《The Gospel of L》


 Chapter one: A new page in the life of...

    Well, it seems like it''s finally time to face my greatest challenge yet. One so monstrous and complicated that everything else that I have done in my life fails to compare to even the first month of this four-year journey that I am setting out on.


    My name is Zach Truuben, I am fourteen years old, and am about to begin my first year of high school life. In the following four years, I shall learn how to properly command my Shadow Sigil and utilize it "for the safety of the nation". Well, at least that''s the official story. Sure, it would not be very nice to watch my home nation be destroyed in a war, but I don''t know if I am ready to give my life for it just yet. I am pretty afraid of death, it''s probably my greatest fear yet, specifically what happens after death. Sure, there are stories of the Goddess of Old performing miracles and "proving" her existence. But even if those are not just mere rumors, who knows whether she didn''t just make up the possibility of the afterlife? The Gods are known to play tricks on mortals for their own amusement, I wouldn''t be surprised if this were the case here as well. I certainly am not ready to try that out on myself and risk my existence!


    My primary goal is to get my Sigil license, allowing me to somewhat utilize my Sigil in public and freely use it in case of self-defense. Oh, and also greatly enhance my chances of getting hired! What job am I aiming for? Well, I am not really sure about that just yet, but I have four full years to make that decision, and the license won''t hurt no matter what I choose~ but enough about that, I have been having my mental monologue for far too long, and Sera asked me a question. Who is Sera? Well, the girl right next to me obviously! My childhood friend and future classmate! I actually didn''t really catch what she was asking... Fuck. She hated it when I did this and she had to repeat herself, might as well risk it and guess if I''m going to be lectured anyway, "The train should arrive in a little over five minu~", "I know, that wasn''t what I asked!" she cut me off before I could finish, "You were having your ''internal discussions'' again, I presume?" I was caught! "Whatever" Sera sighed "What I asked was, do you think that Trif is gonna teach us? I didn''t see them in a while!" Damn, that brings up unpleasant memories. Trif, our old combat teacher, and also, a strict ass. Sera really liked him for some reason, but I couldn''t stand his attitude. He forced us to train to the brink of exhaustion pretty much every day, and I wasn''t one for physical exercise to begin with. Needless to say, I was overjoyed when he had to move after being accepted as an instructor at Cyrin. Sadly, Cyrin was the same school that we would soon be attending, but there was one last straw to grasp at! "Most likely not, Trif mostly teaches advanced combat, he most likely won''t teach us until at least our second year." "What a shame" Sera remarked, her previous smile diminishing for a moment, at least until she spotted something behind me and began pushing me out of the way, followed by her screaming loudly "Johannes! You are finally here!" Our other friend, Johannes Vers, appeared "at the last moment", but probably not. Johannes loves to act mysteriously, or at least, attempt to. I think it helps him gain confidence and counteract his shy nature somehow, although I didn''t try asking about it yet, I wonder why? But whatever, it wouldn''t surprise me if he had been waiting behind the next corner until this moment before appearing before us, well, he was here at last. "Hello, Johannes." I greeted him briefly, Johannes doesn''t like getting touchy and disliked hugs and similar gestures, so this was the best approach for him. He replied soon after with a simple, yet effective "Hi." Yep, typical Johannes.


    But enough of our lovely friends for now, the train arrived and we have to depart. I took one final look at the city of Saar which served as my goodbye to it, before walking to our reserved cabin and sitting down next to the window. I wouldn''t let any of the others steal my great view, they''d have to fight for the other one and leave me out of it, oh I can''t wait! "Hey, that''s unfai~" Seraphina wanted to critique my ways, but before she knew it, Johannes was heading for the other window seat and was about to sit down. She tried to pull him back, but someone with a Warden Sigil such as Johannes couldn''t be bested by the likes of us in a strength competition. To be honest, I doubt Johannes even noticed that she pulled at him until he sat down and looked at her. "Tough luck Sera. Should have been faster I guess'''' We sounded in unison. Sera pouted in response, but then reluctantly sat down next to Johannes, somewhat upset that she didn''t get to sit next to a window, but still excited about the following train ride, and for a good reason at that. It wasn''t often that you get to ride a magic train like this one after all, especially not if you were someone of our stature. The nobles could probably enjoy the luxury of riding this thing as much as they want, but we needed a proper reason and a year of our savings for a single one!


