"The Wizard Tower is not a decoy! I'm just not a wizard yet." He shakes his head. "But yes that is the Academy."

"I know. I'm fucking with you, my liege."

But: that-direction-wards.

Training grounds with practice dummies and a stable population of different types of porings can be seen from the front of the three stories-tall building. A score and a half young adventurers-to-be are spread around the grounds practising archery and spellcasting and swordfighting and punching and, in the case of two people, singing and dancing in a way that seems to somehow have adverse effects on the porings they're practising with.

Hi, sorry, excuse Arik, he got distracted. What was that about dancers?

It's a boy and a girl, both looking to be about twenty-something, and they aren't both dancers, actually.

The girl is a singer, wearing the kinds of leathers one might associate with hunters hailing from Payon—an impression compounded by her smooth black hair and facial features typical of the area. She's playing a lute and singing rapidly, sentences occasionally interrupted by half-words and vocalisations that sync with the boy's movements.

The boy on the other hand is putting both Arik and Vallynn to shame in the department of "wearing things designed to make someone question or affirm their sexuality". He's wearing barely-there sheer silks with golden accents—hanging from his neck and wrists and waist and ankles swaying with his movements—plus a thong—only constraining enough of the jiggles to be mesmerising—that isn't itself transparent but has a sufficiently low-hanging base to make the viewer aware that his auburn curls are the only hair on his body and and that he has a golden ring around the base of his penis. He's also decorated with golden gem-studded bangles and rings and anklets and earrings and piercings of similar make, all over his body, and his feet are bare.

While they sing and dance, some of the harmless magic slimes in front of them occasionally burst apart out of nowhere, while others bounce and jiggle in something approximating a dance as if hypnotised and trying to follow the motions along despite the lack of limbs.

...yeah, Arik is offline for the foreseeable future.

He's not the only one getting distracted by the display, but the other novices around are probably at least a little bit used to it by now, judging by the spread of reactions.

"Don't just stand around gawping, if you're going to stare at least do so in proper earshot," Vallynn laughs, walking behind Arik and gently pushing him towards the training grounds and away from the entrance gate.

Walking is permitted if he can keep Looking.

He can, they don't need to actually walk into the main building, there's a direct connection from the front courtyard to the grounds.

When the bard and the dancer notice they have a proper audience (as opposed to just some other novices missing a swing or a punch because they got too distracted) they start to perform for it. They are not the most skilled performers on Midgard, or they wouldn't be here, but the way to become the most skilled performers on Midgard is by, well, performing. And of course, even not-that-highly-skilled bards and dancers are still better than people who just do it as a hobby, since they're calling on Skills that codify performances that work.

The bard continues to sing the same song but she switches some of the wordless parts for lyrics and starts to project her voice more; her song seems to be about a warrior who's going through many trials in order to save his lover's life but the story it tells keeps going and going. The dancer flows into larger and more expressive moves and poses, his movements clearly inspired by the warrior's exploits, and he makes eye contact with Vallynn or Arik whenever the song mentions the warrior's lover. Their performance summons light effects, swirling ethereal ribbons of colour and illusory barely-visible silhouettes of foes defeated, but there's also clearly some kind of emotional component, something to the song that makes them feel as if they're the ones fighting, they're the ones the song is about.

He... remembers...

(she wanted him to be hers, and he thought she loved him, and she didn't, not until he had shown her he was someone to love, not until they had been together, really together, not just the marriage bed but the thrones, the birthing-hut, the battlefield...)

(the witch told them the truth {what was the truth} and his bride snapped it doesn't matter we're dead anyway i love you go and fight and it was the first time she'd ever said it and it was the last thing she ever said)

(killing the beasts, dozens hundreds thousands, healing himself over and over and over and over and swinging his blade until his arm was torn away and then taking it in his left and killing another two before they finally ripped him apart)

And then the song ends.

(The warrior found his lover. The warrior realised at some point he wasn't doing it for his lover, but for himself. The song leaves what happens next ambiguous.)

Vallynn seems to have gotten into a similar rêverie to Arik's, but he snaps out of it once the performance is over and, after a second of reacclimating to the real world, starts clapping.

Clap clap clap.

"I wonder if... that... is part of the song-magic," he murmurs to Vallynn.

"Betting on 'not'."

The performers walk over to their audience, winded and (in the dancer's case) covered by a shiny sheen of sweat. "Hi! Haven't seen you guys around before," says the dancer, giving both of them a very thorough once-over—especially Arik.

"They're clearly not new," says the bard, not looking any less interested. "That gear looks expensive."

"Depends on what new means to you! I have been killing monsters for a while, but I never came here, so I'm seeing if I missed anything. He's my moral support."

"Oh, does that mean we'll get to see you more often?" he asks hopefully.

"It almost certainly does, unless you're about to graduate tomorrow."

"No, we arrived just last week. I'm Yun Tae-hee, my friend here is Minghwē."

"Vallynn."

"I'm Arik! Am I so exciting to see?"

(Minghwē can certainly tell that the reverse is true. As can Tae-hee, though the excitement isn't necessarily aimed in her direction.)

"Yes," he replies immediately, even though it is not anywhere near as physically apparent that he finds the sight exciting.

Vallynn will not comment on that. He knows from experience that right after exercising he often feels too tired to get it up.

"Should we go inside and get you registered?" he asks Arik, but then he remembers: "Is Bjorn still here?"