Beautiful Mistake Chapter 6: Somewhat Strange
The schedules that Baldr prepared is a basic but specialised lesson plan for Alya and Bell.
With Bell's natural talent in combat and adaptability, further amplified by his secret skill, his schedule is packed with advanced classes along with the basic lessons that would expand his repertoire of skills and further refine them to perfection.
Alya on the hand received a very basic lesson plan suited for new students that didn't have a clear desire on what they would want but enough to help them find a wide range of careers.
Everything from the class schedules to the newly drafted official documents for the siblings were absolutely perfect without a detail out of place that would draw suspicion on them… except maybe a few altered details.
Alya's own documents didn't have anything unusual from an outside perspective since it detailed how she spent most of her early childhood travelling with her mother, never settling down in one place too long and mostly mingling in mixed race communities. Eventually Alya's mother contracted a terminal illness that forced her to hand guardianship over to a human couple to raise alongside their grandson.
Thankfully Baldr was there to help ease the confusion and explained everything. Gesturing for his new children to sit down and get comfortable, he brought up several pre-signed documents that bore Liane's name and other papers.
It turns out Liane had prepared for her death years in advance before Alya was born, writing plenty of letters to certain individuals and signing documents to be kept by Alya's grandparents until they were needed today.
"Elven laws dictate that with the death of a parent, children would be raised by the closest blood relative or raised by the community of their home forest. Under normal circumstances you should have been sent back to Ryumilua Forest to be raised either by your mother's relatives or the community."
Baldr went on to talk about the rigidity of how elves deal with their children, as blood ties are seen as the ultimate bond along with purity of the race. A child was seen as the most precious part of elven society, with their long lives and low birth rates ensuring that the next generation must be raised with the utmost care and taught "properly".
Baldr grimaced. "Adoptions are not treated as seriously in elven society as they place great importance in blood relations. But the protocol is still in place on how to deal with them and these documents that your mother had left behind eased any burden and scrutiny on you."
With Liane official written statements and signatures, Alya didn't have to worry about nosy people looking into her life on why she was raised with a human family in an isolated community far away from her own people. It wasn't a perfect arrangement but it was legally in the clear and wouldn't force Alya and Bell to separate with the deaths of their grandparents.
"Since all of this is now legally in the clear, why can't I just continue using 'Cranel' as my last name?" asked Alya.
"Unfortunately, last name changes are only applicable for marriages. Your adoption into the Cranel family won't raise any red flags once we place you in the system but you will have to continue using your mother's last name." replied Baldr, trying to give an encouraging smile but also looking displeased over the circumstances.
And so the siblings finalized their registration into the school, with Alya reluctantly signing off the documents with her mother's last name. To the surprise of everyone especially Alya, Bell didn't seem to be particularly upset at the radical changes with how deeply attached he is to his sister.
"It doesn't really matter what everyone thinks or what's written on some papers. You're still my sister no matter what. Also, I think it's neat that you have something to remind you of Aunt Liane." Said Bell, giving his sister a small peck on her cheek before playfully flicking the tip of her right ear.
The young elf let out a small yelp and chased Bell around the office, with Baldr laughing at their antics.
Alya's meeting with her new roommate was both less awkward than she thought it would be but at the same time still very awkward.
Such a thing was to be expected when you didn't interact with others regularly and lived in isolation for a long time like she did, with the trend continuing even when she arrived on the ship.
Once she and Bell had received their schedules and officially registered as students, they were able to finally leave the main campus building and head towards the dormitories to meet their designated roommate and guide.
The original plan when arriving on the ship was to spend their first week familiarizing themselves with Hringhorni's various facilities and staff as well as interacting with other students. But with the sudden death of their grandparents, the siblings needed time to themselves to grieve and fully process their sudden loss.
So they had spent much of their time isolated in the main campus building, having only each other and Headmaster Baldr along with the sporadic appearance of Professor Vardenburg to keep them company.
But while Bell still had his social skills somewhat intact and is fully capable of interacting with others without difficulty, Alya had zero chances to not make a fool of herself when required to be social.
