Just as Xie Shian was about to change into a shirt with a looser neckline, someone knocked on his door.
The knock was very light, sounding only twice, as if the person was afraid of disturbing whoever was inside the room.
Xie Shian buttoned the topmost button of his shirt back up before opening the door to find a red-haired boy standing outside, similarly dressed in the academy’s formal uniform set.
“Good afternoon.” The red-haired boy bowed slightly, performing a greeting gesture, “I heard from Steward Owen that a new transfer student had arrived, so I specifically came to take a look.”
Xie Shian returned the greeting and replied, “Good afternoon, I just arrived at the school today.”
“My room is right next door, so we’ll be neighbors from now on.” The red-haired boy’s eyes curved, a pair of fox-like eyes filled with a smile as he appeared polite and gentlemanly.
The fox-like neighbor invited him, “It just happens to be afternoon tea time. Would you like to try some pastries? They’re right down in the courtyard garden.”
Xie Shian agreed and went downstairs with his fox-like neighbor, arriving at the small garden behind the castle, which featured a dedicated afternoon tea area.
The garden was quite lively, with over a dozen students chatting amongst themselves. The tables were laden with all kinds of desserts, snacks, cold drinks, and hot tea.
“Thanks for waiting, here is our mysterious transfer student.” The fox-like neighbor led Xie Shian into the center of the crowd.
The fox-like neighbor held considerable influence among the first-year freshmen, and the students eagerly gathered around, full of curiosity about the new arrival.
“A new classmate? I heard he’s the young master of the Xie family.”
“No wonder Steward Owen was moving so many things over yesterday. He must be staying in that room on the third floor, right?”
With seven or eight people clustered around, Xie Shian took a glance and noticed that everyone had black hair and black eyes, wearing identical formal uniform sets. They looked so similar that it was completely impossible to tell who was who.
“Everyone, don’t scare our new classmate.” The fox-like neighbor led Xie Shian over to the dining table and picked up a serving of dessert, saying, “Have something to eat first.”
Xie Shian picked up the silver cutlery from the tray and looked at the small portion of dessert on the plate in front of him, feeling as though it could be swallowed in a single bite without needing any utensils at all.
Yet when he looked up, he saw that the other students were all holding their cutlery with practiced elegance, and even his fox-like neighbor sitting across from him was pouring tea in a leisurely, unhurried manner.
The fox-like neighbor seemed to notice Xie Shian’s hesitation and smiled, saying, “Just relax, it’s fine to loosen up a bit in the dormitory area; you won’t get points deducted.”
Pouring a cup of black tea, the fox-like neighbor placed the cup in front of Xie Shian and asked, “Have you chosen your courses yet?”
Xie Shian picked up the tea cup and replied, “Not yet. I’m taking the entrance test tomorrow first, and I’ll select my courses after that.”
Hearing this, a boy sitting opposite him offered a warning, “Choose whatever you want, but definitely don’t choose close-combat. Going there just means getting beaten up.”
“There’s a close-combat class?” Xie Shian was somewhat surprised, having assumed this academy only taught etiquette.
His fox-like neighbor helpfully explained, “Aside from academic subjects, the academy also has practical combat classes, where you can choose between close-combat or long-range streams.”
The academy’s practical combat classes were split into two major categories: close-combat and long-range. However, because close-combat classes were prone to injuries and messy encounters, the majority of students opted for long-range classes, attacking opponents via psychic power.
The boy opposite him sighed, “I should have chosen long-range. Maybe I’d even have a chance to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.”
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
Catching the keyword, Xie Shian gently set down his teacup.
Holding his cutlery, the fox-like neighbor cut the dessert on his plate into small portions and remarked, “His Highness rarely comes to school, so it’s very hard to run into him.”
Perhaps because it involved a member of the imperial family, the topic was not pursued deeply and quickly came to an end.
Regarding course selection, the fox-like neighbor offered a suggestion: “If you’re picking courses, you can take a look at the posts on the campus forum.”