    ***


    The following ride was somehow of a letdown, although most of that can be attributed to our ridiculously high expectations. I spent most of the time skimming through the book for one of our classes, "The basics of Sigils and Mana" since I wondered what we would learn in the following year. I understood the first couple of pages, explaining that everyone regularly takes in "pure mana", and that our Sigil converts that into the appropriate type that we then utilize for what we call magic. But the further I went the less I understood from each page, I suppose some of the lessons are supposed to synergize with knowledge from other subjects that we would learn and made less sense on their own. But alas, we were about to finally arrive in Cyrin. Standing up, we took our stuff in the process, followed by us stepping out of our cabin and slowly making our way to the exit. As we walked I took a few glances at the walls, noticing a number of runes that I did not understand in the slightest. ''I wonder what each of those does?'' I thought briefly but swiftly put that thought in the back of my head, there was a more pressing matter at hand. "That''s crazy!" Sera stated somewhat loudly "I completely forgot how many people this thing can hold" Our path was blocked by an enormous mass of people, all of which wished to enter Cyrin as quickly as possible. ''This is gonna take a while...'' I thought to myself, angry at the people in front of us, but also somewhat at myself since I didn''t anticipate this, even though I could have come to this conclusion. Well, no use in lingering on that...If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    We inched forward bit by bit every so often and after about half an hour, we were all outside. "Finally!" we all said simultaneously. "What a pain, " Johannes sighed "Do we continue with our initial plans?" "Of course!" Seraphina assured him, there was no way that she was going to miss out on exploring Cyrin immediately, no matter how tired she was after the ride and the exit debacle. "Alright, let''s just drop off our luggage at the dorm first." I proposed "Let''s do that." And so, we made our way to the academy by using the map that we were provided with, and after some asking around, we found out where the dorms were as well.


    Firstly, Johannes and I dropped off Sera at the girls'' dorm, if we would leave her to herself she would get lost in a matter of seconds, and we didn''t wanna bother with searching for her later. After that small detour, we soon reached the boys'' dorm and walked up to the reception, being greeted with somewhat of an unusual sight. Oh, who am I kidding? We almost pissed our pants at the sight of a monstrous being made of stone, with the body of a lion and the head of a bird, ''probably an eagle'' I guessed, and with a snake for its tail. It stared at us, "Surprisingly expressive for a statue," Johannes remarked, at least he kept his sense of humor in this situation. Both of us started pulling our swords in anticipation of a fight. The fact that a "monster" somehow made it into one of the greatest Magical institutions did not register within our minds until the creature opened its mouth and human speech began flowing out of it: "Woah, calm down there buddy! You new recruits are in no shape to fight a gargoyle! Although I appreciate the eagerness, we''ll have to postpone the sparring sessions until you graduate." Johannes and I looked dumbfounded at each other. ''A GARGOYLE!?'' I thought, ''Those things are like tier 3 monsters at least! We wouldn''t last a second against one of those, why is it here?'' "Anyway, state your names so that I can assign your rooms~" And there was my answer. ''Of course, Cyrin would have a tier 3 monster work at their reception...'' I sighed audibly, my legs were still shivering, but I reluctantly gave my name to the gargoyle: "Zach Truuben", followed by Johannes who hesitated even more so than me, waiting for me to make the first move, "Johannes Vers" "Very well, let me think for a second," The gargoyle stated, following which, his eyes began to visibly glow for a few seconds which was blessed with absolute silence and enough time for us to somewhat calm down and process the situation. "Oh, commoners." Its expression turned a bit sour, after which it probably realized that it was supposed to stay neutral or something ''Of course, a discriminatory stone statue.'' I would have loved to shoot back it somewhat, verbally of course, but I was way too scared of angering it. Yes, even with, what looked to be a magic cage, surrounding it. I didn''t even notice it earlier, but it seems like the gargoyle is caged in a ring of light, most likely being constructed by the runes on the floor and the walls. Possibly for the purpose of keeping the students safe, but I wasn''t taking any chances. It looked Johannes directly in the eyes as it said the magical words that would allow us to quickly leave this heavy atmosphere "Johannes Vers, room 142, floor -4," after which it turned its gaze to me and did the same "Zach Truuben, room 143, same floor. Take the stairs over there" it pointed one of its paws at the general direction of the stairs and then laid down, looking somewhat annoyed. We quickly did as told and didn''t waste a second.


