Chapter 31: Ch 31: New Living Arrangements

They were quickly shown to their new room by their teacher. And Daniel was shown his first.

It was a standard double-person bedroom that had an attached bathroom and a balcony. It looked exactly the same as their room from before and Daniel settled in quickly.

He looked ready to head out and follow Noah back to his room, but the teacher decided to hold him back. Meanwhile, the second teacher started to lead Noah out of that room and toward the office ’repurposed’ for him.

The attitude the teacher had was not very nice, and he did not even say much when he opened the small office.

It was a 5-square-meter office that only had enough space to put a small mattress. Noah was not that tall, but he doubted he could actually fit in the room while lying down, much less be comfortable.

There was not even a window in the office, making it feel even more suffocating.

It was not a habitable space, and the teacher knew this as well. That was why he turned his head away so that he did not have to look at Noah for even a second longer than he had to.

"This will be your room from now on. Make sure you keep it clean and don’t make the walls dirty. Anything you break here, you will have to pay for. As for the rest...figure it out yourself."

It was easy for the teacher to say this and then disappear. He did not have to consider the fact that this felt more like a prison cell than a room.

"Sir, this does not look very comfortable. Am I being detained for a crime I did not commit?"

Noah finally reached the end of his patience and decided to ask this question, which had been bothering him for some time. And he could tell that the teacher was taken aback by his question as well.

But then he sighed and quickly came back to his senses.

"What are you talking about? We are doing this because we care about your safety and want to protect you. Now get inside and stop bothering others."

The teacher stressed these words before he left to head who-knows-where. Noah was not interested in knowing where.

What he was interested in was how he was going to keep his physical health in check.

Luckily, being in this small cell-like room did not bother him. He had lived in such a space for long enough to not feel anything. And he had even lived in such enclosures with broken bones before.

But unlike those spaces, Noah did not have enough freedom in this academy to expend his energy each day in order to keep himself fit.

"For now, it would be for the best if I stop thinking about it and get some rest."

But even that was a problem because the office was not clean. And the bathroom was in an even worse condition.

So the first order of business became to clean it all up.

Noah scrubbed the floors until his hands started to hurt and he nearly spent all his energy before he could even lie down and rest.

"Tsk, these people could not even provide me with a mattress...not that any mattress would fit in here..."

That was Noah’s last complaint before he fell asleep. But he was not even able to rest for an hour before he was woken up by his phone ringing.

He quickly checked who the caller was before he picked it up. But thankfully, it was only Daniel.

Noah quickly picked up the call once he confirmed the caller’s ID, and Daniel’s voice sounded tired and angry when he replied on the other side.

"Where is your room number? Tell me and I will come to check your room out. Somehow, I have a feeling these people did not give you a proper room to live in."

Noah had no idea how Daniel knew about this, but he felt a chill go down his spine at the thought of Daniel coming here and finding out what type of room ’Noah’ was given.

"How about I come to you this time instead? I think that would be better since I already know where your room is. I also need to visit the doctor regarding my cast, so it helps."

Noah quickly made an excuse to keep Daniel away from his room.

Knowing Daniel’s personality and temper, there was a 90% chance he would throw a fit and confront the teachers about this. But that would just make Daniel’s life tougher.

Right now, the teachers favoured Daniel because of his especially high guiding grade and his potential. But that would likely change soon because a huge accident was going to happen.

Daniel was going to lose his guiding temporarily, making his position ambiguous in the academy, and a lot of people were going to turn their backs on him.

In the original timeline, Alan was already interested in Daniel by this point, so he kept him around for amusement until they started catching feelings and Daniel got his guiding back.

That was a dark time in Daniel’s history where he was bullied by everyone, and only one teacher’s kindness kept him going. But it was never mentioned who that teacher was.

But the point was, this was the reason Noah wanted Daniel to keep things clear with the teachers—because he would need the mental support once his hard ordeal began. Those teachers needed to decide that it was best to keep Daniel in the academy even if he lost his abilities.

And for that reason, Noah needed to keep his living arrangements a secret until this situation was resolved.

He quickly got up and forced his tired body to start moving. His room was left unlocked, but that was mainly because the door had no lock he could use...which was another security nightmare he had to deal with.

But it was not like Noah had anything worth stealing anyway, so it should be fine for him to leave the room unlocked.

’Still, I should invest in an academy locker for my stuff. Leaving it in my room might make the situation worse.’