"There we go. I'll check you later and don't leave here." Instructor Sienna firmly said.
Instructor Sienna led me into one of the rooms near the training field, a clinical room that's stuffed with beds. She left me in one of the beds before leaving and continuing the class. When I felt the soft cushion, I was in bliss. Nothing beats the softness of a bed. While lying on the bed, I was mulling over what Instructor Sienna mentioned to me—The Rite Festival.
The commemoration of the past, from what I've understood, it's not the commemoration of the founder rather the land that I'm standing on right now. She hasn't fully explained it in detail, so I was expecting Instructor Sienna to stay here. I took my student card out.
[Name] Claude Weiss
[Age] 19
[Status] Student (Dungeon Access: Valid)
[Spirit Rank] X
[Class] F (Supervisor: Sienna Dekra)
[Spirit Attribute] Fire
[Mana Capacity] Null
[Points] 942
"Haaah... I spend too much on Tsuki's food."
"Aaaaaaah!"
As I was closing my eyes, an abrupt sound of countless terror screams entered my ears which made my upper body raise. Then it got followed by the sound of explosions at the distance. Naturally, my curiosity is piqued by the sounds of my classmates perishing from some unknown demon outside.
"Looks like they're having fun. Aggh... I swear my hand broke when I punch that magic barrier of hers. It's still numb."
A dark mist forms around my thigh and Tsuki emerge while on her cat form. "Master, nyaa~"
"Tsuki, why are you out all of the sudden?"
"Pet."
"Seriously? Okay." I stroke Tsuki's back softly from her head down to her tail. "You don't often ask me this, so what's bothering you? Do you want something?"
(Tsuki said, she's been hungry recently.) Diana answered.
(Hungry? We just ate a bunch earlier and that is still not enough? Is her Soul Ingestion acting up again? Isn't it too early? I swear, I gave her some a few days ago. Luckily enough, we killed hundreds of monsters and harvested their souls for her before going in here, enough for half a year. Did something influence her?)
(That... I'm not sure.)
"You're hungry again?"
"Yes, nyaa~"
"Haaa... Open." I stick my hand in a rift portal. "There we go, I got it."
When I pull my hand, a malicious piece of glowing feather appeared in my hand. Soon after, I brush it to Tsuki's nose and she immediately pick the smell up which made her eyes glisten in joy. Diana infused the souls that we captured into feathers that I bought back home. Like, trapping the soul inside an object—or in short, Soul Infusion. If anyone would learn about that fact, they would certainly call it witchcraft or dark magic. It was unheard of, which makes it terrifying.
I snap my finger. A magical barrier enveloped the entire room, protecting the people outside.
Soon after Tsuki's nose picked it up, her entire transformed into her astral form and suddenly became a shadowy figure in the naked eyes. She quickly opened her mouth wide, overwhelming the entire room with her presence. The feather that I'm holding was slowly decaying until there was nothing left in my hand. Tsuki reverts back to her form after consuming the soul from the feather.
Tsuki was satisfied. "Nyaaa~" She purred before sleeping in my lap.
Tsuki is a high-maintenance pet or even way beyond that, as I often need to kill monsters to extract a soul for her. Reminiscing the time back when I fought the specter and the phoenix, her showing sympathy towards the other souls contradicts the belief of what I assumed her to be. I really want to know Tsuki's origin.
The door unexpectedly slammed. Behind the door, I saw Instructor Sienna carrying Lars and Erik on her shoulders.
"What did you do?"
"They overdid themselves. But first, what happened here? Everything feels odd... And your cat..." Instructor Sienna's eyes caught Tsuki's adorable appearance on my lap, but Tsuki's adorableness didn't get a reaction from her.
"How heartless..." I muttered as Tsuki vanished from my lap.
"What? Did you say something?"
"Nothing. So, it's only been like a few minutes and you're already here with new students. Can you go easy on them? It's not that hard, no?"
"Then they wouldn't learn," She said, as she puts them on separate beds, covering them with blankets. "They already have experienced the harsh reality of the world because of their abnormality, so I assume they can handle it."
"Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?"
"Why would I feel sorry for them? Because they're weak? No. I should act normal and give them the proper education that they needed like my previous students because they're like every other people. So, I have a question for you, Claude. Did you enroll in this academy just to gain sympathy from people or to be made fun of?"
"No..."
"Then that's your answer. They're not here because of those two choices. We all have dreams that we seek. Their abnormality doesn't take away their ability to dream. They might be different than normal, but they're still beings with consciousness like everyone. Right now, what they just need is to overcome a certain threshold that I placed on them.
I was rendered speechless by her. "...Why are you so inspirational recently...?"
"I speak from experience." She flashes a smile.
Instructor Sienna then approaches me and checks my left arm. "Are you still in pain?"
"Nope. It's gone now."
"Impressive, your entire arm is fully healed now at a short time span. Can I break it?"
"Heck no!"
Instructor Sienna laughs. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding."
"Anyway, I have a question that's bothering my mind. What's with the Rite festival that you're talking about? You're so excited when you mentioned it."
"Of course. It's the yearly tradition of the academy. Handful selected people can participate in it. Once a year, the Sacred Gate opens and we explore the place. I tell you, the place is humongous. Centuries have passed, but the academy barely scratches the surface. In addition, treasures await at the other side, but at the cost of terrifying monsters~" She grins at me.
