Volume 4 [INCEPTION] Chapter 55 - XYRUS ACADEMY
LUKE HODGES
I woke up.
My eyelids feel heavy from the all nighter I pulled off with the princess, talking about my adventuring times and how interesting it was diving into life threatening dungeons. Tea and snacks that I've never dreamt of eating in this world. It was amazing… Spending time with someone who has been waiting for your return after some time being away is… confusingly warming.
My body ached more than usual. Even during stressful events like the Guardian King, it didn't ache only my core.
"I had…fun."
My arms extended to my sides, my fingers going to my palm as they used mana to feel the strength I had lost moments ago.
I slowly turned my body, keeping in mind the soreness rising more as I moved, my eyes scanning this unfamiliar room. It was only then that I remembered where I was.
Uncertain and curious, I spectated the room more. There were no second thoughts, or any doubts about it. The normal but quite expensive looking furniture that were placed elegantly in their place, along with the couple of teddy bears on the bed which was bathed in light pink.
"N-no way."
A yawn came from behind me, where I was laying a couple of seconds before. Frighteningly I turned slowly like I was caught red handed on something I wasn't supposed to do.
"Good morning." She said in a tired voice. Of course she would, like me, the princess stood all night with me speaking and listening over tea and snacks. Yet, she was excited.
It was the first time ever since she was born that she stayed up late at night talking about life and events over tea and snacks. Who wouldn't be? From what she said, especially her expressions, this would be the first time she was having tea with someone who wasn't after her status.
It's quite sad to know that. Your whole life, after you were born, people would only get closer to you for your own status, to keep themselves wealthy and keep you on their palms.
I gave her a small smile before extending my hand towards her, "Good Morning princess. Did you sleep well?" I teased.
On the other hand, Kathyln gave me a 'Are you Serious' look before standing on her own two feet.
Stretching together, we decided to head down to the cafeteria before our orientation started.
Countless eyes followed in our wake, it was annoying but I knew where they came from. A commoner with a high-ranking person in the academy, it meant I was just with her for power and influence.
It would get annoying at some point but in reality, the princess of Sapin was the one who approached me first. All I did was follow her moods and actions. There was no problem with that since I needed someone my age to talk to, aside from my mental age gap.
"You don't mind?" I finally asked, giving my concern to the princess.
She half turned her head, still walking towards the auditorium. "What do you mean?"
My eyes spectated my surroundings with careful expressions and actions. "Their gazes."
"No. In fact they don't know the story behind our acquaintanceship and even if they did, acceptance would be their enemy."
She was right, even if these people were to know about our origin of becoming acquainted, they would still stop wrapping their heads around it and think I was the cause of it.
Smart princess.
After establishing my concerns, we made it to the orientation, where I instantly spotted our main character with the other reincarnation. Both beings are from the same world but don't know it yet. I thought to myself, following the princess where I spotted prince Curtis.
He eyed me down but was scolded by his sister immediately. "Stop it Curtis, it is disrespectful."
The brown eyed prince let out an expression of surprise.
Letting it go quickly, the prince let out a hand, gesturing comradeship.
"We meet again."
"We certainly did." I responded, shaking his hand as I sat next to him. "Excited?"
"Yeah, getting to learn how to control mana and the origin of it is another level of excitement."
I chuckled, not the mean way but as a funny topic.
The mahogany haired prince shot me a look.
Putting my hands up as a sign of surrendering, I said, "I'm sorry. I mean no offense but do the mages who teach you and the princess–" Moments before I could finish my sentence, I felt a chill down my spine. "I-I mean Kathyln…"
Curtis noticed this and put his hand on my shoulder, "I understand your pain dear friend."
The three of us spent the time we had chatting about small details about the school and what we heard about. They even told me how they were part of a certain group: The Disciplinary Committee.
"That's interes–"
My voice was cut off. Not metaphorically but literally.
That is when I noticed a certain person on the stage. Large purple-ish robe that most people by now should who is famously known for. She looked like she had aged more since I last saw her–which was a couple of days ago.
