Chapter 3: My brother in arm

'Guess I follow them.' Karl decides. While strolling around Karl sees that this place massive. Almost the size of a mid-scale town. Karl sees many parks with unique trees, Dense Forest area, Benches to sit at every 100m and important of all the lack of people.

He only sees few tens of students walking on the footpath which is far less compared to the size of this school. Since yesterday he did not see a single car driving around.

After walking for some time. a glass dome could be seen in a distance. Other students scan their watches at the entrance of the dome. Karl also follows them and does the same thing.

Six big straight tables are aligned parallel with each other. Each table having seating capacity for 300 students. Karl amazed by the architecture, proceeds to stand in the line for food. Time passes and finally Karl's chance comes. The lunch lady looks at Karl and raises her eyebrow. Karl points at the menu which reads eggs, soup, two slices of bread. Lunch lady nods and serves Karl.

"Give me 3 servings of this." Karl requests politely. "What?" Lunch lady baffles. 

"Can't serve that much to one person?" Karl asks. "No-No, Wait a minute." Lunch Lady grunts and serves Karl's tray.

Karl picks up the tray and stops. 'These people. They are unusually quiet. As if they are not siting with friends but strangers. If I went and sat anywhere, would that be odd? Are all seats preassigned or something?'

"LEONARD!" a scream disrupts Karl thinking. "HERE!" Karl turns his head in the opposite direction of that scream. "NOT THERE, HERE!" Karl clicks his tongue and walks toward the source of the yelling.

There he sees a fat boy with uneven facial hair, dark brown hair, shorter than Karl's current height. 'I don't like this guy. He looks annoying.' Karl thinks as he walks up to him.

"Heyy! I heard about that cliff incident from Miss Zena. You survived an encounter with Three horned Monkey? That's crazy. You know Miss Clara gave us extra homework about Mana theory. Pretty bad, right? And and"

'How noisy'

Karl sits next to him and eats his overfilled tray quietly."Sasha accepted him. Crazy right?" Even with the lack of attention from Karl, he continues until "By the way, Remi and his friends are looking at you for a while."

The fatty kid points behind Karl. Karl's turns back and sees few students siting together glaring at them. 'Oh, I thought you would come earlier.' Karl smiles as he spots yesterday's kid among him.

Karl stops eating and stands up. "Umm. Where are you going?" The fat kid asks as he stands in front of Karl. "None of your business."

Karl says in a cold voice pushing the kid away. "Wait-" Karl doesn't wait to hear the rest. Karl throws his half empty tray into trashcan.

Seeing Leonard walk away the fatty boy sits down in his own sit, looking sad. "Yo pig!" The group from earlier comes and surrounds him. "You are his friend, right?" one asks.

"Yes?" the fat boy answers. "Come outside for a second."

Oblivious to this, Karl continues to walk towards a park he saw earlier. 'They should follow me here. Let's hope they don't know any magic.'

Suddenly a strong of wind passes by and a book comes flying hitting Karl in the face. Karl surprised for a second but looks around for something to happen. "Sorry! Sorry!"

Karl sees a pale boy with skinny face walking towards. 'He looks so majestic' that was Karl's first reaction. Pretty eyes, thin lips, symmetrical face with excellent facial harmony.

"Did that hit you too hard?" Karl realizes that he is not pale but an albino. "Yeah. Its fine." Karl waits for a response but instead gets a half open mouth with a flabbergasted expression.

"Is something wrong?" Karl asks. "Ah! No no. Its just that many people don't talk to me. So I was just surprised." The boy explains. "Oh. By the way I am Leonard Avaritia." Karl introduced himself. Then there is silence for whole three seconds until the boy speaks.

"And?"

'Shit. I don't know my middle name. Is it important to mention that? There was not once mention of his parents in the watch.' Karl recalls.

"I mean, you are supposed to mention your academic year." The boy says it. Karl remembers the content from his watch and answers "Oh! I recently had a brain surgery, so my memories are all over the place. Also, I am in my 2nd year."

"Great Horizon! That's such a tragedy." The boy expresses his concern and continues "My name Ian Desouza Phirsecot and I am in my 1st year." Ian introduces himself. 'First year? He looks a lot older than me.' Karl wonders as he looks at Ian's height.

"Anyways, what were you doing?" Karl asks with curiosity. "I mean, we are in the wind range so practicing my magic skills?" Ian states his common sense. On the other hand, Karl almost facepalms himself due to the lack his knowledge.

"Yeah! Practicing magic, right." Karl fake laughs and turns around. "You didn't know that? Just how deep was your wound?" Ian questions.

"I fell off a cliff trying to run away from a three horned ape." Karl explains. Ian puts his hand together then looks down "I will pray to the light goddess for your earliest recovery." Few seconds passes.

'Why do I feel like I am talking to an aristocrat of some sort? It's exhausting.' Karl thinks as Ian stops praying. "Then, you forgot everything?" Ian asks. Karl nods. "Oh! Great Horizo-" Karl puts his hand on Ian's mouth. "Please stop." Ian quickly pulls Karl's hands off and looks away.

"Don't touch me." Karl does not move and stays in his position. Ian looks back and sees Karl standing there. "You did not run away, why?" Ian asks in a small voice.

Karl confused stays silent for a second and says "Because I felt like so." Ian looks at Karl's geniune reaction and smiles.

'Why do I feel like I did something I shouldn't have?' Karl panics in the back of his mind.

Meanwhile Ian breathes heavily, clenching his fist hard and slowly opens his mouth to say "Leo-Leonard Avaritia would you be willing to be my brother in arms?"

Karl confused once again asks "What?"

Tears forming in Ian's eyes "Of-of course, you are not willing. I am that incompetent." Ian crouches down, tears falling.

Karl is confused beyond human comparison. 'HUH? What the hell happened?' Karl hesitates to touch Ian but does it anyway.

He crouches down next Ian and says "What happened? Look, don't cry. Uh. I will be your friend in arms or whatever. Just don't cry."

Ian looks at Karl with red eyes and asks "Really?"

"Yes."

Ian smiles his widest smile ever and says "Thank you so much, Leonard."

"Just call me Leo. My name is too long anyway." Karl suggests. "Yes, Le-Leo." Ian shyly says Karl's name.

Light bright enough blind anyone falls on Karl. 'Is this creature even male? He looks so adorable. Like a being to be protected.' Karl fixes his posture and looks at Ian.

Karl ponders for a bit thinking about something.