NOVEL NEXT Chapter 243: Orientation.
Upon making it to the mansion Gild stopped just outside the front door and carefully placed down the heavy chest. “Here we are, temporary housing for the younger girls.” He took a deep breath, relaxing his shoulders for a moment. “Your key should work for the main door, as well as your room. It’s made with dwarven runes so just tap it against the lock and hope it does something.
‘Hope? Ah… Yes… More not magic at work.’ I walked up and sure enough, I heard a click as I used it just like a key card.
“And then, how many teeth does the key have.”
I looked down and counted. “four.”
“Are any of them bigger than the others?”
“The first one is the biggest, and the last one is the smallest.”
“Ok, that means you are in room 121.” He said, looking over and double-checking just to make sure. I walked forward and opened the doors wide so that he wouldn't have any trouble getting in. “Right, 121 should be up the main staircase on the left side. We should get you cleaned up before you introduce yourself to the other-”
“What's this? Gild, have you finally submitted to your betters? The commoner serving those above him.” Someone's voice came from the balcony above.
Gild nudged me forward. “Just keep moving,” he whispered before answering her. “You know me. I do what I want, I just decided I wanted to help the girl out.”
“Oh my,” she covered her mouth with her hands as I stepped out from beside Gild. “A barbarian?”
‘Barbarian? Me… No that feels pretty accurate actually. Although, I’m sure she is too…’
I just kept walking, it was clear my first impression would be bad no matter what I did, no use trying to converse with people like that. Honestly, it was refreshing to genuinely not care about anything she said, although I couldn’t say what the difference was.
“No matter, at least I have one more competitor that I don't have to worry about.” She continued.
I reached the door as she kept babbling on, completely ignoring her. “121 right Gild?”
“Uh, right. He hurried to catch up as I opened the door, and after he stepped inside I slammed it on the girl behind us… Who for some reason was coming closer. ‘Was she expecting an invitation or something?’
He carefully set down the chest in one corner of the room before sinking down into a desk chair.
I sank down against the door. Folding my dress underneath me. “I don't have the energy to deal with someone like her right now… Do you know her?” I groaned.
“Not especially… There's something different about you.” he leaned in as if inspecting me.
“What… Is that your pickup line?” I sighed, trying to be funny but the joke fell flat as he didn’t respond, after a short awkward silence he stepped back and raised his arms.
“Well, here it is. Don’t get too attached, you’ll be leaving in a couple of weeks.”
The room was relatively small and compact with glass windows that slid open and closed, and a beautiful desk and chair made from a dark red wood. There was a single large bed and it actually had a mattress on it too. Sitting down, I was surprised at how soft it was. Although… I quickly stood up again, afraid of getting it dirty.
In the bathroom, there was running water and a shower, cramped though it was.
“I know, I was amazed the first time I saw it too. You can't heat it up, so unfortunately if you want a hot bath you will still have to go to the hot springs or public bathhouse, but it's convenient, even if it is freezing.”
“That's not a problem…” I walked over to my chest and painfully pushed it to a corner next to the closet before opening it, taking out my freshly cleaned armor, still smelling faintly of flowers. ‘It’s kind of amazing that they were still able to take care of it like this in the state of that fortress.’
“Really? That’s a bit surprising. You seem pretty shy, so I didn’t think you would be comfortable with that sort of thing. Honestly, it was pretty hard for me to get used to when I first got here.”
After grabbing everything I would wear, and a towel I took it all to the bathroom and dropped it on the floor. “What the whole public bathing thing… Yeah, no way I’m doing that… I meant the water being cold. I’m used to it. Can you wait here for a moment, I shouldn’t take long.”
I closed the door but my eyes suddenly acted up turning orange and twitching, scanning the room. ‘Was the lock to this door broken off? It’s not enchanted like the others. There are other signs of conflict… But they’re old. How do I know that?’
“Uh… Siyasavide, that is, lady Siyasavide I mean…”
I opened the door again and his eyes widened, his whole body freezing as if he expected me to already be undressed.
“Just call me Siya…”
He cleared his throat, quickly recovering. “Right. I was just going to say you should be careful. While the first-year students are all on the first and second floors, the third floor is always upperclassmen, and they tend to haze the incoming students.”
‘Haze? I wonder what he means… It could be as harmless as dumping a pale of mudd on me, but knowing the people of this country… It's more likely something dangerous.’ I stopped and looked in the mirror next to me. It had been a long time since I had seen myself in one. Honestly, I expected to look worse than I did, my hair was knotted and tangled, it was sticky and kind of gross too, my face was covered in dirt and my whole body was covered in scrapes and bruises. And yet… I had looked worse, so… I let out a sigh, turning back towards him. “The lock on the bathroom is broken… I don’t suppose that’s related?”
He sighed back. “Probably so. Here let me see.” He walked in after me and closed the door, taking a knee and inspecting it. “The carriage was a bust, but I bet I could fix this.”
Even though I pushed myself up against the back wall we were still almost touching, making the size of the room even more apparent. “U-uhm…”
He stood up and tugged on the door. “Hold on a second, now the door won’t open.”
My heart stopped, but after a few more tugs the door opened and he stepped out, turning around and pausing for a moment as he stared at me. “Uh. Sorry about that, I guess I should have let you out first…”
“It–” My voice broke as I squeaked. “It’s fine…” I said again after clearing my throat to normalize it again.
After I walked out he went back in and closed the door, fidgeting with it with some tools he had on hand for an undisclosed reason.
While he messed with that I took the opportunity to fill my closet… Which took about 30 seconds… And that was really all the unpacking I had to do, so from there I unbraided my hair, took my boots off, and waited for him to be done for what felt like an eternity. With each passing moment, I became more and more aware of how gross I felt to the point that when He finally finished I practically threw him out of the way and got in the shower as fast as I could.
The water was cold sure… But as uncomfortable as it was, it made the air feel warm on my skin when I was done. And feeling clean again was worth it to be sure. I cheated a bit, using magic to pull most of the water out of my hair before drying off and putting on my armor, letting out a long breath of relief as I opened the door again to find Gild sitting with his back turned to the door, knives surrounding him in a perfectly organized fashion.
“Are you done?” He asked before turning around.
“Yeah, that feels way better…”
He sighed. “Right, so as I was saying… I wasn't able to fix the lock, I’ll have to come by later with some other tools.”
The chills on my skin from the cold water intensified. “Oh…” I slowly rubbed my face, trying not to think about how I brought a boy to my room and then took a shower with the door unlocked… Or how I wasted a bunch of his time by doing so before he was done helping me out… Or the million other thoughts that ran through my head at that moment. “So…” I started, jumping over the daggers he had laid out on the floor quickly dancing my way across the floor to not mess them up before jumping and taking a seat on my new bed. “This is the temporary residence, right? Why only temporary?”
After wiping down the knife in his hand he put it back in its sheath. “So I take it no one has told you anything then…”
“Well… I kind of figured there would be like an orientation, and then the teachers would explain everything.”
“Nope… Upperclassmen are expected to mentor underclassmen.”
I pulled my legs up onto the bed underneath me. “Ok then mentor, whatcha got for me.”
He sighed, flipping one of his knives multiple times before answering. “Yeah, ok… I guess I’ll be with you the rest of the day then…”