Class barely begun and Niven already felt a burning gaze right beside him. That guy he bumped into this morning wouldn't stop looking. It made the blond shrink further away into his seat.
He wasn't the only problem. The other boys were also staring at him. From the moment he stepped into class, Niven was sure that he was already being challenged. But it's not like he could go against any of them.
For the entire period as soon as he was done with his work, Niven was surrounded by a small bunch of his classmates. He slumped further in his seat, too nervous to look at any of them.
"So Niven, right?" One of them piped up with a charming grin.
"Y-Yes?"
"From what house are you from?"
"Um..."
"Actually, what about your abilities? What abilities do you have?" That question made a few more of his classmates turn around in their seats to listen closely. Even his teacher looked a bit curious.
Niven flushed under their gazes. "Nothing special, I guess?"
Their gazes suddenly hardened and a mocking smile appeared on the boy's face. He snorted, "How rude. We're just only asking, isn't it common manners for you to respond? Don't tell me... you're a low-echelon?"
Their smiles widened and a few gave cruel chuckles. Niven didn't know what else to do besides staying quiet. Surely his brothers would get angry, they'd also be embarrassed.
In a second, Niven felt his face burning up. He quickly pulled his head back to see a hand with flames too close to his face. The students snickered.
From this moment on, Niven was considered the weakest in their class. He couldn't stand such a little flame.
"You really are weak aren't you?" The student mocked, waving his hand around. The flames grew even wider and a few sparks flew around. "You can't handle a tiny fire? I bet your family is also-"
He stopped as he felt something fly past his ear. The student reached up to find a trickle of blood running down his fingers. Everyone one of them looked behind his shoulder to see a pencil stuck on the wall, and a few cracks that it made.
"Mr. Lancaster, do tell me that you're not about to burn our newest student's face." Mr. Abberline had stood up with a grim smile on his face, and a few pencils on his hands. Niven trembled at the sight of his teacher's arm creating a wave of energy.
The boy who had tried to burn Niven's face now bowed deeply with a bit of sweat appearing on his head. "My apologies, sir-"
"Why are you apologizing to him?" The brunet from this morning interrupted with a dark scowl. "Isn't it supposed to be Niven you're apologizing to? Were you the one who tried burning our teacher's face off?"
"Lord Mirren, it's my duty to punish him correctly." Mr. Abberline cut in. "You don't have to."
The male gave a sudden smile. For a moment, Niven felt like he was back outside at the bridge. This sort of feeling, could it be he's using the same ability again? No, it felt different this time.
That smile was different than any other smile the blond's seen. It was more alluring. He somehow looked different as well. Niven could've sworn that his brunet locks turned purple for a moment, but he blinked and the color was gone.
Mirren turned to the other student and smirked, "What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to apologizing for disrupting class time and your actions towards our new classmate?"
As if he was in a trance, the boy straightened up and looked down at Niven before lowing his head and saying sorry.
Niven was taken aback. How come he's acting this way? The students here were so scary.
Before the blond could protest any further, the bell rang. He clumsily gathered all of his stuff and almost ran out. He gave a small peek over at his teacher and saw how apologetic Mr. Abberline was. Niven looked away in a hurry before scurrying off to his next class.
It shouldn't have been so hard to walk in the hallways but it was. Niven was constantly getting stared at. All the students were too curious not to stare, they wondered how someone managed to come at this time of year. Of course it was merely the beginning year at the academy, but all students enrolled in this school had to be on time on the first day. And even though there was three hundred of them, each of them made sure to memorize everyone's faces—even if they weren't acquaintances at all.
Someone new came in the academy. They needed to make sure just how powerful Niven was. And looking at him squirm around nervously, clutching onto his backpack made them look away in pity or smirk.
Niven trembled. Was it possible to skip class and hide out somewhere? It wasn't like he actually needed to participate in class.
The more he thought of skipping, the more appealing it became.
Suddenly, the blond was shoved against the wall. He gave a small grunt before looking up to see a small crowd of boys. He held onto his books tighter.
