A Week Later
The loud blaring of Lee Seng's alarm woke him up. He quickly grabbed his phone off the nightstand and rubbed his eyes. It was 9:30am. He shut the alarm off as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight pouring into the room. His shades were synced with his alarm and were pulled back. Lee Seng lifted himself up into a sitting position and looked around.
He had been in his apartment for the last week and was working almost every day since. He pulled the duvet off of him and revealed his boxer briefs. He yawned as he moved off the bed and stood up onto the wooden floor of his bedroom. He wandered towards the other side of the room and pushed the bathroom door open.
He shuffled in and turned on the light and relieved himself on the toilet at the end. He flushed and turned around and opened the glass door to the shower. He turned the shower on and pulled off his boxers and began to shower.
Lee Seng followed his morning routine without thinking too much about it. He had plenty of time since he didn't know when he was getting a response from the Academy, so he spent most of his time working or training. It was his second day off work, so he decided he would probably lounge around.
Fifteen minutes passed and he stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. He wandered over to the left side, passing the exit to his room and going straight to the closet parallel to his bed. He opened it and started to slip on some clothes. He slipped on a black t-shirt, boxer briefs, and orange shorts. He threw the towel into his dirty laundry basket and closed the closet door.
He walked back into the bathroom and grabbed his phone off the bathroom counter and noticed a new email notification. He made his way out of his room and into the living room, sitting on the couch. He unlocked his phone and hit the email notification.
FROM: Capitol City Academy <CapCityA>
TO: Lee Seng Chang <l.seng.chang>
SUBJECT: EXAM RESULTS
Dear Lee Seng Chang,
Thank you for your interest in Capitol City Academy. We are blown away at the 190 students interested in transferring to the Academy to further education. With a limited 15 spots for this year's transfer students, we had to take our time with this big of a decision.
We are happy to say you have passed the exam and will joining Capitol City Academy as a Third Year!
Congratulations on this big achievement!
Transfer Day will start in three days. We have attached a list of things you should bring with you. Please note, there is limited space in the dorm rooms, so pack what is necessary.
We will see you on Friday, Scout. We officially welcome you to Captiol City Academy as a new Scout!
Sincerely,
Nicole F. Anderson-Volkov
Capitol City Academy President
"Well, that was expected." Lee Seng spoke. He set his phone down on the couch and stood up, making his way to the kitchen to fix himself a quick breakfast. "Number 1 took over as the Academy's President... That's kinda weird. I never saw her as a 'kid' person." Lee Seng pulled open the freezer drawer and fished out some frozen sausage biscuits. He grabbed two and closed the drawer and pulled a plate out before unpacking the biscuits and setting them in the microwave for a couple of minutes.
"I guess she really wanted to give it a shot after Nico--" He stopped the comment "It kinda sucks I have to be under the watch of a lot of different Numbers now... Especially her." Lee Seng rolled his eyes and shook his head. "But, I just have to deal with them for two years and I'm out. Remember why you're doing this, Lee Seng! I'm gonna be an adventurer and I can leave this city behind."
Lee Seng smiled as he reminded himself of his goal and nodded. Lee Seng's phone started to ring and he quickly walked over towards the couch and grabbed his phone. He lifted the screen to him and noticed Olivia was calling.
"Hello?" Lee Seng answered the call. He sat back down on the couch and crossed his feet together.
"Hey, Lee Seng. Did you get your results from the exam?" Olivia happily asked.
"Mmmhm, I did. What's up?"
"I was wondering if you got in or not."
"Ahh, you want me to tell you my result first?" Lee Seng smiled, leaning forward. He glanced at the microwave as it continued to countdown. "I made it into the Academy. How about you, Olivia?"
"YAY! Congrats, Lee Seng! I guess that makes two of us!" Olivia happily shouted.
"Mmm," Lee Seng smiled. "By the way, what year are you? I'm a Third Year."
"I'm a Third Year too! I talked to Evan and Ritsuka earlier. They're both Third Years, so we'll be seeing them often." Olivia explained. The microwave beeped and Lee Seng stood up and started to make his way over to his heated up biscuits. "So, I was wondering if you knew anything about housing. Apparently, if you make a team, you can opt to move into a housing unit together. Apparently, they're more spacious and fully furnished."
