Claimed By The King(s) Of Kings

Aina

"Here is the reception, little guy," Molly said, stopping right outside a grand set of heavy open oak doors. Beyond them sat a spacious anteroom, and mounted prominently on the inner door was a polished brass plaque that read: Headmaster’s Office. Aina took a wild guess and assumed that was where the top boss ruled the school.

Molly turned around, smoothing her pristine blazer. "Well, this is where I leave you! I have to head over to a student meeting, but I really hope you have a wonderful experience at Moonside Academy."

"Thank you so much for everything!" Aina replied, keeping her voice carefully lowered to a raspy pitch. She gave a friendly wave as the girl stepped back. "See you around campus!"

Molly let out a soft, musical laugh that echoed through the hall. "Yeah,See you around, little guy." Once Molly disappeared into the bustling crowd, Aina took a deep breath and joined the back of the reception line. Fortunately, the line moved quickly, and within a few minutes, she found herself standing right at the front counter.

An old, sharp-eyed woman sat behind the desk, her gray hair pulled into a tight bun. She offered a tired, rehearsed smile. "Name and Pack ID, please."

Aina froze for a fraction of a second, then immediately feigned a look of sudden realization. She unzipped her worn-out backpack and began aggressively rummaging through the empty front pockets.

"Uh, yeah! My name is Travis Whitelock," Aina said smoothly, using her brother’s name while pretending to dig around for a card she knew damn well wasn’t in there. The woman clacked away across her keyboard, her eyes skimming the screen. "Whitelock... Travis. Right. Where is your physical ID card?"

"Oh no..." Aina gasped, pulling her hands out of the bag and slapping her forehead in dramatic distress. "I think... I think I left it back home on my desk! Oh Goddess, I’m so sorry!"

The old woman paused, staring at Aina over the rim of her half-moon spectacles. She let out a long, exhausted sigh, visibly drained from dealing with hundreds of nervous young adults all afternoon.

"Typical," the woman muttered, shaking her head. She reached into a drawer, pulled out a stark white plastic card, and swiped it through a machine on her desk. "I’m issuing you a temporary pass under Travis Whitelock. Keep this on you at all times. You must get your official picture taken at the administration center by the end of the school week to receive your permanent student card, understood?"

"Understood! Thank you so much!" Aina said earnestly.

"Your uniform packages have already been delivered to your assigned quarters," the receptionist added, sliding the temporary pass alongside her room key across the counter.

"Awesome, thanks!" Aina blurted out.

Without asking a single question about where her room actually was, because she was afraid that too many questions would arouse suspicion, she snatched the cards, shoved them into her backpack, and practically sprinted away from the desk before the woman could second-guess her.

Once she reached a quieter alcove in the hallway, Aina leaned against a stone pillar and pulled the folded map back out of her bag. She also pulled out her glasses and slid them onto her face. The blurry world instantly snapped into sharp, crystal-clear focus.

For a brief moment, Aina just stood there, silently admiring the sheer grandeur of the vaulted stone corridors. Sophisticated men and women in tailored blazers strode past, walking with the supreme confidence of high-ranking wolves. Groups of upperclassmen were laughing together, catching up on summer gossip, and reunited with friends made during past school years. It was an intimidating, beautiful world.

Aina brought her gaze back down to the parchment map in her hands, tracing the lines until she found the residential icons. According to the bold red lettering, her dormitory was located in a separate wing called Building Iron Fang.

A tiny box of trivia text sat right beneath the name: Fun Fact: Building Iron Fang was named after King Ironfang I, who personally funded its construction after the Great Boundary War.

Aina rolled her eyes at the blurb. "Who cares about King Ironfang? Just tell me where the front door is."

Navigating the campus turned out to be an absolute nightmare. What should have been a simple thirty-minute walk turned into multiple agonizing hours of getting lost, backtracking, taking wrong staircases, and dodging endless streams of busy students. By the time the sky outside the high arching windows turned a deep twilight orange, her feet were burning, her lungs were aching, and her knees felt like lead.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she found herself standing in front of the massive double doors of Building Iron Fang.

She pushed the heavy doors open and stepped into a quiet, luxurious lobby. Sitting behind a sleek mahogany desk was a young female student wearing an upperclassman uniform, scrolling on a tablet.

