Royal Academy

The Royal Academy is located in the Sovereignty, the central zone of the kingdom. Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 and 2 It is situated on a hill surrounded by forests of conifers. Due to it's ability to sustain itself via teleporation circles, no supporting villages are found in the general area.

As the name suggests, it's main purpose is the education of noble students, but it is also used as the site for the yearly Archduke's Conference.

Barring those sent to the temple to become priests and shrine maidens, all nobles are sent to the Royal Academy, usually in the Winter after their tenth birthseason. Exceptions can be made to allow the attendance of older nobles if there were attenuating circumstances that prevented them from attending at the proper time, like severe illness, but these circumstance are rare and are not looked upon kindly in noble society. After the civil was and the resulting purges, all the former priests that were called back to noble society all got special exception to attend the academy, even the ones already fully adult.

The nobles are taught by professors who teach various fields of knowledge. Students are ranked by how much mana they have and the rank of their duchy, but while they are in class professors are always treated as the superior even to Archnobles and Archuduke Candidates.

The regular education takes five years. The first two years consist of courses common to all nobles and serve as a base for the later specializations. From the third year onward, the education splits off into courses specialized toward the field of the future career of the noble students. The courses are the knight's course, attendent's course, scholar's course and archduke candidate's course. In order to graduate one of these courses must be successfully finished. While it is uncommon, students can voluntarily take more than one course should they wish it. Generally each student may choose their course according to their own will, with the only exception being archduke's children - including adopted ones. For them the archduke candidate's course, where they learn how to govern a duchy and support the current archduke, is mandatory, even if they have no intention of competing for the position themselves. .

At the end of the final year, there is a graduation ceremony in which the most talented students of dedication whirl and blade dance are chosen for the final performance. To be chosen for these acts is considered a great honour.

When attending the academy, only a single retainer is allowed to be taken. However, other students can be hired as knights, attendants and scholars. Apart from the wages they receive, the students chosen as retainers also profit from this by being able to gather experience in the future careers, while still studying.

Arguably the most important part of the curicumlum of the academy is the acquisition of a schtappe. Only people who aquired a schtappe and graduated graduated from the Royal Academy, are recognised as full-fledged nobles.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 To facilitate the timing of classes the bells in the Academy ring twice as often on days with lessons.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 The Academy consists of a big central building, erected on a sizeable hill, where the Library, classrooms and other rooms meant to be used by nobles of more than a single duchy are located. From this central complex, the dormitories of the various duchies radiate outward, each in the style of their home. Students may only enter their own dormitory and the common areas. Each duchy dormitory is situated on it's own hill, each smaller than the one of the central building.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 The Farthest Hall is a cavern that can only be accessed from a chapel behind the main auditorium of Royal Academy. It is in this place that students aquire their Divine Will, an essential component of a Schtappe. It's entrance is hidden byhind a staircase, that can be moved to the side by a professor pouring mana into a concealed feystone.

From the entrance and throughout most of the way, the place looks like a long corridor hewn directly from the natural rock, with the ivory footpath being the only visible artificial structure, serving both to provide secure footing and as the only illumination, with it's faint glow. This path leaders steadily higher at a mild incline, occasionally going up steep enough for the ivory path to form a couple of steps. At the very back of the corridor there is a big spiral staircase going up roughly one story, leading up to a large cavern with a circular ivory plaza surrounding a sculpture of a tree made from the same white material, beautifully illuminated by a hole in the ceiling above it, allowing sunlight to pour in.

Going by Rozemyne's observation, it would appear that the less mana capacity a student has, the nearer to the entrance they find their Divine Will. Laynobles generally find theirs in a matter of minutes, mednobles have to go about halfway up the path and archnobles very near to the end.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 and 2 The Royal Academy Library is the second largest library in the entire country. It is split into two floors.

To make sure that even students deeply absorbed in their reading do not miss the sound of the bells by accident, the library has a magic tool that shines multicoloured light down on the entire place at the chime of the bells.

