Finally returning from the market with the last sliver of sunlight still remaining in the sky, Loganel walked on the brick roads of the Academy campus, back slouching from fatigue. In his eyes, there was a feeling of neglect, as if he doesn't see a point in caring. In fact, he doesn't. This is the Academy. It contains no dangers like the forests and the outside world that isn't within the protection of the walls of Astalan.

However, there is a different monster that lurks the grounds of the Academy. And that monster is called, people. It's not like they threatened him or anything, it is just that they ignored him, which he doesn't think is entirely a bad thing. He doesn't bother them, and they don't bother him other than the occasional jokes in which he's the center of the joke. But it's fine, or so he thought. He was quite used to this. In fact, he wasn't one to engage socially with others since he was a child.

With a tired look, his eyes scanned the world before him. To the left of the road, sitting on the wooden bench, was a couple. From their actions, it was easy to tell that they were dating.

"Stupid couples," Loganel cursed under his breath, careful so that they would not be able to hear him. He was pretty sure they couldn't hear him since they were so focused on doing couple things.

Don't take off his pants here, he thought. There's kids out here.

He quickly avoided looking at them, and looking straight ahead on the road. He had walked past the numerous miscellaneous buildings and could see his dorm just up ahead after a short fifteen minute walk from the school entrance. The time should've been ten minutes but since Loganel was taking his time in his stroll, it took him longer.

There's no kids around here, Loganel thought to himself after walking past the couple who were laying on the bench. But kids sit there during the day so it works.

After finally arriving at his dorm suite, he opened the unlock door and carefully closed it behind him with his free hand. The first thing he saw when he finally looked into the living room, which was lit up brightly by the magic lamps, was Azura who knelt beside a gray tabby cat.

"What're you doing?" Loganel asked, walking over to stand behind her. He had a creeped out look on his face as he did so.

"..." Azura didn't answer. Instead, she continued staring at the tabby cat with an intensely focused stare.

"How long has she been like this?" Loganel asked Juliana, who walked out of the kitchen and wiped her wet hands on her apron.

"Ever since we got here," she said with a defeated smile.

Loganel looked over at the girl that was staring at his cat.

"Azura?" he said, raising his voice in order to get her attention.

Seeing that he was ignored, he decided to shake her back to her senses. Therefore, he walked up to her and brought a hand down on her shoulder.

"Azura?" he said once again.

This time, Azura responded. She jumped a bit from the sudden contact and looked over her shoulder at who had initiated it. She was a bit surprised at who it was, and immediately started blushing.

Loganel, seeing that he had accomplished what he had wanted, brought his hand back and took a few steps back. "You can pet him you know?"

"What?" Azura lost her composure. "Pet?"

"Mazriel," Loganel sighed. "You can pet him."

"..." she looked at Loganel for approval as she slowly brought her hands towards the tabby cat which was cleaning herself. Seeing no obvious sign of disdain from Loganel, Azura focused on the cat once again, slowly bringing her hands towards it.

The cat, named Mazriel by Loganel, saw Azura's advance and looked at her. It didn't resist Azura's gentle stroking of its fur and meowed.

"Ah," Azura's face lit up with happiness, and continued to gentle stroke its fur with affection.

Loganel sighed as he walked over to his room. He entered the room, and used the switch located on the wall next to the door to turn on the magic lamps. With the room now lit, Loganel walked over to his desk. As he did so, he unstrapped his sword from his waist and rested it by the wall next to the desk. Then, he took off his shirt and carefully scanned it for any tears or holes. Seeing that there were numerous tears and holes on his shirt, he sighed and tossed it into a basket in order to store it in a place to await sewing.

He walked over to his wardrobe and retrieved his more comfortable in door clothing before leaving his room once again.

"Any of you two need to use the bath?" Loganel called out to the two of them in the kitchen and dining room.

"We already did," Juliana's voice said.

After checking with the two of them, Loganel walked into the bathroom where a bathtub filled with hot water steamed up the room. Not far from the bath was a shower head, which was for the cleaning whereas the bath was for relaxing the muscles so that it wouldn't be sore the next morning.

