[Aarick's Pov]
"Because here at Augustus, we value respect over everything else. And though I didn't think I would have to say it, respect comes in many forms. For example to make sure you are on time for your classes, or to make sure to stop any kinds of harassment you come across. Or finally, to make sure to be awake when the teacher wants to start the lesson."
'-Why are you allowing a mere human to talk like this to you?!'
'Because that mere human could probably squash me like a bug...'
Even with my limited experience of dealing with people using their blessings, which consisted of me almost losing my life to the 'pranks' of my former classmates, I could tell that my teacher wasn't weak.
Also, in the end, there was no one to blame but myself for accidentally falling asleep, and also for accidentally activating my blessing...
"Now that you know my name, we will begin a quick roll call before continuing. As everyone has already gotten to see quite a lot of you, let's being with Aarick Laupier."
Raising my hand, it was a struggle to sound motivated when responding.
"Here..."
Then, as if to show just how little she cared about my inner turmoil, she just carried on.
"Bruno Hart."
"Here."
Bruno was a student that had a noticeably large build, but what really set him apart from everyone else was his completely bald head.
"Celina Black."
A dark-haired girl with a good body and a friendly smile. There was not much else to say about her.
"Here."
And like this, it continued on, with me trying my best to memorize the name of everyone in my class. In the end, I knew it wasn't going to happen on the first day no matter how I tried, so I kind of gave up.
Though there were still some seemingly noteworthy people that I couldn't help but pay some extra attention to.
"Lydia Wild."
"Here!"
Lydia, the passionate young woman who had chased Peter into the hallway after he accidentally exposed how he had acted towards me.
"Stella Klein."
"Here.
Following her was the green-haired girl on her side, which I mostly paid attention to just due to the fact that she was sitting next to Lydia.
"Peter Spark."
"Here."
I had already seen enough of that man to not have to pay much attention to when his name was called. Someone I did have to pay attention to, however, was...
'Did I ever get his name?'
"John Park."
"Here."
'Ah, so that was what it was.'
John Park, the very extra-looking friend of Peter. All in all, there was not much to say about him. Dark hair, average build, average face, average demeanor. So, yes, very much someone I didn't care about taking too much notice of.
And then, we had finally reached the end of the line, with only two out of twelve students remaining. Two students that somehow felt like they had managed to get so far ahead of me that it was hard to even look at them.
Now, it had to be said that Lucifer did reveal that Will had been behind the bullying committed by our other classmates, so could I still call him a friend? Hell no! In fact, it was quite weird that I had been referring to him as a friend in my head all this time without remembering the shit he had done to me.
So, seeing him still so close to Levi did stir my gut a bit, but not enough to make me change the plans I had already carefully constructed. And by that, I mean that I spent about five minutes before class started to conclude that I should just stay away from them.
From the way everyone else appeared to be looking at them, there was no doubt that they had already made a name for themselves. Which wasn't all too surprising when thinking about their origins and the potential of their blessings.
They were people who were practically made to stand in the sun, while I was forced to hide from it.
'-Hey! I already told you, you don't have to hide from the sun! You aren't actually a vampire, you know?'
'Yeah, I know. It was a metaphor.'
"Will Steiner."
"Here."
With his fiery red hair, it was impossible not to notice just how handsome the green-haired man had become during my absence. Something that was only further highlighted by the fact that Celina and... some blonde girl that I couldn't remember the name of started blushing when they saw his smile.
At the same time, it was also impossible to miss the fact he couldn't help but turn his eyes to me for a second, proving that he was conscious of my presence. And that wasn't necessarily something I appreciated.
'Can't you just be happy that you already got Levi?'
In the end, my priorities were like this:
1st priority: Survival.
2nd priority: Getting stronger.
3rd priority: Live a fulfilling and rewarding life
There was no part of these priorities where getting close to my old friends, or rather old friend and Will, was a good idea.
Even more so as I inherently knew that they weren't the same anymore, or at least Levi didn't seem to be.
"Levi Ayimi."
"Present."
Just like Will, just her action of raising her head and uttering a single word with her melodic voice had created a reaction around her.
No, unlike Will, she hadn't just instilled a reaction in the opposite gender. Instead, it appeared that men and women alike were entranced with her, with even Lydia blushing a bit when watching the blue-haired girl.
Did I blush? No, no matter how cool and elegant she might have looked now, she would still always be the crybaby I knew when we were young.
As a matter of fact, though I acknowledged her to have become incredibly attractive, I wasn't particularly attracted to her.
Our teacher on the other hand...
Then, something weird happened, something somewhat similar to when Will had raised his hand.
Levi's eyes clearly turned to me for a second, before she aggressively turned her head away, as if it would somehow prove that she didn't care about me anymore.
And that made me both incredibly happy and incredibly sad.
Happy because it aligned with my goals of staying away from trouble, and by trouble, I absolutely meant Levi and Will, while at the same time serving as a way for me to allow the past to become history.
On the other hand, it was quite painful to see the girl that had so often followed me around, now clearly wanting nothing to do with me.
Still, I knew very well that this would ultimately be for the best. Not just for my sake, who needed time to even start understanding this new world that I was living in, but for her sake as well.
She was the heir of the guild master of the Leviathan guild, one of the largest guilds in the entirety of Rellea, not to mention the country. {The name of the city they are in is Rellea which happens to be the capital. The country is called Teton.}
Now, even disregarding the fact that I was now, supposedly, a demon, there was no reason for her to be around an orphaned street trash like me from the very beginning. Even though I knew that I now carried a cur... blessing, with the same potential as them, we were not the same.
"Seems like everyone is present. Good, then I will continue the lesson. As you might have suspected, there will be no actual lessons today. Instead, you will get to choose what awakened courses you want to participate in. Naturally, these will be accompanied by theoretical classes that you have to at least score a passing grade to graduate."
'Oh, now isn't that great...'
Although I had never really had any problems when it came to studying, I had a pretty good feeling that things might not be so easy this time around. Mainly because I had been stuck in my own head for the past four years.
'-You can do it, Aarick! And if you can't, don't worry about it! There are other ways to become strong, after all.'
'Weren't you the one that brought me here?! How can you just give up on me that easily?!'
Suddenly, the desk I was sitting at started vibrating. A second later, a screen was raised from it, and on it was a list of what I assumed to be courses. Mana control, elemental control, swordsmanship, spearmanship, etc. The list went on and on for what seemed like infinity, with the options being so many and so varied that it would absolutely be impossible to choose right here on the spot.
"I will give you ten minutes to sort your choices out. I'm assuming that most of you have already looked through the available classes online so it shouldn't take too long."
'Lucifer?'
'-Yes, darling?'
'Since when did I become darling...? Also, what the fuck!'