After a long and wonderful nap Kai woke up feeling refreshed. The young man swiftly rose from his bed and let out a content sigh. It was as if he had dispelled all thoughts about his curse from yesterday, after all Kai just slept on such a comfortable and soft bed. When compared to the rough streets or disgusting and hard mattresses the Outer Shell had, this was equivalent to heaven.
With a subtle smile tugging at the corners of his lips, Kai walked over to his bathroom calmly. It was about time he took a bath. Kai imagined how he would look after taking a shower, he didn't know why he felt so excited about the idea.
***
A few minutes passed by and Kai had just finished dressing himself, he was wearing the elegant white uniform of the academy. It suited him quite well in his opinion, his hair was dripping slightly, still wet from the shower. But his appearance seemed to have changed drastically, Kai's hair was now untangled and neatly combed, his hair was silky and soft, even his pale skin seemed softer and more delicate.
The young man stared at himself through a mirror and chuckled, running his fingers through his wet hair. However, his joy didn't last very long as he began to feel slightly self conscious and turned away from the mirror.
"What am I doing, this has to be the fourth most embarrassing thing I've ever done... Luckily no one saw that."
Kai coughed in embarrassment and fixed his tie, which was slightly crooked. Afterwards he started walking out of his bedroom, trying to regain his composure. The young man spared a glance at his dirty bed, which was dirty because he had slept in it while still in rags and sighed.
"I'll just clean it later."
Kai walked towards the door and opened it, stepping outside and feeling a bit nervous, after all he had zero clue of where the cafeteria was because he was dragged out of the auditorium before the teachers handed out the book of the academy to everyone. He suppressed another sigh once more and slowly began walking down the hallway, his eyes attentive for any directions. However, right before Kai could even take ten steps, the door he was about to pass opened and a young woman stepped out while running.
It was Sakura, she too hadn't received the book, at least he thought so until glancing at the book in her hand, but before he could let out a yet another sigh the two collided and she ended up atop of him with a yelp.
"Ah!"
Sakura sat up atop of him and apologized profusely, Kai noticed that she too was wearing the uniform but stopped himself from inspecting any further once she hurriedly stood up.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry about that Kai!"
The young man spoke after her in a slightly embarrassed tone while standing up as well.
"Yes, It's fine, it's also nice to see you again. Could you bring me to the cafeteria? I haven't received a map of the school..."
Sakura tilted her head, slightly surprised that the young man before her was forgotten by the academy officials. She did also notice something different about him, he was no longer as dirty as he was before and his skin seemed eerily smooth, even smoother than hers. Kai's hair was also neatly combed and detangled, it also looked soft and silky just like her own. But Kai still looked a bit frail.
"Uhm... Yes, I can bring you to the cafeteria, I'm heading there right now. But we have to go now they're going to announce the results from the interrogation of our first trials!"
Sakura suddenly took Kai's hand and rushed away, forgetting to lock her door after closing it. The young man didn't speak up since he too hadn't noticed it as well, because of the slight shock that came with the sudden action.
***
Once they made it to the cafeteria, everyone was already seated with their new friends that they had made. Kai thought Sakura would leave him to speak to her own friends she probably already made, but instead she dragged him over to an open table and let go of his wrist. Sakura spoke softly in a slightly hoarse voice from all of the running earlier. They had almost made it to the cafeteria late.
"We're here, I am going to go get breakfast."
The young man paused while looking around and also went to go get breakfast, he was stunned by the sheer size of the cafeteria. Kai received his meal alongside Sakura, they both sat down at the table and began to eat calmly as the multiple massive TVs suddenly flickered on and began to display the rankings. Kai scanned for his name and finally found it on the sixth massive TV, he was in the last place of the rankings, Kai was stunned to the core.
'W-what?! You're kidding, yes I didn't reveal much but last place?! No way that's too little, give me a break!'
Sakura too was shocked as she found herself in fourth place, Kai too soon shifted his gaze to the rankings and found Sakura at fourth place and then another name caught his eye. It was the one in first place, his eyes narrowed slightly as he read.
'Rin Inoue, she has a title? From her first trial, really? Princess of Beauty?'
Kai paused and looked away in confusion and minimal annoyance, feeling like a weak nobody, he was in last place after all. Even if he did lie and not tell much of the truth, being last place hurt quite a bit. Suddenly Sakura spoke and patted Kai on the back with a carefree smile, it seems like she too had spotted his name and rank, he was ranked 400th.
"It's alright Kai, the rankings don't define someone! I'm sure you're great!"
The young man felt even more pathetic as Sakura tried to comfort him. Being last in the rankings meant that he was going to be treated completely differently from everyone else for being weak. But now he suddenly felt happy about having chosen only a survival course, after all he really didn't really need combat lessons because of his innate ability, not for now at least.
Kai looked away and began to eat once more, wanting to focus on his breakfast again. He felt Sakura remove her hand from his back as she too began to focus on eating. However, there was one person Kai couldn't help but give a brief hateful glance at, it was that same beautiful woman that had slapped him in front of everyone yesterday.
He had absolutely no clue as to why everyone was flocking around her and praising her, she was gorgeous, but that had to be too much. What the young man also didn't know was that, the same woman that had slapped him was the Rin Inoue who had taken first place and received a title from her first trial. Receiving a title in the first trial was of course a big deal because almost nobody managed to obtain such a feat except for a few Enlightened who's names were etched into history.
He glared at the mesmerizing young woman with utter hate in his eyes, yet he for some reason felt compelled to her beauty and found her unusually attractive.
'It must be her blessing ability or her innate ability to make people feel attracted to her...'
Unknown to Kai, the young woman was also glaring at him as well. Ignoring the praises and stares from everyone else.