Noah quickly sat up in bed once the daylight hit his eyes. He marched over to his closet and almost ripped out the doors from its hinges at the speed he opened it at. Gone were the white and silver of his uniform, instead they were replaced with the white, gold and pearlescent cape the blossom students were known for. There were also a couple of green sashes embroidered with golden flowers on a hanger that the students could wear any way they wanted.

Finally, after years of trying, he’s now officially a Blossom student.

A set of uniforms was placed gingerly on top of his mattress before he made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower.

His single room was simple. There was a conversation pit in the middle of the room, with cream colored sofas facing a small balcony overlooking the garden with its purple and white trees. Several mismatched pillows were scattered in the conversation pit. Some of them were on the coffee table next to a novel and some of them were on the floor and sofa.

On a wall was a trellis with plump violet flowers, a bookshelf filled with scientific books and tiny odd looking sculptures right next to it. His messy desk with scattered notes of runic arrays was right next to the bookshelf.

Across from what he considered his workspace, was a door leading to his sleeping area. It had a king sized bed, a wardrobe and nightstand. And by the entrance of his room was his own bathroom.

Noah was in an incredibly good mood until he went down the stairs and towards the dining area to have his breakfast.

The dining hall of the Poppy Dorms was large with a second floor for more students to dine in. The chairs and tables were made of dark brown wood with a maximum of four people eating on them. White arched windows reached the ceiling, and glass sculptures of iridescent fishes floating lazily in the air glinted as the artificial sunlight shone inside. White chiffon curtains gently swayed with the breeze.

The first floor was full of students chattering to each other, some were in the middle of copying their classmate’s homework, while others were busy nit picking their breakfast.

And some were whispering about Noah.

“Isn’t that Noah von Vinter?”

“Did you hear what happened yesterday?”

“I thought he was kicked out already because he didn’t come for dinner.”

“Yes, what’s he still doing here?”

Noah let the whispers brush past him as he kept his head up high and got to his usual seat on the second floor overlooking the rest of the students.

His plates filled with food the instant he sat down at a table.

Today’s breakfast consisted of a small yoghurt filled with different types of berries, and citrus fruits drizzled with honey and crushed almonds. Next to it was toast with butter and marmalade. There was a porcelain teapot in the middle of the table steaming with jasmine tea and a jug of water and orange juice on the side.

A letter rested on his empty plate with the school’s insignia of a three petaled water lily.

Noah picked up the teapot and filled his matching cup with the piping hot liquid. The smell of jasmine flowers filled his nose.

The letter was a simple congratulations for passing the examinations and becoming a Blossom student. Attached to it was his new schedule that he glanced at with eager eyes.

“Ugh, I’ve still got invocation first thing in the morning?” he muttered with annoyance.

His weekly schedule didn’t change as much as he thought.

As a Seedling student, he took three advanced classes and two normal ones. The advanced classes were Arithmancy, Invocation and Enchantment. Alchemy and Potions were classes he kept at a general level.

Thanks to his advanced classes, he’s able to either join the Astrum or the Proelia classes available only to the Blossom students. Proelia students were mostly taught combat and those who took them had dreams of knighthood. Noah never had a liking to violence, so the only class he could take now was Astrum.

Astrum is the study of stars, planets and the leylines. Noah knew from the start, he would be taking this class and had already studied in advance.

However, if Noah were to be honest, he would much rather prefer to be in the Medela class. But he knew, even if he took the required advanced classes of alchemy and potions, he would never be able to join them because of his Imperfekta. This was why he never bothered to take them in the first place.

Those two slots were replaced with Astrum and elemental manipulation classes instead.

Elemental Manipulation was not something any Blossom student can ignore. Even if the student met none of the requirements for the Astrum, Proelia or Medela classes, Elemental Manipulation was still a must.

At the end of his schedule are two hours allotted to club activities.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned forth his grimoire and put his schedule in between the pages. The paper merged together as the information was absorbed within the book and vanished into thin air while Noah was putting jam on his toast.

