"So, why don't you tell me about this 'apprenticeship' they keep talking about?" I asked Elliot as we settled in our room.
He had once again taken out some platters full of food for us to partake in, since our early lunch was so rudely interrupted by the seniors. There were three kinds of fruit pies, freshly baked bread, and fried bacon and sausages with poached eggs.
I was worried about Cat at first, since he threw-up in the dining hall, but he seemed to have recovered as soon as Elliot handed him a slice of peach pie with whipped cream on top.
"As I was saying earlier," Elliot began, "This academy is famous for its apprenticeships." He took a big bite off a strawberry pie before he continued. "But it wasn't always that bad back in the old days, in fact, one of the best privileges you could get while studying here, is to be apprenticed to an actual master."
"A master?" I asked.
"Yes, masters of all fields from all over the empire teach here in the academy, and you can be an apprentice to them if you are lucky enough to catch their attention," Elliot continued. "As a matter of fact, my father was invited here years ago and even taught here for four years as a master merchant. We have several merchants under us, after all, and he was the Merchant Guild master six years in a row!" he said proudly. "He didn't stay long, though, since my father preferred going to far away places rather than standing behind a desk and teaching spoiled royal brats how to start and keep a business running."
"Things changed for the worst, when the crown prince started attending the academy three years ago," he went on. "Even back in my father's time, discrimination between nobles was already a big problem, but it became worst when he arrived. A clear divide was put upon students from lesser known houses, while his close friends were given more privileges. It got even worst when he stepped into his second year. It was then that he decided that senior students like himself, should be given the privilege to take in neophytes as apprentices, and treat them as slaves."
"As actual slaves?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing.
"Well, not really slaves," he corrected himself. "The idea was to help the new students fit in and to show them the ropes, but these privileged bastard used it as a reason to abuse their authority and turn their apprentices into their own personal slaves!" Elliot continued with a disgusted snarl. "Just think, having your pick of the young masters of noble houses, ordering them around and even doing perverted stuff with them! And of course, those who passed this kind of humiliating initiation, would surely do the same when they reach their second year, and take revenge on the incoming freshmen."
"Thus, a viscous cycle is born..." I said beneath my breath.
"I guess that's why my sisters told me not to catch the eyes of the seniors!" said Cat who was now stuffing his mouth with a slice of apple pie. "My sister Caithlyn used to have this fiancé who went here, see? He came back five years later, and he was crying, and he said he can't be with my sister anymore because he had changed in ways that he cannot explain. He said he can't give her children anymore."
"He completed his six years in the academy?" I asked.
"That's right, it happened just last year!" Cat added.
"Then the crown prince couldn't have been his senior back then."
"They say the rest of the senior students followed suit when they saw what the crown prince was doing," said Elliot. "Another senior probably violated him, or maybe someone from the same year who was close to the crown prince. He was lucky to be alive, though," Elliot said as an after thought. "Some neophytes didn't even last a year, or even a month when the crown prince suggested this apprenticeship. They were sent back home in caskets, with an undertaker's note claiming that they died of some bogus disease or another."
"Didn't the nobles ask for an autopsy?" I asked Elliot. "Or perhaps performed one of their own?"
"Some of them did," replied Elliot. "They found wounds in places there shouldn't be, as well as questionable marks and bruises all over their bodies, but the royal undertaker insisted that they died of some sickness, saying that the remains were too rotten to get another reliable autopsy. Also, the royal family proclaimed that the undertaker's findings were final, and that all who continue to question it were to be sent to the Crow's tower for sedition."
The Crow's tower.
It is an infamous prison in the middle of the Southern Red Wilderness where murderers and treacherous nobles are sent and never seen again.
"They say the number of deaths lessened a year later," Eliot added, "but there are still cases where students are sent home in wooden caskets, particularly from those who were brought to the second prince's private residence. And now that it's another new school year, a new wave of concubines are sent to the crown prince's harem."
"This truly is a serious dilemma," I said, shaking my head.
"Serious is right," said Cat with a pout. "I could hardly keep up with the stuff you're talking about! My head is about to crack just trying to understand what you two are saying!"
"Let's just say that the crown prince is a big bully who likes ass!" Elliot said with a loud laugh.
"Watch your language, young man!" I told him while covering Cat's ears, which he quickly pulled off.
"That's right! He's a real bully!" he proclaimed. "And Patrick, you talk like my grandpa! I haven't even heard of half of the words you're using!"
