Leige awoke slowly, finding himself in a very comfortable bed.... where was he?
He looked to his left and saw George fast asleep on the small armchair he frowned. That looked very uncomfortable.
Sighing to himself as he prayed George was a deep sleeper, he crept towards the older boy. Seeing as he didn't react, Leige cautiously touched his arm. No reaction... he was in the clear.
Slowly grabbing his other arm with the intent of dragging George to the bed, he carefully tried to lift him up, cursing George for being so heavy... although in reality he was at a healthy weight and Haruka had never carried a person in his past life so he was over-exaggerating.
George shuffled around in his sleep and Leige immediately froze, widening his eyes and praying he didn't wake up in the very awkward position he was in now.
Not taking anymore chances, Leige simply flung George onto the bed, hearing a soft "-oof" as he landed before scurrying away.
Since he had slept half the way to George's room, he didn't actually know where his room was. Wondering around mindlessly, he found a window and was slightly surprised at the still dark landscape. So apparently it was still night... wondering if he could find a clock anywhere, he stumbled into a large room.
Opening his eyes and glancing around, he found himself to be in the library, deduced from the spiralling bookcases and intimidating tall walls.
Well, now that he was here, he might as well read some books..?
Indifferent to his surroundings, he chose a random staircase and a random shelf to take a random book from. Pulling a book out and glancing through, he decided that he was going to have to take multiple at a time so that he could stay still as much as possible. After all, why work hard when you can work smart like big brain Haruka..?
Looking around for a place to sit, he frowned as he realised he should have taken the blanket from George's room but ultimately decided that it was too bothersome to go back at this point. Settling on the floor, not minding the dust and grime, he began to read.
'The ultimate theory of magic' he read the title and grinned softly. This was going to be an interesting ride. Checking the other titles, he assumed that he had taken them out of the 'magic' shelf.. exactly what he had been wanting to research, although in truth, he wouldn't have minded some simple fairy tales either.
He flipped through the book. To anyone who had been watching him read, they would have assumed that he could not possibly be reading, judging by the pace he was flipping through the pages, but he honestly was. Although he didn't have photographic memory, once he understood a concept, it would stay understood in his mind.
Frowning unconsciously in thought, he stopped at one of the last pages of the book.
So this was how it was... in this world, they believed that magic flowed from the soul, something the practical Haruka immediately dismissed, seeking a scientific answer. It appeared as though each 'soul' had a certain amount of 'magic' in them, determined from their past life or parent's status. This would have indicated that magic was hereditary, if not for the living proof of him being 'powerless'.
His soft pink hair made Haruka consider not being a biological child to the Duke of the Devereux house if not for otome-game logic this world had, that main characters had certain appearances, no matter if they were related or not, a perfect example of this being the fire and ice twins, which would've been an interesting case if not for the otome-game logic.
He sunk in his thoughts for a moment. Based on the limited research and evidence he had to work with, it would take a lot of brain power to understand the proper reasoning.
With the threat of having to use his brain, he hurriedly read the rest of the rather useless book and moved onto the next.
Deep in his thoughts after finishing his batch of books, he was completely unaware of the rising sun and the chaos that had ensued in the mansion.
"Y-Young master Leige? Are you here?" a young woman's voice resounded through the large room.
Interrupted from his thoughts, he peeked out in slight annoyance at the voice and was startled at the sun shining on his face.
The maid immediately noticed him and noticeably relaxed with relief.
"Y-Young Master L-Leige c-can you come down p-please?" She stumbled over her words as she met the gaze of a confused young child. At the face of a confused child, she immediately became confused as well.
Surely this was Young Master Leige? the pink hair matched the description, and she was pretty sure that he was the only one with that colour hair in the whole mansion. Honestly, she was assigned to Master George and had only caught peeks of the boy around the house.
She took another peek at the boy who was sticking his head out from a row of books.. the sun illuminated his face and accentuated his murky grey eyes with a hint of blue, his slightly feminine features highlighted as his tousled pink hair looked as if there were sparks of gold hidden in a maze of cotton candy.... it made her feel like she was not worthy to even be noticed by such an ethereal beauty!!
Leige sighed to himself, slightly disappointed at the prospect of having to go to school.. if he wasn't late already. He took the books he had read and carried them carefully down the stairs, almost toppling over multiple times causing the young maid to run up to him and take the load off him.
He grinned at her as he was free of the weight, lazily following where she was going.
The maid nearly cooed out loud at the adorable boy who she had never previously met before. She hesitated slightly as she wondered where to take the boy, who seemed to just be following her.
She decided on the main hall, and bumped into multiple maids before feeling a tugging motion on the back of her uniform, turning around seemingly too abruptly as she bumped into the young master. She yelped.
"Ah! Sorry Y-" he cut her off with a small push to indicate that she should carry on walking wherever she was going. She blushed and carried on.
As they got to the main hall with Leige holding the back of her uniform so he wouldn't get lost, they saw George frantically searching the hall.
"George." Leige called out softly, George's worried eyes immediately snapping to him and rushing over to embrace the young boy.