Loganel stripped completely naked and placed the clothes that he is supposed to change into in the basket outside of the bathing room, in the separate room with the toilet and sink. He then walked over to the shower, feeling the cobblestone flooring underneath his feet. After quickly cleaning himself with soap and shampoo, he washed off any of the residue foam from the soap and shampoo, he turned off the shower and walked over to the bath tub.

He stood before the steaming tub with a serious look on his face. Usually, he was the one that bathes first. Since the school had a policy on conserving water, they were only given a set amount of water for the bath, resulting in the same bathing water being used for the day.

He stood there, pondering over his life. He had suddenly realized that two girls had used the bathing water before him.

In this water...they...Stop. This, this is quite perverted. There's nothing wrong with this. What're you? A teenage boy who had just reached puberty and would get excited at anything related to the opposite gender?

He inhaled and exhaled deeply as he think.

Calm down Loganel! Calm yourself...I can do this. Don't think about it. Yeah, just don't think about it. Think about the steam. I've been breathing in a lot of this water vapor. I won't die right?

Loganel then dipped his foot into the water, and then gradually submerged himself into the big tub. He sat there, in the water, unable to relax.

How the hell do I relax? What is relaxation?

Whenever he allowed his mind to blank, it would always resort to an imagined scene of the two girls, naked in the water that he was just in.

Calm down before you wake something else! he thought as he slapped his face with both hands. Relax, relax.

Loganel, after soaking in the bath for about three minute, which was way shorter than the time he was used to, immediately left the tub and out of the bathing room. He grabbed his towel and dried himself.

How could I relax?

Loganel sighed as he dressed himself in the comfortable indoor clothing he had brought from his wardrobe. He then took the clothes that he had changed out of and brought it over to his room, placing it in a separate basket. Afterwards, he walked back to the living room and fell limp on the couch. He felt as if he was even more tired as before bathing.

"Tired?" Azura's voice came from Loganel's left.

He looked over, and saw that Azura was sitting there with Mazriel in her arms. It appeared mostly content with the situation that it was in.

"Somewhat," he said, resting limp on the couch. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Azura was wearing Juliana's clothes. Her hair, was still slightly damp from her bath, leading Loganel to believe that she was the second one to bathe after Juliana.

"Dinner's ready," Juliana said, carrying the last plate of food onto the dining table.

"Got it," Loganel said, forcing himself off of the comfort of the couch and walked over to the dinner table.

Azura unwillingly set Mazriel down and walked over to the dinning table and took a seat. Her eyes followed Juliana as she took the bag of cat food that Loganel had bought and filled the cat's bowl before she finally washed her hands and sat down at the dining table.

"Why don't you stay the night tonight?" Juliana asked Azura after the three of them had finished eating. Juliana was washing the dishes with Azura helping her. "It's quite late already."

"I'll pass," Azura said, finally becoming the Azura that Loganel knew.

"Oh," Juliana appeared somewhat disappointed. However, she accepted Azura's decision. "Loganel," she called over to the boy who was beginning to doze off on the living room couch with Mazriel curled up on his lap, "can you walk her back to her dorm? It's late out."

Loganel pondered over Juliana's sudden request.

The way from here to Azura's dorm room is within the school, so safety shouldn't be an issue. But there's other students here...And judging from Azura's looks, it is extremely likely that someone who is desperate or a group of delinquents would want to violate her...Looks like it would be best if I go with her.

"Juliana," Azura's facial expression remained calm. However, from her voice, Loganel could sense that she was about to decline the offer. "he doesn't have to-"

"Let's go," Loganel said, forcing himself up from the living room couch, carefully setting Mazriel on the couch before he did so.

Azura looked over at him, eyes following him as he moved over to the door. She stood there and observed him. It wasn't until Loganel asked her to stop loitering around and get going did she started for the door.

"See you tomorrow, Azura," Juliana said her goodbyes, walking over to the door to see the two off.

"See you tomorrow," Azura responded with a light smile on her face before following Loganel out the door.

Just outside the door to Loganel's dorm, just when they were about to leave, Loganel saw Laurina walking in the hallway headed in the direction of her dorm.

"Who's this?" she asked, seeing her brother with someone.

"She's someone in my party," Loganel briefly answered.