"Yeah, I get that feeling from him, too!" said Elliot with a big grin. "You should loosen up a bit, Pat, it's just Cat and me here with you, anyway. No need to act so formal."
"I am afraid, though, that this is my natural way of speaking. My mother raised us in a very strict household, after all," I said apologetically.
"Ah, you old families and your old ways..." Elliot clicked his tongue.
"Do you have something to drink?" Cat cut in, choking on a sausage he was eating too enthusiastically.
"Then, what do you think is the best way to deal with this problem?" I asked, picking out the most common words for my speech.
"The best thing to do is to stay out of their sight," said Elliot, pulling out some drinks from his small red pouch. "It's a good thing I'm too fat and ugly to catch their attention, and Cat's got that illusion spell you made, and you..." he looked at me with an apologetic grin.
"Yes, I am also thankful that I look like the undead," I said with a smile.
"Hey! That's not true!" Cat pouted after drinking a bottle of ginger ale. "You just haven't grown into it yet!"
"I beg your pardon?" I asked him.
"My friend Lycan used to have big ears too. In fact, they were much bigger than yours!" he said. "The other kids used to tease him all the time since he looked like an elephant we once saw in a picture book!"
"Oh, I've seen one while traveling with my father," said Elliot. He looked at me, squinted his eyes, and nodded a few times.
"Yeah, I see a bit of resemblance, but your nose isn't that long... it's just a bit too big for your face. If anything, I'd say you look more like an imp with your deep eyes bulging out, a wide mouth, and large ears sticking out of the side of your head..."
I tried to smile at my new friends' comments.
"Well, anyway," Cat said, drawing our attention. "his face started to change when he got to our age, his face got rounder, and his voice got deeper, and his hands got much bigger too!"
"He got his growth spurt!" said Elliot.
"He reached his adolescence," said I.
"Yes, that's it! He grew into his body!" Cat insisted. "So don't worry if your ears stick out too much, or your nose is too big for your face, or your eyes pop out when you get excited..."
"Do they really pop out?" I asked weakly. I've never actually checked myself in a mirror before.
"Yeah, a bit..." Elliot said softly.
"Well, it doesn't matter one bit!" Cat repeated. "Who cares what you look like? You're the nicest person I've known aside from my sisters, and you're definitely much better than those good looking seniors who are nothing but big bullies who like ass!"
Cat looked at us with a big grin in his face.
I stared at Elliot.
"I told you to watch your language."
"Sorry."
"Did I say anything wrong?" Cat asked, his head askew, a sweet innocent smile on his angelic face.
I gave a sigh and ruffled his soft blond hair.
"Just remember to keep the things we talk about in this room to yourselves," I told my room mates. "For now, I think we need to give our Cat a bath."
"Do you think it's safe to go to the baths?" Elliot asked as we made our way to the common bathroom on our floor.
"Well, it's the middle of the day, most of the students are probably having lunch right now," I assured him. "I am also fairly sure that the spell I placed on Cat is waterproof."
"Fairly sure?" Elliot asked, looking a bit worried.
"Yes, I used to wear it when I slip out of our estate to visit the public library in the middle of town, and I have been caught during a deluge in one occasion."
"What's a deluge?" Cat asked.
"A heavy rain or a blast of water," Elliot answered.
"But do I really smell of vomit?" Cat frowned and lifted his shirt to smell himself. "Bleagh... this is all that Tirin's fault for upsetting my tummy! It was such a waste of the yummy food Aunt May gave us, too!"
"Hush, Cat, remember to address the seniors with respect when we're not in our room," I reminded him.
"You really sound like my grandpa when you speak!" Cat said with a grin. "A very nice and warm grandpa!" he then placed his arms around my waist and hugged me from behind.
"I thank you for the warm compliment," I replied with a smile.
"You are most welcome!" Cat jumped on my back and held on to my shoulders. He stayed there as we made our way towards the third floor bath which was located near the main staircase.
"For someone as scrawny as you, you really seem quite strong, Pat," Elliot said, laughing as I dragged Cat behind me.
"Well, books can be quite heavy, after all," I said with a smile, "and I often need to haul them over to my room, which is at the other end of the estate from our family's library tower."
"Are we there yet?" asked Cat who looked over my shoulder.
Elliot looked at the vicinity map he brought with him.
"I think the thermal baths are at the ground floor, we can use the smaller common bathroom here on the our floor, but the water won't be heated."
"At least the facilities here are quite nice," I smiled, thinking how I had to go all the way to the main house just to get a proper bath.
