“My goodness, Patrick! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Elliot held me in a tight bear hug as soon as I entered our room. “I thought some senior snuck inside our room and carried you off when I found you missing with the door unlocked!”

“I... was... just... cleaning... up!” I said, my bones creaking. “Can’t... breath...”

“You should have woken me up!” he frowned at me when he finally let me go. “What would you have done if some senior caught you taking a bath on your own?!”

“It’s not like they would want to do anything to me...” I replied, avoiding his eyes.

“How could you be so sure?” he kept nagging. “And even if they don’t molest you, some of them would surely wish to hurt you, after what you did to that 4th year, senior Will. I heard he was quite famous among the seniors. He’s a known academy scholar, after all!”

“I heard as well,” I said with a smile. “Anyway, I finally finished the revised ‘mask of flesh’ spell, let’s call Arman from next door to try it out!”

“Changing the subject won’t do you any good, you know?” Elliot glared at me.

“Oh, come on, let’s wake Cat up first!”

It took us five minutes to get Cat out of the bed. A reminder that I shouldn’t let him stay up late at night. We then wore the new lecture uniforms which we would be using for the rest of the academic year.

The uniforms consists of a white under shirt, a lilac vest, and a dark purple coat and pants. A pocket over the left chest has a single star embroidered on it, symbolizing that we are 1st year students. It came complete with white socks and loafers.

I was hoping Arman would come to our room as we were preparing, but he seemed to be late for some reason, so the three of us decided to pick him up instead.

We left room 328 and knocked on room 327’s door. I noticed that it was slightly ajar and a bit crooked. It was opened by Arman’s room mate Vic, a fellow neophyte with light brown shoulder length hair and a face full of freckles.

“Is Arman up yet?” Elliot asked, while I stared at a shoe print on the door.

“Sorry...” Vic opened the door wider.

The room was a mess.

There were bed sheets and broken furniture scattered all over the floor and the ruined beds. We saw his 2 other room mates, one was sporting a bloody nose.

There was no sign of Arman anywhere.

“A group of seniors came by...” said Vic. “They kicked the door in and took Arman away... he fought back... we tried to resist, but...”

We didn’t get to listen to the rest of his story as we ran out of the room. We rushed down the stairs and all the way out of the dorm. It was the farthest and fastest I’ve ever ran in my entire life. I felt a sharp pain on my left side, and my chest burn from exerting myself.

“Did they say where they went?” Elliot asked, catching his breath when we reached the front yard. I could hardly make a sound aside from my pitiful wheezing.

“Vic said they looked like the crown prince’s vassals...” said Cat who still looked fresh after all that running. “They said it haven’t been long since they took Arman, so they must still be on their way to the prince’s residence!”

“Let’s hurry, then!” said Elliot who was ready to run again.

“You... go... I... rest...” I gasped.

Elliot took one look at me, grabbed me by the waist, and threw me over his shoulder.

“W-wait!” I tried to protest as he ran with me in tow.

Several students gaped at us as we ran passed them, some of them even trailed behind us, until Elliot came to a halt and yelled in a bellowing voice.

“Arman!”

He placed me down, in time to see a group of five seniors turn around to face us. They were dragging an unconscious Arman, his face was bloodied, his left arm hanging limply behind him, his bare feet bleeding from being dragged across the cobbled walkway.

“Let him go!” Elliot bellowed once more.

“Who are these idiots trying to tell us what to do?” asked one of the seniors who looked down at us from the tip of a long nose. He wore a sable on his hip, same as his companions and left Arman with the group and walked towards us.

“Is this the tub of lard and the undead goblin they talked about?” said the senior, making his companions laugh.

“I can’t believe your apprentice Turin lost to that, Wein!” one of them pointed at Elliot.

“He said Prof. Novil was helping them,” the one called Wein answered. “Let’s just see if he really is as good as they say.”

Wein took out his sword as he came near us.

“Do you plan to challenge me, pig?” he asked with an even grin.

“I-I challenge you to hand-to-hand combat, seni –”

“I refuse,” Wein replied before Elliot could finish. “Instead, I challenge you to a sword fight for your ward.”

“S-senior Wein,” I called out to him, “Elliot just had a challenge yesterday and is still recuperating. As stated in ‘The Holy Royal Indicum Empire Book of Law’, page 372, under the ‘Rules of Fair Battle’ in article 7 section 18, ‘You can not challenge a noble in continuous combat’. A fair battle must be agreeable upon by both parties, thus the challengee must be in his full potential before another noble can issue a new challenge. He should be given a grace period of up to seven days before another combat.”

“Well, wasn’t he the one who challenged me in the first place?” He asked arrogantly.

“And you refused that challenge,” I replied.

“Then, if he refuses mine, he would have no right to stop us from taking that to the Crown Prince Nigellus,” he said, emphasizing on the prince’s name as he pointed at Arman’s unconscious body.

“Arman is my ward, senior,” Elliot said respectfully. “You would need to battle me first before you could take him.”

“Says who?” Wein sneered at him.

“It says so in The Student Guidebook page 21 paragraph 2, under ‘New Rules for Challenging –’”

“Shut up, goblin. Or should I shut your mouth for you?” he said, glaring at me.

I simply looked back at him, unblinking, noting that the crowd of students watching around us was getting bigger.

“If you refuse to follow the rules of fair battle, then you are directly violating the new rules stated in the Student Guidebook,” I continued regardless. “You will be penalized with 10 lashes and lose all your current apprentices, as well as the chance to mentor any other apprentice in the future.”

“What is he saying?” one of the seniors asked their other companions. “Where did those rules come from?”

“Weren’t you listening in yesterday’s orientation?” long nose snapped at them.

“As if anybody ever paid attention to that bullshit!” said Wein.