According to the estimation of the current librarian Professor Solange, including the ones in storage for preservation, the library currently holds between thirty- and fourty-thousand books and documents.

The library employs a number of magic tools both for protection of the books and documents and for convenience. These include tools to manage humidity, protect from sunlight and employ lights that are syncronized to the academy's bells. Currently only the most vital magic tools are active, since Professor Solange lacks the mana capacity to keep the full complement running all on her own.

The books on the shelves, save for the chained books on the second floor, can all be borrowed and brought from the library to the dormitories for a deposit. It is also possible to request the librarians to bring material from storage, but those may not be taken out of the library and can only be read within it's halls.

It is relatively common for students that aim for a career at the academy itself to start out as assistants to professors. Being sent to the library for errants is often one of the first duties fulfilled by such freshly minted assistants.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 and 2 The first floor is where the main entrance and counter are located. Off to the side are office-facilities for the staff. Going straight ahead from the entrance leads into the reading room and then the library proper, containing the bookshelves and carrels, providing the students with spots for reading and working on copies. The first floor holds an estimated twenty-thousand books and documents - ranging from simple wooden borads to bound and leather-covered books - dealing mostly with subjects lending themselves as study ressources. There is however also a small corner in which story books and bibles are kept. Due to most students and even many professors considering the academy library as a place only for studying and research, few ever learn of the existence of this corner and show open surprise if they end up finding out by change.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 and 2 The second floor consists mainly of three-layers bookcases with attached writing desks. While some contain regular books, there are also many that contain barrels with scrolls and there are also bookcases with chained books. Unlike most other shelves, in these the books are put horizontally. The reason is that the metal plates and rivets used to chain the books to the shelves could damage the neighboring books if pulled out carelessly, so they are put on stacks on top of each other, so the readers are forced to carefully lift the desired book off, without a chance to scrape the others. The chains are only long enough to reach to the attached desk. This way of storing in addition to leather belts around the books also helps to prevent the parchament of their pages from swelling if exposed moisture.

This floor holds mostly material pertaining the reseach from past professors. Since many of these materials were written by professors while they were doing the research, few tooks the time, effort and tedium of transcribing their findings and binding them into proper books, preferring to instead just write everything down on scrolls.

Apart from the bookcases, the second floor also contains a big statue of the Goddess of Wisdom Mestionora and the living quarters of the library staff.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 Each Dormitory contains the living quaters of the students, as well as the respective teleportation circles connected to the capital of the respective duchy. Since they are made from the creation magic of past Archdukes of their region, their aethetics match with that of the home-castle, both on the in- and outside. Member of a duchy are strictly forbidden to attempt to enter the dormitories of another duchy. The dormitories are secured by magical barriers, that allow only those with magical token to enter, like the brooches that are handed out to students. Any inter-duchy meetings must take place in the main academy building. .

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 1 and 2 The first room one enters after exiting the teleportation circle is the common area on the second floor, where all students, regardless of rank, gender or grade can socialize together. Apart from several communal rooms for studying, socializing or spending free time, this area also contains a common dining room. While each student is free to eat in the privacy of their own room, most Ehrenfest students seem to prefer eating together in the common area. Further backward are the living quarters. The boys' rooms are also on the second floor, while the girls' rooms are one level up. The third floor is strictly off limits to males. To assure that everyone follows this rule, guard knights are at all times stationed at the staircase, taking shifts to never leave the post unattended. The quarters closest to the common areas are traditionally used by laynobles, with the status going up the further toward the back one goes. The rooms furthest toward the back of their respective floors are reserved for archduke candidates. Attendents currently employed by higher ranking students are exempt from this, staying instead in rooms directly next to their masters', so they can stay near to their charge. Students can choose to share rooms with others to save money or if they like the company.

Ehrenfest Dormitory is overseen by Professor Hirschur.


 * Ferdinand stayed at the Royal Academy all year and only returned to Ehrenfest when summoned, because of the bullying he received from Veronica. Due to this, he completed the knight, scholar and archduke candidate course.