The First Trip

The Royal Academy was located in the town Shuri. It's not that far, but it took some time to get there. Grandmother was too old to walk with me all the way to the bus station (or so she said). Brother wanted to accompany me, but I didn't let him. It's not that he couldn't find his way back with his messed up eyesight. I was just... still trying not to make this school thing look like a big deal.

I'd come back for sure. Nothing's gonna stop me.

It took me half an hour to walk to the village's bus station. I wasn't the only one there. I know them, kids from the village--the grocer's son and the twins who lived behind the inn. I could feel them getting jumpy when I came in. They were stealing glances at me while keeping their distance, whispering among themselves.

"H-hello, Sesil--" they stuttered when their eyes happened to meet mine.

"You don't need to talk to me if you don't want to," I cut them before turning away.

They used to bully me for living in the Church of Death when we were kids. I beat them up and they'd been terrified of me every since.

This was why I didn't want to go to boarding school.

It's not just them... Really, everyone in the village hated us, yet they would suddenly change their attitude whenever somebody died.

That was the other reason why I didn't want to leave the church. I didn't want to live among them. I didn't want to live like them.

It didn't matter if I had to clean up their dead while they treated me like trash as long as I don't have to become one of them.

The bus didn't take long. I quickly hopped on before everyone else and got myself a seat in the corner. There were already some other would-be students on board, must be from neighboring towns. It's specifically arranged to pick up new students after all.

It got quite rowdy pretty soon. Everyone seemed to be trying to get to know each other. I supposed it's given that the corners are preserved for loners, so no one approached me.

I wondered if they could tell who I was though.

"Stay away, punk. You stink of death!"

"Don't come too often, will ya? No one's buyin' anythin' once they see ya here."

I didn't want to remember those times, but now that I think about it, wouldn't the Royal Academy kick me out before long? Right! Why didn't I think of that?

"'Scuse me."

"Huh?"

I didn't realize that we've reached another stop and someone's standing right in front of me.

"You're talking to me?"

"Yeah. This seat empty?"

It was a guy... I think? He was so tall he couldn't stand straight without his head hitting the bus ceiling. His hair was long like Brother's, but dark and twisted and tangled in a weird way. Some strands even got colorful beads hanging on it.

He was glaring at me real hard, like he's really mad at me. What's up with him? Of course I glared back at him just as hard.

"Is it empty or not?"

He was really talking to me, huh?

"...Yeah. Not sure if you'd want to sit near me though."

"I don't really care."

He really sat beside me. My eyes darted around the bus--he really didn't have much choice. Well, it's not like people notice me. Or him. And even though people avoided him because he sat near the death girl, it couldn't care less. It's his own fault.

The weird guy just kept staring into space. He didn't try to talk to me again. Good. I also turned my attention towards the window. I'd been out of the church and rode a bus with Grandmother before, so the view wasn't really new. Still, the route was different, so the scenery was different too. I hated to admit it, but there was a little perk of leaving home. Seeing new places that was worth seeing... I could only pray one day I got to be do this on my own terms, not on my way to prison.

Calling the Royal Academy a "prison" turned out to be hilarious because when we got off the bus three hours later, cops were swarming at the campus ground.

"What? H-hey!"

I watched two of those cops took away the guy who had been sitting beside me. I didn't catch what they said, only something like "secure", "precaution", or something. Before I could process what was going on, some other cops forced us to stand in line on the sides of the campus boulevard. The weird guy and his captors were standing a few meters away. He was struggling at first, but the cops seemed to have knocked some sense into him.

Oops, he caught me looking!

Right when I turned away from the guy, I heard trumpet sound coming down the boulevard. Not too long after, an roofless carriage drawn by well-groomed horses came in behind rows and rows of armament-carrying cops.

"Salute to the crown prince!"

Huh?

Inside the carriage, a young man was standing and waving at us instead of sitting on the couch like a sane passenger. He's got short blond hair under a thin circlet. His clothes seemed super luxurious. Under the sun, every part of him seemed to glow.

Crown prince? What the hell was such an important person doing here?