Fabel saw the ranking for this district being first, meaning the best? Feeling glad that he joined the best district, he felt proud to be a part of it.
Smirking to himself, he decided he was a bit tired and ran over to the housing registry. He queued up in line and waited a long time before it was finally his turn.
"Welcome! are you registering for an apartment or a small house?" One of the workers at the counter asked, A woman that was quite tall amongst her peers and tied up hair bun that gave a blonde color.
She hovered over the counter for these newly recruited children that could barely reach the height of the counter without the provided stepping stools.
Feeling a bit intimidated by her height, Fabel gulped and looked at the listings for these housings and couldn't help but scratch his head in confusion.
Seeing this, the woman at the counter simply talked through the plans,
"A small house is an independent house only for you, it has all the basic necessities and and is more or less near the edge of this district. The apartment is larger in size compared to the small house but it is shared amongst 8 people."
"I highly recommend you choose the apartment since there's many benefits to it all though it is more pricey than the small house." The woman smiled as she said this, intentionally being vague about it.
Fabel could feel that the woman looked at him oddly when she had said this. He couldn't help but feel aversion towards this decision as he wasn't quite sure what to do.
Feeling a sweat appearing on his forehead, he wiped it off and started to look outside of the building, noticing a significant amount of people heading in one direction with much fewer heading in another.
"Which direction is the apartments and which is the small houses?" he asked.
"The right and straight would be the large apartments, on the left would be the small houses but is quite the walk from here."
Noting the directions of both, he couldn't help but think back to his first interaction with the girl he met at the entrance of the academy. The sense of awkwardness she had given him made him feel more inclined towards the path least traveled, the small house.
"Give me a small house please." He said with slight shakiness as he recalled how she had simply stared at him without saying anything.
The woman simply gazed at the boy before her thinking, damn, I couldn't get another high commission. If she had managed to send the boy to the apartment, he pay would be higher but ultimately, he didn't go in that direction even with her subtle hints saying it was better.
"Alright, I'll give you this housing form for you to fill out and please come back to me after you're done."
Being handed a piece of paper with multiple choice questions, he looked around for a table with a pen to fill it out on.
'Question 1. What's your name?'
Fabel, he wrote. He paused, he wrote his name but it also says 'last name'. What is a last name? Not sure how to answer this he decided to skip it and fill out the rest and ask for help later.
'Question 2. Check the circles for necessities you'd need'
Looking at his options, he decided to check everything unsure if this was a good or bad choice since he pretty much only had whatever was in his backpack.
"Maybe I just need everything?" He said aloud to no one, but the woman at the counter couldn't help but glance up at him at the table.
Smirking to herself, she thought, "Maybe I'll earn even more money out of him..."
'Question 3. How old are you?'
He simply wrote down 6 years old and then noticed how so few the questions were than he initially thought. Perhaps just these 3 questions were all they needed house a small house.
Standing up, he walked back to the counter and gave the paper back. The woman proceeded to read through the form only to frown slightly at the empty 'last name' box.
"Hey, you didn't enter your last name." She looked back and handed the paper back to Fabel. Feeling a bit confused he replied,
"I don't have a last name?"
She looked into the boys eyes thinking that he was just messing around but as she continued to look the boy just stared back at her and scratched his head unsure of what to do in the silence.
"Just put something in there if you don't have a last name." She relented as she softly said feeling that the boy was a bit weird.
Unsure of what to do he decided to randomly think about the vocabulary his mother taught him. He tried to recall everything in his memory and narrowing down his options. Thinking about how he'll spend his time at this academy and his future, he wrote down something.
He handed back the form and then waited for the woman to finish the processing. She went in the back and pulled out a plate and a badge.
"This badge here is proof of your admission to Resonance Academy, don't lose it. This is a name plate for your small house, slip it in the template next to your door in front to let others know that, that is your house."
Being handed everything he walked out of the building and headed left as he marched forward glancing left and right at the things he didn't get to see. It took him about 30 minutes before he even saw the rows of houses. Walking towards the entrance of the enclosed houses, he saw the building with a sign that says, 'House management'.
Walking inside, he noted quite a few people there already sitting in the lounge room. Walking up to the counter he decided to ask what this building was and the purpose of it.
"Hello! How can I help you?" The man at the counter spoke as he saw the incoming boy.
"I'm new here, do you know what I'm supposed to do here?" Fabel asked as he wasn't quite sure what to do, only knowing that he had no idea which house he wanted.
"We're general management of the housing area. Ranging from enlisting a house to newcomers to managing and enforcing rules."
Noting this statement, Fabel proceeded to ask for a house as he showed his nameplate. Noticing this, the man simply pulled out a map and circled houses that were currently available.
"We currently only have 3 houses available with you being the last person to arrive here."
Looking at the limited options, Fabel couldn't help but regret spending so much time looking at the rankings for the district and took a long time before he had settle his housing. Looking at the map his eyes locked onto a house near the entrance of the enclosed housing area.
"I choose this one." He told the man at the counter.
The man simply looked back and forth between the boy and the house, wanting to say something but ultimately didn't since he didn't really want to work any longer as he was the last expectant person arriving.
"Alright, it's registered to your name, feel free to go ahead and go there." The man spoke his peace and then walked into the back leaving the boy to explore.
Fabel simply turned and left the building as he was quite tired, only thinking about resting and he headed towards his new house.
He reached his house and inserted his nameplate, 'Fabel Roam'. Feeling proud of himself, he inserted his key and noted that the lock looked extremely dense, feeling safe.
He glanced around at the interior and noted that it was really small. The bed alone took up 10% of the space with the kitchen taking up 30% and a desk that took up another 20%. Essentially only leaving 40% of the space for him to walk to and from inside the house.
Luckily, he noticed a glass door that opened to the backyard where it was nearly 5 times the size of his house. A small outdoor table with a hut near the corner. Walking towards the hut he saw the bathroom, only thing distasteful about was it being an outdoor bathroom with only a separating wall and door, the rest was open space that just had a view of the entire district.
Pretty much whenever he went to the restroom he had a crazy view but he felt exposed as well.
Feeling his eyebrows quiver a little at the sheer astonishment and shock he felt from the design of this bathroom, he walked back into the house and prepared to clean up and rest as fast as possible to avoid anyone from seeing him.