I ran all the way to the dorm. I got a lot of stares, and some of the stares were even frightened ones.

'Did word travel this fast?'

I didn't know how much the people knew but one thing was for certain, I couldn't let my guard down and I couldn't get involved with anyone. The Battlesuin family was on almost equal footing against us. But even they knew, we were a step above them when it came to combat powers, so how come they were so eager to start a war with us?

Something just didn't feel right.

Even inside the dorm, I got all sorts of glares. But I guess, at this point, this was pretty normal. For once I was glad it was late, or there would have been even more people.

I made my way to my room. It was close to midnight but I still had about ten minutes or so.

Knock!

"Who is it?"

"Who else would be at this hour?"

The door opened. "Oh thank god. I thought it was another one of them."

I entered. "One of who?"

"You wouldn't believe, I think I'm famous!" Merin grabbed my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes, all serious.

"Yeah, I totally believe you." I was too stressed so this seemed like a good opportunity to humor him and let loose a little.

"I had to deal with at least ten reporters already!"

'Ten, that's it?' It was actually kind of disappointing.

But I guess this confirmed it. Word did travel fast, too fast to be exact.

"I'd actually never been interviewed before." Merin shed a tear and looked at me, awfully proud.

I sighed. "You didn't tell them anything did you?"

"No, not really. I'd never sell out a friend. Though I did tell them your favorite food and all that." He flashed a thumbs up at me.

I flashed one back. Now, this was something I could get behind. Ah, I could just imagine the reporters rushing to me, bribing me with food.

This was a dream come true. 'Maybe becoming a villain isn't all that bad?'

I could just smell the hot chocolate in the air.

"So," I cleared my throat and wiped off the drool from my face. "What kind of foods did you say?" I was nearing the limit of my patience.

"Let's see. Broccoli juice, shrimp fried rice, and oh right, celeries!"

"Wait, what!" Shrimp was okay, but what about the other two! "Why would you say that!?"

"Oh yeah, I kind of wanted to eat shrimp, so I said that. So if you don't like shrimp, then do give them to me." He grinned.

"Not the shrimp, moron! Why did you say the other two?"

"Cause your mom said so. She said those two were your favorite. But since you didn't have the money you always spent everything on cheap food like bread. And she also told me that you are lactose intolerant, so, she forbade you to even go near milk from now on."

They WERE NOT my favorite: far from it.

'Lactose intolerance? Is that why mom told me to drink one glass only once a week? It that why I had to spend every morning sitting on the toilet cursing god for the last week?' It strangely made sense. And then my mind kind of snapped. "NOOOOOOOOOO! No, god, you can't do this to me!!!"

And why the hell did mom not tell me this directly!?

What was wrong with this day? Why did everything just go so bad? Why was all of this happening to me! "No." I fell on the floor, weeping like a girl from some random soap opera.

"So anyway, I was reading through your mails. And I found this." Merin didn't even care the least.

"What is wrong with you? Have you no heart?" Yup, definitely a soap opera.

"Yeah, I don't really care. If you can't eat something, you shouldn't eat it. It's as simple as that. Besides, you can always get almond milk or something. But those things do cost a fortune here. So I guess you're better off with just eating broccoli juice."

Did he really have to be so blunt?

But yeah, he didn't have a heart. Nah-uh.

I kept on sniffing as he handed me a letter. "This is the one."

"Why the hell were you ravaging through my stuff?"

"Well," Merin scratched his cheeks and looked away bashfully. "I thought they were love letters."

"What are you? A maiden on steroids?" I sighed. The emotions were gone. Lately, I'd been getting so many mood swings that it was almost scary.

I took the letter and scanned through the sender's name. My eyes almost popped out. "When did-" I stopped. Come to think of it, a girl in a white suit did hand me over a letter yesterday afternoon.

"Yeah, I was shocked too. Who'd have thought they'd declare war on you, and then just randomly invite you to a tea party?"

"Obviously this is a trap." I sighed and read through the letter. Another sigh escaped. I might have exceeded my daily sigh quota by two or perhaps even three times today. And I had a lot more sighs on standby.

'Dear Helio,

Hope you are having an excellent day. It is my pleasure to announce that we shall be going to war…

… However, please bear in mind that we still have time to reprimand, given that you are willing to pay the repercussions…

Yours truly,

Hyora Von Battlesuin.'

This letter nearly gave me a headache: it wasn't even a letter. It was more like a poem for headaches. And not to mention half of it didn't make sense. Repercussion? Was the sender trying to be funny or something?

