The ancient corridors pulsed with life as Max led Michael through the main castle. Their footsteps echoed against walls that had witnessed centuries—first as Bran Castle, now as something extraordinary. The transformation from medieval fortress to supernatural institution was evident in every carefully preserved detail—Gothic archways now supported modern magical lighting, while ancient tapestries hung beside contemporary supernatural artwork.

“Hard to believe this place used to be just a single castle,” Max said, his voice carrying the pride of someone who had watched the academy grow from its humble beginnings. “When Draken and the Headmasters acquired this castle, it was impressive but cramped for a school. Now look at it.”

They walked a few steps before realisation dawned on Michael.

“Headmasters?” he asked. “Don’t schools usually only have one Headmaster?”

“That would be so in a typical school,” Max said, a smile on his face, “but this isn’t a typical school.”

Michael said nothing and continued walking. His eyes widened as they passed through what had once been the castle's great hall, now expanded into a vast reception area. The original wooden beams remained, but the space had been enlarged slightly beyond the original castle. Floating chandeliers cast warm light that seemed to dance and shift.

The Hall was impressive and Michael was in awe.

“How is this even possible?” Michael asked, his voice filled with wonder. “The outside looked big, but this is...”

“Impossible by human standards,” Max finished with a grin. “But we're not bound by human limitations. The academy employs dimensional expansion, spatial folding, and about a dozen other magical techniques that would make human architects weep with confusion. Every wing, every room, every corridor has been designed to accommodate our unique needs. If I am not mistaken there was a little disagreement during construction. One of the Headmasters wanted everything to be done with magic, however Draken opposed and, in the end, after the expansion was done, she had to have her way.”

“Is that something a Vampire can do?”

Max smiled a bit. “You’ll soon come to know that Vampires aren’t the only creatures here.”

They paused before a massive map carved into the stone wall, its surface shifting and changing to show different views of the academy complex. Michael watched in fascination as the carved lines rearranged themselves, displaying the full scope of the transformation.

“The original castle serves as our administrative centre,” Max explained, pointing to the central structure on the map. “But we've added three extra buildings for the student houses, expanded the dungeons into proper training facilities, and created specialized spaces that human schools don’t contain and a whole lot of others.”

Michael leaned closer to study the map, noting how the academy seemed to flow organically from the mountainside itself. “You mentioned houses. How do students get assigned?”

“Ah, that's one of the more interesting traditions we've adopted from humans,” Max said, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Let me show you how we actually make this place work first.”

As they continued deeper into the castle, Max began explaining the daily operations that kept such a diverse institution functioning. “Classes are optimised enough for all students to be capable of attending… there are very few exceptions but nothing around the clock staff can’t fix.”

Michael was intrigued and inclined to ask. “What about regular subjects?”

Max's expression shifted slightly. “That's... something we handle carefully. The integration of human education standards with supernatural learning isn't exactly advertised to the outside world, humans and other monsters included.”

“Why not?” Michael asked, his curiosity piqued by Max's reply.

Max glanced around, then lowered his voice. “You really want to know? Fine, but this stays between us.” He paused. “Humans don’t know we exist. Their governments prefer it that way—and honestly, so do most monsters. Teaching human subjects to monsters suggests we might eventually want to integrate more into their society, which makes some people nervous on both sides.”

The implications of this secrecy weren't lost on Michael. He was beginning to understand that the academy existed in a delicate balance between multiple worlds, each with their own expectations and fears.

“But unofficially?” he pressed.

Max's grin returned. “Unofficially, we're probably better educated than most human institutions. Hard to maintain a global supernatural society without understanding economics, politics, science, and literature from both perspectives. Then again, I might just be boasting.” The way he said it, Michael had doubts it was just a boast.

They walked through one of the six doors that led to the Hall.

“Each door connected to the Hall leads to a different wing of the castle, the academic wings. The Academic wings are kind of like faculties: they house different facilities or rooms pertaining to the classes they are responsible for.” Max paused for a bit to let the information sink in.

