It was a bright sunny sky outside.

Right after finishing breakfast, and giving his mother a hug as she requested, the boy began his usual path towards the academy.

If possible, Kurt wanted to keep the fact that he was the son of the emperor a secret for as long as he could, He didn't want people to look at him and judge him for being a prince.

Because of that, he always refused offers from the mansion's servants to take him to the school. Going by foot would allow him to be viewed just like another normal kid.

Although, Trevor had informed him that this was one of the top academies of the empire, so all the other kids were probably sons and daughters of members of the high society like nobles and dukes.

It still amazed him how a world that seemed so advanced and so magical still relied on such a thing as a monarchy.

'You do know kings and queens are still a thing in your old world, right? It's not like they went extinct with the passage of time... Even Japan still had an emperor...' Dorothy commented while noticing his interest in the topic.

[Yeah, I know... But it's not to the same level as it was before, right?] he responded, [You gotta admit it's a little weird to think about dukes, princes, and barons being a thing when before coming here I wanted even aware some of these names existed...]

'Let me guess... You used to suck at history class in your old life, right?'

[Oh... I sucked at a ton of classes... Not just history!] he boasted.

'Why are you talking as if you were proud of that...?'

[Yeah, sorry...]

On his way, Kurt began to spot a few familiar faces on the road. A couple of merchants, an old couple that lives nearby, a delivery-man who was rushing to meet his date.

From an early age, Kurt always had a desire to get closer to people in order to not repeat the same mistakes from his old life and live as a loner. At least, he wanted to, before his mother decided to act extra-careful with who she allowed to approach him since the incident with the black knight.

Empress Sabiri would always warn him to try and not get too close to strangers as there was ever the risk of them trying to kidnap him or take his life due to his status as a prince. Even with the maids and butlers of his home, she would tell him to not approach too carelessly.

This was one of the reasons Kurt wanted to bad to improve his combat skills. If he was able to defend himself, he would be able to interact with people without fear, or so he hoped.

After finally arriving at the school building he met with Trevor who seemed to be in a happy and relaxed mood.

"Morning, Kurt!" the chubby lad with short black hair greeted.

"Hey, Trevor! Thanks again for backing me up yesterday! I don't know what I would have done without you!" the red-haired boy commented.

"Don't mention it! Although... If you feel like doing something nice for me in return... You can always just let me pet Dorothy for a bit!" he suggested while showing sparkles in both eyes.

'If he touches me, I'm going to peck his forehead open...'

Kurt flinched and tried to force a weak smile, "Dorothy said no... Sorry..."

"Ugh... She still doesn't like me...? I thought we bonded after we worked together on the battle..."

'I do not bond with a hammer just because I used it to fix a wall, why would a bond with some creepy kid that keeps looking at me with these disturbing eyes just because he was convenient for a little while?'

[God, I'm glad he can't understand you... You really need to learn how to be nicer with your words...] Kurt mumbled.

Sometimes the kid wished others would be able to hear what Dorothy says as well so they all could enjoy a conversation together, but at the same time, he wasn't sure how many people would be able to handle Dorothy's tough-love approach.

He did consider that Gaby might be able to though...

"Oh, by the way, is Gaby here already?" the prince wondered while coming back from his pondering.

"I think she went to the library... Still trying to solve some kind of disagreement she had after her books were ruined, but the girls that did that refuse to take the blame..." Trevor explained.

"Ah... Are people still angry with her because of her invincible ice-queen behavior? I thoughtt we were all cool now..."

While they continued their conversation, they began to notice a couple of kids passing by them and giving some looks of indifference at the two.

'Ah... If only life was that easy...' Dorothy laughed.

Trevor saw the bird behaving strangely for a second and wondered what she might be saying.

"These things take time, man... People were against Gaby for nearly three years. It will take more than a fun fight to turn them to her side. But they are still starting to be more open to the idea!"

"I see... I hope we get past this soon... I like Gaby but I also want to make new friends... I don't wanna have to end up choosing between her and them again..."

The two boys and the owl passed by the stairs where Kurt saw Saramin harassing Gaby and began to wonder how things between these two were like right now.

He soon spotted the purple-haired girl waiting outside of the library entrance as if she was waiting for something.

"Hey, Gaby!!!" Kurt shouted, which caused the girl to suddenly turn around while twitching.

"The hell, kid!?? Don't just shout my name like that... You wanna give me a heart attack??" the girl complained while pressing her hand against her chest and breathing heavily.

