Caecus woke up and immediately felt excitement bubbling up inside him.
He quickly got out of bed and did his morning routine, showering, brushing his teeth, changing, and listening to the radio.
"Dear listeners, today is December eleventh…"
Today would be the day he traveled to the school grounds, and tomorrow he would take the entrance exams.
'The last time I left the manor was like two years ago…' Caecus reminisced.
His heart was thumping at the mere thought of entering the academy.
'I'll get stationed and receive a room today, so that when the entrance exams happen, I can attend immediately. Usually, the city where Psychéion is located, Eureka, is busiest during that time… well, until the entrance exams are over and most of the exam takers get sent home due to failing.'
Caecus grabbed a fidget that was lying on his desk and played with it. Amelia had packed his bags with him yesterday, so he was practically ready to leave with her.
'Only breakfast and then it's time to leave…'
As if reading his thoughts, Amelia entered with her usual tray of food in hand.
"Good morning, Young Master! Excited for the academy?" Her voice was unusually cheerful.
"Yes, I am… I feel my nervousness welling up whenever I think of it…" he smiled at her gingerly while scratching his cheek.
She placed the tray with the food in front of him, and he could smell that, just like on his birthday, all of his favorite breakfast foods were on it.
Immediately, he felt saliva gathering in his mouth.
"This is your last meal at home, so enjoy it…" Amelia said, a slight gloom creeping into her previously cheerful voice.
"You're right…" A frown appeared on Caecus' face.
He really enjoyed his servant's cooking. Ever since Amelia took care of his meals and instructed the other servants on what exactly to prepare, his nutrition had been exceptionally good. Not to mention that the meals tasted great too…
'I need to eat this slowly then, I guess…'
The black-haired boy cut himself a piece of pancake with chocolate chips inside and took a bite, thoroughly savoring the flavors.
The neutral taste of the pancake was perfectly accentuated by the slight sweetness of the chocolate chips.
Unable to hold back any longer, Caecus grabbed another bite and let it rest on his tongue, chewing it slowly.
When he was done with the pancakes, he moved on to the scrambled eggs with cheese and potato bread.
The fifteen-year-old scooped up a bite of the eggs and put it on the bread.
Then he bit into it.
A mixture of flavors that blended perfectly filled his mouth and made him feel like he was in pure bliss.
After thirty minutes of slowly eating his food, he was finally finished.
With a sigh and a satisfied stomach, Caecus slumped back into his chair.
"That was a good meal… thank you, Amelia."
When he rubbed his eyes, he felt something wet.
'Wait… am I tearing up? It's just food!'
Due to the absurdity of the situation, Caecus started giggling.
"Young Master, what's wrong?" Amelia was confused by him suddenly laughing.
"It's nothing… we should get ready to go now, right?" he stood up from his chair and slid it back toward his desk.
Caecus' desk was mostly empty now due to already having packed everything he needed and wanted to take with him.
'In the case that I pass the… no, I'm passing. Since I will pass, I'll stay there for the next year until winter break before the new year, when I'll probably go back home.'
Caecus felt Amelia nodding, and he put on his outside clothes.
The current season in Anima was winter.
During winter, it didn't get as cold as in other countries, with temperatures ranging from ten to fifteen degrees Celsius, but there was one thing unique to the country.
In this season, there were only four hours of daytime, while the rest of the day was night.
Since heavy clothing wasn't necessary, Caecus wore baggy black jeans with a leather belt, a white button-up shirt with a collar, and a black pullover over it, with the collar of the shirt sticking out.
On his wrist was a small bracelet that had the Caelum logo on it, a cloud with two towers resembling chess rooks rising from each side.
It was used as identification whenever he was outside. Every member of the Caelum corpus had such a bracelet.
This was the standard for other corpora as well. In Anima, this was the usual way of identification.
They usually had soul stones embedded into necklaces, infused by the current head of the corpus so they couldn't be fabricated.
Different corpora used different identification methods. Some infused tattoos with soul essence, others wore brooches, and so on…
Over the year, Caecus hadn't cut his hair at all, and his previously slightly messy hair now reached his shoulders.
"Amelia, don't you think it's best to cut my hair before we go to the academy, for presentation and things?"
"I personally find you more handsome like this, since your facial features aren't covered as much, because your hair parts as it grows longer. But you're right, the corpora and Psychéion instructors would most likely prefer a more… regal look."
"So should we do that before we go out?" he asked, turning his head slightly toward her, aligning his gaze as if he were looking at her.
"Yes, that would be for the best."
