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“Here we are”, Josh spread his wings, eager to fly up to the building in front of them.

The main building of the school, the white tower.

The three of them didn’t exactly think of where they wanted to go but as soon as Josh saw a sign pointing to the library, he took the lead while Bill and Calamity followed quietly until they reached the south entrance of the white tower.

The building has a rectangular shape with around 10 floors with the white tower piercing out at the top. This building is the heart of city where all the main roads meet and circle the white tower.

From here in the open Bill can see his dorm in the south on the right side of the road and nearby, to the west, is a giant stadium that stands above the rest of the city.

As Bill looked inside the building, he noticed many city residents walking among the students even in the school building, “So many people here”

“Normally, the university or school grounds would restrict access to outsiders for student safety but this school's purpose is to make all races learn how to live with one another so they share it for public use in some area,” Josh explains.

“Can’t even imagine this in my country, if a lone herbivore randomly wanders around in predator city even with the treaty on hunting and killing other races, a missing person report still happens all the time.”

Hearing the missing part, Bill can’t help but ask, “No student has been missing before, right?”

“Yes, Alana is quite famous for never having a missing person or murder and all other crimes are low.” Calamity points up with his paw, “There’s a rumour that the chief of this city never sleeps and always be a watching eye that sees everything below.”

“And do you guys know that area near the top of the white tower is a no-fly zone?” Josh adds, “I received a warning as soon as I reached the gate, they seem to take this rule very seriously”

“Sounds pretty ominous for a building that we’re going to study in,” said Bill.

“Well, the peak of the tower is quite far from the top floor of this building so we should be fine. Besides, no way anyone is going to walk up all those steps if they won’t allow anyone to fly,” said Josh

The library is on the third to fifth floor, Josh seems eager to go but he only flies to the top stair of the next floor as he waits for his companion to catch up.

On their way up Bill sees that a first and second floor is a canteen which is properly why there’re so many people. As they reach the third floor a magpies come out of a door and fly off from the balcony in front of them.

This door is the entrance to the library which bears the symbol of Princess Alana, an A alphabet with a wing and instead of a straight line in the A letter, there is an eye there. At the top sign read.

Library of Alana

Where understanding brings us closer together

Josh eagerly opens the door and heads inside. Bill and Calamity follow.

Inside they found a hall of bookshelf line all around filled with colorful book and in the middle is a wide spiral stairway that connects all 3 floors together with a vast area for reading on all side. In the front, there is a round counter with a falcon, a male merlin, standing behind a pile of papers looking at a paper on his desk.

Seeing all those books fill Josh with excitement of which he can no longer contain himself.

“See you guy later, I might sleep here tonight though” Bill watches as Josh casually fly off and vanish into the bookshelf, leave Bill and Calamity standing at the entrance like a lost child.

Two of them glance at each other don’t know what to do. It was Josh idea to come here and now he just dumps both of them and leaves like that.

For Calamity this kind of situation is not in his training at all, therefor he only has one course of action left to deal with this.

“Um, can I help you guys?” A blue-grey back falcon with yellow beak looks up from his desk.

“Yes, we are new student...” Bill who still try to take everything in turns to Calamity for help only to catch the sight of his tail leaving the door “I mean...I’m looking for a book?”

‘Both of my new friends abandoned me, great, just great’

“Of course, which book are you looking for?”

‘Which book indeed’

Bill who got caught in the moment said the name of the only book he knew of “MAM Theory of Magic”

“That would be in Class 003 Magic Amass Manipulator system and function on this floor on our right side, would you like me to get that for you?” a grey falcon asks.

“Yes, please”, Bill just keeps answering yes by instinct from work in the factory. Saying no was never really an option if you wanted food on a table by the end of the day.

The falcon Librarian looks to the right before utter “Evenio” and a gust of wind gently pushes one book to fall off a shelf and float toward them before it lands on the counter in front of Bill.

Looking down at the book he read so many times he can recite word by word Bill looks back up with a crude smile “Thank you...Mr.?”

“You can call me Doran,” a falcon introduced himself “So you are a new student huh.”

Bill nodded his head, ‘he’s even taller than Josh but maybe because he is older?’

“From my experience with my human friend, I'd say you must be pretty scared, right?”

“Scare? I don’t scare at all” Bill stand tall acting confident because he know if he show weakness other people will just be taking advantage of him and his mother.

Doran tilted his head while smiling, “I'm once a student of this school too, you could say that I am your senior, just recently graduated really. So if you have any question don’t be afraid to ask me.”

‘A senior?’ Bill looks at Doran and after considering his position, he must admit that he really could use other people... and animal help.

“Yeah, I admit I am quite intimidated by...well, all this”

“By us Carnivorous right”, Doran lifted up his yellow feet showing a black sharp claw.

