"Classmate, you're a freshman?"
"Do you actually have giants' blood?"
Many Holy Dawn Academy students quickly encircled Ayrin, incomparably admirative.
For young people, someone who could do things they couldn't do would always garner their respect and curiosity.
But at that moment, after finally eating his fill, Ayrin felt the surrounding sounds become a little vague and indistinct. His eyelids also became heavier and heavier.
"Bastard! What the hell is this bloodline, isn't it over yet?!"
"You can't just simply sleep here!"
Ayrin forcibly kept his eyes open as he shouted in his mind, but his resistance wore off before he could even clench his fists like he usually did. He flabbily fell on the ground and slept tight, snoring.
"He fell asleep?"
"He actually fell asleep straight away? Who the hell is this guy?"
"He ate so much he looks like a ball, and he actually fell asleep just like this?"
"What's this really about! Who sent you to mess with me?" The boss was on the verge of tears when, just like other people, he saw Ayrin fast asleep.
"Just give him to me."
At this moment, a young handsome academy teacher squeezed his way inside, his lazy voice drifting together with him. He straight away lifted the fast asleep Ayrin on his shoulder.
"This is?!"
The fat boss and some senior students had an immediate change of expression the moment they had a clear look at the young teacher's face. Chills ran through them from head to toe. They waited for this young handsome teacher to carry Ayrin out of the crowd, none of them daring to make any loud noise.
"What's the matter?" A junior student not in the know couldn't resist asking a pale-faced senior student beside him.
The senior student struggled to resist his fear, and said in a quiet shaky voice. "This is teacher Liszt..."
"Teacher Liszt!" Shock and respect immediately filled the eyes of all the junior students. "The only one who comprehended the academy's secret skill "Holy Gate of Life"... The strongest elite teacher in the academy, Liszt?!"
"That's him." Cold sweat was dripping from the fat boss like rain. "Legend says this guy was raised by dark night wolves.... The most cold-blooded, the most blood-thirsty, the strongest teacher in the academy... Liszt!"
"It seems you're not so popular inside the school, these little guys didn't even dare make a single sound after they saw you." As soon as Liszt stepped out of the commercial street, a black-robed old man suddenly appeared in front of him. It was none other than the super-talkative librarian, Professor Plum.
"They're just being misled by a bunch of rumors. Isn't being feared something to be proud of, anyway?" Liszt casually shrugged his shoulders. His eyes actually shrunk, however. "You actually, a senior generation with a hobby for books and training, the genuinely strongest teacher in the academy, you actually also left your library for the sake of this little guy?"
Professor Plum didn't react to Liszt's words, merely glanced at the fast-asleep and snoring Ayrin. "His body's in a very strange condition, what do you think?"
Liszt said, "His present state is the same as ours when we exceed the limits of our body after hard training. I've seen this little guy at the registration place, so I'm very curious about what happened to him inside the library. How did he turn this way?"
"I don't know." Professor Plum shook his head. "He stayed a very short while in the library, but there was already something a little wrong with him by the time he went out."
"There's no one in St. Lauren who can do any mischief inside your library." Liszt smiled lazily. "So there were probably quite a few secrets hidden on this little guy from the beginning."
Professor Plum stayed silent for several seconds. He said, "What are you going to do?"
"I don't have the hobby of prying someone else's secrets. Holy Dawn Academy also allows every student to conceal their secrets. If this little guy can make me satisfied, I will personally take charge of his teaching." Liszt rubbed his chin and said, "Now I'm planning on sending him to the dorm."
Professor Plum seemed to have become even more uncommunicative than ordinary people once outside the library. He nodded when he heard Liszt, then turned around and left straight away.
"Senior," Liszt suddenly called.
Professor Plum looked back, unsure what Liszt wanted.
"There will definitely come a day when I surpass you." Liszt put his lazy expression away and spoke in all seriousness.
"Still early." Professor Plum shook his head and merely spit out two words with an expressionless face, then he turned around and walked far away.
Liszt didn't seem to have taken it to heart either. He talked to himself while walking in the direction of the "Ivy district" in the distance. "A good roommate is also very important, looks like I'll have to spend some efforts again."
…
Early morning.
Snore... Snore...
Snoring full of rhythm rose and fell.
Ayrin lay on a wooden bed covered in dark green bedding.
The dancing tree shadows sprinkled through the window lattices and fell on his body. He'd slept himself into a torpor, felt a little thirsty. As soon as his drowsy eyes pried open, as soon as blurred images started to flash by, his eyelids once again fell closed.
He had no idea what happened.
He only felt that he'd slept for a long time, slept very contentedly, very comfortably.
"Classmate, wake up..."
Such a sound suddenly rang in his ears.
Ayrin did his best to open his eyes. He suddenly saw an unfamiliar figure standing in front of him. He shuddered, woke up with a start from his dreams.
What was this?
What happened?
He subconsciously sat up, blinking blankly.
"You're really good at sleeping."
A refined and gentle male student wearing glasses stood in front of his bed. He looked around the same age as Ayrin. "You slept from yesterday afternoon all the way til now. Right, I'm your roommate, I'm called Belo."
Ayrin subconsciously said, "Hello, I'm Ayrin. Where's this place though?"
"This is our dorm, Ivy residence district's seventh residence, room 233." Belo pushed his glasses and looked at Ayrin, the latter still looking thoroughly confused. "It seems you don't even know how you came here. You know the 'Wolf of Bloody Nights,' teacher Liszt?"
