NOVEL NEXT 5
Ignoring Adrian Heather’s outstretched hand, the man walked over to the window.
Several potted plants, placed there by Adrian, occupied the space. The man reached out with his large hand and picked up one of the pots near the center of the windowsill.
“Ah, that’s—”
Adrian barely had time to finish explaining that it was for his class before the man casually flicked his wrist, shoving the herb pot out the window. His movement was as indifferent as if he were tossing out trash. A small shattering sound echoed from outside.
Adrian’s smiling lips twitched. His gaze snapped toward the man, who smirked and replied, “You crossed the halfway mark.”
With his index finger, the man traced an invisible line from the dormitory window to the door. The pot, positioned roughly in the middle of the window, must have bothered him.
Really?
Adrian stepped forward and picked up a glass bottle that his employee had just left behind. The bottle looked ancient, at least several hundred years old—honestly, it didn’t match the academy dormitory at all.
The man, seeing Adrian approach, showed no interest. He was too busy checking his belongings.
Without hesitation, Adrian hurled the glass bottle out the window. Unlike the dull crash of the flowerpot, the bottle shattered with a crisp, clear ring.
A voice rang out from below. “Agh! What the hell?!”
At the sound, the prince turned his head toward Adrian.
“…Are you insane?”
“How much was it? I’ll pay for it.”
“…”
The prince wasn’t the kind of man who wasted his time memorizing the price of mere glass bottles.
Instead, he strolled over to Adrian’s side, toward his belongings. Adrian crossed his arms and waited in silence to see what he would do.
The man reached out, pinching one of Adrian’s thick books between his index finger and thumb, and lifted it. Maintaining eye contact with Adrian, he slowly extended his hand toward the window.
Adrian raised an eyebrow but made no move to stop him.
The prince let the heavy book drop outside.
“This should even things out.”
Not even close.
The glass bottle had been a royal acquisition, crafted by a renowned artisan, while the book was just a first-year academy textbook—practically disposable in any bookstore. If the attendants waiting outside had overheard, they’d have had a heart attack.
But it was more than enough to piss Adrian off.
He stepped over the imaginary boundary again.
“…So. What’s your name?”
The prince’s question made Adrian halt his steps.
He couldn’t understand why the prince was even asking. After all, throwing around a roommate’s belongings on their first meeting hardly required knowing each other’s names. Still, he answered without hesitation.
“Adrian Heather.”
“…Never heard that surname before.”
Royal Academy freshmen were required to stay in the dormitories. From the academy’s perspective, it was simpler to assign the prince—a noble of the highest rank—to a room with a commoner rather than another noble. Commoners without titles rarely dared to protest against royalty or high-ranking aristocrats, spending the entire year in silent submission.
The prince sighed and calmly explained, as if educating a clueless commoner from the kingdom.
“Even if the academy treats everyone equally, acting like this won’t reflect well on your family.”
“Oh? So I take it your family has no problem acting like this?”
Adrian ignored the prince’s words and continued what he was doing. He couldn’t care less if the fake Heather family was ruined.
Among the prince’s belongings, something gleamed as if begging to be broken. A sword sheath.
Unlike the glass bottle he had discarded so easily earlier, this was something the prince clearly cherished.
As Adrian reached for it, the prince finally reacted, moving quickly. He grabbed the sheath, trying to pull it away from Adrian’s grip, but it wouldn’t budge as he expected.
The prince had assumed his years of training would give him the upper hand against an opponent of similar build. He was wrong.
The sheath only trembled in place as Adrian’s grip held firm.
“Hey! Not this! You can’t!”
“Can’t? Says who?”
Adrian let out a short laugh and yanked the sheath toward himself. The force pulled the prince slightly forward.
Adrian decided it was best to teach this brat some manners early on.
The prince, sensing the shift, tightened his hold on the sheath with all his strength.
“Let go! You’re not letting go?!”
“Why would I? Go outside, pick up my flowerpot and book, and maybe I’ll accept your apology.”
“You arrogant bastard—do you even know how much this is worth?!”
Adrian was about to say that he could easily buy as many cheap swords as necessary.
But just then, someone entered their room.
“…….”
It was the prince’s attendant, who had been waiting outside.
He had knocked earlier when the commotion began, but neither of the two inside had responded, too caught up in their argument. After a brief hesitation, duty compelled him to open the door.
And this was the sight that greeted him—a noble youth he had just passed by outside, now locked in a childish tug-of-war with the prince, both gripping opposite ends of the sheath.
“…What exactly is going on here?”
The attendant cautiously stepped between them, his hand lightly pressing against the back of Adrian’s grip.
He couldn’t stop the prince, so he tried to stop the other party instead.
Adrian, who had been grinning fiercely, relaxed his expression. Dragging an innocent third party into this ridiculous show of strength felt unfair.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Adrian released his hold.
The prince staggered back a few steps from the sudden release, still holding his sheath. He barely managed to avoid toppling over onto the bed behind him, which would have been an embarrassing sight.
Adrian casually flicked his hand as if dusting it off, putting on a little show. The startled attendant sent him a faint, grateful smile, and Adrian responded with a slight smirk.
But his new roommate still glared at him with open hostility.
“An entire year in the same room as someone like you…”
“Agreed.”
So began their first day at the academy dormitory.
Adrian mentally ran through the dormitory rules that had come enclosed with his letter. There was nothing in particular about requesting a room reassignment.
As soon as he finished unpacking, he stepped outside.
He made his way straight to the central lobby on the first floor and checked the dormitory assignment list once more.
━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━
Mikhail Ruth Inehart
Adrian Heather
━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━
Mikhail Ruth Inehart…
So that was it. All that talk about noble lineage—Inehart was the royal family’s surname.
Adrian’s expression cooled.
From his experience, he never got along with Ineharts.
For a moment, an image flashed through his mind—Carlo de Inehart, the founder of the kingdom, with that ever-present smile. When seen from outside, his near-white silver hair always shimmered under the sunlight.
Now that he thought about it, the prince did resemble him a little.
Hmph.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Adrian turned away from the dormitory roster and left. Running into remnants of the past was never pleasant. A game, once played, should end.
Without hesitation, Adrian headed straight to the admissions office in the main building to inquire about changing his dormitory assignment.
“…So you’re saying that once the semester starts, room assignments can’t be changed?”
Not a single student had volunteered to room with the prince. Adrian found that unsurprising—clearly, everyone already knew how unbearable his personality was.
Hah…
With a tired sigh, the Golden Dragon trudged out of the admissions office and made his way back toward the dormitory.
But then, as if suddenly remembering something, he changed direction.
He walked around the building, roughly estimating the location of his room’s window.
Scattered across the grass beneath it were shards of broken glass.
The prince’s vase and his own flowerpot lay in ruins, shattered and mixed into a mess.
The only small comfort was that the pot had broken into large enough pieces—if carefully mended, it might still serve its purpose.
Adrian carefully gathered the fragments and the blue plant stems before heading back inside.
Fortunately, Diena’s roots hadn’t been damaged.
If he planted it back into the soil, it would survive.