The Hidden World

Yuki’s room was away from the building that he was tested in. According to the map on his watch, that building was the Headmaster’s Castle. The building where the rooms were locating was behind and to the side of the Castle.

 

When Yuki got to the large building titled Dormitory by the watch, he realized that the Castle was unique. The rest of the buildings that he had spotted on his way to the Dormitory were similar to the ones in the city. The Castle stood out with its design and material.

 

To enter the Dormitory, Yuki presented his watch to a scanner next to the double doors that automatically slid open to let him in when he was verified. Inside the building, there was an elevator directly in front of him. To the left there was a lounge and to the right was what seemed to be some sort of receptionist area. Yuki ignored both these and went straight to the elevator.

 

The elevator opened up for him and Yuki hit the button for the seventh floor, the top floor. The elevator shot up and in a couple seconds reopened to reveal a hallway. Yuki stepped out and turned right, following the map on his watch. As he walked, he past by a few door. The spacing between the doors of the rooms told Yuki that the rooms were quite large.

 

Near the end of the hall, Yuki arrived at the polished wood door of his room labeled 7-10. He placed his wrist next to a scanner next to the door and it slid open without a sound. Then Yuki walked in.

 

‘This room is bigger than my whole apartment,’ Yuki remarked as he looked around his new living space. ‘This whole place is going to be my home?’

 

The place resembled a penthouse more than it did a dorm. Where Yuki was standing was a large sitting room complete with a couch and a recliner facing what seemed to be a television set. The television was little more than a thin piece of glass on a wall.

 

Walking around the room more, Yuki found a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. The kitchen was wide opened and connected to the living room. It was stocked with everything Yuki would ever need: stove, refrigerator, sink, microwave, dishwasher, knives, and utensils. Cutting between the kitchen and the living room was a hallway. In the hallway were two doors facing each other, the left one a bedroom and the right one a bathroom.

 

Yuki went into the bedroom and flopped onto the incredibly comfortable bed. The room was quite bare. It seemed that Yuki would need to decorate it if he was going to stay in the Academy for a while.

 

With his face in a pillow, Yuki started to analyze his day.

 

‘So much happened,’ Yuki thought. ‘The train ride, the city, almost getting mugged. That girl who intervened said that she was going to this school.’

 

Yuki didn’t know what year she was in but it was most likely the first year. He did say that he was enrolling and if she thought that she was going to see him then that would mean that she was in the first year class.

 

‘Selene is quite an interesting headmaster,’ Yuki thought. ‘She’s seems very cheerful.’

 

He remembered the events of the test that he was given. He was apparently average when it came to mana and things related to mana. This wasn’t what Yuki expected. He thought that he would be below everyone else due to him being raised on Earth but it seemed that that wasn’t the case.

 

As Yuki recalled the information that Selene recited to him, he realized that she never saw his actual profile. It seemed that the orb that he had pushed mana into only analyzed information related to his mana. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made sense for her to ask questions like whether or not he had combat experience.

 

‘Also, she seemed to have misunderstood something,’ Yuki remembered. ‘I hope she doesn’t say anything weird about my gender to other people.’

 

Selene seemed to have thought that he had meant something when he asked whether there was an other option for gender. But it didn’t really matter all that much unless she told others.

 

Then Yuki remembered the most important and complicated piece of information that he had received. He now knew that he wasn’t a human. Yuki was an elf and for whatever reasons had been disguised as a human and sent to be raised on Earth. This only raised more questions in Yuki’s mind.

Did his parents know that he was an elf? Were they themselves elves? If not, then who gave Yuki to them to be raised and why? If they were, then why did they leave Ethros? And why did they not tell him about who he was? And why was he disguised?

 

There were too many unanswerable questions. Yuki didn’t know if he would ever get the answers to them. He didn’t know where to start and the best ones that could answer them were dead. He stopped thinking about, deciding to put it away for a later time, and went into the most intriguing thing that he had discovered that day.

 

When he was shown his actual self, a notification from the UR appeared before him. It said that he had unlocked a third of something called Self Awareness. Yuki didn’t know what that was or what it entailed. After that, the Universal Records also informed him that he had unlocked a skill named Human Disguise. Putting the two things together, Yuki assumed that Self Awareness was something like a quest that unlocked the more he discovered pieces about himself that he never knew. Like being an elf.

 

Yuki rolled off the bed and went to the bathroom across the hall. He wanted to test something.

 

In the bathroom, he stood in front of the mirror that hung over a rather large sink. He wanted to see how his new skill worked. It triggered when he had seen his actual self. And so now Yuki tried to see if he could remove the disguise.

 

Closing his eyes, he began to focus on the image of his elf form in his mind. All of the features: the body shape, the face, the hair, everything. Once he had the image engraved in his mind, he tried to will this form to show. And when he opened his eyes, he saw that nothing had changed.

 

‘Hmm,’ Yuki thought, scratching his face. ‘It is a skill. Maybe I need to use mana.’

 

And so Yuki tried again. Picturing his elven form in his mind and willing it to become true. But this time, Yuki injected mana into his commands. He ordered the mana to remove the disguise from his body. To wipe it off and reveal what was underneath.

 

This time Yuki felt a change.

 

It was as if someone had blown open a door and a gust of wind had blasted through after it. Yuki felt something get torn off of him, his face seemingly touching the air for the first time.

 

Yuki opened his eyes, and in front of him was an elf. Normally, Yuki wouldn’t consider himself attractive. But the being reflected in the mirror was unmistakably pretty and cute. And extremely feminine. If Yuki’s human face could be described as male with many female features, then his elven form was female with male features.

 

‘I’ll be walking around as a human, thankfully,’ Yuki thought. ‘If I was in my actual form, people would be even more confused about my gender and that would be annoying for me.’

 

Yuki then thought about Akira. He wanted to show her what he looked like and get her opinion.

 

‘Akira?’ Yuki called as he looked away from the mirror. He prodded the chord between them.

 

[Yes?] she replied with a yawn. [Is there something you need?]

 

‘You’re opinion,’ Yuki answered.

 

[On what?]

 

Yuki didn’t reply and instead transmitted the events of the day to her. The almost mugging, the girl that intervened, the testing, and the big reveal.

 

[An elf?] Akira said in a high voice. [Wow. I wouldn’t have expected that.]

 

‘And that’s why I called you,’ Yuki said. ‘I want your opinion on my elven form. Or real form.’

 

[Hmm? Sure.]

 

Yuki turned back to his reflection in the mirror. A mental gasp could be heard from Akira.

 

‘What is it?’ Yuki asked.

[Wow. So that’s how you look,] Akira whispered. Then she muttered something, Yuki picking up only a couple words. He wasn’t sure but he had heard her say beautiful.

 

‘What was that last part? Beautiful?’ Yuki interrupted.

 

[Nothing, it’s nothing,] Akira quickly answered. [You look nice, that’s all. Anyway, going back to sleep. Bye!]

 

The mental connection lessened and Akira disconnected.

 

‘She’s embarrassed,’ Yuki said, with a slight smirk. Then his hand shot to his mouth. ‘More emotions. I don’t understand why they’re showing up now. They’re small feelings but that’s more than I’ve felt in the last couple of years.’

 

Yuki decided to ignore it. They were fleeting and never lasted long. These slight feelings were nothing to worry about. The more important problem was his growling stomach. Looking at his watch, he saw that it said that the time was almost 20:00.

 

‘They use military time here,’ Yuki thought. He opened the door and went out to the living room.

 

“I guess I should find something to eat.”