Alex yawned as he stood in the middle of the first-year boys' line, wanting nothing more than to stretch his arms wide and shake off the laziness creeping through him from the inside out. His eyelids were heavy, and if it were at all possible, he would have gladly fallen asleep right there in the auditorium.
Had there been a bed placed beside him, or even a sofa, he would have collapsed onto it without a second thought, or at the very least taken a seat, because standing in this line while being this bored was beginning to feel like its own form of punishment.
The morning prayer had long since ended, and the vice principal stood before the podium, speaking endlessly as though her sole mission was to hold the students captive in the auditorium for as long as she possibly could. She droned on about how the demons at the borders were growing more rampant, and how the students of this academy were the future pillars of the world's survival, urging them to train harder, work with greater dedication, and forge bonds with one another to stand against the collective evil that threatened world's survival.
Alex yawned again, this time louder than he intended, and quickly raised his hand to cover his mouth, hoping no one had noticed. He had not managed to get nearly enough sleep. After being abandoned by Thalia on the streets the previous night, he had wandered like a hollow zombie through unfamiliar paths until he was finally found by members of the student council, who had graciously accompanied him all the way to the dormitory. He had made sure to thank each of them, especially the president, who had been doing a final round of patrol to ensure everything across the academy was running smoothly.
Alex's first instinct, upon spotting the student council members, had been to turn and flee, because the last thing he wanted was to be embarrassed in front of the princess by admitting he had lost his way to his own dormitory. Thankfully, the princess had not been among the group, and only the boys from the student council were patrolling at that hour. Alex had offered a quiet prayer of gratitude for that small mercy, because even if fate kept throwing one challenge after another at him, it had at least spared him that particular humiliation. The thought of having to explain to the princess, of all people, that he had gotten lost on his way back to his room made his ego ache just imagining it.
"Thank you for waiting so patiently, everyone." A booming voice rang out from above, jolting Alex out of his tangled thoughts. He pushed everything to the back of his mind and tilted his head upward to find the source.
Principal Toren Velkar descended from high above the hall, his silhouette dark against the light, and Alex squinted as he struggled to make out the figure clearly. The auditorium's ceiling was a wide white dome that funnelled in the morning sunlight with almost blinding generosity, washing out the details of anyone approaching from above.
Toren touched down on the raised platform at the front of the students with quiet, effortless grace, landing as smoothly as though he had simply taken a step off a stair rather than descended from overhead. He settled beside the vice principal, who regarded him with barely concealed irritation.
Toren leaned toward her and murmured something too low to hear, his expression carrying the faint suggestion of an apology. The vice principal gave a stiff nod and retreated to join the line of professors standing rigidly at the back of the raised platform.
Toren turned to face the students. He brought the microphone close to his lips and offered a brief, easy smile. "My apologies for keeping you waiting." He let that sit for only a moment before continuing, his tone brightening as he added, "Now then, today I will be presenting the top three overall rankers from the new intake with their bracelets, which carry their accumulated points and entitle them to various privileges, including their own private villa. I would like to invite them to the stage to receive them." He let his words settle over the hall.
The first years erupted. Gasps and urgent whispers broke out in waves across the new students' rows, a chorus of shock and excitement that filled the enormous space. The senior students, by contrast, looked on with a kind of weary recognition, some of them visibly cringing and closing their eyes as though the display was physically painful, the memory of their own first year reflected back at them in the most unflattering light imaginable.
Alex, for his part, neither gasped nor murmured. Partly because the laziness still had a firm grip on him, and partly because he already knew this was coming. He had learned some days ago that students would be receiving bracelets loaded with points to spend, so the announcement itself held no real surprise for him.
What did catch him off guard, however, was the matter of the private villa. The top three would be called to the stage and handed their bracelets while the rest of the students waited.
Alex, meanwhile, would be returning to his shared dormitory room where he had to share room with Blake Halden, a red-haired boy and the son of Viscount Dorian Halden, whom Alex had met at the inn. The viscount had mentioned his son's name to Alex, and Alex had taken the trouble to remember it.
The viscount's description of Blake as a troublemaking boy had turned out to be a considerable understatement, because when Alex had finally arrived at their shared room, Blake had snarled at him for disturbing his sleep. Alex had actually thought he would be welcomed by his roommate but the boy had snapped at him angrily.
And, what was surprising was that Alex had noticed Blake at the notice hall during the written exam. And, by some peculiar twist, they had ended up as roommates. There was a third occupant as well, a boy who had appeared shy and was already asleep when Alex arrived, whose name Alex never learned because both of them had slipped out in the morning without bothering to wake Alex.
Toren clapped his hands together with a sharp crack that rang through the auditorium like a thunderbolt, and three golden bracelets materialised at his side, hovering in the air beside him as though resting on some invisible surface, perfectly still.
Toren cleared his throat with an exaggerated air. "I was meant to present these yesterday, but a rather important visitor came to see me and I was forced to push it to today." He tilted his head with an easy, unbothered grin and added, "Though I imagine no one minds whether they received it yesterday or today, yes?"
Toren swept his gaze across the hall, and Alex found his own head nodding in agreement before he had consciously decided to do so. From the corners of his vision, nearly everyone else appeared to be nodding as well, all of them instinctively unwilling to suggest that the principal had any reason to worry.
Then Alex felt Toren's gaze pause on him, accompanied by a small, knowing smile, and something clicked into place. His grandfather, Ragnar, had visited him yesterday. That meant Toren had likely been delayed because of Ragnar's arrival, and the way Toren was smiling at Alex with a cute fluttering of his eyelids it almost seemed like the principal was saying yes.
Before Alex could dwell on it any longer, Toren's gaze moved on, sweeping across the assembled students. He brought a hand to his chin, tilted his head thoughtfully, and spoke again. "I should also mention that I have decided to make a small change this year." He let a brief pause follow before continuing, "I will be adding a fourth student to the list of those who will be invited to the stage to receive recognition, though this student will not be awarded a villa."
***
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