Chapter 5

After the welcome ceremony, the first day at the Wallort Academy was without any other agenda, so that the young gentlemen could make themselves comfortable in their new rooms, get to know their new roommates or just catch up with friends. For Clarissa, meeting Edgar's friends was something she would like to avoid as much as possible, and making herself comfortable in her room was concluded by nobody else than her roommate. Prince Dorian came down, took a chair from the corner of the room, and placed it opposite to her sitting on her bed.

"Ok, we cannot do anything about you being my roommate," he started to speak in a tired voice, "so we will set some rules. First, don't touch my things - my clothes, my bed, bags, books, nothing." He looked at the green-haired boy that calmly returned the indifferent gaze. The prince was surprised at how quickly he was able to calm down. He remembered seeing the boy at some of the parties in the past, he looked like one of those who would tell him how great he was and didn't question anything he did just because he was highly ranked. He noticed that at the moment he didn't look like then, but when he saw a nod he scratched the thought and continued to voice out his requirements.

"No friends coming over, no unnecessary questions, no snoring, no-" he was interrupted by a rapid stream of words. "Of course, Your Highness! I will do my best to not become an annoyance to Your Highness. Your Highness, you are my role model, it is such a great honor that I can be with you, I will change anything you will find annoying, just say a word." Dorian stiffened. Was his judgment incorrect when he thought the boy looked indifferent? He flinched when he saw the boy stand up next to him and lift his right fist to the sky. "You were right grandmum, my dream really came true." At that, the prince shivered. Another of those weird aristocrats, he sighed. While the boy was still jumping around and making unnecessary noise, he lifted himself up to his bed, took the documents, and went towards the door. Without giving a second look to his roommate he left the room, however, he didn't even make the fifth step when he heard the door opening and steps behind him.

"New rule - don't follow me."

"Oh, of course, Your Highness. Forgive me for greediness, I was just curious what such a cool person like you...your Highness does during free time. But Your Highness wants to keep it a secret, so I will return to our room now. Return safely!" Dorian was relieved when he heard the door close behind him. I will just ignore him from now on.

Behind the doors, Clar slid down to the ground with her shoulder shaking. She crawled to her bed, quickly took out a pillow, and with a muted scream she let go of the laugh building up in her chest. After a while, she dried her tears and laid down on her bed. She expected that playing as a crazy follower would be tiring and annoying but she did not think that it could also be fun. Seeing how the prince understood the situation he was in, she forgot her initial worries. She lay there for a bit longer, then she unpacked her bags, carefully hiding her potions, herbs, and dagger in her clothes. When she was satisfied with how innocent her wardrobe looked to a stranger's eye, she locked the room and headed to the cafeteria.

From the hall, she could hear the familiar noise of people talking over each other. It reminded her of the 3 minutes before a performance would start in the theater and all the voices created one unison tone. Over the years she learned to focus on single conversations to gain valuable insight about the audience and the newest town gossip. The door leading to the common space had two wings. The left one was closed and the right one was opened. She bent one leg and leaned on the left side of the wall, hidden by the closed wing. She closed her eyes and focus her attention on the sounds coming from the room.

"So we meet the girls at the end of each month? My fiancée must feel brokenhearted. We promised to write letters every week." Clar assumed that it is her classmate, as he sounded surprised at the school schedule.

"Hey, don't bet so quickly. I trained my aim during the summer. You might lose your money." this voice was deeper. It seems like there are students from all years. Even though she participated in some noble parties because of her Master's connections, she never paid much attention to the Valiant family. She tried to imagine the voice of their youngest son from the picture and description she got a week ago.

When she felt like she got some intel about the hot topics between the guys, she pushed her leg to set herself in motion and slowly started to enter the room through the door. At that moment she captured the sound of someone going in her direction, "...yeah, it's full of kids, let's go to the training ground." It was a group of older boys that looked annoyed while moving toward her. One of them was taller, with brown hair fixed in the back, and a weapon attached to his belt. "I heard that they made some renovations! Let's check them ou-" Before he could finish he was interrupted by someone shouting.

"Marquess Valiant!" Bernard Valiant was surprised to see a guy reaching his chest, with a finger pointed at him. Most of the students from lower years wisely stayed away from him, as he was known for his hot temper.

The green-haired boy lowered his tone, folded his arms, and while looking to the side he smirked, "I saw your gunshots at the last hunt and they were astonishingly horrible. Even a maid would do better than that." The cafeteria went silent. For a moment, everything was still. Clar turned her head just enough to catch the sight of veins on Marquess's face. He made an abrupt movement forward with eyes full of hatred. Nobody tried to stop him. Clar was already ready to receive a powerful punch when Bernard as if remembering something paused and lowered his eyes. With his hand that was still in the air, he waved at the boys he was with and gestured to go out of the door. Some of them had confused looks, some disappointed ones, but they all followed the order. While they were passing Clar they gave her mixed reactions, from spitting out to playful grin with thumbs up. As last went Bernard. When he was passing, with his head looking forward he said, "Good try, kid. you almost got me." And with that, he left. Clar stood there, looking all grumpy with her nose pointing up. The room slowly started to fill itself with voices.

"Isn't that Marquess Edgar Holyswift?"

"That morquess Edgar?"

"I heard that when a girl asked him to dance, he told his servant to dance instead of him."

"Wow." He what? Clar looked at the boys that were looking at her with open mouths.

A boy with white hair and glasses and a yellow shirt turned to the freshmen, "We don't use titles here. Just surname or name." then with a long face he looked at Edgar. "Getting challenged by Bernard isn't as great as you imagine. Being part of his group means doing what he tells you to do. He won't care about you, and furthermore, he doesn't challenge easy opponents. Based on how he left, he sees you as a waste of time. He never challenges those younger th-"

Without looking at his senior, Edgar turns on his heel and with his hands behind his head, he strolls away. Of course, it wouldn't be this easy, but at least, Bernard knows that Edgar exists. Edgar smiled painfully.