…
A moment later, Caecus had changed back into his indoor clothes so his outside clothes wouldn't be covered in cut hair.
They placed a chair in the shower so it would be easy to clean up after Amelia finished cutting his hair.
Caecus sat down, and Amelia put a barber's apron around him so he wouldn't be covered in hair.
He heard the metallic sound of scissors being taken out.
The teen felt Amelia take a few strands of hair between her fingers.
Snip.
Snip.
Snip.
She started cutting.
Ten minutes later, the ground was covered in hair.
"I'm done," she said, spinning his chair around to get a better look at him.
"Very good. I'm proud of my work. I didn't cut it too short since you prefer it longer, but I must say this is the best you've looked in a while. And the Young Master has always been very good looking, even for the corpora." Amelia nodded.
Caecus used his echolocation to "see" his new haircut.
It was similar to how it looked before he started training, slightly longer and messy, but the sides and back were cleaned up.
"Alright, let's go. You should shower now, we don't want any hair getting on your clothes."
With that, Caecus stood up, and Amelia moved the chair away.
Then she turned on the shower head, washing all the hair into the drain.
There was nothing to worry about, since the manor had an automatic system that filtered out impurities, preventing the drains from clogging.
"Alright, I'll be leaving the washroom now. I've put your clothes next to the sink. You'll find me waiting in your room. If you need anything, just call me."
Caecus nodded, and Amelia left the room.
When he heard the door shut with a click, he started undressing.
Once he was fully naked, he stepped into the shower.
Feeling the warm water run over his soft skin, which now had a few scars from sparring with Amelia, he relaxed.
There were around four scars: one on his upper biceps extending down to his triceps, one small one on his obliques, one on his anterior deltoid, and one on his lower back.
They were all relatively small, caused by accidental grazes from Amelia's sword.
After finishing his shower and making sure no stray hairs remained on his skin, he got dressed.
Caecus opened the door to his room, and Amelia was already waiting for him.
"Your hair is still damp. Dry it," she said with a frown.
"Okay."
He went back and used a blow dryer to dry his hair.
When he returned, a smile spread across Amelia's face.
"Very well, you're looking great now, even better after the wash. Well… let's go now." She looked at her watch, and her eyes widened.
"We need to hurry. It's already two in the afternoon. The next soul-metro to Eureka leaves in an hour, and the one after that in five hours. It's best if we hurry now."
Amelia's Young Master nodded and walked out of his room toward the manor exit.
Amelia followed closely behind.
The closer he got to the courtyard doors, the more nervous he became, his stomach fluttering with butterflies.
After around ten minutes of walking, they reached the main entrance.
It was a large wooden door.
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Caecus pulled it open.
A fresh wave of air greeted him, the temperature outside just right for his clothes.
"It's still daytime," Amelia pointed out.
They walked through the courtyard and reached the gate.
Their steps echoed against the gravel.
Caecus sensed another soul, the gate watcher.
A button was pressed, and a harsh metallic sound followed.
Screech.
The gate opened.
They walked through.
The range of Caecus' echolocation expanded, signaling a much larger space.
He was outside.
The ground was smoother now, and finally, when they were in the city, a lot of sounds buzzed around him.
Mundane people talking loudly, running across the streets, and little kids playing on the street.
This was very unfamiliar to Caecus, who had grown up completely alone.
The noise and scents coming from all the people made his head hurt, so he reverse assimilated his ears and nose.
'Much better.'
Whenever he walked past someone, he felt their heads turning, staring at him.
He nudged Amelia's side and she looked down at him, confused.
Caecus whispered in a quiet voice,
"Amelia, why are they all staring?"
She just chuckled in reply.
"Don't focus on them, let's go to the s-train station, we have to hurry."
Finally arriving at the s-train station, Caecus felt the presence of around one thousand people just there.
Caelum had a population of five million citizens, being one of the bigger cities of Anima, but that many people being crammed into one spot was still unusual.
The train to Eureka already stood ready and waited for all of the passengers to arrive, or for the clock to strike three.
When they stood in front of the modern apparatus for transportation, the door stayed closed.
Amelia took out her phone and nudged him.
"I sent you our tickets through text. Just scan them on the door scanner and you will be permitted entrance."
Waiting for her Young Master to go first, Amelia stood next to him.
Caecus took out his phone and opened the DM app.
DM stood for direct messages and was an app that allowed conversation over any distance, using the soul essence of the users to transport the messages. This was possible due to the small contraptions in the phone that allowed soul essence to be used.
