Nicholas's POV:
The little group of girls immediately backed away, screaming pathetically, Harris stumbled back but his friends caught him in time. They were about to grip on me, when prince Christopher protectively encircled his hands around my tall frame, successfully getting me shielded by his body and prince Tristan standing infront of them, with his sword out.
His stern, angry voice boomed "Harris Clive! Don't you dare to go further in this."
And of course Harris wasn't done yet, "I haven't started yet. And I wasn't the one to throw punch first!" He glared at me.
If it wasn't for prince Christopher's strong grip holding me back, I would have jumped on him again, beating the hell out of him. "Yeah?! You wanna start? Let's go to the ring for a duel then. Let's see who gets the upper hand!"
Looking back, prince Tristan gave me a warning look and for the sake of this senior's respect I conceded, making prince Christopher to finally face the group and Harris made a snarky comment again "yeah hide. Hide well behind those pretty strong arms and be a good, tamed princess."
His friend group broke into mocking laughter again, making my all sensibilities evaporate as I launched a hard-core punch on his jaw, my knuckles splitting slightly. Loud gasps were heard as more students joined the crowd, prince Tristan was continuously cautioning us with consequences but our minds were far from rational.
Suddenly Harris snapped at prince Tristan, "you don't have any right to tell me what I should do and what I shouldn't. You're not even someone from the security system." He literally glared at the older, catching all of us off guard, as no one had ever dared to mess up with the Kaisers or the other six members of 'The Knights', a secret operating spy group, not that many people knew about it or its members, still their individual fierceness was enough for everyone to be scared.
Prince Tristan's eyes turned dangerously dark with rage, the grip on his sword hardened only to be loosen up and sheathed, as he took long breath to calm himself, with a cold tone, he spoke "you want authority? Fine! I'm so done with you guys anyway!" Then he just stormed out of the arena.
Without being held back, seeing my guards down, Harris came charging at me, he punched on the side of my face, splitting open my lower lip and I tasted the disgusting metal smell of my own blood. Prince Christopher tried to get me restrained, however I realised he was stopping me half-heartedly, obviously he knew how much those words had impacted on me, on the pride of the Hammonds and most importantly on our mothers' name. As I gave him a last warning look, he stepped aside and I lunged at Harris, punching in his gut, kicking in his thighs, he didn't let go easily as he also successfully twisted my arms twice, pulled at my hair harshly many times in attempt to get rid of my strong hold on him, it was a total chaos.
A huge crowd had already encircled us, and from my view, I could see no one dared to interfere. Only when a loud, annoyed voice spread over the crowd, I stopped my third punch from landing on Harris's face who already seemed to be enough tired.
It was crown prince Matthew's voice, who finally decided to come to the centre, glaring at me dangerously, then looking back at his best friend, Connor Stewart, the buff guy who had Defence Strategy major, indicated in our direction and that startled all of us. Striding towards us, Connor pulled me out of Harris's upper body, literally throwing me aside and helped him sitting straight, I was about to go for them again when I felt the strong grip of prince Christopher again on my shoulders.
His eyes were filled with pure worry, as his voice soothed my ringing ears "it's enough, Nick. You've done enough harm to him too. Get up and don't misunderstand prince Matthew's intention, he did what I couldn't do. If he didn't stop you, Harris might have fainted already and I don't want more stain on your already bad record."
Just as he helped me standing up, I distanced myself from him, afraid of my status bringing down his name too, and prince Tristan came back to the same place with our professor Henry Klein who disappeared a good while ago to receive someone at the main gate, that someone might have been really important for him to be in haste like that.
The instant he stood infront of us with his stern expression, the crowd dispersed, only leaving the directly involved peoples which were me, Harris, Matthew, prince Christopher, Connor, Julian Hanson and unexpectedly the youngest king Jeremy Jensen who was still a final year student, majoring in Defence Strategy. Though he never interfered in the whole riot, his presence was much needed for the oldest two, I guess.
Professor Klein spoke with the same stern voice "this time, you two have reached a border for me to give you just a yellow warning only! Mr. Clive, you'll head straight to the Dean's office right now."
Harris's eyes widened in fear, if he was being called to the Dean's office then so would be his dad and I can't imagine how that scenario would go, not pleasant at all. He gave me a hateful, warning look, only to be scolded by professor Klein "there! You're making your hatred towards Hammond so much prominent! Don't you dare to expand it further. He has done nothing harmful to you. And what I know from the earlier events, it was you who initiated this whole thing! So have some sense of shame and leave already."
With that being said, Harris stormed out of the arena in utter humiliation, Tristan and Jeremy following him to the Dean's office. Then suddenly all eyes turned on me, as I realised it was my time for my punishment, knowing professor Klein, he would tell me to work on my anger issue, the only weakness of mine which actually made me a bad boy in everyone's eyes, still I held my breath.
Exhaling a long sigh, professor Klein finally spoke, "you really won't change your habit of getting into fights, will you?! At this rate I should've been done with you, Hammond! But I didn't and the sole cause is you're one of my best and treasured students, you have a bright future ahead and maybe a path to walk with crown prince Christopher when he becomes the king. Do you want to see him with those worried and concerned eyes, always looking out for you?!"
For the first time in that evening, I raised my eyes to look at my brother's sentimental gaze which was already fixed on me, and I had never felt so much guilt pouring in me before. Simply shaking my head, I found my voice a little shaky "no I don't want to see him like that. I want to make him feel proud for me."
