"Wow! It's so spacious!" Luna exclaims.

Immediately in front of me is a long wooden table, with a chair on each end, and two chairs each on the remaining two sides. There's a lantern that hangs below the ceiling above the table that illuminates this part of the room. Stepping farther into the room, I find the floors are made out of fine wood, similar to the chamber for sword training I was in earlier. Behind the dining table, there are six doors along the same side of the wall opposite to the entrance.

On the right, there's a storage area with two shelves and three sizable chests. A lantern is also hanging on the ceiling here. Two familiar magical items useful for laundry are at the end of the wall.

The kitchen is located on the left part of the room with the usual appliances. Drawers and cabinets line themselves along the counters with the typical lantern hanging from the ceiling.

Focusing back on the six rooms, I notice that all of the doors are open, except the one on the far left, so I go to that one. I open the door and close it behind me, finding a lock on this side of the door. This is the bedroom. Pretty small compared to the main room. There's barely enough room to fit a bed, a drawer, and a shelf.

I open the door next to the bed to find the bathroom. There’s a sink directly in front, with a toilet next to it, a towel hung on a horizontal bar opposite of the toilet, and a bath in the back built into the whole width of the room. This room is made of stone, rather than wood.

There aren’t any windows in this room either. We’re all going to suffocate in our new home. I frown.

There are toothbrushes and toothpaste by the sink below the mirror. Back into the bedroom, my eyes focus on the bi-folding door on my left side, beyond the bed. I open it, finding many hangars available on the horizontal bar, but no clothes. I shut it and check the drawer in the room, but it's empty too. I dive onto the bed and sigh.

I really want to take a shower from all the exercising I did today, but how can I do that with no spare clothes? I spread out my arms and legs, feeling like heaven. I could lie here forever…

…

Oh, no. I fell asleep. The voices outside are noisy. I get up and open the door. Louder voices stem from the hallways. I run toward the entrance of our home to see what's going on.

“Hey, Kai. You’re still here?” Hiro asks. “Moria made an announcement like ten minutes ago that we can select whatever clothes we want from the outfits in the hallways! There’s a lot, so check it out! I’m gonna go back ta get more, see ya!”

I follow him out the door. The hallways are flooded with various outfits hung on racks.

The clothes for boys are in the third and fourth hallways. I don't care as much for this kind of thing, so I just grab arbitrary clothes and lug it back to my room. I carry as much as I can and soon fill up my entire closet and drawer with a few trips.

I also take some new footwear to place on the ground in the closet. The clock on the wall opposite of the bed tells me that I spent around two hours getting everything organized.

I decide to take a shower, now that I finally have a change of clothes. I lock the door to my room, take off my clothes, and go into the bathroom. Smiling, I stare at the magical item connected to the bath and recall a memory with Emdos when he taught me how to use it.

***

"Now Kai, you're going to have to do this yourself at some point, so listen carefully. You can turn this knob here to adjust the temperature of the water," Emdos said and pointed to the knob connected to the magical item before continuing, "It can be as cold or hot as you want, but if you wish to use the same temperature as I have set it for you in the past, turn it to this number over here. After that, you activate it, and water will come out."

"I think I understand, but where's the water come from? How's it change the temperature?" I asked.

Emdos put his finger to his right temple before asking, "I don't think you'll understand, but do you still want to know?"

"Yeah!" I exclaimed.

Emdos smiled before explaining, "This magical item is comprised of a Water Crystal and a Fire Crystal as the principal component. The knob adjusts the output of the Fire Crystal. When you activate the magical item, it lets out the water that is immediately heated by the Fire Crystal. When any of these crystals run out of power, you need to get a replacement one. They are only E grade items, so it won't be expensive."

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***

I’ll miss his explanations. I can’t believe I won’t see him for five years. That makes me a little sad. He’s been in my daily life for a long as I can remember.

I set the temperature to the same as he taught me and then turn on the water.

The sudden rush of the hot, clean water hitting my body feels great. It loosens my body and relaxes my muscles. The stench and stickiness of my dried sweat quickly wash away, and it’s like I’ve been reborn. I take my time to enjoy the rest of my shower.

I dry myself with the towel and exit the bathroom, dressing in the clothes I laid out on the bed beforehand. I go to the common room to see who else is there. Sitos sits by himself at the table.

“Where’s everyone else?” I ask.

