ENF Academy - A LitRPG Ch. 001-008

(This is an erotic litRPG that will deal with aspects of BDSM culture and humiliation play. All sex acts will be consensual, but there will be aspects of non-consensual humiliation/embarrassment explored throughout the story. The full title is ENF Academy: For Some Reason, She Can Only Save the World if She's Naked, and I'm going to be releasing blocks of chapters here as I continue to write it. Hope you enjoy!)

1.1: Arrival

The Endrin National Fortress Academy came into view, giving Elaina the first glimpse at her second chance at life. She leaned out the window of the carriage to get a better look, grinning even as her chestnut hair danced around her face and obscured the view. Even from this distance the school was imposing, numerous towers jutting from the pristine white base topped with blue roofs, surrounded by a sprawling green lawn. "Don't fall out now, darling," her coachwoman shouted from the front, her own curled black hair flowing in the wind in what Elaina was sure was more graceful than her own. "They won't pay me if you show up running behind the cart."

Elaina laughed and leaned back into the carriage before opening the small communication window to answer back, "I'm not going to fall out right before I arrive at Endrin! I'd be mortified!"

Char kept her head facing the road, but Elaina could see the grin growing on her face. "I don't know what to expect from you at this point. It's only been a week, but I don't think a day has passed since I met you that you haven't done something to mortify yourself."

Elaina pursed her lips, fighting back a blush. It was true, of course, but now that she was finally here that would change, had to change. Her days as a walking ball of embarrassment were over, starting now.

"But don't worry about that, dear. Traveling so far is always rough for first timers. Some people take to it better than others."

Elaina was already sure she was firmly, firmly placed in the camp of "others," but she appreciated the attempt at comforting her anyway. "Ya, traveling... Once I'm settled in at the academy, things'll be okay." She almost believed it.

The two kept up their small talk for the next half hour or so before they reached the front gates. Getting out of the carriage gave Elaina her first proper view of the Academy. She'd heard of the towers before, and had honestly thought they looked smaller than expected as they approached, but now she realized she had been wrong. The towers had seemed small because she had no idea the base building and surrounding fields would be so enormous. She stood in awe of the castle, a place of legend, one that may as well had been a myth to her just a year ago, and her new home for the next three years.

"Alright, I know it's impressive, but you have to quit gawking." Elaina broke from her trance and saw that Char had already unloaded her two bags from the back of the carriage and set them down just in front of the gate. "I'm not Aspected like you, so they won't even let me through the gates. It's up to you from here." Elaina winced a little at the joke. Char didn't seem to mean anything negative by it, but it did make Elaina vibrantly aware of her situation, the nature of their relationship and respective statuses.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you get all that stuff-"

"Nah nah, that's what I'm paid for," Char said, waving Elaina off. The woman's face grew even warmer than normal when she smiled at her. "I'm happy I got to spend the trip with someone like you for once. Most years it's just the usual noble brats who think I'm one of their house servants."

That did scare Elaina. She'd tried avoiding the thought as much as possible, but she couldn't completely ignore that she was walking into the metaphorical wolves' den with quite a lot of wool covering a very sheep-shaped body. "Are they really that bad?"

"Eh, to me? Ya, but you're one of them, now, whether you act like it or not. Shouldn't be too much of a problem for you to get along with 'em."

"Right..." Elaina looked back at the gates. The suits of armor standing on either side didn't beckon her inside, but the sun was near setting, and she knew she couldn't linger long. Char had kept a fast pace over their seven days, but it was a tight trip, and she was likely one of the last arrivals today, Awakening Day. "I do think I have to go now." She turned back to Char, then walked forward and hugged her. "Thanks for bringing me this far. I can handle it from here."

Char patted her on the back, holding the embrace until Elaina let go. "One more thing," she said, reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out a leather necklace adorned with a wooden star. "It's not much, but happy birthday."

Elaina took it in her hands and marveled at the piece. Fine leather, excellent wood carved completely smooth. This was the type of thing that the wealthy of her village would flaunt. "I- how much did this cost?"

