"Morning Tildia, this is Alex," Aro said, with a quick nod towards Alex. "Only five today?" He added, looking at the five large golems working in the kitchen.

  "Hmm," the short woman responded, looking back into the kitchen as well. "Oh, yeah, not that many students in the dorm yet till the new class arrives. Thought I'd conserve some energy, do some of the actual cooking myself while I still can. So, what can I get you two?"

  "Makes sense. I know how much you enjoy getting your hands dirty in the kitchen. We'll take two Haldynian sandwiches. Make them extra savory," the lion boy ordered, a wicked smile on his face. Alex didn't like that smile and deeply regretted letting Aro order his food for him. What if it was something with raw meat? Would an anthropomorphic lion eat raw meat? There's no way he could stomach it if it was. At least it was a sandwich. He could eat the bread, right?

  "You sure?" the stout woman asked, one eyebrow raised high and grabbing a plate from a golem heading her way and waving it a new command. "That's not your usual order." From the way she said it, Alex gathered it was something almost nobody ordered. What had he gotten himself into?

  "It's for the new kid. I got a feeling he'll like it," Aro answered, that smirk still on his face.

  "Alright, two Haldynian sandwiches coming right up," Tildia shrugged her shoulders and slid the plate on the counter in front of her. "Henry, your sugar flakes are done!" She shouted towards a familiar black-haired boy. Alex couldn't immediately place where he had seen him before, but then he remembered it was one of the two people still dancing with Aro last night. In contrast with Aro, the boy looked just as fresh as he had been last night. And the food he had ordered, sugar flakes, it looked exactly like the cereal Alex ate every morning.

  "Aro!" the black-haired boy said, a tinge of surprise in his smooth voice. "Surprised to see you up already. We hadn't expected to see you until lunch."

  "Wish I could sleep in. Board ordered me to show the runt around campus," Aro once again nodded towards Alex to show who he was talking about.

  "Makes sense. Cynthia and I are sitting outside in the usual spot. She couldn't handle the noise inside after last night. I'll save you two a spot," Henry said as he grabbed his bowl of cereal and handed Tildia a small coin with the same emblem as on Alex's uniform. "See you in a minute, runt," he added with a wink before he left for the courtyard outside. Alex's blood started to boil. He had only been here for a day, and now that was the second person to call him runt. There was no way that was going to be his nickname.

  "Don't know how he does it," Aro said as they moved out of the way for the next person to order their breakfast. It was clear he was speaking more to himself than to Alex, but that didn't mean Alex wouldn't pay attention to what he was saying. Information gathering, that was what he was going to do for the next few days. "He was the drunkest of all of us last night, and still he looks as fresh as a daisy. Must be the fact that he's a Fairy. Heard they had crazy recovery from all sorts of poisons."

  "He's a Fairy?" Alex asked, confused. Given the pointed ears, he assumed he would be an Elf like Fillonia. Then again, he also thought Marcus might have been a Dwarf, and apparently he was a Halfling, or a Hearthkin as they apparently preferred. Besides, yesterday there was that girl with the wings. Was she a Fairy too? Weren't they way too big to be Fairies?

  "Hmm, what runt?" Aro shook his head, clearly not expecting Alex to be paying attention to what he was saying.

  "He's a Fairy?" Alex repeated, this time less sure.

  "Of course that dweeb's a Fairy. Didn't you see his pointed ears? What else could he be?" The lion-boy scoffed as if Alex had said something incredibly stupid.

  For a moment, Alex wanted to suggest the boy might be an Elf, but ended up keeping that thought for himself. He needed more info on this world and the races in it. He needed to know if Elves were a thing or if every pointed-eared individual he saw was a Fairy. And if that was what Fairies looked like, he had been lied to by every children's book illustrator.

  Wait, did he say they were drunk? This was a school, right? Did the teachers just let that happen? Then Alex remembered that at the senior parties at his high school there was always that one kid that brought booze. So maybe it wasn't that unusual for upperclassmen to get drunk when they didn't have class the next day. Besides, those were the rules of Earth. Who knew whether this world even had a legal drinking age.

  Despite the number of students she had to cook for, Tildia and her clay golems were proficient. Every time she had just flipped something in a pan, a new clay golem had finished a student's meal, and she had to hand it to the student in question. Even Alex and Aro didn't have to wait long for their breakfast. They had been waiting for what felt like only five minutes before she called on them.

  "Aro and... Alex, your sandwiches are done!" she yelled as she slid two plates on the counter. Alex was surprised that she still remembered his name, even though she had only heard it once. Starbucks employees back on Earth could learn a thing or two from her. Like Henry, Aro gave the short woman some tokens with the green claw emblem on them to pay for the meal, one for each sandwich. That solidified it. He had been monitoring every student when they grabbed their breakfast. All of them paid for it with a single token. No matter what you ordered, it all cost exactly one.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "What are those?" Alex asked, nodding towards the bag of tokens Aro tucked back under his belt, hoping to get more information on them.

