It turned out the section Elgan found himself in wasn't that big. He counted no more than forty rooms in the area, though the labyrinthic structure did make it very difficult to get exact numbers. Most of the door's lights shone in green color, signifying they were occupied, the rest shone in red color or were uninhabited, to begin with.

'That would mean, there should be at least thirty students attending class.'

That of course was just a supposition.

Elgan continued his search, carefuly retracing yesterday's steps to the best of his ability. Coincidentally or not, it seemed to be practically the same one he had to follow in order to get to the Canteen.

'Strange... I bet these two rooms were occupied yesterday.'

The difference were subtle, small. Perhaps they didn't exist at all and he was just imagining things. Or maybe not.

'This way.'

Ignoring the elevator terminal at each side, Elgan continued walking straight forwards, the corridors widening with each turn, in a matter of few minutes the young hie- Man had arrived at his fated destination. Shinning in the same bluish light, a small holo sign manifesting atop the hall's fully open gate. His steps comming to a slight halt.

...

The absence of any sounds whatsoever indicated the hall was still empty.

An expanse of white marble floors, covered in hundreds plastic chairs, tables, and complete silence rose before him.

From left to right, his working eye examined the empty hall, a lonely waiting area with no cooks or people so to speak off, the only steamy food waiting to be eaten was already prepared and ready for anyone to eat, a collumn of thin steam rose from the enticefull food, waiting to be eaten.

'That essentially makes it a buffet, doesn't it?'

Veering his gaze to the right, rose an expanse of perfectly aligned, bland grey chairs and tables. All perfectly empty...

Perfection crumbled under the sounds of heavy munching.

"Hmm-Ph-"

...

A guy who appeared to be his age sat alone in a chair at the right part of the cantee, which seemed strange knowing the food was actually on the opposite side of the hall. His two amethyst-colored eyes were set on Elgan as he seemingly choked with his food.

'What.'

Perhaps that dude didn't realize it, but his stare was rather obvious and uncomfortable, more so knowing they were the only ones present. Though he did say absolutely nothing, his expression morphed into a scowl as he kept devouring a chicken leg.

Deciding not to judge the guy too much for the time being, Elgan went opposite directions approaching the counter, ready to take meassures to solve the matter at hand. Food.

His hand following after the odors his nose perceived, like a honey bee in a field of flowers Elgan picked the biggest-sized dish he could find and started serving himself a good mix of protein, vegetables, and meat.

Even though he had never been a healthy person sports-wise, it was fair to say he took care of what he ate.

'You are what you eat, huh. The more you eat, the more you are.'

Boiled eggs, chicken, sausages, bananas, apples, a bowl of cereal and yogurt, and a good ounce of bread n butter. All in a single, legendary plate.

Satisfied with his good decision-making and picking sense, Elgan decided not to overcomplicate and sat near the counter, his calculus good enough to not approach the slightly demented youth, whose eyes were still locked onto him.

'Is he closer? Or am I hallucinating again...'

They both narrowed their eyes, warry of each other's presence.

'No, he is definitely closer.'

Elgan turned to face his plate, bothered but too hungry to care.

After managing to retain his humanity in front of the warm piles of nutritious food, Elgan gave the last step, grabbing a fork and preparing for the assault. Those poor excuses of civilization were reduced to ashes. Eggs cracked and emptied, sausages bitten and disappeared, chicken legs reduced to bones, bananas peeled, apples chewed, bowls shallowed, and bread ferociously devoured. All within a matter of a few seconds. Suspiciously few seconds.

"Oh, yefs mafn. You are definitely a newf face hfere."

Elgan's gaze spanned around, his neck contorting to face the same pain in the ass.

The youth spoke, his mouth full of chicken, his cheeks about to burst open from the sheer volume

...

What followed next was a stare, a wild conflictive stare between the two teens. One chewing unconcerned, the other too confused to say anything. Either these people hadn't come to learn the basic rules of social behavior, or this guy didn't give a shit about them. It was an unfair fight too, 2 vs 1 I mean.

After what seemed like hours of tension, the pale-skinned bastard gulped down, his lips still full of bits and crunches, he remained silent for a while.

"What happened to your face man, you look as if you had showered with battery acid."

He asked, his voice rising in volume more than it needed to, clearly unfazed by whatever the circumstances of the damage may have been. Elgan looked him dead in the eyes, veins popping on his forehead.

"I fell down some stairs."

Elgan said in a completely neutral tone, a smirk drawing on his lips.

"HUHh! No way, that's impossible."

He bit the last tendons hanging from the chicken leg, his speech disturbed yet again.

"Therewfs no wfay yfou did thfat to youfself fallinf dowfn somf stairs."

He retaliated in an annoyed tone while shaking the poor chicken bone sideways.

'I'll go repeat... Don't think anyone will be bothered.'

Elgan stood up from the bench and leaned towards the lengthy line of trays, each as warm and appetizing as before.

Having lost his desire for innovation thanks to his unexpected companion, Elgan limited himself to picking the same things as before.

Sighting in a heavy tone, he returned to the table. If Elgan was honest, he really didn't want nor have to interact with this guy, but the fact that he had been the first one to show interest would ease the problematic task of getting information, more so someone as easy to read as he seemed.

There were about forty-three minutes until class supposedly started, so squishing some information now would prove useful.

