When Rosalie finally made her way to the dormitories, the sun was already setting. The sky was painted in hues of yellow, orange, and red that reflected off her face.
The dormitory wasn't your average building either. It resembled a condominium if not anything else. Rosalie quietly thanked the headmaster for giving her a room on the first floor, it would be troublesome to take the elevator every day just to get to her room.
Once Rosalie passed through the sliding doors, she was greeted by the hall director. The hall director was a slightly chubbier, middle-aged lady with some gray hairs.
The area reminded Rosalie of a hotel lobby with a shop for refreshments and daily necessities to the left of the entrance and 2 elevators facing the entrance. Ambient music was playing in the background and there was fancy looking furniture creating a lounge-like atmosphere.
"Hello! Welcome to Wexcombe Academy, we're excited to have you. My name is Deborah and I am the hall director for this dormitory. Let me just verify your room, may I take a look at your student card?"
Rosalie took her card out of her wallet and handed it to the woman.
"Ah yes, I was informed by the headmaster of your arrival. Room 16 is the last room at the end of the hall to the right. Here's a welcome gift."
Deborah grinned at Rosalie while handing over a pouch of cookies. She then guided Rosalie to her room.
There was a silver plate with the number 16 on the wooden framed door. Deborah handed over a pair of silver keys that fit into the lock on the knob.
"There's 2 in case you lose one."
Deborah winked at Rosalie,
"Thanks, Deborah, have a good evening."
Rosalie flashed Deborah a thankful smile and opened the door to her new room.
"No worries, just don't be late to dinner today, we're having a large feast welcoming all the freshmen!"
"I won't, I will see you later then."
Rosalie headed in and gave a curt wave to Deborah.
She was a little excited to see her new room, not that she would admit it.
It was a quaint room with a single twin-sized bed to the far left corner, fit with comfy-looking, blue bedsheets. There was a large window to the right, facing east where it looked out towards the flower beds that seemed to be tended too well. There were seats by the windows that were decorated with pillows and a warm looking blanket.
Rosalie walked over to crank the windows open to let some fresh air in.
She then inspected the wooden desk and chair at the end of the bed. She trailed a single finger over the smooth surface and brought it to her face.
Not a speck of dust.
It seems like they had someone come in and clean the room before she arrived.
She unpacked her things into the storage compartments under the bed. All she brought were some clothes, paperwork, stationery, her laptop and an old photograph of her parents. She placed the framed photo on the desk by the small electronic clock.
This might not have been part of her plan, but things weren't as bad as she thought they would be. She liked the new room and looked forward to gaming by the window seats and sleeping on the comfy bed. She wasn't worried about studying at all, she would just continue to do as she usually did. She was confident that she could get by without exerting excess energy.
She put her laptop down onto the desk and slid onto the wheelie chair and spun around a little.
This is fun.
Opening her laptop, she saw a couple of notifications from the new game that she was playing, "The Lonely World"
It was a new, up and coming MMORPG where you could pick different races, jobs and play with other people. However, Rosalie preferred to be a solo player.
Rosalie's avatar in the game was an elf with an ambiguous gender with the username "Ode". She played as a hunter and was well known in the online community as the best sniper. She was currently 2nd in the global rankings, but people knew that if she put in the extra effort, she could easily take 1st place. The current 1st ranker was a warrior named "Tophe" that paid a fair bit of money to get him along the way.
The reason why "Ode" was so popular online was that nobody knew who they were. Tophe was vocal about his identity and everyone knew he was Christophe Niel, son of one of the largest shopping conglomerates in the world.
Come to think of it, didn't Christophe recently announce that he was accepted into Wexcombe? Rosalie looked forward to seeing him in person.
Rosalie played for fun as a way to destress, she never wanted to participate in any competitions or sponsored teams, it wasn't her cup of tea.
She waited for "TLW" to load and got a cup of water from the sink. Sitting back down, she took a sip while browsing through some of the dms she got while she was offline.
Most of them were just people asking for her identity, some were threats and a couple of sponsorship offers. The only one she read was the one from Tophe, he always sent her some interesting messages that entertained her to no end.
Tophe: Hey, just admit it, you're my fan aren't' you??
Tophe: You tried ur best to get to 2nd place to get my attention, of course, I'm extremely flattered. But just so u know, I won't go easy on u even if you're a fan.
Tophe: I know your game; you're playing hard to get and avoiding my messages to get my attention. Well just so u know, it's not working.
Tophe: hello?
Pftt, he was just too full of himself or was it just a persona, no actual person could be that self-centered, right?
Nevertheless, Rosalie left him on read, as she did to all his messages. Replying would just fuel his ego. She headed to a new dungeon that she found recently to explore the new area. After a few hours, Rosalie logged off and got ready to head to the dining area for dinner.
She put her laptop away under her bed and closed the windows. She placed her wallet in her pocket and flipped off the light switch, locking the door behind her.
The dining room should be on the main floor, according to her memory. She headed in the general direction and followed the crowd of students.
The dining room was more like a restaurant than anything else. There was a host that assigned tables to students according to their group size and waiters that would take your order.
Rosalie opted to dine alone and got a seat by the drinks table. She sat down on the cushioned seat and opened the menu on top of the white tablecloth. She wondered how they kept them so clean. Did they vigorously wash them? Or just replace them each time.
Glancing through the menu, it seemed like the options were divided into different sets, each one with optional add-ons of meat, fish, or soy-based protein. Since it was the first day, and she would be able to try them all eventually, she chose a simple first meal consisting of rice, fish, and a couple of small, vegetable side dishes.
A waiter eventually got to her table and asked for her order.
"I would like set B with a side of salmon and the vegetable sides."
"Sure thing, would you like a drink to go with that?"
"Yes please, I'd like some sparkling juice."
The young waiter nodded and wrote down my order.
"How would you like to pay?"
Rosalie remembered the letter saying that all her living expenses were taken care of, but it never went into detail on how she would be able to use the funds.
"Uh, what payment methods do you accept?"
"We accept credit, debit, cash, and student credit."
The waiter replied quickly in a well-rehearsed way.
"How do I check my student credit?"
A student credit would be the most obvious way to fund her living expenses.
"It's very simple, I can even check it for you right now, all I have to do is swipe your card onto this card reader."
Rosalie nodded and handed over her student card.
The waiter swiped the card and looked unsure, he swiped it a couple of times to confirm. Then had an astonished look on his face. He quickly wiped it off and returned her card with a professional smile. This is Wexcombe Academy, I shouldn't be shocked by things like this, most of the students here are heirs and heiresses he thought to himself.
"You have 20 million dollars in student credit."
"Ah, I see."
Rosalie was silently freaking out inside.
Who was the genius that thought she would need 20 million dollars for 4 years of school?