Staxius's expression changed, "excuse me, sir, hey, can you hear me?" A soft, innocent, and harmless voice caught his attention as he turned around. A little girl stood before him with blonde hair and rosy cheeks. He knelt in front of her so that his height matched hers and spoke, "I am terribly sorry, young lady." He took a quick pause to watch for anything suspicious, then resumed. "-you've got my attention now, how may I be of service?" He asked in a soft and polite voice.
"Finally, I've been trying to speak to you for ages now, can you tell me where the academy is? I'm supposed to meet up with my big brother, he starts school today." She replied calmly. Approaching a stranger in this day and age wasn't something smart. He wondered why a child like her would ever bother to try and speak to someone like him. Despite that, he remained as courteous as possible.
"Is that so, your brother must be amazing." His curiosity piqued, her dress was one that looked expensive and well-tailored. She was bound to be the child of some powerful nobleman.
"Yes, he's the best brother ever, he's so strong no one can touch him, people say my brother is a hybrid or something." She boasted and unwillingly gave out information. Staxius capitalized on her gullibility to try and gain anything of value.
"A hybrid, this girl is from the nobility, there's a golden crest on her buttons for god sake, it's not wise to leave her here, but is it my job though? All I care about is getting my belly full, whatever, I'll help her." He quickly argued with his own conscience about whether to help the lady.
"Giving you directions will be hard, so instead my lady would you please allow me to escort you to your beloved brother?" Staxius asked in a playful manner. Returning someone precious to someone rich was bound to make one get a reward, some money to finally get food – it was the outcome he desired.
"You will? Thank you very much, sir." She accepted with a big smile.
Staxius held out his hand as if asking for a dance then headed to the academy with some nobleman's daughter. "I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Staxius Haggard, what about you?" he spoke while tracing back his steps.
"Oh, my name is Autumn Garnet, I can't wait to meet big brother Julius." She skipped and hopped like a joyous little kid.
"Rest assure, neither can I, I'm ecstatic." His sarcasm was obvious but the girl didn't know what sarcasm meant. So the conversation throughout the journey was him being cynical and approachable while she boasted about her family and brother.
Back at the academy, Sophie was livid after finding that Staxius left without informing anyone. From what she got told by the staff, he thanked everyone personally, even the people in charge of cleaning. He was a strange one, no one ever bothered to notice the people doing the real hard work but this guy knew who truly deserved the thanks and vote of confidence. Everyone without fail only spoke about how friendly and great this foreigner was. Seeing their reactions, Sophie's anger slowly calmed down, but her duty as the one in charge of supervising him was a priority.
In an attempt to find out any clue about his whereabouts, she asked practically anyone. Some people said he was headed to the train station, others the hanger, and some the town square. With so many conflicting statements, Staxius vanished. It was then that she began wondering if it was intentional, with his intellect, hiding his trail would be a piece of cake. Her admiration for him slowly grew. Deciding to pick an option at random, she ended up with the train station.
The academy came into view, the young Autumn was super excited to finally meet her brother. Outside, students who were clearly rich or had a strong background made their way towards the gymnasium. Staxius was out of place, it was like white against black. His clothes were torn and had bloodstains on his pants that weren't properly cleaned. Everyone gave him the death stare; it was being judgmental at its best. Some thought of him as a beggar, others as a kidnapper, and some even accused him of being a pedophile, obviously, no one spoke out loudly.
"Well this is humiliating, you had one job to do, earn some money, and now you have to make this girl meet her brother, man the stares, I feel it on my back, can you people be any more obnoxious." The pressure of the people whispering amidst themselves made him cautious. His thoughts were interrupted by the young girl who began shaking his hand in hopes of getting his attention.
"What is it?" He asked unwillingly, something felt off.
"It's my brother, look, he's standing near the big tree." She replied as her eyes sparkled.
"Go meet him then, my job is now complete young lady, may you have a safe voyage." He smiled.
Relieved of this self-imposed burden, Staxius let go of her small hands and began heading to the town square once again. His walk was cut short, as Autumn grabbed his back. "Let me go, Autumn, my job is done, what else do you want from me?" it was embarrassing, people all round stopped to look whatever was happening - the stares grew fiercer and denser.
"Don't leave yet mister, I like you, please meet my brother with me." Her tone felt sad, she looked on the verge of crying. Annoyed, he spun around once again and knelt, "listen Autumn, your family and I are very different, we can't be seen interacting with each other." He tried convincing the ignorant Autumn into giving up her childish desires.