"Hello," Azura smiled and nodded her head at Laurina in greeting, "my name is Azura Stelis."

"Stelis..." Laurina repeated that surname softly to herself. When she did so, she studied Azura carefully. However, her sudden seriousness soon vanished and was replaced with a smile. "Hope you get along with my brother."

"How come you're only getting back at this time of day?" Loganel asked.

"Had to attend a group dinner with my party members," Laurina explained. "If you'll excuse me," she said to Azura and Loganel, "I shall retreat to my dorms now. Goodnight"

Azura merely smiled in response to Laurina's words. Then afterwards, the two of them departed from the dorm building, waving goodbye to Laurina and walked quietly to the regular dorms.

The moon, as if a bright, silver orb of light framed in the starry night sky, was round and bright, casting its light on the dark world around. The moonlight, combined with the street lamps, provided ample illumination for Loganel and Azura as they walked down the brick road to the regular dorms.

Loganel, following about a few meters behind Azura, merely watched as she walked. He noted that she occasionally glanced back, her eyes as if making sure that he wasn't scheming something.

Loganel ignored her suspicions, thinking that no matter what she thinks is none of his concern. His relationship to her is just a simple one: they are in the same party. That is all. So that was why he doesn't care as much now that they were quite distant from each other. The distance between them, signified the distance that they were together. They weren't particularly close. He wouldn't even consider themselves to be friends. Rather, they were merely acquaintances at best.

Loganel knew this, and he was quite content with this fact. In his eyes, Azura appears to be a locked away princess in a castle on the top of a tall, snowy mountain, one in which many perished in the attempt to scale it. She was in a position high above his reach. Loganel knew that she was a daughter of a duke, who was the current king's younger brother. Therefore, he knew that a son of a lowly noble in the countryside should never even be familiar with someone her class. It was already a miracle that he was able to even be in the same party as her.

Come to think of it, why is she staying in the normal dorms? Out of everybody that attends this school, shouldn't she be the one that could afford the special dorms? And, why is she in our party? Someone like her should be able to easily find a party to join. She's above average in combat abilities, good-looking, and smart, being able to retain her calmness at all moments.

Loganel looked at her as she walked ahead of him.

She did say something about being pretty in the past. Would jealousy of surrounding females lead to her being isolated? It's not that hard to eliminate this possibility judging from her personality. She's...quite difficult to approach in the first place. In addition, she's not the friendliest of the bunch, being only able to slowly warm up to Juliana only recently, after about a week and a half of interactions. However, as to me, it still doesn't seem like she's opening up.

Loganel sighed and with those sleepy, almost gaunt like eyes of his, he looked at the beautiful moon above them.

That's the bench that the couple was using earlier...

Loganel's eyes drifted to the bench that he saw the couple lay on earlier.

Hopefully they didn't make a mess and cleaned up after themselves. Those damn couples...Can't they tell that some people are single?

After walking for a bit, the regular dorm in the distance became bigger and bigger. From the numerous windows, most were still lit since the night had just started. Most students were probably doing their last minute prep for the day tomorrow.

"I'll just walk you here," Loganel stopped in his tracks.

Azura turned and locked at him with a confused look on her face.

"I'm sure you wouldn't like it if rumors were to be started about you and me," Loganel explained, and started turning back. "See you tomorrow," he said, staring at her with those dead eyes of his from over his shoulder.

"See you tomorrow," Azura answered in a quiet voice.

She stood there, observing the boy with medium length dark hair as he walked lazily down the road, with the numerous lecture buildings and the other miscellaneous buildings awaiting him in the not so far distance.

After a while, she turned her back to him, and entered the dorm building, heading to her room. She was quiet tired, but she was somewhat happy. Therefore, with a light smile, she finished her pre-bed routines and retreated to her dorm room, where she was the only inhabitant in this single bedroom, awaiting the start of the next morning.

Author's Note:

Please vote, comment, and share with friends that might be interested!!! Please!!!

And for some reason, Ch 8's read count is a bit messed up on my end, meaning that it had showed only one read when two people had voted for the chapter... Kind of weird isn't it?

Anyways, thank you for your support and for reading my book. I really appreciate this chance that you all have given me. Thank you very much!!!!!