I was considering buying something quick and eating it at my dorm at first. But then, Zenith wanted to eat lunch with me. I don’t want to be impolite about it so I agreed to eat lunch with her. So, we walk side by side with each other while making our way to one of the food stalls at The Pen. What the heck is The Pen? It’s just a name that the academy’s alumni call the food stalls area. Was there any reason behind why it was called so? I have no clue about that. It’s probably was an unfortunate joke that end up becoming something real. In any case, I tried to strike a conversation with Zenith along the way.

“How are you, today? Healthy as always?” I wasn’t the type to be starting up a conversation.

She gently nodded.

“Okay...I see…Well…Um…Have you made any friends? I’m sure you know someone in your dorm, right?”

She gently nodded. No words at all.

“How many of them have you befriended with?”

She looks up, probably counting and then looked down. Is that supposed to mean that she’s not sure?

“Look, Zenith. It’s kind of impolite not to respond to anyone who is talking to you. Don’t you know that?”

Zenith stopped and looked at me.

She finally let out her voice, “I’m very sorry, Master. I was never really allowed to talk to you as far as I can remember. Didn’t you say not to disturb you at all?”

“Um…But that was ages ago, Zenith…I’ve changed.” I think? “You’re allowed to speak up.”

“Are you sure about this, Master?”

“And please stop calling me, Master. You can just call me, White.”

“But…” she stuttered, “Isn’t that a bad thing if I call you just by your name?”

I sighed. I grabbed both of her shoulder and looked deep into her glistening blue eye.

“Listen, Zenith. You are not the Ice Dragon, you are Zenith. A human. I want you to be yourself and not be somebody else. The Ice Dragon is not you. It is just…a part of you. Same goes for me; the dragon that I am supposed to be is…just a part of me. Not who I really am.”

“But, Master…”

“Zenith.” I got closer to her and said, “You are my guardian, right? Listen to what I’m asking you to. I want you to be yourself and not be just another bodyguard of mine. Besides, I don’t really think I need to have a bodyguard. I can handle things myself with my own ability.”

I let her go and continue to walk.

“Come on, Zenith. I’ll recommend something delicious for you. You might like it.”

She was frozen in time until I called her. I’m kind of worried for her. She might have some sort of problem that she hasn’t told me yet. I’m going to find that out sooner or later. In any case, we finally sat down on one of the food stalls at The Pen and ate something. She seems to lighten up a bit after grabbing a bite out of that meal I recommended. She seems to be enjoying it now that I look at her. In fact, I didn’t notice how she cute she was before. Jeez, what am I babbling on about?

With my face slowly turning red, I made sure to look away as best as I can. As I looked away, I saw my fellow doormats making their way here. I think they notice me with the way they waved at me. They made their way to me. Everyone was there except Yumiko and Ziggs.

“Hey, White. What’s up?” Azreal greeted me.

“Oh, what’s this?” Hem notices that Zenith was with me, “As fast as a jaguar. You’re quite a womanizer don’t you think, White?”

“This is Zenith. She is um…my...” I was cut off as I was about to finish it.

“I am his Guardian.” Zenith quickly responded. She smiled at me “I did it correctly right, Master?”

This was not what I meant when I say she can speak…This just got a whole lot harder for me to explain to them.

“Uh…classmates! Yeah! We’re classmates! We had an acting session just now. We were re-enacting how a king and his servant does their everyday life. Isn’t that right, Zenith?” I gave her a signal to follow along.

She looked and me and made a gesture that seems to agree to me. But then she said, “Didn’t we actually studied about the types of magic? We never had any re-enactment today, Master.”

You are not helping me, Zenith! That was what I was thinking when she said that out loud to my friends.

“Oh ho ho ho, look what we have here…Have you gave her some sort of potion to her or something?” Ralph laughed.

Pye then barged in and explained, “I think there is a potion where you could make anyone become their servant if they drink it. Perhaps this is the potion that I have heard of. I believe it was expensive just to get one small vial of it.”

This was not going to where I expected. Pye just had to make it weirder for this situation.

Azreal smiled and said, “I didn’t know you had that sort of kinks but I’m okay with it, I guess.”

“No, Azreal…No…It’s not like that…” They probably didn’t hear what I said.

“Oh come on, White.” Hem patted my back and said, “You should have shared this potion with us. It would be fun for me. Especially me. Hey tell you what. Can you share me where you get this potion? I’m kind of interested.”

I went to The Pen just to get some nice and warm lunch. Not becoming a laughingstock to my dorm mates. I can’t really blame Zenith for all of this since I was the one that allowed her to talk freely.

In all of that fuss, Zenith looked at me with a worried look and softly spoke, “You seem to be in a stress, Master…”

“You think so? Because I didn’t notice that at all. No, not at all!” This was as sarcastic as I could be.

“Let me help you ease the stress, Master.” Zenith stood up and raised both of her hand in front of her.

“Um…what are you doing Zen-.”

In an instant, a frivolous cold wind struck down The Pen. White and pearly snow began to squish my warm skin and passes through me. The snow blocked me for a few second. But as it finishes passing through me, I see icicles. Frozen in the shape of my fellow dorm mates. Zenith just froze all of them without repercussions.

“Um…Zenith…that’s not how you cool down a person’s stress…” I nervously looked at her. “That’s cooling down all of their body.”

“But they were the ones who raised your stress. Isn’t that right, Master?” Zenith answered me logically.

“Uh…yes but…its…uh…forget it.”

We decided to finish our lunch after that.

“Alright, I’m full. You done already?”

“Yes, Master.”

Once again, I sighed, “Don’t call me Master. I’m not your master, Zenith. Just call me White. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Oh…okay…Wh-White.”

“Alright then, let’s go someplace else. You have anywhere in mind?”

“The library. I never had been there yet.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t stepped in there even after a month of staying here. Alright then, to the library we go!”

“Um…Wh-White.” Zenith pulled my shirt.

“What is it?”

“What about them? Should I unfreeze them now?”

I looked at my frozen dorm mates and gave some thought for a few seconds.

“You know what. The weather is kind of hot today. Let the sun melt the ice for them.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. They deserved it.” I looked at them with a devilish smile. Then, I turned back to Zenith and said, “Thanks for that, by the way.”

And so, we ended up leaving them frozen until the sun melts off all of the ice on them. That was a little bit evil of me but I figured that they would take it as a joke. They won’t it at all, I’m sure.

We then finally entered the library and sat down on one of the available tables. Now that I think about it. Zenith’s freezing ability is kind of similar to my ability, Pause. I wonder if there’s any meaning behind this similarity. Other than the fact that both of our dragons had a master and servant relationship, that is.

“Zenith.” I said to her, “You don’t really have to keep an eye on me every single time. I’m not supposed to be your master of some sort. That kind of thing was only a thing that the dragon inside of us had back then. You don’t have to exactly copy them.”

“But…Who are you to me then?”

I really didn’t expect that she would ask me that. It sounded like a simple question but to me it was a very hard question to be answered.

“I’m…I’m…”

“-He is my pet!” All of a sudden, a familiar voice can be heard.

It was Yumiko. Zenith looked surprised after hearing that. But her expression seemed to change from surprised to angry very fast. I don’t like where this is going…

TO BE CONTINUED