Sometimes Merlin wondered how his sister had come to have nerves of steel. It always surprised him. Nora had not even flinched at Kim Yiseo's words. In fact, she was annoyed.
"So, that's the kind of Academy this is, huh?" Nora complained with furrowed brows, folded arms, and a tone as hot as molten iron pulled out of a furnace. "Because the president's grandson isn't here, then everyone else has to wait? What next? He bullies others and we can't tell him off or we get expelled?"
Merlin wanted to hammer his elbow into the side of her stomach again, but he couldn't help but have the same thoughts as her. Their academic year was just starting and there was already favoritism in the air.
Kim Yiseo took her luggage from her chauffeur as he closed the boot of the car. She did not even look at them as she answered,
"If that's what it is, then so be it."
Nora gnashed her teeth together. Whatever familiarity Merlin had been feeling building between them back in the car seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"What an absurd way to think. People like you disgust me. I knew we shouldn't have ridden in her car, Merlin. Walking all the way here would have been far more preferable." She did not sugarcoat her displeasure. "I can't stand looking at her for one more second. Let's find our own way with things."
"That's life," Kim Yiseo added as Nora turned around. "Life is favoritism. What don't you understand? Some will be sheltered more than others. It's normal. You must have been favored above others in some way as well."
Nora clicked her tongue so loudly that Merlin was half-certain that every person present in the parking lot had heard.
"Don't talk about me like you know who I am," she hissed at Kim Yiseo, causing the young lady to draw a sharp breath. "I've never been coddled. I made sure I never was. I've heard enough. I'm leaving."
She left. Merlin waited.
"What?" Kim Yiseo turned to him—finally. He had been a ghost to her all through their conversation, but now she saw him. "Do you have anything to say?" She had a furious gaze. It had all gotten heated quickly. This instance was why he disliked having such conversations.
He sighed. "Don't take my sister's words personally. She's like that—always having the right things to say, but never the best way to put them."
Kim Yiseo only stared at him—silent. Her chauffeur was yet to enter into the car, choosing to watch them until they were done instead.
"Well, that's all," Merlin added with a fluster. They were looking at him like he was a madman. "I hope we squash any hard feelings and become friends. Things are a lot easier that way." He turned around and hurried away from the parking lot.
Kim Yiseo sighed when Merlin was out of her sight. She then clutched the handle of her luggage tightly, peering down at it solemnly for a moment.
"Young miss," the driver called.
"It's fine, Sir Han," Kim Yiseo pursed her lips and moved forward. "Make sure their things are brought with haste. Please."
"Will do, young miss."
And with that he got into the car and drove off.
"So? What do we do now?" Merlin asked Nora as they wandered aimlessly—or something of the sort. "We should have stuck with her, now we don't even know where we're headed. What were you thinking? Our pamphlets are in our luggage."
Nora clicked her tongue. "If all you're going to do is keep yapping in my ears, then leave me alone."
"Oh, yeah?" Merlin raised a brow. "Want me to pull them instead?"
"Shut up." She halted, her Grimoire in hand. "I can't believe you're thinking we should have spent even one more second with her. Did all she say fly through one of your ears and escape through the other?"
Merlin heaved out an exhale. "You're looking too much into this. It's not as bad—"
"That's it! I don't want to listen anymore."
Honestly, when it came down to it, he was being immature. Because he was the reason Nora was this way.
Schooling had never been his strong suit; and not just because he was only a little bit above average in his studies, but because he had been picked on.
He'd never been the smartest, the most athletic, or the most bespoken. Nor was he the most handsome man to ever exist, or from a very rich family. He was just… him. Average and almost unnoticeable. And for a long while now he'd kept wishing he'd remained that way.
It had happened in his early days in middle school, when he'd gone out of his way to stand up for a classmate of his being forced to take care of the assignments of a couple of bullies. His actions had caused the task to be shoved upon him instead. The problem was, unlike that classmate, he had not been getting the bullies good enough grades, which made them hate him even more.
When the news got to Nora's ears, she stood up for him, and had lost her mind when she'd watched those bullies getting coddled because of their parents' influence within the school.
She became a wreck, and made sure that the school knew she was. She would fail on purpose, draw graffitis on the notice boards, and declare her own versions of public holidays. Merlin had never experienced mischievousness on par with her acts, and neither had the teachers.
They'd been transferred after that, but that experience had shaped her already.
She hated coddling more than even bullies themselves. Because stopping the former would curb the latter.
Merlin decided not to push on the topic any more than necessary. Nora couldn't hold grudges. She did not hate Kim Yiseo now. She was just a little angry at the moment.
"We should ask someone where to go," Merlin brought up an idea. However, everyone looked to be hurrying here and there, moving in varying directions. Most were dressed in casual clothes, too, which meant that they were probably first years like them. Perhaps they were seeking for where to change into their uniforms. Tough luck for the twins on that end, though.
All in all, it seemed like it would be hard to draw the attention of anyone.
"Yeah," Nora agreed. And immediately stretched forth her hand to stop a young boy walking past her at that moment. And she'd succeeded.
It was not as hard as Merlin had thought, it seemed.
