Food was served three times a day at the academy. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Today’s lunch was baked potatoes adorned with various herbs with a side of fatty bacon. The whole dish tasted like butter.

  Glancing up from my tray with the plate, I noticed that Phila hadn’t taken a bite yet. It was as if she didn’t expect me to accept her invitation and only asked because that was the first thing that came to her mind and now found it difficult to ask me to leave after the fact, or so her eyes told me.

  I stopped eating. “You don’t like potatoes?”

  “No, I like them!” She shoveled a forkful into her mouth and whispered, “Oh my gosh, it’s so good…”

  The rest of the students would arrive tomorrow so the tables here were hard to fill up. As such, our table had only us two using it.

  “You said you were from Klippel?”

  She coughed before answering. “T-that’s right.”

  “I see.”

  “…” She said.

  “I’ve been there before, in Klippel.”

  “Really?” She glanced up at me for a moment before letting it fall back down to my hands.

  “Green teacups right? They were quite pretty.”

  “Thank you…” She took another bite as if to tell me to stop asking her questions.

  Thinking back, her asking me to join her for lunch did go against my expectations. It did make me happy somewhat, because it meant that there was still hope that we could at least be on friendly terms. Sleeping with an eye open was fairly tiresome after all. Yet, trying to continue the talk with her made me even more tired.

  I churned my brain for more topics. “Do you know the town Barre? I have some friends from there.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “That outskirt town?”

  “Why, is it that surprising?”

  “Honestly, yes…”

  “What if I said that I’m from that town?” Technically not a lie.

  “I didn’t know that the Baron was related to house Nikodemus?”

  “He’s not, it’s because I was actually a commoner until recently.”

  She looked me up and down and smiled in response. “I must’ve been a worm until recently then.”

  “I wouldn’t take it that far.” A bird perhaps; a loud one.

  A young man in uniform appeared before us. “Oh, is that you Esther?”

  Long legs clad in fancy pants that stopped a little over his shoe letting it fold over itself once. A shirt with long arms that would have no problem reaching the highest shelf. The cuff buttons of the blazer sparkled as he held a tray of food. And indicating that he was a first year like us, a red tie wrapped itself around his collar and down his chest. He must have tied it himself as it laid a little crooked.

  Red hair that poked all over the place and green eyes that now contained a bit of wildness only seen in men. And robust lips that after a whole year, still looked the same. Still looked stupid.

  He smirked. “Long time no see, my lady.” Boys really did grow up fast at this age.

  “You’re interrupting our talk,” I said to him.

  “Yikes, I haven't seen you for a year and that’s the first thing you say? I must say, I do feel a little hurt.” He sat down beside Phila and asked her, “Is this seat taken? I’m Eric by the way.”

  “N-no go ahead, I’m Phila…”

  I shook my head at him. “Eric, you should stop with the habit of sitting down before getting approval.”

  He crossed his arms. “It’s my character.”

  “It’s stupid.”

  “Ha… what’s with you and Karrie still calling me stupid. I placed top twenty of the class, you know?”

  The poster on the wall indicated that he was number sixteen to be exact. “I saw, congratulations.”

  “Your nobleness still haven’t made you less aloof, I see.”

  I softened my eyes. “It’s good to see you again, Eric.” He smiled in response.

  I remembered something so I said, “Come here for a second, I have a gift for you.”

  “Ordering us commoners around already?” Despite his jab, he went over to my side without protest.

  With the strength I had accumulated over the past year, I harnessed it all the palm of my hand. Then, as if to explode my own arm, I propelled my fist forward. Forward to where his shoulder was.

  No fanfare happened as it bounced right off his muscle. His triceps were harder than I thought.

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  “I guess that was from Karrie?”

  “Tsk.” He really did have an annoying smirk.

  He went back to his seat to eat without a care in the world until Phila asked the burning question.

  “So it’s true? You just recently became a noble? How does that even happen?”

  “Weird isn’t it? Esther here was just like us a year ago.” His plate was double our portions, combined.

  “I mean, but she’s still a noble, shouldn’t we be more… Polite?”

  “Polite? Didn’t you just see what she did? It’s fine isn’t it, my lady? This is the academy after all. She is not one to care about such things.”

  "Just make sure to not forget to address me correctly in official events.” He gave me a crisp salute.

  “Finding out that your father is secretly a noble…” Phila’s eyes sparkled. “You’re like a heroine from a play!”

  “Hah, more like the antagonist.” I sent him a glare.

  “And you got the highest score too! What are you going to say tomorrow?”

  I put down my fork. “What do you mean highest? I only placed above average.”

  “No need to be so humble.” She pulled out a leaflet. “Look at the top, it says Nikodemus right?”

  “Yes it does. But that’s not my name.”

  “Huh?” Phila pressed the page against her glasses.

  Eric waved his fork at me. “To be honest, I had to do a double-take when I saw your surname at the top, but that’s your cousin isn’t it? Estelle Nikodemus.”

  Estelle Nikodemus. In the whole year at the duchy, not once did I see her. In fact, I didn’t see any of our extended family. My uncle and aunt and their children, all I knew about them was how they looked in their portraits, their age, and the tidbits the Duchess would sometimes say. One of them said Estelle was six months older than me, born in summer.

  “Even if our names sound similar, haven’t my name been mentioned enough times to clear up the confusion? And besides, having you as my roommate is solid proof that I am not her.” Phila hung her head dejected. “Is that why you acted that way last time? You thought I was her?”

