Chapter 7: Homecoming [2]

As the adrenaline of the fight wore off, the memory of the djinn's body, with my sword still impaled in his chest, kept reappearing.

They were book characters... it didn't matter if one of them died, right? All of them were just a bunch of fictional characters created by authors; they weren't real, and anyway, that guy was a villain.

He would have killed me and countless others if I hadn't stopped him there...

What would the point of me going all the way to the mountain and staying there for a week to get the Dragon's Eye just for me to die at the hands of that djinn?

He was the one who called me out... I was just passing by.

Clearing my head from the previous fight, I continued playing with my smartwatch to distract myself until I finally grasped its essential features. The novelty slowly faded as I realized it was the same as an Apple smartphone except for the hologram feature.

I mean, you would think with magic and shit, they would be able to do a bit more, but I guess not.

Approaching the academy gates, I pushed my bloodied sword into my trunk and took out my beautifully written essay.

"can't wait till those fuckers read it."

Surprisingly, the most crucial educational facility in the world only had two guards protecting the front entrance. They opened the gates after I nodded and showed them my student ID.

My first stop was the academy office, where I could drop off my essay, obtain my dorm key, and return my student phone. It wasn't like I needed it with my new smartwatch, but it would still be helpful as entering the gym and training facilities would require it.

Opening the office door, I saw a scene similar to a hotel's concierge: two people dressed in suits were working behind a slick brown table.

Upon hearing the door open, the man on the right shifted his head upwards to face me and asked.

"What brings you here today?"

"I'm here after my ... suspension."

I felt an immense shame wash over me as the words "suspension" came out of my mouth. It wasn't like I was a model student back on Earth, but I had never done anything to warrant a detention, let alone a suspension. 

Upon hearing I had been suspended within the first week of school, I couldn't imagine what my mom would do to me.

It also didn't help that the worker's face was visibly distorted when the mention of suspension was made, as he probably thought I was some troublemaker.

The rest of the process went smoothly as after handing my five pages of bullshit; he gave me my dorm key, class schedule, and school phone.

Exiting the office, I headed to my dorm room. Since it was evening, there weren't many students hanging out, but I could see some entering and exiting the gym. I would be one of those people tomorrow...

Since the campus was enormous, on the walk to the first-year dorm building, I could admire the dark blue sea that shone under the moon's reflection.

The trees swayed with the soft breeze that blew through the night wind occasionally and the occasional birds chirping that broke the silence.

As the dorm building entered my sight, I took my last few glances around the captivating scenery. However, one specific area took all my attention.

My footsteps grew to halt as I saw two students sitting on a bench together, admiring the scenery of the moon in front of them.

These weren't just any two students, mind you.

One of them was Liam, the story's protagonist and old Ren's greatest enemy. Although I had complete control over Ren's body, seeing Liam would trigger some emotion of anger inside of me during the disciplinary ceremony, and I was able to control it.

So what was different now?

The female sitting next to Liam was Lily. She is one of the book's leading and most essential heroines due to her early affection for Liam and her social status. Like me, Lily descended from one of the seven great heroes who saved the world from the demons, but unlike me, rather than developing a hatred for commoners, she began to feel sympathy.

Something about her backstory caused her to feel like that, but honestly, I couldn't care less, as she low-key had the most annoying personality in the book.

The only reason the Author kept her around was that she used her social status to back up Liam whenever he was in trouble with the law.

Although she didn't matter to me, it was an entirely different story to the old Ren. Even dumbasses like Ren had their reasons for causing trouble, so what was Ren's reason for attacking Liam? 

To impress Lily.

In blindsight, trying to impress a girl by doing what she despises the most was not a good idea, but common sense does not apply when you're talking about a third-rate villain.

Anyway, I doubted Ren had real feelings for Lily, as he probably just wanted to keep his bloodline "pure" by marrying another noble worthy of him or something stupid like that.

Unsurprisingly, Ren's actions against Liam helped Liam grow closer to Lily as she began feeling sympathy towards Liam, which caused her to spend more time with him.

After looking at the two on the bench for another moment, I quickly regained my composure and walked into the dorms.

Although it may not seem like a problem now, as I'm mostly able to control my emotions, it would only take one second for Ren's underlying anger to take control and cause me to do something stupid, so staying away from Liam was necessary.

Next, I opened my dorm door and entered the luxurious suite. Due to my demotion to Class D from my suspension, my room's size did drop a little, but compared to the small, rough cave from the mountains, it was heaven.

Dropping my unopened trunk and desk, I discarded my clothes and took a shower, as the walk here had caused me to sweat a bit.

I began planning my schedule since today was Friday, and there would be no classes for the next two days.

Slumping down on the bed, the comfortable mattress and exhaustion presiding inside my body slowly overtook me until I finally fell asleep.

-*-

I started the next day by changing into shorts and a shirt before heading to the gym. I knew staying in shape was a requirement for survival at this school, so I wanted to finish it early in the morning, allowing me to enjoy the rest of my day exploring the billion-dollar campus.

After scanning my mobile phone, I entered the gym and was immediately starstruck by the massive interior. Hundreds of treadmills, benches, machines, and weights were spread out neatly in the 30,000-square-foot area.

Seeing that I was blocking the gym's entrance, I awkwardly moved to the side and found a treadmill.

After a 10-mile run, I was almost sweaty, so I grabbed a nearby towel and dried myself. Thankfully, substantial water dispensers and fruit baskets were placed around the gym, so I recovered within 5 minutes.

Following my exercise with the weights, I went to the locker room to shower. Finally, I left the gym and went toward the cafeteria with high expectations. A school willing to spend that much money on a gym would have world-class food in its cafeteria.

The cafeteria was even bigger than the gym, so after putting my stuff down on a chair in the corner, I patiently waited in line for the food. As the sweet aroma of the food blew into my nose, I began to wonder.

Where had this been all my life?

I almost shuttered, remembering the disgusting cafeteria food served to me in high school. Never again would I have to eat a week-old ham and cheese sandwich for lunch!

After sitting down with the steaming plate of food in front of me, I noticed that the hall was surprisingly uncrowded, even though it was supposed to serve the first, second, and third-year students.

Maybe people liked sleeping in on Saturdays? It didn't matter, so I began diving into the food before me.

The soft, creamy flavor of the pancakes and the salty taste of the potatoes combined in my mouth to make a masterpiece that almost brought me to tears. I wasn't this happy, even after realizing I had obtained the dragon's eye.

As more students began crowding in, I put in my earbuds, connected them to my smartwatch, and used them to block out the noise.

I put my plate away and headed out of the cafeteria towards the library. Since I received my class schedule yesterday, I would now have to pick up my textbooks. Besides the week of school I missed, I was already 16 years behind everyone else, so many sleepless nights would be spent here.

Unsurprisingly, there were only a few people in the library as who would want to study on a Saturday morning? Looking at the course information on my school phone, I picked out the books that I would need and placed them in my backpack.

Then, I also began exploring the library. Although it wasn't as big as the gym, it contained over 10,000 books.

After finding a book on the world's modern history, I sat on a bean bag and zoned out while reading. My first class tomorrow would be history, and I knew personally how harsh the guy was as he gave Liam detentions countless times for not paying attention.

I was probably on his lousy side already from being suspended, so I didn't want to piss him off further by not even knowing things that were considered common sense in this world.

The book mainly focused on my father and the other six heroes who banded together to save the world from the demons.