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Epel sighed as he was woken up due to the sound of a door unlocking in the middle of the night. Looking to the clock on his wall, the time indicated was 00:34am.
A student was out of bed.
And he had a good idea who it could be.
Internally groaning, the junior got out of his warm and cozy bed, slipped his slippers on, and headed out of his room, following the footsteps of his student.
Duty calls
Vil had made Epel Pomefiore’s housewarden right the moment he became a senior and went on off campus internship. By then, the young Epel had already grown into a fine, well-behaved young man inside and out.
He was Vil’s greatest masterpiece. The young boy never got rid of his accent entirely but only used it when he’s back home with his family. Otherwise, his English is perfect and his vocabulary now has a great bank of big complicated words rivalling Vil’s.
He grew out his magicam influence after the whole ordeal of VDC, and is now a very famous and recognizable influencer, thanks to Vil’s support. Not only did his charming looks do him a huge favor online, but his audience absolutely adores his apple sculptures which he makes sure to post at least twice a week. Each post would gain at least 100k likes every time and make up a big portion of his monthly revenue.
His other assets included his performance abilities (singing and dancing) and some spelldrive videos.
Before Vil passed on his position, he made sure to bring his disciple up to his level of power and together, they had worked to bring Epel’s family business to a higher class.
With a lot and lot of advertising, which involved Vil introducing the younger boy to small acting roles in commercials for his family business plus Rook’s family pitching in to sponsor the Felmier’s orchard, Epel’s family business became a millionaire company almost overnight.
After the end of Epel’s first year, following Vil’s advice, the blue eyed boy spent the summer studying business and finance strategies while also accompanying Vil and Rook on their staycations where the two Pomefiore alumni made sure to complete his training. When he returned back to NRC as the new Pomefiore housewarden, he was more than ready to lead the next cohorts.
Epel can’t deny that Vil basically handed everything off to him. The actor invested quite a gruesome amount of time and effort into his pupil. And he never gave up on him.
The country boy’s modelling career took off easily. He excelled in advertising and people fawned over his boyish looks and prided themselves with witnessing him grow into a fine young man. Occasionally, just to keep the people interested, the boy would also sing a tune or two for the internet, flexing his intensive hours of vocal training. He also participates yearly in VDC and won first place during sophomore year since Neige Leblanche also became a senior studying overseas and prince Rielle somehow got outsung by the purple haired sophomore to everyone’s surprise.
Vil never failed to send him all his newest self-care product creations and his former protégé still follows his old skin routine religiously. He became the third most labeled “beautiful” celebrity behind Neige and Vil, being featured seasonally on many magazine covers.
With Epel’s newfound popularity, commercials for his family’s farm went viral. He single-handedly sponsored the entirety of Harveston and expanded the Felmier business, buying more orchards around the world, also taking advantage of the apple wood to make furniture and even started another business involving top quality wood tables, chairs and sculptures.
The Felmier’s apples, juice, wood, compote, cider and seasonal bakes became renowned in the whole Twisted Wonderland thanks to the hard work of their son.
And yes of course, Epel did reach out requested the help of Azul because being the business man he already is, the merman would be 100% on board. Azul became a dear business partner to Epel’s family and in exchange, all the Pomefiore leader had to do was send some excess apple juice his way for the Mostro Lounge free of charge, make him a few glass coffins and sigh on them, and advertise for the same lounge during various occasions.
By the time Epel became a junior, his power, influence, popularity and authority over Pomefiore had nothing to envy Vil’s.
But Vil was the model housewarden. The original.The one one that was perfect in every way. Everyone knew he set the bar a bit too high for whoever would come next.
Epel tried to be different from Vil. He hated a few things his former housewarden used to do. He hated “The Usual”. He remembers hating the diets, the skin care, the hair care, the nails, the makeup, the frilly shirt, the bowtie he used to label ridiculous. Frankly, all the things he hated are still a part of his life today, and he’s cohabiting perfectly fine with them. No complaints. No regrets.
Vil literally designed him, and he’s at peace with that fact.
He still wears frilly shirts because it reminded him of how Vil used to slap those clothing articles on him every morning. The bowtie is now a remnant of the past, since he outgrew his cute boyish looks and now has matured into a fine, elegant young man.
The new housewarden now lived in constant fear that his new students hate him the exact same way he used to hate Vil. Because he remembers all too clearly he couldn’t stand his predecessor at all.
Now he only has success thanks to the actor whom he might never see again now that he has officially graduated from school.
And he also feared that he isn’t good enough for those who expected a housewarden who’d be half as performant as Vil was.
He was afraid he’d be too much like Vil and at the same time that he isn’t enough like him.
Epel tried to stay patient sometimes, but Vil’s worst flaws lived on inside of him. He had this fear since he was a freshman but indeed, as Leona once stated, he was exactly like Vil.
Ace and Deuce, thinking they were funny, once called him “Recycled Vil” and he got so mad he didn’t speak to them for a whole week.
Worst part was that they weren’t entirely wrong:
Instead of calling his most difficult pieces of work “stumbling/uncooked vegetables”, he called them “rotten/unripe apples”. Was that an improvement or was it just as bad? He can’t tell.
Instead of laying curses a bit everywhere in the dorm or performing “The Usual”, he hits his naughtiest student with Sleep Kiss daily. It wasn’t rare to see the rebellious Axel in a glass coffin every day in the common room. In fact, those glass coffins were slowly on their way to becoming as iconic as Riddle’s collars.
Epel was becoming everything he hated in Vil, and he didn’t know if he held a candle to everything that was good within the latter.
He tried his best. Really.
