It was late evening.

After two weeks, not much had happened; while the students of Class A were getting to know all their professors and having new, interesting classes everyday, they didn't have that much time to talk with each other and hang out. After all, the school had a particular system that was always kept in place: thirty consecutive days of school, ten days of tests, fifteen days where one could go back to his family, hang out in the Academy and just rest before the lessons returned. 

During this first period, because every student was so focused on learning everything and preparing for the extremely hard phase full of examinations, even the Crown Prince hadn't met his friends after the first day. 

As he had been used to always being with others with a long time, that was a new feeling to him. As he came home to a empty room without anyone to study with, he felt enstranged from the world around him.

By staying there without any sound he eventually realized how it felt to be alone. Being alone with himself made him feel extremely angry as his mind focused on the events that had happened during the month prior, blaming him for his bad performance and reminding him that, if he was to fail these tests, there'd be nothing left to do but admit his inferiority.

"I need to talk to Lyra." He eventually realized. If that girl really loved him, maybe, he could really convince her to drop grades; the only issue is that would be unlike him. Dzer was one that never liked to be grateful to others, that being the same reason why he didn't call anyone to study with him during those hellish days of being alone, plus he felt like it was in his blood to be better than a noble, him being a Prince.

Eventual failure would transform the slight hate he currently felt for someone that seemed to be superior than him by every angle into full-on detestation.

Before getting to that point, having pondered his circumstances for long, he comprehended that it'd be better for the Crown Prince to have a talk with Gabriel Neferles first. Still, he had never been a courageous person and didn't feel like talking to someone he didn't know at all.

"But, if I do it like this... I'll take two pigeons with one stone." He thought to himself before stepping out of his room.

A few minutes later, a young noble girl felt a knock on the door.

"Hmm?" She thought to herself, hearing the noise. "What?"

And after three seconds, the door was opened. In front of Dzer there was a familiar face, contoured by a confused expression.

"Your Majesty...?"

"My greetings... hm..." He tried to find the words he wanted, but his white-colored skin soon turned red as he didn't even remember the initial dialogue that was meant to be had.

That lit up a spark in the eyes of the noble girl, who expected him to have come to confess his love, or -- well, things that are a bit more explicit. But that wasn't the case.

"Your desk mate... I was wondering... if you knew him." He finally concluded.

That crushed Lyra's ephemeral dreams as she looked at him thoroughly to try and find a motive.

"Why would he want to talk with that commoner?" That was the main question ringing in her head, something that she needed more information to know for sure; still, the possible answers kept flowing in her head.

"Maybe Gabriel Neferles has killed someone... maybe he has cheated on the test to get first... the chances are endless."

The many thoughts ringing in her mind were interrupted by a reminder from her mind: she still had to answer the question.

"No, sorry. I haven't spared a single thought about him so far." She declared with no issue, to which the Crown Prince's countenance became particularly troubled.

"Do you have time? We can visit him." He asked.

"Sure but, you could've done this more efficiently if you just went on your own. The girls' dormitories are on the other side of the building." Lyra explained, curious of why he might have chosen to ask her first -- maybe he hoped she'd enclose some important information about the crime Gabriel Neferles committed.

As the young noble girl already made up theories in her mind about that mysterious figure, Dzer didn't answer the question, still red in the face, and just pointed to follow him. That made Lyra furrow her eyebrows for a second before shrugging her shoulders and speeding the pace to reach him.

Ironically, just before they could even make some steps further, they were stopped by a voice behind them, one truly masculine and loud that they could perfectly hear and recognize.

"You shouldn't be walking in this part of the dormitories." That comment seemed perentory and serious, so much that Dzer for a second truly wondered if anyone had ever talked to him like that.

As they turned their heads, they saw the stern face of Professor Neratur, their history teacher.

Seeing who they were, that important figure stopped in his tracks for just a second, before muttering a slight apology.

"Sorry, I didn't recognize who you were. Anyway, it's important that you avoid being in this part of the dormitories."

"Why?" Asked Dzer, not particularly convinced by that explanation. "There's no rule about it."

"That's true, because it's not a permanent rule here in the school. But the part that divides the male and the female dormitories is closest to the laboratories, those places haven't been that safe lately, especially at night. I can't really disclose information or tell you off, but you should probably not be here for too long. Avoid having to swap dormitories in first place, their exits are completely safe." He tried to reason and explain, but that only served to augment the curiosity of the Crown Prince.

Lyra herself, like the perfect citizen, already understood she shouldn't be there and didn't have many issues with that. Her curiosity was cut off by the shame she felt for being called out by one of her professors.

"I'll leave now. Beware." He reminded them, then waved his hands at two of the most important students in the Academy. After doing that, he left.

Now alone, Dzer and Lyra finally realized one thing. "So, that's why there's no one but us outside." The Crown Prince was the first to say it, to which the noble girl could only nod in agreement.

"I think we should still go." Immediately said the blonde boy.

"No, Prof. Neratur told us off. We should not do that, he probably has a good reason for--"

"He didn't give us a reason. That makes us allowed to go."

"That's not how it works! He didn't say anything-- so what? Do you think he'd jest?" The real Lyra was starting to come out as she felt her reason slip away by hearing the constant complaining of the Crown Prince. That was something his friends were already extremely used to, but that she had no idea was one of the characteristics of his.

At the same time, a thought hit her for a second. Still ephemerally, she asked herself if the person she was talking to was really the one she had dreamed about. All the roads led her to say no.

"Well, I'm going. Personally, I couldn't care less about what you think. Do you really think we're friends? We never were, your personality is too self-imposing for me to even try that. Don't follow me!" He screamed and left on the spot, heading for the male dormitory, going closer and closer to the doors of the laboratories, making Lyra just decide to move on and go back to her room.

She wasn't planning on following, anyway. Maybe because she was sad, maybe because the events had depressed her, but most importantly because he had deluded her.

"I thought he'd be a shining prince, ready to make sure laws were to be respected, hating those who break them, but maybe that was just how I thought he was. Maybe that's just my idealized view of a Prince." That was the conclusion she had jumped to, without realizing just how idealized her own view of a lover was.

Lyra wanted a person who'd make sure everyone was to follow the impartial and objective existant laws, someone she could blindly follow without fearing. That was the kind of person she wanted to serve -- even if not listening to Mr. Neratur's prohibition was nothing, in the great scheme of things it showed Lyra that all she had done so far was wasted. And she could only be sad.

So, she did the only thing she thought was right. Tears flew to the perfectly decorated white marble floor in the slightly-lit up corridor as she came back to her own room.

Dzer himself was more normal than an evil person. He had had many of the same kinds of quarrels with his friends, so he didn't think too highly of them; as usual, he expected that the day after he'd be talked to with familiarity as usual.

"After all, she's smitten with me. Shouldn't be a problem." He concluded, then he started thinking of what he had to do.

"Where even is his room?" He asked to himself as he went through the male dormitory without fear.

The Crown Prince had used logic. Herien was one of his friends and he had a family member as professor, but he never told him to stay away from the doors of the laboratories.

If he had thought a bit more, he'd understand that the gravity of the prohibition that only Mr. Neratur seemed to know was shown by the extent of his words. If the Crown Prince was still in the side of the dormitories for women and he believed that it'd be better if he stayed there rather than coming back, then maybe it was serious.

But it was far too late.