-Zeref’s POV-

“First day of school, Mr King!” the old man splashed water at me and topped it off with a whack with a pillow at my face.

I groaned “Grandpa, 2 more minutes.” I laid on my side facing away from him but quickly grew annoyed at the water soaking my pillow making it really uncomfortable.

“UGH” I flung the sheets off of my body and stood up, wiping the water off my face. Sometimes, I really missed being King. Grandpa chuckled and slapped my shoulder making me smirk to myself.

I walked into my bathroom and brushed my teeth then made my way downstairs to do my Compulsory quests since I was going to sweat, I decided to take a shower later. I cracked my knuckles and neck and stretched my limbs then got to work.

“Quests Menu Open.”

[Quests Menu:]

[General Quests: None]

[Compulsory Quests:0/20 Km ran

0/300 Push ups

0/300 Sit ups

0/300 Squats

0/30 min meditation]

[Rewards: 5000 Exp]

***

I finished showering and put on my dark uniform. I equipped my new grieves and belt too. For some reason I felt excited. Excited to go back to school. How many years had it been? The bell to our house rang and I rushed downstairs and opened the door to see Miss Elena.

“Hey.” she spoke before shoving me to the side so she could slip her way in.

“Not even a Good Morning. Wow.” I said out of annoyance. She scanned the house for what I’m guessing was a sight of the hunched assassin. Even under all their arguments and hate, anyone could tell that the two liked each other. It was 7:47 in the morning and we still had 1 hour left till school started, at 8:30. Yesterday, after I got back from shopping, my mother told me Miss Elena would take me to school but… why was she so early?

“We got to leave early to pick up Malia.” she wiggled her eyebrows while saying Malia’s name in a teasing voice.

I grunted and decided not to argue with her, “Fine. Wait here,” I said, running up the stairs to grab my bag.

***

We rang the doorbell to her house. I was quite surprised at her big house. Malia was really well off, I forgot she was a noble. The wooden door opened to a muscular man at the door with eyes like Malia’s.

“Arthur, how nice it is to see you?” Miss Elena spoke up, sweetly.

“Why are you here? Commander Elena of the Vrimeon Army.” he rolled his eyes.

Miss Elena and I exchanged looks. This whole man’s persona bothered me. No respect whatsoever.

“No actually…we are here for Malia, we’re going to drop your daughter off to school.” she continued.

“MALIA! GET DOWN HERE NOW!” his voice demanded respect and his posture showed authority. I hadn’t really seen the red headed man interact with his daughter before but this was shocking. This guy was a real prick! Even when he spoke with us back when I just arrived, his persona was too arrogant. I hated it.

Peeking past his broad shoulders I saw Malia scurrying down the stairs in a panic state, her bag bouncing against her back.

“Father I-!” Malia froze after seeing me and walked casually towards the door.

“Zeref?” she sounded surprised. I averted my gaze from her, while Miss Elena told her we’d be dropping her to school. She smiled before looking at her father for approval. I stared at her fathers stiff face. Something was really off about that guy. Mr Stronghold nodded begrudgingly and mumbled something to her before walking back inside. Malia paused for a second before smiling back at Miss Elena and I. “Shall we go?” she said before advancing and closing the door behind her.

“What happened to your face?” I asked her out of curiosity, her lip were busted and she had a reddish cheek which you couldn’t notice unless you were really paying attention.

“Oh this! They’re nothing, I just foolishly fell down the stairs yesterday. Ooo! Nice hair cut, you finally look more manly! I might even fall for you,” Malia giggled, changing the topic half way. I rolled my eyes at her teasing, last night I decided to cut my hair myself with some scissors, since we didn’t have time to go to the hairdressers as it was already getting late, I guess it worked out alright though.

I stared at her face again. How do you get a busted lip from falling down the stairs?

“What’s with all the layers Malia? It’s not that cold today,” I chuckled, pointing at her scarf. She clutched it uncomfortably, her smile changed, “Malia is something wrong?” I asked, confused.

