Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

Chapter 16: Dormitory Impression

Three days before the first day of school, the students were advised to move into the school dormitories. Every student of the Imperial Academy had to live inside the academy grounds. I was no exception. It was said that the academy disregarded status and treated all students equally.

-Right. Like that would ever happen.

Anyway Eliza, Edmund, Sebastian and Zach were already sixth year students and no longer studied inside the campus. That was the rule of the academy. Starting on their fifth year, the students of the academy would undergo field training or internship for two years on their desired field. And because of that, they were called early on their respective jobs. Earlier than the start of school. So they could not help me move. Meanwhile, Torii already had her things inside the academy plus she was part of the student council so she was rather busy. Well, I don't think it was proper to ask Aunt Zaira to help me move into my dormitory, so I was rather alone. I sighed inside my room in the manor. Technically, I did not even need the help in moving since I had my own spatial storage/ inventory.

Spatial storage or also called inventory, was a skill in which one could create a pocket dimension and store anything they liked. Of course, how much they could store would depend on one's ability. It was a skill for support mages, but those who had it were few. Those who could do space magic cooperate with magic engineers and create storage devices for the same purpose.

In my situation, I was hoping for the thought of being with me during the move rather than helping me out really.

A knock on my bedroom door suddenly stopped my train of thoughts.

"Miss Luna?" a familiar voice called.

"Come in."

The door opened and a boy my age stood there. He had dark green hair, dark brown eyes and fair skin. His body was lean, like that of a swimmer's but he was not, in any way, weak. He was Thomas Wolfsbane, Steve's son.

Steve was Aunt Zaira's retainer and head servant back in the Celestine Manor in the Celestine Territory. Thomas, just like his father, was a hunter and more importantly, he was an aspiring magus knight who had an affinity for earth magic. I was quite close to him, especially when Torii and the others left one by one to attend school in the capital. He would accompany me and Vyfal to hunt sometimes so I was pretty familiar with what he could do.

"Are you ready to leave, miss?" he asked. "We still need to register in the academy so we can get a room."

"No one's coming with you?" I asked in return.

"Mother and father are back in the territory and my siblings went ahead of me already, so yeah, no one's coming with me."

"Let's go together then!" I offered. "Everyone's very busy."

Thomas and I bid goodbye to everyone in the mansion and we left. Well, I would probably be dropping by for the weekends or on short holidays if I had no plans, but I would still miss the people in there. As we made our way to the academy, I noticed Thomas' lack of belongings.

"Where are your things?" I asked.

"Oh." he pointed to the silver bracelet on his right arm, a storage device. "My parents gave it to me as a congratulatory gift for getting accepted in the Imperial Academy, Miss Luna."

"I see. By the way, we should just be casual with each other at school."

"Ha? But" he gave me a confused look.

"I'm not using the Celestine name in the duration of my studies. If they hear someone from the Celestine Territory call me Miss or Young Mistress, they will be able to connect the dots easily since there's no other noble family there other than the Celestine Family." I explained.

"I see. Then, uhm I'll just call you Luna."

"Thank you Tommy!"

I saw him go red as I called him with the nickname I gave him.

"Fourth Young Mistress, please don't call me that."

Fourth Young Mistress was my official title in the Celestine Family. It meant I was the fourth child of the family as well as the fourth-in-line to inherit the archduchess position. I used to argue being called the fourth young mistress when there were six of us, but when I knew Sebastian was actually a prince of the empire and Zach was his knight, it kind of made sense.

Eliza, as the eldest was called First Young Mistress, Edmund was the Second Young Master and Torii was the Third Young Mistress.

"It's just a nickname Tommy." I said.

"Fine. But only when we're alone or with close friends."

"Sure."

We passed by a familiar street and I saw a familiar building; Andrea's residence and restaurant. In front of the building was Andrea.

"Luna!" she called once she saw me. "I have been waiting for you!"

"Waiting for me? Why?"

"I want to go with you to sign up for the dorms!" she said excitedly.

"I see."

"Who's this?" she asked when she noticed Thomas. "A friend of yours?"

