Smell Like Trouble

Elise’s POV

It took me three hours to step out of the Hall of Admission with a silver academy crest, a room key, and enough documents to prove my enrollment.

“Keep the crest with you at all times,” the last attendant behind the desk instructed. “It grants access to the academy buildings and identifies you as an official student.”

I pinned it to my cloak.

“Your class schedule and other necessities will be delivered to your room. The welcoming ceremony will begin tomorrow morning.”

“Wonderful,” I nodded.

“You’ll be staying in Old Lunar Hall.” She handed me a small map.

I took it and asked, “Where is that?”

“East of the main tower.”

I waited for her to say more, but she didn’t.

After a moment, the woman finally looked up from her desk. Her eyes briefly dropped to the royal crest on my cloak before returning to my face, as if wondering why I was still standing in front of her.

“Do I need anything else?” I asked.

“Do not lose your room key.” Her expression remained unchanged.

“That’s all?”

“Do not lose your room key,” she repeated, this time looking as though she wanted me gone.

“Thank you.”

I stuffed the map into my satchel and left before she decided to make me sign something else.

Outside, the courtyard had become less crowded. The students who remained moved around in groups.

Some greeted one another as if they had been friends for years. Others were already comparing schedules, family names, and kingdoms.

Meanwhile, I stood alone on the steps of the Hall of Admission, holding a map that appeared to have been drawn by someone who hated his job.

I sighed as I studied it, turning it sideways and then upside down.

“East of the main tower,” I whispered.

That should have been simple.

Unfortunately, there were seven towers across these acres of land, and every single one appeared determined to be the main one.

I looked around for someone to ask, but the nearest group consisted of three young women whose pointed ears twitched the moment I glanced their way.

One of them noticed me.

Her gaze traveled from my rounded ears to the crest on my cloak.

“Is she human?” she whispered.

“I think so.”

“I didn’t know they still admitted humans.”

They weren’t exactly quiet, so I could hear every word.

I offered them a polite smile, only to see their faces twist in dismay before all three turned away.

“I suppose that means I can’t ask them,” I murmured. “Never mind.”

Admission had been the difficult part. Now I had the rest of the day to figure out where exactly Old Lunar Hall was.

So I chose the largest tower and started walking.

The academy grounds were even larger on foot. Bridges connected several buildings, while stone paths divided gardens filled with plants I had never seen before. Some flowers turned their heads as students passed. Others snapped at anyone foolish enough to walk too close.

I made sure to keep my distance.

The last thing I needed was to be eaten by a decorative plant on my first day.

After several minutes, I reached a wide courtyard surrounded by tall buildings. A fountain stood at its center, carved in the shape of the Moon Goddess.

It looked oddly familiar.

Students had gathered around it to chat.

My steps slowed as the temptation to ask about my destination crept under my skin. But before it could win, I felt the students’ gazes suddenly land on me.

“It’s a human.”

“A human? Why do they keep sending them here? It isn’t as if they’re needed. Even on the battlefield, they’re no more than cannon fodder.”

“Did you hear about the last human this academy admitted? I heard he dropped out and forfeited his claim as heir to his house.”

The longer I stayed in this place, the more I realized the students possessed an incredible talent for whispering while ensuring the subject of their conversation heard every word.

More importantly, I was beginning to realize I might not be able to live quietly here.

Even though most of these people looked human to me, they weren’t. And somehow, they could identify me as the so-called little human with a single glance.

“Oh, Maya,” I murmured, ignoring the whispers, giggles, and malicious looks. “I may have been a little too optimistic.”

As the words slipped past my lips and I took another step, someone suddenly jumped in front of me, blocking my path.

He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a pair of small dark horns curling from the sides of his head. His eyes lowered to me before narrowing.

“Let me guess,” he said. “You’re lost.”

Was it that obvious?

He laughed. “I’ve seen you pass this tower three times now. Where exactly are you going? Let me help.”

I blinked and glanced at the statue of the Moon Goddess.

So that explained why it had looked so familiar.

I snapped my attention back to him when the horned fellow snatched the map from my hand.

“Wait—”

“Let’s see…” he hummed, raising the map over his head so I couldn’t reach it. “Your dormitory is…”

The wicked smile on his face slowly vanished as he read the name.

“Old Lunar Hall.”

The words hung in the air like a blade as everyone around us suddenly fell silent.

I furrowed my brows and glanced at the students lingering around the fountain. Their expressions had tightened, their gazes darting between me and the horned student.

Why were they looking at me as if I had done something horrible?

I hadn’t done anything… yet.

The silence stretched long enough to leave me unsettled before the horned student spoke again.

