Another week has passed by, the day is finally here.
Currently, I am busy packing my clothes.
It is time for me to leave this apartment and attend the academy.
The trip doesn't take that long as I live pretty close by, it only takes one train ride but students in the academy are required to live in their dorms for security reasons and to keep an eye on students that might think of using their newly gained aura for heinous acts.
This is also why being accepted into the academy takes a lot of processing, not all people are let in.
It is more like buying a gun as a civilian, you will need a lot of paperwork, must be the right age, and when you are finally granted one just like owning a gun there will be laws on when you are only able to manifest and use your aura.
It is also extremely expensive to gain a stigma, it usually costs around 100k Lucra's, thankfully my uncle makes a decent amount of fortune thanks to his job at the MEA.
As grab my backpack filled with clothes I leave my apartment with a strengthened resolve.
The academy will be the start of my journey in trying to save this world.
It won't be easy but I will try my best, no my hardest to not waste this second life granted to me.
I made my way to the nearest train station and book a ride to the Academy of Lucradian.
The trip took no more than 30 minutes,
As I made my way to the front of the academy, what stands out the most is its symbol, it was a massive sword crossing with a shield signifying the two stigmas in the academy.
"Still magnificent as ever," I say to myself as I gaze upon its huge symbol.
The first thing that I must go through before being embedded with a stigma is to go to the lobby.
But before being able to enter, I had to first show the identification card that the academy gave to me to prove I was accepted by the academy which I did to the two knights who were guarding the entrance, after that was done I was finally granted permission to the lobby of the academy.
It was quite huge and crowded with a lot of people, most of them were commoners like me since all the nobility gets to bypass this arduous process instead they are given a private appointment which just shows no matter how perfect the empire of Lucradian might be it still have its flaws.
In the lobby of the academy, you would need to show your identification card to the receptionist then after that, you would be asked to sit down in one of their many chairs and wait to be called so that they can stigmatize you, and judging by the number of people waiting I would say that this would take awhile.
As I went to the receptionist, he gave me a form to fill out, the form is mostly asking your name, age, parents, basically your basic background information but at the very end, this is the turning point of my second life.
"What stigma would you like to be embedded with?"
Without any hesitation, I shaded out the option of the sword.
I handed the form back to the receptionist and he asked me to sit down at one of the chairs and wait to be called.
As I sat down in my chair I took a quick look at my surroundings, there were a lot of people talking to each other, some listening to music to pass the time, and some even sleeping but there was one man that stood out from the rest.
He bore black hair, sharp brown eyes, and a face and body that would do well in the modeling industry, he was chatting with his friends talking about things that I couldn't hear clearly.
At first glance, you would think he is just a normal good-looking teenager but they would be heavily mistaken because this certain teenager would be blessed with the Mark of Light in the future.
He is the only person that was blessed by a god who didn't belong to a family of nobles, who didn't have immense wealth or power, he was normal quite like me, yet despite that he was chosen by the goddess of light, at first many people thought that it was a mistake because why would a god mark a person like him but coming from the future, I know that it was no mistake.
He was the strongest and most important figure among the 7 heroes, he was the leader and with the power of light bestowed upon him, he would represent the symbol of hope in the form of a man.
People would chant his name in the streets,
"Aston Frye!"
"Aston Frye!"
"Aston Frye!"
I let out a faint smile as I reminisce about those times since I was also part of the crowd cheering his name.
He was our hope and the leader of 7 heroes.
But that smile didn't last long as I remember the cruel future that awaits him.
Who would've known that the strongest of the heroes would be the first to fall?
I snapped out of my daze and proceeded to play a game on my phone to distract myself from that sorrowful memory.
Hours passed by and finally.
"Cain Leobrera, please proceed to the ingraining area"
With haste, I immediately stood up and grab my things, and went inside the room.
Inside were two people, a man in his 40s with wrinkles present on his face and a woman wearing glasses that was probably in her 20s.
They were both wearing white coats with the symbol of the academy on its shoulders.
Inside the room, there was a pod that was used to ingrain the stigma you desire onto your heart, a flatscreen tv and a chair.
"Drop your things on the table and strip down to your underwear," The old man said to me in his gruffed voice.
As I obeyed his demand the woman suddenly gave me a pill
"This would lessen the pain of the ingraining"
I nodded and thanked her and immediately swallowed it, back then in my past life, the very first time I experienced stigmatization, I couldn't handle the immense pain of the process, I screamed my lungs out and puked right afterwards, even with the effects of the pill.
"Alright, uhh, Cain, kindly sit down on the chair please," The old man said to me while looking at the form that I filled out earlier.
"Before we continue with the process, we would like to enforce that upon being stigmatized, you will not be able to leave the academy until you are permitted so, you are not able to manifest your aura in the hallways or in any public domains in the academy, failure to comply will result in you getting permanently expelled and your stigma revoked, keep in mind when you are revoked of your stigma which we do by ripping the stigma out of your heart, you can never be ingrained ever again for the rest of your life as your heart cannot take that burden anymore, and if you don't trust me and try for yourself then"
The old man then suddenly showed something on the television.
It was a man his eyes rolled into the very back of his head, blood pouring out from his nose, eyes, and mouth, his chest was scarred black, it was a horrifying image.
"You'll turn into this, do you understand?"
"Understood, Sir"
"Good, alright, Ms. Rebecca please turn on the pod, and you get inside"
I got inside the pod, and the door slammed shut.
What came next is the familiar feeling of my heart burning, it was painful, but I clenched my fist and grit my teeth.
If I stay the weakling I was in my past life who would cry in tears just by experiencing pain, I wouldn't be able to save humanity.
This is a test, the burning feeling intensified over the course of a few minutes.
The pain was agonizing but I stood my ground.
after another few minutes, that process was done and no scream came out.
I felt my body brimming with energy, compared to the cool and chilly feeling of the stigma of the shield, this stigma was hot.
As the door of the pod opened, I fell to my knees while I was struggling to breathe.
But instead of feeling like garbage like I did in my past life, this time I felt rejuvenated,
This is the first pillar of how I would avert the destruction of this world.