“Yuki, there’s some commotion in the workshop,” Uriel said in his ear piece. “Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to check on it or not.”

Yuki looked up from the pages of printed paper in front of him. With a sigh, he waved his hand and a holographic screen appeared.

“What is it this time?” he muttered. Then he raised his voice. “Uriel, give me the camera inside the workshop please.”

“Here you go.”

The screen lit up and gave Yuki a crisp view of his workshop. It was a moderately sized room that was built by him with the help of Damian. It was the place where he experimented with new technology and ideas. Only Yuki and Damian were allowed to enter it and they quickly bonded over their mutual interests. Recently, Damian had asked Yuki for permission to allow a dwarf friend of his to use the workshop which Yuki granted. And right now, they seemed to be screaming at each other.

“Uriel, can I have audio?”

“Sure you can.”

“—ou, dumbass! I already told you. Do. Not. Mix. Them,” Damian yelled. Yuki jerked his head back at the unexpected loudness. “Do you no understand what word come out of me mouth?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s my fault because YOU KEEP FUCKING MUMBLING,” the other dwarf screamed. His name was Tobias. “Maybe if you spoke up and actually specified what you wanted, then we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“Specify?! There were only two fucking liquids on the goddamn table, you moron! If your mind can’t make that itty bitty jump, then I don’t know how you even wake up in the morning. Did you recently get a brain transplant from a troll?”

“Two liquids my ass! I already told you that there were like five different fucking bottles on that table. Can you not count?!”

“Do you not have eyes?! Three of them were empty, you fuckwit.”

“Do you know what empty even means?”

“Better than you, probably!”

“Better than—. You know what, let’s check them then,” Tobias said. He turned and looked at the metal table that had smoke coming out from the top. Yuki saw multiple shards of glass on it. “Oh wait, we can’t because all of the flasks are broken because YOU CAN’T TALK PROPERLY!”

“Or maybe you’re just A GODDAMN MORON!”

“Do you want me to interfere or what?” Uriel asked as Yuki watch the scene unfolding before him with impassive eyes. “I have a very nice loud alarm that I’ve been dying to try out.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll deal with it this time,” he replied over the background noise of the screaming dwarves. 

“YOUR MOTHER IS A HALF TROLL AND YOU HAVE THE INTELLIGENCE OF A MAGGOT!” Damian screamed.

“DON’T BRING MY MOTHER INTO THIS YOU FUCKING PIXIE!” Tobias screamed back.

“Can both of you shut up?” Yuki asked, his voice booming over theirs as Uriel amplified it. They shut up.

“Oh, boss,” Damian said with a wide smile. “Wha, what brings you here?”

“Mmm, I don’t know. I was just in my office doing some very important work for our guild,” Yuki replied lightly. “Then Uriel notified me that there was a, what did she call it, 'commotion' in the workshop. Because I’m a very responsible person, I decided to make sure that everything was alright. And so, now I’m here.”

“We, we can explain,” Tobias stuttered.

“Look, I don’t have any problems if you make a mess in my workshop. I don’t care if you scream at each other. I just don’t want you do those two things at the same time.”

“What?” Tobias said, his face looking completely confused.

“You can scream at each other, but don’t scream at each other in the workshop. And when you make a mess, clean it up. As quick as you can,” Yuki continued. “I don’t care what happened here. But if you make a commotion big enough that Uriel feels that need to notify me, then I’m going to kick both of you out of the workshop.”

The dwarves didn’t say anything in reply. They only nodded their heads.

“Good. Now I have to leave. If I come back and the place is still a mess, I am kicking you both out,” Yuki warned. They nodded again and Yuki turned off the camera. “There you go, Uriel. Dealt with.”

“Eh, I guess you can say that,” she replied. Yuki could almost hear her shrug. “I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t use my new alarm.”

“If they start yelling again, feel free to use it.”

“Can I quote you on that?”

“You’ve already recorded it.”

“Good point. Have fun at school, boss.”

“If I don’t, I’m blaming you,” he said as he walked out of his office. “See you later.”

---

 

Five minutes later, Yuki arrived at the campus of the Academy. He walked through the familiar gate and headed directly to the Main Hall. Now that he was a second year, he used the elevator to bring himself up to the second floor. He opened the door to his room and walked into a half filled class.The he took a seat in the same location that he had when he was a first year.

‘A year has already past from when I first arrived to this world. Time flows quickly. I wonder how the earth is doing.’

Earth was a place Yuki hadn’t thought about for a long time even though it was the world he grew up. Events on Ethros just never allowed for him to think about his home world. And even ignoring that, Earth had nothing to offer him that couldn’t have here on this world. 

‘But a visit sometime in the future wouldn’t be a bad idea. Though that won’t be for a while.’

“Yuki, hello,” the voice of Yuna called to him.

“Hello,” Yuki replied. 

“How was your break?” she asked as she took the seat next to him. “You don’t mind if I make this my seat, right?”

“Of course. And my break was nothing special. How was yours?”

“Same as yours. I did some training but that was it for the most part.”

“I see,” Yuki said. “Are you ready to be a second year?”

“I’m not sure, honestly. I heard that second and third year are the hardest years because it was when the Academy scrutinizes everyone the most.”

“They probably do. They’ll try to find any flaws and any reason to demote you down to the normal classes.”

They fell silent and Yuki watched the other students in the room. Many of them were familiar faces though he didn’t know their names. But there were a few that were new and a few that had disappeared. Some of those faces were Yuki’s team during the troll assignment. They had been demoted to the normal class but Yuki had kept contact with them over the months.

Another thing that Yuki noticed was that there seemed to be a noticeable increase in the amount of headphones and ear buds among his classmates. Music wasn’t something that seemed to be popular in this world but that seemed to have changed.

“Yuna, why do so many people have headphones?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of his classmates. 

“Oh, have you been keeping up with trends?”

“No. That’s why I asked.”

“There was a recent breakout artist that’s gained popularity over the last two months or so,” she said. “Not much is known about the artist but the music they make is really good.”

“Really? I didn’t know,” Yuki replied with a raised eyebrow. “I’ll have to look into it when I have time.”

“You should, they’re really good.”

They fell silent again. Then Yuna cleared her throat and Yuki glanced over, giving her a curious look.

“This, um, is an odd question but have you ever been to a bar?” she asked.

“You can’t enter a bar unless you’re at least eighteen,” Yuki replied.

“I know that.”

“Then why are you asking? Are you trying to enter a bar?”

“I would be lying if I said no.”

Yuki stared at her as he considered his next words.

“I won’t ask you why. If you really want to enter one, you need to have a fake ID on hand. And hope that the bar doesn’t have facial recognition. But other than that, you can walk right in and no one should question a thing. You can’t tell someone’s age by just looking at them.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Now, I’m not telling you to do anything illegal,” Yuki continued. “But if you were to hypothetically get into a bar, which one would that be?”

“Well,” Yuna scratched her head. “I heard that a new place opened in Junction, so probably there?”

“New place?” Yuki repeated. He thought to himself as he tried to remember if there were any recent bars that opened. “The Hideout?”

“Yeah, that place. You know about it?”

‘I own it.’

“Yeah, I do,” Yuki replied. “Well, good luck with your plans. Class should be starting soon.”

As he said that, the door opened and Mabel walked into the classroom with a wide smile on her face.

“Hello! It’s me again,” she said. “In case any of you didn’t know, I’m going to be your homeroom teacher for the rest of your time at the Academy. Now let’s start your second year off here at the Academy.”