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Chapter 5: Drink your worries away

Note: Today's morning announcement is brought to you by sooyounggf on Ao3 (and edited slightly by me + spoken by Alberu LOL). Thanks to everyone for your submissions! You can continue to submit in the comments or direct them to my curiouscat (https://curiouscat.live/shigahands) ^^

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Once again, Cale wakes up to the intercom morning alarm. Alberu's smooth and sunny voice starts speaking from the speakers installed in every corner of the academy.

"Good morning! It's another great day for studying. Being a student at the academy is about taking lessons and learning from relationships with others, from the demands of society, from life as a whole. Be more than invited to make suggestions and work together with the student council so we can take the brightest path!"

Since these morning announcements are pre-recorded, it's possible Alberu is also lazing around in bed right now. Slightly amused by that thought, Cale snuggles back into his blankets and goes right back to sleep. Another five minutes won't hurt. He doesn't take long to prepare for school anyways.

...

A scarlet sky with a full moon extends endlessly before him. Before the sky burns an even brighter red. Enormous flames engulf the entire dorm building, the fire dancing and extending so high it seems to be pulling down the clouds themselves. There are students screaming and running away in a mad frenzy, and it's so, so hot. It feels like his face will melt off. It feels like he'll be burnt to ashes.

There's a student on the third floor balcony, and his entire body is on fire. He's shrieking and his face seems to be dripping like candlewax, becoming deformed as it burns an angry dark red. There's no one to save him, no one to watch him fall but Cale. And right before that body falls into a crumpled heap—

"Gasp!"

Shit. What the fuck? What kind of dream was that? His entire body is soaked in cold sweat but he can still feel that phantom heat singeing his skin, boiling hot in its intensity. It can't be another prophetic dream, can it? It should just be a nightmare. How unrealistic is it to have such a major and devastating event before the entry of the heroine? It makes zero sense.

Damn it. He feels like he's been cursed. Can't he just have a nice day of lazing around without anything happening? Grumbling under his breath, Cale shuffles over to the attached bathroom in his room to wash up.

When he's done, there's a letter on his carpet, dropped from the small flap at his door meant specifically for letters and small parcels. Curious, Cale walks over to pick it up.

It's an incredibly beautiful letter. The glossy material is smooth to the touch. Other than the wax seal, there's a red ribbon and a small bunch of lavender flowers. The wax seal is golden with an imprint of a turtle, so it seems to be a letter from Count Henituse. Since Cale doesn't have a letter opener, he carefully rips it open with his fingers. The paper inside is golden too, as though the sender is flaunting his wealth.

It's a pretty good sign. Cale supposes their territory is rich enough to toss money away like this.

My Dear Son,

Cale pauses. His eyes stare at the three words written in beautiful cursive. My Dear Son. The words are unfamiliar to him, to Kim Rok Soo, who's never had a father for more than two decades. When he thinks about the original Cale Henituse, it makes him wonder where the original soul in this body disappeared to. It seems a little lonely, Kim Rok Soo thinks, to have no one realize the original Cale Henituse is missing... or swapped with someone else.