So I simply decided not to take a bath at all.
Until my only remaining servant thought I had died and had begun to rot.
"I think this is it!"
Elliot pointed at an alcove at the end of the first hall. It led into a wide room with a small pool in the middle. Several stalls lined the walls where you could wash yourself and leave your belongings before dipping in the pool.
We were about to choose a stall, when we noticed a group of three students at the farthest end, ganging up on someone lying on the floor.
Cat's grip on my shoulders tightened.
"What the hell..." Elliot said out loud.
The three students looked at us.
They didn't even bother to stand up. They simply went back to harassing the person on the floor.
It was a young man.
Probably another neophyte.
He was lying on his back, naked, and being pinned down by his attackers.
"Did you really think such an obvious trick would work on us?" the biggest sneered at the neophyte.
He then touched the neophyte's face and started to peel something off of it. It was then that I realized who it was.
"So, the burn mark was fake after all!" said one of the seniors.
"Yeah, he probably thinks he could get away with it by trying to look ugly."
They faced us then.
"What about that undead goblin?" one of them said, pointing at me.
"That, my friend, is not something you could simply do with make-up alone!" one of them said laughing.
"And I don't want to fuck a pig either." They continued to laugh.
"Well, what are you bastards still looking at?" they asked as we stood frozen in our place.
"Why don't you two just scram?!"
Two.
That's right. They didn't notice Cat hanging on my back.
"P-please... help..."
I kept my eyes on their victim's golden ones.
He was bleeding from a broken lip and a gash on his forehead. Signs that he probably tried to fight back.
"What, you think those idiots would risk their necks just to save yours?" laughed the biggest in the group as I raised my right hand.
"You're staying here," he said, pulling the neophyte's legs apart. "We're not letting you go until we're satis –"
A strong jet of water suddenly hit the biggest assailant from behind.
His face slammed against the wall in front of him due to the pressure, and fell unconscious on top of the young student.
"What the-"
Another jet of water hit the remaining two which also slammed them against the wall.
"Is that what you call a deluge?" Cat asked from behind me.
Elliot quickly ran to the young student.
"Are you alright?" he asked, pulling him from underneath the fallen senior.
"What happened?" the neophyte asked, blinking.
"G-ghosts!" Elliot blurted out. "P-probably the vengeful spirits of dead neophytes, looking for justice!"
"G-ghosts?"
Elliot helped the young man to his feet. His long black hair fell past his pale shoulders, as well as a flimsy reddish film that used to be the burn mark that covered half of his face. What it uncovered, was flawless milky white skin, broken only by his captor's vicious attacks.
"Thank you for helping me," he said when he finally got his bearings. "I was hoping that there won't be any people in the baths during lunch time," he added, "I guess, I was wrong..."
"We were actually thinking the same thing," I told him. "Are you alright to walk on your own? I don't think it's a good idea to stay here for long."
"I... I think I can manage..." he said worriedly, "but my disguise..." He picked the fake skin from the wet floor. "And wouldn't you guys be in trouble as well when they wake up?"
"But that was the doing of vengeful spirits!" Elliot insisted. "That water just moved by itself!"
"Could there really have been a ghost?" the young man asked.
"It is not... impossible..." I mumbled.
I have always found it hard to tell a lie.
"But whatever it is, these seniors would surely blame you for what happened," he said. "Also, I have blown my cover. I guess I'll be living in hell for the next five years..."
The young man's body began to shake as tears fell from his eyes.
Elliot looked at me, his brown eyes imploring, until we heard a splash and saw Cat taking a bathing in the pool. He came out after some laps and hurriedly dressed himself, gracing our sights with a perfectly round peach as he bent over to put his underwear on.
I was a bit surprised to see how fit his body looked.
"We better get back before the ghosts return and the seniors wake up," he reminded us.
I kept where I stood.
I was trying to make up my mind.
"Pat?" Elliot looked expectantly at me. "Do you have a plan?"
I heaved a deep sigh and dropped my eyes to the ground.
"May I know your name?" I asked the lad who was now sniffling in front of us.
"A-Arman..." he replied. "I am Baron Fentibeau's son..."
"Oh, my goodness, The Baron Fentibeau?" Elliot asked excitedly. "The leading apothecary in the capital?!"
"T-the one and only!" Arman replied, blushing a little with pride. "He's the b-best in the whole empire!"
"My gods, I have always wanted to meet your father!"
