After he brushed her fiery red hair out of her face, Liam looked down and saw the bruised and bleeding face of the girls. Her brown eyes were full of tears, and her white wizard robes were stained with brown footprints. Worry stained his voice as he urgently called out to her,

"Miss, are you ok?"[Liam] She glanced away from his eyes and down towards his cloth shirt. She grabbed the fabric and turned her hands to fists and called out mournfully,

"Thank God, you've come to save me! That wh.. woman was beating me and wouldn't stop."[beaten woman] She sniffled as Liam wiped a tear from her eye. Her voice cracked as she continued to speak,

"It's my fault, "[beaten woman]She stared at the floor and shook her head, "If only I wasn't so clumsy and dumb,"[beaten woman] she gritted her teeth as she blamed herself,

"She wouldn't be so angry at me..."[beaten woman] finishing this sentence, her voice was as quiet as a mouse. Liam hugged her tightly, his heart burned with righteous furry and pity. Liam had never cared too much for the propriety of high society, so this hug was just in the hopes of comforting this poor girl. He stroked her hair, thinking of her as his sister, he whispered gently,

"It's not your fault, being clumsy is no reason to get hit." [Liam]Liam heard no response from the girl, starting to feel the situation become awkward, he removed himself from the embrace and asked,

"Miss, what is your name? Is there somewhere I can bring you, a doctor?"[Liam] The redhead sniffled and said,

"Elizabeth Cerns, you can call me Lizzy."[Lizzy] Lizzy rubbed her eyes and said, "There is no doctor around, but I have some medicine in my room. My parents sent it with me just in case, but..." [Lizzy]She trailed off and her eyes looked into the distance. Liam's eyebrows scrunched up and he asked with concern,

"What is the problem?"[Liam] Lizzy whispered,

"That girl is my roommate, I'm scared to go back." [Lizzy]Liam frowned, stood up and puffed up his chest,

"I'll take you there, nobody will dare to bully you when I'm around."[Liam] Lizzy looked up with her wide watery eyes and said,

"Really?"[Lizzy] She jumped up and hugged Liam, "Thank you so much!"[Lizzy] Liam pointed his nose in the air feeling proud and Lizzy grabbed his arm, leading him towards her room. Liam was embarrassed, both by his own actions and thinking that a girl was so close to him. Sure, there had been women in the village, but they always felt more like family. When they arrived at the women's wing of the dorm, the tips of Liam's ears turned pink. He had showed up, and saved a damsel! Although it wasn't perfect, it was close.

The hallways in the girl's wing were no different than the boys. Just wooden, doors, wooden, walls, wooden ceiling, wooden floor. Liam secretly though to himself that the academy should like more 'wizardy' right? Couldn't they pick a new material? Lizzy opened a door opening up a world of color. There was a room separated in tween. Although split, it wasn't very even. One side was covered in boxes of frilly dresses and jewels. One bed had bright pink sheets and soft white pillows. While, the other was covered in unordered magic books. Next to it, on the floor, laid a cloth and a pillow. Other than a brown sack, laying on the pillow there was nothing else of value.

Liam's gaze was fixed on this blanket and pillow. Before he could say a thing, Lizzy spoke up,

"She told me I didn't know what it was like to be poor, so I should sleep on the floor! She stole my bed because she liked my sheets, she'll probably steal my clothes and jewelry soon too!"[Lizzy] Hearing this, Liam's concerns were cleared up, he let out a breath and said,

"Don't worry, I won't let you suffer like this any longer."[Liam] Scratching the back of his head, Liam spoke up again,

"This is a little random, but I've just transferred and don't know where my dorm is, could you help me?"[Liam] Lizzy smiled brightly called out cheerfully,

"Anything for a hero!"[Lizzy] Liam scratched his cheek and said,

"Hero? ... I don't know..."[Liam] Lizzy shook her head and said,

"You saved me didn't you, you're a hero."[Lizzy] Liam couldn't help, but smile. Lizzy walked up to him and asked, what's the room number?"[Lizzy] Liam showed her his ticket, and her face quickly became downcast and filled with worry and dread. Raising his eyebrows, Liam asked,

"What's the problem?" [Liam]Lizzy stuttered as she spoke,

"You're roomed with the peasant slayer. They say he killed his first roommate because he smelled his poverty."[Lizzy] Liam's face was aghast,

"Killed? The school did nothing about it?"[Liam] Lizzy shook her head and said,

"There isn't any proof, but as soon as the peasant slayer appeared, his roommate was never seen again."[Lizzy] Liam crossed his arms and bit his lip out of worry. This school might be scarier than he thought.

***

Liam and Arrieta had been standing in a line that curled around the hallways for a long time. They were quiet for most of the wait. After what had just happened, the atmosphere was somewhat heavy. Finally, as it was about to be their turn to choose classes, Arrieta piped up,

"Neidr, thank you."[Arrieta] Neidr gave her a side eye and responded,

"I didn't do anything."[Neidr] Arrieta shook her head and said,

"I'd have never thought to use medicine that way, It made it much easier to,"[Arrieta] she paused, kicked the ground and said, "you know, she has magic, and I don't, so it was always kinda scary to face her."[Arrieta] Neidr just nodded, looking forward towards a desk armed with nothing , but papers and a floating pen.

Arrieta shifted around for a little bit and finally asked,

"Hey Neidr, why did you help me? What if I was doing a bad thing?"[Arrieta] Neidr let out a sigh and said,

"Because I owe you, I owe you one less now. Use that carefully."[Neidr] Arrieta stuck her tongue out and said,

"You're a lot of fun ya know that?" [Arrieta]

"Of course, I'm the life of the party."[Neidr]

"Neidr"[Arrieta] Arrieta's voice was as quiet as a mouse.

"hmmm?"[Neidr]

"Really, thank you. I've never met someone so mean in my life. Without you, I don't know how long I'd be sleeping on the floor. How long I would have been stolen from. How long I would've been threatened. Thank you."[Arrieta] Before they could continue their conversation, it was Neidr's turn. Neidr walked up to the desk with the floating pen. Next to it were a stack of identical papers with several lines of information. Students needed to figure how to answer this list of information on their own time. Every time he would speak, the pen would write. He said his student number, and went about filling out his form. As it turns out, it is only mandatory to be enrolled in two classes. Neidr gave a sly smile. When the time to fill out what classes he would go to finally appeared. Neidr chose Basic magic, and swordsmanship. Neidr laughed in his head,

'Swordsmanship, in a magic school?' After researching, it turned out this class hadn't had a student in years.

Was there a more perfect place to slack off?