As I watched her closely, her pupils turned to a specific someone before nodding and turning to my direction. It was like she knew where I was before she even appeared and used her sound magic. It was odd. How can someone like her, an alacryan, leave her home continent to this continent?
Was it because she chose to rebel against the leader of Alacrya?
Or was it because she felt the necessity to protect this continent after realizing what her god was doing?
Either way, if it is not against us, there shouldn't be a problem.
Nevertheless, I find it different. Her appearance I mean. If I was correct, in the novel she had worn something different with another color, not the same as she always wore. I pondered long and hard, maybe it was for only a couple of seconds. Only a single thought crossed my mind that was actually mentally highlighted. Did I cause a change so drastically that only small things have changed?
No matter how I saw it, it was still a change, small or big. A bad feeling entered in my stomach upon knowing that I might be the cause of this change that could in fact affect the bigger future.
That meant I needed to make plans and fast.
If not, by the time I get to cross the bridge, it may have already fallen down.
"Excuse me for my rudeness but I do hate speaking up. Not good for my throat, no it is not." She said in a pleasant voice that, while soft, was heard perfectly clear even from here in the back row.
"I welcome everyone here, the future leaders, scholars and powerhouses of Dicathen to this humble Academy. I am Cynthia Goodsky, please call me Director Goodsky and do not be afraid to say hello when I walk around the campus. I am no good with speeches so I stand here before you mages today to say hello and introduce to you the Student Council that represents this Academy and take part in making important decisions along with me. Please give them a warm welcome." She waved her hand that was raised up and one by one, members of the council started walking out.
Two boys came out, the first was confident, looking straight ahead showing his pretty boy face. The second boy was a bit more cheerful as he waved at the audience with a beaming bright smile.
Lilia was next to appear, showing her calmness as she walked towards the center of the stage, where she gave her small bows.
Behind her walked out a tall student with long bangs that parted. He had a very serious face, even the way he held himself like an all-mighty attitude.
With the crowd excited over the roof, it eventually stopped. The last member of this small school organization appeared. The gunmetal silver hair that reflected the lights in the auditorium gave her the serene glow as her peachy cream complexion made the boys all over the auditorium gape. Her face turned to the audience, along with her turn, the round turquoise eyes captured the hearts of every boy in this auditorium.
Well I had just seen her not that long ago, but yet she seemed to be trying real hard to make the world think she was mature. She was doing a good job at that, maybe the adults' expectations are high above for her actions.
Tesia stood tall against Lilia, she was quite a bit shorter than the serious-looking guy next to her but her posture made her seem bigger and grander than everyone else on the stage. Taking a deep bow, she comes back up while tucking a side of her hair behind her pointed ears, her face emotionless as if she were a doll, completely overwriting my initial memories of her shy and funny behavior.
"My name is Tessia Eralith and I am honored to stand here as this Academy's Student Council President."
The murmurs started after the crowd once again cheered for our president. Kathyln and Curtis were stunned by her beautiful presence. While the place was filled with different talks about Tessia, others would only speak on how she was a star that was out of their reach. As for her female peers, I felt the atmosphere change with envy and jealousy.
"Terrible people." I turned my gaze towards
Now that our main heroine in the novel had the attention, I watched as Director Goodsky left the stage.
Tessia began to speak eloquently, surprising everyone who actually knew her real side. I was stunned to even stand up, my objective here was to talk to Director Goodsky about certain things but she absolutely shocked me.
Eventually I stood up and started to walk, while Tessia's words came through like some memorial speech. So many emotions could be heard if you paid attention to it.
"While I may be a first year as all of you are, having been given the privilege to be inside the academy a year longer made it all too apparent to me that there is a deeply embedded discrimination against the Scholar mage students by the Battle mage students…"
Her voice traced out of my zone of hearing as I closed the door behind me, in search of a certain person.
However my search wasn't a couple of days or weeks, instead, it was only a second.
There she was, standing in front of the entrance like a lonely grandmother waiting for her grandson was the Director of this Academy. "You might get in trouble for ignoring the orientation of the princess like that."
"Hm, well not like I might out run both of them anyways." A chuckle left her mouth when I said that.