The rates of people wanting to transfer to Pomefiore is the highest of all dorms, as always, thanks to the upholding reputation of excellent dorm gestion.
Every student of Pomefiore still look how Pomefiore students should look like. Neat, elegant, outstanding. The meals were still all healthy, well-balanced and nutritious. Calories were still counted, but Epel included one cheat day for everyone each month just to make sure they don’t start sneaking barbecue chips in secret into the dorm like how he himself used to back in the days. He even tried to leave everyone more room for creativity when it comes to new recipes.
He’s less busy then how Vil used to be due to the latter’s more taxing career but since he’s still without vice housewarden, the amount of effort he had to put in daily to make sure everyone stays in tip top shape was about the same. Still, he’s really trying even if it’s exhausting.
He tried to keep the scolding to a minimum. Tried not to be too harsh or to be too controlling. Tried his best to refrain from throwing Sleep Kiss around. Tried to make sure that in the end everyone’s reaching their maximum shine…
He didn’t want to be too bossy, but he also didn’t want to leave people too much freedom to wreck what generations of Pomefiore leaders have left behind.
Crewel praises him for being a model housewarden, a worthy student of Pomefiore and an obvious direct disciple of Vil’s.
Deuce, now housewarden of Heartslabyul, always seeks him out for counsel on managing students.
Sebek, housewarden of Diasomnia, complains about every other dorm except for Pomefiore.
Jack, housewarden of Savanaclaw and his co-leader for NRC’s Spelldrive team, keeps comparing him to Vil but in a good/better way which surprises him regularly.
Ortho, housewarden of Ignihyde, regularly checks the grades of every student of the school and Pomefiore students are usually never the ones behind. He showed Epel his studies which stated that Pomefiore’s academic consistency throughout the ages was maintained thanks to him.
To his relief, every single student of Pomefiore saw him like a god. He was good to them. They didn’t idolize him the way they idolized Vil, but he had a closer relationship to everyone since he doesn’t have a real career to put first.
He’s on good terms with everyone. Except for that ONE student.
Epel wonders what kind of horrible monster Axel must think he is.
He wonders if like him back in the days, Axel wanted to leave Pomefiore for a more lax dorm.
The junior saw so much of himself in the freshman. That same rebellious attitude, the same disgust towards anything that was too ‘posh’ or ‘unmanly’, and the burning hatred for the housewarden that lights up his eyes.
He knows Axel hates him.
After all he should know, once there was a time where he despised Vil too.
And he was trying his best to not draw out all the ugliness Vil once showed him and that he now possessed as well. Vil passed on everything to him, the beauty and the ugly.
The junior couldn’t fathom what his first year would’ve looked like had Rook not been there for him every damn time Vil would decide to beat him up.
Rook was like the more gentle parental figure of Pomefiore. For every time Vil made Epel want to leave, Rook would encourage him to stay.
Now Epel’s basically a single mother for Pomefiore. Rook raised the standards to being a good vice housewarden a tad too high. Or maybe the last generation of vice housewardens raised the bar too high altogether. Trey, Jade, Jamil, Rook, Lilia…And that’s before counting in the titleless housewarden aids such as Ruggie and Ortho.
Without a more gentle and comedic figure in the dorm, Pomefiore’s just entirely surviving on Epel’s strictness even though unlike Vil, he was more than ready for some rougher games once every while just to release the tension from everybody.
It was working well for everyone, except for Axel who made it his life’s goal to make Epel’s job 100x more complicated.
The new young lad did it all. Sneaking food in, hiding clothes away so he wouldn’t have to wear them, literally being on his phone 10 hours per day, curses like a sailor, does his makeup like a disaster…
Up till now, Epel believes the kid had spent a total of at least 34h in a glass coffin since the beginning of the year. And they weren’t even at Christmas break yet.
And he had confiscated that goddamn phone way too many times. There are times when he would even get close to smashing it.
No matter how many times he tried to reason with the freshman the pacific way, their conversations always ended with Axel in a glass coffin due to how irritated Epel would get because he refused to listen. The glass coffin also served to protect Axel from getting slapped in the face by his housewarden because Epel truly does want to do so sometimes.
He wondered if Vil ever wanted to slap him as well.
When Epel reached the common room, wondering where in the world Axel was in the middle of the night, he decided to check the safe first, knowing damn well that the freshman could be trying to retrieve his phone which Epel had safely stored away in the common safe until next morning.
He wasn’t there.
He could see the student out on the balcony, sitting in a small corner outside, back against the wall, knees pulled up to his chest.
“The fool,” Epel mumbled “It’s freezing outside.”
As he continued watching the boy who had no idea he was there, a memory from his first year came back to him.
He did exactly the same thing.
2 years ago, on a cold night, after the first time Vil dumped his barbecue chips out the window, he couldn’t sleep due to how mad and bitter he was and made his way out there as well. It was this exact temperature, 11 degrees celsius to be precise.
Since Epel grew up in a cold region, the temperature didn’t bother him one bit. He came out to the balcony, stayed there for a short while just to look at the stars.
It didn’t take long before Rook came up to join him, and he could tell Rook was cold. The hunter grew up in Afterglow Savanna and was very sensible to colds, especially if he’s only in his night clothes. But he still came, to present Epel’s lingering guilt.
”Ahhh Monsieur Crabbaple!” He said “Sneaking out to look at the starry night! What a magnificent activity!”
“Rook….? Did I wake you?” Epel asked. “Ah. Sorry, I’didn’t mean to.”
”Nonsense, magnifique Epel, I don’t sleep!” Rook shrugged as he joined Epel on the balcony and put both his elbows on there as well “What’s the matter mon cher?”