It was a painful walk for Alya as she had to awkwardly ask a couple of students who were either gawking at her or tried to chat her up instead of giving the directions she asked.
Thankfully there were some people who didn't make things worse for her and helped her out, albeit still treating her like the most interesting thing they had encountered with shining eyes and a slight stutter in their voices.
The student who volunteered to be her guide and roommate is a half-elf named Nina Tulle, a relatively new student who registered a year earlier than Alya but had enough experience to help her navigate the school.
Despite being a year younger than her, Nina somehow had a more mature appearance and was the same height as her. The half-elf was also quite the beauty with long brown hair that had a small streak of green on the front.
It turns out Alya wasn't the only one nervous as Nina had spent the first few minutes staring at her at the doorway before quickly apologizing and ushering Alya inside the room.
Once both of them entered the dorm, they had stared at each other for a couple more minutes until they tried speaking at the same time. This resulted in another couple minutes of awkward silence that dragged on until Alya tried once again to ease the tension.
She failed of course.
Alya had thought that shaking hands would be a good step forward in introducing each other, extending her hand to Nina, and letting her arm linger in the air. Nina had instead switched from staring at Alya's face to her hand, an expression of great confusion now replacing the nervousness of before.
It felt like time was slowed down to a crawl when Nina eventually responded and grasped Alya's hand. There was no more movement after that as the half-elf continued to firmly grasp the other girl's hand in hers.
With the situation not getting any better and their embarrassment reaching to such heights that it would be impossible for things to get more awkward the girls said the first thing that came in their minds.
"You have soft hands?", said the girls at the same time.
The silence continued again for an indeterminate amount of time before the ridiculousness of it all made them both laugh out loud.
"Nice to meet you, Nina."
"Nice to meet you too, Alya."
All in all, it was a start of a strange but beautiful friendship.
The days seem to pass in a blur after Alya and Nina's memorable meeting, with both girls starting a close friendship despite their social fumbling.
Nina took her duties as a guide seriously, passionately guiding Alya around the campus and explaining more about the School District's facilities along with the institution itself.
Walking down the one of the many halls of the school, Nina gave a summary on the school's history as well as the background on the ship itself.
"The Maritime Academic Institutions Special District or School District for short is unarguably one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. Founded long ago as recruiting drive by the Zeus and Hera Familia, the school has now evolved to becoming a centre for raising new generations of extraordinary individuals as well as scientific and magical research!" said Nina, stars in her eyes as she continued to sing praises of the school's illustrious history.
Similar to what Baldr had explained, the School District was originally an extension of the Zeus and Hera alliance operations. Both familia needed a way to extend their influence beyond Orario as well as recruiting more talent and nurturing them.
Eventually they pooled their vast resources to construct the grand vessel Hringhorni, a floating fortress capable of withstanding the assaults of those possessing a god's blessing and the monsters of titanic size and strength.
By now any information that Nina imparted was just a repeat on what was covered by Baldr, but Alya didn't want to interrupt her friend's monologue and just took note of the additional information that the excited half-elf eagerly shared.
They spent the rest of the day wandering on the further edges of the school before capping off the tour at the cafeteria, which resembled more of a grand banquet hall of a mansion than a place for unruly youths to stuff their faces.
Like many parts Hringhorni, the cafeteria itself was built with an elegant but sturdy design. Many tables and chairs dotted around the hall as both student and faculty bustled around to get their meals and sit down to chat with their compatriots before tucking in.
Aside from gourmet meals cooked with the finest ingredients and culinary techniques nearly unmatched in the world, the cafeteria also had a couple of independent food stands that sold food not cooked in the kitchens.
One of these stands sold a snack that Nina particularly enjoyed, the fried potato snack or better known as Jagamarukun.
"Behold! The greatest snack in the whole world!" declared Nina, holding her potato snack reverently as she sat down next to Alya. But before she could take a bite out of her custom ordered Jagamarukun, she gazed in horror at Alya's meal.
"What in the name of all that is good are you eating?!"
