"And that would be all. Don't forget to get your uniforms for tomorrow. We'll be training your magic, so you're going to need it," Stormwind said after a few hours of talking.
The session hadn't been anything special. The things that he was teaching were things that I already knew about the use and training of magic, since these were things that my old master already drilled into me. As for the other things I learned from a noble academy, they were nothing more than how to speak to the masses and how to carry yourself properly, which was just for the leading and inspiration of troops.
As the people started leaving the classroom, I reached for my phone and turned it on. I wanted to check on the elective classes that we were allowed to take. Nicole had explained something about them before, and I wanted to check again now that I was enrolled in the academy, but I couldn't see it again. I tried pressing on the few 'apps' that the phone works with, but I just couldn't find it again.
With a pout, I put the phone aside and prepared myself to leave, since the room had mostly cleared by now, leaving only me and the young people that I came with here, who were now talking to the elf.
I hurried myself to them, since it appeared like they were waiting for me.
"So, how did you feel? Must be strange coming into a higher ranked class from the get-go," Stormwind said with a soft smile.
"I-It's somewhat hard to understand… But I'll do my best! Don't worry! Haha!" Steven awkwardly said.
Brian on the hand had a forced smile, but refused to follow up on Steven as Victoria spoke before him. "I'm also slightly confused on the use of magic, at least on the way that you're explaining it, since I didn't do any of that for what I have."
"Oh really?" Stormwind replied with a bit of surprise, pulling a large phone out and looking at it for a moment. "You have plenty of skills. Did you do something else to learn them?"
"Well…" Victoria trailed off, looking away for a moment. "My daddy—dad bought a few supplementary magic tools and books to help me with my growth…"
"Hm?" Stormwind replied, quickly looking up at the girl. "You mean, that your quick growth was thanks to your parents?"
Victoria slowly nodded with a forced smile. "It's not that I wanted to do it… but they insisted, and well… I just took it."
"But"—Stormwind paused for a moment to look at the large phone again—"There's so many skills, and the stats grew by quite a lot."
"Hehe… yeah, dad spent a lot…" Victoria replied with a forced laugh.
It was then that I remembered what Bo'guth said about buying a skill with his phone, where he could get a 'Skill Book' that allowed him to learn how to pull back his weapon after throwing it. Most importantly, I remember that the price was quite high for such a thing.
"Isn't it expensive to buy those things?" I eventually asked.
"Well…" Victoria trailed off, not looking at anyone in particular and refusing to elaborate on what she said.
"Wait," Steven interjected. "How many skills did you get over the week?"
"Enough for someone to graduate from this school," Stormwind followed up before looking closer at Victoria's face and then the large phone in his hands. "Could it be…?"
"W-what?" she asked back.
"Graciani…" Stormwind continued, making a thoughtful expression.
"Is something special about her last name?" I asked, since it didn't seem to be.
"Oh!" Steven exclaimed. "Isn't that also the name for that big company?"
"Huh!?" Brian followed up. "You mean to tell me that you're from that family!?"
"Y-yeah… my dad's the owner…" Victoria confessed and everyone looked at her with widened eyes.
I couldn't understand what was going on with her, but my guess was that Victoria is probably an important noble in the city—likely the daughter of a Duke. But I had dealt with enough nobles to know that they weren't anything to worry about, especially for a girl that didn't seem to carry her name around to get an easy life.
"Does that make a difference?" I asked, since it didn't seem like a big deal to me.
"Of course it does!" Steven exclaimed, his eyebrows still raised. "If her dad owns the Graciani Magic Enterprises, then that means that she's going to be a superhero!"
"Eh…? You want to be a 'superhero'?" I asked, one eyebrow raised.
I didn't know exactly what was different about a 'superhero' and a regular one, but my guess is that it still has to do with fighting evil and bringing peace.
"Oh! Um…" she replied blinking a few times and shifted her eyes from one side to another. "N-not really… I'm just doing what my dadd—dad, thinks is better for me…"
"You should take the opportunity!" Steven continued, just as excited as before. "I mean, if I could, I would also take advantage of it and become a hero." He shoved Brian with his elbow after saying that. "Don't you agree?"
"W-what? Yeah, I don't know," Brian replied, looking at Victoria for a moment before looking away.
Steven narrowed his eyes to look at Brian after that answer, but refused to say anything else. Stormwind on the other hand looked at me instead.