“Vil.” The young boy said bitterly as he slumped against the railing “Can’t stand him.”
”Ah, the Roi du Poison is keeping you awake…” Rook hummed.
It was back at the time where Epel was still fairly new to Pomefiore and absolutely abhorred everything about the dorm and Vil.
He felt no attachment whatsoever to his new housewarden and his peers, only a deep feeling of hatred. Back then, he was blind to the efforts that Vil and Rook would regularly put in to help him. He didn’t see any of that.
“I brought you a little something!!” Rook said.
The blond handed him a little glass container.
”What’s this?” The freshman had frowned.
”Vil made this a few hours ago right after he cursed you.” The junior smiled “Apple compote! With the apples from your family orchard of course!”
”Vil? Vil made this?” Epel had been shocked. It wasn’t just apple compote, it was well-made apple compote. The fragrance of home emanated from it, the apples were undoubtedly from his family orchard, but it was considerably less sweet than his family’s compote. So many thoughts crossed through his mind: Vil made this? Vil can make compote? Did he make this for me? Why would he even bother?
“Yes.” Rook nodded with a little smile that warmed up the night “You can’t see it but he’s also trying his best to find ways to make peace with you as well. You should try it!”
”Is it poisoned?” Epel had frowned, half joking. “Cursed?”
Rook had burst into laughter.
”Oh come on, you can’t expect me to believe that he made that for me just like that…”
”Sometimes, even the most complicated people will make a sudden effort to attempt achieving peace, petit chéri.” The older scoffed “This is Roi de Poison’s way of trying to find an equilibrium between you two and begin building a bridge. Please, just try it.”
That was the night Epel more or less started to understand how things worked within Pomefiore. Him and Rook stayed out for a total of 30 minutes where Rook encouraged him to see Pomefiore in a new light and by default, Vil as well.
It took Epel a much longer time to get to understanding Vil for real, but that night was the start of it. They did start building a bridge that night, even though it was literally lit on fire, covered in nails and more than once he wanted to jump off of it.
Even now when he’s walking in the older boy’s shoes, there are still many mysteries that cloud his mind about his former housewarden.
It marked Epel profoundly how comforting that conversation with Rook was and how it helped him warm up to the rest of the dorm afterwards. He never forgot about it because Rook got severely sick the following morning and Vil had to stay in for a whole day to tend to him. Epel had always admired the hunter for laughing through it and telling Vil he just made the mistake to sleep with his room window open.
Unfortunately for Axel, Rook had already graduated from Pomefiore and no one’s gonna go watch the stars with him when it’s freezing outside after midnight.
Well there could be someone.
And Epel remembers how lonely he felt that night before Rook came to him. How he felt as if nothing was going to be okay and his dorm life was just a one way ticket to hell. He recalls wanting to cry, thinking his 3 years in the dorm were going to be filled with nothing but sadness, frustration, loneliness and anger.
The purple haired housewarden didn’t know if he could ever be someone like Rook AND someone like Vil at the same time…But he would dishonour both of them if he didn’t try.
He took an apple from a nearby basket, a knife, and a random cardigan that belonged to another student that was folded on a long chair.
Normally he’d lecture the student to whom this cardigan belongs to for leaving his belongings hazardously in the common room, but he remembers that said-student had such a serious problem with a potions problem that he had to sit down with him to solve it and by the time they were done, it was well past bed time and both Epel and the student were so exhausted they just headed to bed after a little wash. It’s understandable that the tired student forgot his cardigan.
Sighing and mustering his patience already, he made his way to the stone cold balcony and addressed his little rule breaker:
”My my, what have we here…” He said softly as he dropped the cardigan onto the freshman who jolted in surprise upon seeing him. “Why good evening, or rather morning, Axel…May I join you in this fine, frigid cold night?”
That said, he sat down next to the student to the latter’s greatest confusion, who expected anything but this.
”Put that on before you catch a cold and make the whole dorm miserable tomorrow.” He instructed, breathing in the cold air.
”Doesn’t this belong to Lueur…?”
”Precisely so. Do take good care of it.”
Axel silently wrapped it around his shoulders. He just loves never doing exactly what Epel asked him to do.
“Mind explaining to me why you’re out here looking at the stars instead of in bed?” The housewarden asked, digging his knife into an apple.
“Couldn’t sleep. T’sall.” Axel sighed, putting his chin onto his knees and running a hand through his long strawberry blonde hair “Aren’t you cold?”
”I grew up used to this kind of temperature.” Epel shrugged, eyes still focused on his sculpture. “The cold never bothered me.”
Axel watched the older teen peel through and cut shapes into the apple. He’s seen the housewarden at work many times already.
It was one of the only times he saw Epel without his makeup. The last few times were when he sneakily played games under the covers of his bed and the housewarden somehow found out, manifested in his room and confiscated the electronic at 3am.
Under the light of the moon, he could detail every single one of his housewarden’s perfect features one by one. Hard to believe such a perfect looking person existed.
If only he was a little bit less horrible, Axel could’ve started holding his beauty in higher regards. After all, Epel did look like a video game character come to life.
Never had the young boy encountered anyone stricter and more insane than the Pomefiore dorm leader who checks every single eye on every single dorm student for a mascara mistake.
He saw Epel like a maniac. A horrible psychopath who was much too hardcore on appearances, much too obstinate with how others must live their lives, and with so little patience he enjoys trapping students in glass coffins as if he was already predicting their upcoming suicide attempts if he keeps at it.
At this point, he might as well just bury them alive.
And for some reason, Axel is the only one that cannot stand his housewarden’s behaviour. He’s the odd one out in this dorm of crazy people.
