(Image source: Generated by Novel AI)
Once again, that familiar, dizzying centrifugal sensation swept over them, and the scenery changed in a flash.
Yay still wasn’t used to this mode of travel; she staggered and almost fell, but managed to crouch down just in time. To her surprise, the floor was incredibly soft—so much so that even if she fell, she wouldn’t get hurt.
She looked around. They were in a white cubic space, about the size of a changing room stall. The walls felt like paper but were as solid as concrete. A message flashed on the door ahead, urging them to move on quickly.
Yuni was now fully awake, her usual calm expression in place. She was bouncing and pounding on the floor, testing how it suddenly turned soft under her weight.
The words on the wall continued to flash their message, so Yay stepped forward and gently pushed the door open a crack, trying to peek at what lay outside.
It was like stepping into a gigantic exhibition hall holding millions of paintings. The walls were pristine white, and the floor was covered with a soft, charcoal-gray carpet. Yet, where paintings ought to have hung, there were instead towering floor-to-ceiling windows, each revealing a different landscape. Strangely, no two windows showed the same world; each seemed to open onto a different reality.
“So this is the Story-Command Archive?” The sisters stepped out of the cube and gazed at the endless panorama before them.
Other students wandered the gallery, wearing all kinds of high school uniforms. Yay wondered if they were all newcomers like her and Yuni, or if this magic school simply didn’t have a uniform at all.
She didn’t have time to dwell on it, as her attention was quickly captured by the worlds inside the glass panes. Some windows showed only variations in clothing style or city prosperity, but far across the hall, she spotted what looked like a dragon-like phantom beast flying through another area.
Pulling Yuni forward, she hurried to a window revealing a sheer cliff. A massive black dragon landed right outside, preening its wings.
“A dragon! There’s a dragon!” Yay pressed her face against the glass in excitement, but the dragon didn’t seem to notice her and didn’t move away. She could clearly count the rows of perfectly aligned black scales and study the creature’s enormous, blue reptilian eyes.
“Why are you so excited? Is there something there?” Yuni asked, puzzled. “All I see is a giant book with a dragon on the cover. Looks like a story about dragons.”
Yay was stunned—she only had the extra gift of seeing the words, but here, it let her witness a totally different scene.
As she described what she saw to Yuni, she noticed that the narratives here were simpler than in the real world, making it easier to purely appreciate each thing.
“So basically, we’re seeing the same thing, except those huge books look like windows to another world to you?” Yuni pondered, staring at the glass. “Oh right, in that room earlier, were you talking to someone?”
“You think? There was a girl—you didn’t see her?”
“At first I thought you were just mumbling to yourself again, reading those invisible words. Then it seemed like you were actually having a conversation with someone.”
Yay felt a bit embarrassed. So all her life, reading text aloud made her look like a crazy person talking to herself?
Yuni propped up her chin, thinking aloud: “At the time, even Gummy was staring in the same direction as you, like there really was something there. It was kind of spooky.”
“You—you didn’t say anything and just fell asleep? That girl even handed you a book! So it wasn’t that you were ignoring her, you just couldn’t see her at all!”
“I did see a book flying over, but I had no idea what that was for.” Yuni shrugged.
Yay was speechless—she didn’t know whether to be dumbfounded or impressed, and she felt a bit sorry for Marelin, too.
As the two sisters bantered, a voice called from behind: “Excuse me, could I get by? I want to check out the story info.”
They turned to see a girl with long chestnut hair. She had a face so cute you’d want to squish it, but a tall figure that towered over the twins.
The girl smiled warmly. “Are you new here, too? I just arrived and I’m about to try my first quest.”
“We are, too! We wanted to check out the mission area before class, just to see what’s important.”
“I happened to run into my cousin during a break. She’s not the best teacher, but she gave me lots of info, so I wanted to give this a try.”
She walked over to the sign by the window, copied the title onto the blank page of a book, and waited quietly. Yay watched eagerly, ready to do the same with her pen—only to find nothing happened.
“I guess we really do have to attend the class first.” The girl laughed, turning back to the twins without a hint of embarrassment. “I’m Xin-Cheng Liu, from Songhua High.”
“We’re from Blackboard High,” Yay introduced herself. “My last name is Zhongxia, my given name is Yay. This is my sister, Yuni—Yu Zhongxia. We just got here.”
Yuni, for once, didn’t ignore the introduction and gave a polite nod.
Yay added that her family name was a compromise—her parents argued endlessly about whose surname the kids should take, so they just combined the two and settled the order with rock-paper-scissors. Her dad won three times in a row. Xin-Cheng burst out laughing, saying their parents sounded adorable.
“What house did you get on your test? I’m Verdance—my cousin’s there, too. She says Verdance is all about creativity; the classes are really fun.”
Xin-Cheng shared her excitement: “One class was ‘How to Make a Lake Go on a Journey.’ Someone made the lake turn into the Loch Ness Monster for transportation; another wrote about a lake spirit migrating instead of becoming a river; someone else made it a cursed lake that always follows the cursed person’s vision; and there was even a story about a lake god selling gold and silver axes while traveling...”
Yay listened in awe, suddenly interested in Verdance, too.
“Because of my cousin, I know Verdance pretty well, but not much about the others.”
Xin-Cheng shrugged. “My cousin says Cerulink is full of logic wizards, Flaremarch is all about high output and self-promotion, Inkarbor is for the super-serious literary types, and Silvalean is for character-lovers—so beware, Mary Sues are everywhere.”
Yay wiped her brow. Yup, that was the Verdance perspective—every other house sounded terrifying. She whispered, “Actually, my highest score was Silvalean...”
Xin-Cheng gave an awkward, desperate laugh. “Characters are the most important! No characters, no story. Silvalean’s the best!”
Yay didn’t mind the teasing; she didn’t know much about Silvalean herself, and Xin-Cheng’s candor was pretty funny.
Xin-Cheng quickly added, “My cousin says results change a lot over time. There’s not just classes—there’s an inter-house tournament, and that’s when a lot of people find their true calling. Like, my cousin started in Flaremarch and switched to Verdance.”
She explained that it was a fun competition where older students led teams of newcomers.
“Last year was wild—they had a chainsaw killer versus the Girl in Red! All kinds of stories fighting each other; it sounded awesome!”
After chatting a bit and seeing that the quest didn’t trigger, they decided to explore elsewhere. Yay kept feeling she was forgetting something—her wallet was still in her pocket, but something was missing, though she couldn’t put her finger on it.
The textbook cover showed the current class period: a little figure standing on the fourth step, indicating the fourth period, and a sprouting icon showed it had just begun; the fifth period Story-Command Introduction was still a while away.
As they were about to visit the “Co-op,” which had mysteriously unlocked for them, Yuni asked, “What if you draw two arrows to two places at once—which one would you go to?”
“Oh?” Xin-Cheng was intrigued. “No idea! Maybe it picks one at random, or maybe you don’t move at all?”
“Is it okay to just try random things?” Yay hesitated—they still weren’t all that familiar with Story-Command or how it worked.
“My cousin says creativity comes from experimentation, and this is a school, not another world. I’m sure we’ll be fine!”
Xin-Cheng borrowed a pen from Yay, then held two pens at once, aimed carefully, and drew arrows to both “Academic Affairs Office” and “Co-op” at the same time.
The next moment, the scenery around Yay changed abruptly—they were now in a pitch-black, abandoned classroom.
Panicked, Yay looked around, but neither her sister nor Xin-Cheng were anywhere in sight.
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