I haven't been here for more than ten minutes and I already reached a conclusion.
'I am not gonna make any friends any time soon.'
I was way too awkward. And it was pretty clear to me that most of my classmates didn't like me. Though the same could be said for me.
Though Elvira managed to calm me down a bit, I was still angry. I had never been good at containing my anger and normally I wouldn't have to.
When someone pissed me off in the ring, I'd usually end up killing them, or at the very least critically injure them. I never had to back off like I had to just now.
But the anger had to go somewhere. So I just clenched my hand really hard, making it bleed.
"Drip."
Druppels of blood hit the ground but it wasn't loud enough to get anyone's attention. And slowly but surely, I was calming down.
I guess the only way for me to calm down is through violence, even if it's pointed at myself.
I realized that I had to make changes. I can't just attack people every time I get angry. That would make me no better than any other random villain.
I was actually about to kill some children now that I think about it. Sure, they said some bad things but they haven't grown up yet. They are still some foolish kids.
'Forget it. I don't need to prove myself to them. People like that aren't worth befriending anyway.'
I was stronger than most of them, despite my lower rank, so I knew that I'd quickly prove them wrong. It would take just one practical lesson and they'd see they were wrong.
While sorting my thoughts out, I failed to notice the intense gaze pointed at me. I looked towards it's source to see it was the professor. She looked angry.
'Did she notice my killing intent?'
I wasn't sure but the only thing I could do was put a sorry smile on my face and hope she'd let it go.
She stopped looking at me eventually and went further with the class. I guessed that she just left me off with a warning.
"Now that I've confirmed that everyone is present, I'll start with an explanation of what you students are supposed to do."
Most of the kids in my class seemed to get bored immediately as they already knew everything that was about to be said, but not me.
I didn't know anything about the academy except that it was number 1. So I did really need this information.
"How you live in the academy depends on your rank. Be number 1 like Adam here, and you'll live like a king. Be last like the Sylverheart in the back, and you'll be worth less than a mere insect."
Ouch.
"Your rank will be determined by two simple factors. The first and most important factor is strength. The second is your intelligence. Be strong and smart, you'll be at the top. Be strong but stupid, you'll rank pretty good. Be weak and smart, you'll rank okay."
Before continuing she looked at me. I could see disdain on het face.
"Be weak and stupid, and you'll rank last."
I didn't know why but she seemed to be targeting me for some reason. I didn't remember offending her so it made me wonder why.
"The coming year, you all will not be allowed to leave the academy, unless it is during vacations, excursions or if you have some serious family issues."
"Ah."
That was not good. It means that I won't be able to see Alice or Rachel for months. Why didn't mister Sylverheart tell me about this? Shit.
'Calm down. It's just a couple of months. You can handle that.'
Untill now, nothing was going great for me.
"Allright, that's enough for explanations. Now we'll start class. The first subject will be history."
'History? Why didn't they have any history questions in the written exams if they were going to teach us about it. Fuck.'
I may not be good at maths or other subjects, but history was the one subject I had confidence in.
My mother always thought me about the history of this world. How the wars started and everything.
"We'll start 200 years ago, that was when what we call the age of convergence came to be. When our planet fused with energy's such as mana and aura."
"You'd think that that would be a good thing but it was not. The energy forms on our were quickly noticed by the other races, as if inviting them to come. There were two sides, the side of the alliance consisting of elves, dwarfs and orcs, and the side of those evil scum, the demons."
A frown made its way upon my face. The story she's telling, it was off.
"The demons, vile as ever, wanted to claim our land for themselves, increasing their influence through the universe. The alliance, seeing that we'd stand no chance against the demon race, decided to lend us their aid. For their aid, they requested a portion of the earth. That is how we managed to survive the rampage of the demon race."
'The demons rampage? What is she talking about?'
I wanted to have my say but I decided that it would be better to let her finish first.
"And now we humans, through the aid of energy, have evolved. Though the other races may not like us, we are still on the same side. We all have one common goal, the extinction of the entire demon race. They are vile liars who would go to any length to kill any other race. They enjoy the slaughter they cause and that is why they deserve to die."
And that was were the speech concluded. And to my surprise, all my classmates seemed to agree, except for Elvira next to me, she just had the same stoic expression she had at the start of the lecture.
"Indeed, they should die.."
"They killed so many, they truly are scum…"
"They are evil and we are good, so we must win the war…"
And many of such murmurs filed the class after professor Lier's speech.
"Professor, if I may?" Someone stuck their hand up into the air.
"And what would that be Alan? I doubt YOU have much to add to it."
Indeed, it was me who stuck their hand into the air. I just wanted to correct her on some things she said.
"Well, I think you've said a couple of things wrong. The other races were already in a war and after they came to earth, the humans decided to join the other races instead of the demons and officially joined the war. It wasn't until then that the demons attacked us humans."
Professor Lier had a frown on her face, one that told me she didn't like what I said.
"So what? Does it matter when they decided to attack us. Do you think that that justifies their slaughter? The children and parents they killd!?"
She got angry. I didn't understand why since all I did was correctly recall our history.
"No miss Lier. I'm just that it wasn't necessarily the demons thats started the war. And if you decide to join in a war, you should also expect to get attacked. And it's not like we and the other races in the alliance haven't killed demon children and parents. So I feel like it is extreme to say that the all demons are evil. There are no good sid-"
"You bettet shut your mouth right now!"
"Ah."
Immense pressure bore down into me. I had a hard time moving and even breathing became difficult.
'Is this the pressure of a S-rank? What did I even do?'
"B-but miss, I didn—"
"What don't you understand about shut up?"
