Chapter 25: First day at school
'Welcome back. Special student Simon. As you are knew the planar university have taken it upon ourselves to guide you without prompting. If this service is unappreciated say so and we will stop. As for the information we are going to provide, you have one class toady which starts at noon. We would advise you attend for you have entered in the middle of a semester, the teacher has already been briefed about you. There is also the 1st year special class you are advised to enter. This class houses all of the 1st year new students and we believe it is good for you to connect with your peers.'
The moment he was back at the school, he was hit with a minor lecture from the disembodied voice who rattled on what he needed to. This should have been annoying, but Simon secretly found it endearing. It felt like someone outside of Amy actually cared even it was from a disembodied voice.
Simon was back at the university with nothing but the school robes and the clothes on he wore. After a long time lying on bed lacking the energy to do anything, this was the answer he came to.
Leave the empty house where there was no-one waiting for him and come to stay school. Anything beyond that was still a work in progress.
But he was still not at that point especially since he was given more so he asked the voice.
"I want to move to the dorms."
'I see. Yes. There are rooms open to you. Do you wish to choose your own or may we do it for you?'
"Sure... Um... Where do I go to get to my first class?"
This was something Simon had never done before and while he knew what to do in theory, he was feeling rather anxious, especially after what happened that morning.
'Follow my directions.' The voice began.
It took him about ten minutes to get to his classroom and this time he was not looked at weirdly which was good because he was not in the right headspace at the moment.
He arrived at a large translucent glass structure that was hazy enough that he could make out what was inside but still get the natural impression it was trying to give off.
Taking in a steady breath he entered the large building with Amy on his tail.
He opened the glass doors and entered the building only to find that he had entered a completely different world.
He was surrounded by greenery on all fronts none of which was uniform like he had expected in a garden. Everything was allowed to grow in a very wild and natural fashion. Yet, somehow they managed to retain a beauty that he found hard to describe.
There was the scent of earth and nature in the air, the smell you get when there is rain in the countryside, and everything becomes doused in the smell of wet earth. It was not an unpleasant sensation, if anything Simon found it very soothing to his nerves so much so that a bit of the distress and resentment he carried at the beginning of the day seemed to slowly wash away.
He started to slowly stroll taking in the flora and with every step, he took he felt lighter and lighter. There was a beauty here he had never experienced before but the crowning jewel of it all was the massive tree that was the centerpiece of this entire ecosystem.
There were many of these gargantuan trees strewn all across the space and combined they made the ceiling of the building a spiderweb of leaves and branches, but there was something special about the one in the center, something that attracted him. His legs carried him to that work of art without any input from his frontal cortex, he was simply drawn to it.
The closer he got the more impressive the tree looked. The trunk was so wide that he could comfortably carve out a house larger than his, and so tall that it reached the very top of the building which was already so massive. A part of Simon felt sad, the tree looked like it was caged in, the canopy that covered about a third of the entire structure wanting and failing to move further up. Yet it did diminish the sense of wonder at seeing something so magnificent.
Soon he was at the base of the tree where other people in similar robes were milling about. Now so close to the magnificent part of nature, he felt so small, that his problems were so trivial.
Simon let out a sigh, it made his shoulders relax, his worries fade away, and his breath calm and steady. Since this morning, it was the first time he felt at ease.
His ruminations were broken when he heard a deep smoky voice that somehow combined kind and sexy ring throughout the area.
"Welcome back, my precious students. I hope you had a brilliant morning and thank you for coming to my humble class. Now, let us begin our next chapter in 'Survive the wilds, for beginners'. Please turn to page 112."