Chapter 3 - The start of a new life[2]

"Excuse me, sir, hey, can you hear me?" A soft, innocent and harmless voice caught his attention. It was a little girl with blonde hair and rosy cheeks, ashamed, Staxius knelt in front of her so that his height matched hers and spoke,

"I'm terribly sorry young lady, you've got my attention now, how may I be of service?" He asked in a soft and polite voice.

"Finally, I've been trying to speak to you for ages now, can you tell me where the academy is? I'm supposed to meet up with my big brother, he starts school today." She replied calmly.

"Is that so, your brother must be amazing."

"Yes, he's the best brother ever, he's so strong no one can touch him, people say my brother is a hybrid or something." She boasted.

"A hybrid, this girl is from the nobility, there's a golden crest on her buttons for god sake, it's not wise to leave her here, but is it my job though? All I care about is getting my belly full, whatever, I'll help her." He wondered

"Giving you directions will be hard, so instead my lady would you please allow me to escort you to your beloved brother?" Staxius asked in a playful manner.

"You will? Thank you very much, sir."

Staxius held out his hand as if asking for a dance then headed to the academy with some nobleman's daughter.

"I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Staxius Haggard, what about you?"

"Oh, my name is Autumn Garnet, I can't wait to meet big brother Julius."

"Rest assure, neither can I, I'm ecstatic." His sarcasm was so obvious, the girl didn't know what sarcasm meant so the conversation throughout the journey was him being cynical and approachable while she was boasting about her family and brother.

Back at the academy, Sophie was livid after finding that Staxius left without informing anyone. From what she got told by the staff, he thanked everyone personally, even the people in charge of cleaning. He was a strange one, no one ever bothers to notice the people doing the real hard work but this guy knew who truly deserved the thanks and vote of confidence. Everyone without fail only spoke about how friendly and great this foreigner was. Seeing their reactions, Sophie's anger slowly calmed down, but her duty as the one in charge of supervising him was a priority. In an attempt to find out any clue about his ware bouts, she asked practically anyone. Some people said he was headed to the train stations, other the hanger, and some the town square. With so many conflicting statements, Staxius vanished. It was then that she began wondering if it was intentional, with his intellect, hiding his trail would be a piece of cake. Her admiration for him slowly grew. Deciding to pick an option at random, she ended up with the train station.

The academy was finally in sight, the young Autumn was super excited to finally meet her brother. Outside, students who were clearly rich or had a strong background made their way towards the gymnasium, Staxius was out of place, it was like white against black. His clothes were slightly torn and had blood stains which weren't properly cleaned. Everyone gave him the death stare; it was being judgmental at its best. Some thought of him as a beggar, others as a kidnapper, and some even accused him of being a pedophile, obviously, no one spoke out loudly.

"Well this is humiliating, you had one job to do, earn some money, and now you have to make this girl meet her brother, man the stares, I feel it on my back, can you people be any more obnoxious."

His thoughts were interrupted by the young girl as she began shaking his hand in hopes of getting his attention.

"What is it?" He asked unwillingly.

"It's my brother, look, his standing near the big tree." She replied as her eyes sparkled.

"Go meet him then, my job is now complete young lady, may you have a safe voyage."

Finally, relieved of this self-imposed burden, Staxius let go of her small hands and began heading to the town square once again. His walk was cut short, as Autumn grabbed his back.

"Let me go, Autumn, my job is done, what else do you want from me?"

"Don't leave yet mister, I like you, please meet my brother with me."

He spun around once again and knelt down, "Listen Autumn, your family and I are very different,

we can't be seen interacting with each other." He tried convincing the ignorant Autumn into giving up her childish desires.

"Why can't mister Staxius meet with big brother Julius, I-I w-want you to." Tears began forming around her eyes, she was on the verge of crying.

"Come on now, don't cry, this is for the best, I have to leave." Desperate to stop the waterfall which was about to break loose, Staxius stood up and walked away.

From behind him, the little Autumn Garnet began crying, it was loud and piercing, everyone noticed and this created a scene, people thought that he had done something odious to the girl. Still not giving up, Autumn rushed and grabbed Staxius's leg. It was embarrassing, it looked like he was abandoning her.

"What's causing all this ruckus," Julius asked as he saw a crowd beginning to gather.

"People say it's a guy abandoning some little blond girl, she's crying her heart out there, man it's pathetic for a dude to do that." A random guy who witnessed everything answered his question as he walked by.

"Blonde hair, it can't be, AUTUMN."

"Come on leave me alone, I've told you I can't stay, please just let my leg go." Staxius was getting tired, his frustration was building up, however, he knew that being even a little forceful with her could end up with him getting beaten.

"N-never, I like you mister, don't leave." Her voice trembled as she cried.

"AUTUMN, get away from her you weirdo." It was Julius, he recognized his little sister. He sprinted from the tree to here, seeing his darling sister cry made his blood boil. Instead of stopping and asking questions, he rushed Staxius and punched him.

Upon receiving the full brunt of the impact, our hero was sent flying. Speechless, Autumn's cry stopped. People assumed that he was the sole reason the young girl was crying. It was partly true but only thanks to the division of noble's and commoners. Even after getting punched, Staxius casually got up with not an ounce of hate nor emotion on his face, he shook his head and left.

This act of shaking his head was interpreted as an act of being smug, Julius was even more pissed,

"How dare a lowly commoner put his filthy hands onto my sister, I swear to god don't you even try and be c.o.c.ky with me."

Hearing his futile provocations, Staxius decided to take advantage of this situation and anger him even more. With a quick shrug and wave of the hand, he signaled Julius that he was leaving.

"You LOWBORN SC.U.M."

With anger running through his veins, Julius rushed in front of Staxius and grabbed his collar.

"Who do you think you are acting smug with me, I can ruin your entire life if I just wished for it, know your f.u.c.k.i.n.g place." He spoke out while gritting his teeth.

Fully expecting a response, Julius waited but nothing ever came out of Staxius's mouth, instead, his face was emotionless. For a split second, Staxius gave the smuggest smirk he could. This was adequate, the brother snapped and began assaulting him with no pity in his eyes. Punch after punch, Staxius's fully recovered face was getting shredded once again. The crowd gathered around them did nothing, they just stood in awe. However, that wasn't the case for Autumn, from the first time she saw Staxius, she got a little crush on him. For someone who's twelve, this was something grand, but now his beloved brother was beating her crush.

"BROTHER STOP," Autumn shouted as the academy's local security broke off the fight.

Julius had blood all over his white and gold uniform, on the other hand, Staxius was nearly knocked out.

"Carry this man to the hospital right away, for you young man we need to talk after this." A man who seemed to be the leader of the platoon spoke out.

With that Autumn's reunion with her brother was complete, even as they carried Staxius away on a stretcher, he didn't have any resentment on his face, instead, he quickly glanced at Autumn and smile reassuringly then passed out. Seeing him smile despite his situation, she began crying once again.

After visiting the train station, Sophie was on the way back, it was then that she noticed her apprentice getting taken away to the hospital once again. Inside, she asked the security about what happened, sadly she was only told that Staxius got beaten by a nobleman's son. Even with the discrimination between nobles and commoners, here at Claireville academy, everyone is equal. Julius was put into house arrest; this was temporary as this fight was to be judged by one of the instructors at the school. This sort of behavior is truly unacceptable, no one is allowed to pick on other students even if it's for fun. The trial to see who was right and who was wrong was set to occur in two days.