The Sinful Saint

Leaving the hall...

"Aren't you tall, hmm~? Why don't we have some fun together when we get to the Institution? Just. The. Two. Of. Us."

Ms. Helmer was teasing Si Sheng the whole while they were together. Si Sheng didn't really mind, it was nice to have something to kill time with while they walked to the Institution, but it got annoying at times, especially when Ms. Helmer got handsy with him.

While the two of them were flirting, the three elves that tagged along, Taro, Jara, and Beyra, were talking amongst themselves trying to block out the disturbance called Ms. Helmer.

"Taro, do you know what a human is? That's what the elder called him right? He also said they were strong and sometimes stronger than elves. Do you think Si Sheng would fight me~? I want to fight a human to see how strong they are~," Jara was questioning Taro, who was awkwardly staring at the two flirting in front of her, about Si Sheng's species.

Being pulled into the conversation, Taro responded, "I haven't heard of a human before, but the elders seem to be wary for a reason. King Welfmire even went so far as to say that we should never underestimate them. As for Si Sheng's strength, I doubt he's all that strong despite living in the forest. It'd be a waste of time to fight him." Taro shared her opinions in response to Jara's questions and Jara silently nodded along.

Beyra beside them didn't even look as if she had heard what they said and remained staring at Si Sheng's back, as if staring long enough would make something happen.

Anyway, the five of them left the vicinity of the Council Hall and headed towards the Institution.

***

Heading North of the World Tree for around half an hour on foot, the group of five arrived at the gates of the institution.

The gates were ornate, just like the gates to the city; the main difference was the size of these gates and the design. The design was of a trunk and the low hanging branches of a tree. Every leaf was painstakingly carved on the branches, the same went for the wood of the chocolate-brown trunk.

When they entered through the gates, they got a full view of the campus. From the position Si Sheng was in, he could roughly tell how big the campus was, along with Ms. Helmer's information, and he determined it was around 30 square kilometers. It was a fairly large campus with numerous dormitories, recreational areas, practice areas, lecture halls, etc. Anything you could think an institute should have, this place had it. Additionally, everything was luxurious. The dorm rooms were large, but they were shared with three other people, they also had coed rooms to boot. Following that, everything was equipped with clean and high-performance amenities. The classrooms had luxurious seats that were actually comfortable to sit on and the food was delicious, being cooked by elves from the Culinary Arts section. Everything about this place was blissful; it was the complete opposite of Si Sheng's recent life of killing to eat and wiping with leaves.

"I could really get used to this," said Si Sheng out loud, expressing his satisfaction with how amazing everything was.

"Well, now that you've toured the place we should get the paperwork done and all that good jazz. You girls can leave now, Si Sheng and I will be busy for a while," said Ms. Helmer making a shooing motion with her hands and telling Taro, Jara, and Beyra to leave.

Taro and Jara immediately left, but Beyra was a little hesitant before turning to leave.

𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬.

After the door shut behind the three, Ms. Helmer went and sat behind her desk, put on a pair of reading glasses and brought out a stack of paperwork. Apparently, they were all for the transfer procedure; the stack was three centimeters thick!

"Ugh..." Si Sheng g.r.o.a.n.e.d at the thought of filling out and reading all those papers. But, he had to do it, so he got to it and read over everything carefully, then signed.

The papers had various phrasings about stipulations, legal procedures, and other mumbo jumbo in elven politics. Si Sheng understood most of it because he was familiar with law due to learning about it on Earth. But, even still, some clauses were kinda weird. Like the one where he had to visit the Dean at least once per week outside of meals, or the one about him having to eat lunch with the Dean once a week. To be honest, all the weird parts were related to Ms. Helmer. Si Sheng didn't know what she was trying to pull, but he didn't care, she was fun to be around and didn't her slight abuse of power in this circ.u.mstance.

The whole procedure took around 40 minutes due to the volume of forms. Si Sheng was already mentally tired when he arrived, let alone after filling everything out.

Despite that he felt satisfied knowing that'd he'd be going to school and learning magic from the elves' best school for free.