After afternoon tea, Xie Shian returned to his room, took off the mechanical wristband from his left wrist, examined it, and located the power switch.
The mechanical wristband projected a virtual screen into the air, displaying the initial setup page which required configuring personal nickname information.
Skipping the setup interface entirely, Xie Shian tapped open the academy’s anonymous forum.
[Topic Thread: Help, how do I appeal a point deduction?]
[Topic Thread: I’ve had enough of wearing long sleeves and long pants every day! I really want to go streaking in a blaze of glory once!]
[Topic Thread: Urgent urgent urgent! Does anyone have extra spare buttons?! Desperately needed! I can’t afford to get any more points deducted!]
Perhaps because the academy had too many rules and operated under a closed management system, the students tended to feel rather suppressed in their daily lives, leaving them to vent wildly on the anonymous forum.
The front page was filled with discussion threads. Scrolling down, Xie Shian clicked on a post concerning the close-combat fighting class.
[Topic Thread: Just finished close-combat class! That gave me a great beating and I loved it!]
[Thread Content: Hehe, glad I chose close-combat! So refreshing! No gloves required! Buttons can be unbuttoned however you want! The inspection department can’t deduct points from you, it’s amazing! Choosing close-combat next semester too! Never obeying school rules again!]
[1L:? Oh no, another one’s gone crazy.]
[2L: Diagnosis confirmed, the OP is suspected of having suffered too many point deductions from the inspection department and has lost their mind.]
[3L: Sigh, actually I’ve wanted to unbutton my shirt for a long time. Having all buttons fastened is genuinely suffocating.]
Xie Shian browsed through several more posts until he reached the next page, where he suddenly spotted a thread about the Crown Prince—
[Topic Thread: Is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince returning to school soon?]
[Thread Content: The diplomatic ceremony is over, so His Royal Highness should already be back on Planet Ater. He’ll probably be returning to school soon too.]
[1L: Pretty much. Anyway, His Highness doesn’t spend much time at school normally anyway.]
[2L: To correct the person above, strictly speaking, His Highness comes to school once a month for individual monthly exams.]
There weren’t many replies to this post; even on an anonymous forum, nobody dared to recklessly discuss members of the imperial family.
The Crown Prince of the Ater Empire was extremely mysterious. In all public records, the Crown Prince was always depicted wearing a mask and a long robe, making it impossible to even discern his build.
However, according to the information on the forum, the Prince came to school once a month for examinations, and he was likely due back at school sometime this month.
Exiting the forum, Xie Shian returned to his bedroom to rest.
The exam was scheduled for nine o’clock in the morning. Early the next morning, Xie Shian set out two hours ahead of time.
The wristband system featured an automatic navigation function, though the route proposed by the system was quite cumbersome: it required walking a huge circle around the dormitories to exit through the main gate, heading to the lakeshore to loop around the bank, walking half a circle along the outer perimeter of the flower wall, and finally pinning the destination to the front entrance of a palace.
When Xie Shian arrived at the main entrance, he saw Steward Owen already waiting on the steps beside the gate.
“Young Master Shian, please follow me.” The steward led Xie Shian into the palace.
Entering the palace required walking up a long flight of stairs flanked by extended corridors, with an open-air garden in the middle where a dozen or so students were sitting gracefully around a long table laden with tea sets.
Walking along the corridor, Xie Shian glanced toward the garden and first noticed a long-haired boy with his black hair tied back. The style of his formal wear was somewhat more ornate, featuring a deep red and black color scheme.
Among a crowd of students wearing black formal wear, a boy in deep red attire with unique long hair stood out quite distinctly.
Observing the garden from afar, Xie Shian asked, “Steward Owen, is the garden preparing for afternoon tea?”
Steward Owen glanced sideways and explained mildly, “Third-year students are having their class; it should be Professor Arnold’s tea culture class.”
The students in the garden had already begun eating their desserts, leisurely using cutlery to slice cakes—it looked less like a class and more like an ongoing banquet.