Everyone else thought Epel was godsent, perfect just because he’s born looking good and has a godly amount of charisma, is rich and influential, speaks like a diplomat, and plays Spelldrive like the demo version of a game.
Despite Axel doing his very best to avoid contradicting him, Epel seems to always find new flaws in him, point them out for all to hear, and then put it all on his apparent ‘electronics addiction’.
To Axel, as well as many of his other friends, 3h of screen time per day isn’t too much. In fact, it’s barely enough.
It’s just the bossy housewarden who didn’t understand the importance of having fun and relaxing once every while. It’s almost as if the second the freshman went over his 45 minutes limit of screentime per day, it was an immediate Sleep Kiss for him.
He cursed by mistake? Sleep Kiss.
Dared to question the housewarden’s insane routine? Sleep Kiss.
Spoke up for himself? Sleep Kiss.
Breathed? Sleep Kiss.
Ordered pizza to the dorm? Sleep Kiss.
Axel hated it in Pomefiore. Why in the world do so many people want to transfer in here??? He almost felt as if he couldn’t breathe properly in the dorm. On this frilly night, his room felt suffocating and he couldn’t sleep so he made his way out here to get some fresh air.
But how the housewarden also managed to find him past midnight is a mystery…Sometimes the teenager thinks the older boy has him microchipped or something. Does this guy not sleep?
He stares at the housewarden, trying to find an imperfection or an explanation somewhere on that perfectly sculpted face.
”Do you hate me, Axel?” Epel asked, eyes still on his chef d’oeuvre but conscious that he’s being stared at. He spoke softly as if he didn’t want to wake anybody else up even if they were far enough from the sleeping quarters.
He looked so focused on his work that his usual resting bitch face was absent. He’s only there, carving up an apple calmly, breathing in the cold midnight air, and not thinking about Sleep Kissing anyone.
”What….?” The younger one mumbled lowly “Nooooooo…” A lie to save himself. “Why would you ever think that…” His mumbles merged with the sounds of the crickets below the balcony.
”Tsk. Don’t lie to me.”
”Well hey! It’s not like it’s your fault that I got stuck with you…! Can’t blame you for my wrong sorting! That stupid mirror’s getting old, that’s all!”
“So you do hate it here with me…!” Epel confirmed.
”The mirror obviously made a mistake!!!” Axel said as his deep purple eyes stared up to the sky “I was supposed to be in Ignihyde! All my friends got sorted in there! I am obviously very built for Ignihyde! I already have a very promising career as a beta tester and streamer! Me being here is a total bug in the system. Totally sucks! It’s like a rewind out of the life I wanted!”
His childish frustration made Epel chuckle die to how much he sounded like Epel 2 years ago.
”What’s so funny now? Don’t you understand I came here just to get sorted into Ignihyde??” The strawberry blonde grumbled as he lifted a few strands of hair that were falling onto his face up “Am I about to get Sleep Kissed again??? For how long this time??? At least that’ll get me to sleep I suppose…Well, blast on then!”
”Is that all you think I do, Axel? Put you into a glass coffin! Goodness gracious…”
”At this point, you could bury me in it as well. No one would miss me if I went M.I.A. This year might be more acceptable for me if you dug me out at the end of the year.”
“I won’t do anything of the sort.”
”Yeah of course not,” The younger teen scoffed “You’d just let me rot through the decades.”
“You’re so dramatic, Axel.” Epel said as a few loose strands of hair befell his doll face. He normally leaves his hair in a high ponytail these days and wasn’t used to the new length of his hair which now reached his collar bone. “You remind me of me.”
”Me? You?” Axel scoffed, wondering why the housewarden suddenly decided to degrade the both of them “To which one of us two are you addressing that grave insult?”
”Believe me, I was like you once.” The older boy laughed “Back when I was a freshman, I wanted to go into Savanaclaw.” He confessed, knowing very well how ridiculous this must sound now.
”You. Savanaclaw. With all those brutes?”
Now Axel sounds like Vil…
”Yes…” The housewarden smiled nostalgically “I wanted to become strong, buff and very muscular. Very much how housewarden Jack Howl is currently. I wanted to have a body like his to help out back home with the orchard.”
”The orchard.” The freshman repeated, once he’s gotten the ridiculous image of Epel being all buff in Jack’s body out of his mind. “Didn’t you grew up in some super badass millionaire family or something?”
“Is that what they’re saying about me these days?” Epel sighed, looking up to the stars and noticing how they haven’t changed since that day he and Rook were here “Not in the slightest. Sevens, if you’re going to spend your life on your phone, at least do some research. I come from a family of farmers with a very average income. The millionaire thing is rather recent. Before I became a sophomore, I started my commercial activities with the former housewarden as well as the former vice housewarden. It took a long time to get my family to where we stand right now.”
”2 years’not that long.” The younger boy pointed out.
”For the amount of work that had to be done, it was pretty long for me. Harveston was a long way from here so it was exhausting.”
”Wait. Harveston!!? So you were a country boy?” Axel’s eyes were opened wide “You? This…high maintenance DOLL with 5 layers of makeup and the most posh way of speaking there ever was.”
Was he being pushed around since the beginning of the year by…a farm boy???
A millionaire influencer/star athlete/idol whatever he could accept.
But a farm boy???
“Yes…” Epel refrained on commenting on the description he was given. Patience. He isn’t in need of a glass coffin now “And back then, I didn’t speak like this at all. I had a horrible accent that the former housewarden hated. He used to correct me daily and whenever I challenged him, he’d beat me to a pulp.”
