The Institute (2)

Elior's stomach growled in hunger, and he woke up. He sat straight on the bed and looked at the analytic clock, hitting just above four. He had slept for quite long. After resting in the bathtub for a couple of hours, he cleaned out his room even though it was already mostly cleaned.

He arranged all his stuff—the ones he took from home, from clothes to accessories like phone and hollowbook. After that, he turned on the air conditional to a preferable temperature and slept again.

'I should eat something,' Elior thought. He changed into a white shirt and trousers, combed his hair a little, and was about to leave his quarter. "Oh, crap, I forget to call mom."

Rubbing his forehead, he collected the cellphone and saw 11 missed calls on them. Most of them from his mom, and a couple of them from Ileana. "I will be yelled at again."

Just as he imagined, after his mother picked up the call, she started yelling at him after, confirming his health. The staff from the institute already mentioned to her that he was in a four-day long test, so Elior did not have to explain that.

Moreover, she already learned about him from Ileana. After making sure he was okay, Elior cut off the call, saying he was going to eat.

After that, he messaged Ileana that he was going to the cafeteria, and asked her to come if she had not had her meal yet.

Elior did not wait for the reply to come, left his quarter.

He did not look or take the map with him, having good confidence in his memory. But he was proven wrong; finding the cafeteria turned out to be a hassle. With an empty stomach, he moved out of the male dormitory, towards the auxiliary buildings of the institute, and recalled he was moving to the opposite sides. The cafeteria was just at the adjacent point of the male and female dormitory.

It was a four-storeyed building, recorded well in materialistic fashion. The ground floor was for the casual meal of freshmen; wasting no more time, he walked inside of it.

Not many were present in the cafeteria at this time of the day, but Elior found a familiar face there, arguing with the staff. A boy with dyed blond and red hair with half a dozen piercings all over his face. Shin.

"How many times I have to tell you I don't need so many vegetables," Shin asked, "And where is the meat?"

He seemed to argue with the cafeteria staff about his food. Probably did not get what he wanted. Another good or bad thing about the institute was that you could not find junk food here—all the meals here are heavily nutritious and had been made for the future Guardians. They would not get the pizza, hot dog, hamburgers etc here.

"Ai, Shin," Elior said, waving his hand at him. "You have arrived."

"Ah Brother," Shin looked back at him with a cheerful smile. "I arrived later than you guys. I was thinking about looking for you, but thought you are resting."

"Why are you arguing with the staff on your first day here?" he asked, walking close to him.

"Look at this," Shin complained, gesturing his eyes to his plate. "So many vegetables and salad, who even eats them and I did not even get any meat. Is this really the institution of Earth's Guardian?"

"I already told you this is the standard meal," the staff repeated her phrase. "As for the meat, you will get it for dinner."

Shin whined loudly. Even though there were few presents there, it was embarrassing enough, but Shin had little of the shame. He only stopped when Elior joined the conversation.

"Arguing won't solve anything," he said. "Let's just eat what we got. I'm starving."

"Should I make your plate too?" the staff asked Elior.

Elior nodded. "Bring me two plates of what you have," he said, measuring his hunger.

The female staff raised her eyebrow at Elior, but nodded.

Elior was quite skinny to eat two plates of food which was stuffed with a lot of things, but his hunger ran quite deep after eating like savages for four days.

The two of them took seats at an empty table. Shin waited for his plate to arrive and then another familiar person appeared in the cafeteria.

"Ileana, here," Elior called, noticing the familiar face.

The chestnut-haired girl's expression brightened noticing him. She thought she had to eat alone in an unfamiliar place at this time of the day, but after getting the message from Elior, she moved immediately.

Ileana sat beside him. Her appearance was well-dressed, hair bound behind, but she looked quite tired. Her eyes were sunken more than usual, probably crying in her room.

"Ileana, you have met Shin," Elior introduced. "And Shin this is Ileana. We are friends for many years."

Shin waved his hand at Ileana, who nodded curtly in response.

Elior's two plates of food arrived, but he left one to Ileana, ordering another one.

He did not like the taste of most vegetables like Shin, but he did not complain on empty stomach. He chewed and swallowed everything.

"I heard there will be some briefing," Shin said. "All the students were supposed to attend that."

"Yes," Ileana answered. "The dean will be there with other teachers and staff. I don't know what it will be about, but it's probably related to our lesson and class."

"Oh well, it is just after a couple of hours. We will see what it was about."

"It will mostly be about the allocation of class," Elior opened his mouth, swallowing down the food. "There are various types of Guardians, from Healer, Warrior to Mage, Artisan, Magic Engineer, etc. Not everyone can learn everything, so we have to choose what we want to learn with other auxiliary classes.

"Elior, you already seemed to adept in many things. I saw your wizardry, archery, and spearmanship in the trial." Shin asked, eyeing him. "Are you thinking about choosing all of them?"

Elior chuckled. "If only it was that easy," he said. Then his eyes narrowed, recalling what he forgot.

"Shin, do not mention about the skills I showed in the trial, especially how I burst Renal's arm," he said sternly. "Do not ask any question why, I can't answer you that now."

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