I continued to talk to everyone. Mathis, Dominique, Alexis, and Julien were among the most interesting, since they were 1st generations like me and Ana, but unlike that pessimist Ana, they transmigrated into families, and hearing their stories made me feel much better honestly. Although they all were very adamant on not talking about their authorities, so I decided to read the room and do the same.
So it's almost like a game, trying to figure out their authorities. It might be possible for me to make guesses based on their personalities, since I feel that my authority can affect my mental state, but what I should do is to try to get them to use their authorities, but before I could ponder further, I was interrupted,
"Hey so what did you do before you transmigrated, Vanitas?" It was Mathis, who decided to talk to me again. I thought about his question, 'what did I do?' "I was a student." I responded, "17 years old, not even an adult yet, I wanted to go into genetic engineering because I thought it might lead to superpowers or something, but after looking into it more, I decided to just transmigrate."
Mathis had a shocked expression on his face, "You decided to transmigrate?" He asked puzzledly, I then affirmed this fact, then told him all about my thought process, then he said, "Vanitas, what you stated is impossible." I was shocked, this was the second time in half an hour I was told that I was wrong. Although unlike before I was actually right about this.
Mathis continued after seeing my distraught face, "Let me rephrase that, what you said is impossible, simply because it does not conform to any of the rules of our previous world. Your 'symbolism' has no place in physics, and holds certainly no place in mathematics. It's like you're trying to understand science from the point of view of an English major, it's just impossible, and you're just delusional."
I was slightly taken aback, delusional? Me? I affirmed my argument, "You see Mathis, you're the one stuck in a world of delusion. You can't see past the rules that other people have set. On earth, we knew little about how the universe worked, and you claim, with the little rules that we know, that you can accurately say, with absolute certainty, that my transmigration was impossible?"
I decided to flip the script on him, "Mathis, it's like you're trying to say that silver can't exist simply because it is not on your planet. Take Quantum Mechanics as an example of how well your rules of 'physics' has fared."
Mathis looked angry at my last remark and said, "You can't use quantum mechanics as an argument here. My 'physics' fares fine."
I looked back and said, "Oh, really? In quantum physics, things exist and don't exist at the same time!
In quantum physics things can become 'entangled'.
In quantum physics things can straight up teleport.
It's not about your physics faring fine, it doesn't 'fare' at all! It breaks apart, and if you can't predict the position of a sulfur atom with your 'mathematics', how the fuck do you predict the laws of transmigration!
My shouting was interrupted by a woman's voice coming from behind me, "Vanitas! Why are you screaming!?"
It was Alexis. Normally someone screaming at me would not encourage a negative reaction from me, but like any other human being, arguing back and forth about things I believe with 100% certainty makes me kind of irritable and therefore caused me to respond with a sort of hateful energy,
"Hey, Alexis. Does everyone here just try to get people to stop screaming by screaming at them, or is it just because you're a fucking WOMEN!" Alexis looked flabbergasted, I then calmed down and continued, "Anyways, Alexis, me and Mathis here were having an intellectual debate on how much humans know about the natural world and if that knowledge can really be applied to unknown concepts such as transmigration."
While I was speaking, Alexis's face got progressively angrier, "What the fuck do you mean, 'fucking WOMEN'!" I looked at her with fake surprise, "I just wonder if the need for fellow humans to tell others to stop screaming by screaming at them originated from this world, or if it's predisposed by gender." I said with a gentle smile.
She glared at me as her teeth gritted and her crimson eyes showed a fierce lunacy, and as she spoke, it seemed the world did, "Die, Vanitas Valentine!"
At that moment, I felt an extremely sharp pain in my forearm that subsided, and Alexis's near demonic expression dropped, and her eyes felt fear for me, and then seemingly felt fear for herself, as she looked down and shuddered.
Soon after, I could tell what happened. She used her authority against me, I felt it. It's something similar to a world order or decree. She said a name, and then said an action: Me: die, and I believe I may have actually died.
Well, only technically died. I believe the pain I felt earlier was one of my cells dying, which happens all the time, but only this time, forcefully. From all of these conclusions I can say, Alexis's authority is World Order or World's Decree, and she says something and it becomes true, but I also noticed a weakness: what she says comes true, but not necessarily what she means, or I would have died for real.
I looked back at Alexis, her hand was trembling and she looked frightened, but I had an inkling that it was not me she was frightened of, but herself. It seems that trying to kill me brought forth some human rationality to her mind. It is to be expected, we can do terrible things in the heat of the moment, that we'd never normally or rationally do.
Though this sequence of events seems a tad bit ridiculous, 'the heat of the moment' here was a single weak derogatory insult, and by the look on her face I could tell that this wasn't something she really ever expected to do.
So it becomes worth mentioning that this could be a side effect of The Guilty. Ever since transmigrating it seems that people around me have had overly intense reactions to any actions of mine they ever so slightly dislike.
Then, a loud "Ahem" broke me out of my contemplation, "I am the headmaster of Hearthflame academy, Charles Hearthflame, a 4th generation fallen, and I've come to welcome you all to Hearthflame! You can do whatever you wish here, of course, for as it is within the legal jurisdiction of the Nix Concilium Empire. The only thing expected of you here is beating the other empire's fallen at every possible occasion!"
So this is a political stunt, and a very important political stunt as well. Fallen here represent authority and power. The empires with the most or more powerful fallen have higher international presence over the others, and the academies seem to be investments for improving that power, which is their respective fallen's authorities.
The academy's existence is definitive proof that authorities aren't stagnant and can be improved and that the environment surrounding me is the key to my improvement. Though, what could that key be? This place seems to be a place designed for near zero responsibility. In other words, it was made to be a place to make the fallen happier, a utopia of sorts. It doesn't seem like that environment would improve a fallen's power, at most it could worsen it.
A terrible thought then entered my mind: Wait! There's no way! This place is only for fallen and their loved ones, which means here is everything a fallen cares about. Will the headmaster purposefully stage disasters here in this academy to improve their fallen's power while promoting a sense a camaraderie and patriotism?
After my contemplation, I turned around to discuss it with Mathis, I disclosed my theory and how we are all just bugs they are forcing to get stronger and fight for them. Dominique, who was listening to my theory, face went pale.
Ana, who was also lurking in the shadows, decided to interject, "I really don't think that changes anything though, Vanitas." I was shocked, yet responded calmly "What do you mean, it doesn't matter?" Ana gently smiled, and said with satisfaction, "It doesn't matter. We're all just bugs before the eternal cosmos anyways, so what's so different about being bugs before this world?"
Aha! The victory condition for this argument is light, I got this. I spoke confidently, "There is a major difference, Ana. Unlike the cosmos, the world is something we can do something against."
Mathis, now leaning against the black wall, tossing his pocket watch up and down, added his two cents "Vanitas is right, Ana. If his conspiracy theory is really correct, we can do something about it."
While my face lit up with pride, Mathis continued, "But, he's wrong, as in his conspiracy theory. It can be disproven with simple thinking, something vanitas doesn't seem capable of doing. Just think logically, if the king of this country is a fallen who went through the same experiences as us, and had trauma because of such a system, why wouldn't he discontinue the system?"
I raised a counter argument, "What makes you think that the king actually experienced the system? What if he implemented it after he was crowned king, so he never experienced trauma from it, and therefore has no reason to get rid of it?"
Mathis shook his head in a sideways fashion, "Vanitas. Vanitas. Vanitas. Have we learned nothing? LOOK AROUND! The kings' children are in this very room, even if he didn't experience it, he'd discontinue it just for that."