Back inside, the girl lay across the sofa. She needfully gulped down the glass of water Ralph brought her. He also brought a basket of fruits and placed it on the table before her, but she was too tired to eat.

"I need to rest a bit." She exhaled, turning on her back.

"Well, you held your ground against a tier four sorcerer for half a minute." The young man smiled. "Anyone would be exhausted after that!"

"He wasn't even trying though." Velvet brushed her hair out of her face. "I didn't realize there was such an enormous gap between us."

"You have had your magic for what, a month maybe?" her father chimed in. "Well, that man has been practicing it for decades! I think you're being too hard on yourself."

"There's still a long road ahead of you," Ralph agreed with him. Just then, the very man they spoke about stepped through the front door.

"How are you holding up, my dear?" he asked her when he saw her lying on the sofa.

"I'm beat. I thought it was supposed to be easier to cast spells with a staff."

"Not if you keep casting it for as long as you have!" He chuckled and turned to his assistant. "We need to assign her a room. Come with me to my office so we can fill out the paperwork."

"Alright," the man said. "Please, help yourself to a snack if you wish. We will be right back. I can make some coffee for you if you drink it, Mister Crow."

"Thanks. I would like some if you would be so kind." The father nodded. "No sugar, please."

"As you wish." Both of the scholars ascended up the staircase, leaving the girl and her guardian alone once more. When they walked down the hallway on the highest floor, Ralph noticed the old man wearing a distinct smile. "I haven't seen you smile like that for years, Sir."

"Yes. It has been a while," he said, confirming his observation. "I think that girl ignited an old spark in me that I had almost forgotten. I'm excited to watch her grow."

"Is that the old Argus speaking, I hear?" His assistant smiled. "Could it be?"

"I might just have to pick up my staff once more," the experienced sorcerer said.

"Well, I'm looking forward to it," Ralph concluded as they reached his office. "So tell me, what did you really bring me up here for?" he inquired. "No one else from the light course has arrived yet and all of the first-year rooms have been vacated. We can place her in any one of them. And I know full well there's no paperwork to fill out anymore. So what did you want to discuss with me?"

"Perceptive as ever." The headmaster walked up to his desk and sat down on his large wooden chair, almost appearing like a throne in its majestic nature. "That's what I like about you. That is why you will make a great headmaster once I hit the bucket in a few years." He chuckled at the joke he made at his own expense.

"Don't say that. You're not that old yet, Sir."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Ralph!" The bearded man raised his hand. "I'm nearly pushing seventy years old. A relic of the past, waiting to be devoured by the sands of time. But you are still young and full of life on the other hand. Train well, steel your body and your mind! Believe me, this chair is not as comfortable to sit on as it looks like."

"I know, Sir," he responded. "But you still have plenty of years ahead. Let us not write you off so easily. So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" He tried to steer the conversation back in the right direction, seeing they have gone off-topic.

"Very well. I called you here because I want you to put her in the room with the other one," Argus said, rummaging through the papers on his desk. "You know very well which one I mean."

"But Sir..." the assistant furrowed his brow. "Isn't that against the rules?"

"What do I always say?" the scholar asked, stopping his paper-digging for a moment.

"A nap a day keeps the gray hair away?" Ralph said after thinking a while.

"No, not that! The one with the rules!" The old man lifted his index finger. "Although that one holds some truth to it indeed! You should try it!"

"Rules are for fools?" The young man guessed correctly this time.

"Exactly! Rules are for fools!" He jumped up from his seat, some papers falling off the desk as he did so. "There's a damn rule for everything these days. You know, times were simpler back when I was young!"

The assistant already knew where this was going. He tried to intervene to stop the old man from going on a rant, but Argus gestured him to be quiet with a wave of his hand.

"It all went downhill after the racial war," he started. "We were free to go and do as we please. But then borders were closed and this godforsaken Council was put in place. And speaking of god, nobody even truly upholds their faith anymore! Churches are practically empty! Where is the devotion to our god, Lumus!? Damn politics always ruining everything. The last time I wanted to go to the Elvar falls, they stopped me at the border and demanded a permit, can you believe that?!" He looked at Ralph expecting some form of engagement from him and the assistant knew it so he reluctantly played along.

"And what did you do when they asked you for it, Sir?" he asked, visibly uninterested.

"Why I told them I am Argus Finkleshore!" The old man began pacing around the room. "And they said that I still need a permit to cross! The audacity!" He started grinning. "But they're not going to get rid of old Argus so easily, no, no. You know what I did?"

"What did you do, Sir?" The young man was obliged to participate once again.

"I told them to turn the carriage around and make a small circle. Then I wrote myself a permit, put the academy stamp on it, and crossed the border with it half an hour later!" He started laughing at his own ingenuity. "Bastards can't keep ol' Argus away from the ladies!"

"The ladies?" Ralph was genuinely confused now. "What ladies?"

"Oh, you don't know? Well, let me enlighten you. Listen carefully, this is wisdom built over the ages!" He waved his hand. "Elvar falls is a place for meditation and tranquility. Many elves go there to find inner peace and train their spirit. Everyone knows that. But a little less known fact about Elvar falls is that there's also a hot spring there! The ladies are just lovely!"

