Immediatly, a frown appeared on the girl's face as she glared at him.
"Stop playing around before you get scolded again. Just wait two days, will you?"
Dropping to the floor as Olivia suddenly turned back to gaze at the students, Free whispered back.
"I can't, Eva! You know that white thing I saw earlier? Now's the only time I can reach it without being caught."
Sighing, the girl suddenly raised her hand, prompting Free to raise his eyebrows, and replied without looking back.
"Go then. I'll cover for you. The longer you stay here, the less time you'll have before you have to come back."
As a grin appeared on Free's face, he reached his hand out and grasped one of her chair's legs.
"See you tomorrow."
Before she could reply, the teacher's stern voice suddenly echoed from the front of the classroom.
"What's your question, Evangel?"
Crawling with his back to the classroom wall, Free reached the open door that led into the hallway just as Evangel asked.
"How does one get chosen as an Eclipser?"
Rubbing her head with a strained expression, Olivia returned her attention to the board and loudly said.
"Students, please refrain from asking questions about a topic completely unrelated to what we're doing."
Unlike Free, Evangel was immediatly met with inquisitive gazes as students turned and curiously said.
"Wow..are you trying to be an Eclipser, Evangel?"
"I can't believe teacher Olivia ignored your question...you just said what we were all thinking!"
"You'd definitely be the second-best one if you did...behind the black and blue duo!"
After pausing for a moment with a piece of chalk in her hand and hushing the students, Olivia suddenly added.
"In two months, when you are all sixteen, I promise that all your questions will be answered."
With those last words ringing through his ears, Free sprinted out of the classroom and through the thin hallway, where their sleeping areas stood.
Turning right into the boys' sleeping area, he approached the barricaded window, paying no attention to the countless sleeping bags he was stepping on.
His sleeping bag wasn't in this room anyway; Free preferred to sleep out on the sand and sneak back in before morning.
Without a second of hesitation, he reached into his pocket, revealing a sharp pocket knife he had found embedded in a sand dune, and stabbed it into the wood.
Who cared about the punishment?
The worst they could do would be to kick him out of the orphanage, and that was precisely what he wanted!
As a circle-shaped piece of wood fell backward, nearly landing atop Free's legs, a gust of wind immediatly rushed through the hole, passing through his cloak's thin fabric and embracing his skin.
Crawling through the circle-shaped hole, Free's bare feet met the freezing cold sand, causing him to pause and shiver for a moment.
However, as he took a step away from the orphanage building, a strange voice echoed through the walls behind him.
"Tomorrow's the blood moon...for your sake, make sure no students go out."
The orphanage owner's office?
After a momentary pause, the familiar orphanage owner's voice, softer than usual, sounded.
"I understand."
"Under the Blood Moon Treaty, all end crystals within the territory are officially claimed by the Emperor of Star's mandate. In the case that a student accidentally goes out...in no way, shape, or form, should they be allowed to touch an end crystal. I hope you understand the consequences for you...and the village of taking a crystal during this important time."
"Understood, Lunite Zekrom."
*SCREECH*
As the sound of the chair sliding across the stone floor echoed, the strange voice reverberated one last time, in a serious and commanding tone.
"That includes her."
In a feeble and weak voice, the orphanage owner's voice immediatly answered.
"b-but, w-we were told she was our town's next assigned Eclip-"
"Are you questioning the Star Emperor's direct command?"
"n-no, sir, but if she stays outside as ordered by the Emperor, won't s-she di-"
"Leave her outside. We will make sure she claims no crystal. Focus on your other students as ordered. Wait patiently for the next normal full moon for your next Eclipser."
*SLAM*
As the door slammed shut, not allowing the orphanage owner to respond, Free immediatly ducked down under the barricade, catching a glance of the Lunite through the hole.
Dressed in a red blazer, covered with glistening silver stars, and black pants, the Lunite gracefully walked past the boys' sleeping area with perfect posture.
A Lunite...
After waiting a comfortable amount of time, Free stood up and strolled toward the endless expanse of sand before him, leaving the buildings behind.
The village sat right atop a massive desert, sand stretching on for as far as the eye could see.
Since he was a child, that was all Free had seen.
The same scenery of a light-yellow sand for miles, with no plants like cacti in sight.
Besides the small resident houses and massive town hall building, colored yellow and built with sandstone, an enormous community farm, constructed with dirt and water like any other, sat on the outskirts.
A couple of years ago, when Free was still a child, two Lunites had suddenly appeared and handed the village, which was devoid of any Lunites at the time, two mysterious amethyst-purple flowers.
"A gift from the Origin Realm."
Somehow, when planted, these flowers grew without the sun and produced purple berries that sustained the town for years to come.
Finally, though, when two Eclipsers in the town ascended to Lunite two years later, the joy of meat, from killed dark monsters, returned to the sand village.
Walking past the farm and observing the purple stems sticking out of the ground, yet to blossom, Free sprinted forward.
Everything was so dull and normal...after fifteen years, he couldn't stand it.
That's why something new appeared in this seemingly barren desert. Free was willing to risk anything to find and explore it.
Shrouded in the darkness, solely lit up by the almost-full moon above, he slid down a dune, basking in the coldness that enveloped him.