's... um..." Hoshi hesitated, "I-I heard scratches along the wall... Maybe it's just the ghosts playing a prank?"
"If it were, you wouldn't be running out like they were chasing you too." Ace frowned.
"Did I?" Hoshi hesitated, "I just felt a shiver and hurried out as quickly as I could… I didn't think I'd be running out…"
"Damn those rumors…" Ace muttered with a heavy sigh.
"You mentioned it again… What rumors are you talking about?"
"Seriously? They're going to stoop so low from the very first day of school?"
Hearing the familiar voice, she looked down and saw Lucius jumping into the teacher's lounge as he hissed at them ,"Hurry and get to class. Next time, I won't let you off if I see you dawdling!"
"What's gotten into him?" Ace was taken aback in bewilderment.
"I don't know..." Deuce shook his head, "But we should hurry. Everyone is probably waiting for us on the field!"
"Sports? Oooh! Let's go! Come on!" Grim declared and sprang into a sprint as he quickly forgot what happened just now.
"Ah! Hold on! Grim!" Hoshi called out to him in a rush, "I haven't put my uniform away yet!"
"Geez. PE is about to start and they're already running." Ace grumbled as he followed after them.
Deuce shook his head as he agreed with the thought but was just as disappointed with Ace's lack of action to advise their new friend. "We should probably tell them about the rumors later."
"Forget it." Ace shook his head as they began walking towards the stairs, "It's better if he acts like everything is normal. I can't even use my magic and all you can do is create more cauldrons! Geez…"
"Wha-! That's not true!"
As Deuce took a step to follow alongside them, he paused at the sound of a soft cry. He turned around to see that it was coming from the door and remembered what Hoshi said. The school was already haunted as it is. Why would there be more haunting them now? He turned around and hurried after the four.
In the room, a large cat was grooming his paw quietly as the door slide open.
"Looks like we were right." Crewel stepped in with a disgusted look across his face, "There were some mutts among the dogs."
Trein sighed in dismay as Lucius leapt back into his arms, "I've already contacted the headmaster."
"I'm here!" The headmaster showed up out of nowhere surprising the two of them. Dragging the female counselor along, he was about to ask what was going on when he noticed a tall pile of clothes trekking to the nearby window, or rather, a trail of unconscious students. He jumped in surprise, "What happened?!"
The cat hissed at him much to his surprise as it grumbled in a few tones that even Crewel struggled to understand. Crewel whispered to Trein in confusion, "This is the most angry I've seen him. What's he saying?"
Trein nodded in agreement with the cat, "Lucius is upset with the appalling manner of the students just because a girl entered the school. I also would not like to say this, but I also have my doubts about this. Are you certain this is the right choice? I have no doubt the other two years will conduct themselves just fine. However, the freshmen usually struggle to conduct themselves appropriately until a few weeks into the semester. The school has always been an all boys private academy. Suddenly introducing a girl into the equation could bring trouble to all the students."
"Ugh… So you already found out… For once, I agree." Crewel nodded with a frown, "It's already distracting the students from their studies."
"I mean, trouble for both girl and boy students." Trein clarified with a frown.
"I-I knew that." Crewel replied after clearing his throat.