"Just... sleep on it first, okay?" I said, ping the bridge of my nose. "Don't rush into this- I know you're not immortal, but humans live plenty long enough, and you really do have a lot of time to figure it out."

  "There's nothing to figure out," Faith said, firmly. "This is the only reasonable choice- Justice was the ideal I thought Hano's Padins represented, but... Now I know better, and I know where to find Justice at the source."

  "Not today," I said firmly. "Tomorrow, if you're still sure, but... Not today. Promise me at least that much, Faith."

  "Fine," Faith said. "I promise."

  "Thank you," I said, pulling her into a tight hug, and shooting Volex the nastiest gre I could manage, putting a lot of magicka into an Occult expression of 'you're an asshole and you are not helping.'

  She simply smirked back at me, a smug look written upon her face.

  "Alright," I said, patting her on the back. "Let's head over to the Uy, yeah? Might as well-"

  There came a kno the rear door to the van, and I blihe hell was...

  "I'll get it," Volex said, heading for the door, and opening it up. "Oh, hello there. You must be Jason Goldmist-Rosewood."

  "That would be me," the man standing there said, nodding. He was a tall, broad man with an impressive, yet well-groomed, beard and long, well-coiffed hair- both of which shared the same golden hue of his skin and even his irises. Outwardly, he wore the guise of an elf, but uhat guise thrummed a very distinctive magical signature that very obviously didn't fit any elf or human I'd ever met.

  There was only one Gold Dragon alive, these days, and evidently, that was him.

  "Is Joseph Iro-" Jason tinued, before his gaze nded on me. "Ah, he is. May I e in, please?"

  "...Sure," I said, nodding. "Are you... with the Uy of Mount Fate?"

  "I am, yes," Jason said, nodding, as he stepped inside, Volex closing the door behind him. "Jason Goldmist-Rosewood, Deputy Headmaster of the Uy of Mount Fate, and... well, yrandfather. It's o meet you, Joseph."

  "...Jason..." I repeated, before blinking. "...Are you that Jason? The one Helen thinks Mom is mad at her about, who Mom further described as a dead man once Helen wasn't present to tradict her?"

  Jason winced. "That... does sound like Ariel, yes. It's... I'd rather not go into it, personally. I simply wao meet my grandson, and-"

  "You're kinda not his grandfather, though," Talia pointed out. "His mom is a Silver- she has fully rejected her family, and that includes you."

  "Talia, don't," I said wearily. "We don't o antagohe puy just yet. If it turns out we 't get along, then sure, we ask him to leave and I'll refuse to call him grandfather, but so far, all he's done is knoy door and say it's o meet me. So, Jason, what brings you to our caravan?"

  "Formally, my duties include handling the intake of freshmen each year, and ensuring that everyone ends up with css schedules they at least tolerate," Jason said. "You are the only freshman adventuring party that's likely to arrive today, and as such, it is entirely reasonable for me to e to you, and discuss matters at a leisurely pace. Informally, however... Well, you hardly bme a man for wanting to meet his only grandson, you?"

  "Is his mom an only child?" Faith asked.

  "As it so happens, yes," Jason said, nodding. "Helen and I have never ceived, for a variety of reasons that are all too personal to go into here and now, but the e is that Ariel is, in fact, Helen's only daughter."

  "So, is there anything we take that's not in the orientation packet Helen gave us?" Talia asked. "I'm curious about General Alchemy, but I'm not married to it, y'know? What else is there?"

  "Unfortunately, what is in the packet is the full extent of what we have on offer," Jason said. "We may have more resources at our disposal than most other uies, but the simple fact of the matter is that we only offer so many different courses, given the small size and exclusivity of our student popution. There are graduate-level courses on offer, of course, but those will only you when you've earned a Bachelor's, which will likely be a good few years, depending on how well you do with your Pt Exams."

  "Pt Exams?" Emily repeated.

  "Pt Exams," Jason firmed, nodding. "There are a number of them that we have on offer, and you are free to take as many as you like. The purpose is to determine your existing skill level in a given subject with far more detail and accuracy than standardized Certificates , and they will enable you to skip csses that teach material you may already know."

  "Iing..." Talia said.

