After the hunt for Al Duran’s head, Azalea joined Zharyx’ group and, as promised, they traveled back to AB Academy. On their way, Earl Spade and Victor split up and went ahead to get themselves checked in a hospital in the nearest city. It took two weeks of touring around from Dimatagpuan Region of southern hemisphere to Vatara Region of northern hemisphere to look for the associates that could attend in repairing her armor and maintaining the condition of Kharite Staff. After going around and about, they finally left the country of Uar and then crossed the sea; their destination is the country of United Reshteh. They then proceeded to go to the country’s capital, Eldoon New City, where the Adam’s main residence is. Lillian and Zharyx then did not waste time in resolving some problems regarding the required documents that Azalea needs to get enrolled properly.

∞×∞

After a month of preparations, Azalea is put under the care of the Adam’s family with Lillian as her legal guardian. Lillian has pushed her to take the School Advancement Test and AB Academy’s Entrance Exam. While preparing her papers, Lillian notices something in her profile.

“Azalea!” Lillian calls while looking into some documents in the living room. The small table is filled with piles of white folders and envelopes, a laptop, and a medicine bottle at the edge. Lillian’s brows are knitted while looking at a document.

“Yes?” Azalea yawns while walking down the stairs wearing her casual body-fit top and shorts.

“You were born on the twenty-first day of Triini’xahr?”

She scratches her head messing up her hair that is styled to clean out the uneven and messy cuts. “Ah—yeah.”

“What do you mean ‘ah—yeah’?! That was the day when we were fighting Al Duran, wasn’t it?!” She inquires furiously, squinting her eyes at her. “You didn’t tell us?”

She sits on the sofa’s armrest while Q goes up the sofa, sitting properly. “I don’t think it’s necessary. Hunting comes first more than anything, you know.”

Lillian presses her hand on her forehead while sighing. “Should I still be shocked over your indifference over the things that mostly concern yourself?”

“You are taking this too seriously.” She laughs it off.

“Because you’re not taking anything seriously. Have you studied for your upcoming exams?”

“Don’t worry~ don’t worry~” She answers nonchalantly with a smug smile while waving her hand up and down. “I’ve never had any problems with exams before.”

“More like you didn’t have that much exams to give you enough problems.” She adds while stretching her back on the sofa. “Don’t sit on the arm rest… and stop picking your nose!”

“Why so strict.” She mumbles feeling defeated.

“Looks like I will have to pound some manners into that thick head of yours before you enter the academy.”

Under the guidance of Lillian, various norms about the city along with the academy’s rules have been forcefully hammered into Azalea’s brain. While undergoing various life-style changes, the uneasiness and insecurity also grows inside her. Even though she tries her best to cope with her new surroundings she is still under the pressure of being “different” compared to other girls her age that grew up within the safety of the city.

∞×∞

Sat’xahr is the month when the school year starts. Before the classes officially begins; Lillian escorts Azalea up to the entrance of the academy and wishes her to have a peaceful academy life. From this day onwards, Azalea is going to be living in the academy’s dormitory. The students are only allowed to go out into the city during weekends or holidays. Everything they need is mostly found within the academy’s premises. If anything else, items can also be acquired through delivery.

After looking up at the giant gates of the academy, Azalea waves goodbye at Lillian. She promises to behave herself until she graduates from the academy. The smaller gate beside opened as soon as she gets her PDA scanned. She enters pulling her luggage into the narrow space that looks like it is designed to only let one or two people in at a time. After the short passage way is the administration building painted in white greets her. The entrance is empty, there are no guards but she can feel that she is being watched. She looks at the map of the building displayed in the digital bulletin board. After a few minutes of observation she taps some buttons changing the display into the map of the whole Nalkad Island, the place where the academy stands. She again stares at it. This time she is taking longer. Then she goes on her way, up the stairs, directly into headmaster’s office. She wants to see for herself what kind of person is the man who gave the order to look for her and bring her into this place.

She politely knocks on the door. Her mind is wrapped in curiosity. This man whom she waited to talk to for the past month is right behind the door, for the first time they will meet each other.

“Come in.” A deep voice answers from inside.

The door opens on its own.

