Dormitory

Ares decidedly opened the door of the dormitory. Before, he was feeling a bit anxious, but his hesitation vanished rapidly as he convinced himself to give the first step once and for all.

The first thing that greeted him when he entered that dormitory was a corridor. He was expecting an entrance hall or something, but he remembered that the structure of that building was too small to have space wasted like that. Also, the trainees wouldn't need to spend too much time inside there, so they didn't need a comfortable place for the time being.

'This building doesn't even have a second floor, differently from the others. The Novice's dormitory is on the right, and it is way more good-looking than this one, to be honest.'

He continued to walk through that corridor until he found himself in a bifurcation that led to two different doors.

On one of these doors was written "Girl's" and on the other "Boy's".

'It is too quiet here... Is there someone inside this place? If so, then it's reasonable why that Guardian called Isaac didn't make my acquaintance with the other trainees. However, if that's not the case, then people must be very reserved here...'

That environment seemed to be more hostile than welcoming. Ares was used to the warm and sympathetic atmosphere of his village, so it was something unusual for him to come to a place filled with people but that was very silent.

He moved toward the door of the Boy's dormitory and entered there without hesitation.

Once he opened the door, what he sensed right off the bat was the smell of sweaty shirts, pee, and soap. It was a mix of scents that sent chills down his spine.

That part of the dormitory was where the beds were located. There were bunks positioned through that room, with white sheets and pillows that didn't seem much comfortable at first sight. Everything was organized so the space would be well used.

There were some bags and backpacks on the ground or on top of the mattress, shirts all over the ground, boots with a terrible smell, and food scraps here and there, sometimes even dirtying the sheets.

People were actually resting in that room. They weren't sleeping at all, though. Some of them were playing with daggers while lying on their beds, others were just lying lazily and looking to the ceiling with no purpose at all; some groups were conversing with each other, but always muttering for some reason; of course, lonely guys could be seen here and there, not willing to talk with anyone.

'Although some of them are talking among each other, I can't feel any hint of fellowship among them. They aren't laughing, excitedly talking about something, nor giving relaxing vibes to the atmosphere. They are conversing just to kill the time, nothing more. I can identify this kind of relationship.

'I bet that everyone is apprehensive because all of them trained for an entire year to finally become a Novice. Nobody wants to waste this chance.'

Ares walked slowly between the beds. Once he began to do so and got more outstanding, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at his face and analyze him from head to toe.

Even though he was uncomfortable due to all that attention, he kept his cool and kept looking forward, trying to avoid the eyes of those people.

'Just find a bed and stay quiet for the time being...'

He spent a minute or two searching for a vacant bed. Thankfully, he could do so.

Ares put his battle-axe on the hard mattress of the bunk bed, also placing his package with the trainee uniform on top of it. He sat on the bed, testing its quality.

'It's not as good as I thought, to be honest, and my standards were very low already... I think that sleeping in this mattress and sleeping on the branch of a tree is the same, just the shape differs,' he wasn't glad at all for having to go through such uncomfortable issues again.

As he was experimenting with his bed, someone appeared in front of him all of a sudden.

"Hey," he greeted.

Ares turned to him calmly, looking at his face. Nonetheless, in his mind, he was nearly screaming in frustration and surprise.

'H-How come!? I didn't notice this guy approaching at all! The room was so silent that the sound of me moving on the mattress was audible. How could he move so swiftly and silently without making any noise?'

Ares' senses weren't the best that you could find out there, but they weren't ordinary. Also, hearing someone walking in that silent room was possible even for someone that was nearly deaf.

"What's up?" Ares replied to him, trying to seem composed and calm, although he was desperate inside.

"Ah, nothing, I was just thinking that it would be awesome to make our acquaintance right away. You know, so things don't get awkward," the boy scratched his white hair, which somewhat resembled Alice's hair in color, but it was very short compared to hers. That boy had some bear growing on his face, which indicated that he was a bit older than Ares.

He also had incredibly pale skin and gray eyes. His body constitution showed that he was training hard recently, and he seemed to have an injury on his shoulder.

After a second of strange silence, the boy with white hair offered a handshake to Ares.

"My name is Arwin Whitehorse, son of Lawrence Whitehorse. I am the coordinator of the trainees of the dormitory. It's nice to meet you," he gave a refreshing smile to him and gently closed his eyes.

'He is sympathetic... too sympathetic...' Ares narrowed his eyes, but even so, stretched his arm to accept his handshake.

"My name is Ares Stormray, son of Kavir Stormray. It's nice to m-" His hand was nearly touching Arwin's hands, but he stopped once he felt something strange.

'What's this feeling? This is very strange... It is... It is coming from his hand!'

"What is it, Ares? Why did you stop to talk?" He asked with a naive tone of voice. "Are you okay?"

The white-haired boy tried to approach his hand from Ares' even more but the latter retrieved his hand before it happened.

At the same time, Ares took his battle-axe from the bed and drew an arc in the air, stopping the blade some centimeters away from Arwin's neck.

His bright ruby eyes were casting a sharp look towards the white-haired boy, who just stood there with the same refreshing smile as before, but now his eyes were narrowed. His expression now was that of someone making fun of Ares.

"Oh my... You aren't fun at all. If it was someone else, they would touch my hand even if they felt that something was strange. That is, if they weren't so unpolite like you," he spoke as he put his hands on the pockets of his pants and walked away.

"Well, see you when you cool down, Ares," he waved, then walked away.