Chapter 3: 3. Mundane Life of a Boy Called Lewiht Teremon

Chapter 3 – Mundane Life of a Boy Called Lewiht Teremon

 

Lewiht couldn’t comprehend where he was for a moment when he was poked by the shoulder and got woken up. He gave a dazzled look around with his sleepy eyes and realized he was in his classroom. Great. His deskmate, Ged, was the one who poked him.

“The teacher stared at you a few times,” said Ged. His blonde, wavy hair was messy as always, but Lewiht couldn’t deny that his hair gave him a pretty unique look. “I didn’t want you to wake up with a book hitting your head.”

“Thanks.” Lewiht rubbed his eyes and looked at the teacher. The lecture was about history and their teacher, Miss Bela, was talking about the Era of Rebellion. She had written some of the biggest mage guilds who had rebelled against Kel’daras on the blackboard, and she was looking at the class to find a victim for a question. Lewiht knew she already had someone in her mind — she liked to make students know that she was the highest authority in the class so she always pulled little shows like this.

“Kental,” said Miss Bela, looking at a boy sitting two desks behind Lewiht. “So, as we’ve said, almost a million people died during the Rebellion. But what was the main reason for mage guilds to rebel?”

It wasn’t a rebellion, Lewiht thought. They killed the mages because they were afraid of their power.

“They rebelled because they wanted more authority within the Empire. ”

Wrong.

“Correct,” said Miss Bela, giving a warm smile. “What happened to the guilds at the end of the war?”

They got slaughtered.

“They have been shut down. Surviving and surrendering mages were employed by the Empire.”

Wrong, they didn’t employ shit.

“Correct. Then the last question, why are guilds like the Falcon Order or the Argent Blade still active?”

Because The Empire had no power to fight against the mages, they hired guilds to destroy other guilds. Making the mages kill each other. Smart move.

“Because the Empire thought shutting down all guilds may raise a concern from the public, so they left them as they are.”

That doesn’t even make any sense.

“Correct again. Well done, Kental! It seems you haven’t forgotten last week’s subject.”

Lewiht wasn’t even surprised by this misinformation. The history books of Kel’daras were full of propaganda like that. To Kel’dish people, their nation was the best thing in the entire world. They were always right. They did nothing wrong in the course of history, ever. Of course, the Empire was focusing on nationalism much more due to the ongoing war against Runodar, but still, it was annoying to know the truth.

“Lewiht,” said Miss Bela, locking eyes with him. Lewiht gave a thankful look at Ged for waking him up, then stood up. “What are the fourth and the fifth articles of the Declaration for the Guilds?”

As soon as she finished her question, a few of the students grumbled at the difficulty of it. Fucking bitch. She’s doing this on purpose. Lewiht had no idea about the answer. He knew the general contents of the Declaration, but how the hell was he supposed to know the individual articles?

“Uhh…” Lewiht hesitated for a moment and tried to at least think of something. “Something about Kel’daras won’t hesitate to use force against the uncooperative guilds?”

“No, Lewiht.” Miss Bela frowned. “It’s not something about Kel’daras not hesitating to use force. I would’ve expected more from Togan Teremon’s younger brother. You may sit down.”

Lewiht did not sit. He clenched his fists instead, and tried to do his best to not sound disrespectful. “What does any of this have to do with my brother, Miss Bela? Do you think I’ll automatically know every single article from every single official document in history just because I’m the younger brother of a minister?”

“No,” said Miss Bela, clearly surprised at Lewiht’s sudden backlash. “But I would’ve expected you to at least put some effort in your studies to not be a disgrace to your brother.”

“A disgrace?” Lewiht raised his voice involuntarily, but then immediately realized his mistake. “Yeah, I’m a disgrace because I don’t know the articles of three hundred years old documents. Makes perfect sense.”

“Sit down, Lewiht.” She probably had a lot more things to say, but she knew better than to not antagonize the brother of Togan Teremon, so she didn’t say anything. Lewiht also didn’t want to have this argument, so he sat down as she said.

“Bro!” whispered Ged, when the class finally ended. “You were so cool!”

“I wasn’t trying to be. You know I hate being compared to him.”

“I don’t know man, but Arabel looked quite impressed by your rebellious spirit!”

“Really?” Lewiht looked at the girl sitting towards the back of the class. She was, according to most boys, the prettiest girl in the class and it was clear why. Her hair was as dark as a starless night. Her cheeks had a red hue, which created a great harmony with her round face. She wasn’t someone Lewiht would consider beautiful, but she was cute beyond compare. “Was she looking at me?”

“She was,” said another boy, sitting right behind Lewiht and Ged. His name was Willard and although his face looked a bit stern, he was a good-hearted guy once you knew him.

“For real?” Lewiht asked.

“Why would we lie to you?”

“I’m not saying you’re lying, it’s just…”

“It’s just what?”

“Let it drop, Willard,” said Ged. “He’s probably thinking something like oh she’s probably looking at me because I’m the brother of Lord Togan Teremon and she wants to be my girlfriend only for influence.”

Lewiht got angry because... every word he just said was true. “Yes, I do think like that, because it’s the truth.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t care why girls were interested in me if I were you. I swear the amount of girls you could’ve picked up is… Aaargh!” Ged pulled his hair in frustration. “Dude, you don’t know how much I want to punch you sometimes!”

“You don’t understand Ged. You don’t know how annoying it is to constantly get compared to someone else.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Ged mocked him. “Being famous and rich must be so hard!”

Lewiht stood up, sweeping his arms around him in anger. “What? Are you trying to start a fight, Ged?”