“Good morning,” She greets with a smile to calmly hide her angst. She stands in front of the only person inside who is sitting behind the desk. “I’m Azalea Blakewood.”

The middle-aged man smiles while fixing his eyes on her. “Welcome. I’m the headmaster of AB Academy, Oryx Dimasalang. Please take a seat, make yourself comfortable.” He then moves to stand in front of the headmaster’s table. “I’m glad you were able to grant my request, Miss Blakewood.”

Azalea laughs modestly as if she could do nothing bad. “You old fart, enough with the formality. We both should already understand what kind of farce you had been into these past months while acting high and mighty using that headmaster position of yours. You actually just sent your own son on a suicide mission.”

Oryx warmly smiles back at her. “You sure are smart and perceptive. As expected of the youngest licensed demon hunter to ever go directly through both written exam and practical quest without taking monster hunting license first.”

“Spare me the shitty compliments and let’s just go directly to the main topic. Why did you bring me here? What do you want me to do?” She takes a sit in the sofa.

“Being too doubtful, aren’t we?” He sneers. “They were picked for that mission because they can handle it.” He pulls a stick of cigarette from his pocket. He smiles looking directly at Azalea. “What I want from you is simple,” he spins the cigarette around his fingers playing with it. “For now, become a student of AB Academy. Then spend some time here. We can chat more after that.”

“Huh-?..” Azalea raises her eyebrow. “You don’t make much sense either, just like your son. Now I know where he got that weird way of thinking… But other than that, he didn’t get much of your appearance. I can say that he’s much better looking.”

“Really?” He laughs it off. “If you like him that much then I can allow you to marry into the family. I wouldn’t mind having pretty daughter-in-law like you.”

“If you’re only going to make boring jokes like that then, I better excuse myself now.”

“A-ah! Wait, wait!” He jolts a step forward. “Don’t be too quick to leave, this old man just want to know how his scholars are doing before going into the academy.”

“Scholars?”

“Yes, other than you, I have two other scholars who will be in the same grade as you this year.”

“I see.” She relaxes her back while crossing her legs. “I don’t really care either way. So, are you trying to make some super-human army or something like that in here?”

“What are you talking about?” He replies in a sarcastic tone. “I assure you, I have no such intention in this academy. I am simply a headmaster who is genuinely concerned with his students’ well-being. Ah, I know! How about I give you a ‘reward’ if you can guess who the other two are?”

“So he does want me to meet with the other two.” She tells herself while glaring like a bored child sick of the old man’s jokes.

“I can pretty much grant you anything, as long as it concerns your academy life here. What do you say?”

“I’m not interested.”

“That again?” Oryx says feigning disappointment as he turns to his table. He sits while rummaging some documents. “You seem to be so disinterested in everything. Tell me, just what are you living for?”

“Demon hunting,” she answers without hesitation.

“Is that really a reason worth living for? Or is that just one of your reasons to keep on living that directionless life?”

Azalea keeps her silence. She glares at the headmaster with her cold piercing eyes.

Oryx fixes his gaze on her while pulling one file from the pile of folders on his table. “You did exceptionally well on your School Advancement Test as well as in the Academy Entrance Exam.” He browses through the papers inside the folder. “Your performance in the Al Duran Hunt is great. According to the reports passed by Lillian, Zharyx, Victor and Earl Spade; you have immense mana affinity, can perform high-tier, multi-layered spells at ease… so, how come you’re ability evaluation rank dropped to C?”

“Huh? You did not really call me here because of that, did you?” She frowns.

“Did I?” He responds with a smirk. “Like I said, I simply want to know your condition.”

“I’m not buying that sorry excuse.”

“You don’t like answering questions, huh. Well… but I’ll still keep the reward for finding out the other two--”

“Whatever. I don’t give a shit.” She purposely cuts his negotiation off to change the topic. “You… you did meet with Merchant Li, didn’t you?”

He laughs as if he is remembering something funny. “That man… He is a very interesting person. When I saw him in the market district that the traveling merchants frequents, I asked him about a demon hunter known with the alias ‘Azalea: The Bewitched.’ I was so lucky to have to ask him first. He told me his connection to you so I invited him to my office and he gladly accepted. He told me everything I need to learn about you and asked me to take care of you.”