“The northeast door,” he said, gesturing to the door they were stood, “leads to the first Wing, the Faculty of History and Ethics. Let’s start there.”

Michael nodded as Max led him down the corridor. The rooms and facilities were spectacular. They went past a couple of rooms, going up and down the castle on this wing: Monster History, the Archive, Faculty room and others but Michael was too occupied to take note of every single one of them.

The tour continued as Max led him through the East door whose corridor led to the Faculty of Arcane sciences. The moment they stepped through the east door, Michael’s nose wrinkled. A stench like rotten eggs made his stomach turn. Max covered his nose.

“Vampire senses,” Max explained, his voice muffled. “What’s unpleasant for you is pure torture for me.”

“What does the Arcane sciences cover?” Michael asked.

“Funny you should ask that, but this particular faction tends to be the bane of a Vampire’s existence. The Arcane sciences is most notoriously famous for their Potions laboratory and alchemical shenanigans.”

“You must not like this faculty that much.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great faculty they have my thanks for how easy it is to get blood,” Max said as they walked past a door marked “Potions Laboratory”. “But...”

Bubbling sound preceded a small explosion followed by someone cursing in an unknown language. “... Exactly.”

They continued down the Southeast corridor that led to the Faculty of Mastery which was a funny choice for a faculty.

“Why is it called that?” Michael asked.

Max paused and held a hand to his chin. “Interestingly enough, I don’t know.”

The walk through the Faculty of Mastery was a lot more quietly, particularly because Max hadn’t bothered in the slightest to know what goes on in the faculty.

“Oh,” Max spoke up suddenly as they stood in front of a door, “there’s one thing I remember about this Faculty—it houses the school’s astronomy tower.” Michael's eyes went wide. He remembered a rather tall tower that was part of the castle. So, it was an astronomy tower.

“What’s with that look on your face?” Max asked.

Michael tried to compose himself, but his mind was already racing. Stars had always been his escape at the orphanage. He was fascinated by how easily he could lose himself watching them.

“I just... stars have always made sense to me,” he said finally. “When nothing else did.”

“Then you’ll love this tower at the very least,” Max said as they continued down their path.

They took the door leading to the Southwest corridor and Michael was in awe. The amount of detail put into the architecture: bat wings, werewolf claws and a bunch of others were subtly integrated into the corridor. The rooms were also quite lavish, and the size…

“It’s huge,” Michael said, still captivated by the corridor.

“It has to be. It’s the largest faculty in the school and easily the most robust, the Faculty of Species Studies.” As Max said this, he held out his arm in a welcoming pose, like one soaking in the aura of the wing.

“What is this Faculty about?”

“Quite simply, it’s the part of the school involved in specialized classes. Vampire-only classes, Giants-only classes and stuff like that. It has to be large to cater to the needs of the individual students and staff.”

Michael nodded as Max gave his explanation, but curiosity nagged at him. “What qualifies a student? Don’t they just have to be monsters?”

“The Monster Society is a lot more complex than just being a monster. This is something you should learn properly but I’ll give you a quick rundown. There is a Monster Council that governs or presides over the Monster Society, similarly to how humans have governors or presidents. This council is spearheaded by smaller, more localized monster families primarily classified by their sentience.”

“Sentience?”

“Yes, sentience, the ability to consciously perceive thought and intelligence not unlike a human.

Michael blinked. The explanation only served to add to his confusion. “Isn’t it weird that you’re using humans as a measure of monster sentience.”

Max smiled at that. “I can see why you’ll think that but, on the contrary, it makes sense. Every monster in this world is tied to humanity one way or the other. Without humans, monsters wouldn’t exist. Take us vampires for example,” he said. “A vampire is born when a human dies with vampire blood and we are sustained by the blood of humans.”

“I see.”

“We measure sentience by that, the closer a monster is to independence of their own accord, they are allowed to stand as a part of the Monster council. It is Monsters that can be found in said council that make up the baseline for students. The other monsters are given different classifications outside of this.”