While Si Sheng was stuck in his thoughts, Ms. Helmer broke the silence, "Now that all the paperwork is finished, I want to officially welcome you to the First Elven Magic Institution. I am Dean Bythre Helmer and it is a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to have you at this school." Ms. Helmer was very professional in her introduction, which surprised Si Sheng.

"Huh~? Is a student talking back to a teacher now~? Should I punish him or not~?" Ms. Helmer responded to Si Sheng's sarcastic remark with an equally sarcastic and mischievous comment.

"No need to take it that far, it was just a joke." Si Sheng quickly corrected himself to damper Ms. Helmer's wrath.

"Hah... Well, it's nice to have a laugh once in a while. You don't have to be so tense with me. Just think of me as a friend when it's just the two of us and call me Bythre. I haven't been in contact with a human since the war 400 years ago, so it's nice that you're here now." By the end of her spiel, Bythre was wearing a melancholic expression on her face as she was reminded of the past, her voice even slightly trembled as she said the last sentence.

"I see. It's nice to have friends; life would be boring otherwise. I'd gladly be the friend of such a beautiful woman such as yourself." Si Sheng replied to Bythe's request in a very formal way, slightly easing Bythre's downcast mood.

"What's with those lines~? You a playboy or something?" After she said that, she slightly giggled, showing that she was alright to Si Sheng. Nevertheless, Si Sheng got his first friend after arriving in this world and it happened to be the Dean of the First Elven Magic Institution to boot. It certainly was a good start.

***

"Now that all the transfer papers are in place, we should get a uniform made and after that's tailored, get you to your room and introduce you to your roommates. While the uniform is being tailored, you should stay in my room, since you don't really have anywhere else to go. By the way, there's only one bed in my room and no furniture, so we'll have to share the bed. Think you can handle that~?" Bythre laid out a list of things Si Sheng needed to get done as well as the news about his living situation, trying to tease him.

To be honest, he wasn't too bothered by it, after all, he'd been sleeping on a bed of rock for the past two months or so. Compared to that, having to sleep in the same bed as Bythre was fine, as long as he got to finally sleep in a bed again. "It doesn't matter. Do whatever you want, I just want to sleep in a bed again."

"Hmm~?" Bythe let out a sneaky, questioning sound as she smirked at Si Sheng's words.

Along the way, Si Sheng noticed the students walking around campus. Also, he noticed them glancing his way as if they'd seen an alien. To be fair, seeing the Dean walking around campus with a tall man, who wasn't an elf, wearing leather armor would look kind of weird since the elves didn't wear this kind of armor and it was a campus, not a military district. In short, the two of them walking through campus stood out like a sore thumb.

There were inaudible whispers from the students all around them and the stares of everyone they passed.

"Don't mind them. Elves haven't seen or interacted with humans in around 400 years, so the newer generation hasn't seen one or don't even know what a human is. To them, you might as well be an alien, since they have no idea what you are." Ms. Helmer cleared up Si Sheng's questions before he asked them.

One thing he had deduced over the short time he'd spent with the elves is that a big war happened some 400 years ago and their interactions with humans were cut off completely, to the point where the younger elves don't even know what a human is.

Moving on, Si Sheng and Ms. Helmer eventually stood in front of the tailor's shop on campus where he'd be getting his measurements taken for his uniform.

"I wonder what your three sizes are~? You've got a pretty big c.h.e.s.t, I'm so jealous~~." Ms. Helmer was teasing Si Sheng before they entered for his measurement. Si Sheng found her teasing cute and he got a nostalgic feeling from her and thought of one of his friends from Earth. He missed her, but Ms. Helmer was equally as important now, so he didn't lament for too long.

"While we're here, we should get you some actual clothes. You can't keep wearing this armor everywhere, now can you~?" Ms. Helmer made the suggestion about getting him clothes outside his uniform and Si Sheng agreed, it'd be kinda awkward to go around everywhere wearing leather armor.

"Let's do that. But first let's go in." Feeling they'd spent too much time in front of the entrance to the shop, Si Sheng opened the door and went in, making sure to duck as to not hit his head.