Curious, Xie Shian asked again, “So the tea culture class just teaches students how to drink tea and eat cake?”
Steward Owen smiled and said, “You could indeed understand it simply as drinking tea and eating cake. If you’re interested, you can also elect to take this course.”
Soon, the steward guided Xie Shian through the corridors to a room at the very back of the palace to take the entrance assessment.
The entrance assessment at Luoxi Academy was split into two parts: a written test and a psychic power test. The written test consisted of multiple-choice questions regarding etiquette and psychic power, followed by a psychic power level test.
The process was swift, and before long, Xie Shian’s psychic power test results came out, registering right at the passing level.
Looking at the psychic power test results on the light screen combined with the written test scores, Steward Owen offered his advice: “Your foundation is relatively weak. Aside from basic academic courses, it would be best for you to take history and table etiquette as electives, and I recommend choosing the close-combat direction for your practical combat class.”
After pondering for a moment, Xie Shian still asked, “Steward Owen, can I choose long-range for my practical combat class?”
The Crown Prince took the long-range class.
The steward replied tactfully, “If you choose long-range, your psychic power training will be quite demanding and you might struggle to keep up with the coursework.”
The academy’s long-range classes demanded very high standards for psychic power, and noble students had all undergone psychic power training since childhood. Young Master Xie Shian had previously lived on a fringe planet without many psychic power training resources, making the long-range class less suitable.
The steward added considerately, “The close-combat class also incorporates some foundational psychic power training. You can start with close-combat and switch to long-range once you advance to the upper grades.”
Pursing the matter no further, Xie Shian stepped up to the light screen and selected close-combat under the practical combat column, added history and table etiquette as elective cultural courses, and casually threw in the tea culture class as well.
After submitting his course selections, Steward Owen said, “Your schedule has been generated and can be viewed by logging into the wristband system. The schedule will also indicate classroom routes and special class requirements, such as changing into specific types of formal wear or bringing spare gloves.”
With that, Steward Owen took his leave to attend to other matters.
Walking leisurely out of the classroom alone and onto the outer corridor, Xie Shian noticed that the open-air courtyard garden had become empty—the group of students from earlier were gone, presumably because class had ended.
Xie Shian opened the wristband system and checked the route back to his dormitory.
Currently positioned at the innermost part of the palace, walking back to his dormitory required walking all the way to the front entrance to exit, then following the perimeter wall around to the very back of the palace and taking a shortcut path.
Why couldn’t I just walk in a straight line back?
Changing direction, Xie Shian bypassed the front gate entirely and headed straight toward the rear wall.
The area surrounding the wall was a patch of flowerbeds with not a soul in sight. Walking straight through the flora, Xie Shian arrived at the base of the wall.
The wall was roughly two to three meters high. Taking off his gloves and stuffing them into his coat pockets, Xie Shian placed his hands against the wall, leveraged his strength with a light leap, and smoothly hoisted himself up onto the top of the wall.
Just as Xie Shian was preparing to vault over, a cold male voice suddenly sounded from behind him—
“Violating school rules, climbing the wall. Deduct one point.”
Pausing in his tracks, Xie Shian turned his head to look and saw a long-haired boy standing in the flowerbed, holding a black-covered notebook and looking down as he wrote something in it.
Even though there was not a single person around just a moment ago, someone had silently appeared out of thin air without a sound of footsteps.
Holding his fountain pen, the long-haired boy leisurely finished writing down the point deduction record. When he looked up and noticed Xie Shian’s bare hands, he spoke again: “Failure to wear gloves. Deduct one point.”
Left with no choice, Xie Shian jumped down from the wall first, dusting off his hands.
The other person was wearing a deep-red formal coat adorned with a silvery-white snake-shaped school emblem on his left chest. As Xie Shian looked over, he caught the name on the emblem—
Si Xiu.