"I'm already in the dorm, I slept from yesterday afternoon all the way until now?" Ayrin had a fully blank face. "Wolf of Bloody Nights, Liszt? Who's that?"
"Our Holy Dawn Academy's strongest teacher, an existence legends say is extremely callous and blood-thirsty. Anyone who becomes an enemy of his will be cruelly beaten until they're more dead than alive. 'Wolf of Bloody Nights' is his nick." Belo pushed his glasses by habit. "They say he's the one who took you here."
"The strongest teacher in the academy... So powerful?" Ayrin shook his head, full of doubts. "I really don't know him though."
"No matter what, teacher Liszt let you and I stay in the same room. Starting from today we're friends." Belo pointed at Ayrin's bedside. "You first change your clothes, wash your face, rinse your mouth in the water room at the end of the hallway outside. The toilets are next door to the water room. I'll go first and buy some stuff to eat, I'll wait for you below."
Ayrin saw blue clothes resting beside the bed, the same as the ones Belo wore. They looked very soft. He subconsciously asked, "Wait for me to do what?"
"It's soon time for class, you have to hurry a bit." Belo said while walking out, "It's teacher Huston's class, there will be very grave consequences if we're late."
"Class?"
Ayrin took the blue uniform beside the bed, unable to make any sense out of the current situation.
This was a set of clothes was separated in two, an inner layer and an outer layer. The inner layer consisted of close-fitting sportswear while the outer layer consisted of slightly loose robe-like clothes. The words "Holy Dawn Academy" were embroidered on both the inner and outer layers. The inner layer's fabric seemed even tighter and more durable than the outer layer's. It looked like you were supposed to take off the outerwear during strenuous exercise and only wear the inner half.
"Huh...?"
The instant Ayrin grabbed the academy's uniform, his body suddenly felt very different compared to usual.
There seemed to be an inexhaustible strength in every parcel of his body. There also seemed to be a mass of bright light on top of his head, as if a door was open.
The most important thing was was, he was currently still wearing the clothes he usually wore, but they now felt especially tight on him.
He stood up, looked at his own arms and legs.
It wasn't an illusion. It was as if his clothes shrank after wash. He'd not only become a bit sturdier, he even grew taller by quite a bit.
He couldn't resist waving his fist.
There came a "whoosh."
This punch of his actually made a piercing sound through the air.
The thing that made him even more startled was, the many tiny particles in the air had converged on his fist on their own the moment he'd casually thrown this punch out.
This was the "arcane power" only awakened people could feel!
However, he had to concentrate the entire focus of his spirit to be able to sense and use "arcane power" before. Now he seemed to be able to use arcane power at will!
Without a doubt, this was a change brought by the fusion of bloodlines.
It seemed old Ginns' bloodline wasn't as bad as he'd imagined.
What bloodline was it though?
Ayrin was a little excited when he felt he'd become quite a bit more powerful, but then he turned depressed again when he remembered that he didn't even know what kind of bloodline he'd actually fused with.
…
The Ivy residence district where boys of Holy Dawn Academy lived came from the same era as the Cattail Library. They were the oldest buildings inside Holy Dawn Academy. The difference was that the Ivy residence district was entirely built from stone, three floors on each building, tall trees planted between every residential building. Ivies climbed all over those trees even more ancient than the district, blotting the sky and covering the sun, making it seem as if each and every building were sitting inside a gigantic forest.
Because it was ancient, Holy Dawn Academy's lodging conditions seemed a little simple and crude compared to academies built later on. Each floor of every dormitory had a single public water room, without a separate bathroom.
The whole dormitory was already well empty by the time Ayrin put his clothes on, washed, and walked out of the seventh residence's main doors. There was only Belo waiting for him, carrying a bag of things to eat.
"Let's go."
Belo took the lead as soon as he saw Ayrin come downstairs, rushing toward the "Thinker's Stone Forest." He introduced the "Thinker's Stone Forest" to Ayrin and told him it had been renovated from the old Holy Dawn Academy's arena originally there. Maybe it was because many arcane masters had used mighty arcane powers in there, but it seemed easier to focus and sense arcane power inside. That was why freshmen would all go to class together in it. The first-grade freshmen all had the same foundation course. They would have different courses only from the second year on, depending on their preferences and grades.
Running after Belo, gnawing on the ham bread Belo bought, Ayrin thought this roommate he just met was truly a good person.
"Why does it seem like they're looking at us a little strange?"
The Thinker's Stone Forest was located midway between the Ivy residence district and the Redbud residence district, a dozen minutes from both areas on foot. Ayrin also saw quite a few boys and girls in twos and threes coming a little late when they came closer to the Thinker's Stone Forest. Only, these freshmen seemed to avoid looking at them after seeing them, and they also seemed to deliberately keep a certain distance away from them.
"Maybe it's because we're somewhat handsome," said Belo with no concern.
Ayrin nodded when he heard Belo's answer, because Ayrin thought he'd become quite a bit more handsome after putting on the brand new academy uniform.
But he didn't know why, the closer they neared the Thinker's Stone Forest, the more he felt the gazes of these new students gather on Belo, from time to time. This made him turn his head and look at Belo with his glasses and gentle appearance. He thought, maybe there was more to him than met the eye.