Dormitory

It was just past 7 pm at the First Imperial School's first-year building and all the students had already shut themselves in their dorms.

Well, almost all of them.

A certain redhead was walking listlessly along one of the numerous empty hallways, cursing quietly to himself from time to time.

Professor Miller's magic history lecture had ended about two hours ago and up till now, Hade still had no idea where his dorm room was located.

No, forget the dorm room, at this point, it was safe to say that he was lost.

The only thing Lora had told him was his dorm room number but all the students he had asked for help from had either made up silly excuses, straight up declined, or just ran away from him in fear.

That was what you got when you attained a bad reputation on your very first day of school.

After hours of fruitless searching, Hade was already considering sleeping in one of the warmer corridors of the dormitory section of the building when he turned to look at the last door of the hallway he was currently in.

There it was, all up in his face as if mocking him, "Dorm Number A-31."

For the umpteenth time that day, Hade found himself sighing exasperatedly. This school was going to be the death of him.

Why the hell were the dorms all so disorderly organized?!

He could still remember the relief he'd felt roughly an hour ago when he'd found dorm number A30, only to find out that it was flanked by dorm rooms A5 and A17!

You can understand why an Order practitioner would be frustrated.

Another thing Hade found puzzling was how the boys' and girls' dormitories were not separated at all!

The way the dorm rooms were all jumbled up, it was like the school was saying, "Sure, go ahead. Why the hell not?!"

Hade could understand that maybe it was hopeless to try and dissuade teens his age from pursuing sexual and romantic relationships but still, the school should've at least made an effort, right?

He was about to knock on the door but before he could, it was abruptly opened from the inside.

Hade came face to face with a very tall and very thin individual with shoulder-length black hair, fairly average looks, and two small brown beady eyes that he hid behind thick-framed glasses.

"You're late," said the stick-like teen. He did not even give Hade a chance to reply, he immediately went back in leaving the door wide open for him.

"And lock the door behind you," he instructed.

Hade found himself just standing there feeling a bit bewildered.

Had the guy been standing by the door all this time, just listening and waiting for him to make an appearance?

'I don't know if should be grateful or freaked out,' Hade thought to himself as he went in, shut the door, and locked it from the inside.

When he turned, his mind had not prepared him for what he saw next.

Big! The dorm room was ridiculously big! House was the more appropriate term for the monstrosity.

Hade estimated that the whole space easily occupied over 300 square meters. No wonder the dorms were all so sparsely distributed!

It was for this same darned reason that he had to toil for more than an hour and a half just to find his assigned dorm!

"Not bad right?" said the tall scrawny teen who had opened the door. He was leaning on the wall along a corridor that led to where Hade guessed were their rooms.

Besides those, he could make out a fully furnished kitchen, a dining room, and another larger room in the distance he could not make out.

For an establishment Hade had part expected to be some sort of prison, the place was quite lavish.

'Maybe that is how they trick students into staying,' he speculated.

"I heard that this is nothing compared to what the second and third years get. Can you imagine?" asked the thin bespectacled figure.

Hade did not reply as he did not feel like the question was in dire need of one.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a few seconds as neither party said anything.

All of a sudden, the teen walked with abnormally long strides toward Hade before stretching out his right hand.

"I'm Quinn," he introduced.

"Hade," Hade replied as he briefly shook the surprisingly very soft hand.

"The rumors don't do you any justice," Quinn grinned. "You're far more interesting than I thought, Hade Ronen."

Quinn emphasized the 'Ronen' part like it was supposed to mean something.

Unbeknownst to Hade, no one in their class knew his last name. In fact, if he had simply mentioned it during his introduction, Rozar probably wouldn't have tried to start trouble with him, had he been present during the introduction, of course.

Somehow though, Quinn already knew who he was but honestly, Hade couldn't care less. All he was concerned about at that moment in time, was taking a nice long nap on a comfortable bed.

The doze he'd taken earlier in class had already been extinguished by his laborious trek in search of the accursed dormitory.

Now that Hade thought about it, he did not remember seeing Quinn in class. It wasn't that he remembered everyone he had seen but he was sure that a guy with Quinn's uhm... presence was sure to stand out.

"Before you ask, yes I wasn't in class," said the scrawny teenager as if he had read Hade's mind.

"And yes, we are permitted to miss lectures. However, I wouldn't advise you to. The only reason I miss them is because there is very little that I don't know of."

Hade tried his very best to ignore Quinn's haughty remark.

"Besides, you didn't hear it from me but the results from the exams you take here can be very crucial to your future. Apparently, they cramp as many as ten students in one tiny room at the Fifth.

"Make of that what you will," Quinn said as he flashed his lazy grin, which by the way, Hade was already starting to find annoying.

"Lastly, we have a third dorm mate but I'm sure you two have already met. He spends most of his time in the training room so you probably won't see him much.

"Your room is the one at the far end and it also has a soundproof option. See you tomorrow, friend," Quinn grinned before disappearing down the corridor.

'Something about him is just very annoying,' Hade thought to himself. And it wasn't just the smile.

Suddenly, a piercing sound resounded from the room Hade couldn't make out earlier. It sounded as if two metal rods were struck against each other.

'That must be the other dorm mate,' Hade deduced and it was likely that the room the sound had come from was the same training room Quinn had spoken about earlier.

Well, whoever the other dorm mate was, Hade did not have the strength to go about introducing himself right now. He needed rest.

Fingers crossed, it wasn't that guy with the shaggy brown hair and big eyes who had glared at him in class as if he owed him money or something.

...

The size of the personal room was far more reasonable. In fact, it was not too dissimilar from the one Hade had back at Greycastle.

There was a king-sized bed in the middle, a table adorned with a reading lamp on one corner, a holowatch on the other, and finally, one wooden wardrobe. Simple but adequate.

Hade found within the wardrobe; three changes of the orthodox black and white school uniform of their class, six casual outfits and two full-body combat gears made from a material he couldn't recognize.

One of the combat suits was plain black in colour and the other a dark red. All the clothes were astonishingly tailored to his exact proportions.

On the bed was a document on whose cover were the words, "CLASS SCHEDULE," printed in bold font.

Hade picked up the document and threw it onto the table without even taking a glimpse to see what was inside.

He'd get into all that tomorrow. For now, he was going to take a shower in the ensuite bathroom and then sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be the true beginning of his life at the First Imperial School.