"What about you? Are you part of her family as well or something like that to get the skills and rank that you have right now?" he asked, tapping a few times on the large phone in a similar way to how he had been doing before.
"No. My skills and my powers come from training and talent. Nothing more," I plainly replied.
"Really now?" Stormwind said, looking at me with a suspicion. "Then how come you didn't come to one of these institutes sooner if you could train like that?"
I was taken aback by that question. I didn't really think about what to answer if someone were to question my abilities or talents, and I couldn't just say that I was dead until last week. But I had to say something since the group of people were looking at me, waiting for me to say something.
"I… I just trained, and tried different things…" I replied, trying to be as vague as possible.
"In one week?" Steven said, his eyes almost drilling holes into me. "I want to know what you did to become so strong so fast."
"I… well… I also went to the Tainted Land," I continued, hoping that they wouldn't ask anymore about it.
"Tainted Land…" Stormwind said, frowning as he did. "That's a name I haven't heard anyone use in a while. Only people from Arretia would ever talk about the Magic Red Zones like that anymore."
I hadn't realized the blunder of what I had just said, as the elf now looked at me with a questioning glare. Luckily it didn't last for long as Steven slapped his fist into his open palm, causing everyone to look at him.
"Oh! Now that makes sense!" he exclaimed while nodding.
"What does?" Stormwind asked.
"You must have a secret master that used to be from the other world!" he said with a smug smile. "But don't worry, it's normal for heroes to have such things, so I won't ask you about it… as long as you teach us how to improve like you did!"
I fiercely glared down at the young man, who recoiled right after. "Are you trying to blackmail me?"
"N-no! No! Of course not!" he quickly shouted while waving his arms. "I-I just thought that w-we could become heroes together is all!"
I kept glaring at the young man, and he kept backing away slightly. A couple of claps from Stormwind caused me to stop glaring at Steven as I turned to look at the elf, who seemed to be somewhat annoyed.
"Okay, that's enough. Let's not fight each other about how each one became stronger," he said, turning to look at Steven. "That's what you're here to do. Everyone learns and improves differently, and we're going to try to make sure you reach your full potential by the time you're out of the academy, so please don't get in contact with shady figures." He looked at everyone else in the room. "And that goes for everyone, okay?"
"Okay…" the group of young people said, while I simply nodded, since I didn't want to cause any trouble.
"You may leave now," Stormwind said while gesturing to the door.
We didn't linger for much longer and made our way to the door of the classroom, but as we were just a couple of steps before stepping outside, Stormwind called out to us.
"Oh, by the way," he said, and we stopped to look at him. "Please go to the administration building to get your uniforms. You're going to be needing them."
"Yes, thank you," Victoria replied, and we all just nodded before leaving the room.
* * *
We had been quiet as we left the building. Steven in particular seemed to be avoiding me, while Brian instead was avoiding Victoria. I could make a guess as to why that was, since it was obvious that the way I reacted to Steven probably scared the boy, while for Brian, knowing that Victoria was a noble girl was something that deterred him from trying to speak with her.
I knew well how that felt, since I also acted like that when I first had contact with nobles; always being on the edge in case that I offended one of them and had me and my mother suffer for it. But in the end, I learned that they were no different than the commoners, and many of them were even lower beings than anyone I ever met, so when faced with my Holy Powers, they would all bend their knees.
There was no need, however, to do that with Victoria, since she seemed like a particularly nice girl, quite unlike the kind of noble girls that I met. Still, she also seemed to feel somewhat awkward around the group as she also avoided talking with anyone.
The silence of our steps didn't last long, as when we were reaching the entrance of the building we met with a certain man dressed in white. He softly smiled when he saw us coming, and I frowned in response, since I didn't want to deal with any zealots anymore.
"Well, I've been waiting for you guys," he said with an amiable tone of voice. "It's a shame we couldn't get to know each other better in class—elves don't understand the importance of the Holy Gods after all—but now we have plenty of time."
"Um…" Victoria replied, her eyes avoiding the blonde man, while the other two just looked back at him.
"Now, now, no need to be afraid. I'm not your enemy. As a matter of fact, I'm part of a very important group that wishes to bring light and peace to the world," Daniel said, taking a small piece of paper out of his backpack. "I'm Daniel, by the way. We've already met, Althea." He smiled my way before turning to the others. "But for the others, I'm a militant for the Followers of Leyfall, and like I said, our mission is to bring the Holy Gods to our world so that darkness may be cleansed. Here, you may have one."
