Although I was late, dinnertime likely hadn't started yet. I was late by a minute or two at most. Without delay, I got up from the bed and put on my boots. I dusted off my shirt, made sure I looked decent enough to appear in public and left the room. 

I started walking over to the cafeteria building. An academy such as this had many mouths to feed, as such they needed a big building to accommodate all of those. The architecture of the building reminded me of Roman or Greek buildings of ancient - but much grander and cleaner. 

I walked through the massive gates of the building and was met with a relatively sized crowd, some standing up trying to find places to sit down, and the rest already chatting away and eating their meal. I grabbed my tray and started looking all over for a place to sit - until I saw a table with only one person seated. William.

What the heck? Why does no one want to sit with this kid? I chuckled.

I sat down across him on the table, and was surprised to see that he was still reading his book. He looked over from his book to me and spoke to me once more.

"Took you long enough to wake up." 

"If you'd just woken me up, I wouldn't have had to rush over." I spat back. 

He simply shrugged and went back to eating his meal. I sighed and started digging in as well. The food was surprisingly fancy - it was a steak with mashed potatoes and pea. I didn't see meat that often back home, but then again it wasn't a meal for a commoner to have unless they had a large farm. 

"Yo, Dan!" I heard a familiar voice from behind, and when I turned around I saw who the voice belonged to.

"Hey Meran." I waved. "How are you doing?"

Unsurprisingly, Meran was surrounded by a lot of people. He sat down next to me, much to the dismay of his followers. "Pretty alright, I guess. There is nothing special going on though." he responded.

"Pretty alright? Your display was pretty cool during the ceremony." I took a bite of my steak.

He chuckled and said, "Yeah, sorry for abandoning you like that. The headmaster had me swear to not speak of this to anyone before the announcement.." 

I shrugged and responded, "I don't mind, don't worry. Oh yeah," I pointed to William. "This is my roommate William. William, pretty sure you already know who he is."

Meran smiled, "Nice to meet you." 

William responded with nothing at all, and was satisfied with only a glance. For the rest of our meal, Meran explained what his plans were for the Security Squadron. He said he planned to start recruiting people soon, which I thought sounded pretty awesome. 

I really wanted to join the Squadron, but I was humbled by a harsh reminder of me having no real magic capabilities. 

After dinner, me and William started walking towards our dorm. For the first time, I saw that he was not reading his book for the first time in a while. 

"I don't trust him." William spoke. "He's too powerful."

"Isn't that a good thing?" I retorted. "There's a reason he's the Security Captain."

William shook his head. "No, he is abnormal." 

"Abnormal? How so?" 

"I am not surprised you didn't notice it, as I couldn't trace any mana from you. But he has overwhelming strength." he said, clearly indicating he knew about my disability.

"If it's as you say and he has such great power, we cannot really do anything about, it can we?" 

"You're right, but that's not what matters. I'm telling you to be careful."

"Eh, since when did you care?" 

William stopped walking and spoke again. "You're a pretty interesting character. It would be a shame if you died."

I smiled. He clearly was softer on the inside than what he tried to put up. "I'll be careful, don't you worry."

Note: Short episode, but wanted to finish up this chapter! Thanks for reading!