A clocktower rang out, all of the students stood up, and like magic, every single plate, platter, and scrap of food vanished in a shimmering miracle.
"What do we do now?"
Julius questioned the boy in front of him since he felt out of place asking anyone else.
The boy shrugged innocently.
"I'm pretty sure we have magic beast theory now."
Julius sighed.
"You know where that is, I presume?"
The boy smirked.
"I already know this place like the back of my hand. Just follow me and it'll all be fine."
"I thought..."
Julius yelled as a huge spurt of wind came at him from the front, flapping his hair all over the place.
"I THOUGHT YOU KNEW WHERE WE WERE GOING?"
The boy's eyes were decisive and determined.
"Relax, we're just taking a shortcut."
The two were currently trailing up a set of night-black stairs. A huge breach of wind came at them from the top, making their journey up all the more difficult.
The bell for class rang.
Julius cursed. Trying to yell over the wind to talk to the boy each time was frustrating.
"You know shortcuts are meant to be faster right?"
The boy huffed.
"Relax. We just have to get to the top of these stairs and we'll be next door to the Magic Beast Theory Classroom."
After another tedious minute of basically grappling the stairs, the two finally reached the summit.
Julius looked down from the top. There was nothing that the stairs connected to, just a big drop downwards if one walked 3 steps forward.
"Where to now?"
The boy looked at Julius like he was dumb.
"There's only one way down as they say."
Before Julius could react, an arm reached across the back of his net and he was falling down the huge drop in front of the stairs.
He watched his death enclose on him as he dropped headfirst into some stone tiles.
"Wind Silvia."
A graceful voice from the heavens saved him.
A cushion of wind formed just as Julius could almost smell the stone tiles below him.
He looked to his right. The boy who had almost killed him had just saved them both in the nick of time.
"What the hell are you doing."
Julius spoke enraged.
The boy looked at Julius oddly once more.
"Hmph. Don't act like you would've died. I already know that you're special."
Julius grumbled in his head.
'I'm not special I just have the most uselessly big mana pool in the world.'
The boy let out an arrogant expression as he saw the door before him.
"Told you it was a shortcut."
Julius looked at the sign above a classic wooden door.
{Agumatos Silver}
{Magic Beast Theory}
Julius felt like ascending to the heavens.
"I'm never taking that route again."
The boy shrugged.
"You do you."
Julius nervously swung the door open.
There he saw a distasteful familiar face
It was Silver, the professor who had interrogated and almost killed him on the same night.
"Sorry."
Julius and the boy went in to find the only 2 remaining seats in the classroom.
They were both at the back and stuffed into the right corner.
They had to go up several steps and the whole class was in their view.
The professor acted like he had never seen Julius before or even heard of him.
"That'll be sorry sir and the two of you can thank Vanoth that you may get away with only a warning each."
Silence ensued.
Julius prodded the wooden desk before him in tire.
"Ahem."
The professor cleared his throat.
The atmosphere had grown stale by starting off the lesson with a punishment.
"You will call me Professor Silver if you have an issue, and Sir if I have an issue. I teach Magic Beast Theory as well as Magic Dueling. You will find a textbook in front of you where I expect you to open it to page 76."
A student with a face infested with freckles and wavy green hair opened her mouth right away.
"Professor Silver, there aren't any textbooks-."
The professor rose his eyebrows in boredom.
"Wind Tempest."
A dance occurred as textbooks flew off the surrounding shelves before landing right on the student's desk.
The students peskily found page 76 whilst the girl humbled herself.
Julius read the page's title with sodden expectations.
{Ghouls}
Julius chuckled darkly.
'I know I didn't waste away my memory space on fantasy for nothing.'
The Professor sleeked back his grey hair before coughing abruptly.
"Study the pages from 76 to 83 to prepare for a test. I'll be discovering your prowess in this subject and your adaptability. Expect no more than 3 questions and do expect your marks to be public."
"I do not endorse cheating in any way or form."
Julius groaned along with half the class.
Someone from the front row tried to gossip rather loudly.
"Man a test on the first day is so-."
A voice boomed from the front.
"Silence."
