"Do you understand, Zachary Ainsworth? Make connections with the other top rankers."

"Got it."

"Don't disappoint us. The hopes of the entire Ainsworth family rest on you. Stop playing around with that boy."

Zachary nodded weakly. A beep resounded and the screen in front of him disappeared. Resting his hands on the back of his couch, the boy leaned back and exhaled a deep sigh. It was merely the start of the school year, and he had landed himself in great trouble. Who would have thought that the child who had been sent away to the Academy after no 'redeeming quality' was found in him would be the one to get the attention and hopes of the same family?

Somewhere deep down, Zachary wanted to flip the bird in front of his two-faced father and ask him to kindly fuck off, but also somewhere else, he did not have the heart to disappoint the father that had ditched an important meeting and played around with him when it snowed for the first time in his memories.

Sighing again, he stood up and walked out of the Secret Top 10 Rankers' dorms. It took a long time to get out of the enormous facility, which just made his thoughts staler.

He thought it fine to rely on Ralph till just a few days ago, but now he couldn't do so. The one friend who had been solving his problems had ended up becoming the source of one of them.

As he stepped out of the dorms, Zachary immediately slapped himself.

A loud bang resounded when his hand connected with his cheeks, making the staff working at the entrance of the dorms flinch in surprise.

"How can I call my friend a problem? I am even disappointing myself now."

Even if his family thought so, it was their thing to worry about. He would understand and not rely on him as much as he did, but Zachary couldn't stand calling Ralph a 'problem.' He was his friend, a cherished one at that. It wasn't going to change.

Zachary turned back and looked at the dorms.

[Description Redacted]

His gaze turned wistful as he thought how much things had changed. The Ainsworth family was big but nowhere big enough. He was currently living in more luxury than his family could ever hope to provide. And the others who stayed here did not even think it worth batting an eye at. The difference was too large.

Sighing again, Zachary walked away. A stroll usually cleared his mind since he was a child. On his way, Zachary found himself staring head-on at the doors of a bakery.

"There was a bakery inside the campus?" Zachary made a note in his mind to tell Ralph about it as he stepped inside. The scent of freshly baked bread assaulted his nose just as his feet landed on the brown carpet below.

"Welcome!"

An old lady sat at the counter.

'Are customers frequent here?'

He honestly expected her to be surprised at a customer. Zachary nodded at the old lady and looked around at the walls of the place. Wherever the racks of bread did not reach, laminated papers covered the walls highlighting dozens of offers and schemes on the bread. He stared at each of them one after the other with a hand under his chin.

In the end, Zachary couldn't decide which to go with. The old lady seemed to be getting slightly annoyed by him humming out loud at the posters and the bread, so he picked the one closest to him and slammed it on the counter. "I'll take this."

"Good choice young boy! I see you're passionate about bread!" The old lady smiled at Zachary and packed up the one he slammed on the counter. Zachary couldn't tell the difference between a baguette and a Brioche to save his life, being passionate about it was out of the question.

"Do you want to be my apprentice or something?" the old lady joked.

"Tsk! Lady, do you even know who I am?"

"No idea."

Zachary clicked his tongue again and looked away. The most recent person to act similarly had thrashed him in the exams, so he didn't want to risk it again. He felt that he would be getting lesser chances to use his signature 'Do you even know who I am' line in this school.

With a dissatisfied gaze, Zachary made the payment for the bread and walked out of the store, leaving behind the smiling old lady and her kind words asking him to come back soon.

Zachary walked around for a bit more, but failed to clear his head. In the end, he decided it would be a shame to let the bread cool down and went inside the park near the central plaza of the campus. His eyes landed on a bench in the far-off corner of the park, the shade of a tree protecting it from the sun.

'Perfect,' he thought as he walked over to it. A small smile tugged at his lips as he opened the paper package and pulled out the rounded bread. He still had no idea what breed the bread was, a Doberman. Was that even a kind of bread? Was bread measured in breeds or kinds?

He cursed the rice-loving Ainsworth family a bit in his heart as he pulled away the coverings of the bread. The steaming yellow-brown delicacy looked scrumptious. Bubbles had formed on the small parts that had torn the crust away. The crust itself looked chewy yet soft, as if would melt in his mouth the moment he wanted it to. Slowly, Zachary pulled the bread closer to his mouth and bit in.

He chewed.

A bit more.

Then, he swallowed.

Under the shade of the tree that covered the most distant bench in the park, Zachary apologized to the rice-loving Ainsworth family for his rude comments.

Sighing, he looked away from the bread, not wanting to make eye contact with it. For some reason, he felt like someone cheating on his partner. It was a perplexing emotion.

Then, a tiny bird entered his sight.

White feathers with a hint of blue, the yellow-eyed bird was glaring intensely at Zachary, no, at the bread in his hands.

"Well, maybe you'll like this?"

Zachary tore off a part of the bread and tossed it on the ground. The bird tilted its long neck to the side before slowly strutting over to the piece of bread—

"COO COO!"

A cacophony of coos sounded out as dozens of birds came crashing down into the park to eat the bread.

Such was the start of the bird man's legend.