Unlike them, the boy was dressed in his uniform already. Red blazers and trousers, with a white shirt and a striped tie. He was slim with black hair, black eyes, and on the bridge of his nose, which was dotted by freckles, sat round glasses. But what was most noticeable about him was neither those, nor the fact that he was the same height as Nora—a bit taller than Merlin—but that he was sweating so much one could fetch a bucket from him.
Merlin could not stop his expression from crumpling.
Had he been jogging around the Academy or what?
"Hi," Nora greeted, acting like she could not see how exhausted the boy was. "Do you mind pointing us in the direction of the auditorium? Of course, if you know where it is."
The boy sized them up—their clothes, to be precise. Perhaps he was thinking that they were not diligent students. Then his eyes caught Nora's Grimoire and he nudged his glasses upwards slightly and nodded.
"Sure. I'm headed there," he replied. "Want to come with?"
"Definitely." Nora smiled, following behind the boy as soon as he moved.
Merlin was quite sure that the boy had just decided to help them because of Nora's Grimoire. All he could do was narrow his eyes and follow behind them, though.
Their walk to the auditorium was rather uneventful. The boy did not utter one word to them, and neither did they.
Merlin had taken the moment to sightsee. It was nothing he hadn't seen when they'd driven into the Academy, but it still mesmerized him. It was almost like he had sauntered into a different world entirely.
Like Kim Yiseo had said, foreigners were aplenty here. It was no wonder that people did not spare them more than a glance. The patches of grasses in different areas were as wide as a whole park, and sure enough, students lounged there, either on the wooden benches or on the grass itself.
One thing bothered him, though, and it was that no one seemed to be using any magic in the vicinity.
He would have loved to ask, but he was sure he would find that out soon enough—definitely not because he was not very good at socializing.
Orientations were meant for dishing out rules, after all. And it was only rules that could keep teenagers from juggling fireballs like a circus clown or spraying water on each other.
They arrived at the auditorium not long later—which had actually been quite long, evident from the slight pain Merlin could feel in his thighs. No one needed to tell him that the Academy had a very wide landscape, one he might not even be able to explore completely in the two years he would spend in it.
The boy who had led them—despite looking like all his blood had been sucked out of his body with how pale he was—did not show any signs of collapsing. In fact, he was smiling at the sight of the auditorium, like a kid who had just seen their mother returning home with a new toy.
And his reaction was justified.
With its detailed stonework, tall columns, and arched doorways, the auditorium was like a grand, historic theatre out of the Edwardian era. Its front featured a triangular roof with a circular carving, and above its main entrance sat a balcony where a single flag dropped from in grandness, bearing the logo of a golden tree—the Academy's logo.
There was a cluster of students around the building, and none of them gave off the vibe that they were second years. What made Merlin smile, though, was that there were more casual wears here than uniforms. It seemed a lot of people had been caught up in one problem or the other on their way to the Academy.
What could possibly have delayed almost every student?
"The door's still locked?" the boy with the round glasses mumbled in displeasure. Merlin would have sworn that this guy was the most eager to get into the auditorium if he had not seen another rubbing his fingers on the door like it was his last bar of chocolate. "How long are they going to keep us out here? Following instructions is key. An activity that is to start by ten, should start by ten. Diligence! Diligence, I say! How could the higher ups do this? What are they trying to teach us…"
Merlin frowned and stopped listening there. He walked up to Nora who was just staring, not looking particularly impressed or surprised. Which meant that she was astonished.
"I guess the president's grandson isn't here yet," he made a stupid attempt at a joke.
"Obviously," she snorted. "Coddling up to the boy like that. This is why the world is falling apart."
"Uhm… That's actually because of the Dungeons and Towers."
She just waved him off like he was a fly buzzing in her ear.
"They need to teach people like him that the world doesn't revolve around them. You know, I kind of agree with four-eyes—"
"Four-eyes?"
She'd given someone a nickname already?
"—He's right," Nora did not let Merlin deter her. "What's wrong with the higher ups? Just because someone is the grandson of a prominent figure doesn't mean that the whole world should pause when they pause. That's not living, that's slavery."
Merlin could only feign a chuckle as he listened to her speak. He was praying deep in his heart that she and the president's grandson never crossed paths.
"Excuse me," a voice called and Merlin and Nora turned at the same time.
Four-eyes was nowhere to be seen, and a new face had approached them.
This one was handsome on a whole different level, had sharp features, permed black hair, and brown eyes, and was not in his uniform. But most of all, his English had been the most fluent Merlin and Nora had heard yet. It was almost like he was English himself, although he looked every bit Korean.
"Hi," Nora replied, squinting. "And you are?"
"Ah, pardon. I just couldn't help but overhear your discussion."
She raised a brow. "And? Got a score to settle with the president's grandson too?"
Merlin couldn't explain it, but there was a sinking feeling in his stomach the more he listened to Nora and the boy speak. Call it a primal instinct, or whatever, what he knew was that he had a bad feeling about this.
The boy chuckled sheepishly. "It's not that. I just thought I should clear up the misunderstanding here." He pointed a finger at himself. "You see, I'm the grandson you're talking about."