Deep within the office, a middle-aged man in a red robe looked at a bunch of lists in his hand.
He raised his eyebrow and asked, "So we have five families this year?"
The academy instructor nodded. "Vice principal, if you count that child from Verdigris, then yes."
The vice principal placed down the first paper and looked at the second list. "Are you sure about this class plan?"
The academy instructor nodded again. "Vice Master, with Wyarncoos already choosing their next leader, it would be a bloodbath if we tried to combine them with Zenaris."
The vice principal placed the list down and sighed. "Let's go with this plan. I don't have anything to add."
The academy instructor smiled and picked up the list. "As you say, Vice Principal."
The red-robed vice principal stared at the departing back of the instructor and closed his eyes.
…
Deep within the forest, Zayn lay on the muddy ground, drenched in sweat.
The dirt stuck to his skin, but he didn't care as he stared at the massive black castle.
It was so huge that he couldn't even see its peak as it disappeared past a thick layer of clouds.
That massive castle was the main building of the academy, which he finally got to enter today.
At this, Xane shouted in his head, [Dude, come on, get up. We can't waste more time—we've got to get ready.]
Zayn huffed and begged him,
[Oh, don't be like that. You barely ran five kilometers. Yesterday I ran double that without any rest.]
Zayn rubbed his forehead in frustration. It had been three days since they had entered the academy, and all they'd done in that time was wake up early, train, eat essence-rich food at lunch, train again, eat dinner, and sleep—then repeat.
Not only that, but in these three days, he got to switch control with Xane twice—once in the middle of the second day, and then mid-run today.
It had been random so far.
All they knew was that they sort of blacked out for a second every time they switched control. It was another headache, but beyond that, it had been a productive three days.
Zayn looked at his arms; even though they were still bony, the skin was no longer pale white.
In this short time, his skin had started to regain some color.
Now, he wasn't as knowledgeable as Xane, but even he knew that running five kilometers was kind of excessive in this condition.
He could see both his legs shaking from the knees down, and there was a constant pain in his thighs.
He cursed,
[Oh, come on. Don't be a pussy. It's just a bit of pain. Can't you handle that much?]
Zayn clenched his teeth. He had to admit, when it came to physical stuff, he was nowhere close to Xane.
Even in this half-dead body, the guy moved like an athlete yesterday.
But that didn't mean he'd let Xane trample on him like this. He pushed himself off the ground.
Around him, he heard footsteps. Just like him, a few other students were using the forest for training.
A couple of them looked at Zayn, but he ignored them and dragged himself toward his room.
It took him around five minutes before he finally reached the massive, ugly brown wooden building.
He took a deep breath outside and then decided to enter.
Unlike the first day, he now heard loud shouts from everywhere.
All the rooms were already full.
There were just so many people living in the building that it started to get congested.
Then there was also constant drama. For some reason, there was always someone shouting.
There was no soundproofing in the rooms, so you could practically hear noise even from someone shouting in the other building.
In one word, it was chaotic.
Zayn walked past others who were moving out, heading toward his room, 23.
He didn't even get to open the door when he heard loud shouting from the other side.
As he opened it, he saw the fatty from the first day screaming at a skinny guy, complaining about him not properly cleaning the bathroom.
When the others saw him, they stopped screaming at each other like before, but the tension was still there.
Not caring about them, he calmly walked to his bed and then to the bathroom, while the others stayed quiet the whole time.
As he closed the door, he could hear them cursing the Zenaris bloodline.
It was just too bad—he didn't care about the family.
This was common behavior he'd received since the second day, when one of his roommates saw him talking with another Zenaris heir.
From that day, they kept their distance from him—but it's not like he cared.
He also came to find one more interesting thing—while most of the commoners with copper or even silver potential chose the one-point accommodation.
Those from big families either chose the five-point option or at least the three-point option. This was something one of the copper-potential Zenaris heirs told him.
Xane said to him, [Come on, move. We don't have much time.]
Zayn said in frustration,
Even though Zayn complained, he rushed.
In about ten minutes, Zayn finally wrapped himself in his silver-robed uniform.
Just then, everyone's IDs started to blink with a blue light.
Zayn picked up his ID and saw that they had assigned him to the Second Classroom.
He smiled,
Xane asked, [So we're going to be in Melina's class, right?]
Zayn rolled his eyes,
[Protagonist.]
Even though Xane didn't say more, Zayn understood what he was trying to say.
For the past three days, they hadn't just focused on training—they were also trying to find the protagonist.
Even though they got to see the guy from afar, they never got the chance to talk to him.
It was kind of odd, as in the novel, the protagonist liked to stay alone. But here, Zayn had seen him happily talking with this strange teen. It was different from what he knew about the protagonist.
He picked up his ID and sighed.
With that, he started walking toward the black castle. It was finally time to see that thing up close.