“No,” said Ged, also standing up and staring Lewiht right in the eye. “But you know what, Lew? You keep saying that everybody compares you to your brother and stuff, and yeah, they do. But somehow you are always the first one to tie any topic to your brother, have you ever thought about that? That girl is looking at me, she must be interested in me because I’m nobility or oh this guy is being nice to me because he doesn’t want to say something wrong to Togan’s brother. And the thing is, you might be right.”

Ged smiled for a second and punched Lewiht in the shoulder.

“Oww, what are y-“

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He raised his head proudly and patted Lewiht’s back. “Now, of course, we can finish this argument by beating the shit out of each other after school, but why don’t we actually try to see which one of us is right?”

“Yeah?” said Lewiht, he was calmed a bit even though he was punched in the shoulder. He could see Ged wasn’t trying to be an asshole by what he said. “How do we do that? Ask Willard for a third opinion?”

“You always do that,” said Willard. “And it doesn’t convince either of you.”

“Exactly,” said Ged and held Lewiht from both shoulders, spinning him and turning his face to Arabel. “You say she’s interested in you because of your brother, I say she’s interested in you because she genuinely has a crush on you. So, stop being an anxious pussy and go learn which one of us is right!”

Ged pushed him so hard that Lewiht stumbled towards Arabel. This move caught the attention of a few people, including Arabel who was now looking at him with wide eyes.

“Oh,” said Lewiht, trying to regain his balance. I’m going to fucking kill you, Ged. “Hi there.”

“Hi,” said Arabel. She was drawing something in her notebook, but she dropped her pencil as soon as she saw Lewiht getting hurled towards him

“Sorry if I… Uh… Scared you. It’s just Ged being Ged, you know.” Lewiht desperately tried to find something to say, but all he could think was how much he also wanted to punch Ged in the face. “So… What’re you drawing?”

“Just sketching.”

Lewiht gave the sketch a look and realized it was pretty impressive. It was a sketch of Miss Bela, and even though it was just a pencil sketch, he could see her talent. “That looks awesome. Didn’t know you were an artist.”

“Yeah,” she said, playing with her hair. “It’s just a hobby, nothing serious.”

“I think you could be serious. You definitely have a talent, it wouldn’t be that hard for you to make a living out of that.”

“It’s not a talent,” she said, averting her eyes. “Everybody can learn how to draw. It’s just hard work.”

“Well, I don’t know about that, I can’t even draw a straight line.”

“It’s because drawing a straight line is not as easy as you think!” said Arabel enthusiastically. “Most people draw from their wrist, but you should use your shoulder instead. It makes your lines more consis— Sorry, I’m just blabbering.”

“No, no! It’s fine, I like talking about art. It’s just that I'm bad at actually creating art.” Lewiht let out an awkward laugh. He saw students in the hallway starting to get inside the class—the break was about to end and Miss Bela was probably coming back earlier as usual.

Stop being an anxious pussy. Ged’s words echoed in his mind. Somehow you are always the first one to tie any topic to your brother.

Maybe Ged was right. He always thought all of his successes were because of his brother, but maybe, just maybe, Ged was right.

“Can you give me some quick lessons?” There, I said it. I said it! “Maybe… Let’s say, tomorrow at lunch break?”

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, I really said it! I actually asked her out! Lewiht wanted to die right there. He often daydreamed about this moment and none of his dreams were stupid like this. Why did I say that? Can you give me some quick lessons? That’s the stupidest pickup line ever!

“Sure,” said Arabel, somehow looking even more embarrassed than Lewiht. “I’ll help you.”

Lewiht did his best to not have a voice crack, but still failed miserably. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

***

“Don’t fucking laugh okay?”

“We said we won’t! Trust us, dude!”

“I said… I said can you give me some quick lessons tomorrow at lunch?”

Ged immediately burst into laughter and caught the attention of everyone in the schoolyard. Lewiht punched his shoulder as hard as he could, but Ged didn’t stop laughing.

“Trust us my ass!”

“You…” Ged could barely breathe. “You got me wrong! I’m not laughing because it is stupid. I’m just proud of you!”

“Lie more and I’ll punch you again.”

“I’m not lying! I’m serious, I’m laughing because I didn’t expect something like that from you. Like… You being a womanizer was the last thing I expected to see today!”

“I’m not a woma—“

“I mean,” Willard said. “You may not trust Ged, but I think you’ll trust me when I say that it isn’t as stupid as you think.”

“It is. It’s the worst-“

“She didn’t refuse, though, right?”

“She didn’t, but—“

“Then stop with this imposter syndrome bullshit,” said Ged. “She was playing with her hair while talking to you, she has a crush on you, all right.”

“What does that have to do with anything, Mr. Ladykiller?”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” Ged cleared his throat and raised his index finger. Both Lewiht and Willard knew that he was going to imitate Miss Bela, and they both loved his Miss Bela impressions, so much so that they started to chuckle even before Ged said anything.

“Look here, child!” Ged tried to make his 15-year-old voice as deep as possible and swung his finger around furiously. “To understand this complex situation, you first need to understand the fundamental laws of love! If she were not interested in you, she would’ve played with another object, like a pencil! Playing with her hair indicates flirtation! Also, she averted her gaze in an embarrassing way, further proving my point!”

Ged finished his imitation by adjusting imaginary glasses in his eyes.

They were all laughing, but their laughter got even louder when Willard said “I wish you could’ve put this knowledge into practice.”

Lewiht was unaware that this was the last time he laughed with a child’s innocence.

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