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"What?!" The assistant put two and two together. "You mean to tell me you forged a permit to go look at some naked elves?!" He was so in shock that he forgot to address the man properly.

The headmaster laughed at his reaction. "Oh, you have much to learn my boy! That strict demeanor of yours is no good. You need to learn to loosen up. Life is too short to take it seriously, you know?"

"I can't believe you would do something like that, Sir!" The man still couldn't wrap his head around what he had just heard. "And suppose you did want to...enjoy yourself. We have hot springs right here in Ardor. Why go all the way to the elven lands?"

"Ah, here's another piece of wisdom for you from the old man!" He raised his index finger.

"I think I have had enough wisdom for today, Sir." Ralph wasn't sure he wanted to hear it. Actually, he was quite positive he didn't want to hear it. But he would hear it anyway.

"Dracons don't know how to be gentle," Argus started. "Jakkals bite you and dwarves are all business. And humans...well, humans are just boring! Elves are where it's at, my boy. Ain't no lady like an elven lady! Always remember that!" he concluded.

The young man was appalled. "Sir, it is my duty to inform you that this is highly inappropriate and degrading!" He scolded him so formally that the old man collapsed in his seat laughing.

"You're a riot, Ralph! Not only do you help me out, but you also lighten up my day with your fabulous sense of humor! Seriously though, go check out Elvar falls. It can only do you good."

Ralph himself was not as amused. "That wasn't supposed to be a joke, Sir! Please, we have children here. You cannot act like this. And while we're talking about children, there's a little girl downstairs waiting for us while we're talking nonsense up here."

"I told you already, put her in with the other one!" Argus coughed after his laughing fit and waved his hand. "Or do you need a written permit from me to do so?"

"Well, it is against the Council rules, Sir. So yes, I think I do need a permit," he said sternly. "The rules clearly state that only students from the same course can be assigned rooms together. What you are asking me to do is to put a light course student in a room with an air course student. That is a violation of article 13, paragraph 7."

"Did you learn that damn rulebook by heart?" The headmaster looked at him disappointingly.

"You should know the rules as a headmaster, don't you think?" He returned him the look.

"I know the rules! I was there when they were written, damn it!" Argus lost his cool for a moment yet quickly regained his composure. "But that doesn't mean I approve of them! These stupid rules only inhibit the learning process. What kind of rule is this? Someone from the light course can't be in the same room with someone from the air course?"

"It's for the children's own safety, Sir," Ralph explained to him.

"For their safety? Well, riddle me this then! What's going to happen if they are in the same room? What happens then? Spontaneous combustion and they both perish? Please, this is ridiculous. Rules are for fools! It was way better in the old days."

"Well, that may be true, but it is what it is." The assistant tried to reason with him. "I know you would like us to do things the old-fashioned way. Like it or not, those days are over."

"They are, aren't they?" A pang of sadness could be felt in his voice as he said this. "The old-fashioned way was always the best way. Curse all this paperwork, permits, and rules! The more old-fashioned the better I say! Isn't that right, Ralph?"

"If you ask me, we should go straight back to the dark ages, Sir." The young man felt sorry for him and decided to give him his comfort at least, albeit in a mocking manner.

"Damn right we should! Burn all these papers to the ground!" He slammed his table angrily.

"Please escort Miss Velvet to her room," he then added.

"Which room?"

"The one I told you. Put her in with the other one." Argus waved his hand at him lazily.

"We just went over this!" He jumped up. Was he going to have to explain to him all over again why he cannot do that?

"The Council can take their rules and shove them where the sun don't shine!" the old man grunted, starting to rummage through the papers on his desk again.

"But Sir, you are a part of that Council," his assistant pointed out.

"Oh, am I?" He looked up at him. "Am I really? I always vote against these stupid propositions, but what can I do when there are nineteen other fools always outvoting me? It's like I'm not even there, really! I have a feeling they just want to get rid of me, you know."

"If you hate it so much, why don't you simply resign your position," Ralph suggested.

"Because that is precisely what they want!" He raised his voice. "I'm not leaving! There has to be at least one sane person in that damn room! Bunch of high-handed idiots they are."

He pulled up a paper from the pile, finally finding what he was looking for. "Aha! Found it!" Placing it next to another paper in front of him, he looked over them intently. First to one and then to the other.

"What are you looking at, sir?" his assistant asked him, puzzled by this.

"I'm trying to see if there is a connection between these two," he mumbled while examining the papers. "Don't you think it's rather strange that we get hardly any students under the age of twelve and now all of a sudden in the span of two weeks, we get a ten-year-old and a nine-year-old?"

"Oh, you're talking about that other girl," the assistant scratched his head. "Personally, I think it's just a coincidence. A very big one at that, but still. Just a coincidence."

"I don't think so." Argus shook his head. "There must be something..." he continued glancing from one paper to the other, scanning over their resumes "...but I can't for the life of me find what it is. What have I missed?"

Thank you for reading! Have a great day!

Thank you for reading! Have a great day! [https://img.wattpad.com/e4c979f99ffae35bc86ff35992ef51c06948080c/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f5378726c6a5930354a72517136773d3d2d313235353133333533352e313730653462653263623037623563393134373637393635393734332e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

Who will be Velvet's roommate?