”Oh so you too were a victim of whatever Pomefiore is doing to people…”
”Victim??” The housewarden laughed, half offended “Yes I did victimize myself and villainized the former housewarden as well. It’d be an understatement to say that he was very hard on me. But in the end, see where he got me.”
”Sounds like an interesting guy. How was he like?”
“You’ve never heard of Vil Schoenheit?”
“Err nope.”
”That further reinforces my theory that you come from under a rock!!” Epel shook his head as the apple was starting to take a completely round shape “What an uncultured caveman you are!” And then he smiled “But granted, when I first came here, I didn’t have a clue who he was either.”
”Aha!”
Axel knew it.
Epel Felmier.
Was a hypocrite.
”Well Vil, my beloved predecessor, was simply…begrudgingly so…the best housewarden Pomefiore ever had.” Epel said nostalgically “He was a very successful child actor, still pursues acting right now, and is one of the most beautiful models in this world. No amount of words could do justice to how much I thought daily life with him was torture. He cursed me weekly, monitored everything I did from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, never hesitated to lecture me or correct me in public, and was almost equally as harsh on the rest of the dorm.”
”Almost?”
”Yes. I was…the most uncooked vegetable of the pot. I hated the skin care, the makeup…Even that frilly shirt and bowtie you always see me in. And I was the only one to despise those things. The others loved them. Me? I really just wanted my BBQ…”
“BBQ!!? Can’t believe that. You must be tripping me!! You’re just so…You!”
”Yeah. I suppose I was very different.” Epel nodded “Little ignorant farm boy that I was ,I hated him so much. Really. I despised him. He would tell me to do the most ridiculous things and would never warn me beforehand before giving me one if those stupid assignments. I’d be singled out from the lot too and always felt as if he had something specifically against me. He once asked me to sing into a well in the middle of the courtyard to improve my singing.”
”You ain’t half bad at it.” Axel pointed out.
”I do owe him that. But imagine just being in the courtyard, alone, singing into a well. It was ridiculous.”
“Yeah…I could never.” The freshman admitted. He would outright jump off the balcony if he was asked to stand like a fool in a courtyard and sing into a well. Especially because the well would just explode with how bad he sounds. “Especially if there are others around, just chilling, and then they hear random vocalizing. I would perish on spot.”
“Yes exactly. It was bad. Believe me, back then I hated Vil to the point where I transferred to Savanaclaw mid year.”
”You? In Savanaclaw!!? Boy, how did that go?” The freshman raised an eyebrow, stunned that the person he thought embodied Pomefiore once left it.
“Terribly. I didn’t even last 2 full days. I returned back to Pomefiore at 2am or something.” Epel recalled “That’s how I know you wouldn’t last any longer were you to transfer to Ignihyde.”
“How’d you know I wanted to transfer?”
“Because.” The housewarden shrugged. “Anywho, don’t count on it to work, the dampness and humidity and cold atmosphere will drive you insane.”
”Hey! I have friends there and have visited many times there!” Axel immediately defended, offended that the older boy once again assumed he knows exactly how Axel’s life might play out “Everything there is perfect for me! You don’t know that!”
Epel smiled knowingly.
”I know that.” He said as he raised his finished apple sculpture up for the freshman to see. A magnificent carriage. “Any thoughts?”
“A carriage.” Axel commented, bummed that the subject has been changed. He would’ve loved to list all the reasons why Ignihyde would be perfect for him “Looks nice as always.”
”You know how I eventually connected with Vil?” Epel said, looking at his masterpiece as he broke a wheel off and gave it to the other student who accepted it and started eating.
“We had a dorm trip to a museum in professor Trein’s hometown.” He continued “Vil plucked me apart from the freshmen and led me to this magnificent exhibition with a glass slipper and this exact carriage but you know, real size. There started a very long speech about how he was putting me in the right carriage and even pulling me himself to success.”
”Ah. That kind of speech.”
‘The ones you repeat every week’ Axel wanted to add.
”I know, I wanted to leave the room so much I thought I was going insane. He used a lot of my time on that trip...I almost don’t remember anything else I did.” Epel agreed to the other boy’s astonishment “And then he went on to saying I keep shaking the carriage around, making it tumble off of the right way and going the wrong way instead. He said he was tired of me doing everything my way and ending up absolutely nowhere. I was giving him the most tired and annoyed expression until he told me that he’s going to go for a different strategy. He’ll still set me on his path, but I can decorate it however I wanted to. But ultimately, I’d still get where he wanted me to go. And it’s true, I became a model Pomefiore student like he wanted me to…But deep down I’m still me.”
”Wowwwwwwwww.” Axel whistled. (unimpressed)
Epel ate a piece of apple himself and handed another piece to the freshman. His apples were always the best.
”Whenever summer break comes, I still leave all of this fanciness behind to go home, pick the apples with my family and do the normal things I always do…”
“Huh. So you aren’t always this…irritating beauty queen?”
Epel did his best to ignore the ‘irritating’.
“No. In fact I do still find makeup rather itchy to be honest.” Epel sighed, handing Axel the rest of the apple “I avoid putting it on as much as I can, but you do have to admit, I look positively lovely with it.”
“Yes yes, of course you do…” Axel rolled his eyes. “You’re the prettiest in the whole school, yay yay congrats…But if you hate it so much, why do you enforce it so strongly on everyone else?”
”Enforce??” The junior scoffed “Tsk. You have no idea what enforcement is actually like. I only ask you to retouch yourselves each time you leave the dorm. When I was a freshman, you had to have your makeup on full-time even in the dorm. My ‘enforcement’ as you call it doesn’t even amount to what Vil used to put us through.”
“Oof. What a hassle. That Vil guy sounds hard.” The freshman took the cardigan off his shoulders and put it on properly. He was getting cold.
