Chapter 9: The Academy 2


    It was the official start of the lessons. The students were divided into two sses. ss A and B, each of them had 15 students. Yano, Sk and Mil were in ss B.


    ss B upied floor 3 and 4 in the dorms while ss A upied 6 and 7.


    The three of them currently gathered in Yano''s room and still had a few hours before the first ss.


    "We weren''t able to meet any of the others before sses. Pretty sure they''re ghosts, haha!" Mil stuffed his face while feeding Sk some of his snacks.


    "We''ll meet them today," Yano wasn''t interested, he was bored and his hands were itching to do something.


    "By the way, I''ve heard something interesting, you know how there were rumours about the dead fiance of the Ghost King even in our city?" Mil relentlessly munched on his food.


    Yano suddenly perked up, Mil noticed it and grinned, "Interested?"


    "What about them?" Sk was also intrigued by it. She heard the daughter of the K family, who were the only ones with powers, was extremely powerful and beautiful.


    It was a pit she fell in love with a man who didn''t love her back. This unreturned feelings rumour surprisingly never caught the ears of the capital but outside the capital, especially in ces far away, people knew that the current Ghost King didn''t love her.


    "They usually don''t dare to speak of it but I was able to make them guys drunk and wow, what they''re saying is insane. Apparently, she killed her own family because she was after the power and wanted to also harm the Ghost King who loved her very much. The Ghost King then had no choice but to put an end to her. He''s still mourning her and her family," another snack was devoured.


    "That''s different from what we know," Sk mumbled, "so what is the truth?"


    Mil shrugged his shoulders, "but from what we know, its clear those rumours aren''t true. I mean, the K family power-hungry? That''s ridiculous!"


    "It is," apart from that Yano didn''t say anything. It was unclear what he was thinking about as the corners of his lips turned down as if he was displeased by something.


    "By the way, I''ve heard that mortal schools have something like a ce where they prepare and sell food!" Mil''s eyes sparkled as he talked about it and subconsciously stroked Sk''s hair.


    Sk was very distressed, on one hand, she liked it, on the other, it was too much for her poor innocent heart!


    "It''s called a cafeteria and they have it here too," Yano was amazed by how excited Mil became.


    Mil suddenly stood up and eximed, "Let''s check it out!"


    So, the three of them went to therge yet empty cafeteria to eat their fill before sses began.


    As they arrived in the ssroom, there were several rows with chairs and tables. The teacher and the other students were already present.


    The three seated themselves behind a row where a young boy with short brown hair and a slightly pouty face whispered to another guy, with a poker face game as strong as glue, a few seats away,


    "Hey''s isn''t'' that a bit frivolous?"


    The guy next to him just stared and didn''t say anything, "in the mortal world, they have schools like this, I tell you! Are they treating us like lil kids with short lifespans? We''re literally hundreds of years old!"


    The guy continued to just stare at him and the pouty guy suddenly grinned widely as he found a new target to tease. He thought that the quiet guy next to him was very gullible, suitable for him to prank.


    Yano couldn''t help but let out a small ''Pfft'' that went unnoticed by the mischievous guy in front of him. He could already guess what kind of naughty thoughts that fellow had and felt bad for the quiet guy but this was too hrious.


    "Ok, everyone," the teacher in the front cleared his throat, "congrats to everyone being chosen. First, let me brief you how this is going to work. First year, you will have to learn and study about BLA BLA BLA...."


    Everyone in the room had already read through the introduction brief about their course they were given when they passed, so this was fairly uninteresting to them.


    However, given how enthusiastic the teacher was, immersed in his role because being a teacher was a new sensation, everyone took pity on him and pretended to listen.


    Finally, the teacher went to the topic that was really intriguing for a few students,


    "As you all know, powers are given by the Ghost King. Once you have the powers, you use your life force as a catalyst to draw them out and manifest it in a physical form. Because everyone''s life force is different, the power''s established in various forms most suited to the one using it.


    "However, not everyone can easily convert their life-force into power, much less convert it, that''s why during the test, you''ve been measured by how well you could do it."


    Yano thought back on the test, he literally did nothing, so he wondered if the teacher was really serious or not.


    "The ghosts you have been facing were modified so they were able to measure your life force and how it would react to the ghosts. The stronger of a reaction it had, the greater the power."


    Ah, so that was it, Yano loosened up a bit.


