The next morning.
Aaran woke up feeling well-rested, despite being up all night. At first, he thought it was all just a dream, but the eternal vault pushed away any doubts he had.
The revolver was in there, along with the hobgoblin corpse, showing it'd take twelve hours to complete repairs.
It was fun.
Aaran's thoughts drifted back to the dungeon as lazily stretched. Once he sat up, he felt something around his neck, remembering the obsidian.
"…if only I had it in my dream."
Aaran did not have the locket in his dream. If he did, he could have fed it some darkness.
For now, he made a mental note to store the locket in his inventory before sleeping. Since the vault could carry things into different realms, Aaran would use it to smuggle the locket into the dungeon.
However, all thoughts came to an abrupt end when he saw the time. He was twelve minutes late. Everyone must be having breakfast by then.
"This maid of mine…"
Aaran sighed and jumped straight into the shower to freshen up. After putting on his academy uniform, he walked into the adjacent room.
According to the academy's rules, the servants had to be around their masters and mistresses at all times. Hence, they were allotted a room right next to their lords. It made their job of assisting the royalty easier.
But for Aaran, it was the other way around.
Not only he have to settle into his new life, but he also had to keep Analeis in check.
Aaran pushed open the door and saw Analeis sprawled on the floor, the blanket covering her. She must have fallen off the bed, but as a true barbarian, she slept through it all.
Analeis had her mouth open, snoring without a care in the world. If anyone saw her, they'd think she was a princess, and Aaran was her servant.
So peaceful. It's a shame.
Without hesitation, Aaran grabbed the glass of cold water and poured it over her face.
"WHA—!"
Analeis jolted awake, gasping as she furiously looked around. She was about to curse loudly but stopped when she noticed Aaran staring at her.
"You were supposed to wake me up twelve minutes ago," he said, nodding at the clock. "Make sure this doesn't happen again."
As furious as Analeis wanted to be, she bit her tongue. Arguing wasn't worth losing her smoke break.
"Yes, Your Highness…" she mumbled, getting off the floor.
"Get ready and meet me outside."
With that, Aaran stepped outside, smirking.
Who thought bullying the Silver Wolf would be so fun?
***
"Watch where you're going!"
"No running in the corridors!"
"What's the point of hurrying now? You're already late."
People kept yelling, but Analeis ignored them, too engrossed in her task. But she wasn't alone. Under her arm, Aaran dangled like a sack of potatoes.
No one could ignore the sight of a prince being carried in such an unsightly manner by his maid.
Some even commented on it, but Aaran didn't care about it. He had long accepted that subtlety was not Analeis's strong suit. But she would get the job done at all costs, and at that moment, only that mattered to him.
"Thirty seconds left," Aaran announced.
Analeis clicked her tongue and picked up the pace. The massive doors of the training hall were just about to close.
"Want to close the gates? Not on my watch!"
She yelled, leaping towards the door. She landed inside just as the heavy doors closed behind them. Despite being late, they had miraculously made it on time.
"Yes!"
Analeis's hand shot towards the air as if she had won the Olympics. It wasn't until Aaran cleared his throat that she realized where they were and immediately adopted a royal maid's persona.
She quickly put Aaran down, straightening his uniform and fixing his disheveled hair. Once done, she stepped back, her eyes wide like a puppy asking for a reward.
The audacity of this girl.
Aaran shook his head. If he had not warned her with no smoke breaks for a week, he would've missed the first class of his academic career. But since Analeis held her part of the deal, he couldn't back down.
"Go."
Without wasting another second, Analeis kicked open the window and jumped down from the fifth floor. The urge to smoke was too strong in her.
Everyone in the room couldn't help but stare at the strange duo, but Aaran shrugged, taking his seat next to Seraphina.
"Is something on my face?" Aaran asked.
"…useless."
Seraphina ignored him, facing the other way. Aaran just rolled his eyes, opting to focus on the general class.
The academy offered two kinds of classes. The general class and the selective class.
The general classes comprised trivial things like etiquette, ethics, strategic thinking, and basic warfare education. Everyone had to take these classes.
But selective classes were where the fun began.
The students had to take their respective professors' classes, as decided during the induction ceremony.
Other than the nobles, some commoners also took a few classes with them, mostly general classes. But sometimes, the professors allowed some exceptional students into their ranks.
If the nobles were selected for their potential, the commoners were selected on merit. These were the people who would grow into the empire's top knights and mages, and devote their lives to the empire just like the nobles.
That's why there are over a hundred students in the training hall now.
While Aaran cared little about the nobles, he couldn't ignore the commoners. After all, during the hell's invasion, these commoners would take the stage.
The sooner he formed a relationship with them, the easier it would be to overthrow the emperor. He would have to turn their blind loyalty for the empire into blind loyalty for himself.
But that can wait—
"Attention all students!"
A loud feminine voice startled everyone into silence. But Aaran was silent for a whole different reason. The teacher for their basic warfare class was none other than…
MOTHER!?