His nails dug into his palm and his anger quickly — very quickly — began to rise.
'That Moonlight Region whore!' his mind raged. 'Smug, dismissive, insulting! They're all like that. Aryanne... Melina. I'll show those two Moonlight bitches!'
He pondered whether he should respond, but before he could say anything, Lady Felda, their teacher, spoke up. "That's enough, Melina." She appeared to be a stern woman, with her slimmer sharp features and even sharper eyes. "You are in the Institution to study the Divinity, not to belittle our far brother."
'Far brother? Is that their way of saying stepbrother?'
Melina rolled her eyes but said nothing further, leaning back in her seat but still having that smirk that played at her lips.
Aeric forced himself to unclench his fist, taking a slow, deep breath.
"You shouldn't listen to her," he heard a voice say to him. Looking to his left, Aeric raised his brow at Linnette, who was still smiling amicably at him. "I'm happy you're here," she said.
Aeric frowned with curiosity. "You are?"
"Yes," she beamed. "And don't worry about your Affinity and Class. It's going to come eventually. Nothing wrong with being a late bloomer. Besides, it's all just overrated anyway."
Not knowing what to say, Aeric only gazed at her curiously, and she just smiled wider then looked ahead.
'Maybe I've been overthinking this,' he thought. 'Maybe not all the Daughters of Eros hate me.'
'But she is right. The Moonlight Daughters are not not worth it,' he reminded himself, even though every instinct screamed at him to say something, anything, in retaliation. Aeric swallowed his anger, locking it away for another time.
Lady Felda cleared her throat and turned to the front of the room, her fingers tracing the symbols drawn on the board behind her. "Today, we will begin our lecture on the sigils of each Region, their meaning, and their history."
"What do you all know about the sigils? What is your understanding of them?"
Felda turned to them and waited for an answer, but none of them seemed certain of anything. Melina just folded her arms indifferently, unbothered about the lecture.
Aeric glanced at Linnette. She still had that happy-to-be-here look on her face. Then he glanced at Meira and saw that she knew the answer. She was just too shy to say it.
Eventually, Lady Felda noticed this and called her. "Meira? Do you have something to say?"
Meira's eyes shot up in surprise. "No... uhm..."
'What a tiny angelic voice,' Aeric thought. 'Reminds me of kittens.'
"The sigils represent the foundation of each Region's magical categories and the Divinity that flows through it," Meira eventually answered.
Lady Felda smiled, pushing her red hair over her shoulder. "Wonderful answer, Meira.'
The girl barely even smiled, she tried to, but it was so wry and weak. She brought her face immediately after, barely making eye contact with the teacher or with Aeric who was watching her.
Lady Felda went on to explain and describe the sigils of all the regions.
She explained that the sigils were not just insignias but Bloodline marks. In Erothyria, Regions acted as Bloodlines and everyone's Class and powers are rooted to their Regions.
Immediately after birth, the mark of one's Region appears behind their neck, making them a bound citizen of that Region. For Unawakened Players, their birthmarks had a gray color, for Awakened ones, their birthmarks were thick black.
"Well then, Aeric," Melina said his name with venom. "Let me check your birthmark and see if it's black or gray."
She reached for his hair and lifted it up his neck, catching a glimpse of the mark before Aeric caught her hand and threw it off him. "Don't you touch me ever again," he turned to her and whispered.
Melina seemed to freeze, clearly startled by his reaction.
"That is enough now," Lady Felda called. "Melina? Last warning."
With his eyes darkened, Aeric looked away from the Moonlight Daughter and faced ahead. When the tension settled, Lady Felda continued with her lesson.
Using drawings she made on the board, she began with the Moonlight Region which had a design of a crescent moon cradling a radiant full moon at its center.
Lady Felda explained that the crescent moon represents mystery, serenity, and the eternal night, while the full moon symbolizes wisdom and silver illumination, which was what the Moonlight Region was known for.
Then she described the Starlight Region's. It was — as Aeric knew — a single brilliant star at the center of a swirling nebula, with smaller stars encircling it in a spiral pattern.
The central star represented guidance and eternal hope, while the nebula symbolizes the vastness and interconnectedness of the cosmos. The smaller stars emphasize the unity of the numerous people in Starlight Region.
Dawn Region's sigil was a golden sun half-risen above the horizon, with rays stretching outward in graceful arcs. Below the horizon, there were waves of light gently ripple, representing the birth of a new day.
For this sigil, the rising sun symbolized new beginnings, rebirth, and the promise of hope and power. The horizon and light waves evoke the eternal cycle of dawn, a land where darkness never came.
For the Twilight Region, it was two interlocking circles, one representing the setting sun and the other the rising moon, with a delicate line of fading light where they met. Silhouetted trees or mountains lined the lower edge of the sigil.
It symbolized the balanced existence of day and night, light and shadow, a grayness embodied by the Twilight Region. The overlapping circles signified the union of opposing forces, while the setting sun and rising moon spoke to the power of their combination.
And finally, for the Elysium Plains, it was a sprawling landscape with a great, lone tree at the center, having branches that stretched toward the heavens, and its roots firmly planted in the earth. Around the tree were vast plains with wildflowers swaying in the wind.
This sigil had a clear representation. The tree represented life, growth, and the connection between heaven and earth, while the wide-open plains symbolized freedom, abundance, and peace. The flowers were a sign of prosperity and the natural beauty of the Elysium Plains — the Region with the strongest presence of Divinity.
When the long lecture on Regions, their geographical settings, history and politics was over, Aeric felt himself relieved. He has barely paid enough attention, but somehow he remembered every single thing that had been thought.
Undeniably, what the Divine Priest said was true. His Divinity overflow had augmented his brain functions, causing him to attain knowledge and information at a faster rate.
Nevertheless, Aeric did find the lecture a bit boring. Having the knowledge was good as he knew he could use it in his goal to take over this entire place in the end, but for now, all he wanted was knowledge on how to get stronger.
Everything to do with the Divinity, Classes, Skills and all the challenges needed to complete in order to get more XP so he can climb the Ranks and get stronger.
But even more important...
'Divinity Block… Seven days.' The words echoed in his mind like a drumbeat. He had not forgotten that he had only a week to come up with a way to escape this predicament, or else, his time in this fantasy world would be short lived.
Next lecture; Cultivation Techniques. And in this lecture room, all the daughters were present.