"Oh, that's how you get those nice houses?" Lee Seng asked as he opened the microwave and pulled out the hot plate of food. He quickly set it on the stovetop and shut the microwave.
"Mmmhm. Apparently, Ritsuka's older brother went to the Academy. Ritsuka said we should work together and figure out if we mesh well. If we do, we could move away from the dorms and into one of the housing units."
"How many people can be in a group?" Lee Seng wondered. He grabbed the plate of hot biscuits and quickly moved his way over to the bar counter. He set his plate down and moved around to sit on a barstool. He pushed the phone call to be loud and set it down next to his food.
"Minimum of four people and a maximum of... 6 people. From what Ritsuka said, groups usually run in two, four, or sixes, depending on the scale of the mission. Bigger missions usually will allocate more to a team but missions typically run in those sizes with any of the big three agencies."
"Ah, so we have to stick with the group sizes no matter what." Lee Seng said with a mouthful of food.
"Oh, am I interrupting you? Are you eating breakfast right now?"
"Oh," Lee Seng covered his mouth and swallowed. "Yeah, I'm eating but you're not interrupting anything. I just wanted to learn as much as possible about how the Academy runs things."
"Ahh, alright. It's okay if you're busy. Just let me know and we can just chat another time. But, yeah, we'll have to figure out team sizes and if we don't, apparently there's a 'mercenary' thing the school runs."
"Mercenary?"
"It's where people choose not to opt into a team and can be hired and/or put into a team to cover whatever they need to be covered. Being a mercenary sucks because you have to gather reputation or else you'll struggle and fall behind in the Academy."
"It's like the Academy is forcing people to choose a group or else be outcasted and struggle for the time you're at the Academy."
"Mmmhm, I don't know who would do that but there's some great mercs out there, though. One of them is one of the Third Years from the Solo event. I think his name was Manny?" Olivia said, starting to question if her memory was correct or not. Lee Seng began to choke at the mention of Manny and pounded his chest.
"Lee Seng, are you okay?" Olivia asked.
"Y-yeah," Lee Seng answered between coughs. "I'm just surprised that the person who's a mercenary is... him."
"Manny? You know him?"
"I guess you could say that," Lee Seng sighed in relief as his cough faded. "It's a long story I don't wanna explain right now, but I know him."
"Ahh, I guess that explains it. But, yeah, he's one of the top Mercenaries in the Third Year. Apparently, his good looks gets him places."
"His good looks?" Lee Seng chuckled. "How does that have to do with anything?"
"Good-looking people tend to get more attention. Just like you, I guess except the tail and ears also did it."
"Was that you trying to flirt with me?" Lee Seng wickedly smiled. Olivia began to stammer and Lee Seng chuckled.
"Tha-that, um, th-that... It's just w-what I heard! A good-looking, well-known person like you with a tail and ears would surely catch a lot of people's attention!" Olivia stammered through trying to reign in her compliment. "It-it's not like that, Lee Seng! W-we barely know each other."
"I'm just kidding," Lee Seng chuckled. "Sorry for making you uncomfortable if I did. Thank you for the compliment. It's nice to know people are staring at me because I'm also good-looking and not just because I have a fox tail and ears with my reputation."
"Y-yeah," Olivia awkwardly chuckled. "T-that's all, I swear. Anyways, think about the team offer. You, me, Evan and Ritsuka could try for a team. If we need two more people then that's fine, too."
"Mmm, alright. I'll think about it."
"Okay, well, that's all from me. I'll see you at the Academy. Bye."
"Yup, see you in a couple days. Bye." Lee Seng said as he hit the disconnect button. He smiled and chuckled. "I can't believe she got easily flustered by that." He took a final bite from his second biscuit and continued to smile. "I forgot how nice it is to talk to someone."
Lee Seng pushed the barstool away and grabbed his plate. He walked over to the sink and began to wash his plate.
"Oh, I guess I should go visit Mom before I leave. I should tell her I'm going to the Academy." Lee Seng nodded. "It's been awhile since I've visited, so I should bring some gifts."
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