  The Duke had yet officially announce that my father was reinstated into the family. Meaning that I, a new Nikodemus, was not widely known to exist. Even so, we didn’t even have the same hair-color.

  “Sounds like something fun happened?” Her shoulders jerked at Eric’s words. “I know that she may look scary at first, but get to know her, and you will see that she is actually very, very kindhearted.”

  “I don’t think you should say that while getting glared at…” The contrast between her slumped shoulders turned inwards and his straight back brimming with confidence made for a funny picture.

  We talked a bit more while Eric shoveled the rest of his plate of potatoes and as a signal that he was done, a clear ringing sound reverberated throughout the half-filled cafeteria.

  A blue-haired boy stood shocked as his tray of food and utensils laid flipped over on the floor. The poor baked potato rolled a few times, leaving its insides trailing behind it before stopping at the feet of a tall boy that was halfway out of his seat.

  “Lucas, tell me, what is the meaning of this?”

  The hunched-over boy raised his hands. “Oh, Siegfried. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that! Are you okay?”

  “You expect me to believe that? It looked quite deliberate when you shoved your chair with enough force for my tray to fly out of my hands.”

  “I didn’t know that you were behind me… ”

  “Right, because it’s my fault I didn’t stomp my feet loud enough for your failing ears to hear, is it?”

  “I said sorry, didn’t I?”

  “Saying sorry won’t make up for the fact that my food is sitting down there.” He pointed at the floor-potato. “Or what, do you expect me to still eat that?”

  “Uhm, why don’t you just go get another one? I can clean this up for you in the meanwhile.”

  He scoffed. “Passing the entrance test must have gotten to your head. Lucas. Do you think the food here is free?”

  The giant scratched his cheek. “Well, it is, isn't it?”

  “What did you just say?” He took a step forward.

  The air around the two boys went down a couple degrees as the blue-haired boy ground his teeth loud enough for even us to hear. He looked poised to lunge at the taller boy when someone intervened by grabbing his arm from the side.

  “Siegfried, are you sure you want to get into trouble before the first official day?”

  He turned to the intruder. “And who the hell are you?”

  “Me? I’m Eric. Nice to meet you.”

  Phila looked back and forth a couple times between her left side, where Eric had been sitting, and at the trio of boys, where he now stood.

  “When did he get there?”

  I sighed. “Still looking for fun things it looks like.”

  The boy yanked back his arm and gave his blazer a few pats to straighten it out. By now, all the students eating in the cafeteria had their eyes trained on them.

  He clicked his tongue at Eric and the collosus, and went to leave. But not before saying one last thing.

  “Lucas, you better clean that up!” Stomp, stomp. He was gone.

  Eric turned towards the taller boy. “Yikes, who does he think he is? Lucas was it? Are you all right?”

  “Thank you, but you didn’t need to step in…”

  “Are you kidding? He looked ready to kill.”

  He smiled gently. “I wouldn’t take it that far.”

  With the situation mediated, Eric dragged him over to our table and plopped him down on a free seat beside him. The three of them sat on one side and I, alone on the other. Was I interviewing them or something?

  He said to us, “So you three are also commoners? There are more of us than I thought.”

  “Yes there are,” I said.

  “The Royal Academy, where on the surface, commoners and nobles are treated alike. But look at one of them wrong and they won’t hesitate to remind you of the truth.”

  “Hear, hear.”

  “I wouldn’t have gotten tangled with him had I known he was a Viscount’s son. I still shudder at the glare he gave me that day when I introduced myself. At least my roommate is more sensible...”

  “Sensible, I like that word.”

  Eric chimed in. “Esther, are you having fun?”

  “Yes, it’s fun talking with my fellow commoners.”

  Phila whispered to him, “Why is she acting like that?”

  Replying with a smile, he said. “Who knows?”

  Lucas didn’t hear the whispers. “Eric, you should be careful, as you can see, he does have quite a temper.”

  “Don’t worry, that’s child’s play in comparison to the grubby merchants looking to con you for even the shirt on your back.”

  He exclaimed. “Did you do merchant work?”

  “Yeah, struck gold with some plant we found.”

  He sighed. “That’s sounds tons better than what my family does. We are cobblers if you didn’t know.” He showed us his palms filled with calluses from continuously swinging a hammer all day.

  Phila jumped in the conversation with a liveliness she did not show me. “That’s amazing! Who would have thought that we would succeed in entering this place! You should be proud of yourself.”

  “Oh, are you also a cobbler?” Said Eric.

  “No? My parents run a diner.”

  He nodded with an unchanged facial expression. “Right, of course. My bad.”

  “Esther was it? What about you?”

  It was my turn to share it seems. “My father is a count, but we don’t have a county yet.”

  Lucas nodded. “Right, that’s the same as— wait, what?”

  So I told him the same thing I told Phila, that I was a newly minted noble.

  “Really? No wonder you are so pretty…”

  Eric looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Wow, Lucas. Are you fancying our Esther?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just I haven’t seen such shiny hair before and your eyes…”

  His blushed cheeks made him look like a kid, although I don’t know if kids can be as tall as him. Sitting half a head taller than Eric, he defended himself from Eric’s barrage of questions. Surprisingly, Phila joined in too, asking why he didn’t compliment her hair.

  “Thank you, but I don’t know about that. You flatter me too much,” I said.

  Phila whipped her head to me. “You’re joking right? You’re like one of the most prettiest people I’ve seen!”

  I tried to smile. “Then you must not have seen that many people.”