"Do you really believe all this stuff?" Alan whispered into Gunther's ears.
"Of course, I do," Gunther replied with no hesitation. Alan nodded as he knew that these kinds of teachings would take them nowhere.
The master was still speaking. "First, I will explain the basics. What are Nigrosian arts? Can anyone tell me?" He asked and looked at the faces of the children, hoping to get an answer from one of them.
One girl stood up and answered, "It is about developing your spirit energy by submitting your soul to God."
"No. This is not what I told you." The master looked unhappy with her answer. "You will stay after the lectures are over."
"Heh, they changed the name of the devil to 'God'," Alan wondered after hearing her answer. "What they do is nowhere near holy."
The master signaled her to sit. "What she said is correct. We submit our soul to God. But her answer is not complete. Who can complete the answer?"
Gunther was among the bright students of the class. He stood up and answered, "Nigrosian arts is the art of developing our spirit energy by submitting our souls and wills to God."
"Gunther is always brilliant," The master said and praised Gunther. It amazed Alan as this arrogant master could actually praise someone.
"As he answered, we submit not only our souls but our wills to God," The master continued, and walked around. "The healthier your soul is, the more grace you will get from the de… I mean, the God."
Alan smirked after he noticed the pause and wondered what he was about to say.
"And for a healthy soul, you need to have a healthy body."
For the first time during the entire lecture, Alan agreed with the master.
"You students… are the future of our empire. Some of you will become commanders, high-ranking officers, or even governors in the future," The master continued. "Not only you have to become best in the Nigrosian arts but in physical combat as well. For that, we categorize the students into distinct groups first according to the level of their spiritual energy. The old students already know this and I have categorized them before."
"So they will categorize us based on spiritual energy. How is it related to someone's physical combat abilities?" Alan thought and found it illogical. He stood up and spoke, "Master…"
The master stopped and looked at him with a frown. "What happened?"
"If we are checking someone's physical combat prowess, why are we categorizing based on spiritual energy?" He asked, making the master frown even more.
"The spiritual energy defines your path in the future. Don't act over-smart on your first day, I was coming to that point," The master answered rudely. Alan didn't respond and sat down. The fatso whom they met earlier was laughing and making fun of him.
Alan had first decided to not catch too much attention but somehow his mind was telling him to do the opposite.
"You can't do a thing against someone who could control your mind and make you a puppet with your physical abilities, or against someone who could steal the souls out of the living bodies. We base the categorization on your spiritual energy because of this reason," The master explained and added, "We will check the new students' spiritual level tomorrow and categorize you. And for today, you will have a physical combat class."
The students murmured among themselves.
"What do they teach in physical combat class?" Alan asked Gunther.
"They teach us hand-to-hand combat for now. They will slowly teach us to fight with weapons when we will show some progress," Gunther answered.
After a while…
They called the students outside for the physical combat class. Alan noticed that the girl he saw earlier was present there. It meant her to be in a high ranking and equal to some seniors in the academy. She just stood there with an expressionless face beside Master Wrath who gave a lecture again.
"Physical combat is important when you can't fight with your opponent with your spiritual abilities. There have been some powerful warriors who mixed physical prowess with their combat abilities and became a nightmare for enemies. You reach that level to contribute something to this kingdom."
While he lectured, Alan just stared at the girl but had to look away when she looked at him.
"Who do you think was the greatest threat to our empire?" The master asked.
"It was The King of Alabusia - Argus Devonte Albus," Someone answered. It was none other than the girl with the blank expression.
"Correct, Marya. The biggest terrorist and threat for our country was Argus Devonte Albus. It was good that our king killed him before he could move to capture the sixth castle. Whenever you fight, think that you are fighting him," The master told.
Alan knew already that he was a terrorist for the people now. He had worked all his life for the betterment of the people but only received hate.
"Why was he doing it, master?" Alan suddenly asked and caught everyone's attention. "Was he doing it for his own greed or was there a bigger reason behind it?"
"You clearly have not read the history books. You will get the answer when you read them instead of asking stupid questions," The fatso mentioned and everybody laughed. The master also smiled after hearing it.
"Okay, silence. The history tells us that Argus's whole lineage had their hands painted with the blood of innocents," The master added further. "He even took some traitors from our people in his team and used them against us. That Argus just wanted to impose his treacherous rule on everyone."
"He clearly was a demon," The girl mentioned. Her views were not matching her sweet honey-like voice. Alan could clearly observe around him and see that some boys stared at her as if they had fallen for her.
"Okay, we will test the combat level of the new students. One by one you will have a sparring match with Marya. I will mark you while observing your movements and how long you could stand on your feet," The master told and moved his head close to Marya's ears and whispered, "Don't go easy on that boy who just questioned."
Alan doubted he whispered about him as Marya ferociously glared at him. He sensed a dangerous vibe from her when her hand drifted to the hilt of her sword.