16 Adventure (1)

"A prodigy?!" Sam pondered over these words the system spoke. It was only a stack of homework, wasn't it? Everyone was supposed to complete it, right? Then why was he all of a sudden labelled a prodigy? It just didn't make any sense!

"Father, what is wrong? Have I upset you somehow? I'll redo the homework if you want me to..." Sam spoke in a curious manner. Even though he knew his father was proud, not upset, he wanted to know how he became a prodigy so suddenly without being so direct and acting egocentrically.

"No, no, it's great...Wonderful, even! Who knew that my son, someone who I thought to be a complete failure when it came to knowledge and comprehension, would complete all of these exams! Huh? Homework? This wasn't homework! This was the opening exam work the school sent us so you can get into the Prestigious School of Framilia... Throughout the day, you seemed quite non-committal to the whole deal, so I was wondering if you heard me correctly. However, hope wasn't lost! I've heard that this opening exam was quite difficult, it's a wonder how you got all these answers!" Samuel's father rejoiced, wiping away his tears of joy throughout his speech.

"Ah, did I mishear your words? I swore that you claimed this to be homework! Also, which school would send exams home? Wouldn't that be a hazard since the parents could easily help their child?" Samuel responded quickly, his heart pacing with excitement and curiosity,

"No, you must've misheard me, you were recovering, after all. Nonetheless, to answer your question, the other applicants had to go to the school's exam halls. However, due to your situation... and maybe a bit of money... they allowed you to take the exam at home. This exam score must be way higher than whatever those commoners got! Aha, as expected of my heir. You got me in the first half, I'm not going to lie. I thought my son would've been a complete dunce but you're finally revealing your potential! It seems like I won't need another child..." Samuel's father laughed heartily, jokingly whispering the last statement whilst slapping his thigh with a dejected look on his face.

Although Samuel was hurt by his father's harsh remarks on his past life, he chuckled at the jokes before turning around to leave, only to feel the tug of his shirt pulling him back into his father's embrace.

"You weren't thinking of leaving without the celebrations, were you?!" Samuel's father chuckled whilst beckoning Nathan into the room.

"Head Servant Nathan, prepare a banquet and deck the halls with festivity like never before! This is a time for celebration, so go and prepare everyone and everything to be perfect!" Samuel's father apprised Nathan, making sure to put emphasis on the celebratory words so that his words wouldn't fall flat on deaf ears.

A few hours passed by and the banquet had already ended. Samuel reminisced about the deliciously cooked turkey and the sides of seared steak he ate during the feast. He got to meet all of his servants who stared away from him at all times as if they would be turned to stone if they looked into his eyes. However, after experiencing the flashback, he knew not to blame the servants but instead the old owner of this body.

Samuel landed himself on his bed, feeling sick from all the food he devoured before drifting off into a deep sleep.

When he woke up, he almost expected everything to be a dream. However, the golden rays shining through his church-like windows and the pile of books in the corner of the room begged to differ, reminding him that he had a lot to do.

He groggily stumbled out of his bed and got changed into some proper clothes, throwing his pyjamas across the room for one of his servants to clean up. Although he wanted to be nice to Nathan and the other servants, they weren't getting paid for nothing! He opened the door to meet Nathan's face in front of his, his face with a gentle warmth that wasn't there before.

"Good morning, young master. Breakfast is arriving soon. Please stay put until it arrives." Nathan assured Samuel, thinking that maybe yesterday was a once-in-a-lifetime event and that he'd go back to his old habits the next day.

"I'm not hungry, I wish to go outside for a bit if you don't mind. I want to make sure of somethings before I go to the Prestigious School of Framilia. In fact, when do I get admitted to the school and when do we start?" Samuel enquired, unaware of the school's opening date.

"Young master, the Prestigious School of Framilia opens in four days from now. We sent your papers off to the exam board yesterday and you were admitted instantly." Nathan replied in earnest. "However, I know that yesterday you claimed that you didn't want me to accompany you outside but I must ask once more. The possibility of you running into that monstrous young master may be quite low, but we want to make sure that you have company if it does happen." Nathan pleaded.

"It's alright. As you said, there is a very low possibility I'll run into him, so there's no issue, correct?" Samuel quickly fired back. He didn't want someone to accompany him in his adventures outside since that would be barely called an adventure if he had a companion.

Nathan became quiet and resigned himself outside the room, simply nodding to Samuel in resignation. After all, he couldn't go against the young master's words. Even if the master and mistress learned that he allowed the young master to go outside without supervision, they couldn't blame him since it was the young master's order.

After seeing this, Samuel ran to the door, unlocked it, and was quickly embraced by the cold air outside, gusts of wind entering the house, creating a chilly atmosphere. Samuel quickly closed the door behind him to prevent the heat from being lost before taking in the sights around him.

The floor around him wasn't any different to what he had experienced back on Earth, what surrounded him was a simple courtyard which had a few fountains and a few gardeners taking care of the grass, or so he thought. Upon further inspection, he realised that the grass was actually moss and the fountain had a small aquamarine crystal which created water out of thin air, creating a fountain, only to have that water evaporate from a few amber crystals surrounded the fountain, which exuded scorching heat.

Nonetheless, he had pictured this in many of his wild fantasies back on Earth and so it was of no surprise. The only thing which surprised him was the innovative inventions which were remarkably close to the designs of Earth's common garden features.

After greeting the gardeners, he strode off into the already-known for an adventure he knew he would soon forget.