“Those new rules were approved by Nigellus himself,” I pointed out. “Perhaps, seniors, being the first ones to be penalized for these actions would be a good way for the lesson to sink in,” I added. “As they say, experience is always better than learning from books alone.”

The long nosed senior laughed.

“Now I understand how Will lost to the likes of you,” said he. “I am tempted to dominate you right now just to watch that proud ugly maw of yours twist in agony everyday.”

“You could try, senior,” I told him. “After I have regained my mental health which you are currently exhausting.”

“Why don’t we just beat him up first so he can stop spouting nonsense?” said the senior holding Arman.

“Good idea!” Wein said with a snarl before he suddenly lunged at us.

“Look out!” Elliot cried out before jumping in font of me.

I was thorn between trusting Elliot’s skills or using a shielding spell as Wein’s sword rushed towards us.

CLANG!

“What seems to be problem here?”

Asked a booming voice as a dark shadow fell upon Elliot and I.

“Pat, are you alright?” Cat asked by my side, shaking slightly.

I was surprised that he was able to pull me away at the last minute, while Elliot remained standing in front of us, or rather, behind a tall, bulky man with spiky black hair.

“Prince André!” the seniors called out as they stepped back.

“It’s the second crown prince, Prince André!” gasped the students watching us in the background.

“Do I need to ask twice?” The prince’s voice boomed once more. “Tell me, what kind of man would attack an unarmed person, and an invalid at that?!” he said. “Where’s the honor in such a battle?”

He turned around to look at me.

He was probably the biggest and tallest man I have ever seen in the campus, even bigger than the gray masked man we met at the crown prince’s palace. He was tanned, with a clean shaven face, an aquiline nose, and pine green eyes beneath thick dark brows.

“So, 1st year,” he asked me with a lopsided grin, “what exactly have you done that your seniors are trying to kill you?”

“They say the tongue can be sharper than a sword, senior,” I answered him. “Particularly when the mind that controls the sword is quite dull.”

He stared at me for a while, then gaped at me, then started to laugh.

“So, my brother’s vassals want you dead because you talk too much and they are stupid, is that correct?” he asked after a good laugh.

“If that is how you interpret it, senior,” I said in reply.

“So,” he faced Wein and the rest of the seniors again, “you decided to kill him because you can’t answer back? Without even calling for a challenge of wits or of fists firsts? Just how low have you fallen under my brother’s guidance, that you can’t even fight honorably like real men do?”

“Prince André,” long nose interrupted him. “It was only Wein who decided to act on his own, the rest of us were...”

“The rest of you had no plans of stopping him. Isn’t that right, Norbert?”

André glared at long nose, his wide eyes, challenging him.

“What about you, Henesey? Johnny?” he asked their two other companions. “And what is that half dead neophyte you are dragging, Michael?”

“S-senior, that is our friend Arman!” Cat cut in. “They broke inside his room and hurt him and his room mates and dragged him out here!”

“Is that true, Michael?”

The senior named Michael couldn’t reply. I could see him shaking from where I stood.

“W-we didn’t mean to break in, your highness!” Henesey answered him instead. “We were simply looking for someone, but they refused to open the door so we were forced to break it down.”

“You were looking for that neophyte?” André asked.

“N-no, your highness,” said Johnny, “it was a different apprentice–”

Henesey suddenly elbowed him in the ribs.

“Ho-ho-ho!” André burst out in booming laughter. “Are you saying that an apprentice escaped from my brother’s prison?!”

“It is a confidential matter, your highness...” Norbert said through clenched teeth.

“So, let me get this straight, you failed to find my brother’s missing concubine, so you decided to bring him a new toy to pacify him instead?” André rubbed a tear off his eye. “Did I get it right?”

He laughed some more when the group refused to answer.

“Senior André, I implore you, Arman is my ward,” Elliot told the second prince when his laughter finally subsided. “I would like to take him back and bring him to the infirmary immediate for medical attention.”

“Don’t worry, we shall take him to the infirmary ourselves.”

André snapped his fingers.

Two bulky men suddenly appeared beside Michael and carefully took Arman which they laid upon a stretcher. There were red bands around their left arm with a white cross printed on it, the sign of the Student Medical Corps in the academy.

Elliot faced André and gave a slight bow.

“Thank you for helping our friend, senior,” he respectfully told our senior. “We shall be leaving for-”

“Where are you going?” André suddenly stopped Elliot. “Aren’t you going to challenge Weiner?”

Some students around us snickered at the nickname. Wein, in his part, turned red in the face.

“Senior, I challenged him in hand-to-hand combat earlier, but he refused,” Elliot explained. “And since Arman is no longer in their possession, then...”

“You still need to prove yourself as a man!” André bellowed.

“Senior, he just had a battle last evening,” I tried to explain.

“He looks pretty well to me now!” André bellowed again. “But, it’s a different story if little Weiner is too scared to accept his junior’s challenge!”

More laughter filled the air as the students realized that the seniors were too scared of André to retaliate, or even speak back to the prince.

“I-I accept the challenge!” Wein sneered at us.

“Then, let the fight begin!” André said happily. “This fat 1st year versus that red weiner for the honor of the fallen damsel Arman!”

“It’s the neophyte Elliot versus the 6th year senior Wein, your highness,” Rian corrected him, yet André ignored him and merely waved the two to either side.

“The rule is simple, you just need to fight each other honorably until one wins,” André explained. “Weapons are not allowed, as well as fighting dirty, and a win can either be through knock-out or submission.”

He looked at Elliot at his right and Wein at his left who still had a sabre bound to his side.

“Lose the sabre, Weiner.”

Wein frowned and threw his sabre behind him. It landed with a thud by my feet.

“Now,” Arman grinned, “let the fight begin!”