I Entered Magic Academy With F-Rank Stats

“You’re fired, Ryan.”

Ryan Volde stared at his manager for a few seconds, waiting for an explanation that would somehow make those words sound more reasonable.

The man in the gray suit sitting across from him simply slid a thin folder over the desk.

“The company is restructuring. Your division is cutting three positions, and since you’re the newest employee, your name ended up on the list.”

“So my performance was bad?”

“No.”

“Did I screw something up?”

“Not really.”

Ryan pulled the folder toward him and gave a dry smile.

“So I did my job well and still got fired. Good to know.”

Seven weeks.

It wasn’t long enough for him to think of the office as a second home, but it had been long enough to convince him that life was finally starting to go his way after university.

Twenty minutes later, Ryan walked out of the building carrying a cardboard box that wasn’t even half full.

That night, he did something he rarely ever did.

He drank alone.

Four glasses of bourbon were enough to take the edge off his frustration without completely ruining his senses. He could still walk in a straight line, and he was sober enough to curse when he discovered that the elevator in his apartment building was broken again.

“Perfect. Maybe the stairs can collapse next.”

Muttering under his breath, Ryan climbed three floors to Apartment 3B.

The moment he reached his door, he stopped.

A black envelope had been pinned directly to the center of it with a small silver nail.

The hallway was empty in both directions.

No footsteps.

No neighboring doors closing.

The only sound came from the rain tapping against the window at the far end of the corridor.

His name was written across the front of the envelope in gold ink.

RYAN VOLDE.

“If this is a bill, someone’s trying way too hard.”

Ryan pulled out the nail and hissed when its sharp tip scratched his index finger.

A bead of blood surfaced on his skin.

He sucked briefly on the cut, unlocked the door, and went inside.

The box from the office ended up beside the sofa while the strange envelope followed him to the dining table.

There was no return address.

No stamp.

No company logo.

The only thing on the back was a dark red wax seal bearing the image of a black tower surrounded by seven stars.

“Who has this much free time?”

Ryan was about to break the seal when a drop of blood slipped from his finger and landed on the wax.

He froze.

The blood sank into the seal.

Not smeared.

Not dried.

It was absorbed completely, disappearing without leaving a trace.

Ryan looked at his finger, then back at the envelope.

“Maybe four glasses really was too much.”

Crack.

The wax seal split open by itself.

Ryan straightened in his chair.

A sheet of pale parchment slid out of the envelope and settled on the table.

Its surface was blank at first.

Then black letters began to appear, rising from within the fibers of the parchment as though they had always been hidden there.

BLACKTHORN ARCANE ACADEMY.

A second line appeared moments later.

Mr. Ryan Volde,

You have been selected as a prospective student of Blackthorn Arcane Academy for the upcoming academic year. Attendance will become mandatory once the admission contract has been activated.

Ryan let out a quiet sigh.

“I just graduated from university. Whoever made this clearly didn’t do their homework.”

He reached out to fold the parchment.

Another sentence appeared before he could touch it.

Admission contract activated.

The smile vanished from Ryan’s face.

“What contract? I didn’t sign anything.”

The seven-star symbol on the parchment suddenly lit up red.

Glowing lines spread across the table, crawled down its legs, and raced over the floor before forming a circle directly beneath Ryan’s feet.

The apartment lights flickered.

An empty bottle in the kitchen began to rattle against the counter.

Ryan shot to his feet.

Before he could move away, a cold female voice echoed directly inside his head.

[Identity confirmed.]

[Transit to Blackthorn Arcane Academy initiated.]

“Wait. Transit wha—”

Red light swallowed the entire room.