*Ding-Dong* *Ding-Dong*
The ringing of the bell reverberated throughout the dorm room and woke up Yohan from his nap.
As he felt the softness of the mattress leaving him, he groggily and reluctantly stood up.
'Second bell? It should be lunchtime right now. Let's head to the cafeteria.' He thought to himself.
As he opened the door to his room, he was once again in the corridor from earlier. Unlike earlier, however, it was now bustling with activity as kids around his age were leaving their rooms and running around the corridors, some of them almost causing him to lose his balance and fall.
Just as he was about to enter his room once again, he heard a childish and high-pitched voice speaking to him "Need help?"
Yohan turned around to see who it was, and strangely, he just saw a torso in front of him.
Raising his head, only then did he understand that this boy was, in fact, just very tall. Despite his height, the boy's face was that of a child, with disproportionately big eyes and baby fat coagulating around his cheeks.
"Tall...." Yohan muttered.
The boy looked at him with a thin smile like he was expecting this response and said.
"I know, dummy"
The two stared at each other for a while, one of them looking up so much it hurt his neck, and the other, looking down so much it was painful to watch.
The taller boy, nonetheless, broke the silence and introduced himself while rubbing his shoulders "I'm Adil Majan. Special Recruits student."
Yohan also reciprocated "The name's Yohan Yerzog. I guess we're in the same class."
"Oh, it's nice to meet a fellow classmate. What's your Spirit? Mine is 'The Archer'." Adil asked him with glowing eyes that screamed of passion.
That passion reminded Yohan of one the only moments of peace in his past life, when he would turn on the television to watch superhero shows and look forward to the villain being beaten, perhaps because he wanted a superhero to step in and beat the villains in his own life.
Feeling these thoughts coming back once again and his mind starting to wander, Yohan slapped himself in the cheek to awake from his trance and responded to Adil's question.
"I'm 'The Bishop'."
"I've heard of you. You should one of the two only peasants in the class"
As if he thought he said something bad or condescending, Adil put his hand over his mouth, and started speaking really fast.
"It's n-not to p-put you down or anything. I, myself, am only from a very low-ranked noble family..."
Yohan thought it to be quite funny, and giggled and reassured him "It's fine. I might have many insecurities but not being a noble is not one of them."
"Really?"
"Yes" Yohan waved his hand.
Adil regained his earlier excitement and asked him "Are you heading to the cafeteria?"
Yohan nodded.
"Then let me show you the way!" He exclaimed.
'He seems like a nice person and we're in the same class. It wouldn't hurt to make some friends' Yohan mulled over it for a bit but decided to loosen up a bit.
As they were walking through the lively corridors, every time someone was about to bump into them, Adil would stand in front of him and since he stood out, the kids would evade them.
Therefore, thanks to this very tall friend he just made, the journey to the cafeteria was quite smooth-sailing.
As Naima informed him earlier, the cafeteria was right next to the dormitories and the clock tower rising from the main body of the structure was the centerpiece of the cafeteria building, being very noticeable.
The interior consisted of a very wide and long hall with hundreds of round tables that held space for five to six students each.
Most of the tables were fully occupied, and they split between the two of them the task of finding an empty table.
Yohan didn't have to search very long to find the table he would sit in.
Unlike the other tables where there were either many people or no one at all, there was one that only had a single student sitting.
The student was someone who was very memorable to Yohan.
That long light-brown hair and the tattered clothing, the determined eyes and the unexpected surprise at the ceremony.
It was 'The Queen' and the person that invoked in him the most intrigue and curiosity, just slightly less than his mother.
As he was staring at her for far too long, she raised her head from the plate of food and stared him with emotionless eyes.
Yohan felt like all oxygen in the world ran out at that moment, like he was drowning in the deep ocean.
That feeling only lasted a moment, however, as he regained his breath and her eyes weren't so scary anymore.
'What was that?' Yohan wondered.
He felt a light touch on his back and turned around, seeing it was Adil, he sighed in relief.
"Adil, how about we sit there?" Yohan pointed to the table where she was sitting.
She was enigmatic, yes.
She was kind of scary, yes.