“Let’s see who gets to school first, I’ll race you!” she blurted out laughing as she sprinted past Miss Elena. It didn’t take a genius to realise there was something wrong, but for the time being I decided to play her game. I sprinted after her.

**

“Woah!” is all I thought in my head as I stood in front of the school gates, mesmerised by the campus I was going to step into. A solitary pathway going on for 200 metres, took us straight in front of the towering building. Almost as large and antique as my old castle. The glass was old and the walls were a yellowish red, showing age. How long ago was this made?

A sharp blow to my ribs snapped me out of my trance, I hadn’t felt that in a long time.

“The bell is going to ring soon, we need to go to our form rooms. What form room are you in?” Malia asked, grabbing my hand pulling me towards the inside of the capacious building.

“Uh-uh Class 2C.” I moved my hand out of her grip.

“Yes! I’m not in your form room! Haha! Don’t miss me too much, your form room is the one on the right.” She led me up a couple flights of stairs and into a wide corridor, then pointed to a room to her right – which was supposedly my form room. The halls were crowded with teenagers and I stood out like a sore thumb. Most of the children were short or really skinny.

“See you later! Maybe at break!” she said excitedly before walking into the room opposite the one she pointed to.

I waved back and walked into the room. The room was pretty big, the desks were all individual and independent, one for each student, pretty much like in Asia, the windows on the right side of the classroom were perfect, they let in the beautiful sunny light extremely well. Students all my age were around me chatting away; How did I agree to this? I had forgotten how going to school felt. Everyone already had their own friend groups, and huddled together talking about what they had done in the holidays. It must have been my bad luck again that I joined in the middle of the year. I was doomed to be a loner again.

A hand was coming from behind to grab my shoulder while I slowly walked, instinctively I grabbed the hand in for a shoulder roll. The body moved up and over and slammed onto the ground. It was just a student. Oh damn! Did I kill him? He laid limp on the ground. Everyone looked my way. Oops.

“Ow! Come on man, what was that for? At Least help me up,” The kid groaned complaining. I sighed while lending him my arm.

Once he took my hand, I pulled him up and his whole body lifted into the air for a second before he could find his footing and stand. He was up till my ears and wasn’t fat nor skinny. He had tanned dark brown skin and curly permed hair with black eyes.

“Sorry about that. It was just a reflex.” I stated.

“What kind of monstrous reflexes are those?” He said, still massaging his sore back.

“Dunno.” I ignored him and continued walking to the back of the class to the window seat. Malia told me previously, the seat you picked was your seat for the rest of the year, so I wanted the peaceful one, of course! That was more important.

“Hey! Wait up man,” I heard the boy call from behind me as a I sat down. What did this guy want?

“Wh-What’s your name?” he asked, sitting next to me.

“Zeref Amara, and what’s yours?.”

“I’m Jace, Jace Stinkend, You must be a new foreign student, I haven’t seen you from around here. Where are you from?”

“I was home schooled, that’s all,”

“The weather is nice today huh?” he asked, awkwardly. Jeez, am I really that hard to talk too? The weather?! Really?! I laughed in my head and let out a smile, looking out of the window. Out of everything in the world to talk about, ‘the weather’ HAhaha! What a weird kid. I simply nodded with a “Mmh.”

Tuck! Tuck! Tuck! The noise of heels could be heard coming from the corridor, and all the students in the room stopped their talking and got into their respective seats. A woman, maybe in her late 20’s entered the room. She had black hair which was tied back into a strict tight bun and had a beautiful white face. Her square glasses fit her etiquette well. She wore a tight fitting black pencil skirt just above her knees and a white tucked in blouse. Swaying her waist from side to side, she entered the classroom. The way she moved bothered me.

“Good morning and welcome back class to your second year at Xanxus Academy, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday…” as she spoke I could see all the boys drooling over her, even the peculiar one on my right. I simply rested my head on my arms and dozed off into the world of dreams.

“You over there! Sit up straight!” I lifted my head up from my arms yawning.