”Hard, that he was.” Epel agreed as he pressed himself against the freshman to keep him warmer to Axel’s even greater surprise. He would hate himself if the strawberry blonde got sick like Rook did. Rook did manage to get 3 more students sick after all. “Vil, despite being excellent in Spelldrive, even restricted the sport to a minimal number of Pomefiore dorm students because of how violent, stressful and dirtying it was.”
“How ever did you survive that?” Axel mumbled, unused to being this close to the housewarden, even more unused to sharing body warmth with him.
He admits he only knew a few things about Epel Felmier despite having spent many weeks being disciplined incessantly by him. The Pomefiore housewarden was the most beautiful student currently studying in NRC and was notorious for being very strict with diets and overall looks.
He was also one of the two best Spelldrive players amongst the juniors of the academy along with Savanaclaw’s housewarden, Jack Howl, and had a very large fanbase on the internet due to his beauty, skill for apple sculpting, singing, and sportsmanship. He was overall another of the long reputed lineage of perfect Pomefiore housewardens.
Influential, beautiful, strict, talented, tenace, skilled and wealthy.
It was hard to imagine there had once been somebody worse than Epel out there.
“Vil let me play.” Epel recalled “Me, Rook, and a few other promising students. After all, Pomefiore had to have a Spelldrive team like all the other dorms. Sometimes Vil would jump in. Either he saw my talent or simply decided to let me enjoy my favorite sport…Just like how I do try to leave you at least 45 minutes per day on your games.”
“45 minutes ain’t never gonna be enough…” Axel mumbled as he slowly finished the apple “I need at least 2h per day, I told you I never fall asleep before 11h anyways. If you extended my curfew just a teeny bit I swear I wouldn’t have to catchup with my games during study time!”
“Don’t negotiate with me or tell me what to do with my authority, Axel.” The housewarden replied sternly “We can extend to 2h maximum during the weekends if you’d like, but I told you, if you continued like that, you’ll have to wear glasses. Your posture won’t be much better than that of those Ignihyde students. Your grades will drop and you will get slow and sloppy. Taking in account all your lessons, study and homework plus all your extracurriculars including the science club, I don’t see anywhere you can squeeze game time in.”
”Only a small percentage of people actually develop the aforementioned problems…”
”Well I’d like to avoid those outcomes for you either way…” Epel shrugged as he felt the freshman snuggle more against him for warmth “I do hope you realize I don’t plan to exclude all your hobbies from you, but you need to prioritize your future. You could always play games on the side but you need a real career, Axel. Even professional gamers have to have another source of income. I hope you know I have your best interests in mind…”
”My best interest, my ass. My mental health drops with every skin care product you introduce to me…” Axel pouted. “I don’t even have any acne!”
“Tsss. It’s for a healthy skin, not just a clear one. Beauty isn’t the tip top priority to me, but a most healthy appearance definitely is!”
“Then why all this makeup crap if beauty ain’t your top priority…..?” A groan.
”Because without it, some of you look really unsightly and even I can’t look at you. Vil would’ve 100% called you spuds. I’d hate it if Pomefiore’s reputation as the one with the most high standards about appearances drops. Also, language.”
“Ugh whatever.” Axel ended up laying his head on the older boy’s neck “Why are you doing this whole conversation thing by the way, couldn’t you just whip me back to bed?”
It took Epel an awkwardly long time to answer. The junior was content just staring distantly into the stars, wondering how he could answer that.
Yes, he wanted to connect more with this difficult bad apple.
But he also felt the need to explain to Axel that he isn’t just some insufferable celebrity…That he understood him and went through everything already himself. That maybe he even had it worse and was trying to make it easier for him instead.
Otherwise, the boy would never understand.
Also, he strangely felt closer to Vil and Rook the more he talked to Axel. He feels as if by dealing with this childish freshman, he’s one step closer to understanding how Vil and Rook once felt about him.
There was no way he could explain all of that to this kid who probably won’t really find any use in what he’d say.
”It would’ve made things even worse if I did.” He eventually spoke.
“What things?”
“Probably our very bad relationship.” Epel smiled, pointing out the elephant in the room as he still kept the freshman close to him, hoping he won’t catch a cold tomorrow.
“Oh.”
”I totally understand your depiction towards me because frankly, I’ve been there and you have no idea how actually distressing Vil could be sometimes. Honestly, if you wish for my death, I sympathize.”
“It’s not like I hate hate you.” Axel mumbled before Epel wandered too far “I just wish you’d lay off sometimes.”
”I can’t. And it isn’t for my sake or for the dorm’s, it’s for yours. It’s in my job description to make everyone shines bright like diamonds in here. You’re just a blacker lump of coal than everyone else.” They both looked up to the stars, sighing “I was exactly you once…” Epel murmured “You can do it.”
”Why does it sound as if you did this with somebody else once?”
”I did. But I was the listener. I was in your place.”
”Ah, this Vil dude again?”
”No. It was his vice housewarden actually.” Epel smiled “His name was Rook Hunt. His soul belonged to Savanaclaw and he was sorted in there but he fell in love with Vil and the beauty of Pomefiore and transferred here as a freshman where he stayed until graduation. The only case of successful dorm transfer there ever was in NRC.”
”Oh really. That Vil guy was loveable?”
”Yes. We’d catch them being all lovey-dovey every morning.” Epel set his head back on the younger one’s head “We stood right there, me and Rook when I was a freshman” He pointed to the edge of the balcony “And we looked at the exact same stars” He pointed up “The day before that, Vil and I had one of those huge fights which ended up with me being immobilized on the ground and like you, I couldn’t sleep afterwards. Believe me, Fairest One of All was so much scarier than Sleep Kiss.”