“What a load of bullshit.” She tells herself after listening to the headmaster talk.

“Our interests somewhat aligns, that’s why I am fulfilling this favor.”

“I see. That’s all I want to know.” She replies with a straight face. “I guess I’ll go spend some time in this academy regardless of what you are scheming behind all these.” She stands up.

“You don’t seem to be moved at all.”

“Because you suck at telling bedtime stories.” She turns her back from the headmaster and goes towards the door.

“Well then, good luck…” He says softly with a cynical smile as Azalea gently opens the door to go out. “Welcome to Aleut Balaam Academy.”

She left Headmaster’s Office to go back down on the first floor and make her way into the dormitories. She wants to drop off and organize her luggage. She also wants to greet her roommate and know what kind of person she is. She wants to be able to find an effective way of dealing with whoever her roommate is as early as possible. After all, considering all kinds of trouble that she had been into, she does not want anyone to start digging around her background.

On her way in the hallway, when she is about to go out, she notices a couple of students. Two guys talking to each other over something unclear. They are both wearing their uniform already, so she could tell which color-zone they belong to. She intends to naturally pass by without attracting attention but it seems that she has already caught the interest of one of the guys.

“Excuse me.” The guy with black hair and blue highlight on one side says politely while marching towards Azalea. “Have we met before?”

“What a lame pick-up line.” She assumes being snobbish.

She pauses while analyzing him. The young man’s electric blue eyes are fixed directly at her. An earring with a blue gem dangles from his right ear. He stands with poise and might while wearing an eerie smile.

“Absolutely not.” She answers shooting him down completely. She then she walks away without looking back.

“Man! That was so lame, Evan.” The other boy with light blond hair says teasingly. “I can see that she’s kind of pretty, but do you have to make such out of date pick-up line?”

“No.” He answers with a deep tone as if remembering something. “I was serious when I asked her, Keito. Though, I might have got the wrong person after all.”

Azalea continues on her way towards the exit, paying no mind to the guys she just met. She gets out of the Administrative Building, arriving at the small garden. Her eyes are drawn to the fountain in the middle. That is where she noticed another student sitting on the bench that is slightly behind the fountain. He has well-groomed black hair brushed back. He is not wearing his uniform yet so she could not tell from which color-zone he is. She watches him fix his white gloves. He looks worried. Azalea is about to just pass-by when she notices a symbol embroidered to the gloves. It catches her interest.

“Hello.” Azalea greets with a warm smile. “Are you having some trouble?”

The boy is startled immediately hiding his hands. “N-nothing! Sorry, but I’m fine so you don’t have to trouble yourself.” He blushes while his voice grows smaller. “I-I’m fine.”

Azalea believes that his action is a little weird. The way he move his hands away like he is too careful to avoid touching anything.

“He can’t be some clean freak, is he?” She wonders while stooping down to keep her gaze on him.

“Umm… Excuse me?” He looks uncomfortable.

“By any chance…” She says with observant eyes probing on his gloves. “Hmm… Perhaps your ability is Psychometry?..”

“H-how did you know?!!” The boy suddenly raises his voice.

“You don’t have to be that surprised.” She laughs it off then she sits beside him. “It’s a lucky guess. That’s a good ability in many ways. Are you a freshman too?”

“Err… Yes, I arrived yesterday late afternoon so I thought checking out the campus today.” He smiles shyly.

“I see. I just arrived today. I’m Azalea Blakewood. What’s your name?”

“I’m Tristan dela Torre.”

“Hello, Tristan.” She shakes his hands and then she stands up again. “Nice to meet you, let’s get along well.”

“Ah… yeah, take care.”

Tristan’s gaze follows Azalea as she walks away. Meanwhile, Azalea continued walking without looking back.

She passes by the field, then by the Alapaap Building, and then the school gym to get to the green-zone’s dormitory. She chuckles looking at the Green Dorm that is actually painted green.