    ***


    Johannes and I were beginning to sweat lightly as we declined the final flight of stairs with relative ease, Trif''s lessons surely helped in this. But it was still a rather time-consuming task, as well as, according to Johannes, ''Kind of a pain''. I fully agreed with him on that point. I wonder whether one could construct an apparatus that could save us the stairs? I had heard of teleportation platforms being constructed in Crocia, but as far as I know, they were very expensive and only rarely used in emergencies, well, emergencies and whenever some noble wanted to save a couple of days of travel... On a more important note, we finally reached our rooms, giving each other a brief nod before entering and temporarily separating. I took in the atmosphere of the small dorm room, barely big enough to contain the bed that I was provided with, as well as the small table with a singular chair while leaving just enough empty space to stand and look at the friendly-looking wall that would be the only view that I will have for an indefinite timespan. "Pretty depressing!" I exclaimed, followed by me putting down my luggage on the bed and beginning to unpack a bit, I searched for a change of clothes that I could wear while we explored the city, swiftly finding success in my endeavor. I switched into it and made my way for Johannes'' door, it was time to get Sera and have our first real look at Cyrin.

 Chapter two: A strange encounter

    It was time.


    We met up with Sera after tiptoeing our way by the terrifying stone statue without making a sound or at least trying to. I sneezed. Johannes shot me a glare, but the statue didn''t seem to notice, or at least, bother to stand up again. So we just continued on our way. We headed out of the academy grounds and what awaited us was quite honestly mystifying.


    The streets were still full of people despite the time and filled with illuminating lanterns constructed with magic, which I could tell from the runes instilled in them. ''I wonder what exactly they did?'' Street vendors were trying to out-scream each other and held a broad variety of delicious delicacies into our faces as they called out to us. Of course, we did the responsible thing when faced with the probably overpriced items and bought a bunch of them. The street vendors knew that recruits would be arriving, and used the opportunity to lynch them of all their pocket change. "Quite an effective strategy~" chomp. One might almost mistake this for a festival! Or well, at least those few streets that we just passed through. Turns out some other people actually want to sleep, and if you keep walking for a bit, you reach an area that isn''t as, well, loud. We did just that and walked by the array of big and small houses, even a couple of taverns, but I disliked alcohol and didn''t pay much attention to them. What interested me more was the path that we had been walking on, it wasn''t a path constructed of many stones like I had been used to, it felt more like, for a lack of better terminology, one big stone that stretches across the floor. But that couldn''t be true, it was probably something man-made, or rather magic-made. Although I am unsure how exactly, I assume it''s the work of a powerful Elementalist, ''I''ll have to look into that.''


    We eventually reached a beautiful fountain, the water of which reflected the lights from the lanterns, creating a wonderful effect that we would have loved to stare at for an indefinite amount of time. However, we had been walking for quite a while by now and really had to sit down, which is what we did. "This was awesome!" Sera exclaimed "We should do this whenever we have time, exploring the city I mean. It''s so beautiful!" I wholeheartedly agreed with Sera, making it even more painstaking to somewhat dimmer her ambitions, "I doubt we''ll get many chances akin to today, according to what I have heard, the first year especially leaves students with very little free time," I paused for a brief moment "that is if you plan on graduating." "And we ''commoners'' don''t get many chances like this, so we don''t get to play around like some nobles." Johannes jumped it "I know I know" and Seraphina couldn''t help but sigh at the thought "We won''t get many chances to explore the city, and I shouldn''t sacrifice my study time to try.. We gotta do our best," luckily, she quickly regained the light in her eyes "For our families!" We nodded in agreement, and I wanted to bask at the moment for a while, sadly, I was not allowed to do so. Our beautiful bonding moment was interrupted by a sudden scream for help, judging by the way it sounded, I guessed it to come from a four-year-old girl, but a turn of my head proved my assumptions mighty wrong.