"Okay, there's no need to give that tone to me. I'm not a kid."
"In my eyes, you still are. Once you have a beard or a mustache, I would consider."
I bit my lower lip because that hit me right in the core. I've been trying to grow them for the past years, but whatever I do, my body doesn't seem to like the idea of growing them.
"Here catch." Instructor Sienna tosses a piece of cloth over to me.
"What's this?"
"Pour your stuff into it."
"What stuff?"
Suddenly, the piece of cloth burst into flames, after pouring a slight amount of my quintessence on it, unconsciously. Furthermore, the color of the flame was nothing like mine—bright green flames.
"Ack! That's so hot! Aw!!" I scream in pain as I toss the piece of cloth on the ground. Looking at my hand, there's no visible burn in the skin other than the burning sensation—moreover, my hand is trembling uncontrollably. The flames from the cloth extinguished when it left my hand. I looked at Instructor Sienna with a questioning gaze.
However, the response that I got was a cold, chilling gaze from Instructor Sienna. Despite not being the one receiving the gaze, my body can't help itself but shake in fear. Every nerve in my body became numb. Every hair in my body stood up. Suddenly, my lungs stopped working for some reason, but after realizing that, I began gasping for breath along with the rampant thudding of my heart. "Augghh... Huff... Huff... Huff..."
'The look from Instructor Sienna... It's like from Master Irene... If I don't do anything I will crumble from the pressure.' I thought to myself.
I bit my lip until it bleeds and slams my right fist into my chest, hard enough to make me almost lose consciousness. I stare dagger at Instructor Sienna. From that moment, Instructor Sienna snaps of from her cold gaze. "Oh! I'm sorry! I was just puzzled and went into contemplation. It's not my attention to do that."
"Huff... Huff..." Instructor Sienna tries to reach forward, but I brush it off out of instinct. I'm still having difficulties breathing. Instructor Sienna waited until I was able to calm myself down. But in the end, everything went dark.
A while later...
Opening my eyes, I found myself back at the place where I spent a week recovering. Instructor Sienna was sitting on a stool next to my bed.
"Huff! Huff!"
"Haaa... I didn't mean to do that, but I'm glad you're okay." She sighs in relief.
"...Where am I?"
"After you collapsed, I sent you here to take them a look at you. I got scared. Sorry. I lost control of my emotions earlier, sorry for that. Do you feel anything odd?" Instructor Sienna wryly smiles at me.
"N-No." I hesitated. The image of Instructor Sienna earlier is still fresh in my mind. But overall, I'm feeling back to normal. Earlier, out of nowhere, Instructor Sienna lost control of her bloodlust because of the piece of cloth that she handed me without any explanation—what that is or why she gave it to me.
"Well, seeing you doing okay, I can finally leave. Thank god... Then see you tomorrow, Claude. They said, nothing is wrong with you, so you can back to your dorm after resting. I'll check your condition tomorrow, so if you feel anything tell me, okay?"
"Y-yeah... Before you leave, can I ask you about that thing?"
"It's from the scary monsters that I said before~," Instructor Sienna said with a lively tone, attempting to change the mood between us. "Well, I shall leave now."
I watch the back of Instructor Sienna as the door closes behind her. She's not a simple educator because the feeling that I got from her is basically the same as Master Irene. The resemblance is uncanny. To this day, I'm still figuring out how a person can that much bloodlust. Or how many people have they killed to achieve it? Furthermore, she avoid my question and quickly left without any explanation.
"How rude. Quite lucky that I already experienced it before."
Bloodlust is not only about the aura or the mana, but it's more about the deadly intent that it gives off. Unlike what I do with my quintessence to intimidate a person, a bloodlust can kill a person if that person has a weak-willed heart. A few people that I know have that such as Master Irene, Clara, and now, Instructor Sienna. In Clara's case... she let me experience it because of some pity reason that's connected to her needs. She didn't directly send it to me, rather to a stranger.
"How are you, Mr. Claude?"
"Waah! Professor Eukla?! You're still at this place?!"
Professor Eukla suddenly pops up in a wheelchair on my left side. "I'm still recovering unlike you. It will take me a few weeks to recover my fatigue."
"Since when you've been here?"
"All this time."
"Oh... I'm pretty good."
"Anyway, don't get close to her."
"Why? She's my instructor."
"Trust me. You wouldn't believe a deranged person like her. Those apologies of her are nothing but empty words. Don't fall for her words. She doesn't mean it. People have been killed mercilessly in the past in front of her, but what did she do? She overlook it and continues fulfilling the task that was given to her!" Professor Eukla raises her voice in anger.
"Um..."
"... Sorry. As I was saying, don't fall for her tricks. That's the only advice I could give to you. Don't believe in anything she says. Anyhow, what happened to you?"
I don't know how to respond to her, so I opt on just answering her question. "It's quite embarrassing to say because I wasn't able to hold Instructor Sienna's bloodlust and lost my consciousness."
"That woman... That's the reason for her words earlier..." Professor Eukla frowns.
"Um, Professor Eukla?"
"I'll go. I'm busy."
"O-Okay? See ya?"
Why Professor Eukla hates the headmaster and Instructor Sienna so much? I know that the headmaster is a dick and Instructor Sienna is a nutcase, but even so, the grudge from her words tells a different story.