She didn't even let me explain myself. The pressure on me doubled, making me barely able to breathe.
"Get out of my class,now! I'll call you back whenever I feel like it."
'What? Am I seriously getting kicked out? For what?'
I wanted to retort again but one look at her face and I knew there was no point in arguing against someone like that. She'd just get angry again.
"Tch"
I gritted my teeth as I stood up and left the classroom. On my way out I could hear my classmates ridiculing me.
"I already knew he was stupid but wow.."
"What a loser…"
"Demons aren't evil? Fucking idiot.."
Why did they like to judge other so much? What's the use in that? Was it going to change anything about themselves?
I didn't like these people. It's like all they care about is ridiculing people who do not belong in their group.
I left the door and waited in the hall. She said that she'd call me bsck so I didn't have any other choice than to sit here.
"PAH!"
"Fuck!"
Before I even knew it, I hit a wall to let my frustration out. But it seemed to be made out of some pretty durable material because there wasn't even a single crack on it.
All there was was my blood.
I was rightfully angry. First, I was made fun of because of my rank and second, I got thrown out of clas just for properly recalling history.
What kind of BS was that!?
"There is no use in complaining. The weak will always be ignored, no matter how right they are. And I… I am still weak."
I thought I was strong. At the very least, stronger than most kids my age. But it didn't matter if I was stronger than them, I was still nothing compared to that professor.
I looked around me in the hall and went towards one of the shadow in the hall.
"Than I'll have to get stronger."
I started practicing my shadow… what should I call it?
I didn't even know what I could do with this technique, I just knew that I could enter the shadows through it.
I'll just call it shadow fusion.
I scanned the mana existing in the shadow and slowly, but surely tried to make the mana in my hand take a similar shape.
It took me about five minutes before I exactly copied the mana in the shadow. And just like yesterday, my hand managed to enter the shadows.
"Too slow."
As it was right now, I couldn't use this in any practical way. It was too slow. I needed to practice more
.
And I had time right now. It's not like I could do anything else. So I went on and practiced.
————————————————————
Elvira Nomed POV:
I never expected to witness such a spectacle.
That guy next to me, I think his name was Alan, truly was some weirdo.
I was annoyed when I felt someone sit next to me but when I noticed that it was the same guy from yesterday, I froze.
I still didn't know how, but he somehow knew that I wasn't a human. Not even the S-rank professors noticed it but it took him a mere glance to find out.
I was rightfully panicking on the inside. This could end pretty badly for me if he were to spread this information.
But to my relieve, he didn't.
I hoped that that would be our last interaction but what would you know, he sat right next to me.
"Hey uhhh."
He tried to start a conversation with me, making me scared of what he wanted to talk about.
"What?" I asked. A simple reply but one that made me look strong.
'What do I do? Is he going to blackmail me? does he have some goal?'
But the words that came out of his mouths weren't ones I expected.
"Uhh… nice wheather don't you think?"
'What? The wheather? What is he even talking about?'
I looked outside to see what kind of wheather it was but all I saw were a lot of dark clouds.
"…"
'Does he consider this nice wheather?'
"You have an interesting taste in weather I guess." Was all that left my mouth.
But to my confusion, when I looked at him it seemed like he was panicking. A look of embarrassment and shame were on his face.
He didn't even respond and just lied down on his table.
His behavior made no sense to me. This isn't how you blackmail someone or is it?
But I soon realized something. It was a simple yet surprising conclusion. 'Was this guy trying to befriend me?'
I already noticed that he was quite the loner, not that I'm much different, and that coupled with his awkwardness let me to one conclusion.
'He has no social skills.'
I didn't understand why but for some reason I felt humored. And I wasn't one to get humored easily.
The next weird thing came a couple minutes later, at the end of the roll call.
"Rank 2000 Alan… Sylverheart?"
You wouldn't understand my surprise when I foun out that this guy was from the Sylverheart family. But how could he have such a low rank?
I knew there was something special about him so his rank was a great surprise to me.
But I noticed something, after the classmates made fun of him.
'Killing intent?'
This guy released killing intent. And it was a pretty strong one as well. I could also tell that he had pretty good control over it, making it hard for most to notice.
And it seemed like he was actually about to act on it so I had to prevent him from doing that.
"You should stop what you're about to do." I warned him.
He stared at me for a couple of seconds before saying something I would have never expected.
"Beautiful.."
"…"
"…"
His face became red and I could see the shame covering his entire face.
'This guy.'
Before I knew it, I had to laugh.
"Pfft hehe."
I couldn't take this guy serious. He was just way too awkward.
"Well thanks for the compliment I guess."
"Ahh.." was all that left his mouth.
He looked at me weirdly, as if in confusion.
'Did I say anything weird? I don't think so.'
And his confusion made me in turn get confused.
"You're welcome." It sounded like a robot was speaking and when I looked at his face again, all the previous emotion was gone, as if he never felt it in the first place.
'Did he seriously just end the conversation there?'
I felt dissapointed. I actually enjoyed the conversation.
But this guy went on to surprise me even more.
He started defending demons. What sane person would do that?
Technically, everything he said was correct. But most people don't care about that. People have made their own story and in everyone's story here, demons are considered evil. Whether it be child or elderly.
'Why would he do that?'
He even went as far as to get kicked out of class.
"Pah!"
I heard a sound coming from the hall. It seems like he hit something.
"Now that that scoundrel is out of the way, we can resume class." Professor Lier, acting like nothing happened, resumed the class.
But I didn't care about any of that. I could only think about that guy.
'Alan Sylverheart. I'll remember you.'