"Why can't mister Staxius meet with big brother Julius, I-I w-want you to." Tears began forming around her eyes, her sobbing began.
"Come on now, don't cry, this is for the best, I have to leave." Desperate to stop the waterfall that broke loose, Staxius stood up and walked.
From behind him, the little Autumn Garnet began crying, it was loud and piercing, everyone noticed and this created a scene. People thought that he had done something odious to the girl. Still not giving up, Autumn rushed and grabbed Staxius's leg. It was awkward, it looked like he was abandoning her. Staxius felt it and out of nowhere, he threw something at the tree that rested beside him. It made the tree slightly shake and fruit fell. It was the only plan he came up with to soothe the tears.
"What's causing all this ruckus," Julius asked as he saw a crowd beginning to gather.
"People say it's a guy abandoning some little blond girl, she's crying her heart out there, man it's pathetic for a dude to do that." A random guy who witnessed everything answered his question as he walked by.
"Blonde hair, it can't be, AUTUMN." He dashed outside to where the ruckus emanated from.
"Come on leave me alone, I've told you I can't stay, please just let my leg go." Staxius was getting tired, his frustration built up, however, he knew that being even a little forceful with her could end up with him getting beaten. Instead, he picked up the fruit and tried giving it to her.
"N-never, I like you, mister, don't leave." Her voice trembled as the cries went on, the fruit was also rejected.
"AUTUMN," someone screamed her name out. "- get away from her you weirdo." It was Julius, he recognized his little sister. He sprinted from the tree to here, seeing his darling sister cry made his blood boil. Instead of stopping and asking questions, he rushed Staxius and punched him.
Upon receiving the full brunt of the impact, Staxius was sent flying. Speechless, Autumn's cry stopped. People assumed that he was the sole reason the young girl cried. It was partly true but only thanks to the division of nobles and commoners. Even after getting punched, Staxius casually got up with not an ounce of hate nor emotion on his face, he shook his head in disappointment and tried leaving.
The act of shaking his head was interpreted as an act of being smug, Julius was even more pissed, "how dare a lowly commoner put his filthy hands onto my sister, I swear to god don't you even try and be cocky with me." Hearing his futile provocations, Staxius decided to take advantage of this situation and anger him even more. With a quick shrug and wave of the hand, he signaled Julius that he was leaving. "I haven't done anything to your sister. She was lost and needed help to come here, I just helped her out. Come on, if I wanted to kidnap her I'd have done it a long time ago." Staxius tried cleaning his name but his physical actions proved to be provocative.
"You LOWBORN SCUM." Julius gritted his teeth. Anger ran through his veins, Julius rushed in front of Staxius and grabbed his collar. "Who do you think you are acting smug with me, I can ruin your entire life if I just wished for it, know your fucking place." He spoke out, the tone filled with murderous intent.
Fully expecting a response, Julius waited but nothing ever came out of Staxius's mouth, instead, his face remained emotionless. For a split second, Staxius gave the smuggest smirk he could. This was adequate, the brother snapped and began assaulting him with no pity in his eyes. Punch after punch, Staxius's fully recovered face got shredded once more. The crowd gathered around them did nothing, they just stood in awe. However, that wasn't the case for Autumn, from the first time she saw Staxius, she had a little crush on him. For someone who was twelve, this was something grand, but now his beloved brother was beating her crush.
"BROTHER STOP," Autumn shouted as the academy's local security broke off the fight. Julius had blood all over his white and gold uniform, on the other hand, Staxius was nearly knocked out. "Carry this man to the hospital right away. For you young man, we need to talk after this." A man who seemed to be the leader of the platoon spoke, his voice stern and deep.
Autumn's reunion with her brother was complete though it ended badly. Even as they carried Staxius away on a stretcher, he didn't have any resentment on his face, instead, he quickly glanced at Autumn and smile reassuringly then passed out. Seeing him smile despite his situation, she began crying once again. Whilst sobbing, she explained why Staxius helped her out but Julius didn't hear anything, instead, he sharply told her to shut up.
After visiting the train station, Sophie was on the way back. It was then that she noticed her would-be apprentice getting taken away to the hospital yet again. Inside, she asked the security about what happened, sadly she was only told that Staxius got beaten by a nobleman's son. Even with the discrimination between nobles and commoners, here at Claireville academy, everyone is equal. Julius was put into house arrest; this was temporary as this fight was to be judged by one of the instructors at the school. This sort of behavior was truly unacceptable, no one could pick on other students even if it was for fun. The trial to see who was right and who was wrong was set to occur in two days.