Alex turned his head toward the source of the obnoxiously loud, boastful voice, and he knew it belonged to Blake, who was fast asleep on his bed on the far side of the room.
Blake shifted positions, rolling onto his other side, and Alex almost thought he was waking up, but instead Blake only began snoring more deeply. Alex sighed and shook his head. When he had for the first time entered the dormitory room after completing his volunteer work at the library, Blake had shouted at him for disturbing his sleep, and Alex had been half expecting a repeat of that as he heard the declaration Blake had just muttered. But today, it seemed, that pattern was not going to repeat itself.
Alex heaved a sigh of relief, because he did not have the strength to get tangled up in another verbal spat or to sit through some troublemaker shouting at him. Though Blake was mostly a loudmouthed boy and had not done anything to Alex beyond that first day of shouting, it had nonetheless left an unfavorable impression of him on Alex's mind. Alex had originally thought he and Blake might become friends, after discovering that Blake would also be taking the entrance of the academy from Blaek's father, Viscount Dorian Halden, the man with whom Alex had met at the inn in the Sheron city. Dorian had mentioned that his son was a bit of a troublemaker who did not have many friends, and Alex had only now come to understand just how true that statement truly was.
Alex silently closed the door behind him, turned on the small lamp beside his bed, and made his careful way toward the bathroom attached to the room. Before that, he retrieved a towel and his pajamas from the wardrobe and padded across the floor with slow, quiet steps.
Inside the bathroom, he hung his clothes on the nearby hook and tossed his worn garments into the basket for washing. They were, in truth, torn nearly to pieces, so they would more likely be thrown away than washed, though the robe borrowed from the principal would be properly laundered and returned.
Alex yawned slightly and stared at his naked reflection in the mirror. His eyes lingered on his face and his hair. The ends tinged with blue were completely disheveled and thick with dust and debris, the blue almost turned greyish and buried beneath the dirt. His face looked worn down, his eyelids fluttering heavily as sleep clawed at his body. His body, however, was unblemished without a single scar to mark the fight he had walked out of. It looked radiantly alive with energy, though dried blood still clung to the places where he had been injured, dark red stains covering his shoulders where his arms joined his body and flowing down the sides of his waist.
Alex winced just remembering the feeling of his arms being wrenched out of their sockets. He drew in a long breath and steadied himself. Shaking his head, he turned away from the mirror and made his way to the shower, letting the cold water wash away the dust and blood. He closed his eyes and allowed the cold current to drown out all the tightness and stress coiled through his muscles. Despite his body bearing no visible scars, his muscles ached and tightened beneath his skin. He felt the dirt slowly loosening from his hair and trailing down across the marble floor.
Alex pressed his palms flat against the cold walls and let the water run over him. I am not the same person anymore. A slow smile bloomed on his lips. No more cowering before anyone, and no more hiding behind my family. I will become strong like them. Images from the battlefield drifted through his mind, and his thoughts lingered mostly on the man who had died with a smile on his lips and the man with a crown hovering above his head who had bowed low to pay the fallen man his final respect.
Alex felt a shudder running down his spine as he remembered the clatter of armors as the knees bent to the ground to pay the final respect to the man who had died after killing those white beings.
No more running away. Alex clenched his fist against the wall.
Alex finished bathing soon after, and after drying himself off, he pulled on his pajamas and made his way back to the room. He had barely closed the bathroom door behind him when a voice froze him in place.
"Hehe, Alex, you look different today." A boy sat on the bed directly across from the bathroom door. The boy had one leg dangling off the side of the bed and the other bent up close to his chest, his arm wrapped around his knee and his chin resting on top of it. The boy wore a large smile on his face.
***
Inside a room where bookshelves lined every wall, a heavy wooden desk sat near the window.
A loud crack split the air as Shane drove his fist into the wooden desk. "How dare those brats," he snarled, spitting venomous anger out with every syllable.
Sera did not look particularly composed either. She had taken hold of her husband's arm and was doing her best to restrain him, and while on any other day she might have let him do as he pleased. But, since they were sitting in front of Toren now, she could not allow her dear to do anything rash.
Toren rested his chin on his right fist, his elbow propped on the armrest of his chair. He smiled faintly rather than reacting to Shane's furious outburst. "Like father, like son," he remarked calmly. "The fruit truly does not fall far from the tree."
The principal sighed and shook his head. "I understand your concern, but don't you think it was valuable that the boy got to see the cruelty of the world?" He raised an eyebrow.
Sera quietly tightened her grip on her husband's arm, trying to stop Shane from doing anything further that could anger the principal.
"But that is not how an academy should operate, am I Principal?" Sera pressed back against the principal's casual tone.
Toren leaned back in his chair and rocked it slowly from side to side. "You children need to learn when to hold the water and when to let it flow," he murmured, rubbing his temples with two fingers. "A flowing river cannot be held back for too long. It must be released, otherwise it will only lead toward catastrophe." His white eyes moved between Shane and Sera.
Toren rose from his chair and walked toward the window. The window opened on its own as he approached, the curtains on either side billowing in the cool air. He stood with his back to them both. "Alex is like a river," he said quietly. "A flowing river that cannot be stopped and should not be stopped." He turned his head back toward them as the words left his mouth.
"But he" Shane began, and Toren silenced him with a finger pressed to his own lips.
"No buts. Can you not see that Alex is no longer at level one and has already begun to unlock things worth watching closely?"
"Then why is there even a duel between Eldric and Alex happening at all?" Shane growled, the anger still raw in his voice. "Should that brat not be punished severely and barred from the academy entirely?"
Toren smiled, the corners of his lips curling upward like the devil itself was smiling ear to ear. "Let me explain why…"
***
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