"Ha, nothing, dear. The string is from an old saddle, and I made the star myself. It's a good hobby to pass the nights on these long trips." She grabbed the piece back for herself and slipped it over Elaina's head. "I know you didn't have a real chance to celebrate, so I wanted to get you at least one proper present."

Elaina took the star in her hands once more as it hung from her neck and beamed back up at Char before embracing her again. "I love it."

Char squeezed her tightly back before finally letting go. "It looks good on you, a star for the star blessed."

Star blessed. That's what Elaina was now, or would be after her Awakening tonight, which she was getting dangerously close to being late for. "Thank you so much, for everything, but I do need to go."

"Ya ya, oh great hero of the future. Get to class before they send you to wizard detention or whatever."

Elaina laughed as she grabbed her bags from the ground. "I will! Have a safe trip back!" She turned back to the gates, the suits of armor standing ever imposing as she did. This was it. If her village priest had made a mistake... Well, she would know soon enough. She drew in one deep breath before darting through. She'd half expected one final humiliation to cap off her trip, but the autonomous guards remained still, and Elaina passed through with nothing but a slight tingle coursing through her body.

Endrin Academy, she'd made it.

After passing through the gate and getting over the weird sensation it gave—Elaina wondered briefly if that had been the rumored barrier meant to keep out nonstudents or just her own nerves—the walk up to the school was remarkably mundane. She lugged her two suitcases across the sprawling lawn. As she approached the fortress that grew in size with each step forward, a large group of small dots came into view, the other students.

At first Elaina thought she might have been in trouble already, If these people are all waiting to get in for some reason, I may not be inside in time for the ceremony, the ceremony in question being her Awakening of all things. Her fears were soon assuaged though, as she realized the students didn't seem to be waiting at all, but instead mingling amongst each other, enjoying the pleasant late afternoon that hung over their first day of classes.

That was almost worse. Elaina shuffled forward through the masses of her new classmates, uncertain what to do next. She felt smaller and smaller as she waded through, approaching the now gargantuan walls of the castle. Which way was the entrance? How were these students getting along with each other so quickly? Why weren't any of them carrying luggage?

"Hey, suitcase girl!" she heard from her left, turning quickly to see a group of students, three girls and two boys, standing next to a large pile of neatly stacked luggage. "I think you're looking for this right here," a blonde girl from the group said, beckoning Elaina over with a smile.

Elaina smiled back and walked towards the group. The others stood off to the side as the one girl approached, meeting Elaina and offering to take one of the bags. "Thanks so much," Elaina said as she handed one over. "I was getting a little overwhelmed."

"No worries! Girls like us have to stick together, right? We'll just drop them over here." The mystery girl pranced over to the pile of suitcases, and the two placed the bags on top of some others that looked sturdy enough. "I spoke to an instructor earlier. Their porters or whatever will take them to our rooms."

"Oh, but I don't have a tag on them or anything," Elaina said.

The girl cocked her head, confused. "Hmm? No, that doesn't matter. You realize this is Endrin, right?" she said with a laugh.

"Man, Prisma," one of the guys from the group said, "Did you seriously just grab a hick?" Shit, no way they caught on already? Elaina thought, slinking her shoulders down. Her hopes of going more than three sentences without giving herself away were already up in flames.

"Oh shut it, Waine," the girl, Prisma, said, waving him off. "But wait, are you really a hick?"

"Uhm, I guess kind of?" Elaina said. There was no use lying. If they were going to make fun of her for it, well, "I'm from a small village out on the north border."

"Really? Are your parents nobles out there, or knights stationed there for some reason?"

"No, actually. My parents are weavers," Elaina replied, doing her best to keep from making eye contact with the group.

"Woah," Prisma said, "That's so cool! You aren't even legacy? Your aspect must be really strong to have been selected for Endrin."

"Ya, right," Waine said, "Maybe this basketmaker is even gonna get a full-fledged class at our Awakening." He stepped away from the group before leaning over and pushing his face right in front of Elaina's. "Or maybe she's just a dud."

