I quickly made my way towards the hallway. I found the exit at the end as I turned left, and easily found the East Dormitory.

It was a long four-storey building with arched windows. Several doors lined three halls on every floor, with each floor containing 30 rooms.

It took me a while to find room 328 which was near the end of the 3rd hall on the 3rd floor. As soon as I entered, I took my arm off Cat and looked at him closely.

“Are you feeling okay?” I asked, since he’s been shaking for quite a while now.

“Much better than earlier,” he replied, teary eyed,” I can’t believe they didn’t notice me under your cloak!”

“I guess they were so entertained by my appearance that they failed to look down to notice your feet,” I said with a small laugh.

A smile finally came back to Cat’s youthful face.

“I-I guess so,” he said, his eyes turning bright again. “So, is this going to be our room from now on?”

We checked out our quarters.

The door opened to one end the room, to the right were the foot of four beds with pull out drawers underneath, lined against the wall. Wooden desks and a simple chair separated each bed. At the far end of the room were two tall arched windows covered by thick drapes.

“This is quite nice,” I said as I surveyed the place.

“I get the window bed!” Cat declared.

I was about to chose the one nearest the door, when we were interrupted by a knock.

I placed my cloak over Cat once more and called out. “You may enter.”

“Hello,” a dark chubby face appeared when the door opened, and the man behind us at the queue entered the room. “You must be my room mate,” his eyes disappeared when he smiled. “My name is Elliot, I guess we’re stuck together from now on.”

“Oh, another room mate!” Cat cried out, throwing my cloak over his head.

“Oh, you’re the two kids before me in the line at the main entrance!”

“My name’s Cat, and this is Patrick! You can call him Pat!”

“Hello,” he extended a hand at us which Cat shook enthusiastically. “You can call me Elliot, it’s nice to meet you—”

His words were cut short when I took off my cloak.

Cat stared at me as well.

“Are you sure you’re just tired from your travel, Pat?” Cat asked me.

“My Gods! Are you perhaps suffering from some incurable disease!?” asked Elliot. “I have seen people in the slums as thin as you when my father brought me to one of his business ventures in the far-west, they say they were suffering from an epidemic and were half dead!”

“Ah, no, I’m just naturally slim...” I reasoned out as I flexed my knobby arms, trying to show off my non-existent biceps.

“This won’t do!” Elliot exclaimed. “Have you had lunch yet? Tea? Dinner?” he continued as he hauled his big bag to the bed nearest to the door. “It’s a good thing I brought some food from home! Mother insisted that I brought the biggest bag since we’re only allowed to carry one, and told the servants to cook all my favorite snacks to bring with me.”

He then took out a small red pouch embroidered with golden grape vines.

It looked empty, but Cat and I were surprised when he placed an arm inside it and pulled out a large covered platter with gold trimmings!

“Is that a dimensional pouch?” I asked him.

“Yup! It can contain up to a hundred pieces of 300 different items, Father bought it from the Magnificat kingdom in the west where the great sages come from,” he said proudly. “We may hail from a knight family, but my father and his father before him have all been successful merchants in this Empire!”

He opened the container, and at once, the room was filled with the scent of newly baked meat pie. It smelled so heavenly that I couldn’t stop myself from salivating!

“That smells so good!” Cat drooled.

“There’s more!” Elliot took out one platter after another. “And the best thing is, these enchanted plates can keep the food as fresh as the first time you covered it!”

“Ohh... it tastes so good!” said Cat who is now taking another chunk off the meat pie he held.

“Oh, where are our manners!”

Elliot took out some clean dishes and knives and forks next.

“I thank you for the food then.”

My stomach grumbled before I could shove a mouthful of pie inside my mouth. I have just realized that I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday’s dinner in the small inn the coachman and I spent the night in.

Elliot laughed beside me.

“I have never heard someone’s tummy grumble so loudly! Perhaps the reason why you’re so thin is because you always forget to eat your meals.”

I had nothing to refute what he said.

“What? Why would you miss your meals?” Cat asked when I kept silent.

“Well, I have always been busy doing... other things,” I replied with my mouth full.

“Woah, you mean to say, you actually miss your meals?!” Elliot asked in disbelief.

“Don’t your servants bring you food when it’s eating time?” Cat asked again.

“Now, Cat, not every noble family has the privilege of having servants in their home,” Elliot said in a low voice.

“But Patrick is the emperor’s great grandpa! It’s impossible that they don’t have servants at home!”

“He’s what?” Elliot asked, confused.

“Well, we do have servants at home,” I explained, “but since I’m always lost in the library, the servants have long given up looking for me...”

“Just how big is your family’s library?!” Cat asked wide-eyed.

“...and, I can’t help it, since I am the first born after all,” I added.

“Ah...” Elliot looked at me sadly. “So, your family is also one of those...”

I smiled at him in reply.

“What? What is it?” Cat looked at us both.

“There are some noble houses who treat their first born sons as sacrificial lambs,” Elliot explained. “They raise them for the sake of sending them to this academy, and train their second born as the main heir.”

“What? Why would they do that?”

“It is because a lot of children who enter this academy never come back home again,” I replied.

“That’s why most families decide that it isn’t worth the trouble to raise their first born as an heir, they don’t even bother to get to know them well, thinking that they would probably lose them anyway...”

“You mean... they all die?” Cat looked pale again.

“Not all of them,” I said, touching his shoulder lightly. “A large percentage leave their houses and head out to the empire to serve the Emperor.”

“W-well, if I were treated badly in my family, I would probably do the same!” Cat said teary eyed. “I-is that the reason why you look that way?” he asked me.

“I bet you were treated as an outsider and was only given scraps to keep you alive!” said Elliot with a concerned frown.

“Ah,” I smiled at my two room mates, “this is actually more of my fault, since I often lose track of time when I’m reading,” I assured them. “Though, I was also quite sickly as a child,” I added as an after thought. “My parents used to worry that I might die early and force my younger brother to take my place as the empire’s ‘sacrifice’.”

I gave a little laugh, but my two companions simply looked at me in horror.

“I can’t believe there are parents that evil in the empire!”

Obviously, Cat has a lot of things he does not know of.

“Do not worry!” Elliot suddenly stood up, his plump tummy jiggling as he did. “I, Esox Elliot Lucius III, second son and heir of Sir Elliot Lucius, from his highness’ order of Mauve knights, do hereby swear that I will not stop until I feed you back to health!”

“You’re a second son?” Cat asked him with his head tilted to a side.

“My twin brother died in an accident last summer when he fell off the cliff near our home, thus I am now here to take his place!” he exclaimed, as if he was proud of the misfortune.

“Oh, I am the youngest in our family,” said Cat. “I have eight older sisters before me!”

The two looked at me expectantly.

“I am the eldest of four brothers,” I told them. “We have two younger sisters as well.”

“Oh, I have three younger sisters myself,” Elliot added as he handed me a pastry from another covered platter.

We continued talking as we ate.

It was the longest conversation I had ever had that I could remember, and the most people I had the privilege to eat with.

I knew going to academy would be the best.