"All the trainees gather up in Room A after breakfast! There is an announcement to be made!" Instructor Mary shouted loudly, getting everyone's attention.
It was early in the morning before the sun rose. The dawn painted a beautiful spread of red and orange blush on the skies. The majority of humans and animals were still deep asleep at this time.
However, all the trainees undergoing the special training have long been used to waking up at this dreadful hour.
After all the trainees finished up their breakfast preparation class, they started on the breakfast they made themselves. Three-layered golden pancakes, scrambled eggs with chopped bacon, and each of their respective preferences of either vanilla or chocolate handmade yogurt adorned each of their plates.
The cafeteria was silent as the message was being delivered.
Having said her part, Instructor Mary also left to eat her breakfast with the other instructors.
The area gradually regained its previous noise level. Not too quiet but not too loud.
"I wonder what the announcement is going to be about?" Rip wondered as he nudged Chase with his elbow.
Still, his curious thoughts were not strong enough to distract his attention from the food in front of him. Rip used his utensil to pick up a slice of the tasty-looking golden pancake and placed it in his mouth.
Rip's eyes brightened.
Yum!
"Don't think about it now, they'll tell us after breakfast anyways, so we might as well eat quickly and gather the energy to work for the day," Chase said as he partook in his breakfast with a bright and carefree smile.
"I guess you're right. I always get hungry an hour before lunch. I should eat more," Rip nodded his head in absolute agreement. "I'm just the restless kind, I like to know things and hate being kept in suspense."
After the trainees finished up their breakfast, they all headed to Room A as instructed.
Room A was the large auditorium room in the special training building. Normally, it was hardly ever used during the lessons, except for the posture training classes.
Long before this building was designated as the special training ground, it used to belong to an Everett bloodline who loved acting and singing. They had this stage and the seats built into the room for themselves to act and perform on, as well as for other actors and singers to perform on.
After their death, no one used this room or the building anymore until the special training courses came into the picture and this building was selected to be the training place.
That's to say, this building has been around for generations and was very old.
The trainees all took a seat among the numerous auditorium seats. Friends and roommates sat next to each other while some isolated themselves from the rest.
Up on the old stage that didn't look its age thanks to the sedulous care of the Everett group's personnel, postured Butler Srca in his instructor outfit, looking stern and unfriendly like the rest of the instructors lined up horizontally behind him. Looking as if to deliberately scare and terrorize the trainees.
Instructor Srca clapped his hands.
Instantly, the auditorium went silent, not a peep was heard.
Instructor Srca inwardly felt satisfied with the results of their training, a smile tugged at his lips only to be squashed down.
Maintaining his stern expression, he began, "I have an announcement today regarding the issue of dorms."
Silence.
"More than half of the initial group of applicants have quit, and still more are quitting. I bet some of you are considering the possibility of leaving and that's up to you. Whoever wants to stay stay, and whoever wants to leave leave. No one is stopping you or forcing you to be here. My point is, I have noticed that the dorms are emptying out and some of you either have too few roommates or no roommates at all."
He took a pause, looking at the listening faces of the trainees below the stage.
Instructor Srca continued, "I decided that I'll be rearranging your assigned dorms and your roommates. So before we move on to the next activity in our regular schedule, you'll either be moving into your new dorms or welcoming your new dorm members."
"I will now inform you of the new arrangements…"
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"...That will be all. You have 20 minutes. Go and pack your stuff and move into your new dorms," ended Instructor Srca. After a second, he added as a side note, "You can settle in slowly at night."
With a grave look on his face and his lips flat, not a trace of a smile or a frown, Instructor Srca stared deeply into their eyes one by one.
"Be on time or prepare to be disciplined."
"Yes!" They shouted in unison. All the trainees got up and went out in an orderly manner back to their respective dorms to pack their stuff.
Watching their leaving figures, Butler Srca suddenly smiled mysteriously.
"It's great that we'll still be rooming together even though we got assigned a new dorm and all," Rip said as he walked and stretched his body that tensed up after sitting for so long. As he stretched, he could feel his muscles stretch and relax, becoming comfortable.
Jumping a few steps, Rip felt as good as new, full of energy to tackle on the classes and assignments for the day.
"Yeah," Chase agreed. Putting on a thoughtful expression, Chase spoke aloud his thoughts, "But who's this Blake we'll be rooming with?"
Rip shook his head, also looking confused. "I have no idea."
Chase looked surprised. "I thought you knew everyone!"
Rip shook his head again and huffed, "I don't know everyone, but I do know the names and faces of 99% of the group."
Chase shrugged, "Sounds like a lot to me either way."
Rip put his thinking cap on as he sifted through his memories trying to recall if he ever met a "Blake" here.
Coming out, Rip still shook his head. "Nope. Never met him."
Spotting someone, Rip quickly called out, "Hey, Tate! Come here!"
A young man with short brown hair and a smiling expression walked to Rip and Chase. "What's up?"
"You, like, know everyone here. Do you know who Blake is?" Rip asked him. He had high hopes that Tate would know.
From the first day here, Rip had come to know of Tate, a very cheerful and talkative person who's in his twenties much like the average of the trainees.
Even when Tate was not smiling, because of his naturally smiling looking facial features, Tate always appeared to be happy and smiling.
He was the person who got to know everyone in the special training on the first day here, including all the instructors. He boasted that there was not a single person he didn't know within the special training.
Now Rip can only count on the knowledgeable Tate for answers regarding his and Chase's new mysterious roommate.