"Maybe some other time," I interfered. "We currently have more important things to do, and right now, I need you to promise not to tell anyone what happened here today."
"What exactly did happen today?" Arman asked, still a little disoriented.
"A vengeful ghost beat up the three guys trying to kill you!" Cat piped in with his hand raised.
I gave another sigh and simply went to the nearest fallen senior. I sat by his side and touched my pointer to the middle of his forehead. With a little chant, the tip of my finger lit up and a soft breeze blew away the scenes of the past couple of hours from his memories.
I did the same with the remaining two.
"Amazing..." Elliot whispered low. "You work just like the sages in Magnificat who whisper prayers in the air to work their magic!"
"You're a sage?" Arman asked me wide-eyed.
"N-nothing like that, I'm just a self-taught bookworm," I replied with a strained smile. "Now, would you like me to fix your burnt face?"
Soon, we were back in our room, but not before telling some seniors that we found three unconscious students in the third floor baths.
"Woah... It really looks so real!" Arman exclaimed as he scratched at the burnt mark that covered the right half of his face. "You even made my eye clouded over as if I truly am blind!"
"That's nothing, just look at how nice my hives are!" said Cat, raising his shirt to flaunt his bloated tummy at his new found friend.
"But how can I remove it?" Arman asked.
"Why would you want to remove it?" asked Elliot. "Wouldn't it be better if you just keep it on all the time like Cat is doing?"
"Well, of course, but I would still want to look at my face in the mirror, you know..." he said shyly."
"I'll teach you how to turn the illusion off," I told him. "It's quite simple, really, just one of the basic camouflage spells."
"Can I learn it too?!" Cat asked wide-eyed.
"Of course, but that would need a lot of patience and concentration. What I could do, is place the spell on you and teach you how to turn it on and off."
"Got it!" the two replied in unison.
It took me three hours to teach them the chant, and another three hours for them to perfect it.
Well, it was well worth it, knowing that I have probably saved these two young men from a fate worst than death.
"I think I should place burn marks on my body as well, what do you guys think?" asked Arman as he twirled in front of a wide, full length mirror he brought to our room with Elliot's help. "That way, nobody would bother me when I go take a bath!"
He was able to learn the masking spell much faster, compared to Cat who required a bit of assistance. I think perhaps he would be good at making illusions in the near future.
"I think it would be better not to take a bath on your own, burn scars or not," Elliot told him.
"That's right! I could just go with you guys every day!" he said happily. "I can't ask my room mates to come with me, after all. They couldn't even look at my face!"
"Yeah, the more the merrier!" said Cat.
"Speaking of baths, I wasn't able to take one because of all the commotion earlier," said Elliot who was sweating profusely after Arman's request.
"Neither did I!" said Arman with a gasp. "Why don't we head back and try our disguises?"
"I wanna go try the heated baths at the ground floor!" Cat piped in.
"What about you, Pat?"
The three looked at me expectantly.
"I thank you for your kind consideration, but I would rather rest for now. I shall take a bath tomorrow morning instead."
"What? But you didn't get to clean yourself yesterday as well!" said Elliot.
"You mean to say, you went to bed with all the filth you got from traveling?!" Arman asked, flabbergasted. "I couldn't even bear to lie on my bed without first taking my nightly beauty regimen! I had to wait for my room mates to fall asleep so I could peel off my fake burnt skin and pamper my face with an apricot facial scrub!"
"You use a fruit to scrub your face?" asked Cat.
I was a bit curious about it myself.
"Anyway, there's no way I'm letting you off!" Arman took my arm and scratched the back of my hand, leaving white chalky marks on its path. "See? Look how dry your skin is!" He touched my face next. "Your lips are chipped and even bleeding! And your hair... My goodness, don't even let me start about your hair! It looks like you jumped through a burning hoop and got rid of the rest of it with a blunt knife! Why, I wouldn't even dream of touching it, if you weren't my savior!"
I stared at him, my mouth slightly agape.
"Is it really obvious that it got burnt?" I asked him.
"You mean to say your hair actually got burnt?" asked Elliot who had been eating snacks while watching Arman fret over me.
"Well, I was trying out a spell that bounced back, it was a blessing that I decided to study the element of water first..."
"No wonder your hair looked so tired and brittle!" Arman continued, nagging me. "I have just the right thing in my hair regimen made of fenugreek seeds, to heal your follicles!"
"My what?" I'm starting to worry.
"Just come with me, I'll take care of you from this day forth!"