"This is-"

"My name is Thomas Wolfsbane, a first year in the military arts department. Nice to meet you." Thomas flashed a smile which showed of his white even teeth. "I didn't know mi- I mean, Luna already made a friend."

"We came from the same hometown." I added.

"You're from the Celestine Territory as well?" asked Andrea. "I'm Andrea Ijinia, same year. I'm in the alchemy department. Nice to meet you as well."

I could see the sparks of attraction between the two as they continued staring at each other. I decided to interrupt them and we continued our way to the academy. Andrea only brought two bags which she claimed to be all of her belongings. I felt a little guilty since I technically brought a lot of things; gears and books mostly.

Upon arrival, I saw many carriages lined up at the entrance. I saw a few grand ones which had family crests on them. In some carriages, I saw the familiar crests of the Chrishni and Berialis families. I even saw a carriage which carried the crest of the imperial family, a shield with a dragon curled around a long sword.

"Hey Andrea, a member of the imperial family will be attending this year?" I asked.

"Oh that. Yeah. The third prince is our age so I suppose he will be attending this year."

"I saw him." Thomas piped up. "He enrolled in the military arts department, like me."

"I wonder what he looks like." I muttered.

"Ooh, he resembles his father, the emperor, a lot." Andrea replied. "He is also very handsome."

"You've seen him?"

"Only once."

I suddenly felt Thomas go close to my ears and he whispered; "He resembles young master Sebastian, only with blonde hair."

I just nodded my head. I then thought that the third prince was probably Sebastian's younger half-brother. Sebastian's mother and the empire's previous empress, Empress Aria, died when he was eight, the same age when he was sent to Aunt Zaira to train. The current empress was Empress Yuri, the emperor's former concubine.

Oh yeah. Polygamy was a trend in Praiji Empire. From what I knew the emperor had a total of five wives, including the two empresses and ten children with Sebastian as the eldest. He was also appointed as crown prince after his performance in the dungeon break incident.

The emperor was still young, so it was no surprise he had teenage children, or even younger ones.

We finished chatting and proceeded to sign up for the dormitories. After that, we were led inside the dormitories by a second year student. The dormitories were divided into two; boys' dormitories and girls' dormitories. Boys weren't allowed in the girls' dormitories and vice versa. The second year senior led us to the main hall of the dorm building and pointed to the bulletin board.

"Find your name and you'll find your room number." she said and left.

Andrea immediately checked it. She returned with a big smile on her face.

"Let me guess, we're roommates, aren't we?" I said.

"Yep! Our room is Room 709!"

The two of us immediately headed to the seventh floor of the girls' dormitory and looked for our room. When we found it, I stared at the name plaques placed just under the room number; mine and Andrea's. I was not sure if it was a coincidence or someone's doing, but I was very glad that Andrea was my roommate. I looked at Andrea and I could see the happiness in her eyes. She opened the door with a big smile.

I was greeted by a spacious room, the living room, already furnished with a square table and four chairs. There were three doors; two led to bedrooms while the other was a bathroom. There was a cabinet at the corner of the room and a shoe rack by the door.

"Which room would you like?" Andrea asked.

"Hmm You choose first." I answered.

"I'll have the right one then!" I nodded and immediately made my way to the door on the left.

I opened the door to the spacious bedroom which I would be sleeping in for the next four years. It was smaller than my room back in the Celestine Manor but I knew I would really like the place. The walls were coincidentally painted with my favorite color; baby blue, and the bed had blue bed sheets and pillows with different shades of blue, was placed near the glass panel in which I could peek a small balcony outside. Meanwhile a study table was placed at the foot of the bed and beside it was a bookshelf. On the other side of the bookshelf was the closet. If I had to guess, Andrea's room was probably arranged in the same way, only inverted.

I made my way to the bed and sat on it. I took a deep breath. I couldn't explain the emotion I was feeling, but I knew my years in the Imperial Academy would obviously be eventful.

A/N:

Hello! Hello! Here's a surprise update! Are you surprised? Me too... Tell me what you think!

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Niche_Bezarius