Looking at Christopher, I saw his genuine proud smile radiating an encouraging aura, then looking back at professor Klein, I gave him an affirmative determined nod.
Still very much intimidating, he ordered "then prove yourself! But that doesn't mean you're free yet! I'm giving you my red card warning! Mess up with it once again and see yourself out of this arena forever!"
My eyes widened in disbelief as I heard the others gasping too, I couldn't find my voice as I struggled to defend myself and professor Klein didn't give me a chance either.
"Oh and one more thing, your roommate has arrived this evening, be nice to him."
In the sudden mention of my roommate, it occurred to me that he hadn't arrived until today and according to the new dorm arrangements, he should be some naive, awkward first year student.
Wait it had been 12 days since the first year's classes has started, and this dude just decided to show up! And the university board is actually okay with that?! Must belong from some rich influencial classes. Whatever! As if I care!
Before I could confirm my doubt, professor Klein continued "now off you go! You've only 10 minutes to be in the dining hall. And remember that I've got my eyes on you from now on." And just like that he walked out so did the others with a sympathetic look, knowing me very well, they knew that this red card thing gonna be hard for me.
Frustrated with the situation, I started to jog towards my dormitory, internally praying that I don't run into my so belated roommate, at least not in this all dirty, bruised, blood-stained state. When I finally reached the door of my room, inserting the key, I tried to unlock the door and it didn't work as the door was already opened. Internally panicking, only one thought crossed my mind
Intruder!
And impulsively I didn't go inside immediately, leaning on the door, I pressed my ear to get some sound from the other side which I did get. A shutting sound of a room's door, a pair of shoes hitting the floor, the footsteps getting closer to the door, a clicking sound of the knob then the door opened, making me loose balance and stumble forward.
I was falling and instinctively my eyes closed themselves and my brain prepared for more bruises and pain to come which never reached as I landed on a firm yet much softer surface, no! on someone's body! Relieved, I opened my eyes to behold an almost unworldly sight; a boy of around my age in a set of complete white clothes.
Woah! Is he even a human? No he can't be! Just look how beautiful he is! He must be an angel, right?
His honey-brown eyes were focused on me, I could feel my mind being hacked for a few seconds as I dived into his honey pools, my eyes darted down to his cute button like tiny nose, then on his perfect heart-shaped plump lips and my heart joined the malfunctioning list too as it stopped beating for a second then started beating crazily.
"Arrrgh!" A deep grumbling sound brought me back from my daze and made me realise that I was still on him, my body tightly pressed against his and while taking a good look of him, I accidentally jabbed on his right shoulder. Hastily, I tried to get up which I successfully did after two clumsy tries and he sat up, clearly uncomfortable with his right hand.
Was that jab really that hard?
Concerned I kept watching him, as he stood up straight and oh boy he is almost a head shorter than me, and the knee length oversized white overcoat with his shoulder length fluffy blonde hair made him look more soft and cute. But his expressions were dangerous as he checked his attire being dirtied, glaring, he came up to me, encaging me within his two hands and the wall behind me. I felt a shiver run down my spine under his intimidating gaze, his long exhales and inhales indicated that he was trying to calm his anger, and again I closed my eyes to embrace whatever he planned to do to me.
"What on earth were you doing on the door leaning on it so dangerously?!"
Woah! Wait! That voice! It's his voice?!!! He has that freaking smoothness of butter in that baritone voice, it sounds so sexy!! NICHOLAS HAMMOND! Snap out of it! He is your roommate for heaven's sake and you just caused an inconvenience to him at your first meeting!
Eyes widened, I kept looking at him, my eyes should have reflected shock and uneasiness as he moved away from the close proximity, he looked angry at first, but it subsided to replace with irritation, due to lack of response.
"I thought it was an intruder. So I tried to listen before opening the door." My own tenor voice felt so small as I processed through my disarray mind.
A deep laugh rang through the small space and I watched a heart-warming view infront of me; his pearl like teeth full exposed, his eyes scrunched, his soft cheeks turned into two small dimples. Seeing me staring at him unblinkingly, he stopped and almost with a mocking tone, asked "an intruder?! Seriously Hammond?! You should've come up with a better excuse!"
At that, I realised he knew who I was but I didn't know who he was. Just how much he knew about my already bad boy background. I asked nonetheless "how do you know who am I?"
His expression gave out a panicked one but that soon turned into a mischievous smirk and he sassily said "I might've known you better than you know yourself."
Snorting, I scoffed "bullshit!"
"You don't believe me?! Then..." He stopped suddenly as his eyes glued on my face once again, an almost unnoticable gasp came out of his lips, a deep frown rose between his perfect eyebrows. With a concerned voice he continued but with a complete different matter as if he wasn't mocking me a few seconds ago "your cheek is now swollen, your lips are still bleeding! Shit! I should've taken care of that first! Just wait here a bit, I'll be right back with the med-box." Then he ran inside his room.
I finally remembered that I had had a fight earlier and the left ten minutes to reach the dining hall might have been over already. Not waiting for the rather confusing stranger of a roommate of mine, I sprinted towards the washroom, closing the door, stripping myself, I turned on the shower, letting the warmth of the water run through my bare skin.
A few minutes later the sudden aggressive sound of the closing door brought me out of my short found solace and I finally let a shaky breath out which I didn't realise I was holding.
See, no one actually can stand my presence! And I almost thought he was genuinely concerned.