The building has two divisions; the east-wing is for the boys while the south wing is for the girls. Either gender is prohibited from crossing the boundary and will be punished if they are caught. The dormitory is supervised by two faculty members, one for the males and another for the females. Aside from the faculty, there is also an assigned student dorm supervisor. Shane Coals is the supervisor for the girls, whom Azalea gets to meet to check her arrival and explain to her the dorm’s rules. She is then escorted to her designated room and then her PDA is registered into the security system allowing her access to her room. Before the supervisor leaves, she reminds Azalea to follow the dorm rules carefully. She stands by the door while watching the supervisor leave. Her room is in the second floor at the end of south wing, room G2f04. At the door, the nameplates are already hanged, “1-Blakewood, 2-Lisiantha.” She enters without knocking.

“Hello.” She greets but there is no one inside. “My entire luggage has been delivered here… and it seems that my roommate’s luggage is already here too.” She walks around the room, opens the window and then looks outside, suspiciously observing every inch of the surrounding area. “This looks fine. I’ll take the upper deck.”

She then cleans and prepares her bed. She rolls at the comfort of her soft bed staring blankly on the ceiling for a while. She is about to arrange her things when Q jumps into the window entering the room.

“Hey Q!” She softly shouts turning her full attention at the cat. “Pets are not allowed here… Well, you’re not my pet but… anyway, don’t get caught and make trouble for me, okay?”

Q softly growls and purrs then he jump into Azalea’s arms.

“Okay, I’ll let you stay inside at the moment since this Lisiantha-person isn’t here yet.” She rubs Q’s fur. “But if she arrived today, you must stay outside and hide. What am I gonna do if she’s allergic to cats?”

She continues organizing her stuff neatly while Q takes a nap on the bed. The day ended without a trace of her roommate, so she let Q sleep inside, beside her.

∞×∞

Next day, the official first day of class is going to start so she goes out early after leaving some snacks on Q’s plate. She passes by the cafeteria in the first floor of Alapaap building. After breakfast, she goes ahead and arrived early in the room along with a few early birds. Her classroom is in the second floor, Class 1-C. Their sitting arrangement is already posted on the electronic board. She is seated second row from the back one chair away from the window. She waits while observing the students entering the room as if looking for someone.

Their professor, also their class adviser, arrives a minute late. He looks around checking if all the students are already seated. He got messy grayish black hair which looks like he just got out of bed and forgot to brush it. His eyes are squinty dark brown with large eye bags underneath. He is wearing long sleeve dark blue polo, gray maong pants with faded colors and a pair of white tennis shoes. He is about to check the attendance when he notices that the chair third row from the front near the window is still empty. He checks the records in his tablet.

“Miss Blair Lisiantha.” He calls softly and then he raises his voice for everyone to hear clearly. “Has anyone seen Ms. Blair Lisiantha?”

The students look at each other, except Azalea who remains calmly seated without a care in the world.

Nobody answers.

The room is filled with the quiet atmosphere, that’s why they are able to clearly hear the ruckus coming from the adjacent classroom. The students murmur, wondering what it might be. The professor keeps his gloomy eyes on the students not saying a word.

“I will be your homeroom adviser, Professor Jhalil Claws.” He continues on; his name appears on the board. “I handle history and I have a level A Rune Adventurer’s license. I hope we all get along this year, freshmen. For today, I--”

His introduction is interrupted when a student noisily opens the front door. There are still some leaves stuck on her red braided hair. Her fiery red eyes peeked inside examining the room. Looking at the wrinkles of the sleeves of her uniform, one can tell that she is quite muscular. Taking a step into the room, she stands tall with height that is probably more or less a hundred and seventy centimeters.

Professor Claws stares at her. “What are you doing there?”

“Ah… the guys from the other side said that this is my classroom.” She answers casually.

“How could you get your room wrong? Can’t you read the labels?”

She laughs like a little kid while rubbing the back of her head. “You see, I sort of got lost, I was running late so I thought of using a shortcut but I entered the wrong window.”

“This is the second floor.” The professor mumbles then continues on telling off his student. “Don’t enter from the window, are you a monkey?”

“She is an idiot, isn’t she?” Azalea tells herself while observing the girl by the door. “I don’t wanna get too involved with her. But, I guess it’s too late now.”

The class laughs.

“Well--”

“Go to your seat.” He cuts her off. “First day, late. This’ll be on your records.”

The girl sighs heavily before glancing at the seating arrangement on the board. She then goes to the empty seat beside the window.

Azalea looks at her direction and then lets out a sigh filled with disappointment.