Elaina stood there, frozen as much by Waine's words as his piercing blue eyes. He was just mocking of course—no one had been granted an actual class instead of just an aspect in centuries, and duds were just myths—but she had no idea how to respond. "Enough," Prisma said, stepping in between the two of them. "I already told her we have her back. Commoner or not, she's still one of our classmates, and they'll eat her alive if we leave her alone."

Waine looked over Elaina again and shrugged. "At least she looks the part."

Looks the part? Elaina raised her head then looked up at the group, really looked at them for the first time since she'd closed the distance. He doesn't mean... Does he? There was no denying it. None on the students Elaina could see were exactly ugly, but the group of freshmen she'd found herself with were on another level. The boys, even Waine with his spiked, angry black hair and even angrier eyes, were certainly attractive, but the other two girls were downright gorgeous.

And then there was Prisma herself. There was no way that Elaina could be grouped with her of all people, not in that way. Finally taking everything about the girl in after having been preoccupied with luggage and her own anxieties, Elaina struggled to find words for the second time in as many minutes. Prisma's platinum blonde hair fell as straight as the Endrin guards stood, extending just below her neck, resting on a chest that pushed out her wait uniform shirt and blue blazer with forceful elegance. Her chest wasn't quite as large as Elaina's, not that there were many people that Elaina knew who could say that, but sat perfectly on her torso, drawing Elaina's eyes for a period of time approaching indecency. Elaina forced out a cough, breaking away from Prisma's chest just long enough to see the hem of her skirt, stopping over milk white thighs, squished by socks rising just above the knee—

Elaina snapped her head up to Prisma's face. She had blue eyes too, like Waine, but not that piercing electric blue. A deeper, calming blue surrounded by blushing cheeks.

"Alright, I'll go along with it," Waine said. "But it's your ass that's out if she ends up dragging the group down."

Prisma rolled her eyes. "With us helping her? She'll be fine. Anyway, I'm Prisma Fireguard." She extended a hand out to Elaina. "Nice to meet you."

1.2: Orientation

Prisma Fireguard and Waine Ferris, the heirs to two of the most influential families in the country—no, world— and a trio of slightly lesser nobles as well if Elaina wasn't mistaken. After introducing herself, she was whisked away by her newfound acquaintances at the sound of a bell ringing, the dinner bell. But it wasn't dinner time just yet, not tonight. First, the Awakening.

Elaina barely had time to take in the halls Endrin Academy as she walked through them. The walls were blue like the top of the castle, with white molding running along the floor. Littered along the walls were crystals sat atop silver candelabra, providing steady light through some sort of mechanism that she wasn't familiar with, surrounding various paintings, all of them of some historic figure or event she didn't recognize. All light from her home was from either fire or the sky, and art was a very personal affair, usually a portrait of the family who owned it, but none of that compared to the most baffling thing in the halls: the floor.

White marble, Elaina might have expected. There were small marble statues in some of the wealthier manors back home, and she knew it was used as a building material in the cities, but the rugs were unfathomable. She was walking along the finest fabric she'd ever seen in her life, her dirty shoes stomping on material her parents could only have ever dreamed of working with. Material that she could only have dreamed of ever seeing herself, if she wasn't Aspected.

And she knew she wasn't supposed to be.

Maybe it shouldn't have been such a surprise that the first classmates she met were two of the most important people in the world; they came from Aspected families. They belonged. A chill crept over her body as she walked along, oblivious to the conversations around her as her feet pounded on a fortune that she should never have been near.

"Elaina?" she heard, jerking her head to see Prisma looking at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

Elaina stared ahead as they walked. Waine was talking with the other guy in their group, and the two girls were likewise engaged. That gave her some comfort. "I'm, uhm, a bit overwhelmed. This is a lot more than I was expecting."

Prisma held the back of her hand to her mouth, stifling a laugh, or maybe a giggle? "It's kind of cute seeing your reaction. This is all pretty normal for the most of us, but I guess you're not used to crystal light, huh?"

"Ya, crystal light... That's it." Elaina returned to staring at the floor, feeling that tinge of guilt with each step over the rug, and Prisma bounced off to talk with the rest of the group. Elaina trailed behind only a couple steps, but like everything else she'd seen since she arrived, the distance between her and the group seemed larger than it should have been.