“Old Lunar Hall?” He looked at me as though I had personally offended him. “That’s your dormitory?”

“Yes.” I held out my hand.

Now that we had established that he could read, I jerked my chin toward the map in his hand.

“May I have my map back?”

“Hah.” He laughed, but something strange glinted in his eyes. Still, he handed the map back to me. “You should return to the Hall of Admission and have this corrected.”

“What?”

“There has clearly been a mistake…” His voice trailed off as he cocked his head to the side. “Or perhaps there hasn’t.”

I frowned as a student near the fountain choked back a laugh. Ignoring them, I checked the map again before examining my key.

The initials of the dormitory were clearly engraved on it.

I pressed my lips into a tight line and looked back at the horned student.

“What’s in Old Lunar Hall?” My voice came out more suspicious than I intended.

No one answered.

I glanced at the other students, but all of them suddenly found the statue of the Moon Goddess more interesting than the human standing among them.

“Nothing,” he finally answered. His gaze swept over me, pausing at the royal crest pinned to my cloak. “If that is truly where they assigned you, then go.”

His lips curled into a strange smile. “Keep following the eastern path. Once you reach the ruins, take the bridge beyond them.”

“There are ruins?” I blurted out.

He nodded.

“You’ll see them.” He grinned. “Good luck!”

With that, he jogged away and rejoined a group of students.

“Well… that didn’t sound ominous at all,” I murmured, shaking my head.

I turned east, but as I walked away, the whispers behind me began again.

“She’s actually going.”

“Should someone stop her?”

“Why? Let her be. This is going to be fun.”

Fun?

I glanced back and caught several of them staring before they quickly looked away. When I found the horned student among them, he gave me a small wave.

Deep down, I had a bad feeling about this.

Still, I turned and continued walking. It wasn’t as though I had any choice but to find the damned dormitory.

I continued east until I reached a library. The library led me to a training field, which led me to a garden filled with white statues.

Then, somehow, despite following the eastern path, the garden led me back to the same training field.

By the time an hour had passed, I had stopped trusting the map completely.

“How can this place be so massive?” I dragged my feet, exhaustion beginning to set in after the endless search.

Another hour passed, and I stopped trusting myself. By the third, I had started to believe Old Lunar Hall didn’t exist.

Was that why the horned student had said there was a mistake?

Or was this some academy tradition? Did they give every human directions to a nonexistent place while the other students placed bets on how long it would take them to realize the truth?

“Ugh,” I groaned.

My satchel had begun to feel like a sack of stones against my shoulder. I hadn’t eaten since that morning, and the bread Maya had packed was somewhere inside the trunk the academy attendants had taken.

I stopped and looked back.

“I should go back,” I told myself.

Unfortunately, the journey back to the Hall of Admission was quite long.

“Where is this place?”

I ran a hand down my face and continued east—or in what I hoped was an eastern direction.

Several more minutes passed before the stone buildings gave way to an older section of the grounds.

I slowed.

The paths narrowed, thick vines climbed the walls, and several statues had cracked beneath years of neglect.

By the time I found the ruins, the sky had already begun to darken.

The remnants of what might once have been a temple stood beyond a row of ancient trees. Half the roof had collapsed, leaving broken columns exposed beneath the darkening sky.

“I suppose the horned student didn’t lie,” I whispered.

I searched the area until I found an old stone bridge with no railings.

Beyond it lay a thick silver mist.

My chest tightened as I bit my lip. “Spooky.”

This academy truly loved its human students.

Now I understood why the heir of House Van Pelt had dropped out.

“Even the Cold Palace wasn’t this unsettling,” I murmured as I trudged forward, placing each foot carefully on the bridge in case part of it decided to crumble beneath me.

Fortunately, I crossed without incident.

A few steps later, I finally found it.

Old Lunar Hall stood beyond a line of towering black trees. For something called a hall, it looked more like a palace.

After spending nearly the entire day searching for it, I had expected something small, old, and possibly haunted.

Instead, it was the complete opposite.

“Finally,” I breathed.

A bubble of excitement rose in my chest at the thought of a warm bath and a soft bed.

I hurried closer and stopped before the enormous double doors. My eyes instinctively fell on the round indentation carved into their center. It was shaped exactly like the academy crest.

I removed the crest from my cloak and pressed it into the hollow.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then something clicked, and the doors creaked. I jolted in surprise, but the doors slowly opening meant I had finally found my destination.

A smile tugged at my lips as I pushed one of them wider and carefully stepped inside.

The moment I crossed the threshold, however, I felt at least four pairs of eyes land on me.

I looked up and froze.

Four male students were scattered around the lobby of the grand palace.

I didn’t recognize any of them. But what I did know was that they smelled like trouble.