Raised in Dungeon

Eight knocks

The ninth knock woke Allen from his slumber.

"Caw! Caw!" cried his crow from inside the cage that had been left open.

"What's wrong?" asked Allen.

"Caw! Caw!" the crow looked toward the window.

The knocks were coming from his bedroom window. Behind the curtains, a silhouette of an oddly moving object came into view.

The moment Allen opened the window, a colossal bird, almost as large as his body, greeted him. It was a harpy eagle, its chest puffed out with pride. Its body was adorned in a leather suit replete with numerous pockets, and on its back, a massive leather bag hugging, appearing to be brimming with something.

Allen quickly popped his head out and scanned his surroundings. It wasn't just on his balcony; various birds had perched themselves on every dorm room balcony, including Felicia's, which was directly across from Allen's. However, it seemed Felicia had yet to awaken, leaving her bird persistently peaking at her window.

After proudly displaying its achievements to Allen, the bird turned around.

"Is this for me?" Allen inquired, though he knew it wouldn't reply. Nonetheless, he reached for the substantial bag strapped to the bird's back.

The bag revealed three sets of Oxwade Academy uniforms and several books and letters.

It became apparent that the academy had dispatched these birds to deliver students' possessions to their respective dormitories. And it seems that the only one who looks confused is him, while the other students look used to the arrival of this package delivery bird.

The harpy eagle seemed to possess an uncanny ability to discern when its human recipient had concluded their bag inspection. It promptly departed once Allen had finished scanning the bag's contents.

Allen looked across the room again. The eagle that had landed on Felicia's balcony was still knocking roughly on her window.

"I knew it would come to this."

Allen put his bag down on the bed, put on some clothes, and jumped into Felicia's room, startling the bird perched in her room.

"Felicia! Felicia!" called Allen as he knocked on her window.

But there was no answer.

Instead, it seemed to create another problem.

Allen could feel a thousand stares around him. But he didn't know it was unusual for a male to wake a female up in the morning, so he continued calling out to her.

-SWOOSH

Two minutes passed before Felicia finally opened her window, and her expression was anything but pleasant. Her hair was slightly disheveled, and her drowsy visage conveyed her irritation, leaving her harpy bird jittery.

"You're finally awake too; this bird is delivering something-"

Before he could finish, Felicia seized the collar of Allen's shirt and yanked him closer. "How long have you been calling me like that?!"

"About a minute?"

"YOU'RE INSANE!!!" Felicia slapped Allen, but he easily deflected her hand.

"I-I'll wait in front of the dorm," stammered Allen as he hastily retreated into his room.

"WAIT! GET BACK HERE!!!" Felicia's voice trailed after him....

…

About an hour.

Allen waited in front of Felicia's dormitory with a crow perched on top of his head. Some people looked at him with a smile, and most held back laughter. At first, he didn't care much, but over time, the gazes of the students coming out of the dormitory made him anxious. Allen picked up his crow and stroked his head, pretending to do something not to look so awkward.

Felicia finally came out of the dormitory, wearing her usual expensive and frayed clothes.

"Felicia-"

"Don't talk to me yet," Felicia said.

She walked on, leaving Allen behind. Allen followed her but kept a few steps behind her, feeling he would be scolded if he walked next to her.

Once they walked quite a distance from the dormitory, Felicia stopped, sitting on one of the stone benches in the park district while letting out a long sigh.

"haaah... I can't believe you actually did that in the morning," Allen thought that she would explode again like this morning. Still, it seemed that time had already exhausted her. "No, I should have known that you were the type of person who would do that," Felicia continued.

Of course, after knowing how the people around him looked at him, he also began to understand why what he did earlier was inappropriate.

"As Rachel said, you really can't get up early in the morning. I bet you haven't cleaned your room either."

"That's rude! I already cleaned my bed by myself!"

"Of course it's just the bed... and you're not denying about getting up early."

 "..." "It's not that I can't do everything without Rachel! It's just that the time it takes to do everything myself is too much!"

"Yeah, you should also know I'm not the one to blame here."

"You are! You think how those girls are looking at me?! They seem to think that we're some kind of newlyweds!"

"newlyweds?"

"FORGET IT!"

After resting for a few minutes, they started walking again, making their way to the market district.

In the bag from the delivery bird, they found the cappa clausa; three layers of academy uniforms and some accessories. There were also two letters. One had a fancy wax seal with a harpy eagle on thick leather. It was the official admission to Oxwade. The other letter, made of plain leather, listed the stuff they needed for the upcoming school year at Oxwade.

"A pair of alloy greaves, silurus steel shoes, mustelae thermal, etc... There are also many items needed. I thought we just had to enter school, and the academy would already have everything ready

" That's why most academy students come from noble families. Common folks can't easily afford these things. And the school can't give them away for free. Maybe that's why they ask students to buy their own stuff. So those who can't afford it might need to borrow from older students or something," Felicia explained.

"How much does each one cost?" Allen inquired.

"I'm not sure, but I hope our budget is sufficient for both of us. Anyway, if we run short of money, we can always ask Reig to replicate the items from the store."

"My master said that shouldn't be done. The issue is, the items reproduced by Reig tend to be of lower quality, which essentially amounts to stealing in the end."

"I know that, I was just joking. Have you forgotten that I'm the wealthiest noble child in the kingdom? We won't run out of money. Let's speed up and purchase these items; I want to try traveling around the academy town," Felicia declared as she quickened her pace.

However, Felicia's enthusiasm waned when they arrived at the market district.

"What in the world..."

The market was teeming with students, a chaotic and dense crowd.

Not surprisingly, it wasn't just Allen and Felicia who had received the letter; all the incoming students destined for secunda and praeterea classes had received it, and they all required almost the same equipment.

"There's no way I'm going through this crowd!" Felicia exclaimed in exasperation.

"I can get in; let me buy the things we need."

"No, I don't trust your taste. I want my cute but cool school supplies!"

"How inconvenient..."

"At this rate, we'll have to wait until the afternoon," Felicia mumbled in frustration.

But as she said that, a group of students passed, and Felicia suddenly heard their conversation.

"It's a good thing we arrived early; we wouldn't want a repeat of last year," one of the students remarked.

"I remember giving up last time and ending up with old and worn-out gear," another student lamented.

"Those old shoes made me the target of ridicule, you can't even imagine!" added a third student.

"Ugh! Don't remind me of the time I got humiliated in alchemy class for using a secondhand potion bottle from the shop! And it stinks because it was the owner's pee bottle!"

Listening to their conversation, Felicia's anxiety deepened.

"Allen... Let's find a way in!"

"Are you certain? Even if we manage to break through, I'm not sure we'll be able to choose the items we want in this mob."

"It's simple. Let's seek out the best and less-crowded spots. Such places are usually overlooked because they're expensive."

The two of them forged their way through the crowd.

Yet, the outcome was disappointing. They ended up with only average items.

"At least we have something decent to wear," Allen consoled.

"This won't do! How will the other nobles view me if I use a normal, sooo ordinary things?"

"Just bear with it for four weeks. The shopkeeper mentioned that traveling merchants visit every four weeks."

-CLANK

There was the sound of equipment clanging in the middle of their way back, and it wasn't too far away.

Still in the district market, a student could be seen looking down to collect his fallen items.

"Hey, look up here."

That student seemed to be being bullied by, obviously looked superior, another student. And from the looks of it, it seemed like they were the ones who made his belongings fall and scatter on the ground.

"Look at these shabby things of yours, as expected of a peasant. You should started digging a noble land instead of going to school."