Elite Mages’ Academy

After those freshmen passed the admissions test and became Dawn Academy’s official students, they were forced to accept a very cruel and unaccepted fact. Due to the academy’s tight management, they were not allowed to return to Earth for the entire freshman year.

If they failed to meet the requirements for entering sophomore year, they would have to repeat their freshman year, which meant that they might not have the opportunity to go home for at least a year or two. The academy was located in a pocket dimension, where time flowed at a different rate compared to Earth.

Therefore, news of Xiao Lin’s return to Earth—despite being a freshman that had been at the academy for only a month—spread quickly, and so did the news that he might go to the New World. Dawning Forum’s posts were refreshed at a very fast rate that night. All eyes were on that news, more so than the monthly exam that just ended.

There were people in the forum who envied Xiao Lin’s chance to see the New World in advance. Others envied him for being able to return to Earth, as many inevitably missed their family after spending a month at the academy.

On the other end of the spectrum, the majority of people questioned the entire thing and put forth their own arguments. For example, the freshman rules clearly stated that freshmen were not allowed to return to Earth, as well as the fact that a freshmen’s constitution might not be able to adapt to the New World.

There were a very small number of people who speculated out of spite that Xiao Lin would be sent back to Earth forever because of his record of absenteeism and average monthly exam scores.

Although Judge Academy did not deem the arrangement as confidential, Xiao Lin had no intention of offering any more explanations. Moreover, he was equally as clueless; he had no idea what he was supposed to do when he went to Judge Academy, so he refrained from showing himself on the forum.

Within Class Seven’s group, Wang Dalin began arrogantly mocking Xiao Lin for not being a competent monitor. He pointed out that it was Xiao Lin’s fault that everyone got poor grades in the monthly exam. Three minutes later, everyone received a notification that Wang Dalin had been banned again...

"Great job, Monitor!"

"Don’t add these kinds of people into the group next time."

"We owe our thanks to Monitor Xiao. If not for him, we wouldn’t’ve gotten that result in the exam!"

"I’ve asked a few of our friends from the other classes. The class with the most Grade Bs seems to be our class! Class Seven!"

...

In contrast to before, Xiao Lin had gained noticeable support within his class group. On closer scrutiny, those people mainly consisted of those who followed him during the exam. Even though Xiao Lin had admitted his shortcomings and acknowledged his misjudgment that nearly led to everyone’s death, he still played a key role in saving everyone during the two crucial battles.

Those who went the other way with Wang Dalin questioned the group who went with Xiao Lin. Although many people continued to express doubt, their acknowledgment of Xiao Lin as acting monitor rose rather considerably.

Xiao Lin’s night was bound to be a restless one. Someone posted his phone number on the forum and he received all kinds of unfamiliar calls, mostly from other classes’ students. Everyone came to ask him about it after hearing that he was going to return to Earth. Their purpose of making such indirect inquiries was to ask him to help them a little if it was convenient.

In the beginning, Xiao Lin listened more carefully for the simple fact that they were all freshmen. The initial requests were quite typical, such as conveying their greetings to their parents, visiting their children, boyfriends, or girlfriends. Xiao Lin had to turn them down politely.

Department Head Song mentioned earlier that their return to Earth was to smoothen their journey. Due to Judge Academy’s urgent request, they would have to reach American soil quickly before entering Judge Academy. Xiao Lin was unsure whether he had enough free time to move around, because even if he did, the first thing he would do was go back to his own home.

As time went by however, more and more people heard about it and called Xiao Lin with increasingly strange requests. Examples include bringing game consoles or magazines, to the video highlights of the latest ball games. Some even made cryptic requests for him to download ‘colorful[1]’ movies...

Life at Dawn Academy was generally quite boring, despite the academy’s stellar job in terms of providing material goods. Although the accommodation and food provided were excellent, there were no TV shows, no Internet, no magazines, no games, no anime, no sports games, and no fiction novels. Truthfully speaking, it was very hard to bear.

Xiao Lin had no idea whether to laugh or cry because of that. He eagerly switched off his phone and had no plans to answer anyone’s calls. He went to Earth because it was incidental to the journey, not because he was going there on vacation.

Half an hour later however, there was a knock on his room door. Xiao Lin guessed that it was probably someone who wanted to make a request for him to bring something back. He wanted to ignore it, but the person who knocked was very persistent and it grew so loud that it interfered with his rest.

Xiao Lin got up angrily and opened the door, ready to unleash a wave of profanities on the person. When he saw the pretty figure in front of the door, he swallowed his cruel words and smiled kindly. "Is that you, Gu Xiaoyue? What a surprise. Please, come in. Oh, wait, no, wait a moment."

The person standing beautifully outside the door was Gu Xiaoyue and Xiao Lin was just about to welcome her into his room. All of a sudden however, Xiao Lin remembered something and closed the door. He hurried back in and threw the unwashed socks and underwear into his drawer before tidying up his messy bed. He scanned all around and decided that everything looked okay. Barely a few steps later, he sniffed the air and immediately opened the window.

Once that was all done, he opened the door again. Gu Xiaoyue glanced at him blankly and walked straight in, with Xiao Lin following her from behind. He looked at the girl’s delicately-fair yet still-indifferent face and was unable to immediately discern the reason for her late-night visit. As someone with a very precise schedule, she went to bed early and woke up early too. There was hardly ever a time when she went out at night, much less visit her classmates.

In fact, after a month since their enrolment, Xiao Lin suspected that the only person Gu Xiaoyue knew in the entire freshmen year was himself, and barely so. She often kept a polite and aloof distance from other people, and her acquaintance with Xiao Lin was only limited to academic exchanges, especially in spell-related courses. The two of them occasionally discussed it, but it went without saying Xiao Lin was usually the one asking her for tutelage.

Gu Xiaoyue was a girl of few words. She sat on the bedside ever since she walked in and her pearly white teeth were chewing her lips slightly. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was hesitant to actually speak up.

Xiao Lin smiled and broke the awkward silence. "Did you want my help to bring something back for you after hearing that I’ll be returning to Earth soon?"

Gu Xiaoyue brushed the hair around her ears and straightened her glasses. She nodded earnestly and acknowledged. "Mm."

Xiao Lin was only joking, but he ended up feeling rather surprised after getting a positive reply. "Huh? Uh... Ok, ok, what do you need me to bring back for you?"

"Nothing. I need your help to send something back." Gu Xiaoyue lowered her head slightly. A girl as independent as her was probably unaccustomed to asking others for help and there was a touch of unexpected shyness in her tone. After thinking for a while, she immediately explained, "I originally wanted to wait until I got into sophomore year. I wanted to use my chance to go to Earth and personally give her this, but it might be a long time before we can see each other and I’m scared it’ll be a cause for concern, so I just want to..."

"It’s okay, I understand. What do you need me to take? I can only guarantee that I’ll do my best, because I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time after returning to Earth." Xiao Lin felt it imprudent to explain too much about Judge Academy’s invitation, but the girl’s tone made him feel rather jealous.

Send what to whom? Could it be Gu Xiaoyue’s boyfriend on Earth?

Xiao Lin thought about it and realized—albeit rather reluctantly—that his mood worsened a little because of that.

[1] In case anyone doesn’t get this, 色 in the usual sense of the word refers to color, but euphemistically it can refer to anything along the lines of sex/sexual/perverted/explicit (you get the idea).