1 Gaiwarth Academy

Despite his dark hood being pulled up over his head, it couldn't hide the few strands of vibrant platinum blonde hair that poked out beneath it. His eyes were currently molded into the shape of crescent moons, and they shone with excitement as the young man dressed smartly in grey pants and a black hoodie pulled over a white blouse, followed behind the trustworthy back of the kind brown-haired dormitory lady, who he had checked in with at the entrance desk.

With every step, the heel of his boots clinked gently against the polished wooden floorboards and he gazed wondrously at the fancy interior of the dormitory walls, that were adorned with many shades of red and gold paint and intrinsic portraits of previous famous alumni, as well as flora and scenery from around the kingdom. The windows were open wide to allow the cool wind to blow in refreshingly.

Adrian relished the refreshing scent of the luscious green garden outside that had drifted over to the building. Everything here was so fascinating and new that he could barely contain his excitement. His soft lips were slightly open in wonder as his eyes wandered around, not knowing where to look as he struggled to take everything in.

Just how much money would it have cost to build this place? He couldn't help but wonder. Every inch of the building had not a trace of the wear that its five hundred-year-long history should've granted it, so naturally, it was because of magic.

He could feel that the air was dense with mana particles, all buzzing happily around him and affected by their mood, he couldn't help but grin.

Of course, the majority of the other students here who came from high-ranking noble or famous magical families, wouldn't have blinked twice at this amount of wealth because, while it wasn't poor it wasn't special either and was considered the bare minimum in the capital and all the rich people here, regardless of whether or not they were magicians had their houses maintained through magic.

However, back home, neither of Adrian's parents had any magical talent and had hired physical hands rather than magical ones for their manor. His father was a low-ranking country Baron, and he preferred his life to be simple, staying away from the politics of the noble world and instead, living closely together with his community. Adrian was his adopted son and he had never once minded his simple life in the countryside, but rather believed that they had lived pretty decently. The manor was large and he had plenty of space to run around and play without getting on his parent's nerves. Of course by normal civilian standards, they were still wealthy and well-off but this was the imperial capital, so their wealth was no more than a single drop in a bucket full of water.

Because of this, his mother and father had warned him that at the academy, people may look down on him because of his background, but Adrian wasn't worried.

He was an expert at keeping secrets.

After all, he had the biggest one that he could under no circumstances reveal here and that was that he wasn't really a human, but a mermaid.

And it would also appear that he was the last of his kind.

Only a few people knew about this and the number one condition to Adrian attending the academy was that he was to keep this a secret. To help him with this, his childhood friend, Damien, the son of Viscount Dyamere, would also be attending and be his roommate but also a watchdog to make sure that Adrian didn't slip up.

A small smile littered Adrian's thin red lips. Honestly, wasn't everyone a bit too protective of him? He wasn't some sort of porcelain doll!

But in his heart, he was thankful for it, as he loved his family and friends dearly.

Just when he was thinking this, the kind dormitory lady came to a halt before a large oaken door that had large silver inscription reading 'S-12'

"Alright." She said with a warm smile that made Adrian feel at peace, "This will be your room! Your roommate has already arrived and so make sure you introduce yourself and your bags will be sent here shortly." Her hand began to twist the door handle which wasn't locked despite having a lock on it.

"My roommate ?" Adrian cocked his head to the side in confusion, almost causing his hood to fall off by accident, "But he isn't meant to be here till next week?"

"What do you mean?" The lady paused, leaving the door a smidge open "Do you already know your roommate? What a coincidence! I thought we assigned them randomly so you must have great luck to be roomed with a friend!"

Adrian's heart skipped a beat inside his chest and he felt his throat tighten a little.

"Um... what do you mean you assign them randomly? Didn't you say we get to choose our roommates?" He questioned her, hurriedly.

"Where did you hear that from?" The lady scoffed gently under her breath and shook her head looking at him with pitying eyes, "We don't let students choose their own roommates to allow peers to better intermingle despite their social statuses and backgrounds because here at the Academy, we don't care about any of that. However, the rooms are sorted by classes to better student growth and ensure that bullying doesn't take place by the strong against the weak."

Adrian shook his head. He understood her point but that's not what mattered right now!

"Um....what if someone had a special circumstance? Could they maybe change then or get a room to themselves?"

He couldn't give up and neither did he want to.

The lady scoffed growing a little tired of his antics.

As she was in charge of S-class's dormitory, she had naturally read over the lists and background information on all the new first years, and so she knew that this boy in front of her had massive potential despite being from a humble background. He was also bewitchingly beautiful in a way that could tug at a person's heartstrings and was polite mannered and so she was quite fond of him initially but now, she was beginning to wonder if she had judged him wrongly.

"Your face doesn't count as a special circumstance." She rolled her eyes at him, "Maybe if you gave your roommate a chance you wouldn't be so quick to try and run off on your own and already break the Academy's rules and traditions!"

Her voice held a strong tone of annoyance that took Adrian aback. He hadn't planned on offending her!

"I know ....but."

"NO BUTS!" The woman insisted, her hands turned against the door handle and swung it open.

She placed a strong hand on his skinny back and her grip strength surprised Adrian as she shoved him inside the room and slammed the door shut behind him.

Outside he could hear her angry footsteps and under-the-mouth mumblings as she retreated down the hallway.

Inside the room, Adrian's face crumpled in dismay and disheartenment.

He really hadn't planned on ticking the dormitory's supervisor off on his first day!

And it was just at the moment of his shame and misery that he heard the other room's occupant speak and he curiously turned his head in his direction.