Chapter 5: A not so simple roommate (2/2)

Ayrin did his best to open his eyes. He suddenly saw an unfamiliar figure standing in front of him. He shuddered, woke up with a start from his dreams.

What was this?

What happened?

He subconsciously sat up, blinking blankly.

“You’re really good at sleeping.”

A refined and gentle male student wearing glasses stood in front of his bed. He looked around the same age as Ayrin. “You slept from yesterday afternoon all the way til now. Right, I’m your roommate, I’m called Belo.”

Ayrin subconsciously said, “Hello, I’m Ayrin. Where’s this place though?”

“This is our dorm, Ivy residence district’s seventh residence, room 233.” Belo pushed his glasses and looked at Ayrin, the latter still looking thoroughly confused. “It seems you don’t even know how you came here. You know the ‘Wolf of Bloody Nights,’ teacher Liszt?”

“I’m already in the dorm, I slept from yesterday afternoon all the way until now?” Ayrin had a fully blank face. “Wolf of Bloody Nights, Liszt? Who’s that?”

“Our Holy Dawn Academy’s strongest teacher, an existence legends say is extremely callous and blood-thirsty. Anyone who becomes an enemy of his will be cruelly beaten until they’re more dead than alive. ‘Wolf of Bloody Nights’ is his nick.” Belo pushed his glasses by habit. “They say he’s the one who took you here.”

“The strongest teacher in the academy… So powerful?” Ayrin shook his head, full of doubts. “I really don’t know him though.”

“No matter what, teacher Liszt let you and I stay in the same room. Starting from today we’re friends.” Belo pointed at Ayrin’s bedside. “You first change your clothes, wash your face, rinse your mouth in the water room at the end of the hallway outside. The toilets are next door to the water room. I’ll go first and buy some stuff to eat, I’ll wait for you below.”

Ayrin saw blue clothes resting beside the bed, the same as the ones Belo wore. They looked very soft. He subconsciously asked, “Wait for me to do what?”

“It’s soon time for class, you have to hurry a bit.” Belo said while walking out, “It’s teacher Huston’s class, there will be very grave consequences if we’re late.”

“Class?”

Ayrin took the blue uniform beside the bed, unable to make any sense out of the current situation.

This was a set of clothes was separated in two, an inner layer and an outer layer. The inner layer consisted of close-fitting sportswear while the outer layer consisted of slightly loose robe-like clothes. The words “Holy Dawn Academy” were embroidered on both the inner and outer layers. The inner layer’s fabric seemed even tighter and more durable than the outer layer’s. It looked like you were supposed to take off the outerwear during strenuous exercise and only wear the inner half.

“Huh…?”

The instant Ayrin grabbed the academy’s uniform, his body suddenly felt very different compared to usual.

There seemed to be an inexhaustible strength in every parcel of his body. There also seemed to be a mass of bright light on top of his head, as if a door was open.

The most important thing was was, he was currently still wearing the clothes he usually wore, but they now felt especially tight on him.

He stood up, looked at his own arms and legs.

It wasn’t an illusion. It was as if his clothes shrank after wash. He’d not only become a bit sturdier, he even grew taller by quite a bit.

He couldn’t resist waving his fist.

There came a “whoosh.”

This punch of his actually made a piercing sound through the air.

The thing that made him even more startled was, the many tiny particles in the air had converged on his fist on their own the moment he’d casually thrown this punch out.

This was the “arcane power” only awakened people could feel!

However, he had to concentrate the entire focus of his spirit to be able to sense and use “arcane power” before. Now he seemed to be able to use arcane power at will!

Without a doubt, this was a change brought by the fusion of bloodlines.

It seemed old Ginns’ bloodline wasn’t as bad as he’d imagined.

What bloodline was it though?

Ayrin was a little excited when he felt he’d become quite a bit more powerful, but then he turned depressed again when he remembered that he didn’t even know what kind of bloodline he’d actually fused with.

…

The Ivy residence district where boys of Holy Dawn Academy lived came from the same era as the Cattail Library. They were the oldest buildings inside Holy Dawn Academy. The difference was that the Ivy residence district was entirely built from stone, three floors on each building, tall trees planted between every residential building. Ivies climbed all over those trees even more ancient than the district, blotting the sky and covering the sun, making it seem as if each and every building were sitting inside a gigantic forest.

Because it was ancient, Holy Dawn Academy’s lodging conditions seemed a little simple and crude compared to academies built later on. Each floor of every dormitory had a single public water room, without a separate bathroom.

The whole dormitory was already well empty by the time Ayrin put his clothes on, washed, and walked out of the seventh residence’s main doors. There was only Belo waiting for him, carrying a bag of things to eat.

“Let’s go.”

Belo took the lead as soon as he saw Ayrin come downstairs, rushing toward the “Thinker’s Stone Forest.” He introduced the “Thinker’s Stone Forest” to Ayrin and told him it had been renovated from the old Holy Dawn Academy’s arena originally there. Maybe it was because many arcane masters had used mighty arcane powers in there, but it seemed easier to focus and sense arcane power inside. That was why freshmen would all go to class together in it. The first-grade freshmen all had the same foundation course. They would have different courses only from the second year on, depending on their preferences and grades.

Running after Belo, gnawing on the ham bread Belo bought, Ayrin thought this roommate he just met was truly a good person.

“Why does it seem like they’re looking at us a little strange?”

The Thinker’s Stone Forest was located midway between the Ivy residence district and the Redbud residence district, a dozen minutes from both areas on foot. Ayrin also saw quite a few boys and girls in twos and threes coming a little late when they came closer to the Thinker’s Stone Forest. Only, these freshmen seemed to avoid looking at them after seeing them, and they also seemed to deliberately keep a certain distance away from them.

“Maybe it’s because we’re somewhat handsome,” said Belo with no concern.

Ayrin nodded when he heard Belo’s answer, because Ayrin thought he’d become quite a bit more handsome after putting on the brand new academy uniform.

But he didn’t know why, the closer they neared the Thinker’s Stone Forest, the more he felt the gazes of these new students gather on Belo, from time to time. This made him turn his head and look at Belo with his glasses and gentle appearance. He thought, maybe there was more to him than met the eye.