“That’s because you never had a taste of your own medicine!” The younger boy snorted.
”You do realize Sleep Kiss is before anything else my way of keeping my people safe right?” Epel laughed gently back “I agree it has been used a bit too randomly these days. Apparently the former Heartslabyul housewarden had an even worse spell called Off With Your Head. I’ll tell you about it later if you behave.”
”a bit.” Axel echoed.
”just a little bit.”
”Fine, whatever. So you and that Rook guy…Yall did exactly what we’re doing now?”
”Kinda. Let’s say we ended up talking mostly about Vil…in a new light. If Rook hadn’t been here during my first year and comforted me that night, I think Vil would’ve driven me insane. He got sick the morning afterwards, it saddened me.”
”Are you going to get sick too?” Axel asked.
“Definitely not. I’m from Harveston so I’m acclimated.” Epel shook his head “But you might.”
”Nonsense.”
”I don’t do nonsense. I do facts.”
”If you say so…” The strawberry blonde sighed “Whatever. Do you really think I have my place in Pomefiore?”
”Well. If a boy from a farmer’s family and a transferee from Savanaclaw did, you probably do too.” The housewarden smiled kindly “Not everyone in here will start off as an actor or a model. I think that, like me, you’ll fit in just right by the time you get to junior year.”
Axel mirrored the smile, albeit only for a short second.
”Oh and before I forget to ask,” The first year suddenly peeked up “You’re leaving the school to do fieldwork as a junior next year right?”
”Yes?”
”Who’s going to be the next Pomefiore housewarden? You don’t have a vice and haven’t chosen anyone amongst the sophomores yet. It’s a circulating question amongst us first years. After all, we’ll have to endure that person next year.”
“Oh. That’s easy.” Epel said “Pomefiore choses housewardens one of two ways. Either the previous housewarden selects his successor, which was my case, or the most promising student in potions becomes the new dorm leader. Normally Pomefiore leaders excel in potions, not flying. You see how I was an exception to almost every rule.”
“Wait, in the case of the potions thing,” Axel paled. “Isn’t the best student in potions right now in the dorm…” He slowly pointed to himself confusedly.
”You’re not wrong.” The junior confirmed, delighting in the look of shock on the younger boy’s face “It might be you.”
”nOooooooo.” The boy laughed very nervously and made a joking shoo shoo hand gesture to the dorm leader “You can’t just dump the dorm on me I’m not ready! And stop that crap with saying I’m like you! It’s definitely not the case! I’d be the worse, most crappy Pomefiore leader ever seen! I’ll stay on my phone, neglect the dorm, and by week number 2, everyone will look like a gothic disaster! Me and my shortass don’t even look anything like the long line of 183cm tall drama queen tyrants!!!”
Once again, the older boy choses to take a deep breath and ignore how he just got called again.
Epel tilted his head onto the side: “Well you do have a certain boyish charm that everyone once saw in me. Your skills in gaming offered you great dexterity which we all witnessed during your latest piano representation. You are some kind of influencer thanks to your streaming activities-“
”Which you won’t even let me pursue.” The freshman let slip in bitterly.
”Which I am regulating mind you.” Axel earned himself a flick on the forehead “But basically, I believe you already have all the Pomefiore housewarden baggage. A lot of assets. You just need a lot more of discipline.” Epel said “Just like how I did. You have the potential, and the fact that you have a perfect score in potions only reinforces my suspicions. You remind me of myself and of Vil at the same time. I certainly didn’t have any already present popularity when I came here nor was I anywhere near as good or studious as either of you in potions.”
The junior turned his entire head to look at the freshman once more.
His pensive purple eyes reminded him of a certain somebody.
Yes, Axel did look a lot like Vil. His strawberry blonde hair was neck length and covered the right side of his face almost exactly like how Vil’s did. Epel had applied the exact same makeup look he had seen on Vil onto the young boy without even realizing he was doing it until a fellow junior pointed it out to him. Couldn’t blame Epel though, never had Vil’s makeup look suited anyone else that much.
The freshman’s bone structure and constitution even matched that of the 10 last generations of Pomefiore leaders including both Vil and Epel: A sharp chin and defined collarbone, long limbs, a little purple coloring somewhere, a rib cage more on the narrow side which allowed a more transparent yet curvy waist…the whole package.
And that’s without mentioning he is also standing at the exact same height that Vil and Epel both were at during their freshman years.
How is such a thing even possible…
Epel bets he’d also grow around 183cm as well.
It’s almost a body code for Pomefiore housewardens. Many many dorm leaders started at 156cm as freshmen and grew to 183 ish cm. Crewel, Vil, Epel…And many more.
Coincidence?
No one knows.
”The Pomefiore tiara would suit you very well.” He concluded to the freshman, imagining how the golden headwear would look on the younger’s face. Probably exactly how it looked on his own.
“Hard to imagine it on anyone’s head but yours…” Axel said and then scoffed when he saw a new silent look on the older boy’s face, “What, are you going to tell me you thought exactly the same about this Vil guy?”
”Precisely. You have no idea how insecure I was when I received it for the first time. No one can…slay…this tiara like Vil did. He truly was the Fairest of them All. He even puts me to shame.” Epel admitted “But I’ve been wondering if Vil ever had the same thoughts. Probably not, he was born to lead Pomefiore and probably hurried his former housewarden off the position to claim it knowing him. It came so much less naturally for me, I had to grow into it. Guess I’m also much more like Rook than I thought.”