Tate took some time to think and then he frowned, which Rip thought wasn't possible with his facial features. Tate looked apologetically at Rip and said, "Sorry, I don't have an impression of any Blake."
Rip was shocked, even Tate didn't know who he was? 'Who exactly is he? Did he ever come to the training with us?'
"It's fine. Thank you anyways." Rip said, a little dejectedly. Guess he'll have to wait until he gets to the dorm to see who this Blake was.
"No problem." Tate smiled before disappearing into the crowd of trainees swarming to the dorming area.
"Let's go," Chase said and pulled Rip to their dorm room to pack up.
Once Rip got to his bedside, he started randomly stuffing his clothes, phone, toys and nintendo switch, and other gadgets that he brought with him into the suitcase his mom prepared for him when he first moved in.
On the other hand, Chase meticulously folded all his clothes and pants neatly into his bag, wrapped his charger around itself neatly, and placed his things inside his bag nice and orderly. He was so careful and punctilious that he seemed unlike himself, contrasting vividly against his careless and carefree appearance.
Rip even did a double take and took a few incredulous glances at him.
Rip never got the impression that Chase cared so much for order and tidiness. All his clothes were folded wrinkleless and standard. Everything else was arranged so that they don't get tangled up and messy.
Looking at his suitcase and then looking at Chase's bag. Rip couldn't help but compare them.
Scratching his head, Rip dumped everything back out and tried to at least fold his clothes.
Sadly, Rip did not care much for folding his own clothes. Unlike how excellently Rip performed in the laundry class where they learned how to wash and fold clothes, when it came to taking care of himself, Rip was so lazy and absentminded that the originally smooth clothes ended up wrinkled, resembling crumbled pieces of paper.
But Rip didn't get frustrated.
He kept trying.
But his mind kept drifting away from him.
Eventually, Rip decided to halt this operation and push this matter aside for next time. He again threw his clothes and everything else into the suitcase, even messier than last time.
Chase couldn't stand to watch this catastrophe any longer, so he decided to take a stand.
Ripping the clothes out of Rip's grip, Chase used his skills to neatly and tidily fold them up in mere seconds.
"Wow~" Rip stood astounded by Chase's swift and proficient technique.
Even the wrinkles pinched by Rip's negligent hands were smoothed away by Chase's magical hands.
In a few minutes, Chase was able to transform the previously rat's nest of a suitcase into a top-tier artisan's work.
Everything within the suitcase seemed to sparkle, dazzling Rip's eyes.
"Okay, let's go," Chase said as he slipped his arm through the strap of his bag, fixing the strap stably onto his shoulder, and walked out with Rip right behind him pulling his suitcase.
A hall down from where their old dorm was located, the lights embedded into the ceiling seemed to flicker eerily.
Rip suddenly shuddered for no reason.
"What's wrong?" Chase asked, unaffected by the weird environmental changes.
"D-Don't you feel that i-it's chilly here compared to the other parts of the hallway?" Rip tremblingly asked with a stutter.
"Huh? No." Chase shook his head. He felt everything was normal.
Chase grabbed Rip and pulled him along to the front of the door of their new dorm room. "No time to be dillying. Let's get this over and done with. We still have a lot of chores to finish up at the Everett Mansion after this."
Rip reluctantly nodded and dragged his feet forward.
They pushed the door in.
The inside of their new dorm looked exactly the same as the room they previously slept in. There was no difference except for the unfamiliar stuff surrounding one of the beds that seemed to be occupied already.
Instantly, Rip forgot the unpleasant feeling that clung to him before and picked the bed positioned beside one of the two windows. Parking his luggage next to the bed, Rip opened the window and saw the relaxing and peaceful scenery outside formed by tall green trees, refreshing plants, brilliant flowers, and small animals running around fearlessly outside.
Rip breathed in the fresh air. "Ah~!"
Turning his head, Rip staked his claim, "This bed is mine!"
The bed Rip formerly used was next to the door, because he was the last trainee to join, there was not a lot of leeway when it came to bed options. The two beds near the window were already occupied by that time.
"No problem," Chase nonchalantly stated and selected his own bed near the doorway. He preferred to be next to an exit.
Chase placed his bag down.
As the two of them started unpacking whatever they could of their stuff in the remaining time they had, they started chatting to not let the room fall into silence.
"Hey, where do you think our third roommate is?" Rip asked as he reached out and retracted his once empty hand now holding his gaming switch, making the suitcase look as though a piece of it were missing.
"I don't know. I didn't see anyone coming this way while heading here," Chase remarked as he moved his neatly folded clothes into the drawers attached to the underside of the bed.
"That's weird." Rip looked confused. Did they actually not exist?
"Y-you don't think it's a ghost, do you?" With wide eyes, fear appeared in his sky blue eyes as Rip looked ghastly at Chase who looked back helplessly at Rip—Chase obviously did not believe that their new roommate could be a ghost.
"I'm not a ghost."
Suddenly, a low and gloomy voice came out from nowhere, startling both Rip and Chase.
Whipping their heads around at the same time in the same direction, they were both stunned to discover a living person sitting on one of the beds—the exact bed that looked occupied when they first entered.
Blake had been inside of the room all along. However, somehow, neither Rip nor Chase noticed him even when they directly looked at him. It was as if their eyes bypassed him and did not register his existence into their mind to be perceived by their eyes.
With his ruffled black hair and deep dark circles underlying his pure black eyes, Blake appeared gloomy and aloof, giving off an unpleasant feeling that would make anyone who notices him back off.
"Ah!" Rip screamed and ran to hide behind Chase.