You Love Him Ever So Deadly | ×Alhaitham x Kaveh× |

✦ 1 ✦ Beyond The Comfort of Ones House

-ˏˋ. Outside of the Akademya, 5:57PM, Al Haitham ˊˎ-

If one were to ask "How would you envision your ideal future?" answers would vary; settling down in a mansion with piles of mora scattered across its marble floors, a quant and quiet cottage on the city's outskirts. Maybe all of their remaining heirs would be critters with four legs and hairy faces, or perhaps they long to peacefully perish in the hands of their loved ones.

Al Haitham could only stare at the bright-colored advertisement plastered on a billboard closest to the Akdemiya's entrance. His eyes followed every overly vast paragraph about how a group of Vahumana students aims to compare historical ambitions with today's society. All they ask is to submit a letter in the box below with their answer and the collection will be concluded.

Said box was of little architectural design. Whoever made it was either in a rush or had no prior knowledge of wood cutting. The Adhigama planks were loosely nailed into the shape of a square, and the front was vandalized by a "Thank you :]" in dripping white paint. Whether it was budget restraints or purely the lack of care, Al Haitham had no reason to fuss over it.

He scoffed. It was an overly ambitious project, one which could've been completed without wasting resources on writing letters and making low-quality boxes. Considering its lackluster reasoning, it must've attracted barely enough attention, for through the cracks of the box he could spot only but two letters.

"So you dragged me out here to look at a billboard?" Al Haitham crossed his arms, and the Akademya student, who was quietly standing behind him, instantly perked up. They circled around the scribe like a vulture circling their food, but completely powerless. They could only submit to his cold side-eye.

They panicked, waving their arms around. "N-No! Great Scribe... We just want to know your perspective as to why submissions are so minimal..." They clasped their arms together, mimicking a prayer. "If this keeps up for a month, we won't have enough to conclude the report!" Every piece of emotion pouring out was nothing but trembling anxiety, a trait many students seemed to have possessed.

Al Haitham returned his eyes towards the wooden billboard, reinspecting the paper nailed onto it. "Because it's simply a stupid question." Without an ounce of forethought or hesitation, he darted, his words striking the poor student's heart like a spear. "All students here have a single ambition; complete their deadlines, become sages, attain knowledge. It's like turning to the sun and asking for what reason it's setting. Simply, a useless question."

Though his face remained unfazed, the sheer heartbreak that coursed through the student's veins was unmatched. It was as if their entire work crumbled to dust before their eyes, all in the hands of the Scribe. "But some ambitions they must still possess!" They held onto loose strings, trying to grip some sort of words of affirmation from their superior. "For example, I, humbly so, long to-"

In all of their contrived stories, Al Haitham blurred out of his line of hearing. A big part of him considered discreetly turning on the music in his built-in headphones, just to make sure he doesn't have to listen to another word the student had to say about their future. As though his consciousness started to evaporate into balls of smoke, he stood motionless, counting the seconds of just how long that'll take.

"What future are you aiming for,  great Scribe Al Haitham?" Was the sentence that briefly tickled his focus back to the conversation, even though it stirred a sort of paradox inside of him. He raised his eyes at the student, whose anxious stature has shifted to a confident one. It was as if through their blabbering they've grown confidence big enough to challenge the Scribe himself.

Though he staggered, he didn't falter. "Simple. A quiet home and a single day without the nagging of Akademya students." He was highly aware such comments could once again strike down the audacity the student in front of him has grown, but consideration of others wasn't his forté.