But he wasn't about to let this pass, as he was almost sure she knew something about the reasons he was here, and how to pass on.
Adil saw where he was pointing and started shivering.
He told him "Are you sure? That's 'The Queen'. We might all be Special Recruits, but she's on a whole other level than us!"
"Let's ask her"
Adil shrugged and followed him as they got closer to the table of 'The Queen', who was watching their every move.
When they were right in front of her, Yohan asked formally "Greetings, May I and my friend sit here?"
...
There was no reaction or response from her for a dozen seconds, and just as Adil nudged him to tell him that they should go, she unexpectedly nodded.
Adil gave him a look and the two sat on the table.
"The name's Avita." As they were getting ready to eat, he heard a powerful voice speaking.
Raising his head, he saw 'Avita' looking at him.
Those eyes of hers, they reminded him of someone, but he just couldn't quite put his finger on it so he gave up.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Yohan."
As there wasn't much else to speak about, they all dug in to their food.
The food was surprisingly good. Today's lunch was a flatbread with a side of fried chickpea balls, that were a bit rustic but somewhat reminded him of Falafel from his past life. There were also caramelized onions and ground beef.
Yohan filled the flatbread with these side dishes and wrapped it into a sandwich.
They were also given unflavoured yogurt that was normally a dessert, but to add some acidity and freshness to the wrap he just made, he coated the flatbread with the yogurt.
It was all quite good and he appreciated the food.
As he was chewing, however, he heard something and almost puked out all of his food.
"Fight me" Avita, who was on the opposite side of the table, was glaring at him and looked very much serious.
Yohan gulped his food and asked confusingly "Now???"
"Yes, fight me in a game of Chaturanga." She was still serious.
'Chaturanga? That's....chess.' Yohan contemplated. He actually played some chess in his past life, and he was in the middle ground between a beginner and an intermediate-level player.
Yohan turned to Adil, who nodded at him fervently.
He shrugged and turned back to Avita, accepting her 'duel' invitation.
When she heard that, she stood up and went somewhere for a few minutes before coming back, this time with a chess board in her hand.
She put it down on the table violently and said "You'll be white."
He was still a bit confused but he put down the pieces in their respective position and she asked him to start playing.
Yohan moved the center pawn two positions forward, allowing the bishop and the queen free movement.
Avita performed the same move.
This was a big opportunity for him, as he could conduct the biggest beginner trap in chess, the Scholar's Mate, if she didn't notice.
She didn't seem to doubt anything so he moved the bishop to a position where he could diagonally block the movement of the king.
She played the knight this time, moving it in an L shape to the center part.
He played the queen diagonally to the rightmost position in the board.
She then moved her other knight to a position where she thought she threatened his queen but it was a blunder and his plan was a success.
He used his queen to capture the pawn diagonally in front of her king and it was all over.
"Checkmate." Yohan declared.
She looked dumbfounded and unconvinced of it but as she verified the board, she seemed to have understood her loss.
"Why did I lose?" She asked him.
"You were so preoccupied with offense that you forgot to defend your own king, and it cost you your loss." Yohan informed her.
"But don't worry about it. That's just one of the magical aspects of the moves 'The Bishop' and 'The Queen' can make. The bishop can easily invade enemy territory, cause damage and equally as easy, he can escape enemy territory, unless, he is completely surrounded." Yohan gave her his opinion.
"Thank you." She said and she put her hand out.
Yohan presumed she wanted a handshake and thus shook her hand.
The way she looked at him was now just a little bit less cold and threatening.
Adil, who was on the side, has had his jaw wide open for a while now, and Yohan closed it for him as he thought it might get dislocated if he kept it like that.
In truth, he didn't do anything miraculous. If Avita was just a little more knowledgeable or skilled, she could have easily avoided this checkmate, and then, he wouldn't be as confident in winning anymore.
To end this interlude, they heard the sound of the bell ringing, indicating it was time for them to go to the common classes, as they were all classmates.
Adil was now looking at him with idolizing eyes and nodding senselessly.
"Stop that." Yohan told him.
Avita also tidied up and the three, now acquaintances or perhaps friends, all made their way to their first class in the Spirit Academy.