”You speak of them as if they made you. Like they’re your parents or something…”
”Well…! Yes I believe it wouldn’t be wrong to say that. They were both major influences on me.” The housewarden said. “I didn’t always enjoy their company or guidance as I should’ve, but they made me who I am today.”
And he tried hard to be Vil for everybody. And it worked. Tonight exceptionally, he’ll be playing Rook for Axel.
Vil would’ve never went out of his way at daybreak to talk to Epel like this in the cold. Mostly because he couldn’t afford to get sick or anything. And Vil wasn’t the most open person to inner feelings and other vulnerability stuff. He never really shared any personal experiences of his with Epel. Epel learned most of his backstory from other people than anything else.
Yet Epel remembered many times he thought Vil would’ve liked to share something on himself, times he wanted to say more. But usually the former housewarden would bottle it all up and keep it to himself until he overblotted.
Another memory Epel would never forget about him.
He wondered deep down what Vil would think of Axel or if Vil would ever agree to have this type of balcony talk with anybody. Probably never, he’s too high maintenance for that.
”It’s getting late. Or early.” He sighed, realizing that the freshman was starting to shudder due to the cold “Let’s both go back to bed. I’m not waking you up any later. You’ve been out here long enough.”
He stood up first, pulling the shorter boy up with him.
“I’ll make you some hot tea and then you’re going straight back to bed.”
”But I hate tea…”
”Must you really oppose me for every little thing…”
”Fine, I’ll drink your stupid tea…”
[4 years ago]
Almost as if summoned by the howling of the wind, a blonde student made his way onto the balcony. His long hair fluttered due to the breeze and instinctively, he laid a hand on his head to stop his fedora from flying away only to realize that he wasn’t even wearing it.
It was past midnight after all.
The air was chilly and he felt conflicted. His heart and soul were trapped in an endless battle of identity.
The housewarden of Pomefiore…Doesn’t look like he appreciates him a lot. He sat down on the ground and pouted, looking up to the starry night, his emerald eyes so troubled that they didn’t reflect the glitter of the stars. They do look prettier from Pomefiore’s balcony than from Savanaclaw’s.
“Thinking of going back to Savanaclaw?” A voice called out to him as someone threw a heavy blanket onto him.
”Oh~” The boy turned around, wrapping himself in the heavy duvet as he did “Roi du Poison~”
”You’re a careless fool for going out at this time Rook.” Vil crossed his arms and joined him inside the blanket “It’s so cold you’re going to be sick tomorrow. You irresponsible fool.”
”Ah my sincerest apologies for waking you my queen,” Rook sighed “I just couldn’t find rest.”
As the other blond with the dyed tips snuggled against him, the then taller boy felt compelled to explain more:
”It’s as if every single cell in my body is telling me to go back to Savanaclaw…” He said sadly, pouring his emotions out once the other boy is settled against him “Where I can follow the beastmen into their caves, chase around Leona Kingscholar and be true to my instincts…Here, I feel trapped, contained…suffocated. I want to run back to Savanaclaw…”
“Okay. Go back there then.” Vil said frankly “What’s stopping you?”
”Why, the beauty of this whole place of course! And the people in it!” The young hunter added.
”Mhm. Must be hard for you to betray your instincts and put yourself through Pomefiore’s harsh routines…”
”I tell myself it could be worse!” Rook shrugged “Mais non, I believe your housewarden has me on his black list. He’s been…harsh…to say the least.”
”Well. Yes. Silas was very mad at me as well for accepting your transfer without consulting him.” Vil hummed, twirling a strand of hair into his hand “The lecture lasted 1h. Well, that’s on him for making me vice housewarden.”
”Ah, how green he became when you introduced me,” The hunter sighed with satisfaction this time “I thought he would pass out due to how much he paled. His prized successor…His magnifique little queen in making going behind his back to let in a stray…How tragique. And now, look at you! Sitting on the balcony with the stray when you’re supposed be snoozing away! I’m also stunned! Never thought you’d do this, Roi du Poison! I’m such a terrible influence for you!! Now Silas will have my hide!”
They both knew the housewarden couldn’t do shit to Rook, with the young hunter being who he is and with Vil being so close to him.
”Tss. We all have a little rebellious side somewhere.” The other freshman winked, pulling the blanket over the both of them. “I suppose even I can be a little unruly sometimes. For a good enough reason…”
”For a good enough reason.” Rook echoed gleefully “I will always admire how you still stay true to yourself every time. Pomefiore really is your true nature.”
”Of course, I am Pomefiore’s future. If I deem it wise, it surely is wise. You’ll be amongst the finest of Pomefiore, Rook. I can already see it.”
”As you will make a fine housewarden, Vil.” The blond with the bob cut smiled as he lifted the other’s chin upwards so that they could both watch the stars together. Of course though, the shiniest star was seated next to him. None can ever shine brighter than Vil.
Well.
Almost none.
It’s so cold he could almost feel the snow preparing to fall.
“Thank you for coming out here for me, Roi du Poison.” He murmured. “It’s appreciated.”
Vil scoffed dismissively but his cheeks pinkened: ”Hmphf. Anyways. It’s very cold, so promise me you’ll never ever do this sort of impulsiveness again. I won’t come out here a second time. Once is enough for a whole life.”
”Are you saying you wouldn’t do this again for the next lonely and lost soul that would linger here eventually?”
”I’m only here because it’s you. And it’d be foolish to leave you alone when you’re feeling cold both outside and inside.” The model said “So promise you won’t do this again. And definitely not dressed with just such a thin layer of clothing. You would’ve gotten severely sick had I not been here. So promise me you won’t.”
”Of course. Not unless there’s a good enough reason, of course not.”