“What’s your name?” she asked, raising her voice sternly. Her voice annoyed me.

“Zeref Amara.”

“Oh, you’re the new student right, if I’m not mistaken. Well stand up and introduce yourself.” she said, pushing her glasses up.

“Yes miss,” I replied, I did as she said and stood up, “My name is Zeref Amara and I was home-schooled for the past few years.” I lied.

“Okay sit down, and pay more attention in class.”

I could hear whispers from around the class,

“He’s so cute! He looks like a senior. Do you think he’s boyfriend material?” I heard a girl whisper. ‘Like hell I’m dating a school girl’ I thought.

“Look at his broad shoulders, he looks like a model.” another girl whispered. I ignored their gossip and stared out of the window, daydreaming about my past life.

**

Fourth lesson of the day and I was a literal Zombie. I had to sit next to that annoying kid (Jace) for all my lessons somehow. Oh what a blessing! He just wouldn’t shut up. I was convinced school was just a prison for children.

“Uh- Zeref, Maths is really not my forte, do you think you could help me with this question?” Jace asked, smiling innocently. He’d been saying that for the past 50 questions! Bro, NOTHING is your forte! Maybe I should’ve just acted dumb and never helped him on that first question.

Ding! Ding! Ding! The school bell went off like a clocktower’s chime. Yes! My saviour! It was finally lunch! I grabbed my bag and walked down the rows of students, towards the exit.

“Hey you! Where do you think you’re going?! Get back here right now! The bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do!” Professor Vanhelsing shouted, calling me back. I was extremely agitated already, so I ignored his deafening shouting. I simply walked past the teacher and continued walking down the hall. The Inspect skill came in handy and I used it to memorise the entire map of the school at the start of the day.

“I thought I told you to stop.” the professor appeared out of thin air in front of me and grabbed my wrist. I used the Inspect skill on him already and knew he was only at level 26.

“Who said you could touch me.” I said, with a cold gaze I made him fall to the ground, his body prostrated in front of me under the pressure.

“Wh- What is this? Gr-Gravity magic.” he let out, struggling to talk.

“Zeref, what do you think you’re doing!?” Malia shouted running up to me, I released my gravity magic from him and kneeled down to his height.

“If you ever touch me again, I’ll cripple you.” I said coldly. He let out a slight shiver, then got up and started walking away, limping.

“I-I-I’m reporting you!” the foolish teacher replied.

“You fool! Do you know how many rules you just broke?” Malia scolded while smacking the back of my head.

“Argh! Like I care.” I rubbed my head. I didn’t want to be here and she knew it.

“I know this is your first time being so restricted, but you have to follow the rules, otherwise, you’ll get expelled.” she reasoned.

“Who cares? At least I can escape from you,” I joked but Malia’s face turned serious and her eyebrows furrowed.

“You idiot,” she said, rolling her eyes and pushing me to the side, clearly pissed off. I watched her walking off and an unfamiliar feeling rose in my chest… regret.

“Malia, I’m jokin-”

“There you are!”

‘Not again.’ is what I thought, as Jace ran out of the classroom and caught up to me.

“You mother- You got a girlfriend already! Unbelievable, how could you leave such beautiful news from your best friend.” he said smiling.

“We’re not best friends.”

“How rude! After all I have done for you. No way! You’re dating the queen of Xanxus Academy!” his face became shocked as he stared at Malia, while she was walking.

What was this fool talking about? Queen? I didn’t see any queen. As soon as he said Malia’s name, Malia turned around and stared directly into my eyes with a weird emotion filling them. “Are you coming?” she sighed.

I laughed at her, “Are you mad?”

“No.” she said, bluntly and turned to walk again but this time I ran after her.

“Hurry up, Stinkend. You’ll get left behind.” I smiled back at the shocked guy. I had to learn to open up more. I realised my anger and frustration was hurting others.

“Yeah, I have something to do. I’ll be there soon.” he looked away from my eyes and ran in the opposite direction. Weird.