    Not too far off from us, we could see two boys and one girl surrounding a single guy who was on the floor, all of which were around our age. They were wearing a uniform that seemed strangely familiar, and a look at Johannes revealed why. "That''s the same uniform as us..." I looked Johannes straight in the eyes, we both knew what this look meant, and were grabbing our things as we prepared to dip. ''Now just gotta drag Sera over and... Fuck'' "HEY! What do you think you are doing to that guy?" ''WhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhyWHYYY?!'' Sera seemed to think it was the best idea in the world to scream at them and walk straight at them, causing several surprised, as well as, annoyed looks to pierce her as she approached. "None of your business, bitch." The opposing girl exclaimed, and I very much agreed with her, none of our business. Sera, however, appeared to politely disagree, continuing her stride. "I hate when she does this." "Same." Johannes agreed.


    And it seemed as if we weren''t the only ones who disliked Sera''s approach. One of the guys stepped forward, and the moment she had been close enough, began throwing a punch towards Sera. I, as someone who lived through Trif''s rigorous training of hell, of course already knew the outcome from a glance, or rather, even before a glance. Sera was pretty terrified all things considered. Sera grabbed his hand and pulled, using his own force as she threw him flat on his back, "Ouch" "3 points" "Out of 5?" "Out of 10." Mine and Johannes'' conversation was quickly interrupted, the remaining boy was planning something bad. Very bad. Luckily I could somewhat feel it since I had a Shadow Sigil as well, it was, however, very faint and I barely noticed it in this mana-rich region. He was converting pure mana into shadow mana, he wanted to cast a spell, and we had little time to prepare "Johannes, we are in deep shit!" I told him, luckily, he caught on fairly quickly and began sprinting towards the other boy who I had pointed towards. While Johannes was closing the gap, I took one of the oddities that we had won at a stand, it would be very useful for what''s about to happen.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Johannes'' Warden Sigil greatly enhanced his physical capabilities passively, so it took him just a few moments to close the gap. The other boy, however, also realized that and panicked, rushing his spellcasting and creating a somewhat inferior product that could do very little harm, especially to Johannes. As it approached, I raised the gadget and activated it, causing a bright stream of light to illuminate the surroundings even further and drawing all attention towards me. Not that I did anything of importance, that is, not yet.


    The black mass hit Johannes in the chest as he stormed to protect Sera, pushing both of them back a bit, which actually caused the largest injury that we had gotten so far, a slight bruise. The ''enemies'' had run away in the confusion, possibly afraid of the light show that I had produced earlier.


    "What was that Zach?" I smiled as I approached, holding up a strange piece of paper, replicating the earlier events and presenting them as a sort of painting. "That, my dear friends, was a one-time use magic item known as ''instant camera''." I triumphantly waved the miniature painting in front of their faces as I continued to explain "Students like us aren''t allowed to use magic outside the academy, especially not to attack others. With this little proof of what had happened, we just won the war, my friends." We snickered, imagining what consequences those shitheads would be facing when the professors see this. As we were occupied with that the primary cause of this incident approached us and shyly reminded us of his existence with a simple "Ehm, hello?" We turned our heads, causing the boy to flinch for a moment before remembering what he wanted to do, "I wanted to tha~thank you." "No need for thanks! We just did what was right!" Before I could ask for some kind of compensation, Sera kind of ruined the opportunity with her dumb way of handling things, causing Johannes and me to both stare at her.


    I sighed, "Whatever, why did they pick on you anyway?" The boy straightened his back and puffed out his chest whilst also shoving aside a strand of his black hair from his face, fully revealing his somewhat unusual crimson eyes "First of all, my name is Alexander Craven, " I audibly gasped, my mind in overdrive. ''Craven!? That''s like, a super noble family! Just HOW did one of those end up getting bullied on the side of the streets?'' "I have been attending school with those people for a while, and well..." He was nervously fidgeting around, thinking of how to phrase his next sentence "You have probably heard all the cool stories of the Craven family already, the whole ''firemaster'' thing, " Pausing, he gave us a moment to process and gauge our reactions "the crimson eyes that identify that and so on... Truth is, " he gulped, having difficulties to produce a sound for the following revelation "I kind of suck at this whole magic thing" "Wait. Are you telling me that a Craven sucks at magic? That''s unheard of!" He nervously chuckled with his gaze at the ground, unable to raise his out of shame. And that was very understandable considering his situation, ''The Craven family was known to produce prodigies that make history, all of their members were incredibly talented in the arts of magic. Some believe that this was caused by the blessing of the Goddess when she still regularly interacted with humans and that somehow, the Cravens of that time won her favor. Others, however, thought it was linked to a strange ritual, a kind that most powerful nobles possess, that greatly boosts their magical abilities one way or another.'' This was truly difficult to imagine, pretty much all nobles, especially a house like Craven, were known to excel in the use of magic. A magically illiterate noble was as hard to find as a needle in a pile of hay. Something about their bloodlines and whatnot.