She continued to look forward, beyond this theme of the Academy that she so proudly marketed in every corner of this continent. "You are right. And let us not talk about your core stage either. With something like that up your sleeve and you might actually catch both of them in an unwanted position."
I let out a sigh, not because I was tired. It was because I just didn't want that to happen even if there was no way out. "That has to be seen."
"What is this? Is Luke Hodges not trying to find out who will come on top now?"
"Not really, I just want to live and die like any normal person who had potential as a mage. Or at least that is what I hope for."
Director Goodsky finally turned her attention to me, "What do you mean?"
My brows centered and my eyelids had been released from their 'normal routine' mode, and I walked forward, past the Director of this Academy not turning my eyes to her but rather away. As I did, I only brought out a question that stood out more than the others.
Why walk past her?
The answer was simple. I knew from the moment we made eye contact while she was on stage, using her sound magic that was in some way similar to ours and yet it was an Alacryan magic based spell.
"What is it that you really want, Director Goodsky?" I finally said.
"You are smarter than you look, Luke."
"Are you suggesting that I am dumb?"
The old ma'am chuckled. "You sure are funny as well. But let's get to the point. I already have the Student Council, and now I will have the Disciplinary Committee in less than a day or two if your childhood friend would accept."
I held up a hand.
"He will, I guarantee that."
Cynthia seemed to doubt me and my words, she was concerned whether or not I was telling the truth or just saying words with no weight to them.
"Then what about you?"
"What about me?" I turned to meet her eyes that showed nothing more than curiosity and expectations.
Mana riled up in her left hand, entering her dimension ring and taking out a new set of school uniform.
The uniform resembled that of the Lances. The bright white that lingered in every piece of clothing, along with the decorations of color gold.
"Are you trying to get me to be an Academy Lance? You know if they caught glimpse of this you would–"
"I would what? Be punished because I want one of my promising students to be a Guardian at this academy."
I gave her a funny look. My mind couldn't comprehend what she had just said or the motives of her actions. Cynthia Goodsky still held up the uniform for me to grab but I was hesitant.
"I wonder, why give me this role when you have multiple students my age or older and maybe even younger become prodigies." I walked closer to her, being just two feet away from the glowing uniform that screamed horrible things would happen. "You are putting a child in a role that may lead to the destruction of this academy, Director Goodsky."
For some reason, I wasn't happy being given this role. All I wanted before was becoming strong to fight the Alacryans and the war, but now that I am in the Academy things have changed and mostly my views. At least that's what I wanted it to be.
I stared at the clothes. This was a tie, a collar that would bind me to the academy if anything were to happen outside. Perhaps there might be something I can change, like events and many more but taking this role may be the reason why I can't do that.
I would be chained, inside the academy like some ancient book in a hidden library.
"You ponder so much on simple things, dear." Director Goodsky said, using her wing magic to keep the object motioned in the air just in front of my grasp. "You won't be binded to the academy, instead, I will leave those judgments to you. However, there will be times where I would order you to do things which even you can't disobey."
"That sounds… wrong."
"It is simply the way you think of it my dear. Nevertheless, if you think you will be equal to the Student Council or the Disciplinary Committee in terms of power and authority then you are wrong. None of them, whether it be your two childhood friends or the Academy's teachers, can give your orders aside from me. What I am saying is that you will be in the higher seat in this academy second to me."
"What…?"
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HEY THERE READERS, GOOD TO SEE YOU GUYS AND GIRLS BACK HERE AFTER SOME TIME. I DON'T KNOW CURRENTLY HOW LONG ITS BEEN SINCE THE LAST CHAPTER BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER SEEING AS OUR MAIN CHARACTER HAS BEEN GIVEN AN INTERESTING ROLE THAT ISN'T A STUDENT COUNCIL OR A DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE MEMBER.
A GUARDIAN WAS IT?
WELL I WON'T TOUCH THIS MATTER THAT MUCH BUT INSTEAD LET US CELEBRATE THAT TNTBATE IS BACK!!
SINCERELY; GENTLELORD