"Where were you? I was so scared, don't do that ever again.." he mumbled into Leige's shoulder, tightening his embrace.
Leige pondered to himself.. surely he hadn't been gone that long right? He patted George's head and tried to pull out of the embrace.
"..need to..get dressed.. for school.." Leige yawned and George grumbled.
"You just want to go to sleep again don't you." Leige flinched... how had his master plan been foiled?!! Leige narrowed his eyes... perhaps George was smarter than he looked....
..who was he kidding George looked very smart
George sighed and led Leige to his room, not before pausing at the maid, who handed him Leige's books and he bowed respectfully to her as gratitude for finding the troublesome young boy, at which she became increasingly flustered at.
Leige lazily picked out his newly ironed school uniform before tears blinded his eyes from the excessive amount of yawns. George sighed and began to dress his younger brother. They were about to exit the room when Leige remembered about his books and took them and placed them in his bag, where he had emptied all of his school supplies so he could carry less.... not that it mattered since George was carrying it.
Before they left, George made sure to give Leige a packed lunchbox and fed him some fish before they had to hurriedly leave for school. Their father already had to leave for work and George doubted that he would be back for at least a day.
He took another glance at the sleeping Leige. What a start to the morning...
They reached the school, George rushing out to open Leige's door so he could keep an eye on the now deemed 'troublesome' boy.
They walked at a leisurely pace - because of Leige, and finally reached Leige's classroom.
"Stay out of trouble." George warned Leige before giving into his brotherly desires and patting the younger boys head, smiling in satisfaction as the young boy seemed to perk up at the affection.
As Leige walked into the room, he could feel the eyes on him again as he walked all the way to his seat, at the back. Not wasting anytime, he immediately took a book from his bag and began to reread the important bits of information he needed fresh in his mind to think about.
"S- I mean Leige-san! Good morning!!" Leige barely lifted his head to know that it was the cheerful heroine who had decided to befriend him. His fingers lifted up weakly, something that could barely be called a wave, but Yumi smiled and sat down next to him, peeking over his shoulder. " Watchu reading?"
Leige mentally frowned. For a person who insisted on being so polite with him at the start, she definitely got friendly with him very fast... not that he really minded
"An essay to prove the Telinger's theory on magic and evolution, co-written by Elise Swarlinter, a graduate of the School of Science and Theory and anonymous." His soft voice still shocked everyone around him, and Yumi awkwardly settled back into her seat.
"ah- I-I see.." Leige glanced at the girl curiously, wondering why she sounded slightly uncomfortable before losing interest and returning to the essay at hand.
He had blanked out and looked up in surprise as he broke from his thoughts. He found the teacher to be standing at the front of the room, pointing at some writing on the board.
He caught the teacher's eye and flinched.
"Ah- sir Leige, since you're awake, why don't you tell us what the answer is?" the teacher asked in a slightly arrogant tone. At the sound of his name, the class immediately turned to him, Yumi looking at him in panic while the rest of the class were 'secretly' smirking and giggling.
He glanced at the board and immediately lost interest as he realised it was about history.. he knew absolutely nothing about history in this world.
He shrugged and went back to reading his book. The class fell silent... they were expecting some sort of reaction, some sort of embarrassed retort, anything?! Of course, no one had expected him to actually answer the question, but it was equally unexpected for him not to even speak or react!
The teacher narrowed her eyes at the lack of reaction..
"Now, Sir Leige.. I seem to recall that you are the only one who hasn't handed in the maths assignment as well.." the class snickered and Yumi frowned, knowing how smart he was.
Leige simply shrugged again, leading the teacher to believe that he had lost interest... how dare he?! How dare he ignore her?! She felt herself turning red from anger as the indifferent expression from his face never wavered.
"..you.." She was going to explode, but the bell started to ring, indicating the start of lunch. Almost immediately, people lost interest in Leige and the teacher and began to rush to the canteen while others began to chat with their friends.
Yumi was going to follow Leige out of the room but a group of people immediately started surrounding her and talking to her. She watched helplessly as the chance to talk to the adorable boy slipped out of her grasp...
Leige covered his yawn with his mouth as he carried his bag with a lot of effort...
He was flung around as hungry students pushed him out of the way to get their lunch. As he wondered where he should eat, completely forgetting about Yumi, he remembered where he stayed yesterday and took an abrupt turn to head to the student council president's office.
He stood in front of the office, which read "something (he wasn't bothered to figure out what the character said) Kouji" and knocked. Without waiting for a reply, he swung the door open and barrelled towards the fluffy couch, diving into the blankets and pillows which seemed to have increased in number from yesterday.
Kouji paused in his work.... what.. just happened? He took a glance at the now closed door and the lump in the blankets. In all honesty, he had requested a few blankets after seeing the sleeping young boy yesterday, and it seemed that he was correct in the fact that the shameless boy would come in again... he just hadn't expected it to be so soon...
Leige made himself at home in the blankets and Kouji resumed his work without any comment to the young boy who had barrelled into his office.
So, what had Leige learnt from the morning?