I pushed open the dorm door with my shoulder.
My body ached in a way only an honest workout could give you.
The Physical Cultivation Club - that was the elegant name - had been relentless.
Even though I was a boy, the president told me to keep up with the girls.
Catherine had taken to it like she was born for it, but not me.
I'd spent most of the session matching her pace and pretending it wasn't as tiring as it was.
I had to tell her to tone it down a bit. Compared to me, she was strong, fast, and had stamina, sure, but that wasn't a big surprise. She was a girl and I was a boy, but if she had far more of it than the other girls, then something was off. Off in a way that wasn't just genetics or something like that.
If I could do fifty pushups and a girl a hundred, then Catherine could do five hundred. I didn't know if she actually could - I was just using the number as an example. Still, if physically fit girls couldn't keep up with her, what was the deal?
I shut it all down. Catherine didn't like that very much, saying that she'd never have a satisfying workout that way, but in the end, she listened to me.
As a warrior and follower of the Light, she'd also have to keep undercover - wouldn't want the agents of Entropy to find her, would she?
But other than that? It was mostly peachy.
I stepped inside my dorm and stopped.
Shadowboon was not on his bed.
He was floating cross-legged in the middle of the room, his eyes closed.
There was a presence in the air, a pressure I could literally feel and had to force myself through. It wasn't anything new.
He reminded me of Piccolo when he was training.
I closed the door behind me quickly. I didn't want anyone else to see this. Girls would write it off as magic practice, but boys? Who knows what they would think. It would raise a few eyebrows, maybe a few questions. I didn't want that.
The pressure wasn't painful, but it bothered me after the workout I had today. Plus, it popped my ears in an unpleasant way.
"Could you stop cultivating chaos magic for now?"
He didn't open his eyes. "My midi-chlorians must be off the scale."
The pressure ebbed slightly, like a tide pulling back. Slowly, Shadowboon descended until his feet touched the ground. Only then did he open his eyes.
"Good session?" I asked.
"Productive," he said.
That was the way to strengthen the chaos magic you had.
I kept calling it magic, though that wasn't exactly the truth. As it was just a power source, it could just as easily be called chaos ki, or something else entirely. It didn't even have to be chaos. It was just habit.
Anyway, after Gregorio gave me a spark, I had to feed the flame from time to time. You'd always have the spark, but if you wanted the fire to burn brighter, you focused on it.
And the two of us, Shadowboon and I, didn't slack off.
Chaos seemed to be the strongest power in this world, and from what Granddad told me, only a few people had it. Who exactly? Gregorio didn't tell me.
I wondered if I'd ever meet the other practitioners.
"Tomorrow's literature club," I said absently, rolling my neck, "and that's it for the week."
"After that, I've got a meeting with Gregorio," I continued. "More chaos training with Greg. And history."
"Sounds riveting," he said dryly.
"You think he'll ever tell me where he got his chaos from."
Shadowboon hummed in acknowledgment and moved back toward his bed, sitting down with an unease that suggested he'd been floating for longer than was comfortable. "Nah."
I looked around for a moment. Our room was a bit bland - we'd done little decorating. I wondered if I should paint the walls, if that was allowed. If we could modify our school uniforms a bit, then it didn't seem overreaching to think we could change the look of our rooms too.
"If you're out Saturday," Shadowboon said casually, "I might invite a few people over."
"Got someone already?"
"Not yet, but I thought that I'd first invite the orcs in my class. There are just four of them, Regan not included."
"Any reason why the orcs are first?"
"You know as well as I do. I kind of just like green-skins. Orcs and goblins, even little green men, but I don't know if they exist here. I would have invited the goblins too, but I think it would be too overcrowded then."
"I guess that's as good a place as any to start your socialite journey."
Things were peachy, I decided.
The next day, Shadowboon and I were walking side by side toward Acomet's library.
It was where the literature club meetings would be held.