    "You all might be familiar how vengeful ghostse into being. The mortals can be very cruel and harm each other. Since they die easily, their lives are even more sacred. Mortals that have been particrly brutally or unfairly killed, or those that die with great resentment, anger or hate turn into vengeful ghosts.


    Once they turn into vengeful ghosts, they either swarm the mortal world and kill more mortals which keeps the cycle going or they enter the immortal world and wreak havoc here. Since there hasn''t been a Ghost King for thest few 1000 years, there was no one, except the K family who could purge ghosts.


    So, the vengeful ghosts have piled up and increased in size to today''s boiling point where the Ghost King has decided to open this academy to train new promising exorcists."


    Yano more or less knew about it but apart from him, Sk and Mil, it seemed the others came from low families and haven''t known about everything.


    "We call you exorcists but you might''ve heard that in the mortal world, the exorcists are those that purge ghosts and have a different notion of what we mean. Of course, being an exorcist here means to also purge ghosts but your powers are not solely for ghosts and can also harm immortals, that''s why you should never misuse your powers. Especially not if you''re in the mortal world."


    After the whole lecture, everyone was exhausted hearing the teacher talk for hours and hours. Their bums were hurting and they felt ufortable and bored. Finally, they had their break in the cafeteria.


    Afterwards, they would need to head to the training field to start their physical training for their bodies. Exorcists need to be not mentally but also physically strong. They needed endurance, strength, paired with wits, spontaneity and intelligence, that was the ideal exorcist.


    Yano was continuously amazed by how much Mil could eat without getting fat. He knew him since they were children, for hundreds of years but still, it took him by surprise whenever he witnessed it.


    Mil devoured his mountain of food on the table while Sk pursed her lips, "Aren''t you being a bit too excessive? We have training afterwards."


    Milughed and lightly bumped her nose. Sk instantly turned red and ate her food silently.


    Yano noticed, sitting to their right was the pouty guy and his silent victim.


    "Hey, hey, Lu, you gonna eat that? Hey, hey! Are you? Are you?" the pouty guy called Holn was relentlessly annoying Lu that even Yano felt he paled inparison with his teasing.


    "Are you? Are you?" Holn poked his fork on Lu''s meat a couple of times and thetter just shook his head.


    "Great! Great!" the mischievous glint in Holn''s eyes appeared but he was a bit disappointed that Lu didn''t give him any desired reactions. He would have to try harder. Ah, life was too beautiful and fun for a troublemaker like him!


    Yano was amused watching them. He suddenly didn''t feel too bored. With that pair, the time spent in the academy would turn out to be quite interesting. On top of that, he''d love to see how Sk and Mil finally confess and get together.


    Yano slowly ate his food and was immersed in his thoughts. He didn''t have many aspirations or goals himself. He was quite bored with life. Only teasing would somehow take the emptiness and boredness away.


    Even going to the mortal world to purge ghosts was something that his family forced him to do because it was their family tradition. It was the same for Sk and Mil but they both actually wanted to do it for Yano.


    He didn''t know himself what he wanted out of life, maybe sooner orter, he would find something that would grip him, entice him and make him want to live life to the fullest, something or maybe even someone he could indulge in, vividly embrace and love.


    But for now, there was nothing, so he continued to follow the path lined up before him without questioning or rejecting it. Living like this was quite... tiring.


    The training went by quite fast and everyone, especially Holn, admired how strong Yano was. Yano, Sk and Mil have been trained since they were young awaiting the arrival of the true king to serve them, so something as easy as this was nothing to them.


    They went back to their dorms and Yano saw how Holn and Lu were living on the same floor next to them. Holn''s room was right next to Yano''s left side, while on the right was Mil''s. The mystery of the evil chuckles andughs at night was finally uncovered.


    It was Holn, probably making up new ns on how to annoy and bring Lu to a boiling point until he''d finally burst and say something.


    However, Lu didn''t straight walk to his room instead he remained on the ground floor. Yano couldn''t help but be curious, so he trailed after Lu.


    Lu went into themon room that no one used as each floor had their ownmon rooms. The students from ss A never went below floor 5, so from ground-floor to floor 4 was all for the ss B students.


    Especially the ground floor''smon room was more hidden, so no one was interested in it. On top of that their rooms were penthouses, no one needed amon room anyway.


    Yano casually followed Lu until Lu abruptly turned around and they met face to face.


    "Oh," was Yano''s only reaction after seeing the blood run down Lu''s face.