"That night, I watched with my own eyes when a human bearing two origins ran around my village and slaughtered everyone. No adults could stop him, not even the strongest warriors in the village. Not even my father, who was once a knight general of the Fiordall kingdom. A position equivalent to the holy knight of the earth nation.
And now, that man is back with bigger intentions. He isn't going to wipe a village this time. He is back to wipe the entire Avenor. And I'm afraid… he has all the power to do so."
I paused my explanation there and turned to Miss Hilda, because this is her turn to explain things.
"There's a reason why crown princess Frisena sounded so distressed. Because she was there alongside me when we witnessed our strongest men get wiped out by the dark republic's president." Miss Hilda explained with her normal voice, and everyone listened quite deeply.
"President Zero has the abnormal strength that allows him to freely control the darkness. It's an ability that specializes in killing, which made his combat ability heavily suited for slaughtering masses. He isn't an opponent that simply any army can face.
Not, however… if he faced an army of people similar to Nathan." Miss Hilda then lifted her hand to point at me, and I simply smiled.
"Please. Students of class A, my classmates. Help me out with my revenge." I said while bowing slightly at my friends, and everyone only watched in silence.
"I understand that joining me means risking your life. Even worse, I can't guarantee that they might kill you right away if you were to be captured. This is war, and I will not force any of you to risk yourself for me.
But, for Avenor. At the very least, do it for the land that we lived in. Do it for the people of Avenor."
I said to them with a genuine voice. A voice that I've never said to anyone else but them. And hearing that I'm being serious about everything, without a doubt there are bound to be people who are moved.
In fact, everyone… was moved.
"Nathan." A voice called out from the crowd, and I noticed Rejulus is approaching me again.
Seeing him approaching me again, I quickly lifted my head back up and got myself ready for a slap coming. I fully prepared myself to defend from any attack coming.
But as soon as he got close, what he did was instead something I wasn't expecting.
DUK!!!
Instead of his hand, his foot was thrown and kicked my knee. Out of pain, I jumped backwards and held my right knee, but he was already running ahead.
The next thing I knew, he was already hugging me.
"I never knew… that all of these things are concerning you." Reju said as he hugged me tightly, and I could feel him holding back his emotions.
Now that he is hugging me, my eyes were forced to land on my classmates, and I can see every single one of them looked like they were crying for my sake. Everyone is…
No, Nyssa still looks bland as ever. But Lily, Jonah, even the classmates I wasn't that close with, looked really moved by my request.
"Reju…" I patted him in the back, but his hug is only getting tighter.
"Thank you for wanting to believe in us! We'll promise to do our best!!" Reju shouted next to my ears, and I can tell the real Reju has finally shown himself.
This is the real him. Not the charismatic Reju who fooled everyone with his handsome face and his noble acts. This is the crybaby Reju, the one I've known for so long only to disappear after we got older.
As he cried on my shoulder, he pushed out all of the snot on his nose to my shoulder. I knew immediately that it's going to be a hassle to clean the snot away
"Sorry for keeping all of this a secret from you. I didn't want to trouble you or Felicia." I said a bit softer, because I didn't want the others to hear us talk.
"But, we knew! We knew you were still hurting from what happened… and the best we could do was to just help you forget…"
"And you did your best. Thank you, brother."
Reju finally let go of the hug, and once again, I can see his face filled with tears and snot. It's been so long since I've seen this face of his that it does feel a little nostalgic.
"Promise that you won't handle everything alone again." He said to me while lifting his hand for a manly handshake, and I grabbed his hand firmly.
"Of course. I'll be relying on you and the others from now on." I promised Reju, and he wiped his face with his sleeves before turning around to the others.
"By the way, anyone who doesn't want to join will be moved to class B!" Miss Hilda suddenly ruined the mood by that information, and I turned to her a little pissed. She stuck her tongue out at me, and now everyone had no choice but to join me.
Afterwards, I explained to the others about how the training will go from now on. From now on, class A will only have one academic lesson every day, and the rest of the class hours will be replaced to only training class. This is done to maximize our training hours, so that the chances of the students perfecting the mastery phase is higher.
I told them about what to do during those training hours, and…
"No way. No ******* way!!"
Rejulus. My lovely brother who has given me his promise to help me out, was the first to deny such a cruel learning method.
"That's too hard! We can't go on for hours!!" He reasoned with me after I told them how to do it, and everyone seemed to agree.
"You think the path to becoming the best is easy!? This is the easiest method to make you a 'Holy Knight' level soldier!" I argued with him, and I specifically used those choice of words to motivate a certain individual.
"I'll do it!!" Jonah stepped forward right away and started shooting rocks to the empty air in front of him. "I want to be the holy knight!!!"
Jonah is doing it with so much energy, and it makes everyone more motivated. Regie, Jonah's cousin, saw the energy that Jonah is showing. He too stepped ahead and stood next to Jonah and started shooting small rocks to the air endlessly. Seeing Jonah and Regie doing it, everyone else also began to think of the possibility.
Enough thinking about the process! Think only about the results!
The results!!!
"""UWOOOHHH!!!!!"""
Beforelong, everyone started shooting their origin techniques forward endlessly. They are all shooting towards the destroyed half of the training hall, so there's no issue with them firing that way.
Even Eric has joined them, but his method is a bit special because he even took off his tops fully knowing that he is going to be sweating.
"Woi! Why are you naked!?" I shouted at Eric, but he doesn't seem to care.
Meanwhile, footsteps can be heard coming from my left. I turned to the source and found Nyssa approaching me.
Once she got closer, Nyssa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The next thing I knew, a powerful breeze gathered around her, and the cool wind breezed past me to reach her. In an instant, the top part of her short hair turned bright green, and I knew immediately what it meant.
"Is this how you do it?" Nyssa asked with the same plain voice and expression, and I was too amazed to reply immediately.
"Y-Yeah…"
"Wow, look at you! A talented wind origin!" Miss Hilda suddenly slapped me away and smiled at Nyssa. "Would you like to learn some advanced wind techniques from me? I promise I'll teach you the good stuff!"
"Um… Nn." As always, Nyssa's answer is short and plain.
Beforelong, Miss Hilda led the way to a different training location alongside her new apprentice. The two of them had wind origins, so I guess I don't have much to worry about their training. What I'm more concerned about is actually her roommate.
Lily… seemed like she was struggling.