By the time the bell rang to end the first day of class, I was already tired.
Not the physical kind, but the social kind.
I gathered my things at a measured pace, slow enough to avoid being swept up in the initial rush, fast enough that no one could justify stopping me "just for a moment."
Around me, Class 1-B broke into motion, and so did I.
Regan, Medea, and Morgan followed me. They moved when I moved, constantly flanking me without thinking where we were going.
I could feel eyes sliding toward us, because it was indeed a strange sight.
An orc, a dark elf, and a fox girl were following around a human boy. It might have been rude, but it definitely was weird. I came from higher nobility, and they, as non-humans, had no standing.
And those who watched - well, their attention was dangerous and unwanted, and if it turned to curiosity-
That wouldn't do. I didn't want anyone to look at me in any strange light. Maybe I was just being paranoid?
Maybe, but it would be better if I established some distance for the moment.
Nothing cruel or a rejection, just… give me some breathing room.
I stopped shortly out of class.
They bumped into me.
"I need space," I said calmly, not raising my voice - not sharp, but firm. "This is school," I continued, keeping my tone even. "A new place. Not home. You don't know me here. As of now, we are strangers and have only just met. We will be friends and grow close, and things can be as they were and are, but you must act out your part. Do you understand?"
Medea's ears flicked back, and Regan straightened but looked down as if she had been caught doing something wrong. Morgan nodded once, sharply.
"…Understood," they said.
"Good," I replied, but I rubbed my chin after a moment.
I should give them something to do in the meantime so they won't get bored or do something foolish. I mean, without my supervision, they somehow entered this school.
How did they do it anyway? Acomet didn't just accept walk-ins. Enrollment was bureaucratic to the point of obsession. Forms, sponsors, guarantors. For minors, a parent or legal guardian was mandatory; no exceptions.
So how had three girls with no documented lineage, no visible escort, and no official standing managed to slip through?
Someone had signed for them.
Who was their supposed guardian?
Who did the world think those girls were?
I had to ask them later, but right now, I just wanted some peace and quiet.
"I'll want a full list of everyone in our class. Names, races, affiliations. Who talks to whom. Anything noteworthy. We'll meet later, in the evening. Be careful how you speak in front of my roommate. He was the boy we met before, during recess."
They nodded, and in an instant, they vanished. Just - poof - and they were gone.
No one, not a single person nearby, seemed to notice that they disappeared.
That went well.
So I left, alone.
I went to my room without stopping for anything or anyone and closed the door behind me with a soft click.
Lightbane wasn't here.
I dropped my bag onto my bed and sat down.
Everything I brought to the dorm screamed noble, and while Lightbane's stuff was of high quality, it was just less than mine.
The only things that were exactly alike were two trunks, with heavy locks on them, and we both knew what was in them.
The goo.
It had been a pain to bring both of them here, not just because they were heavy as fuck, but also because we didn't want anyone else to see them.
If anyone saw them in our rooms, they might have thought nothing of them, but we made sure that nobody would ever see what was in it.
The biggest pain was bringing Lightbane here. We had to bring it all the way from Endil to Astar.
We did it in until the other one was exhausted. It took us two days. I carried it for a day and so did he.
He could have done it alone, but I didn't want to leave him hanging. Bringing mine here was a simple matter.
From where the girl's house was in Astar to the academy - it wasn't that far.
I lay down in my bed for a moment.
Socially speaking, Lightbane had it easier.
Yes, he'd been swarmed. Yes, one of those people was a princess, which came with its own special flavor of complication. But his situation was… socially acceptable. Four girls arguing over him read as youthful drama. Harmless - mostly.
Mine? Mine was strange, in all ways.
That was not something Acomet would overlook if it went on for too long.
They hadn't meant anything by it, of course. The way they'd grown up, closeness to me - and to each other - wasn't unusual.
At least they listened when I told them to cut it out.
They always did, once I made myself clear.
I didn't have to convince them. I just had to state my boundaries, and they adjusted. No wounded pride. No passive aggression.
But I kept it loose. If they wanted warmth or my attention, I'd give it to them - just not in public.
I wondered, briefly, how long it would take Lightbane to manage his own orbit.
With Io around? Probably never.
He could worry about it. I should worry about my own things.
Acomet was a funnel, so to say. In five years, most of the people here would spill out into places of importance - bureaucracy, military, commerce, magic, nobility, and so on.
Anonymity here was a waste.
I didn't need to be liked, and I didn't 'need' to be important, even if I somehow were to be. I just needed to be known, and not in infamy. A fondly remembered name. A shared conversation. Enough familiarity that, years from now, someone would hesitate before dismissing me outright.
Ideally, I'd have at least a surface-level connection with everyone in my class. Roughly a hundred people. Manageable - just not all at once.
That was the goal. Everything beyond that was a bonus.
I needed a system. And information.
That's why I sent the girls off.
Once I had a list, I could mark priority targets or groups I could meet with.
Then there was 1-A.
Lightbane's class.
If I could manage it, I wanted overlap. Casual encounters. Shared clubs. Nothing fancy. Just enough that my name was familiar across the aisle.
Speaking of clubs…
I grimaced slightly.
Clubs were unavoidable. Acomet valued extracurriculars more than it pretended not to. Leadership, teamwork, initiative - words administrators loved. Plus, I'd promised my mother that I'd join some.
I should maybe visit Ella. I did so briefly when I first came to the academy, but she was an unsociable girl. I should try again.
The question was which ones.
I was a boy, so sports weren't the usual targets, but over the years I had come to enjoy good exercise.
Maybe I should have coordinated with Lightbane when he came in? I didn't want us to steal each other's thunder.
There was a lot to do.
And then the door opened, and Lightbane stumbled in.
He shut it behind him with his heel, leaning his back against it, and slid down until he was sitting on the floor.
He looked wrecked.
Hair slightly disheveled. Tie loosened far more than mine. Shirt wrinkled at the shoulders like he'd been grabbed repeatedly - which, judging by the muffled arguing still audible through the door, he had.
"I've had enough," he said hoarsely.
"Did you lose them?"
"For now," he replied. "I think."
"To think that my girls are socially more adept than yours. Strange, isn't it?"
"It's Io. I think they see her as a threat to the attention they usually get. Maybe she'll steal it away from them or something. She's just a massive trigger for them."
There was a pause. Then a knock from the other side.
"Caleb?" Io's voice. Muffled.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
There was more knocking - she didn't stop at all.
I crossed the room and opened the door just enough to lean out.
"Princess," I said pleasantly, keeping my body in the doorway.
At the end of the hallway, lurking close enough to listen, I could see Lightbane's girls staring toward us.
"He's… indisposed."
"Edward?" Io said, surprised.
I nodded. "It turns out that I am Caleb's roommate. Isn't that a nice coincidence?"
"…I see," Io replied. There was restraint there. Barely. "Please tell him I wished to continue our conversation later. …Is there something wrong?"
"No, of course. Everything's peachy keen. And I will tell him. Oh, if you see those other girls he was with, could you tell them that I'd like to be with Caleb, to get to know him better? He's my roommate, after all, and I would like to be close to him. I'm sure we boys will find a lot to talk about. And you might not want to hang around the boy's dormitory for too long, or people will think strange of you."
"Alright," she said, though she waited by the door for a moment.
Then she retreated.
I closed the door again and locked it this time.
"I never liked school to begin with," he said.
"It's been one day."