The room was instantly muffled. Through wind magic or authority, Julius couldn't tell.
Julius skimmed through the pages, not exactly picking much up as he looked at the boy next to him.
On the back of his book read a name label saying Yevian Yulestroth. Julius checked the back of his own book.
There it read, Julius Endow. Julius shut his book loudly, it flopped over before falling to the floor loudly.
Julius' figure shook.
Julius Endow.
That was his first name from Earth. Julius swiftly took his book back and washed off a few bad stares.
Before he had changed his name to escape some internal issues, he was Julius Endow. If they had learned such a thing then how much had they stolen from his mind? How deep had they dived?
Julius briefly glanced at Silver.
As his thoughts continued to flash by, he didn't even notice as Professor Silver stood before him and snatched his book from his hands.
"Tired?"
Julius awakened.
He looked up in confusion.
"No, sir."
Heads turned before turning back realizing there was no drama.
Silver strode back pridefully.
"Good."
He cleared his throat once more.
"I will now be handing out the tests."
"Wind tempest."
Sheets of hot beige paper flew off from his desk and onto the desks of the students.
Julius wondered what he ought to write on the sheet with before finding some odd variation of a pencil.
It was metallic and thicker than a pencil but it got the job done.
The sheet had hand-written questions but Julius looked at the chalkboard near the front of the room and noticed it wasn't Silver's handwriting.
Julius scanned the questions in dread.
1. What do Ghouls fear most?
2. How would you defeat a Ghoul with the basic elementary spells?
3. How many evolutions do Ghouls have?
4. Why do Ghouls hate only Ghoul flesh?
5. Why are Ghouls not of the darkness element?
Final Q.
How do Ghouls birth?
Bonus Q.
What makes Carriages fly?
Julius stumbled on the questions and looked to his right where Yevian was practically dancing with joy.
Julius honestly only knew the answer to the Bonus question. It was drust. He had seen it in the simulation and it was his only hope.
After scribbling down Drust, Julius straight up gave up on all the other questions and turned his sheet upside down.
After a few stubborn minutes of waiting Silver took all the papers back in.
"Wind Tempest."
The papers flew into his desk whether people had finished or not.
"Test each other on Ghouls whilst I mark the papers. The highest marker will receive an Orth."
Julius turned over to the boy, Yevian.
"You think you did well."
He grumbled in misery.
Yevian tilted his head left and right.
"Maybe... I didn't get the last one though."
Julius stubbornly retorted.
"It was drust."
Yevian felt like he had developed a lump in his throat.
"What's... Drust..?"
For the first time since meeting Yevian, he wasn't hyper and over-confident.
Julius shrugged.
"Guess you'll have to find out."
"Oi."
A boy with swamp-green hair and fang-like teeth shouted across the room toward Julius.
He shot a crumpled paper ball in Julius' direction.
Julius caught it unsteadily with his left hand.
He opened it up in curiosity.
With squinted eyes he read:
{Grand Hall Midnight}
The boy had already turned around.
Yevian peeped over Julius' shoulder.
"Looks like a trap."
Julius wondered so.
"You sure?"
Yevian nodded swiftly.
"That boys from the Dragon House I'm sure they'd love to get you in trouble."
Julius crumpled the sheet into his pocket.
"If you say so."
A voice struck out from the front of the class.
It was cold and resentful.
"Come to the front to find your marks on the chalkboard. None of you got full marks and one 1 person got the last question right. Consider yourselves below expectations."
Julius stumbled over along with the rest of the class.
There he found his own sheet.
{1}
And there he found his answer of Drust marked correctly with a sloppy tick.
Yevian tapped his shoulders.
"You don't have to keep bragging you know."
Julius' face irked.
"I got 1 mark."
Yevian chuckled grimly.
"I mean, it's pretty clear you could've gotten full marks."
Julius silently strode back to his place.
"Whatever you say, buddy."
The students all walked back in solitude.
Silver's voice crashed through the room once more.
"I will now go over the test."
Julius' eyes almost shut from instinctual desires.
"The ghoul eye is actually..."
Cut to black.
Julius fell to the iron fist of sleep.
(Didn't know when to end chapter. But it is what it is.)