"Why aren't any more people here?"

Elgan shot first, as he glanced at the opposite side of the wide table, the dude raised an eyebrow at the sudden question, a chicken bone coming out of his mouth making him cool like a retard instead of someone cool.

"I guess mowst of them don't like stwanding uwp early in thwe mornings."

The guy shook it off, his answer as sincere as it could get. Yet Elgan couldn't help but find it confusing.

'Wasn't it at 6:30 that everyone had to wake up?'

Did that woman deliberately lie to him? No... her words seemed to be spout out in good faith.

"But wasn't th-"

Not wanting to throw away the opportunity to garner information out of an easy target, Elgan readied to blast another question when out of nowhere, the black-haired youth took the head start.

"Ts Ts Ts. Is my turn to spe-"

Replacing his index finger, the fucker waved the bone piece uncomfortably near his face. Elgan's hand moved out of instinct slapping it to the floor.

| Clack |

"Watch your distance."

Elgan said in a rough voice. Obviously not intimidated by a simple slap, the bastard raised his chin, looking down on him.

"That was food you ungraceful pri-"

| FUUUUMM! |

What would seem like the start of a physical confrontation was quickly palliated by a strong suctioning sound. A small brigade of white boxes rolled towards the bone's position.

Vacuumer, disinfection, brushing, and drying, all happened so rapidly Elgan's eyes had problems to follow their movement. Once they were done erasing all trace of bacterial life the plainly hostile machines rolled their way out of sight.

Releasing each other from the collar, the two of them centered their attention on their plates. Empty plates.

Several minutes of shame were lost until the sanest of the two decided to speak.

...

"What did you want to ask then?"

Rolling his lavender eyes, the unknown man decided to settle down the stupid discussion.

'Now you want to be more mature than me...'

An almost invisible spark of competition lit in Elgan's soul, his exterior professionally apologetical.

"It was your 'turn' anyways... Ask first."

...

"Seems fair enough to me."

The idiot said, asserting. His sorry soul not even aware of the fact he had been defeated in Elgan's imaginary honor tournament.

"You, How come you made it into a late batch? I had heard rumors last night of someone new arriving, but to think it wasn't bullshit..."

Late. Batch.

Those words bounced around Elgan's head for a good while. Was he referring to the batch of students?

He guessed that far.

'Hmmm.'

The reason he made it here. The reason he was sitting at his table, was there were a lot of circumstances that had driven him along the way, most of which he would rather not speak off. Still, if he had to give a short answer, the summary would be something like that.

"An official took hands on the matter."

...

"HAhaha!! No way genius. Why would an Official bother to put your sorry ass in here? HAHAhaha!!! You funny as h-eck-"

The tears rolling down his eyes stopped abruptly, his rhythmic and painfully loud laughter came to an absolute halt. Elgan's face was not that of someone cracking a joke. It was in fact dead serious.

At the late realization, his eyes opened whole.

"Are you serious! Who!"

The hyperactive youth leaned over the table gripping and shaking Elgan by the collar in what seemed a deliberate assassination attempt. Still, a cunning sly face wouldn't leave the one-eyed teen's face. Elgan's fingers showed the number two.

"That's your second question."

The shaking stopped. A mixture of irritation and indignation on his expression.

"Quick."

He uttered, his arms crossed.

"As I said, Isn't it obligatory for everyone to wake up at 6:30?"

Elgan asked, a mist of confusion written all over him. Shaking his head, the guy answered...

"Nah, those are just rumors people throw."

His hands extended, shoulder raised.

"In fact, you should have noticed already. In this place, there is only a single schedule."

His index finger pointed at the lamps.

"A standard day and die cycle. That's the only time stamp you should care about. In fact, it's normally two or three people that wake up this early..."

The dude continued mumbling about something, but Elgan's ears had given up on listening long ago. Now it was up to his brain to catch up to the information. The shock filtered slowly through his joker's face, as his understanding of things crumbled inevitably yet again.

'No schedule? How does that make any sense.'

Lost.

Any resemblance the place had with a military academy was lost in the fog of misunderstanding. Only its rags were found, a pile of questions was everything left of its body.

'It doesn't make any sense.'

Was she lying then? Is this the place I think it is? What are they achieving by doing such a thing?

Elgan would have liked to answer such questions on the spot, however, it seemed his rather bothersome companion had kept going, and a leak of precious data was the last thing Elgan desired.

Perhaps far too deep in his monologue, the dude hadn't realized Elgan's clear blackout and kept talking on. Not until now anyway. He frowned for a few seconds, noticing something was up with his new acquaintance before subtly ignoring him and proceeding to resume his rambling.

"As I said, you don't have to wake up this early. Only creeps do that, especially that girl..."

Like a rabbit hearing steps approaching, his ears slightly trembled.

"Speaking of the devil."

Steps resounded through the empty hallways, the thin figure of a pale-skin girl appears, her blank eyes staring down at the two of us.

"Hey Nieve!"

The girl then proceeds to ignore him as any normal person woul-

"Hello."

...

'I was wrong.'

For some reason, the grey-haired girl sits at our same table. Saluting in a quiet voice, clearly still half-asleep. A small bowñ filled to the brim with peaches is her breakfast. With a fork and knife, she starts peeling the glistening fruits.

'I... Why do I have the sensation everyone here is crazy?'