"I think Luna and Marin are still picking out their clothes… Drugo and Hiro are taking their showers."

So, I’ll be alone with him for the time being. I’m not sure what to make of him. He got on my nerves at first, but then he covered for me. I’m still not entirely sure why he did that.

“I see,” I say and then sit down across from him. “Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

I pause for a moment, quietly staring at him before continuing, "Why'd you cover for me back there?"

He tilts his head down for several seconds before finally saying, “I was jealous.”

“Huh?”

Sitos slams down his palms against the table and then looks at me right in the eye. “When I first started training, I only lasted five minutes, but you lasted ten. That frustrated me, so I called you weak. But, I do not think you are weak anymore, Kai.”

I open my mouth, but no words come out. My eyes are probably sparkling very brightly right now. He called me by my name for the first time! I can’t help but get up and throw my arms around him.

"What the hell are you doing? Get off of me!" Sitos exclaims while trying to push me away.

“Hey, Sitos. Can you be my friend?” I ask, despite knowing that I told myself I would never be his friend.

"If I say yes, can you get off of me?" I grin and let go of him. He mutters, "I thought we were already friends…"

Did I hear that correctly? I cock an eyebrow and ask, “What’d you say?”

"I am going to take a shower too," Sitos says and runs into his room, slamming the door behind him.

I smile. He’s not very honest about his feelings.

Hmm… I think I’m friends with just about everyone now, except Marin. I haven’t even heard her voice. She’s been talking to Luna, though, I think. She talks so quietly that I can’t hear anything.

Now is a great time to try releasing Scrap Mana from my body!

I lock myself in my room and then lie on the bed. I try to remember that tingling feeling from earlier. I gather that feeling and try releasing it from my finger. A smile gradually emerges when the same faint shade of blue color from Moria’s demonstration appears in front of me. This is a lot easier to control than the Mana I’ve been manipulating.

I try rapidly changing the flow rate and release it out of one finger. I effortlessly accomplish both, but after thirty seconds, nothing comes out. I stare at my finger for several seconds. I guess that was all the Scrap Mana in my body…

I relax my entire body. Ahh… Maybe I’ll take another nap.

Suddenly, I remember the book Emdos gave me, and frantically roll off the bed. The backpack isn’t anywhere in my room. It’s not in the bathroom either. No… No, no, no…

I swing open my door that causes it to crash into the wall as I run out. It’s not in this room either. Did I leave it in the lecture room where I woke up?

I sprint out the dormitory and into the Academy. It takes a while to find, but I arrive in the lecture room. I search the area at the front of the place where I woke up, but it’s not here. I’m not sure I had it at all when I woke up. I don’t know anymore.

At this point, I’m desperate. I really don’t think it’s in the training room, but I’ll check anyway. I take the time to run there and confirm, but it’s as I expected. There’s nothing here.

No… I can’t believe I lost the book Emdos trusted me with on my first day… What would I ever tell him?

I slowly limp my way back to the living quarters while scatterbrained.

Drugo is the only one in the main room. He’s sitting at the table. He interjects, “Hmm? Kaister, I thought you were in your room.”

“Nah…” I answer. “I was taking a walk… Now I’m back.”

“Is something wrong, Kaister?” he asks.

Sorry, Drugo. I don’t feel like talking to anyone right now. I walk right past him with my head down and then open the door to my room.

“Kaister?” he asks again, but I ignore him.

I close and lock the door behind me. My body falls onto the bed, and I crawl onto the pillow, stuffing my face in it.

I slowly make a realization and make a connection with what Drugo said a moment ago. Who closed the door to my room? I recall it crashing into the wall when I left to look for the book. Did the force propel it back into a closed state?

I really wasn’t paying attention. The door is closed now, and I remember doing that a moment ago. There’s something familiar next to it.

“What?!” I scream, noticing my backpack on the ground against the wall. I rush over to open it. The book Emdos entrusted me with is here. A huge weight is lifted off my shoulders.

“Kaister, are you okay in there?” Drugo asks from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say.

“Alright. I’m just making sure you’re okay. You seemed out of it.”

“I’m just tired. I’m gonna take a nap. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, have a nice nap.”

The fatigue must be really getting to me. I don’t know how I managed to overlook the backpack when I first checked the room. I swear I didn’t see it there, but who knows. I need some proper sleep. I undress and tuck myself into bed.