Lydis got to her room and threw her clean clothes onto her bed. Ui was still charging on the windowsill. Valfafer was running around the rooms, clean and refreshed. He was full of energy."Master! Master! Everything smells so different now!" Valfafer had his nose on the floor, sniffing and registering each smell.
"Nnn…" Lydis had picked up the pamphlet and was flipping through it. Cla.s.ses, schedule numbers, teachers, extra courses. She saw a cla.s.s for outdoor survival training along with a prerequisite of herbalism cla.s.s two finished. Under the description of the cla.s.s it had the requirements as well. Ui took this time to wake up and beep.
"Master Lydis, it is currently zero five twenty. The ceremony is in zero two forty hours."
"Thanks Ui." Lydis turned the pamphlet around and found a map of the campus on the back. Just as she was memorizing the route to the ceremony area outside her door loud noises drifted in. Although they were m.u.f.fled she could still make out high pitched squeals and laughter.
"Master master! We should go out too." Valfafer bounced over to Lydis"s leg.
"No, children are trouble. If I don"t have to, I won"t interact with them." Lydis shifted away from Valfafer when she realized something. "…When did your ego grow enough to order me to do something?" Valfafer flinched and backed away from Lydis slowly, ears bent down slightly, his tail no longer wagging wildly.
"U-uh… On look at that!" Valfafer dashed to the farthest corner of the room, pretending to sniff the corner for something. Seeing as he was avoiding it Lydis wanted to go and terrorize him more but Ui"s beeping drew her attention.
"Master Lydis, it would seem that there are specific regulations at this school. I highly recommend that you read through the pamphlet carefully." She didn"t know when but Ui had left the windowsill and was hovering above the pamphlet, flipping through them rapidly.
"What do you mean Ui?" Lydis set the pamphlet down to allow Ui full access to it. Ui landed on the bed next to it and began to mark specific pages and sections.
"This pamphlet is full of deceiving sections that might lead kids astray. On page six, fourth paragraph down, second sentence: "Before the ceremony every child is to receive a nametag from their corresponding dorm heads on their own, should the child fail to do so they will be excluded from the ceremony." Flip back two pages, first paragraph, last sentence: "Any child not attending the ceremony will be a.s.signed various jobs that may not be refused." Flip to page thirteen, third paragraph, first sentence: "Deaths of children on school grounds are unrelated to the school." With these three different rules it"s a possibility that not attending the ceremony means death."
"Haven did mention that the principle was strict about the rules…" Lydis looked at the pamphlet and flipped back to the sixth page. "Ui, in this sentence do I have to go to Hal for my nametag?"
"It would seem so Master Lydis. I recommend going now." Ui flew over and landed on Lydis"s leg, trying to stuff itself into her overcoat"s pocket.
"Ha ha, Ui, if you wanted to go too just say it. I"ll take the bag to carry you as well." Lydis gently placed Ui on the bed and packed her things into her bag. Nothing of hers remained in the room except the extra pair of socks, heavy shoes, extra uniform, and the school casual clothes. Valfafer saw Lydis packing and came back from the corner, interested in what she was doing.
"Master, are we leaving?" Lydis looked at Valfafer and grinned.
"For now, we"re just going to the ceremony. Hal said my roommates would be here today so I don"t want to leave my personal belongings where they can touch them. That other stuff can be my bed holder."
"What if they try and claim it?" Lydis stayed silent for a bit, a chilling smile slowly formed on her face.
"If, they try and claim it, we can just got to page thirteen, paragraph three, first sentence…" Ui raised it"s head and tapped Lydis"s knee.
"Master Lydis, in the first page, second paragraph, last line: "Students may not kill each other directly, practice bouts are allowed." You must not kill them." Lydis pondered this a bit but the smiled stayed.
"They just don"t have to die right?" Valfafer felt chills down his spine. Lydis had seemed so "normal" and "weak" these last few days that he forgot what she was like. He trembled at the thought of what Lydis might do to the poor girl who decided to take Lydis"s bed. He looked around the room for something to stop people from claiming the bed and found just the thing. His fur!
Since he didn"t like getting haircuts and Lydis was too lazy to cut it, his fur was naturally long. Valfafer jumped onto the bed and began rubbing against the sheets face first. Rolling in them and even against the walls.
"Valfafer! What are you doing?" Lydis was still in the middle of packing when she saw Valfafer messing up the bed.
"If I do this the other girls will see my hair and won"t want to choose a bed with hair on it!" He sounded triumphant and confident that this was the way to save whatever innocent girl might choose their bed. Lydis frowned and sighed loudly.
"You dumb dog, if we had just left it a little messy compared to the others with my clothes here anyone would think that someone has already claimed it."
"B-but you never know! Better safe than sorry right?" He was shaking a bit now. If Lydis decided that he was being too brazen she might make him endure some sort of punishment. Lydis paused and thought about it, seeing as Valfafer was somewhat right Lydis clicked her tongue loudly.
*tsk* "Whatever, we still have to get our nametags from Hal." Valfafer flopped over in relief. His master had not punished him! "But, before we do that…" Lydis s.n.a.t.c.hed Valfafer"s paws and pinned them between her legs.
