Chereads / Mortal Soul / Chapter 3 - White Rose

Chapter 3 - White Rose

Inwardly, Inna's mood darkened. She thought to herself. 'Damn me, I'll have to spend time with entitled brats.' Outwardly however, her appearance didn't change at all. Inna was a master at controlling her own facial expressions. She looked towards the receptionist and flashed a small smile. "Sure, whatever is needed."

The receptionist smiled sweetly. "The academy recruiter is on his way. He should be here any moment."

As if on cue, a short man with blonde hair entered. He had two guards dressed in heavy armor with him. His presence ruined the atmosphere of the entire hall. The loud noises stopped and everyone set their drinks down. Inna instantly looked more annoyed. She decided to drop all pretenses then and there, as her opinion of this man instantly went down the drain. Anyone that ruins this kind of atmosphere, and doesn't bother to fix it, deserves no kindness from her.

The blonde haired man strode up to the receptionist calmly. He smiled at Inna, who merely glared in response. The receptionist was the first to speak. "Ahem" She cleared her throat and began speaking. "This is Inna. She doesn't have an IR, and her soul measured 150."

The man smiled brightly before he turned to Inna. He held his hand out for a handshake, but awkwardly retracted it when Inna made no move. "Ahem. Yes, well you will be required to take two years of training to acquire an IR. Academy 'White Rose' will house you. We're located in the city of Elsharion. It's half a days march from here, though we'll be teleported, so you needn't worry about that. Come, follow me." He waved his hand as he began leaving the building. Inna followed, but not before she flashed a clearly fake smile at the receptionist, who merely smiled and waved as she left.

.....

Inna was now standing in the middle of an all white hall. It looked eerily similar to a kind that she was in before. Although, that time, she was in a straight jacket and the walls were soft. Inna spoke up. "So what do you want me to do?"

The blonde haired man spoke up. He was semi-confused. Inna had never once asked his name, nor had she bothered to say anything at all. "First, I'm Kira. Second, we'll do a series of tests. Whether you are a mage or a warrior."

Inna scoffed, suddenly interrupting him. "I didn't bother to ask your name, and I don't care."

Kira facepalmed as a few ice sculptures appeared on the opposite end of the white room. "Just destroy the sculptures in any way you can."

Inna looked at him and merely said. "Are you serious?" Kira merely gave her a glare that screamed 'Yes I am'.

Inna didn't even move forward or even move her hands. She merely glared at the ice sculptures and they exploded into a pile of rubble. Inna slowly turned towards Kira and looked at him. Shock and confusion were written on his face. As his eyes met Inna's, the pile of rubble exploded with an extremely loud *BANG*. It was now merely a pile of dust on the floor.

....

.....

...

Kira was the first to speak after a couple very long seconds. "Uh. Who are you?"

Inna scoffed. "Someone you can't understand, but call me Inna. Again though, you needn't worry. I'll do your stupid class, you merely need to enroll me. Don't attempt any other tests because, it's pointless."

Kira was still pretty stunned. these sculptures were supposed to be nearly indestructible. Sure, absolute powerhouses could maybe destroy them, but this woman did it without even moving a muscle. He didn't even detect any form of magic from her. Kira gulped audibly before speaking. "Sure. Sure thing. Yeah we'll just put you in S class, if that's alright with you."

Inna nodded. "Sure, whatever. Just show me to my room so I can get some sleep. Oh, there's no Uniform here, right?"

Kira silently began to exit, noticing that Inna was following him, he nodded to himself. To Inna, Kira seemed to be at least somewhat competent, considering he recovered pretty quickly from his initial shock. Kira ignored her question.

.....

Soon, the two of them joined with a rather large group of people. Four other instructors were there, and each had another group of students with them. Once Kira arrived, all the other instructors seemingly left and Kira began to address the crowd. All of the new students seemed to be somewhere between the ages of 16 and 24, this was less like a school and more like a college, it seemed.

Kira began his speech: "Here at White Rose academy, we have four ranks that each student is graded in, S-A-B and C. S class is comprised of the strongest students of each year. Usually, S class has a maximum of 20 students, but this year we'll have 21." Kira glanced towards Inna, who seemed to be looking around curiously, not even bothering to care about his information. He continued: "A-B and C class are determined by entrance exam score, and there are no limits to the number of students. Don't be fooled, however, our entrance exams are basic and do not measure combat skills. It is not uncommon for a C class student to defeat an A class student. In the past, we had each class do their entire schedules differently, but we were informed that it was detrimental to the students. The only thing your rank means is who you are allowed to pair up with when we go on missions, were it not for this, we would have no ranking system at all." Kira seemed to pause here, awaiting any questions.

It wasn't long before one boy raised his hand. He seemed to be about 16. When Kira addressed him. he asked: "If our rank doesn't determine our combat capabilities, why does it matter who we pair up with?"

Kira answered like a diligent teacher. "Ah, a good question. It's because if someone strong is paired with someone weak, the weaker person will not grow and will instead stagnate and become complacent. It-"

Inna interrupted him with a scoff, but said nothing. Everyone looked at her expectantly, and after a few awkward silent moments she spoke. "You should just have the students compete in tournaments against each other, and rank each student by their combat ability. That's all that matters anyway. Besides, what you just said is a lie. The real reason is so that kingdoms know who has more innate talent."