Ring ring ring!!
"Ugh… Give me five more minutes…"
Shut up and get up, the readers are waiting for you!!!
Suddenly, my entire body felt frozen, making me snap my eyes open and jump out of bed.
Right after, I returned to normal.
"…Who the heck was that?"
No matter how much I looked around, there was no one there.
Weird. Could it be some god trying to wake me up? (Note: Definitely not me…)
I glanced at the alarm clock—it was already 6:00 AM.
I had to be in class by 6:45 AM, with lessons starting at 7:00 AM.
I couldn't believe I was back to the days of going to school, except this time with magic and cards.
"Alright, no more overthinking. Gotta get to class."
Trying to take off my winter coat, I was hit with that bone-chilling cold again, nearly freezing myself.
"…" I put it back on, solemnly covering my face.
What am I supposed to do? Taking this off feels like standing naked in a blizzard.
But keeping it on breaks the academy's rules…
Wait, I have an idea.
I went to the desk, rummaged around, and found a magic card.
Yes, a communication magic card. Of course, it's only for reporting issues—using it for fun or anything else gets you punished.
I channeled mana into it, and the card vibrated like a phone.
After a moment, a voice came through.
"Yawn… Who's this?"
…Did you just add a yawn to your speech?
"Uh, I'm Snowy, a first-year student. I have a problem to report."
"A first-year, huh? So, what's the issue?"I explained my situation to the person on the other end.
Having played the game, I knew most of the teachers were on the good side—well, mostly.
Luckily, the person I was talking to was nice, though a bit lazy.
"Hmm, your situation's pretty unique. Let me report it to the principal. Hang tight, it's still early."
A while later...
"Alright, you're allowed to wear that coat to class."
"Thank you so much!"
"Oh, before I go, let me teach you a few tricks to handle the cold when you take that coat off."
I listened carefully.
Basically, my problem stemmed from leaking mana. While it's a symptom, it could also be a skill if I learned to control it.
But since I'm still a newbie, it's hard to manage. Instead of trying to pull the mana back in and hurting myself, I should control it to stay within a certain range, so it doesn't affect others or harm me.
Yes, if I can pull that off, I'd have an "Infinity" like that white-haired, blindfolded guy, but instead of slowing enemies' attacks, I'd make them freeze.
Well… to be honest, it's kind of a knockoff Infinity.
"Alright, I'm signing off. Good luck with your studies."
"Thank you… Teacher?"
"Eoly."
"Thank you, Teacher Eoly."
"Cute kid."
The magic card went silent. I put it away and started trying what the teacher taught me.
I removed the stone from behind my neck, and everything around me instantly became freezing.
I closed my eyes, sensing my mana flow.
It was chaotic as hell… My body was like a cracked plastic cup with water constantly spilling out.
If my mana kept leaking like this, it'd be a problem. I had to act fast.
I focused, and the leaking mana started flowing back toward me.
Soon, my body was enveloped in my freezing mana.
Mana is invisible, but if you channel it to your eyes, you'd see my body glowing like a Super Saiyan with a snowy white-blue aura.
I tried taking off my coat again. The cold was still there, but much more bearable—I could handle it for a short time.
Yes, short time, because it was still cold, and I couldn't keep controlling the mana forever. It was mentally exhausting.
So, I quickly changed into my academy uniform, put the winter coat back on, let the mana leak again, and placed the stone behind my neck to stop it from spilling out.
I grabbed my backpack, opened the door, and headed out, not forgetting to store my card in an easy-to-remember spot, then went downstairs to the common room.
The common room already had a few people, mostly my seniors, who seemed to be having fun with a card game.
Curious, I went over to check it out.
Since they were playing cards like real-life Yu-Gi-Oh, there was no magic or special effects.
"I summon Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two more cards from my deck!" a senior said with a smug grin, drawing two cards and laughing.
Wait, pot of greed? I never seen pot of greed in the game, the copyright will strike this game down if Konami seen that shit.
"Then, I sacrifice three monsters on the field to summon SINGER JACK!"
I looked at the card—it was a young guy with thick lips, not exactly handsome, holding a microphone.
"And then! I use Singer Jack's power to summon a 1-star monster, GLOWING FLY! And since Glowing Fly always protects Jack, it'll shield him when he's in danger!"He laughed obnoxiously, staring at his opponent.
"Give up, Guyi! You've only got 97 life points left. You can't beat me!"
Okay, these guys are definitely playing real-life Yu-Gi-Oh!
"You're wrong, Kacba. I may be weaker, but I have one thing!" the other guy looked up, his eyes full of determination.
"I have… Crypto!"
Alright, this is just a joke now. I thought you were the protagonist or something, dude.
"Crypto's ability crashes your opponent's profits, so go bankrupt, you jerk!"