"You're new here, aren't you? How in the world did you manage to get yourself in?" One of them murmured before sizing the male up and down. He gave a small sneer, "From which house did you come from? Your family couldn't be this influential to have you study here, especially when we're already a few weeks in the academy."
"I feel bad. He's already shaking."
"Perhaps we should go before we're late to class?"
"How about we challenge him? It's not going to take long at all, just put him in his place." Another suggested before turning around to walk away. "Just hurry up. We can't afford to be late."
The male in front of Niven viciously grinned with excited eyes. He leaned closely to the boy and chuckled in amusement. "Sorry about this, but we gotta make sure whether or not your abilities are low-tier or not."
As the student raised his hand to grab hold of Niven's neck, the blond accidentally dropped one of his books. Niven widened his eyes before quickly bending down to snatch it, barely missing the other student's hand lunging at his throat. Instead, his hand met with the wall.
A few of the students who stayed behind laughed, almost making snarky comments on how their friend managed to miss the new boy. Their friend's smile faded away instantly and grew quite irritated. He scornfully spat out, "Are you trying to die today?" The male bent down to grab hold of Niven once more.
"Hmm? P-Pardon?" Just as Niven stood back up, his book accidentally knocked right into the male's head. "A-Ah, my apologies-"
"Damn! You're really wanting to pick a fight with me now?" The student sneered. He placed his hand on his head, right where he was hit. On his other hand, a small gust of wind swirled between his fingers before small forms of electricity erupted.
During that time, the bell rang once more, signaling the start of second period. Niven almost gasped, he was running late! Without a care, he quickly said sorry for knocking his book into the student before ducking under his arm and running off into the class.
Once more, he was able to dodge the blast of electricity, letting it hit the wall instead.
Behind him, he could hear laughter coming out from that group of boys, along with the small, yet harsh curses from that boy's mouth. In truth, Niven was thankful for the bell. He could always use this as an excuse to run away. And on the other hand, he was lucky to be on time before his teacher shut the door.
"Oh, you surprised me." His teacher had to sigh for a moment and take in a second before closing the door behind his new student. He gave a stern nod before looking over at the rest of the class. "You can go ahead and introduce yourself if you want, but if you don't want to then go ahead and take a seat up at the front."
"Thanks..."
"I'm Professor Budreau, it's a pleasure to have you in my class, Master Niven." He placed a hand over his chest in a formal greeting.
Niven awkwardly stood. "Yeah... okay."
"Please, have a seat and we'll start immediately."
"Yes, P-Professor."
Throughout the whole day until the afternoon, Niven was being bombarded with cold smiles and questioning eyes. He never spoke to anybody unless it was absolutely necessary, and the boy was always in a hurry to head to his locker before running over to his next class. He was a bit thankful for his new teachers who seemed to keep an eye out for him, but that was only it. Outside of their classes was hell for him.
Everywhere he went, he was being pushed back and challenged. The students here wanted to check his abilities, they needed to push him into his place. Niven didn't want to call Gabriel, he already knew how busy the man was since he was currently running this place with the vice-principal. It looked like the students here were acting a little too recklessly since the principal wasn't here.
Niven chewed on his lip. He doesn't belong here. He should go and look for Remiah after the day ends.
During lunch, he grew unsettled again. The dining hall was really big, and there were many students occupying the place. Not only that but with the addition of servants hastily preparing their lunches, it was too crowded for him. There wasn't any place for him to sit since every table was taken up. The spots that were empty were near the other boys, and he was sure they'd make fun of him. Niven could only request for a small lunch in a paper bag and take it into the halls.
Finding a place to eat shouldn't be so hard. The majority of the students were eating inside the cafeteria, it was best to head outside and find an isolated spot.
Unfortunately, the academy's grounds were too big and he ended up getting lost outside.
"This... was a terrible idea." Niven was definitely going to be late for his next class. He was too anxious to eat and forgot about his lunch.