Alya was perplexed by Nina's shock at her meal since it didn't have anything particularly exotic. She had a stack of pancakes drizzled in maple syrup and topped with butter along with another plate that had fried eggs, fried tomatoes, baked beans, hash browns and plenty of bacon.
"A hearty meal to last me until dinner?"
The younger girl flinched. "How can you stomach all of those large portions! And the grease, especially from all that meat…"
From her friend's ramblings Alya learned that elves in general prefer to eat small portions and abstain from consuming meat of any kind. As a race that values purity above all, they also strive to maintain a perfect diet consisting of only fruits and vegetables since they come from the earth, therefore being part of nature and aligns with the elven belief of being attuned to the natural world as the representation of all that is pure and perfect.
How Nina could say all of this while stuffing her face with a monstrous custom-made order of a deep-fried potato snack that had around 10 or more toppings and sauces, Alya didn't know. But to each their own she suppose.
"You're the salt of the earth, Nina…" thought Alya as she observed the half-elf grumpily devoured her Jagamarukun, finishing one in a few bites before reaching for another portion.
As the girls were walking back to their dorm after lunch, Nina was still trying to wrap her head around the mystery behind her friend.
When she first set her eyes on the other girl she was rendered speechless and was curious why a goddess was walking around campus alone, especially since this deity didn't look familiar to the other gods on board Hringhorni.
But looking at the girl's pointed ears made her realise that this beauty was not a god despite her appearance that rivals the divine but an elven maiden that stepped out of a fairy tale. The young half-elf was wrestling with awe and fear at having to be roomed with an elf as beautiful as her, assured that the epitome of elven beauty would also have an attitude to match.
But then Alya offered her hand to shake and the illusion shattered.
As Nina properly interacted with Alya, she realised that the image of the untouchable elven beauty was just judging on the surface as her new roommate and friend was unlike any other elf she had met.
While kind elves are not exactly a rarity, Alya did not carry herself like the usual open-minded elf. Despite trying their best to assimilate and connect with non-elves without prejudice, most elves still have trouble to act more personable and put up an emotional wall that makes them only slightly better than their prejudice kin. Even those that don't have this invisible social wall set up carry themselves with an awkwardness that would take time to fade.
Nina was just about to let her thoughts be known to her friend when suddenly a human boy made his way quickly towards Alya and engulfed her in his embrace, clinging to her with such intimacy that almost made the half-elf turn away out of embarrassment. But any assumptions of a romantic nature was quickly blown away when the boy introduced himself.
Many of Nina's questions about her friend were answered when she learned that the boy who embraced Alya so passionately was her brother.
It turns out that Alya has never set foot in her ancestral forest or any other elven territory, raised in a nomadic lifestyle by her mother before the woman succumbed to an illness. Alya's mother clung to life long enough to gift her last name to her daughter and arranged for her to be taken in by a kind elderly couple.
But Alya's eccentricities would continue to befuddle and amuse her half-elf roommate during their time together, in which Nina could only fondly respond with a sentence that became quite common.
"You are one strange elf, Alya Lion.
Author's Note:
…Happy belated new year?
So I kind of shot myself in the foot when starting the journey in the School District as many of details and facts I assumed about it was inaccurate and/or wrong. I'm going to do something that I quite dislike but at this point inevitable; steer away from canon source and supplant it with my own info.
I would rather stick to canon as close as possible while bending it respectfully so the story can remain rooted and not feel strange, but for the sake of the story progression this is unavoidable.
This chapter has been rewritten around 20-ish times because of how much I fucked up the timelines and other details but now I am swallowing my fear and just plunging in since the update of this story has gone too long.
To assure everyone, this story is not abandoned unless I announce it and I intend to complete this along with other works.
Funny thing is that I had many, many, many ideas about this story that I was so excited to implement but was stuck here to write a perfect chapter that wouldn't screw up the connection and confuse everyone.
Hopefully I won't ruin the School District too much and try to release future chapters faster. But constant rewrites and me worrying about the quality of a chapter has delayed it… for a very long time.
Thank you for being so patient and see you next time. Hopefully future chapters will be longer and improved!
Finn