And then they arrived. The banquet hall was every bit as grand as the entrance hall was, a room larger than any she'd ever seen, with crystal light chandeliers floating in the air, dozens of rounds tables filling up the space, and a giant tapestry on the wall that spanned the entire of the circular perimeter, depicting Endrin Academy itself in the center, besieged on both sides by massive armies in what could only be the final battle of the Night Wars.

At least there was no carpet.

Students seemed to be taking seats wherever they could find, filling in at the variously sized tables wherever they thought appropriate. "This way," Waine said, heading right towards the painted Endrin Academy on the back wall. The group moved through the crowd that had built up in front of them, that same crowd parting as Waine and Prisma led the group. Most who stepped aside stood still for a moment, watching the two heirs pierce their way through the room, and Elaina heard the beginnings of their murmurings as she trailed along at the end of the entourage.

"Pompous shits."

"Bastards."

"Prick."

Once they'd made it through to the other side of the hall, Elaina finally saw their destination, one that Waine seemed to know how to get to in the first place. Right below the depiction of the castle was a curved longtable, seats only on the side that faced out towards the rest of the hall. Each of those seats was already occupied, not by uniformed students, but by adults in various different forms of gaudy dress, the Endrin faculty.

In front of the faculty were a handful of seated students, but right in front was an untouched table for six. "Good, seems they know their place," Waine said as they approached.

Know their place. Elaina scanned her group as they walked up to the table, their table. None of the others seemed to even register the comment. "Alright, let's get this show going, we're here," the other boy in the group, Ivis, said. "You think we'll get to eat after we get ours done?"

"No," said one of the other girls, Daly, Elaina thought her name was. "They'll probably make us wait the whole thing out."

The other girl, Nyla, piped in as well, "It's whatever to me. I just want to get this whole thing over with and get to sleep."

They sat down in front of the faculty, Nyla on one side of Elaina and Prisma on the other, with Waine flanking Prisma's other side. Elaina was missing something. This was their Awakening of all things, but none of them seemed even remotely interested. She looked around at the surrounding tables to see if the students there were likewise disinterested, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Where were the nerves, the crushing anxieties, the jittering excitement? Everyone seemed to just be chatting normally, with the occasional person glaring in her direction.

"Hey," she said to Prisma, not realizing she was interrupting her conversation with Waine. "What did you mean earlier? That we have to stick together? You said it twice."

Waine himself was the one who answered. "Everyone here, besides us of course," he said, gesturing to the rest of the group, save Elaina herself, "Is looking to make a name for themselves. They'll all clique up and try to go after people to make themselves look better. There's other nobles here of course, but the six of us stand out. Even if you wouldn't be worth bothering with without us."

"Waine," Prisma said, glaring at him before turning to Elaina. "He's right though. You're better off with us, trust me. The others almost all have their cliques already."

"But—"

Elaina was cut off by what sounded like a thunderclap, but was actually the clap of a single set of hands. The man right in front of their table stood, a bald man with round spectacles enlarging his eyes on face that already seemed a little too small, wearing purple robes speckled with glittering stars that seemed to move across the fabric as he gestured to the crowd. "Most of you are seated, though I trust those that are not will soon find theirs. Do sit anywhere, please. Before we get started, I wanted to personally welcome you all here. My practical days are behind me with the better half of my adulthood, but I am honored to find myself here in service to you like I once served the kingdom at large."

Alonse Stormshine, once heir to the throne himself, now the headmaster at the most prestigious school in the world, hero of the land and older brother of the king. He didn't need to introduce himself, even to Elaina. His voice echoed across the room at an unnatural volume, louder than a yell, but spoken with the tone of a normal conversation.

"Now, some of you are likely worried about the quality of your aspect and are experiencing some degree of nervousness about it." He winked, and a chuckle rolled across the room. Elaina laughed as if she'd actually understood the joke. "No, your star signs are strong, else you wouldn't have been admitted to Endrin Academy in the first place. You are all destined for greatness and will find success in these halls. But still, we of course must first discover your bestowed gifts. And I am sure that none of you have gone ahead and figured them out yourselves, right?"