"Ah... Sorry..."

The girl noticed Dorothy staring at her and began to feel like the owl was staring into her soul for some reason with the way she continued to gaze at her.

"Nice to see you, Gaby..." Trevor mumbled in an attempt to be friendly.

"Ah... Hi... Your name was... Trevor, right? I didn't mention it last time but, nice to meet you..." she replied.

"Uuhh... We've met before..."

"We did...?"

"Yeah... You took my seat on my first day here, just like you did with Kurt..."

"Ah..." Gaby froze, unsure how she was meant to react in this situation, "S- Sorry about that..."

"Oh..." Trevor almost felt like the world was about to end. Never in his life had he heard Gaby apologize for anything, "Don't worry, it isn't a big deal..."

Gaby was shocked with herself as well. Usually, she would simply tell him to not mind it too much and move on, but since he was Kurt's friend she wanted to try and be a little nicer.

"But seriously, what's the big deal about this seat anyway??" she fumbled while trying to look away and hide her blushed face.

"I mean... I'm good, but Kurt doesn't know how to use enhanced senses... So he needs to sit closer in order to pay attention to the lessons..." Trevor explained.

"Wait, what?" gaby gasped, "You can fight like a demon but you don't know how to enhance your senses?? How do you move like that then???"

"My mother trained me from an early age and helped me improve my agility. She's really good as a combat partner but she's not that skilled at explaining things. I tried to ask her about this enhanced sense or whatever and she just replied with 'I don't know... I just do it' and then shrugged at me..." Kurt explained while showing a face of dread.

But Gaby didn't seem convinced, "How did she teach you then?"

"She kept attacking me until I was able to dodge her moves... And anytime I failed, she would tell me to heal myself and try again..."

"The hell...?" Gaby mumbled, "That sounds so brain-dead..."

"Eh... No comment..." Kurt sighed.

Kurt did realize that his training began when he found out about his healing talent. He now wondered what his training would have been like had he possessed another type of talent. Would his mother have gone easier on him?

"Although, your healing power does seem pretty busted... What's its time limit?" the glasses-wearing girl asked.

"Time-limit...?"

"Yeah, how long can you keep it up?"

"What are you talking about...?" Kurt mumbled while tilting his head.

Gaby and Trevor exchanged a look and then stared at the prince.

"You don't know about the time limit??"

"Were you not listening? I couldn't hear a single word that the teachers said, my mother sucks at explaining things and she hates letting me get closer to people..."

"Dude, how have you lived up until now...??" Trevor asked while looking at him as if his image of Kurt had just shattered completely.

The boy had no defense. For some reason, he just always had this feeling inside of him telling him that it's better not to dig too much into the way things worked in this world and just waited for answers to come to him with time.

Although, for some reason, he was now feeling a strange desire to fight that mentality. He could almost hear someone in the back of his mind faintly whispering to him.

"Time limit is the amount of time you can keep using your talent while in your first form... If you use it too much, it might bring some risks to your body..." Gaby explained.

"Oh... I didn't know about that... I just use my healing whenever I want as much as I want... It never caused me any trouble... Do you guys have a limit too?"

"Yeah..." Trevor nodded, "In my case, if I increased y density for longer than three seconds I run the risk of turning my body into a rock-like state... And If I also decrease it for too long, I could disappear completely... It happened with a few members of my family already... My uncle stayed intangible beyond his time limit and couldn't turn back. He ended up falling through the ground and got lost..."

"Holy... That's horrible!" Kurt gasped. That did explain why Trevor would keep switching in and out of his intangible state during the fight instead of just staying untouchable all the time, "I'm so sorry to hear man..."

"It's okay. We managed to get him out after a few months... Finding him was the hardest part... Turns out the soil is really big."

Kurt never considered that holding the power of a dragon in his human form could pose such a risk.

"What about you Gaby?"

"Oh... In my case, my body can only handle electricity for a couple of seconds as well... The risks are... Well..."

She turned her gaze away before finishing her sentence. Kurt wondered if someone in her family ended up going beyond their limits and were now in some critical state as well.

"Here you go!" a female voice suddenly barged into the conversation as its owner exited the library while holding a pile of books with her.

"Eh...?" Kurt mumbled upon seeing a girl with chocolate skin, long white hair, and golden eyes staring at them, "Saramin...?"

"Oh, hey!" the number two student and the owner of the memory talent responded, "You guys here to help out with Gaby's brother as well?"