Josh turned the doorknob and got into the classroom. The room was spacious enough to contain thirty people, scanning through the room, he noticed two people he just met a while ago at a seat a little close to the edge of the back of the class. He noticed a man who looked to be in his fifties with white strands in his beard as he sat relaxed in his seat.
"Better late than never they say, you three are a minute late but I will let you off the hook this time." Jackson said with a relaxed smile on his face, with one of the strongest auras Josh had ever felt.
"Thanks, professor." the trio said in unison.
"We promise to never do this again." Josh pressed forward.
"You better not. Now go find a seat." Jackson said as he focused on the computer screen before him.
As Josh and the other two searched for a place to sit, Cherry waved at him indicating for him to come to sit beside her.
"Who do you guys think she's waving at?" Billy asked the other two confused
"I think that should be me." Josh replied, waving back at her.
"You're joking!" Billy exclaimed his eyes threatening to fall off their sockets. Other students who overheard him looked at him with disdainful looks.
"Why don't we find out." Josh said smirking as he began approaching her, with the other two following closely behind still not believing him.
"Hey pretty." Josh said as he got to the seat with his signature smile plastered on his face, a face which would put many actors and models to shame.
"Hey, handsome." Cherry said with a wide grin.
"You both really are close." Oliver said almost shouting.
"These must be your roommates I presume?" Cheery asked Josh.
"They are." Josh nodded.
"This ugly idiot here is Oliver." Josh pointed at Oliver.
"Pleased to meet you, madame." Oliver faked an accent with a grin on his face.
"You seem interesting." Cheery smiled back at Oliver.
"That nerd over there is Billy." Josh pointed at Billy.
"Hi." Billy managed to blurt.
"Hey." Cheery greeted back enthusiastically.
"Don't think much about it. He's not much of a talker." Josh addressed Billy's reserved attitude.
"It's okay." Cherry shrugged it off.
"So what about-"
"Our new roommate?" Cherry completed Josh's sentence.
"That." Josh nodded.
"That over there is Emily."
Cheery pointed at a girl at the side of Zoey putting on glasses, and her hair blonde hair done into a ponytail.
"Hello." Emily waved lightly.
"She strikes me as a nerd." Oliver whispered into Josh's ear.
"Don't say that. That would be a disrespect to our dear friend Billy." Josh whispered back.
Oliver chuckled, "who knows maybe this might just be the perfect soul mate for our dear friend."
"Eyes on me everyone" Jackson announced calling for the attention of the class.
"Eww." Oliver made a disgusted face at Jackson's announcement.
"Today is your first day of military school, where you would be taught how to better utilise your gifts. Some of you are able to use magic affinities, some of you have the potential to become strong warriors, and the rest of you unawakened have the potential to make big effects on the world and bring about massive technological advancements." Jackson paused to let his words sink into the hearts of his students.
"It doesn't matter if you were not gifted from birth. If you believe in yourself and put in the work you can achieve whatever you dream of."
'What if my dream is to become the most powerful man on the planet? How can an unawakened even dream of achieving that?' Josh scoffed.
"For those of you who were given the gift of being able to use mana, regardless of if you are a warrior or a mage. Having talents without hard work is a waste. You will never reach your true potential by lazing around." Jackson paused.
"I am aware of the fact that some of the stronger one's amongst you, especially the mages. Derive pleasure in bullying those weaker."
Jackson glared at the students, making some of them feel he was talking to them specifically.
"I will have you know that oppressing the weak is the lowest you can get. If you derive pleasure in doing that you are nothing but thrash."
"There are measures put in place to punish those who bully others. So, I will advise you to refrain from doing that." Jackson informed the students.
Josh scoffed. There would always be those who felt they were better than others. To them, no one mattered apart from themselves.
Being a constant victim of bullying, Josh could bet his balls that bullying would still happen. Why? You may ask.
The society they lived in was a dog-eat-dog society. The only difference being that the awakened couldn't just go about killing unawakened members of society.
Being unawakened in this society made one a second-class citizen right from birth.
The difference between a family of awakened and a family of unawakened was large. The awakened lived in beautiful houses and lived a better life compared to that of the unawakened.
The dream of every unawakened was to give birth to a child who was awakened. This dream has a slim chance of being fulfilled, as the children of awakened usually got the magic abilities of their parents or become warriors just like their parents.
There was only a small chance that two unawakened would give birth to an awakened. Giving birth to an awakened child would mean a better life for an awakened family.
Thinking of all the unawakened in the world living miserable lives made Josh's blood boil.
He hated this world. He hated the society and the social hierarchy. Would it not be better to live in a world where everyone viewed each other as equals regardless of power?
Josh knew he was thinking naively like how a 7-year-old would. But he still believed that this type of world would be achievable.
If it got so bad, then it can also get so good.
He had added a new goal to his bucket list. This was not a goal that would benefit him, or even to a large extent, anyone around him. All he wanted was a better world.
No matter how impossible it might seem. Josh was hell-bent on achieving it.
Josh decided to focus on the somewhat incoherent words his homeroom teacher was saying.
"Work hard and always have your dreams in mind when you train, if others stronger bully you, which is unavoidable, you should take it as a lesson and blame yourself for not being strong enough, and use that as a motivation to get stronger, only the strong rule."
Although Josh agreed with this philosophy to a certain extent, he also believed that the weak should also have rights.
Life isn't fair. Some get opportunities that others don't. Those that are not blessed by the heavens should also have a somewhat even playground with the awakened.
'If the world keeps going on like this, there will be wars.' Josh thought.
Why are wars fought? To gain territory and a large number of resources. Some wars are fought for an even simpler reason. To show supremacy.
But at what cost? The lives of thousands and millions of brave men. And women.
Wars are unavoidable. Even if the world was ruled by one man, there would always be people who would eye that position.
The only solution to this problem was for a leader strong enough to defeat any opposition to rise up.
Josh had a gut feeling that a war was slowly brewing. He wouldn't be caught unawares and killed like cannon fodder. He would be ready.
Josh once again focused on the incoherent words being spewed by his homeroom teacher.
"As you should know by now I am Jackson Gavin, and I will be your homeroom teacher for your first year here. Now all I want from you is your co-operation, the school rulebook is in the cupboard put in all the rooms. Anyone who breaks the law will be punished accordingly. Now time for introductions. Andrew said finishing his speech and pointing to a boy at the front of the right edge of the classroom."
"My name is Kelly will." the boy said.
A girl stood up next and introduced herself and others followed until it finally got to Billy's turn.
Billy took a little more time than what was acceptable to get up from his seat.
"My-my-" Billy struggled with his words.
"Just take a deep breath and imagine everyone here shit their pants." Oliver encouraged his friend.
"Expect me though." Oliver quickly added.
Billy chuckled.
"Remind me to never ask for your advice." Josh said to Oliver.
"Make sure you don't come begging later."
"You wish." Josh scoffed.
Billy took a deep breath, "I am Billy Graham." And sat back in his seat.
"Well, that took longer than usual." Jackson commented.
"We honestly thought he would never finish, and we would have to waste this class." Oliver sighed.
"You would've been a hero, my dear friend." Oliver said to Billy. Making these in earshot, including Billy himself chuckle.
"Enough of that chit-chat over there. Next."