  "Oh, right, these," Aro said, grabbing the two plates from the counter. The lion-boy immediately started walking towards the courtyard outside. Was he purposefully blocking Alex from seeing what was on the plates? "They're Merit Credits. You use them to buy nearly everything on campus. They're the school's way of treating everyone the same, no matter where you come from, since you can't buy them. Was against them at first, but they're easy enough to earn."

  So it was a closed economy, no cash, no card, no outside wealth. That was at least one less thing he needed to worry about, figuring out how the coinage in this world worked. For now, he could put it aside and learn about how the world itself worked. He'd figure out how to pay in this world once he got out of the academy. "So how do I get them? I can't rely on you paying for every breakfast." Alex tried to catch up to the lion-boy and catch a glimpse of what he would be eating, but the upperclassman was definitely keeping it out of his view on purpose.

  Aro let out a loud laugh. "Oh, I'm not. Even today I paid for the meals with the ones Marcus gave me to hand over to you. So technically you're paying for my breakfast, which I'm very grateful for, runt."

  Alex was about to protest, but let it go. There was no point in antagonizing the upperclassman; he was supposed to show Alex the ropes, and it seemed like getting swindled out of a single credit was part of that. Besides, it was only a single credit, and if that pouch he grabbed it from was all his, there were still plenty of credits in it. "So how do I get more of them?"

  "Oh, simple, just grab some jobs from the Notice Board, but I'll tell you more about that when we get there. First, I need some food in me. Now, where are Henry and Cynthia? They should be around here somewhere."

  "Over here!" Henry cried out, waving his arms wildly. The dark-haired boy was sitting not too far from where they were, though there was no way they would have spotted him from where they were standing if he hadn't made his presence clear. They clearly weren't sitting where Aro had expected them to be. Next to Henry sat the other girl Alex had seen dancing with Aro last night. At least he thought that was her. Right now, the only thing he could see of her was her wild, curly red hair blocking her entire face as she lay with her head on the table.

  "Oof, Cynthia, babe, you look rough," Aro said as they approached the two familiar students. He motioned for Alex to take a seat next to Henry, still blocking his plate from view. The longer he did that, the more nervous Alex got about exactly what he was going to be served.

  "Oh, shut up, Aro," the red-haired girl said barely audible, her head not moving an inch.

  "Love you too, babe," the lion-boy answered as he sat down next to her. "Now, for you, runt. I hope you enjoy your first meal at the Hearth." He slid the plate he had been concealing in front of Alex.

  Wait, this actually looked really good. It might be the fact that he hadn't eaten a thing since getting to this world, but the meal in front of him looked delicious. It reminded him of something he occasionally got when out for brunch with Tim. The sandwich was served on some sort of French baguette. Inside was something that looked like an avocado, if not for the fact that it was a deep shade of purple. Underneath the purple avocado was a leafy vegetable that looked eerily like arugula lettuce, and on top of the not so avocado was some kind of slimy fish fillet. It was honestly way better than what he had feared he would get.

  "Really, Aro? A Haldynian sandwich? You want to scare the new kid away?" Henry said from beside Alex. His face looked like he had just seen something disgusting, but Alex had no idea why. The sandwich looked delicious.

  "Hey, the runt let me pick his breakfast," Aro protested, taking a large bite of his own sandwich. The tall boy beside Alex looked like he was about to puke.

  Henry turned to Alex. "Listen, you don't actually have to eat that. Tildia won't like it, but I can get you something else if you want."

  While it was sweet of the Fairy to offer, Alex really didn't get why he was so disgusted by the sandwich. The lion-boy in front of him was eating it with pleasure. "No, it's fine. It actually looks good."

  Alex grabbed the sandwich off the plate and took a tentative bite out of it. While it might look delicious, the way the tall boy reacted to it still made Alex hesitant. In the end, there was no need to be afraid. Not only did it look similar to a sandwich he ate back on Earth, it also tasted similar. The purple avocado was drier than the one back on Earth, and he preferred the salmon that was on top of it back home to the fish here. Overall, the sandwich was great.

  "Damn, runt, you actually like it?" Aro looked confused as Alex took a second and third bite of the sandwich. In response, Alex just nodded as he continued to eat the sandwich. "Anyway, why weren't you guys at our usual spot?"

  "The Drake twins took it," Henry answered, nodding his head towards two red-scaled lizardpeople. They looked different from the ones Alex had seen when he first got here, the ones that murderer had killed. These looked more regal, more humanoid. Were there really two different lizard races?

  "Of course they did," Aro looked straight at the two Drakes, "And they're not even eating yet."

  "You know full well they do it to provoke you, Ari," Cynthia said, lifting her head for the first time since Alex had sat down. There was something youthful about her face. The freckles on her puffy cheeks highlighted her brown eyes. She reminded Alex of that Scottish princess in that one movie he had seen as a kid. Also, had she just called Aro Ari? Finally, some ammunition against the upperclassman.

  The three friends continued to chat with each other, Alex half listening, half enjoying his sandwich. Around them, the courtyard buzzed with morning laughter. The bonfire crackled slightly even in the daylight. For a moment, Alex forgot about cults, Praxthar, the strange voice inside his head, and all the questions he still had about this world. He was just another student having breakfast at a new school. It felt strange, but he could get used to it.