Chapter 38: Ch78. Return ceremony
Kurt woke up with his alarm blaring and his body covered in cold sweat.
He panted hard, breathing heavily while sitting up, trying to get his bearings.
The manor was dead quiet when he got down the stairs, after a cold shower and some clean clothes.
The breakfast was already served but there was a letter from James to him resting over the table.
Master Blake
I’m afraid I must leave my duties for a few hours, since something went on...
He read the letter and hoped that James’ nephew got well from his sickness, ate the breakfast, and went upstairs again to get ready for the Return Ceremony.
After getting dressed in his new uniform, Kurt set his holowatch for scheduling a car ride, and with the remaining time, he looked in the mirror.
The Boston Wielders Academy had different colors of uniforms, and Kurt didn’t understand what it was for, since the academy was very reserved about its rules and grading system.
Kurt’s uniform was indigo, and it had a strange red stripe on the upper part of the sleeve, right next to the shoulder.
The academy crest was an enamel pin on the left, right where the heart was when he wore it.
He thought that besides the color making him feel like a clown or something like that, the uniform was pretty cool, and the white shirt, along with the indigo silk tie just set the tone of the uniform.
"Filthy rich..." Kurt murmured to his reflection, raising a brow the next second, wondering where those words came from.
His holowatch signaled that the car was already expecting him outside, because he didn’t want to fit right among the rich kids he was sure to find in the academy. "Time to make some changes, shall we?"
And then he left.
***
The trip was a bit long, but Kurt took the opportunity to observe his surroundings, absorbing the way the other Kurt’s memories made him feel.
’Was it the right thing to experience the [MEMORY FRAGMENT]?’
Kurt felt a bit uneasy during the ride, the sensations and emotions overflowed and he didn’t feel like himself as the images of what happened in the other version of his world passed in front of his eyes like a movie.
Everything was so fresh that it felt to him like it happened just the day before, but Kurt tried his best to dismiss everything.
It wasn’t working the way he thought it would.
When he got out of the car, in front of the academy, his mood was slightly gloomy, despite the cheering chit-chat from the new students around him.
And if the memories weren’t enough to make him feel bad for almost no reason, the red hair a few steps in front of him drew his attention like a flame to a moth.
’No way...’
Kurt felt an emotion that he was sure wasn’t his on his chest, a pang, and around his heart, he felt as if countless chains tightened.
He knew who the girl was, even if just from the [MEMORY FRAGMENT], but it was a memory so fresh, even if not his own, that he couldn’t help but feel like turning around and walking away from the academy.
SLAP!
Kurt’s cheeks became red, and a few students stared at him in confusion.
’Argh... My hands definitely became stronger.’ He thought while his palms still covered his cheeks. ’Get it together, for fuck’s sake! She’s not the girl from the [MEMORY FRAGMENT]. And even if she is...’ He stepped forward, starting to walk again. ’It isn’t my memory, so I have nothing to do with this feeling right now.’
"Yeah... All I have to do is stay away from her, and everything should be fine."
But when the small crowd dispersed from around the girl...
"You gotta be kidding me..." He said, unconsciously out loud, looking at her uniform.
It had the same indigo color as Kurt’s, and the same red stripe right below the shoulder.
"You nervous already, newbie?" A strong arm weighed over Kurt’s shoulder as he turned to look who the owner of that squeaky voice was.
The boy looked like a rat on steroids, and he was seizing Kurt from head to toe.
"Good-looking, yeah. But your face won’t be of much use here, rookie."
The student wore a uniform in the same cut as Kurt’s, but dark-green, and he had a mug look on his face that made Kurt immediately understand what the boy was.
’A bully, already?’
The bully’s gray eyes darted from up to down and side to side over Kurt, like he was some new attraction in a zoo, and his hair was so short that Kurt almost laughed.
The weight over Kurt’s shoulder increased, and he knew that the boy were putting some effort in trying to make him tumble, with no success.
"Word of advice, just between us, rookie. You see the red head, right? You were just looking at her. So..." The bully pushed Kurt, trying to make him fall. "She’s mine."
He pushed again.
And Kurt had already stopped moving, just looking at the boy, who probably was just a year or two older than him.
He sighed in boredom and turned his eyes up a little, to match with the bully’s eye level.
"I’m not interested in her." Kurt’s voice was absolute boredom. "And I’m not interested in starting a fight in my first day here, either, so are we good? You get the girl, and I get some piece of mind."
Kurt took the opportunity to use his [QUICK FINGERS] on him, and immediately felt the student card between his fingers, which slid smoothly inside the inner pocket of his uniform.
The system beeped, and the quest window immediately appeared in front of him.
[POCKETS PICKED: 099/100]
The bully glared at Kurt, who didn’t move a single inch, despite what seemed like the bully’s best efforts.
He got close to Kurt’s face, and almost spitting on him, said.
"It doesn’t matter what kind of special freak you are around here, we Crimson have better experience than you, so you better watch your back, punk!"
And he pressed on his steps, to get closer to the red-haired girl, leaving Kurt finally alone to look at his 99th pocket picked.
"Hum... Let’s see what we have here." Kurt started walking again. "Lester Hill... What kind of name is Lester?" But he already had two things he had to keep in mind, in order to be one step ahead in the academy.
The first, it didn’t seem like there was a grading system among the students, they seemed to be separated by colors, which actually made sense to him, since he was wearing indigo, just like the red-haired girl, and the bully, Lester, wore crimson.
And the second was that his first day of school didn’t even start properly, and he was already making enemies.
But at least, there was only one pocket remaining to be picked.
Kurt smirked and walked faster, eager to get the last piece of his quest.
***
The academy’s auditorium was spacious enough to accommodate all of the two thousand new initiates who had enrolled there during the break period.
Everyone chattered effusively, except for him, who was trying to pursue each smallest detail about the students.
But what really bothered him was the fact that Evellyn was right there, almost within reach of his hands.
’Did she really have to be right here?’
No matter how much Kurt thought, he knew that from the color of their uniforms, he and Evellyn would end up bumping into each other eventually.
And if he wanted to stop that, the only thing he could do was make a bad first impression.
But would it work?
Even before Kurt could finish his thought, everyone suddenly became quiet, as a woman walked on stage and approached the podium.
"I humbly welcome all the new students to this new part or your life." The woman on the stage said in the microphone.
She had her black hair in a ponytail, wore a white shirt with a black tie, and a skirt that went til her knees.
’Whoever she is...’ Kurt thought to himself under the silence of the auditorium. ’She clearly has some sense of combat, despite the energy around her. I guess I’m gonna be able to learn a lot of how to actually fight, here.’
Kurt could smell expensive perfumes, arrogance, and new clothes.
This one, coming from the students’ uniforms, all fresh from the tailor.
’I think it’s not just fighting that I’m going to learn here...’
