"Are you excited for your second-year classes, young master?"

Inside the dormitory room, the trio was gathered while Theo stood in front of the mirror, fixing his hair.

Clara had already tried styling it for him multiple times, but Theo would always get up from the chair and tell her to do it once she grew taller than him, which led to plenty of hysterical moments between the three of them.

"It’s fine. Anything is better than what I have been dealing with for the past three months," Theo said as he applied a gel-like product to his hair and began shaping it.

"What concerns me more is the fact that my life has become so busy that I haven’t evolved a single beast in the last three months. Can you believe that?" he asked. "My main power, the very thing that makes me different from everyone else, and I barely even use it."

Clara simply listened while Elias kept his head buried in a book, reading as if his life depended on it.

Theo could understand why. The poor guy had an exam coming up, one that was notoriously tough to pass.

"Well, better late than never. I suppose we can start with the beetles after I have my first classes today," Theo said again.

Clara nodded frequently from the side.

Sometimes, Theo only needed someone who would listen while he spoke his mind out and nothing else, and after living with him for so long, Clara understood those moments perfectly.

Once Theo was ready, the three made their way forward. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The moment they took the first turn, a group of students greeted Theo as soon as they noticed him.

Theo returned the greeting with a nod and a light smile before moving forward, leaving the group grinning behind him.

He had become somewhat of a small celebrity within the academy. Most noble students already knew what had happened to his family and that he was now a Count.

On top of that, the tournament the headmaster had allowed Theo to participate in, even though he hadn’t officially started his second year yet, had let Theo earn quite a bit of a name for himself.

Now, the name Theo Merrick carried real weight within the academy.

After leaving the dormitory, Clara and Elias bid him farewell and headed toward their own classes.

There was no hesitation between them anymore. Both the attendants understood how important studies and knowledge were if they wanted to remain being useful to Theo in the future.

When Theo arrived at the building where all his classes were supposed to take place, he spotted a familiar face approaching him from the other side.

The moment she saw Theo, she let out a sigh despite it still being early morning.

"Sir Misfit, hope you don’t become a workaholic this ’year’ too. Or should we still count this as your first year?" the student body head asked with a smirk on her face, as if teasing him.

Theo, however, remained completely unfazed.

A smirk formed on his face as well. "Don’t you have any competition for this student body gimmick? You walk around as if you are some kind of a professor, Selmira."

Selmira’s eyes narrowed. "Mind you, I am right below the professors when it comes to authority. One complaint from me and you will see the consequences right away, Theo."

Theo clicked his tongue, though the playful glint in his eyes remained as he stepped toward the classroom’s entrance.

"I would like to see you try that. Bye now, my class is about to start."

"Good Luck."

When the few students nearby witnessed the interaction, it felt like they were watching a rivalry between a fourth-year student and a second-year one.

What most of them failed to realize, however, was that the past three months had already brought the two far closer than being mere casual friends.

Theo argued with her first thing in the morning simply because he found it fun, and Selmira always played along, something both Clara and Elias enjoyed watching the most.

By the time Theo entered the classroom, it was already half full, and nearly everyone’s gaze fell on him first.

Some quickly went back to their conversations, clearly unaware of who he was, while a few whispered among themselves about recognizing him.

Theo took a seat near the middle by the side window and sighed in relief, realizing that he could bask in the sunlight.

’Many things have changed since I started in this academy,’ he thought to himself, ’but one thing is still an issue... these damn children still keep their distance from me.’

Theo had already formed quite a few connections, but the weird part about it was that most of them were professors who had taken a liking to him, not just as a student, but as a person too.

Some didn’t even treat Theo like a child and talked with him the same way they would with any ordinary adult, which only showed just how strange characters were present in this academy.

Aside from the professors, there were two others besides the attendants—Selmira and Eryn.

Soon, the professor entered, and by then, every seat in the classroom was already occupied.

When Theo saw the professor, he sighed. It wasn’t anyone he knew, and the professor was clearly an old man.

He wore a green robe, marking him as a professor for the second year.

Deep wrinkles covered his face, making it seem as though he was constantly frowning, but the moment his eyes swept across the class and a light smile crept over it, everyone could see just how gentle he actually looked.

"Good morning, class. I am Dorian Hale, your professor for Essence processing and Irregular Beast Materials," the old man said with that same warm smile.

He lifted his cup of water slightly. "Here’s to a good year ahead."

A good number of students nodded or smiled in return.

Theo casually glanced around the classroom and saw that most of the students seemed fairly normal.

Until his gaze landed on a muscular one who looked around his age.

Immediately, Theo could tell that the boy was different from a typical noble.

And it was the eyes that gave it away.