And this was a personal letter: a personal letter from the family head of the Battlesuin family and not to mention they wanted me to attend their tea party so they could negotiate what kind of prices I'd have to pay.

I really had a bad feeling about this.

"Mom left?"

"Yup."

"Did she see this letter?"

"She did, and she told me to tell you-"

"Dude, just get to the point." My patience had run away through the window.

Merin fell on the bed, laughing loudly. "She said she was going to talk with the elders and let you know later. The deadline to answer this letter is by the end of this month, so for the time being she told you to be relaxed."

'There's even a deadline to this thing?'

"How the hell am I supposed to be relaxed after this?" I mumbled and sat on the bed. My stomach rumbled. With all this stuff going on, I kind of forgot to buy food. I held my head in my hand. "Why did it have to come to this?"

"Whoa, you got a new saber?" Merin was trying his best to change the subject. I could see the awkwardness in his face.

But I was glad he was trying. I smiled. "Yeah, it's pretty much a scythe though."

"Scythe? Are scythes even allowed?"

"Not sure, but I can make it a two-handed great sword too, so I guess even if I can't use the scythe, I can still use it as a sword." Well, it would have taken a fair bit of imaging and a lot of focus but it wasn't impossible.

"Well, if it works then that's great. But yeah, I'll be cheering for you."

"Thanks, man."

I guess I at least had someone who was cheering for me.

"No prob, oh yeah, your mom told me to give this to you." Merin gave me a small packet.

Just how many things was he hiding?

I didn't know what to expect anymore, so I just opened the small package. And I was greeted by the sweet smell of mom's cooking: Fried chicken, rice, and of course, sauce. It was almost as though she knew I was starving.

This was one hell of a day. But in the end, at least I had my family.

And then there was a note. 'You gotta be kidding me!'

'This is your treat for the entire month. Don't go near milk or chocolate and if I find out that you somehow ate either, you're not getting any allowance for a year.' I could almost imagine mom to have a solid grin while she wrote this stuff.

'So not only can I not eat chocolate milk, I can't even have plain chocolate!?'I really wanted to cry, but I guess this was it. My life was over. I needed to cool down my head with some sleep, I guess.

So with all the worries aside, I just ate my fill and turned in at exactly 1. I'd have to get up the next day by 7, so I needed as much sleep I could get.

But how could I fall asleep with all these stupid thoughts?

'Maybe coming here, to this academy was a bad idea?'

There were a lot of other schools which I could have taken if I wanted to become an explorer. But I chose this above everything. And that was because, supposedly, both my grandfather and father had gone to this school.

I didn't give a damn about my father, but I really wanted to see what kind of world gramps was living in. But I certainly wasn't going to become a villain for that sake.

But now, after everything I did to get here, now, it just felt a bit, pointless?

I really didn't know what to feel.

And not to mention my thoughts were oddly convoluted.

***

Beep*

As usual, I got fresh and went out for exercise.

The grogginess wasn't enough to stop me, but it was certainly enough to slow me down.

But everything wasn't as usual. I didn't get any stares today. People just plain ignored me. And it wasn't just normal ignorance either, they were afraid of me.

It was a bit jarring at first, but as no one really even got near me, I felt a lot better than usual. Maybe this wasn't so bad. I finally got the privacy I wanted! Albeit, not in the form I wanted.

"Are you Helio? I've brought an offering!"

And then there were these morons.

It was almost like they were offering drug addicts, more drugs. But unfortunately, I didn't fancy broccoli juice or celery for that matter.

So, I didn't pay attention to the reporters one bit and just continued my exercises. The reporters in question never interrupted me or tried to annoy me. I guess my family name was a lot more infamous than I thought.

'Shouldn't the prefects do something about these guys?'

It was still early morning, and these guys weren't doing much harm anyway. So I guess, it was okay for now.

I ran back to the dorm, got dressed in typical clothes, and went for class. Fortunately, my reunion with the Palm, didn't happen.

No one actually wore a uniform, so I guess this was okay. Besides, I couldn't afford one anyway.

I never checked my class roll and I kind of forgot to ask how the prelims would occur too.

'I think I should take a vacation.'

Just one week at this academy was enough to give me crippling depression.

'But it's too late to regret now.'

I could still get out of here, but if I was going to do that then what was the point of enrolling in the first place? I already knew it was going to be hard. And so, I had to suck up and just deal with it: although I didn't want to.

***

I entered the class.

My face heated up.

I wanted to go home.

But I had no choice, so I took my seat.

In a herd of pearl white sheep, I was the only black one.

Apparently, everyone had their uniform on, except me.

'Well, that's just perfect.'

My earlier sentiments just went through the drain.