Chapter 2

"Giving this poor soul yet another lecture? Come on Angela cut the poor man some slack." A male voice said, lightly emitting a chuckle.

Angela and Christopher turned to look at the laid back voice. A tall muscular man with slicked back blonde hair strode up to them with his hands clasped behind his head. By all definitions... A pretty boy. Christopher himself was not a bad looking man but the way women mostly looked at him and Thomas was night and day different. While Chris was fairly muscular himself he didn't have the bulging arms like Thomas and has Black shorter, messy spiked up hair and blue eyes. Not exactly an attention grabber compared to his friend Thomas. Rich, Charismatic, and built like a stone wall.

"Thomas you shouldn't encourage him! Things like that are one of the biggest reasons most of the school looks down upon him! His attitude towards other students and classes is known by everyone as hostile and uncaring. How many times now have they tried to throw him out? If not for Lady Cassandra they would have already had their way and he would be gone!"

"Attitude or not they would find an excuse to throw me out." Chris was not a noble, nor was he a member of a rich family. He learned long ago no matter how he behaved or treat his fellow students and instructors he was nothing but scum in their eyes.  

Thomas was probably Christopher's only other friend at school. Thomas Belenkov was the son of a mercenary who had been given a noble title after saving a member of the empire's royal family on the battlefield. Once the war had ended the empire had given his father a large chunk of gold, and paid for Thomas to be enrolled at this school as part of the reward and thank you from the empire. 

"Oh please I agree. All those rich and noble pricks would look for any reason to spit on him. The man could be on fire and they wouldn't even piss on him to put it out."

Angela sighed "Thomas I'm forced to ask, you do realize you yourself are a noble right?"

"Nope that's my father"

"Which makes you one as well..."

"That's up for debate. Aaaaanyway if our friend here wasn't so prickly... I mean respected and loved by our dear fellow students, then who else would keep all your would be suitors and kiss asses away from you. Really in my opinion you should thank him." 

"Hey thanks Thomas." 

"Christopher Hayden shut your mouth!" 

"Oh she used the full name."

"Damnit Thomas, don't make me test out this new club my father gave me after you broke my last one!"

"That I broke!? It broke when you hit me outside the head! Do you have any idea how much a head wound bleeds!? It ruined my favorite shirt!"

"So what do you two have going on today?" Christopher asked brushing aside the past incident.

"Well for me it will be a toss up between drinking or training...maybe both...at the same time.. Yea I'm going for both."

"Thomas do you really think your father would approve of something like that?" sighed Angela.

"Honestly he would probably be proud if I was able to pull it off."

"And just like that so much has been explained" Chris laughed.

"Unfortunately I have to negotiate a contract on my fathers behalf in about an hour so I have to leave." Angela declared her shoulders slumping.

"What about you Chris?"

"Guess since you both are busy I'll just go home and prepare myself for the mental trauma I'll have to endure tomorrow. If Elise finds out about anything probably a little physical trauma too." Christopher gave his response as a visible shiver ran down his spine. 

Shortly after the three friends parted ways for the evening. Leaving Christopher to make his way home alone. Allowing his natural instincts to lead him back home, he listened to the flow of the city and the people going about without a single care to be had. However for Christopher it was chaos. He did his best to shut his mind off, and ignore the people all around him. Money and goods exchanged hands, people at the bar smoked and drank laughing away, workers going about restocking, greeting customers. Chaos. His mind took all of it in like a constant flow of information, unable to block out even the tiniest of details, So many details that his mind felt overloaded which in turn did the same to his sensory. His heart rate began to rise. Breaking out into a cold sweat, the world began to spin as if he had just spent the entire night and morning drinking. He stumbled forward and leaned his arm and head against the wall. 'There's nothing to worry about, no enemies, no traps, breathe. It's nothing' He kept repeating to himself in his head.

"Close your eyes, steady your breathing." A soothing feminine voice whispered into his ear. From nowhere. This would generally have only made it worse, but the voice was one he recognized instantly.

"If it was that easy I wouldn't have this issue to begin with." He muttered in between sharp breaths.

"Concentrate on my voice, there's no one else here, no sounds just me." She began talking about her day as if continuing from a conversation they were just having.

Christopher listened and did as the voice said, slowly his heart rate began to drop as his breathing flowed normal again.

"I'm proud of you. You're handling these issues much better. Just think a year ago you would never be able to handle crowds like this."

Christopher turned and smiled " Hello Elise." Before him stood a woman that could only be described as beautiful, The perfect hour glass figure, darker skin, shoulder length black hair and green eyes. It was safe to say if he still had a heart, one could claim that Elise was it.