"What did you say?!" Hakyun voiced, pointing at a door. "That one's mine!"
"I chose it first!" Chima argued. "How can it be yours?"
Merlin took his words back. The both of them wouldn't be getting along as well as he'd thought.
Their dorm room was spacious enough to accommodate a family of three or four. It had a living room, a kitchen area, and three rooms, each in possession of their own bathrooms.
Honestly, calling this a dorm should be high up on the most atrocious things a person could say. After all, anyone who had lived their whole life on the average standard would laugh when they walked into a room such as this and it was tagged as a dorm. They would think it was a funny joke. Merlin, for sure, thought it was.
What was even funnier was the reason why his two roommates were biting off each other's necks. And that was who would have the room with the view of the Academy's entrance gate.
Merlin had wondered what exactly was so special about having a room with such a window, but recalling the beauty of the plum blossoms gave him the answer he needed. Waking up to such a scenery would probably be on the list of best things a student could wish for. That was because it fulfilled two things: Reminded them that they were on their path to becoming a Mage, and that the world was beautiful. A rather refreshing way to start the day when one thought about it on a deeper level.
Perhaps he should join in on the argument?
A smile formed on Merlin's lips as he watched Hakyun and Chima bicker. He had long picked his own room, so he just entertained himself with their squabble as he lounged on the couch, too lazy to begin unpacking. It was fun.
A sudden double beep snapped Merlin's eyes to his phone, expecting a notification from Janeth, who he had sent a text to some minutes back. She had told him to let her know once he'd gotten settled in, obviously because she wanted him to tell her all about how a Magical Academy was from the inside. He didn't mind, though. However, the notifications weren't from her.
Sighing, he was about to lean back on the couch when he suddenly had an idea of what could have made that sound and why.
"Guys!" he called out to his roomies, turning in their direction.
"Fine!" Hakyun thundered, Merlin's call lost to the ruckus that was yet to stop. "Let's settle this the old way."
"The old way?" Chima frowned, confused but exhilaratingly expectant. "Spill it, four-eyes."
"F-f-four-eyes?!" Hakyun blanched, his head jerking back slightly. "How dare you?! I propose a duel!"
Chima raised his fists in an instant. "Right here, right now?"
"Not that kind of duel, dimwit!" Hakyun spat. "A duel of wits. A duel of the mind and senses. I challenge you to a game of rock, paper, scissors. And I want to stack on a bonus for you having given me that ridiculous nickname."
Actually, it was Nora who had done that first. But Hakyun had no reason to know that.
"Bonus? What bonus?" Chima asked, not particularly nervous.
Hakyun lowered his head and cackled softly, nudging his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. Merlin winced. The lad was acting like a villain from a comic book.
"Whoever loses will have to make kimchi for a week!" His laugh got a lot louder. "Are you scared now? Huh? Gonna back down?"
Chima now had a nervous look. "But I don't know how to make kimchi."
Hakyun shrugged. "Concede then. And I'll let you walk away with your limbs intact."
Merlin interpreted that as: "Give up the room I want, and I'll not bother you to learn how to make kimchi."
But that was besides the point.
"Guys!!" Merlin increased his voice. Hakyun and Chima turned to him. "Check your smartwatches!"
If the notification was not from his System, then that meant the Academy had notified them. He would have checked it himself, not bothering to break apart those two, but his smartwatch was in his luggage, yet to be booted.
Hakyun and Chima both turned to their watches at the same time, and their expressions changed.
"It's our schedule and courses," said Chima.
Merlin rushed to him. "Let me see."
Chima tapped on his watch's screen, selecting the projection option, and the words appeared in the air, momentarily reminding Merlin of how the System visualized itself.
"Well, this isn't nice, is it?" Hakyun commented. And he was right.
There was a list of the courses they would take. Eleven in total for the theoretical ones, with one optional, which was the Hero Basics course. And nine total for the practical courses. But Hakyun's comment had not been for the number, it was meant for what was on their schedule for the next day.
"Physical assessment?" Merlin muttered. "Can't they let us take a day off to settle in?"
"That's not the question you should be asking." Hakyun clicked his tongue. "Why do we need this? We already had the assessment exam."
"Read the description," Chima said.
"And who said I didn't," Hakyun replied.
"Then stop sputtering nonsense when you know it's different from what we did during the exam."
Chima was right. The physical assessment was different from the Dungeon raid exam. As briefly explained in the message they'd received, it was a drill course that tested the student's physical abilities without the use of magic. It was used to assign classes to the students based on how they performed.
He wondered why this was necessary. They were in an Academy of Magic, so why were classes going to be assigned without taking magic into consideration? It was weird. However, Merlin was filled with a certain rush of certainty that he might just do exceptionally well on the assessment. Considering what he'd been engaged in for the past few months and how his physical attributes had leveled up, he had more confidence than anyone else.
But… Why had they set the time for it to begin at six in the morning? He wouldn't be able to get enough sleep!