Aina shuffled up to the desk, her backpack weighing heavier than ever. "Hi, excuse me... where can I find Room 303?" She repeated the number engraved on her keycard.

The student paused, her gaze snapping up to Aina. She blinked once, then twice, looking at Aina’s terrible haircut and boxy suit jacket with utter shock. "Room 303? Are you... sure you’re looking for 303?"

Aina gave a tired nod, digging into her pocket and pulling out her fresh dorm keycard. "Yeah, see? Room 303."

The girl stared at the card, her jaw dropping slightly. She looked back up at Aina, examining her worn-out clothes with deep confusion. "Are you... the son of some insanely rich minister or something?"

Aina let out an awkward, nervous laugh, instinctively reaching up to rub the back of her neck. "Uh... something like that."

The girl shook her head in disbelief. "Well, the room you’re looking for is on the top floor. In fact, it’s the only suite on the entire top floor."

"Got it. Thank you!" Aina said quickly.

She grabbed her card, turned around, and hurried toward the elevator bank. Stepping inside the spacious metal cab, she reached out and pressed the button for the highest floor.

The elevator rose with a smooth, silent hum. When the doors finally slid open at the top, Aina was greeted by a quiet hallway, striking contrast to the bustling campus below. The top-floor hallway was completely silent, blanketed in deep shadow and an almost eerie stillness. The carpet beneath her feet was so thick it swallowed the sound of her steps entirely.

Walking down the dim corridor, she reached the massive set of dark oak doors marked 303. She held up her keycard and tapped it against the scanner.

BEEP.

The lock clicked, and the heavy door swung open. Aina stepped inside and her jaw instantly dropped. "Holy Goddess..." she whispered.

The room... no mini house was vast, bigger than the bedroom she had back at the Whitelock estate. High ceilings, panoramic glass windows overlooking the mountains, an open-concept living room complete with plush leather sofas, a private kitchen, and built-in bookshelves. For a wild, dizzying second, Aina wondered if this entire palace of an apartment was all for her.

Then she stepped further into the entryway and saw four large, expensive designer duffel bags sprawled out across the hardwood floor.

Clutching her tiny, beat-up backpack tighter against her shoulders, Aina realized the truth: it was a shared luxury suite. Still she couldn’t complain she was lucky to be sharing such luxury.

She walked down the hallway, checking room to room. There were six private bedrooms lining the corridor. Five of them were already occupied, their doors closed or their desks covered in personal items. She kept walking until she reached the very last door at the end of the hall, the only one that seemed completely uninhabited.

She pushed the door open and stepped inside.

It was stunning. While it wasn’t the master bedroom of the suite, which of course was already taken but it was still gorgeous. A massive queen-sized bed sat against the wall, covered in crisp white linens, flanked by a polished wooden desk and a private balcony overlooking the valley. She had never owned a room this nice in her entire life.

Overcome with pure, unfiltered joy, Aina dropped her backpack onto the floor, sprinted across the room, and dove face-first onto the bed. She rolled across the cloud-like duvet, kicking her legs in the air, letting out a muffled squeal of absolute victory into the pillows.

She had made it. She was at Moonside. She was free. For the next couple of years this would be her home.

BZZZZT.

A sudden, loud static chime blared from the intercom mounted near her bedroom door, cutting through her happiness.

"ATTENTION ALL MOONSIDE STUDENTS," a crisp, loud voice echoed through the speakers. "MANDATORY DINNER WELCOME SESSION IS NOW COMMENCING. ALL STUDENTS MUST REPORT TO THE MAIN CAFETERIA BY EXACTLY SEVEN’OCLOCK TONIGHT. ATTENDANCE IS STRICTLY MONITORED."

The intercom clicked off with a harsh silence.

Aina scrambled up into a sitting position, pulling her old, cracked smartphone from her jacket pocket to check the screen.

6:45 PM.

"Fifteen minutes?!" Aina shrieked, her voice cracking back into her natural high pitch.

Without unpacking a single thing, she leapt off the bed like a cat on fire. She scrambled toward the door, almost forgetting her dorm card on the desk before snatching it up at the very last second, and slammed out of the room to face the madness once again.

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