Niven desperately ran around in circles and in different directions, thinking it was the same path he had taken. Eventually, he soon gave up and decided to just call Gabriel. The blond sighed and lifted his phone up, already calling to explain his situation.
Until he stepped on something.
Niven peered down and lifted his foot up to see a black mask. He squinted his eyes to get a closer look and found the mask weird, seeing it in the shape of an animal. It was similar to a jackal... but with a broken ear.
He broke off an ear.
Niven felt extremely panicked for some reason and ended the call just when Gabriel picked up, even cutting off his warm greeting. The boy bent down and grabbed the mask and carefully connected the broken ear.
Ah, what was this? How come he ended up finding a random-looking mask? Did a party happen or something?
Perhaps one of the teachers or a student dropped it by accident. Without thinking too much, Niven held it up for a better inspection before gently fixing the mask with a small use of his magic.
Once the ear was fixed, Niven stood up and looked around. He frowned, he couldn't find anyone around. But he didn't want to just take it and carry the object around.
Niven placed the mask against one of the columns before fixing his glasses. He glanced at the mask. Whoever left it, he hoped they would find it again.
"Master Niven!"
Gabriel appeared beside him with a worried face. Niven backed away instantly and held a hand over his chest.
He almost had a heart attack from that surprise.
Gabriel grasped onto the boy's shoulders and shook him slightly. "What happened? You called but then hung up! Is someone bullying you? How come you're in this part of the academy?"
"I-I got lo..." Niven couldn't speak. He grew embarrassed and a bit terrified.
"Did you get lost?" Ah! Gabriel could understand him!
Niven nodded. Gabriel let out a relieved expression. He took his hands back and placed them on his hips. "Oh, thank the gods. I thought something bad happened to you on your first day! Come, I'll take you back. Your time for lunch is almost up and it'd be unfortunate for my master to be late."
Niven looked down, a bit flushed.
Gabriel placed a comforting hand on his back. "It's alright, master. Today is your first day so it is understandable that you became lost. The academy is fairly big that even I have trouble remembering which way is which. But next time, you can always call me to have lunch with you! Just make sure not to wander around in this section of the academy."
Niven wanted to ask why he couldn't but the blue-haired man beat him to it.
"This section and building belongs to the councilmen, and it would be troublesome for you to accidentally get in contact with them. Not only that but some of our academy's security guards are around here. If this was any other day you would've been caught, but a few of the Wolves were currently sent off doing some business from the headmaster. It's a good thing you stumbled upon this place on this day instead." Gabriel helped fixed Niven's tie before leaning closer to adjust his glasses.
The male tilted the boy's face a little to look at his earring. Gabriel smiled, "Apologies, I didn't notice you wore earrings. Young master, you didn't wear them yesterday."
"Is... not allowed?" Niven felt even more embarrassed for saying an incomplete sentence. He cupped his mouth before looking away.
Gabriel shook his head. "Not at all! It's alright if you're the one who wears it! My master is adorable, how could I say no?"
Niven felt the need to escape from this place even sooner. He briskly turned away from the male and didn't want to spend a second with him. He should ask help from someone else.
"Wait, master! This lowly servant was merely joking! Young master, let me help you!"
"Beat it."
"Master-" Gabriel swiftly stopped and looked behind him, his eyes looking straight at the columns of the building. His eyes drastically turned cold. The man could've sworn something was right behind him.
"Gabriel." Niven stopped and wondered what the male was doing.
Gabriel turned around and faced his master with a beaming smile. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't help but be in a daze after looking at your beauty!" He didn't tell a complete lie, Niven certainly turned heads around.
Niven gave a disgusted look. He really couldn't be bothered anymore. At first he was truly scared of Gabriel, but now he wanted to beat this man up.
As soon as he left, Gabriel chased after him with happy smiles and a mouthful of apologies. The blond didn't want to look back, the sight of his servant made him want to pick up the pace.
Niven didn't notice the mask he left behind was gone.
~*~