Chapter 7 - Class 1D

"All right. Let's start this with a calm face," I mumble before putting a brief smile and then entering into the classroom 1D.

Taking the first step in, I saw the teacher's podium in front and a green board on which some text was written.

'The teacher is still not here, huh?' I thought, noticing the empty podium before turning to see the stair desks that increased one step at a time, totalling to 5 rows, with two column desks.

Each desk had a place for 2 students, while I had to sit on the far back, on the second last desk.

'Nobody is paying attention to me, huh? That's good, I suppose,' I thought as I moved towards my seat one step at a time.

The gray-robed students talked among themselves without concern about me. It was as if I didn't even exist there.

"Oh! Hi Vincent! You are early today," the orange-haired girl, adorning a ponytail, sitting beside me, looked at me cheerfully. She seemed to be pretty nice.

"It's pretty-" I was about to answer but another girl, this time one with green long curly hair, called her out.

"Gloria. Come here. We got something special here," she spoke as she pointed to another purple-haired girl who was making an embarrassed expression.

Gloria, ignoring me, ran towards them, while I just stood there with my sentence half complete.

The boys seemed to be busy stalking the girls, while a few were immersed in their books. Seemed like a pretty nice classroom-

-Thud!!

The door opened with a loud noise as a yellow-haired boy entered with an irritated expression. His eyes seemed rather furious as he mumbled some curses under his breath.

Behind him was a black-haired girl and two brown-haired boys who seemed equally upset about something.

That guy took one step at a time towards me before he stood right beside me.

Looking up at him, I recalled Zara's words before understanding who he was.

'This must be Lucas. Vincent's bully,' I thought as I wondered if I should indulge in this childish entourage or not?

Grabbing me by my collar, he focused his eyes on mine and pulled me closer to him.

"You bastard! How dare you lie to me?!!" He shouted as he looked at me.

"Boss. I told you before. Scums like him should never be trusted," one of the brown-haired guys, the fat one, spoke.

"Give a beggar an iron, he will start asking for silvers. Somebody must have paid him even more to lie to you," the thin brown-haired guy spoke.

"You-"

Thud!

This time, the door opened again as the teacher entered the classroom.

"Meet me after the class is done. This is not over," Lucas glared at me, before letting me go. He and his gang then sat in their respective seats.

I stood there for a while before taking a seat, while I was lost in a bit of thought.

'So even the teachers won't care about bullying, huh? Seems like Zara was right. As for the students, they seem to be more scared than unbothered by it. Even Gloria, my seat partner, is keeping a distance from me.'

While it was rather boring. I got the gist of the class situation.

Now the question of what we should do? Within the class there is nothing other than basic theories… which is kind of boring. I could just grasp most of the things by reading a couple of books from the library in my free time.

'The class is only for 3 hours and then we are free to choose what we want to do, huh?' I thought as I decided it would be better to check out the classes that deal with Mana.

The ratio of students to teachers is roughly 1:10. So there is always a free class where you can learn anything you want.

Though most students try to learn from the most famous teachers.

'Typical,' I thought as I then waited for the class to be over.

-Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!

The bell rang as the class finished, and Lucas stood up and gave me a look to follow him.

'All right… let's shut him first,' I sighed as I nodded at him, packed up the bag and then slowly moved behind him.

Lucas and the girl walked in front of me while the duo walked behind me.

Walking through various corridors, I saw a few teachers giving me side looks before ignoring me altogether.

As for the students from other classes, they ignored us all together.

'Hmmmm?' But interestingly I found a few people that were neither students nor teachers. They looked at me with concerned looks before their friends hushed them up and they, too, went on with their work.

From what Zara told me, they should be kids from the city who couldn't get admitted to the classes but still had the freedom to study in the library and use the training area for common people.

'I should check them out later too,' I thought as I got fascinated by these small things.

Lucas and the group walked for quite some time before we reached a desolate area where the number of people were minimum.

And as soon as we reached there…

Lucas and the group turned to me and bowed with their heads at 90 degrees.

"Sorry boss. We had no choice but to leave you there… or else we would have been killed. Please! Don't get angry! We had no choice!" Lucas put his hands together as he asked for forgiveness. And the other three bowed to me as well.

And once again, the situation amazed me.

Vincent… wasn't as simple as he looked, was he?