The long-haired boy also noticed the school emblem on Xie Shian’s chest and slowly read out the name inscribed on it: “Xie Shian.”
Si Xiu’s speech was slow, as if recalling the name. Noticing that Xie Shian’s face looked unfamiliar and that he hadn’t seen him before, he asked, “Are you a freshman this year? I don’t seem to have seen you around before.”
“I just transferred here yesterday.” Xie Shian fished his gloves out of his pocket and put them back on. “Senior, does this point deduction affect my grades, or what kind of points are these?”
He had seen some posts about point deductions on the forum yesterday, but since he hadn’t clicked into them, he wasn’t clear on the specific rules.
“Violating school rules results in a deduction of your participation/conduct grade.” Si Xiu put his fountain pen back into his pocket, tapped lightly on his wristband to summon a light screen, typed in Xie Shian’s name, and pulled up his student file panel.
The files showed that Xie Shian had indeed arrived at the school only yesterday, and even his entrance assessment results had been uploaded just a few minutes prior.
However, anyone within the school grounds was required to abide by the school rules.
Logging the point deduction, Si Xiu raised his eyes to look at the other person and asked, “Are you lost? The main entrance isn’t this way.”
Xie Shian gave a vague response, too embarrassed to admit that his wall-climbing was just an attempt to take a shortcut and save time.
As Si Xiu completed his actions, Xie Shian noticed his wristband suddenly vibrate with a notification.
Opening the virtual screen of his wristband system, Xie Shian immediately spotted two point-deduction alerts—
[Climbing the wall, deducted 1 point. Remaining points: 99.]
[Failure to wear gloves, deducted 1 point. Remaining points: 98.]
Not far away, Si Xiu had already closed his light screen and said, “I’ll lead you out.”
“Sorry for the trouble, Senior.” Obediently following behind Si Xiu, Xie Shian headed toward the exit.
It was quite a long walk from the wall to the palace’s front entrance. Senior Si Xiu didn’t seem particularly fond of talking, leaving the surroundings in absolute silence save for the sound of their footsteps.
As they passed by the garden, a breeze blew past, rustling the leaves continuously and carrying over the scent of flowers, seemingly mixed with some unnamable, crisp, cool fragrance reminiscent of wood.
Withdrawing his gaze, Xie Shian grew bored and stared at the senior’s back.
From a distance earlier he hadn’t been able to see clearly, but now that they were closer, he noticed that the senior’s deep-red formal coat was covered in intricate black patterns.
With the coat being a mid-length design paired with long boots, he looked as though he could step into an elegant banquet at any second.
Bored enough to start studying the shapes of the patterns on the coat, Xie Shian realized before he knew it that they had already reached the palace gates.
Stopping before the steps, Si Xiu said, “Don’t climb walls next time you get lost.”
Xie Shian nodded in acknowledgment. The two parted ways at the gate, and Xie Shian walked down the steps, heading in the direction of the dormitory.
As soon as he returned to his dorm, Xie Shian immediately logged onto the forum and searched for threads related to point deductions, only then realizing that the senior he had run into today was a member of the Inspection Department.
The Inspection Department was the most special department in the academy. Its members were on duty every day, and once they caught a student violating school rules, they would deduct points from their conduct score.
Patiently browsing through the forum posts about the Inspection Department, Xie Shian felt his neck itch from rubbing against his shirt collar, so he took off his gloves and loosened his neckline.
[Advice from an old senior: The easiest trap for freshmen to step into is improper attire! Always check before leaving every day to make sure your buttons are fully fastened and your school emblem is attached! Your gloves must be worn too! Otherwise, getting caught by the Inspection Department means getting points deducted!]
[Every incoming freshman is issued a small rule booklet. Read through it whenever you have time, and ideally memorize all the school rules on it!]
[You must be careful! Having too many points deducted will get you expelled!]
Seeing these forum replies, Xie Shian fished the school rule booklet out from the corner and began studying it all over again.
As expected of the most famous noble academy in the interstellar realm, it really was strict.