Frostbite

Chapter Eleven - Nobility

The next morning, after getting some very much-needed sleep, I began my daily trek to the Academy, a grip on my bag.Stephanie had texted me overnight that I would be meeting Felix and Indi Merino, and I was nervous. I had done more research on them, and they were a lot more prolific than the original article led me to believe. They hosted formal events and funded the military and the works.

I headed towards the gate, both hands on the strap of my bag as I approached the guard. The gate was locked again, but the guard seemed a bit more alive than he was before."Good morning," I said gently to the guard. "Can I see your student identification card?" The guard said in his usual robotic tone, this felt more correct, than him just letting me in like before. I pulled out my keycard and showed in the picture to let him know that it indeed was me.The guard nodded and opened the gate for me, letting me inside the campus field. The kianuts from the days before had been cleaned up and properly turned in.

I went down the path I usually took, heading towards the campus cafe to try and get some caffeine in my system before I talked with someone in such a high standing like the Merinos.I pulled out my phone from my pocket while walking to reread Stephanie's text the night before.

Steph: The Merinos are formal yes, but they're more 'normal' compared to most of the other royals.

Steph: 'Normal' sounds awful but I don't know how to describe it. They want to be treated like any other student, so no 'your grace' or 'your highness' lingo with these two.

I sighed, I knew how to treat someone normally, but I had a hard time telling when said royal speaks in their lingo to me. They always sound so off to me. I soon went inside the café and spotted the three in question, Stephanie, Felix, and Indi sitting in a booth near the far back corner of the room with a large window towards the inner side of the booth, where Felix and Stephanie were sitting. I soon began my approach, my steps light as I arrived next to the booth. I took a breath and sat down next to Stephanie.

"Good morning Kerran, how did you sleep?" Indi said to me. Oh boy, we're starting strong. "I'm alright, thank you for asking Indi, did you sleep alright after everything?" I asked. "I honestly did not sleep that well, the fact that the police waited till we all got outside to search for the man, only for him to come up dead is insane to me," Indi said. "Like, there could have been more students that died during that attack and you only waited for some alive ones to tell you the lay of the land??" Indi ranted.

That had been in the back of my mind for a while, it bugged me how late the police had reacted to the distress call at the academy, and if these two were kids of the duke, this was a bad look on them.

The police are supposed to go in, regardless of what the threat is, if there are civilians in danger. "What did the officers ask you? If you don't mind me asking Indi." I inquired, I wanted to know what else could have possibly changed that I was not aware of.

"When Felix and I came out of the academy, covered in dirt and blood from that guy, whatever his name was, we were swarmed by reporters near the ambulance we had walked to. Felix had a migraine from blood loss in his head, so we were trying to get him patched up but people kept swarming us." Indi said.

"How much blood did you end up losing?" I asked Felix, who seemed to ponder for a moment, his brows furrowing as he processed the question. "About..." He trailed off for a moment. "They didn't tell me exactly, but if I had to guess based on my symptoms maybe sixteen percent?""Oh that's not as bad as I thought it would be, I remember seeing you come out with your shirt red," Stephanie commented.