"Nani?! No! My loot boxes! My gacha waifus! My Bitcoin!! NOOO!!!"
I walked away with a blank expression, swearing to myself never to watch these guys play cards again.
"I should head to the cafeteria."
With that thought, I made my way there and noticed there weren't many people around.
It seems like the others my age aren't used to waking up early yet.
I went to grab some food and headed to an empty table, curious about how it would taste."Oh! It's you!"
"Huh?"
I looked up and recognized her—the girl from yesterday who sat next to me, devouring a mountain of food during the opening ceremony.
"If you don't mind, can I sit with you?"
She plopped down across from me cheerfully, pulling out a pile of food that looked heavy.
We're not that close yet, are we? I scratched my head and opened my food packet.
Hmm, it smells good. I wonder if it tastes as good.
"So, why are you wearing that coat?" Before I could take a bite, she asked, her mouth full and chewing noisily.
"I have a mana leak."
"Oh, right… But what's that got to do with the coat? Don't you have the stone to block the mana?"
You're the one who told me about mana leaks, and now you're asking me like you don't know about that?
"It keeps others from being affected, but not me. The coat keeps me warm."
"You talk kinda weird, you know."
Is there something weird about me?
***
The bell rang, and we finally made it to class.
The four houses are divided into three first-year classes, and I'm in Class A2.
I looked at my assigned seat—the girl from the Knight's House was sitting at the front, while I was at the back.
After a while, our homeroom teacher showed up, and to my surprise, it was Rook.
Rook has short black hair that reveals his forehead, sharp eyes that make others a bit scared of him, and he's pretty tall. Like Teacher Abigail, he's quite muscular.
The students started chattering and whispering among themselves.
"QUIET!"
His voice roared like a tiger, startling the students, who covered their ears.
"Done talking?"
The students nodded, instantly realizing that the teacher in front of them was super strict.
Rook then put his materials on the desk and looked at the students.
"For the 15 minutes before we officially start, I'll go over some rules in case you haven't read them, and I'll also introduce myself."
"I'm Rook, the summoning instructor at Jeanne Academy. Each class period lasts 45 minutes, with a 5-minute break to prepare for the next one. Morning classes start at 7:00 AM, and afternoon classes start at 1:00 PM. Of course, you're expected to be here 15 minutes early."
"The academy uses a credit system, which is treated like currency here, so value it. Earning credits is easy—attending a class gets you 5 credits, and giving a correct answer when you raise your hand earns you another 5 credits."
"And yes, if you violate any rules, I'll deduct your credits."
What… That sounds like China's Social Credit system?
"Credits are currency, and since they're currency, you can spend them at Caesar Street. You can also trade credits as long as it's legal and recognized by the academy."
"And most importantly, Dueling is another way to earn credits—a lot of them, in fact."The moment Rook said that, the students fell silent.
Dueling—the combat discipline using summoning cards.
Over thousands of years of fighting, people developed Dueling as a way to battle fairly.
And at Jeanne Academy, Dueling is taken extremely seriously.
However, for first-year students, Dueling is still a distant concept since they don't even have any monster cards yet.
"Any questions?"
The students stayed quiet, seemingly without any opinions.
Suddenly, a hand shot up, drawing everyone's attention.
"Aelith, do you have something to say?"The girl stood up, and Snowy's eyes widened.
It's her!
The protagonist! I'm lucky she's a girl—otherwise, I wouldn't have recognized her so easily.
She has gray hair, golden eyes, and looks pretty petite.
Oh, right, we're all 11 years old right now."Doing quests earns credits, right?"
"Yes, as long as you do them well. It's not a lot, but it'll earn you a good reputation."
Huh? Quests? There are quests here?
Aelith sat back down, her eyes sparkling like stars.
The blonde girl next to her smiled at Aelith and said something.
She looks familiar—I think I saw her once when I played this game.
Honestly, both of them are pretty good-looking, but I'm not really interested.
"Well, look at that, the 15 minutes are up. Let's start the lesson."
And so, Rook began teaching about magic cards, the most basic knowledge of this world.
Summoning is a technology based on magic cards, capable of summoning various things like monsters, objects, tools, potions, magic, and many other things sealed within the cards.
At a higher level, there are sacrificial summoning, fusion, rituals, and so on.
There are three types of magic cards: summoning, support, and special.
Monsters all fall under summoning cards, while support cards range from traps to many other things.
Special cards are quite unique, though I'm not entirely clear on them yet.
Rook spent a full 20 minutes explaining this, then used the remaining 25 minutes to teach the lesson.
45 minutes seems long, but for Rook, it's incredibly short.
Luckily, the next period is still with him.
And it's also the most important class that every student must attend:
Creating your first monster card!