“That too” but for Bill it is more than that. Other human student at least have a wealth and power of their family to back them up. He has nothing. He could just vanish and nobody would be looking for him.

“You already got the bag from the dorm staff right? You should check what they have prepared for you first”

Bill remember that school staff have put his student ID card in there along with other stuff he would need but he didn’t check them yet.

“Next is get to know your roommate, I already see that you tried touring school with someone but he seems to leave you hanging haha”

Doran is quick to stop chuckling “but don’t take it personal. I bet he's properly scared too or just being shy, most of us are. It's the first time we get to be outside our tribe and home after all”

‘Calamity Scare? SHY?! No way...’

“Just give him a chance. Many of our cultures are very different and you’ll get to learn all about them in a class soon. And if you need a peace of mind, know that any attempt to eat or kill another student has never been successful before”

“Someone tried to eat their roommate?!”

“Well...yes, some races still hate each other to the gut. The Great War is not that long ago after all but don’t worry our school staff is really good at keeping peace”

Bill is now pale white.

Doran seeing his juniors losing hope before his very eyes starting to panic. He never advice a juniors before and he’s already failing hard for his first time.

For years he spent learning how to live together with other races and helping each other; he won’t let it just fail like this.

“How about I let you borrow this luck charm for a while?” Doran took a necklace that was hidden under his white feather off and offer it to Bill.

Bill snapped back and looked at the green small four-leaf clover necklaces in Doran’s wing.

“Is it ok for me to have this?” Bill afraid it might be valuable.

“Sure, my girlfriend gave this to me for good luck. Don’t worry, she won’t notice, even I forget that I was wearing this from time to time. I am very fluffy after all.” Doran fluffed his chest and wing up just to show off “Just don’t forget to return it to me once you settle in and feel safe around here” Doran let the necklaces slide down and slip into Bill hand.

“Thank you”, Bill wears the necklaces and already feels better from his new friend's kindness.

“Maybe there is something I can help you with? Any errand at all?” Bill asks for a chance to return a favor.

Just when Doran is about to decline, his radio makes a buzzing sound and shuts off “Argh, not again...wait Bill, you are here to study MAM so you do know a basic of electronic right?”

“YUP”, Bill answered proudly.

“Then maybe you can try fixing this radio for me? It been acting up for a month now but I never got time to take it to the workshop and submit paper work.” Doran lift the small radio up with his beak and place it on the counter.

“Let me see”, Bill happy with a chance to help immediately open up a radio panel and start tinkering.

It doesn’t take long before Bill sees what's wrong with this radio, a loose wired that connects amplifier with the speaker breaking outer circle shape that form a sigil which converting a magic to power up this radio “Did you drop this radio before?”

“I might have push it too hard with espiro onetime” Doran answer remembering a dozen of way this radio have been flown around the library and hit his boss head.

If he was in a factory back home Bill would just use his company’s tools to fix this but now he can only try moving the wire and hold it in place with a scotch Tape.

As Bill was closing the side he realize that he can’t power up magical equipment without power he ask for Doran help “Can you try open it?”

Doran then holds his wing out to touch the radio and utters “Naas” which Bill doesn’t know its meaning.

It took a few seconds before music came out of the radio, a sound of an instrument Bill had never heard before. It's soothing vibrance radiance out and echo down the rows of stainless bookshelf.

“Thank you Bill, usually I have to smack it a few time before it work. You are quite good at this.” said Doran.

“Well, try not throw it around too much now” Bill smile he already like it here more than New Terra.

He then decided to return the book since he won’t be able to borrow one without his student ID anyway and head back to his room.

When Bill arrive it is already dinner time but since he can’t afford any food, he will just spent time checking what inside his bag instead.

Looking around, Calamity still has not returned so Bill picks out an item.

A student's ID card with his dirty face wearing a factory outfit on the day he went to apply for test, no one can see this.

A notebook with a pen and pencil, saving more money for him.

A pamphlet detail about the city rule and regulation, most of the detail is just the basic stuff along with a city map but there are some quote that interested Bill.

All races are welcome.

We ask you to treat everyone with respect

No meat of Human, Amiel or Goat is allowed

Do not attempt to climb the White Tower

Sales of any Object of power or MAM must have a permit

A Numenus must be submitted in a queue for battle at the stadium at the end of a month and no, you cannot go to battle outside a city wall unless both sides agree to clean up afterwards with city guard as a witness.

All Murder is punishable by death.

Headmaster's words are law and it is Final

May the word of Princess Alana guide your days

Bill didn’t understand some of the word written in here. He can’t help but wonder if his school in New Terra just didn’t think that these words are important enough to teach them or the city of Alana is just that foreign with all these many races.

Still, Bill stayed hopeful and went to sleep.