Chapter 8: Chapter VIII
It turned out the prospect of a properly paying job, a good education, free lodgings and a university professor’s sponsorship was too exciting for a single mother of two barely supporting her family to ignore, even if she tried.
By the ti ’Professor’ Waver was done listing the pros of coming under his tutelage, I was quite certain that my mother would have forced
to accept his offer even if my wishes were to the contrary, not that they were. Being broke turned out to be quite the boon in this case, we didn’t have much to pack up for the move, and by the next morning, we were well on our way to the dorms.
Ellie rode atop my shoulders, and her negligible weight made
again and again forget that she was even there... That problem was resolved when she started letting out the occasional ’ooh’ and ’aah’ while tugging my hair to steer.
What was she? So kind of Italian rat obsessed with cooking?
The ’Slur’ student dormitory was a considerable upgrade from our old ho. The walls were a clean, slick white, the tiled floor was well-kept, and the corridor was rife with the hustle and bustle of students all too busy or sleep-deprived to even bat an eye at us, as most often were in university.
An overly excited, burly, Indian man t us halfway into the compound and practically wrenched my two suitcases from my hands with a massive grin. He spoke too loud, and his skin was only an inch lighter from one of the wannabe roadn I’d hospitalised.
"Why’s your skin like that? You’re not black."
... I looked up at Ellie with pursed lips, and a newfound respect for her baby balls in my heart, "Damn girlie."
"It’s because I’m from a far away land," Krishna offered a good-natured smile, not the least bit bothered. "No need to apologise, madam." He stopped my mother before she could speak, "You can’t bla a child for being curious."
"You know there’s sothing to be said about an Indian man serving soone like Waver. It’s not coming to min-...omph!"
My mother knocked
over the head with a fist before I could finish my words.
"What? He said he didn’t mind," I complained, rubbing my bruise.
"I didn’t raise you to be like this. There’s no need to be disrespectful for no reason."
Krishna’s smile widened at her words and without even slowing his walk, he added, "It’s fine, madam. Rudeness is how our youth compensate with the harsh fact that they’re incapable of doing much."
Damn, Krishna.
I was duly humbled by the man and walked the rest of the way in silence as my mother told
off so more. All the way to our new ’lodgings’, I wondered if I could get the man to teach
his ways. He had just fried
without even saying one ’crude’ word. An elevator ride later, we arrived on the third floor, to a room unceremoniously labelled ’5308’.
Krishna opened the dark, furnished door with a set of two keys that he handed off to my mother right the next mont before walking in and carefully placing our cases on the... the wooden floor. "Welco to your dorm, Henry. Miss Louise. We don’t typically have such cases but we do sotis get students who want their servants to move in with them. I hope you don’t mind, I had one such apartnt refurbished to accommodate you as soon as I was notified."
"It’s no trouble at all. Th... Thank you." Mama Smith was understandably overwheld.
I tilted my head, "That was yesterday though."
"I don’t see how that’s a cause for concern."
I guessed magecraft made such things easier to accomplish?
"Well, I’ll leave you to it then." He gave a small nod, "I hope you enjoy your stay. Oh and, food is readily available in the cafeteria should you feel a bit peckish. If you have certain tastes or any allergies, be sure to tell . And lastly, I’m quite the cook if I do say so myself."
With a final bow, he disappeared into the corridor, leaving us to our own devices. I had every single intention of exploring the new apartnt then leaping on the bed right after for a good rest without the sll of fries and fish for the first ti in my life but, of course, how could that be?
"I hope you’ll apologise to that nice man for your earlier remarks." Mama Smith said from beside , giving free reign to the serpentine creature that had neared us in the anti to spit her venom and ruin my life.
"I wonder what she’d have to say if she knew what you did to
yesterday."
Luviagelita smirked, a hand under her breasts and the other hovering next to her cheeks in that rich lady way of hers. She’d changed into a different dress, a simpler one without shoulders accented by odd golden, floral patterns down to her ankles. It was still blue though, for so reason.
I chanically turned to face her. "I thought light was poison to demo-"
"What did he do?" My mother cut
off.
"He really was quite rough yesterday when he had his way," Luviagelita smirked in a way that told
she knew exactly what she was saying. "That dress of mine is all but ruined. I certainly hope you’ll reprimand him for his actions."
