Loud banging on my door pulled me out of my nice nap. Honestly, what was the point of dreaming if people were just going to wake you up just as you got to the good part? What that good part was, I had no idea.

  Grumbling, I moved to the door and yanked it open to reveal Bert. Of all the people out there, he was one of the few who knew not to disturb me when I was sleeping. Yet here he was.

  “What!” My words came out in a snap.

  “Don’t give me that.” He snapped back, albeit not as harshly as I had. “You have been asleep for nearly fourteen hours. You need to get up and get some food. Unless you want me to drag you back to the hospital.”

  No. Anything but that. I was already too limited in what I could do. As it was, I was going to have to find the damned workshop and borrow some of their tools. All because my tools required that I act as their source of mana for them to work. Mana I was currently banned from using.

  To say that I was kicking myself for not thinking about times that I might not have access to mana was an understatement. Well, not really. I mean, there is no way for anyone to think about all the various things that can go wrong and plan out various solutions. Still, the whole situation was so god damned irksome.

  With a growl of annoyance, I tried to slam the door in his face. The fucker managed to get a toe over the threshold just in time to stop it from latching closed. No, instead it bounced off the rubber and nearly beamed me in the face. That would teach me not to move my entire body toward the thing in an effort to get to the lock before he could reopen it from the other side.

  “Go get dressed.”

  “No.” I snarled as I tried to push the door closed. I knew it was futile given his mass, let alone his strength, but let it not be said that I didn’t try. “Now get out.”

  “I could always just pick you up and drag you in what you are currently wearing.” His raised eyebrow and once over caused me to take a look at what I was wearing for the first time since I got up.

  Where in the hell did my pants and shirt go? I could have sworn they were on when I passed out. With one glance at the bed, I found one of the legs sticking out from under the blanket.

  My body froze up as my face burned. Brain short-circuiting, it took me too long to come up with what to do next. To run or stay. Hide or play it off. Or I could even strut around. Playing as though this was on purpose.

  Yeah, screw that. My hands tore my backpack off the ground as I raced toward the bathroom. Or at least, I assumed it was the bathroom. There were two doors along the right wall.

  I didn’t even bother to search for a light as I dove through the door and slammed it behind me. My fingers fumbled along the door frame until I found what had to be the switch for a light. That or a fan.

  A click later and the room was filled with a warm yellow light. This wasn’t the bathroom. It was a closet, well, sort of. The room was larger than our bathroom back home and one side was covered in shelves and drawers. There was even a single section for clothes to be hung. Along the other wall was a series of tables, benches, and racks.

  Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more this room made sense. I mean, sure, people might be willing to store their weapons and tools in a central space, but why require it? What if monsters found their way into the place?

  No one in their right mind would want to either wait in line to get something to protect themselves with or hope that others will take care of the monsters. I sure as hell wouldn’t. Well, I wouldn’t if I knew how to even use a weapon.

  God, I was going to have to learn to use a weapon, wasn’t I? What kind of weapon would even work for me? I didn’t want to have anything that required I got up close to anything, but it wasn’t like I was going to go hunting for the things. That meant that the only places I could encounter a creature would be inside a building. Which meant that I would have to learn something for up close combat.

  With a shake, I pulled myself out of my mind and away from the downward spiral that such thoughts were starting to push me into. Focusing on the here and now, I worked on getting everything put away. After all, why wait until later when I could get it done now.

  Bert’s voice came through the door as he tapped on it a few times. “You going to hide in there all day, or are you going to come to get some food?”

  I wanted to growl at him. To tell him to leave and let me get back to bed. But I couldn’t. With all the work, I was well and truly awake. While my body might be tired, my mind would refuse to sleep until it was ready.

  So, with a reluctant sigh, I got into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. The moment I turned the knob, the door forced itself toward me. Pushed by something massive on the other side.

  Bert scrambled to catch his balance as he slipped into the closet. For a moment, I debated saying something, but what would I say? So, with a shake of my head, I walked around the oaf and walked to my bed. A few tugs and I had my pad.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Just in time to see Bert make his way out of the closet. Something I couldn’t help poking him about just because I could. “I see you finally came out of the closet. Though, maybe you should have told your girlfriend first.” I gave him an evil smirk. “Unless there is something you want to tell me?”

  With those words, I raced out of the room as Bert stood there, spluttering as he tried and failed to come up with something to say. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that he did have some feelings for me. Eh, it really doesn’t matter. I could only, would ever only, see him as nothing more than a friend. A close friend. But a friend nonetheless.

  It didn’t take me long to get lost. Lucky for me I found a map of sorts in what looked like a reading nook. Or was it someplace the academy used for something? Whatever it was, the little placard on the wall said tap for map, so I did just that.