Every student in Nymphaea made their own grimoire the moment they became Seedling students and were taught the basics of spellcasting and magic. These grimoires were bound by their own hands and linked to their soul. It was an empty notebook that was to be filled with notes, anecdotes and whatever came to mind to the students. They never had to buy parchment because it was spelled to have an infinite amount of pages.

Yet to keep it neat and tidy, students prefer to feed it their cleaned up notes and assignments. Tearing paper off of grimoires can be incredibly painful after all.

Noah nibbled on his toast, wishing it was lunchtime instead and he could mingle with his friends from the dance club.

Each of the five buildings in Nymphaea had a unique dining hall. Students would eat their breakfast at their respective dormitory buildings. Lunch and dinner were eaten at the closest place for convenience sake. However there was an unspoken agreement among the students, the commoners were not to step foot in the Poppy or Peony buildings unless they were invited.

In fact, nobody was allowed to dine at the Peony building unless they had an invitation. You can’t just eat with royalty without having to go through several knights and background checks.

Noah, being a child of nobility, was placed in the Poppy dorms ever since he entered the school. While he didn’t mind it much when he was fourteen, years of isolation made him wish he could be part of the Daisy dorms instead. While their building wasn’t as lavish and students had to share rooms with each other, they were far more lively in comparison. The minor nobles at Daisy liked to keep to themselves unless they somehow got involved with another student of higher status.

The childhood “friends” he grew up with were as phony as their smiles and Noah avoided them like the plague. If he weren’t so spiteful when he was young and didn’t lash out in his grief, he probably would have let a couple of entertaining nobles into his life. Alas, they tried to use his loss to gain his favour and that pissed him off enough to completely tear them out of his life. He was thankful his mother let him do it as long as he remained professional with them. Business partners weren’t friends after all.

So he made life difficult for them to approach him. He’s always been a quiet child, it was not hard for him to ignore them until they stopped.

Nobility coming from a very old family bloodline disliked Noah for destroying the Regulus name. He was a constant reminder that their pure noble blood can be flushed out in an instant. His father was a mere baron with barely anything to his name, he was in a lot of debt and was on the verge of losing his barony to another noble family if his mother hadn't swooped in.

Noelle von Vinter struck a deal with Adrian Regulus. Marry her and she would clear his debt. The catch of the marriage? He is to take her maiden name instead. And thus, the long family line of Regulus came to an end.

It inspired merchants to try their hands at marrying in nobility and take advantage of the tax benefits. Lower nobles who yearned for more riches looked to marrying successful merchants. The high nobility frowned at their intermingling.

Noah sipped his tea with a sigh and gazed down at the students.

“So you really don’t have any friends,” a voice murmured near his ear.

Noah tried not to jump in surprise as Azrael’s incorporeal body floated near his face. If Noah leaned in just a little bit, they would have kissed.

Today Azrael was wearing a loose white robe under a black collared shirt. There was beautiful embroidery of crawling leaves and tiny flowers running down from his shoulders to the edge of the wide sleeves. A thick black belt cinched his waist together and another layer of black cloth trailed down to his feet. His wrists were adorned with silver bangles and dark blue jade, he had at least six rings on and several earrings hanging from his pointy ears.

Noah didn’t get a good look at him last night, but now in the daylight, he could see that the demon was quite handsome and stylish. The clothing reminded him of the fashion worn in the isolated island of Ghula his mother has been researching for years.

“Like what you see?” The handsome being in question asked with a smirk when he noticed Noah slowly raking his eyes over his form.

Noah ignored him and tried not to roll his eyes.

“What’s that?” Azrael asked instead.

Noah kept quiet as he ate a spoonful of fruit yoghurt while his keen eyes observed the demon hum in satisfaction.

“So this is what you meant about wanting a taste of humanity,” Noah thought with slight amusement.