Dawn

ANOTHER DAWN CAME to Adam City, the large capital city of Grimes Empire. No one calls it by its actual name anymore, and one would only hear it among foreigners, travelers, or adventurers who come by the Capital. And naturally, its name came from the founder, Adam Grimes. Hades himself doesn't know why the people of Grimes simply call it the capital, or maybe they're just lazy? He'll never understand.

As Hades secures his luggage, he glances at his other bag. He then checks if he had left any pocket books or had misplaced his medicine somewhere, and thankfully, it was all inside. He reached out for his pocket watch to check the time. It was already nine in the morning.

'The academy gates should already be open at this time', Hades thought.

However, just as he was about to leave, his door burst open as if someone had just kicked it. Hades looks at the doorway, only to see Rufus standing with a bright face.

"Hades! Hurry up! I want to see my room!" He exclaims and walks to Hades to pull him, but Hades didn't budge from his position.

"Hold your horses, Rufus. He's packing his things," Livia soon appeared at the doorway. Both were wearing simple clothes just like the other day. Hades gave them a puzzled look.

"What's the rush anyway? I was just about to head out," says Hades as he carries his bag on his shoulder, and holds onto the bigger luggage. This time the two looked at him perplexed. "…what?" Hades asks them, noticing their confusion.

"… is that really all you're bringing with you?" Rufus ask, gazing down at his luggage and bag on his shoulder. "You do know we're living at the academy for exactly ten years. Ten whole years, my friend." He says, but Hades simply looked at him with blank eyes.

"I am a mere churl, have you forgotten already? I don't have that much decent clothes to bring with me." Hades stated, and flicked Rufus' forehead, inflicting pain to his head to make him remember. Rufus winced at the pain and looked at him.

"A mere churl wouldn't flick someone of noble blood on the forehead!" He exclaimed at Hades. Hades ignored him and pushed his face away before walking pass him to leave. Seeing that Livia was still staring at his belongings, Hades tilted his head.

"What's wrong, Livia?" He asks, Livia sighs and replies;

"I'm more confused of the fact that you don't even have a single weapon with you, when you're a knight in training. Or are you just that oblivious?" She says, and she was right. Most knight trainees carry weapons with them outside of their training, in case of certain emergencies. It's an important etiquette for knights in training, and Livia is sure that Hades know that.

"Ah, I don't own a sword. They're really expensive these days, I only had a few gold with me to buy myself important materials. The one I used when I started learning was my father's, and that was too old and too blunt to even cut paper," Hades explains, and smiles. "But don't worry, my father's previous workplace mentioned that they were going to provide me some nice and durable sword and dagger."

"If you say so…" Livia says, and Hades soon felt Rufus push him out.

"Ugh, enough chats! Let's go already!" He rushed the two, and they simply let him. Rufus just had too much energy for these two introverts.

HADES, RUFUS, AND Livia used the Lefort carriage for transport. At this time of the year, carriages were permitted to enter the academy. And of course, the carriage will take the path that will lead straight to the dormitories, which is on each sides of the main building. The coachman took the left path to drop off Livia first. They weren't the first to get here, but it wasn't too much hassle as it was still early.

Halting right in front of the Art Department's dormitory, Rufus walked out first to help Livia out of the carriage. Livia accepted that courtesy and gracefully stepped out. "I'll ask about where my room is, and wait for you inside." She says, and with just the two nodding in reply, she walked inside.

Hades jumped out of the carriage. "How much luggage does she have?" He asks Rufus who was already putting down Livia's luggage.

"About four. She packed these before the entrance examination even started, her servants just had it delivered at the vacation manor yesterday." Rufus mentioned, putting down the last two.

Hades takes the other two, and then walked with Rufus inside. Just as they were inside, they spotted only a few people, who seemed to be Livia's department seniors. 'Somehow, they look like lady and servants, but at the same time… they're like a group of casual friends.' The seniors were stunned as Livia approached the two and talked to them.

Normally, ladies or lords bring their servants when they move in the academy, but Livia over here, brought her own friends to help her with her moving.

"First years' designated rooms are in the first floor, and the dorm mother just told me to pick whatever room I want to stay in for the year. There are only a few of us, after all." Livia mentions, and Rufus' eyes naturally brightened at that.

"Does that mean you get to check every room?!" He asks as he leaned over to Livia, but Livia pushed his face away. "That's prohibited, and I already have a room in mind. Let's go." She simply says, and turned to walk forward. Hades followed, while Rufus walked behind him, obviously disappointed.

Hades' eyes wandered around the interior of the dormitory. It was simple and old fashioned, yet beautiful and wide. Adam Grimes was said to have designed the whole academy himself, and his engineers used materials that would last for centuries and still be durable and beautiful.

'This is where Sister Iris used to live', he thought.

His eldest sister, Iris, was a big fan of Adam, and often bragged about his greatness to him when he was younger. She loved everything about the academy, and always wished that she could show it to him personally, not just in the paintings she made.

"I was told to chose among the first nine rooms, so here we are," Livia chose the room 009 as her room. She opens the door, and it wasn't locked just like the dorm mother had told her. Inside was simple and plain, definitely asking to be decorated. There was only one bed despite how wide the room was, however, there are other convenient furniture aside from the bed too. The room also has clean carpet, sheets, and curtains.

"There are a total of two hundred and forty rooms here. The dorm mother mentioned that one room normally has about two official students living in it, but since there are only about two hundred and forty one of us in total, only one pair of my seniors are roommates. And because of that, we're also living with other seniors in the same floor," She then gestured towards the chairs.

"You can leave my luggage there, and I'll do something about it. Let's meet later at lunch?" She asks for confirmation and the two simply nodded.

"We'll get going now then," Rufus said his goodbyes, while Hades simply waved his hand before they both leave. "Do you think some of our seniors would be present back at the dorm too?" Rufus asks, and Hades shrugged.

"I heard most of our seniors come back on the day before the first day. Maybe we'll see a few of them," Hades replies, and after a moment, they finally arrived back at the carriage. The two got on, and left for their own student dormitory.