"That's all we have for this week, though?" Chima added. "Seems like all they want to do is assign the classes, then they'll leave us be. We can't blame them then."
Hakyun's face squeezed, wrinkling like a wet towel. "Get a load of this guy," he said, jerking a thumb at Chima as he looked at Merlin. "Does he not use the calendar? Today's Friday!"
Chima's head jerked backward, embarrassed. Merlin could not help himself from laughing genuinely.
"T-There's nothing on our Cohorts yet, though," Chima went on, obviously looking for ways to quickly put the past behind him—which was not even up to a minute ago.
"Cohorts, Cohorts," Hakyun hummed, ecstatic, apparently. "Which Cohort do you guys wanna join?"
"Which Cohort do you want to be in?" Instead of an answer, Chima replied with a question, perhaps not wanting to give Hakyun another card to use against him.
Hakyun clicked his tongue, displeased. "Answering a question with a question? You baffle me."
"Could you please talk like a normal person?"
"Anyways!" Hakyun continued. "I can say with utmost certainty that Cohort Spearhead would be the perfect Cohort to be in. Not because of the beautiful professor—definitely not. It's purely because I believe it has potential. Loooaads of potential."
Merlin had witnessed Chima cut out that Cohort from his list, so he was not surprised when Chima flinched like a jolt of electricity had coursed through his body.
"No way!" he refused, his notably athletic arms put together in an X sign.
Hakyun was taken aback. Then he frowned.
"W-What do you mean 'no way?' Are you out of your mind? There's no better Cohort!"
Both of them arguing about what Cohort they would be in was valid. After all, a room was shared by students of the same Cohort. In other words, if Hakyun became a student of Cohort Spearhead like he wanted, that would mean Chima was in Cohort Spearhead.
Merlin, on the other hand, did not have any specific one he was especially interested in. He was not keen on joining Cohort Dragon Eye, though. Professor Dmitri Volkov just rubbed him the wrong way for some reason. But even if he ended up in the Cohort, it would not be the end of the world for him. Chima and Hakyun were just making a big deal out of it.
He sighed, glancing at his phone one more time. Still no reply.
"What's wrong with you?" Hakyun asked, noticing, and nudging his glasses upward as he did.
"You've been sighing ever since we came in," Chima added. "Are you ill?"
Merlin glanced between the scrutinizing gaze of Hakyun and the slack one of Chima. He hadn't realized that they'd been observing him despite being at each other's throats. He raised his hands and waved them dismissively.
"Haha… It's nothing," he said. "Don't mind me."
"How can we not?" Hakyun clicked his tongue. "You're souring the mood!"
Merlin's brows fell. "Says the one who keeps fighting over who gets the room with the best view."
Hakyun scoffed. "Predicatble. Just the words you'd expect to hear from a killjoy. What do you know about the joy of waking up to the sun rising above the Academy's gate? Tell me. What do you know?" Merlin remained silent, the edge of his lips twitching. "Exactly. So wipe off that downcasted expression and bask in the joy of life. We only live once."
Chima nodded. "I'm glad you understand." He paused. "So, rock, paper, scissors? Let's do it then."
"The kimchi bonus still on?"
"You know what?" Chima grinned. "Hell, yeah! You're gonna lose, after all."
Hakyun chuckled. "I hope this won't be your first time tasting defeat, young man." They both folded their fists. "It's not a pleasant experience."
"Just shut up and start."
Merlin took a step backwards after Hakyun's words and dipped his phone back into his pocket. There was really no need to be checking for a reply so consistently. She was obviously busy. People had lives. The reply would come when it would.
"Arghhh!!!"
Merlin's attention was drawn to the expressions his roommates had on their faces. He smiled.
"I guess you won," Merlin said.
"Of course," Chima answered. "I've never lost in rock, paper, scissors. We're gonna have lots of kimchi for a week, Mel. I've never tried it before."
Mel? Merlin tilted his head, somewhat surprised. He had not been expecting a nickname. And one so normal, at that.
"Gah… Accursed hand," Hakyun hissed. Then he scowled at Chima. "You must have used a trick, you sly fox. Poison, perhaps."
"Sore loser," Chima replied.
Merlin chuckled. He had thought himself a geek, but he was reconsidering that now that he'd met Hakyun.
Chima was still relishing in his joy, while Hakyun drowned in his pain, when the alert of a new notification arrived. Their moods instantly changed.
"It's probably the Cohorts," Hakyun said as he came to stand beside Chima, the same as Merlin. It was not like he had not received the notification as well; it was just that reading it together from a single screen was a lot more fulfilling.
"Anything but Spearhead and Dragon Eye, please," Chima mumbled repeatedly, his thumb hovering over the Academy insignia on his smartwatch's screen. A second later, his mood soured, and Hakyun screamed with a burst of joy so loud his glasses fell from his face.
Merlin could only chuckle.
They were students of Cohort Spearhead.