The campus was busier than usual today. Students crossed the paths in loose clusters, uniforms in varying states of neatness. Some carried stacks of books; others had gear like swords and shields or equipment for Acomet's many after-school activities.
The library was a different building. It was tall and pale, made of old stone. No matter how many history books I went through, none of them mentioned the library, even though it was supposedly one of the oldest buildings in Asolar.
There was some ivy creeping along the walls, but it was in the middle of being removed by a woman on a ladder, maybe one of the school's caretakers.
The inside of the library was giant - not the biggest I'd seen thanks to Geshich, but still pretty big - and some way in, in a quieter corner of the library, that's where the club would be held.
There were six new people this year, including Shadowboon and me.
Jakob looked up the moment we were in sight, eyes lighting with genuine relief.
"Caleb," he said, smiling as if he hadn't seen me in years, which was far from the truth.
I'd met him and Maren a few times before the school year began.
He hugged me, and I hugged back.
"You made it."
"Wouldn't miss it," I replied, taking a seat near the middle of the room. Shadowboon - Edward - settled beside me.
When everyone had settled, Jakob stood up and cleared his throat. Authority didn't come as easily to him as it did to Maren, but people still seemed to respect him a lot.
Jakob wasn't an imposing kind of guy, not even for a boy. He didn't have proud shoulders or a commanding presence. He was slightly taller than average but slightly hunched. His uniform was neat, almost obsessively so, and he adjusted his sleeves twice before he spoke.
There was a sigil he could pin on his chest, which signified that he was vice president of the student council.
If I had to describe him simply, he was the living embodiment of a nerd emoji. All he was missing were the exaggerated glasses and the buck teeth - and honestly, it felt like a miracle he didn't have those too.
But I guess people liked that look on boys here. I mean, nerdy girls were popular in my old world, so why not nerdy boys in this world?
He rested a hand on the edge of the central table.
"For our first meeting this year," he began, "I thought I'd do something a little different." A few curious looks followed. "Rather than me recommending a book, I'd like to hear from our new members. What do you like to read?"
Instantly, Edward stood and spoke up, voice relaxed.
"Hello, my name is Edward Shadowboon. I'm a new member of this club - I just wanted to introduce myself first. Anyway, I love adventure," he said. "And romance. Stories with good, kind heroes. People who try to do the right thing, even when it costs them. I like seeing them overcome great evil… or heartbreak."
That earned a few approving nods.
Jakob's smile widened as he recognized the sincerity in Shadowboon. "Ah. Then I think you'd enjoy The Gallant Road of Ser Albrecht."
"I've read it," Shadowboon replied without hesitation.
"Really?"
"Twice."
"…Alright," Jakob said, undeterred. "What about The Rosebound Vow?"
Edward tilted his head. "Finished it last winter."
Jakob frowned slightly and tried again. "The Ashen Kingdom Chronicles?"
"Start to finish."
There was a ripple of amusement from the book nerds around the room now. Jakob rubbed the back of his neck, thinking hard. One title followed another - classic after classic, tragedies, epics, and romances, both sweet and bitter.
Edward had read every single one.
Usually, people wouldn't have read so many books, as they were pretty rare and expensive - an issue that would be lessened in the future. Woodborn also had an extensive collection in his manor.
Of course, Shadowboon read them all over the years.
And so had I. What he read, I read, and what I read, he read.
As Jakob finally paused, momentarily stumped, he let out a laugh.
"Alright," he said, surrendering gracefully. "Clearly I'll need to dig deeper into the shelves for you." He glanced my way. "Caleb?"
I met his eyes and shrugged lightly. "I like history. I've tried to read everything related to Asolar's past, but it seems that non-mythical accounts of our country are hard to come by."
That earned a few raised brows - and one long, thoughtful look from Jakob.
It may have been a strange thing to say. I gave a subtle look to Shadowboon, and I could read it on his face.
"Non-mythical accounts?" it said.
"Well," Jakob said at last, clapping his hands once, "this is going to be an interesting year."
And just like that, he turned to the next new member.