He passed a few of the small pieces of paper. The group of young people took them without question, but I refused yet again to take one of them, since I wasn't interested in doing anything for the Holy Gods. Daniel put a forced smile, but didn't insist on me taking one.
"Right, you already had one of these," he said, putting away the remaining ones in his backpack. "Hopefully, you've changed your mind by now."
"Not at all," I plainly replied, looking down on the man. "I've no interest in serving the Holy Gods."
Daniel frowned for a split second before giving me a soft smile that didn't quite reach the cold look he gave me. "It's a shame… But I'm sure that with time… the light of the Holy Gods will change your mind…"
"Hey," Steven said, and Daniel turned to look at him after sustaining his look on me for a second.
"What is it? Are you interested?" Daniel asked, an amiable smile plastered on his face once more.
"It says here that you guys place resources at ensuring that people have the power to serve the Holy Gods. What does that mean?" Steven asked while pointing at a certain painting on the piece of paper.
"Right! We do everything that we can to do so, so if you do join us, you will find that we can raise your rank much faster than the Institute ever could!" Daniel said with a wide smile. "We don't work for profit, so nothing is spared to make sure you're on the top of your game."
"Really?!" Steven exclaimed, his eyes shining as he looked up at Daniel. "Because… I'm in dire need to increase my powers."
It was obvious to see how they were going to rope this young man into their… cult, so I reached my hand to touch Steven on the shoulder. He turned to look at me with wide eyes and I shook my head.
"Do not listen to it. The Holy Gods aren't worth serving them," I softly said with a serious face, the image of the Holy Blade piercing my chest still vivid in my mind.
Steven softly shook his shoulder and I removed my hand. I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows, since I didn't expect him to reject me so quickly. He frowned and looked down at the piece of paper, a pout hanging from his lips.
"Well… I have to find a way to become stronger; to become a hero… and they seem to be willing to help me," he said with a low voice before looking up at the smiling Daniel. "Right?"
"Yes! Of course!" Daniel said with a bright smile. "If you're thinking about it, you can always text me, and I'll help you with whatever you want."
"Okay," Steven said with a smile, pulling his phone out.
"Are you sure that—"
"Please, Althea," Daniel interrupted me, giving me a soft smile. "At least let others do good."
I tightened my lips after hearing his answer. While I knew that serving the Holy Gods was a mistake, I couldn't really say if working with these people was, since they could very well be doing good for the people, and the part of me that led them for many years was still hanging on to the hope that at least the people that believed in me and the Holy Gods were good. I couldn't just judge them all evil and go on a righteous war against them like I did with Salrak and His people, so it would be better to wait and see.
Brian also took out his phone, although he didn't seem to be quite as into it as Steven was. Victoria remained quiet and just watched, but Daniel also took notice of her. "Don't be shy, you can have my number too."
"Oh, uh…" Victoria waveringly replied, eventually shaking her head. "No, I'm good like this."
Daniel gave her the same cold smile that he gave me before, but just shrugged. "Very well. I just hope that you don't get led astray by the voices in the darkness."
"Um…" was all that Victoria could reply as Daniel started giving a set of numbers to the other young men.
I got closer to her, noticing the awkward expression that she had on her face as she carried a slight flush from what Daniel said. "Don't worry about that."
"Huh?" she exclaimed, turning to look at me with a bit of surprise.
I shook my head and softly smiled at the young girl. "There's nothing to worry about in the darkness and…" I turned to look at Daniel, who was confirming the numbers that he said to the young men in their phones. "Even the brightest of golden lights can lead to darkness, so don't let them get in your head. Try to see for yourself what is evil and what isn't, regardless of how it looks."
"Oh, yeah. Don't worry, I'll try to believe in myself more than in something else," she said before smiling, "Still, thank you for your concern."
I returned a soft smile to the girl before looking over at the young men. It seemed like they were done as Daniel was already taking a step back.
"So write to me or give me a call if you need anything. I'm usually available," Daniel said with a bright smile. "I won't hold you guys anymore."
"Thank you, Daniel," Steven said, stretching his hand to the man.
They shook hands for a moment, exchanging a smile between them before Brian did the same. Daniel looked back at me for a moment with an unreadable expression before backing away and waving as he left the building.
"Let's go get our uniforms now," I said, and we kept going down the same path. Hopefully, this time, we won't have to deal with the man anymore.