Too shocked to do anything, it took Valfafer a few seconds to hear the ominous "click" of something around his neck. He tried to thrash his body around but Lydis"s grip wasn"t letting him go, especially her stern stare. He whimpered and laid his body down.
"Better." Lydis continued to work on Valfafer"s back and soon another ominous "click" reached Valfafer"s ears. She loosened her legs and Valfafer jumped away, pulling something along with him. He looked back and saw a leash. One end attached to his harness and the other onto Lydis"s arm.
"M-master, do I really need this?" Valfafer tried to bit at the harness but the flexible material wasn"t affected by his teeth, instead it just bent around them. He tried pulling at it with his front paws but no matter what angle he pulled at it never went up. Chuckling, Lydis"s chilling smile was replaced with satisfaction.
"Valfafer, no one can remove that except me so just be good and follow." Lydis raised her left arm and the leash pulled him towards her.
"Yes master…" He was humiliated beyond anything he"s felt before! To wear a leash, he, a Wolf Lord, on a leash?! Just as these feelings swelled inside Valfafer he glanced at Lydis again and they disappeared instantly. Even if he was a Wolf Lord, so what? Right now he was nothing more than a servant to Lydis. Even if he wanted to rebel the contract wouldn"t allow him to do so. Pitiful, negative emotions resurfaced in Valfafer. Curling into a ball he turned his back to Lydis and brooded alone.
Lydis had gone back to packing her things when she found the bag of treats for Valfafer. She flicked one near Valfafer"s head and he s.n.a.t.c.hed it instantly. She saw his tail wag a little. He was so easy to mess with, sometimes she wondered if him being a Wolf Lord was all a lie.
"It"s not a lie."
The unknown voice was back. It had been so long Lydis almost forgot that it even existed.
"Who are you?" Ui and Valfafer looked at Lydis like she was crazy. Sensing their gazes Lydis waved them off and tried to continue talking in her head.
"Me? You"ve already met me. How could you forget?" Lydis tried to remember who it was. Only two possibilities came to mind.
"Are you Ebi?"
"Correct! Although we can"t talk like this for long when you"re awake I"m here to a.s.sist you when I feel you need it."
"Like all that pointless information?"
"No, it wasn"t pointless! It"s information mean to help yo-" Ebi"s voice cut off.
"Ebi?" Lydis waited for a response but she didn"t hear anything. Just when she was about to go back to packing Ebi"s voice cut in again.
"Ughh, why does this take so much effort! I just wanted to say a few words and now I"m drained after a few seconds?!"
"What"d you want to say?"
"I won"t be able to help you while you"re in the academy. The people here are scary, that "Haven" chick"s slyphir was so overpowering, I though she might discover me…"
"Is that it?"
"The point is that you won"t have any help at all! I"ll try to funnel your slyphir to your learning abilities but it still all depends on you."
"Wouldn"t have it any other way."
*hmph* "Let"s see you try. I"m out of time but one last thing, there are many geniuses here so don"t get con-" Once again Ebi"s voice got cut off. Talking like that reminded Lydis of the old radios they had to use at the camp. Ones that fuzzed while spewing white noise all the time and lost connection a lot.
"Master Lydis, it is already zero six thirty. By my calculations we should"ve left at zero six hundred." Ui beeped and tapped Lydis"s leg urgently. Lydis placed her hand on Ui"s head.
"We"ll be fine. I just finished packing so we"ll head out now. Valfafer?" She bent over to tie the strings to her military styled combat boots. The ones on the bed were just too uncomfortable. Lydis raised her left arm and Valfafer got pulled towards her. He was still pouting. Refusing to stand or even look at Lydis he was dragged by the harness.
Lydis left her room, her bag slung over her shoulder, Valfafer dragged behind her and Ui in the bag. The halls were eerily quiet, the shrills and laughter from before gone. She walked towards the stairs and began her descent.
"Ui, while we move look for any other mentionable rules in the pamphlet." Instead of speaking Ui just beeped. Lydis felt some rustling in her bag but knew that Ui was getting to work.
At the bottom of the stairs Lydis fount Hal"s room. She knocked on the door gently.
"Dorm head Hal, it"s cadet Lydis, I"ve come for my nametag." Silence. She wanted to push it open but Lydis didn"t want Hal to have a bad impression of her. Instead Lydis stood outside of his room for twenty minutes. Never knocking again nor moving. At the twenty-minute mark the door opened, Hal"s disheveled figure propped itself up in the doorway.
"What? Nametag… nametag… right, we had that thing." Yawning he reached to the side of the door and took out a nametag for Lydis. "Place your…" *yawn* "…school ID here. It"s proof you read the pamphlet." Hal gave Lydis a clear card cover with the school crest in the back, in the right corner her name was finely printed.
"Thank you dorm head Hal." Lydis gave Hal a cadet"s salute before taking the nametag.
"Whatever…" But before he closed his door behind him Hal stopped. "Congratulations on pa.s.sing the first part of the "Ceremony" student Lydis."