  Nothing happened. Tapping it a second or third time resulted in the same thing. I almost felt like a fool as I tried to hold the sign down with as much weight as I could leverage. It still did nothing.

  “Use your pad.” Someone yelled from somewhere nearby. As soon as the words registered in my mind, I realized just how stupid I had been. Of course, a place like this would have a way for someone to carry a map with them.

  A tap later and my pad vibrated as a link was pushed to it. An accept and some loading later, I found myself looking at a map of the whole academy. Inside, outside, and even the various off-site locations.

  The more I looked at the map, the more I realized that it was very similar to the one provided by the train’s system. In fact…I tapped the hamburger at the top to find that the train map was one of the options. And it was only one of the options the system presented to me. Bus routes, city maps, and even a search function were all listed.

  “Find what you needed to?” A soft voice called from just behind me. I whirled to find someone standing there. While I was sure that they were female, the pieces of gear and equipment strapped to them prevented me from being able to see their silhouette. The only part of them I could see clearly was their face.

  That isn’t to say that they were covered in armor or looked ready to battle or anything. They were decked out in what could only be gear suited for an engineer. From the overalls to the multitude of bags and pockets strapped all over. It made them look ready for anything, from repairing something to battle, given what could only be a weapon of some kind holstered at their side.

  For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off the thing. I wanted, no, I needed to know what it was and why it felt so dangerous. “Hmmm…Seeing something you like?” The teasing voice pulled me out of my odd fugue and back to myself.

  With a shake, I focused on my pad as I spoke. “I just need to find the cafeteria is all.”

  They moved close enough to see what was on my screen.“I take it you just arrived?” With one finger, they pulled up the menu, opened the search option, and then selected food. The screen zoomed and twisted as the nearest options were presented. “I would recommend this place.” They tapped at one of the spots just a little bit further out than the rest. “Still, it isn’t like you can really go wrong with any of these places. Though I would recommend you stay away from Tiatang’s Emporium.”

  “Why?” I asked, curious as that sounded like a good place to get many things without having to go to multiple stores.

  “I know how the name sounds.” I was forced to follow them as they started to walk while answering my question. “Emporium is usually a name given to a store or market designed to sell a wide variety of goods.” They let out a soft chuckle. “I guess whoever decided to name the place took it upon themselves to come up with a slightly different definition.”

  How could someone come up with an alternate definition for emporium? It was something that everyone knew, and the definition wasn’t all that ambiguous.

  “Instead of selling a variety of goods, they sell one type of fish prepared in thousands of ways.” They flipped a hand through the air. “Well, not thousands of ways, but still enough that they consider it a wide variety. Which would be fine if the fish wasn’t so horrifically bitter.”

  I shook my head as they continued to ramble. “What were we talking about again?” They stopped for a second only for my stomach to let out a low grumble. “AHHH… Food! In fact, I think I should probably get some myself. Got so much to work on tonight and stopping for food would annoy the hell out of me.”

  They pivoted and moved along the hall we had just traveled down. Before they could start up on something else, I decided to take a shot and ask about the other places I needed to go. “So, I need to hit the administrative office and find a workshop I can use. Any…”

  “Oh,” They spun around to look me in the eye. “You looking to build something or order something made? A weapon perhaps?”

  “Neither.” I shook my head. “I need to repair a few things and alter something else.” While I could tell them about the drone, I didn’t know how they would react. Especially given how the academy had reacted when I got here.

  “Oh.” They sounded a bit dejected by something I said. “I can show you a place, but you might not like it.”

  “Why?”

  “It isn’t all that fancy.” Fancy? What did that have to do with anything? “Nowhere near fancy enough for someone like you.” What the hell were they going on about?

  “Why would I need anything fancy?” My question caused them to blush a little as they gestured at my wrist. I had almost forgotten about the watch.

  “You clearly come from a rich family…” The laugh burst out of me at the thought that I was in any way rich.

  The glare they shot me had me holding up my hands in surrender as I tried to get the words out. “I am not rich. My family is from the outskirts of Lionsguard.”

  Their brows furrowed at that. “But—” They stopped as if waiting for me to give them a reason that would explain what was going on.

  I took a second to catch my breath. “The watch was from some rich kid on the train. Something about it being extra and as a sort of thanks for helping them hide.” For the first time since I had put the device on, I took a second to really look at the thing. Other than the time and an error message, the holographic screen was blank.

  While I was curious about the error, it could wait. First, I needed to get a few other things done. That is, after I got food. With a gesture from me, they resumed leading me to whatever food place they had in mind. Though they were noticeably more reserved than before. A fact that had me wondering if they had only talked to me because they thought I was rich.

  Oh well. It wasn’t like I could change the world or how people in it acted. I could only control myself and what I did.