  "I saw that there's a sort of... 'Padin Studies' track," I said. "How firmly is that for Padins, and how well do you expect it to adapt to someone who's not a Padin, and instead is some other kind of knight, such as, say, an Elven Mage-Knight?" Or, y'knoostate Padin who was gonna try to bee a cleric of The Mother?

  "Quite well, actually," Jason said. "It's fairly popur with Fighters as well, who tend to be rather less ed with the finer points of theology than Padins are."

  "Fair enough," I said, trying desperately to not let myself get sidetracked thinking about the Fighter's Guild. Because the thing about the Fighter's Guild was that, while they weren't w-enfort and they didn't hassle civilians all the time, they were still elite warriors who sidered everyone around them to be worthless chaff, and they very much had fought alongside the Padins in the War of the Roses, and- oh goddamnit. Ugh. I hate the Fighter's Guild ter. Right now, though, I had other shit to deal with. "So, what would you reend for someone who wants to study mounted bat, and Are magid Occult magid Divine magid who, perhaps, might also have a strong grounding and tinued i in maing ssh engineering, but is aware that it could probably stand to be set aside for a few years while he focuses on other things?"

  Jason tilted his head to the side.

  "...I would reend wanting something else," Jason said primly. "Failing that, I would reeing low expectations for yourself regarding your yearly progress on those skills, and perhaps iating a higher term limit with the Headmistress so that you finish out each of those courses in full."

  "I see," I said, quietly.

  "However," Jason tinued, "the situation is not quite so bad as it seems, if this truly is for you. I am well aware that Ariel is one of the greatest Wizards to walk the Earth, and if you bear to set your Are studies aside for four years, then you simply return home and tinue learning from her once you're done here. Likewise, I am aware that the fetg dy with the purple skin is your Succubus Familiar, and am quite fident that she tutor you quite extensively in the Occult as well. And, finally... Divine magic is not somethiruly teach, here, as it is, more often than not, a matter of your particur retionship with your deity, and we only give an introductory course that is only helpful to the truly rank beginner. May I ask what God you are a cleric of, Joseph?"

  "The Father," I said.

  "...The God of Time," Jason said. "Well. In that case, young man, I would like to retract my cautionary advice, and will simply wish you good luck."

  "Is the Knight Studies track a full-time thing, or should I take some other stuff too?" Faith asked. "Also, whehe pt exams held?"

  "There are a few rounds of them over the summer," Jason said. "There's actually a round of them starti week, if you'd like to sign up for those now, ahem out of the way."

  "Fine by me," Faith said.

  "I have brain damage," I said. "Is there another round that's, like... two weeks out?"

  "I, uh... Yes," Jason said, a little taken aback. "Are you quite alright, Joseph?"

  "I died three times yesterday. The fact I walk and hold a versation is nothing short of a miracle."

  "Aren't you a Druid?" Emily asked, fag Talia, and clearly wanting to ge the subject. "Is there a reason you're not taking Druid csses?"

  "Yeah, because those do," Talia said with a shrug. "Primal magi't something you learn in a . It's about your retionship with the Livih, and there's only so much that other people help with that."

  "There are a few courses," Jason said. "But, well... They're more for preparing someoo bee a Druid, and ohey are a Druid, then Talia is correct: a setting simply is not appropriate for a Druid's skillset."

  "That actually raises another question," I said, turning to face Emily. "You're a full-on Healer, meaning you've already graduated medical school, and have a Doctorate. How is that going to affect Emily's courseload?"

  "Mainly, it will exempt her from a number of basic courses that she would normally be required to take, on the grounds she has already taken them," Jason said. "Now, I am going to o fill out some paperwork with each of yarding decred majors and pt exams, but once we've finished all of that business, would you be ied in a tour of campus?"

  I looked around, and nobody was actively resentful of the idea, so I turned and said, "Sure, why not. We o figure out where the caravan parking is."

  "Excellent! Now, let me see..." He reached into the inside of his jacket, and produced a stack of papers, along with a fountain pen. "Who wishes to go first?"

  AnnouAs always, if you like Iro and wao keep making it, the best way to do that is to leave a ent, here or on my discord server.

  Also, I'm taking suggestions for publius chapters iween books. The ideas I've currently ge from "The remaining Kings of Hell react to the political upheaval caused by Paimon's death" to "Joseph Iro visits a neighbor and pys dominoes." Anything goes.