Ah... so that was why she changed cloth-... oh no..
"You bitc-"
My mother dragged
indoors and slamd the door shut behind her.
-
"My, I hope you’ve learned to respect ladies more."
Half an hour later, I sat on a bench outside the dormitory nursing a new bruise on my head that I had only because Luviagelita Edelfelt was a big snitch. She was laughing at
even now, standing right beside the armrest.
"You’re misunderstanding sothing," I explained. "I already respect ladies."
"Then-"
"The last ti I checked, banshees weren’t classified as ladies, more as soul-sucking monsters."
She raised a clenched fist but I’d already backed away to the far corner of the bench and readied a spell to blast her with again before she could, two fingers pulled back like I was about to throw so gang signs and summon a fireball... which I was.
Suddenly, the blonde witch started giggling, "It’s almost refreshing to et soone who doesn’t care for my standing... or his own safety."
Way to be the cliche rich girl... I kept my mouth shut this ti however, not too keen on having her prattle to my mother again.
"Fine, I’ll concede this ti. Co on, let’s head to class."
I’d been looking forward to the lecture so I ended up conceding too. But only for the sake of learning cool magi-... magecraft.
Unfortunately, my hopes for new learning were thoroughly dashed when Waver spent the whole lecture expounding on why magecraft needed to be kept a secret from the larger world, basing the necessity on the fact that it was not freely utilisable but parsing it was a possibility all the sa. If the chanisms were deciphered, it would lose its power and they most certainly would.
It made magi look idiotic, in my opinion, at least.
"So while humanity learnt to harness the power of the stars, you people sit around happy you don’t need a match to light a fire but have to run complex programs for it instead? And sohow they’re your lessers?"
A dreadful silence fell over the class. I knew they could understand my point, most of my classmates, the normal ones, were new magi like myself, their exposure to human science was far greater, and far more insuppressible. It’s why they needed hypnosis to cast spells in the first place.
"Hal~. That’s one of those things you just don’t say~! You naughty boy~!" Yvette lightly hit my shoulder. "I wonder how naughty you’d be in~..."
"Let’s go find out right now." I quickly agreed. Whoever had warned against not sticking it in crazy was just gatekeeping.
"You’re not going anywhere." Luviagelita threw cold water over my sudden neuron activation. "The class isn’t over and we have to go enroll you in General Fundantals after."
"Oh! Oh! Are you guys hanging out after class?! Sounds fun!! Count
in!"
Flat, as always, jumped in with his shonen protagonist behaviour.
"Nobody asked you..." I deadpanned.
"Shush now Henry, we need to be nice to the ntally challenged." Luviagelita giggled into her palm. I wasn’t as reserved as her though, so I just snickered out loud.
Waver groaned again. He gathered up his docunts in a neat stack and picked them up.
"Well, that’s an interesting way to conclude the lecture. I’ll explain Henry’s remarks next ti, try to do so of your own research in the anti, they do hold so rit."
As if he was both used to, and done with this shit, he sauntered off without addressing us. Just before he actually left however, he stopped with his hand on the door.
"Actually, co here, Henry."
With those words, he left the lecture room. Not too interested in explaining why my comnt was justified, I bolted after him and caught him all of two steps away from class.
"That was quick." He noted.
"Yeah well, everyone wants to get in my pants and I’m not really interested in finding out how different people will do that."
"Sure..." He gave an unamused side-eye before mumbling about sothing to himself. "A cafe in the neighbourhood’s been having so issues with electricity, I suspect foul play involving magecraft, so go check that out. I’d do it myself but sothing ca up."
I opened my mouth to say sothing but he cut
off too... people were doing that a lot today and I was an inch away from doing sothing incredibly petty because of it.
"If you want sothing more refined, go see if you can find so rcenary work with the Policies Departnt. I’m sure Flat or Caules will be happy to show you the way. Stick to low-risk jobs though, it’s not just you that’s going to be in trouble if sothing happens to you."
Right... my family.
"Cafe it is, I guess." I conceded, and I saw sothing of a smile on the professor’s face as he hurried away... to whatever it was he had to do, I didn’t know.
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