The first day of classes dawned bright and early.
Ira sleep-walked his way through getting ready in the morning, his hair sticking up in every possible direction. He, once again, gave into the temptation and took a bath, brushed his teeth, attempted to do something about his hair and got dressed in his uniform, the same one he wore the day before. He collected all of the books he would need for the day, buried them in a black sachel and locked the door behind him when he left.
As he made his way to the cafeteria for breakfast, he honed in on his Host and watched as she was still sleeping. Regardless, he wasn't a wake-up-call and it was better she learned that fast.
Ira entered the doubledoors to the cafeteria in another building, separate from the dorms and classrooms. Inside, there was a high painted ceiling with multiple chandeliers hanging down above the numerous tables. It certainly looked like something out of a fairytale.
Gathering a tray filled with food, Ira found a table tucked away in a corner, unnoticable thanks to a few strategically placed plants. Unconcerned with whether someone had already claimed the table, he sat down easily, hidden from the view of others, including his Host. If she woke up in time for breakfast at all, which, honestly, didn't seem likely.
Students started to trickle in in increacing numbers soon after he started eating. All of them wore their uniforms, though a particular group (the supposed deliquents) wore their shirts untucked and sans ties, some with pearcings or dyed hair. They all sat in different groups.
In the middle of his eating, someone tried to sit at his table.
Ira, very politely, held up his hand, glowing a soft green, and glared.
The poor soul squeeked and bolted so fast that they spilled the water on their tray. It didn't even slow them down.
Satisfied with his ability to terrify people (he had been working on it, it was a very efffective way to be left alone, unbothered) Ira finished his breakfast well in time to find his way to his classes. His Host still hadn't woken up.
The building where the classrooms were located in were just as luxurious as the rest of the campus. High ceilings, beautful paintings on the walls and light that high-ligthed it all. There were fountains with gorgeous statues spread all over the grounds, the grass was a bright green and colorful flowers lined all of the paths with wooden benches placed in between them. The sun shined down on it all indiscrimately, making it all appear as something right out of a storybook.
It was enough to make one nauseous.
Ira walked into his assigned classroom (after getting lost about four or five times and having to consult the map) to find it almost completely empty. There were two other students, both girls, already in, but they were the only ones. One was at the very front, as close to the teacher's desk she could come and the other was at the back, next to an open window. Both looked like the studious, asocial students that he often saw in mangas.
Making his way between the chairs and tables and up the slow stairs that brought him higher, he made his way to the middle of the room and chose a seat smack in the middle. It was about as average as he could make it, which was always the goal when he possessed a body. Being inconspicious.
Unimportant.
He settled into his seat easily on the chair and sat his bag down in front of him on the table. As the minutes ticked on, more students slowly started to enter.
The teacher, a handsome man in his early twenties, entered just before the bell rang. He leaned back against his desk and stared out over all of the students as more of them entered, the speed of which picked up as the time got closer to eight. As soon as the bell rang, the teacher closed and locked the door.
His Host still wasn't awake.
Ira leaned back against his chair and listened as the teacher shot off right into a lecture, after a short roll call, wihtout bothering to mention the one absent person. It was on the fascinating subject of magical theory, and that actually wasn't sarcasm. It was utterly fascinating, the way magic behaved, how its rules and laws (if it even had any) changed in every single world. Every single world with magic was different, no matter how similar it seemed on the surface.
And the man certainly knew what he was talking about.
So Ira decided to take advantage of his rare good luck and enjoy the lecture while his Host was only just waking up, and in the midst of complete panic. She was a scholarship student, she couldn't afford to be late, much less on the first day. Unfortunately, part of the reason (actually, it was the only reason) she had been given this mission was because of how similar she was in personality to the original Eliza. Which meant that the whole being late on the first day thing was actually the way it was supposed to go.
That didn't mean it wasn't damn hilarious, watching her running around in total and utter panic. After all, in order to ensure her actions and reactions were actually genuine, Ira couldn't tell her what was going to happen. Her acting, if it could even be called that, wasn't great.
It seemed like a lot of Hosts were total amateurs when it came to acting.
His Host fought her way into her uniform, not even buttoning it up correctly, and hurried off to find her class. Ira observed as she ran all over the campus, looking in through windows, without once looking at the map she had in her pocket. Instead she made a racket and disturbed dozens of classes as she tried to find her way, running loudly through the halls.
