Food and History
Your two tails sprung to life, curling to give you a warm embrace. You soon stood up, now more interested about the world around you and the magic system in place. It couldn’t be that hard compared to college right?
You spent the next hours reading through the different subjects. Suddenly, your stomach growled, craving for some food. Ah right, you didn’t eat at all. With your heightened sense of smell, you could navigate to the cafeteria without a map. Must be a perk of being a fox.
Changing into a blue blouse, you blushed as you looked at yourself in the mirror. You looked so cute in that blue blouse, something you would have taken a photo of in your old reality. Back there, you could never even fathom the thought of cross dressing, always thinking you were too cringe. Maybe this was always where you meant to be…
Your stomach complained once again, begging you to find some food. Grabbing your wallet, you walked towards the cafeteria. Your footsteps were lighter now almost as if a load had been lifted from you. Meanwhile your ear twitched around, eavesdropping conversations on others. Most of them were pointless gossip but once in a while, you hear your name.
‘Isn’t that Alice? I thought she dropped out?’
‘Apparently not, but they should expel her soon enough.’
You pushed their insults aside, briefly recalling what you had learnt. So far, there were three main subjects that Alice was taking: History, studying about the culture and various historical moments. Theoretical and Practical Magic where students learn the principles behind them and apply them in real life. Lastly, Alchemy where students produce potions and other useful solutions.
Essentially, it’s going to college all over again, majoring in Physics and Chemistry while having a minor in History. Judging by her test papers that hid inside the textbooks, she was scoring decently for History while Magic and Alchemy were all single digit grades.
Looking around the cafeteria, you quickly see a good majority of students were regular humans while a small handful of them were beastkin like you. According to your textbook, the denizens were divided into four types based on mana pool and manipulation.
For those that have no mana pool and manipulation, they were considered ‘Unblessed’, forgotten away by the creators of the world. Most of these would include examples of plants or small animals.
Then came those that had a little mana and can use it were considered ‘Graced’. This meant they could see the flow of magic and use magic themselves to a very finite extent. Most regular humans fall under this category.
As you queued to order the food, your ears twitched to hear nasty remarks about you. Your appearance, your personality and most importantly your inaptitude for magic. It only made sense from their perspective; this was a magic school where almost all the students were considered ‘Blessed’. They had a substantial mana pool, capable of casting higher tiered spells like a true wizard.
While most beastkins that entered were considered ‘Beloved’. Having too much mana to actually use it properly was akin to drowning in an ocean with little to no method to use it. Most of their mana are hidden within their various body parts from their tails to their fur.
If this was the price to pay for having warm fur and fluffy tails, you would take that trade in an instant. You blushed a little, reflecting on how quickly you were to be attached to your fur. Of course, the general consensus from nobles about beastkins was not the nicest. A freakshow between beasts and humans that got the worst of both worlds.
There was one last type that was considered ‘Treasured’ and that is having both a high mana pool with high mana manipulation capabilities. People have speculated dragons or other mythical creatures like phoenixes to possess such abilities. But due to how rare it was, it is simply a title with no real usage.
Once your food was served, you quickly went back to your seat. The loneliness stinging you a little with how everyone had a group that they belong to. Even the other Beastkins shunned you for trying to act like one of the humans.
It’s fine, it’s fine. This wasn’t the first time you've been through this situation. Back when you moved to other schools, you also were alone during lunch. Of course, you eventually made friends after the first week with you reaching out to them. But it still hurts.
As you munched on your chicken chop, your taste buds danced with flavor. God, was food always this good? Maybe the lack of all those processing that you were so used to enhanced the flavors.
Suddenly, your ears twitched, hearing more gossip from the other girls. You heard from the others about how toxic girls were to each other. Gossiping, spreading rumors and the number of dramas that you had witnessed in your multiple female friends scared you a little.
The gossip turned into giggling as you turned back to see a mixed group of beastkins and humans having lunch. The two girls pushed one of the quieter guys, an anthropomorphic gray wolf, daring him to ask her out. He knew that you could hear him and vice versa, creating an awkward scenario.
As he walked up to you, he strung the words together, “Hi…hi Alice, I am Lucas, a student like you. I would like to as..ask you out to a date…” His face was completely red, looking more like a fox than a wolf.
You chuckled. When was the last time you received such a prank? Middle school? Looking behind Lucas’ back, you could see them preparing to burst out laughing. Now what should you do here? Sure, you could accept this ‘date’ and slowly merge into their friend group. But why would you want to be with such garbage people?
Written by lim2357 on 30 December 2024