One of his entities walks up behind him and begins scribbling on the board.
"My name is Professor Silho." He continues. "and I'm your homeroom and only teacher. I assume you all know why you are here. So welcome to Lionheart Academy; a school where everyone strives to be a Luminary. What is a Luminary, you may ask? Strength, courage, wits, blah blah"
The professor throws his script behind him. "I'm not reading all that; all you need to know is that you're dead meat. Bottom of the ladder, fish in a barrel. Classes here are separated by money, not smarts or power. So we may have the next "Untergang Vehas" in our class and we may not know it. If you don't like your placement, simply earn enough to move up."
A student raises his hand. "If it's not based on power, is there a reason we would try and get to a higher class?"
"The higher the class the better resources: better facilities, better weapons, better tutors, and better teachers."
"HUH?! You're saying you're the worst teacher?!"
Silho unpacks an alarming number of cigarettes from his bag. "Yep. Since mommy and daddy can't make ends meet, you're stuck with me. Your standing is solely your own. Meaning, if you happen to be a diamond in the rough, you can snowball your way to class. Inversely, if you're at the top, but you have a gambling addiction, then... well, you can connect the dots."
"Will class standing affect our graduation?"
"Graduation?" Professor Silho pauses. "...I forgot that's how most schools do it. There's no graduation here."
"If there is no graduation, how will we become Luminaries!?"
"This school is simple: you stay here and become a pro-Luminary, or...you drop out."
The brown-haired girl from earlier raises her hand to the point where she is almost standing.
Silho hesitates, perhaps fearing a pointlessly long question. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he closes his eyes. "Yes, goody two shoes."
"You still have not explained how to become a Luminary?"
"I'm probably wasting my breath, but I'm getting paid, so apparently I'm not allowed to complain. Luminary badges are the only way to become a Pro-Luminary. There are three badges in rotation every year; simply take it from the current champions, hold it for a year, and you become a government-approved Luminary."
The class begins to buzz.
"Only a year? Pfft! That's gonna be easy."
"For real! I'm gonna become a pro-Luminary in my first year."
"The largest challenge these badged Luminaires face, is the fact that they are not allowed to turn down any duel contracts," Silho adds.
"Contracts?"
Silho furrows his brow as he threatens to tap his foot once more. "Did you guys even read the pamphlets I sent out before your arrival?"
"Pamphlets?"
"I didn't get one?"
The class begings to exchange glances of confusion.
Silho opens his bag and sees a bunch of pages that look very similar to the pamphlets he was supposed to send out earlier. His tone suddenly changes to a more forgiving one. "Well... anyway. I'll explain... because I'm so... kind. Contracts are everything here. Think of them as mini-games. Challenge another person to a competition of any kind, a fight, hopscotch, whatever you want it to be. You can make the penalty of loss, whatever you wish. It must be on terms both sides agree to, and once it is signed, it becomes official. Then the fight is overseen by the school itself, meaning the only way to break a contract is to drop out or... well, destroying the source. It costs one gold to request a duel and costs one gold to turn one down. Which means making a lot of enemies might run your wallet dry. As I said in the beginning, this school is not for the weak. You must be prepared to die countless times if you hope to become a Luminary."
"Die countless times?" Some of the class begins to scoff. "Dude's just exaggerating."
Silho attempts to light his cigarette, yet his lighter sputters to no avail. "Killing can only be performed during challenges, events, and weekly drops. Any murders performed outside of these will be penalized by (expand - rename) debuff badges."
The people in the front of the class exchange worried glances.
"I don't know, man, that sounds pretty serious."
"For real, now I'm nervous."
"I won't lecture you any longer, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Because you are at the bottom class, your main purpose is to be punching bags for the stronger Luminaries."
"What the hell?!"
"Aren't you supposed to teach us!?"
"No wonder you're the worst teacher."
"All of you will likely drop out or die, and there's nothing I can do about it. But, I'll make you strong enough to at least have a corpse to recover."
Opening the map I received earlier at the assembly, I survey our new home; Roulette, ignoring all laws of personal space, peeks over my shoulder. "This school provides most of the necessary essentials for students; they have managed to create their own city. But it seems we aren't allowed to visit nearby towns until later. They still wanted to create a self-sustaining ecosystem within the school, giving us restaurants, shopping centers, armories, casinos and-" I cut myself off.
Roulette is surprised, blushing excitedly as she pokes my face. "Naughty, naughty. I see you looking at that. But you can't go in there, Saint."
"What the hell is this school?" As I look at the map I see that there's even a strip club."
"I heard they have these events during the week, raffles, gold rushes, and tournaments. Apparently, they're voluntary, so people must use it as a chance to test their abilities while also getting free stuff, free gold is free gold."
"Do they have a library?"
Roulette stares at me as if I just threw up on a hobo. "How did you manage to pick the lamest thing here?"
"There's a book I want." I shrug.
Silho kicks back in his chair as one of his shadow entities lights his cigarette. "I've talked a lot about gold; that's because it's vital to the structure of this school."
Suddenly, Roulette unlatches herself from me and sits at her desk. Perfectly still, with her full attention on the teacher, wiping the drool coming from her mouth, she fails to hide her avarice.
"Think of gold as the blood pumping through this school's veins. It's used to set challenges, exchange goods, place bounties, and it affects your class standing. This school has enough gold to make your parents loan sharks weep."
He picks himself up from his chair as he points to us. "Now, my final piece of advice to you all is, never show your full han-"
Before he can finish his sentence, professor Silho is punched into a fleshy explosion by a giant entity with no eyes.