The First Night

SoD 4

Whoa, whoa, whoa... I couldn't believe it. The crown prince was here?

Of course, it's not like it had anything to do with me. But still, I couldn't help feeling curious. Juuuust a little bit.

Anyway, forgot "salute". Everyone was practically squealing when the prince waved as his carriage passed by so very slowly. People in green coat, probably the school staff, tried calm the crowd to no avail.

Eventually the carriage disappeared into the school ground.

"ORDER!"

An old woman with unexpected booming voice stood in the middle of the path that was cleared for the prince's carriage. Her voice was so loud that everyone was shocked into silence.

"New enrolls, please proceed to the auditorium in orderly fashion," the crone was no longer shouting, but her voice were still very loud and clear. I wondered how she did that? Even Grandmother often complained that just calling me for dinner wore her out. The way she spoke was exactly like Grandmother on bad days though, like she couldn't tolerate any single mishap, "As you can see, the Prince would become an honored member of the Royal Academy from this day on. Therefore, as future esteemed scholars of this kingdom, I expect you to be on your best behavior."

Well, Grandmother wouldn't speak like such a snob.

I was surprised by the lack of surprise though. Everyone seemed to know what's going on with the prince? I meant, they were surprised when he came, but everyone's just whispering among themselves when the old crone said the prince was gonna be "a member of the Academy". What did that even mean?

"That means he's going to school with us."

Oops, did I say my thought out loud?

"Oh, hey, you're still here," I didn't realize the bead hair guy from the bus was standing near me. If he looked perpetually mad back in the bus, now he looked livid to the point of trembling. People were visibly avoiding us while glancing at him in fear.

"Uh, a-are you ok?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he took several deep breaths until he stopped shaking.

"'m fine," he grunted and walked away.

Naturally I walked in the same direction--we were heading to the same place anyway--but his stride were way bigger than mine so it didn't took long for him to disappear into the crowd.

I always expected I'd be the weird one out, but he seemed to be weird in his own way too.

---

I slept through the entrance ceremony. I was lucky I woke up right when it's about to end though. The only thing I remembered was that the old woman from before was the headmistress.

We were escorted to the dorm right after the ceremony. When I saw the room, I was... mortified. Ten people in a room! Seriously?

"The more the merrier, eh. Getting along with your peers is the first step of entering society after all," the teacher who brought us there spoke reluctantly, "...Or not. Sheesh. Don't complain to me. You'll have less people in a room next year. Or pay your way to a spot in the nobles' dorm. I don't care."

This one seemed like the opposite of the headmistress. Well, I guess it's better if the one who watched over the dorm was more aloof.

Now, back to the room issue... Aside from the ten-in-a-room problem, there's still another one. The twins from the village are here too. As I dropped myself on my assigned bed, I could already hear them whispering among one another.

Well, if the twins told them about me, I was the one who lucked out, right? They would all stay away from me. Even better, they might request me to be moved to another room. Then the school would find that no one wanted to room with me and realized that it's better to let me go home instead of keeping me here. I was sure that snobbish headmistress would agree.

"Um... Excuse me, S-Sesil..."

I practically jumped from my bed when I heard that soft, shaky voice. I thought no one would come near me, why was this one starting a conversation? I looked up and found one of the twins standing half a meter away from my bad. The other one was here too, but she's just peeking from far away.

"What?"

"Are you... Are you going to tell them?"

"Tell them what?"

"Uh... I mean... About where you came from," she was going at this in such a roundabout way, "Are you... are you going to say you're from our village?"

Our village? I hated tha plase with all of my being.

"Also, um... Maybe it's best if you... If you keep a secret? The thing about you being from the Church of Death..."

"Isn't that what you've been telling everyone?" I asked back without giving her the slightest glance.

"No! That's not... I mean--"

"Get lost."

"Aaah... I'm sorry! Sorry!"

---

Orientation day came. Everyone was talking about how enthusiastic they were. I couldn't relax at all.

"So, to get to know each other better, let's start with self-introduction. Starting from you."

Huh? Me?

Well, it's a chance to rub it in to the people from the village.

"The name's Sesil. I came from the Church of Death."