LGT Chapter 5

Ignoring Adrian Heather’s extended hand for a handshake, the man walked toward the window in the room. A few flowerpots that Adrian had placed were sitting there. The man lifted one of the pots in the middle of the windowsill with his large hand.

“Ah, that’s—”

Before Adrian could finish explaining that they were supplies for a class, the man swung his hand and shoved the herb pot out of the window, as if discarding something dirty. A faint sound of the pot breaking could be heard from outside. The smile at the corners of Adrian’s lips faltered. When he looked at the man, the man smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth.

“You’ve crossed halfway.”

The man drew an invisible line with his index finger, cleanly from the window to the door. It seemed the flowerpot in the middle of the window bothered him.

Is that so?

Adrian moved and picked up a glass jar that his employer had left behind just moments earlier. The jar appeared to be at least a few hundred years old and frankly didn’t belong in an academy dorm room. Even as Adrian approached him with the jar in hand, the man showed no interest, preoccupied with checking his belongings.

Without hesitation, Adrian hurled the glass jar out the window. Unlike the dull sound of the flowerpot breaking earlier, a clear, ringing sound followed. A student’s voice from below shouted, “Hey, what was that?”

At that noise, the prince turned his head toward Adrian.

“…Are you insane?”

“How much is it? I’ll pay for it.”

“…”

The prince wasn’t the type to know the value of some glass jar. He walked over to where Adrian’s things were placed. Adrian folded his arms and silently watched to see what he would do. The man lifted one of Adrian’s thick books using only his thumb and index finger. Locking eyes with Adrian, the man extended the book out toward the window. Adrian raised an eyebrow but didn’t stop him.

The prince threw the heavy book out the window again.

“That should do it.”

Not even close. The glass jar was a rare item purchased by the royal family, made by a renowned artisan, while the book was something any first-year academy student could pick up at a local bookstore. If Adrian’s employer, waiting outside the room, had heard this, he would’ve been outraged. Still, it was enough to infuriate Adrian.

Just as Adrian was about to step over into the man’s space again, the prince spoke.

“…So, what’s your name again?”

Adrian stopped in his tracks at the prince’s question. He had no idea why the prince was even asking. After all, when you’ve just thrown your roommate’s belongings out the window, exchanging names seemed entirely unnecessary. Adrian answered obediently.

“Adrian Heather.”

“…Never heard of that surname.”

The academy had a rule that all first-year students, regardless of status, must live in the dormitory. From the academy’s perspective, it was convenient to assign the prince, a valuable bloodline, to room with a commoner who had no title, rather than with another noble. Most commoners spent the year silently enduring life with the royalty or high-ranking nobles, without so much as a peep of protest. The prince sighed and calmly explained this to the kingdom’s oblivious commoner.

“No matter how much the academy insists that status doesn’t matter here, acting like this won’t reflect well on your family,” the prince said.

“Well, I guess your family doesn’t mind acting like this,” Adrian shot back, continuing with what he was doing, entirely indifferent to the fate of the fake Adrian Heather’s family.

Among the prince’s belongings, a scabbard glittered, almost as if it were begging to be destroyed. Unlike the glass jar the prince had casually discarded earlier, this sword was something the prince cherished. As Adrian reached for it, the prince finally moved quickly. He grabbed the scabbard in Adrian’s hand, trying to pull it back, but it didn’t budge. The prince, having trained for years, assumed his strength would far surpass that of his roommate, who appeared to have a similar build, but he was mistaken. The scabbard in Adrian’s grip only trembled as the prince exerted more force.

“Hey! You can’t take that!” the prince shouted.

“And why not?” Adrian laughed, pulling the scabbard even harder. With that, the prince was slowly dragged forward, still gripping the other end of the scabbard. Adrian thought it was about time to put this brat in his place. The prince, meanwhile, was doing his best to hang onto the scabbard with all his might.

“Let go! Are you not going to let go?!”

“Why should I? Go outside, pick up my flowerpot and book, and maybe I’ll accept your apology.”

“You arrogant bastard! Do you even know how much this is worth?”

Adrian was about to say that he could easily buy a dozen cheap swords like this one, when someone entered the room.

“…”

It was the sound of the servant waiting outside finally stepping in. He had knocked, but the two inside were so engrossed in their confrontation that they hadn’t heard it. After some hesitation, the servant decided to open the dormitory door out of a sense of duty. And what he saw was this: the prince and a young man from some noble family, both locked in a ridiculous tug-of-war with the prince’s prized scabbard.

“…What’s going on here, Your Highness?” 

The servant cautiously stepped between Adrian and the prince, gently wrapping his hand around Adrian’s to encourage him to let go of the scabbard. As a servant, he couldn’t stop the prince, so he chose to calm the other party instead. Adrian, with a fierce grin on his face, suddenly relaxed his expression. Dragging an innocent bystander into their childish struggle seemed unfair. With a casual flick of his hand, Adrian released his grip.

The prince stumbled backward from the sudden release, managing to stop himself just before he fell onto the bed. At least he didn’t end up sprawled on the floor. Adrian gave a small, dismissive shake of his hand, as if wiping off dust. The flustered servant, grateful for the gesture, gave Adrian a faint, relieved smile. Adrian returned the smile with a small nod.

Despite this, the prince continued to glare at Adrian with a fierce look.

“To think I have to share a room with someone like you for an entire year,” he growled.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Adrian replied.

It was the first day of their time at the academy dormitory. As Adrian thought back to the dormitory rules that had come with the letter, he realized there were no specific rules about changing room assignments. 

After finishing unpacking, Adrian left the room. He headed straight to the central lobby on the first floor to check the dormitory assignment board once more.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  

Mikhail Rus Inehart  

Adrian Heather  

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━  

Mikhail Rus Inehart…  

So, he was talking about noble families, and if he was an Inehart, that meant he was royalty. Adrian’s expression turned cold. Based on his experience, he didn’t get along well with the Ineharts. The image of Carlo de Inehart, the founder of the kingdom, smiling brightly flashed through his mind. Whenever he saw him outside, his nearly white silver hair would reflect the sunlight and sparkle. Now that he thought about it, Mikhail did resemble him a bit.

Hmm.  

Adrian sighed and turned away from the dormitory assignment board. Running into traces of someone from his past was never a pleasant experience. The past should remain in the past, after all.  

Adrian headed straight to the admissions office in the main building to inquire about changing his dorm assignment.

“…So, you’re saying I can’t change rooms after the semester has begun.”  

It seemed no one wanted to room with the prince, and Adrian found that completely understandable. Clearly, everyone was already well aware of the prince’s terrible personality.  

With a long exhale, the “Gold Dragon” sluggishly walked out of the admissions office and back toward the dormitory building. Then, as if something suddenly came to mind, he stopped at the entrance and turned around. The dragon took a slow walk around the dormitory, roughly estimating where his room window was located.  

From the lawn below his room, he spotted shattered glass littering the ground. The prince’s vase and Adrian’s flowerpot were broken and mixed together in a mess of debris. The only slight consolation was that the flowerpot had broken into large enough pieces that it could potentially be reassembled to serve its purpose again.  

Adrian carefully gathered the fragments of the pot and the stems of the blue plant before heading back to the dormitory. Luckily, the roots of the Diena plant were unharmed, so if he replanted it in the soil, it would likely survive.