Signal reception no longer mattered, as the messages could travel anywhere, even if you were on another planet.
The only time when the app did not work was when the soul essence signal was consciously disrupted.
Photo.
Caecus clicked on it, and a sort of image of strange lines appeared in his mind, resembling a QR code.
"Do you sense a small cylindrical thing on the door?"
Activating his echolocation again, which he had turned off due to focusing on the image, he indeed sensed a round imperfection on the door's surface.
When he nodded, Amelia gave him the instructions he needed.
"Just press the S-Code, which is the image I sent you, against the cylinder. It is a scanner."
Following her instructions, Caecus did exactly as told.
He pressed the screen of his phone against the surface of the scanner, and a faint hum was heard.
Beep.
When the beeping sound resounded, the doors slid open.
Caecus stepped inside, and his echolocation picked up new terrain.
Suddenly the door behind him slammed shut, and he flinched, the sound loud and abrupt.
But then, five seconds later, the door opened again, and Amelia stepped inside next to him.
They were in a long hallway that extended seemingly endlessly in both directions.
On the walls of the s-train hallway, there were windows along with multiple seats.
Caecus and Amelia took a seat twenty meters away from where they entered. A table stood between them, made of wood, with a few flowers resting in a pot on top of it.
The seats were made of leather and had a pillow on the back to support their posture.
'This is really comfortable, I think I could fall asleep here easily.'
Amelia took out her notebook and started writing in it again.
Caecus noticed that she seemed to always write in it, documenting every one of her actions.
Luckily, due to his blindness, he could 'watch' her with his echolocation without her noticing.
'Wait, no. I probably should not do that. It does not matter if I am curious about what she is writing, this is her privacy I would be invading.'
And so, Caecus decided against observing her pen movements and instead lay there, fidgeting with a pen that was on the table.
Since he was bored, he wanted to try something.
"Amelia, can you please write something on this paper? I want to try something out."
He pointed at the paper next to the pen on the table.
She smiled at him and nodded, scribbling something onto the paper.
Caecus consciously turned off his echolocation so that he would not be able to sense her pen movements.
When she was done, she handed the paper over to him, placing it on the table before him.
Caecus picked it up and infused it with his soul essence.
And indeed, his theory was correct.
'I can sense the ink inside the paper. Let me try to read it.'
The black haired boy was able to sense every bit of ink embedded in the paper, effectively reading it through touch alone.
The normal people were staring at you when you were outside because you are so handsome, Young Master <3
The moment his comprehension speed processed the text, Caecus blushed furiously.
His ears and cheeks burned with embarrassment as he quickly put the paper back on the table.
Balling his hand into a fist and coughing into it, he said, "Ehem, well it seems I can read normal paper now."
Amelia, clearly amused by his reaction, chuckled.
"Is that so? I am glad."
She went back to writing in her notebook while Caecus quietly practiced his soul essence control.
The doors of the s-train could be heard opening again, and a couple of teens walked in.
Caecus was not known by anyone other than his own family in the Caelum corpus, so those who were not from the main family always thought that Aurelia, his sister, was the only child of the main family.
Children from the side families were usually not trained as intensely as those from the main families of the corpora.
This resulted in them starting training whenever their parents wanted them to, and the average age for that was around eight years old.
They knew that they did not compare to the children from the main family, but were still better than the children from the junior families, which were basically the weaker families of the corpus, not to mention the mundane people.
Because of that, they were not very arrogant towards other people from corpora, but rather laid back.
The junior families always tried their best to rank up to a side family, and they consistently produced hardworking children.
Their talent was somewhat capped because of their lower soul density, which is why they rarely ranked up unless they produced stronger offspring.
Side families, however, were often arrogant towards mundane people, acting like nobility.
Loud was a blunt way to describe the teens, as they were goofing around and playing games on the train.
It was a group of two boys and three girls.
'Why are they so tall? The boy on the left is around one hundred eighty eight centimeters tall, the one on the right is about one hundred eighty three, and the girls average around one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty too. One of them is even the same height as the taller boy…'
Unable to bear the distractions, Caecus put in his earbuds and took out his phone, playing some music.
Five minutes later, the last passengers entered, another group of teens.
They were also very tall, the shortest of them being a boy around one hundred sixty three centimeters.
The train started moving, and Caecus almost did not notice it, if it were not for the teens saying, "Finally, it started."
The smoothness was incredible.
Music made time drift away like a raft on a calm sea.
Half an hour later, the doors opened.
They were in Eureka.