The class was nearing its end when she had her fateful first meeting with the Second Prince. His Host was dashing through yet another hallway that she had already been in when she ran straight into him.
There was a loud oomph and because she was lighter, she fell down on the ground while the man was completely unmoved. She dropped the books she was carrying, because for some unfathomable reason she didn't have a bag, and stared up at the prince, utterly stunned.
Her green eyes were wide, making her look harmless and fragile, and she stared up without moving. The prince leaned down sligthly, offering her his hand, and she grasped it with a shiver. It was a magical moment.
Too bad his Host's map had fallen out from her pocket while she fell, making it seem like she was deliberately trying to run late in an attempt tp seduce the prince. It was something that often happened, especially with first-years. They just didn't know any better.
The prince really didn't look favorable upon those who tried to seduce him.
The original Eliza had honestly lost the map, which took care of this entire problem, but his Host was so scatter-brained that she had just forgotten it. In some situations, it was cute. In others, it was downright annoying.
Ira saw the look on the prince's face change, doing an abrupt 180. It went from neutral curiosity to hostile in the blink of an eye.
Yeah, his Host was off to an amazing start.
The bell rang and the class ended.
As they were dignified people, most of them with noble heritage or at least wealth, they didn't run in the halls, even though it was recess. Instead, they exited the classroom in a controlled and elegant manner, a stark contrast to his Host that didn't seem to even remember the fact that manners for nobility was a thing that existed. Ira didn't feel like pushing and prodding his way through the horde of students, no matter how graceful they were, and waited until he was the last one left in the room to stand up.
The teacher was still sitting at his desk, probably waiting on his next class, and so Ira walked right by him to get to the door. He had his sachel over his shoulder and walked on right out the door, ignoring the odd look the man gave him. It was probably because he actually paid attention to the lecture.
For some reason, quite a few people had been thinking about other stuff.
In the same corridor as the classroom he had just exited from was, some of the students had stopped walking and was staring at a scene. Ira followed their lead, curious about was going on, and immediately felt the urge to hide his face.
There was his Host and the Second Prince. How in the hell had she managed to miss the fact that she walked right pass the right classroom at least four times?!
Ira took a discrete step back, so he wasn't in her line of sight, and watched (for once with his physical eyes) as the Prince helped her up and then dropped her hand as if it was poisonous. His Host had on a look on her face that said she was confused as she bent down to retrieve her stuff without any help whatsoever from the male protagonist. She gathered it in her arms, her face getting steadily redder the more time that passed, and stood back up and stuttered out,
"Th-thank y-you."
The prince's face only got colder.
"The next time you find yourself lost, Miss Campbell, look at your map." he stated harshly. "And it'll do you good to remember to apologize when you run into someone."
His Host swallowed deeply in response and said, "S-sorry."
"We are not familiar enough for you to address me without the correct title." The prince narrowed his eyes in displeasure.
"I'm sorry, my lord." His Host said, making an effort to appear proper. It didn't do much good. She had already screwed up the first scene, where the Second Prince was supposed to be intrigued by her, which would lead to future interactions, which would then lead to love. At least there wasn't any love at first sight nonsense.
He had had quite enough of that, thank you very much.
"Good," the prince said and continued with, "now stop disrupting the classes."
With that, the Second Prince left, not even giving his Host a second glance. His Host was still standing where he left her, seemingly in shock of her treatment. For some reason, she had thought that making him fall in love with her would be easy. Apparently, she had been very popular in her original world.
Like that actually mattered.
Regardless, she was now in shock and unable to form a word. Ira took it as the belssing it was and hid behind the other students to leave. If she saw him, she would undoubtedly complain and demand he fix it for her, as so many other Hosts had done in the past.
So, following the sensible actions of the male protagonist, Ira left his Host behind, alone and stunned into silence. Which was a blessed thing, considering how much she talked.
It seemed like that was all she could do.
Ira brought out his map and searched for the next classroom he would be going to, according to his schedule. It was still morning and they had a lot of classes left to cover. Apparently, the teachers here believed in pushing their students headfirst into classes and lectures they could barely understand unless they had had prior tutoring. Which, let's be honest, the rich and nobles had had.
The next class was Politics, which was wildly uninteresting, and so Ira spent that class searching for the location of his Host, who still hadn't gotten to a single class. She was right where he left her, her face chalk white and her eyes incomprehending of the day's happenings.
That day, she didn't make it to a single class.
How incredibly pitiable.