"Alright you little f*cking punks! Give me another 5 laps!".
The collective groans over roughly thirty fifteen year old males echoed throughout the main oval outside of 3rd Lake Rail Academy. The loud screaming and shouting from the fat middle-aged teacher caused winces to appear in the students faces, and even several young men sitting at windows near the oval shook their heads in sympathy at the young group out in the open.
It was a thirty nine degree day outside. The weather for the past week had been nothing but a slow increase in temperature causing the overall feel of Lake Rail City to become busier and busier but much slower as a result.
The cornerstone of transport and travel in the South East Coast was always a busy place. The constant sound of steam engines roaring down the tracks as they carried dozens of carriages weighing hundreds of tonnes in and out of the city.
Today was just like any other day.
Except hotter. Much, much hotter....
The looks of hate and rage boiled up in the eyes of the young boys as they adjusted their gazes slightly to peer at the fat middle-aged man they called a gym teacher. The tub of lard was sipping on a glass of strange dark liquid emanating an alcoholic scent. The occasional chink of the large ice cube sitting in the glass cup caused their hatred to burn even higher.
If it was any other teacher they might consider following him home and trashing his house after a torture session of a physical education class such as this one. There was one decisive factor that prohibited them from making that decision....
This man... this fat man.... was a Knight!
A Knight!
A symbol of absolute power and authority in the South East Coast, whose physical bodies have long surpassed the natural limits of humans, and become transcendents who could live their lives without any form of worry or hassle.
Knights were those who have stimulated the life essence within their bodies and ignited the Life Power deep within them.
Life Power allowed them to not only exert acts of pure physical strength, speed, agility, stamina and endurance far greater than those who haven't awakened it, but allowed them to live twice the normal lifespan of a human being.
Considering that the average age for humans in this era was roughly 90 years, most Knights easily lived over 200 years, considering that they died of natural causes.
This state of being was what all young people strive to achieve, considering that all Knights were granted salaries by their governments, and were granted the rank of Warrant Officer if they decided to join the military.
To many of the low and middle class families living in this era, it was a dream for one of their children to become a Knight. It would boost the income and by extension the standard of living in that family, as well as the reputation of said family.
A young boy, probably only fourteen of fifteen turned his head and looked behind him at the rest of the pack, noting their gnashing teeth and pain filled expressions as their legs continued to move.
He sighed,
"If you guys didn't want to do extra laps, you shouldn't have made that joke about his weight. He was standing right behind you as well".
All the other boys had the gaul to look ashamed in front of this shorter male running at the front of the group, and the tallest one, a lanky boy named Grise shrugged his shoulders as he took deep breaths.
"Sorry Alleluia. I couldn't help it. You should know by now that I've got no filter".
Alleluia let out another sigh as he shook his head once more, a small smirk marring his lips "One of these days that big mouth will get you in trouble Grise..... I think your sister might have the same sought of trouble....".
All the boys in the group laughed at the mention of Grise's sister and the tall, lanky boy turned slightly red before yelling back at shorter boy in front.
"My sister doesn't need your help pretty boy! If anything most of the guys here would rather hang out with you than her!".
The brow above Alleluia's right eye twitched ever so slightly as he turned back at gazed at the taller boy's face for a fraction of a second.
Soft, milky skin that resembled that of mutton-fat jade.... long, shoulder length hair tied up into a high ponytail.... a pair of misty, black irises that resembled obsidian reflected in the sunlight....
This young man, even with his sturdy masculine frame was most definitely the "prettiest" man here. If some girls their own age lined up beside him, more than half would go home crying thinking they are less beautiful than a boy.
If it wasn't for the fact that they knew Alleluia's personality and that his look of absolute hatred at the mention of "pretty boy", they might've felt shivers sent down their spines.
But some of the boys, especially some of the more weirder ones....
"Oh! I love it when Sis looks at me like that!".
"Abuse me more with your gaze Sis!".
"Spank me Sis! Spank me harder!".
The feeling of anger dissipated within Alleluia, and a feeling of disgust filled every core of his very being. The sensation of having over a dozen fifteen year olds look at you with masochistic looks in their eyes would cause almost any man to get shivers down their spines.
Alleluia only responded to this act by increasing his speed by another 20% percent, instantly creating another 20 meter gap between him and the rest of the pack behind him.
Getting called a pretty boy was like dynamite had been set of within his head. Alleluia hated being referred to as pretty, especially by his fellow males. It was an even greater blow to his masculinity when a girl he used to like rejected him on the basis that she thought that he was more beautiful than her!
After that, the name "Sis" started to appear more regularly. Grise and the other boys heard about it from a few female friends of theirs and before they knew it, everyone found out the the name "Alleluia" and the word "Sis" were synonyms.
The fourteen year old pretty boy kept pushing the limits of his physical body, and the feeling of his heart being crushed started to appear. It wasn't a emotional or psychological response due to the intense name calling but something else.
A constricting sensation appeared over his heart which vanished as quickly as it appeared. The weird feeling caused Alleluia to stop running for a moment, before smacking the muscle over his heart several times before running off at full speed again.
No-one noted the slight pause in Alleluia's running pace except for the fat teacher sitting underneath the tree in the slightly cooler shade. His eyes narrowed for a moment as he watched the fourteen year old smack his heart half a dozen times before his eyebrows raised in surprise.
Despite his expressionless face, the fat man couldn't help but draw a smile as he watched Alleluia keep running despite the strange constricting feeling.
'.... At least one of these brats is has the talent to be called a genius....'.