    This was indeed a very interesting revelation, the existence of an untalented Craven could mean many things. Either, the whole blessing thing resulted in a powerful bloodline, and our loser here got really unlucky and it skipped a generation. Or, the ritual did exist, but the family didn''t want to share it with this particular individual for some reason, I didn''t know enough about the internal structure of the Craven household to theorize anymore about it. ''Maybe the "ritual" is the blessing of the Goddess? I''ll think about that later'' "Anyway, you are saying that you are a failure and that your classmates are picking at you for that?" Johannes''s phrasing made Alexander visibly shake for a moment, and he lowered his gaze even more before opening his mouth again "Well, I wouldn''t say it li~ y~yes.." ''Pitiful.'' "Alright, alright, you can stop staring at the floor." I interrupted the young Craven "You already said your thanks, and are free to go do whatever you want to do" ''I don''t want to deal with him right now.'' Alexander politely nodded, after which he swiftly turned around and began running.


    I was lost in thoughts for a moment, ''An untalented Craven, huh?'' but a well-timed groan pulled me out of my own head and reminded me of the boy who was still lying on the floor. Seems like his ''friends'' left him to rot. I grinned widely as I picked him up and whispered into his ear: "Don''t worry, your friends are gonna have a just as shitty time as you are about to have~" his face was filled with surprise and fear, but a quick blow to his abdomen reminded him of what situation he was in, and he did not retaliate as we carried him towards school grounds. This would be quite fun...

 Chapter three: A spawn from Hell

    Well, that was certainly a disappointment...


    I really thought the camera trick was smart, but it seems that nobles have even more privileges in these big cities that I thought! That damn teacher burned my evidence in front of my face, ridiculous! The only thing it did is ensure that we weren''t punished for defending ourselves, and those fuckers, second-year students I learned, got off scot-free? I almost screamed in his wrinkled face but remembered that it wouldn''t help at the last moment. But I will remember this...


    Onto a somewhat less depressing topic or more depressing, depending on who you ask really, our classes finally started. We arrived a few days early in fear of missing anything, but the day is finally here.


    We walked in tandem, passing by several wooden doors that were on either side of the long and white hallway, stretching as far as we could see. In retrospect, it was really good that we got up early again since it was such a walk. The building didn''t look nearly as big from outside which made us wonder at first, but we chugged that up to the runes that decorated the walls of both the outside and, apparently, the inside of the institutions. "Can runes do anything?" Johannes wondered out loud, "Well, not anything. There are limitations, and any big projects require lots of mana to keep working. Rather than the runes itself, how they power all of this is much more mysterious, to be honest."


    And I truly wondered how they accomplished that, something to research later perhaps? Alas, we have finally reached our target, with exactly five minutes to spare if Johannes'' watch isn''t betraying us. We looked at the sign above the door for a brief moment, "The basics of Sigil and Mana", where have I heard that exact combination of words again? Whatever, we didn''t delay any further, swinging the door open as we laid eyes upon the classroom, dusty air filling our lungs in an instant. What we saw was within the realm of our expectations at first, around fourteen students wearing the standard white uniform with silver outlines, all of them sitting and nervously shifting around. Absolute silence dominating the atmosphere, as is usually the case when you throw a bunch of people who don''t know together at this age. Well, until I arrive that is.


    Upon closer inspection, we did notice something, all of the students wore the same badge as us, a bronze badge with the sign for "Beginner" inscribed into it. At first, I assumed that all of the first years got the same badge, however, Alexander proved my assumptions differently. Whilst still having the "beginner" symbol, his badge was golden. And while the symbol was different, the people who bullied Alex had a silver badge. I assume that the symbol refers to your class, while the color reflects on your social status or something like that. And if my assumptions are correct, all of the people here are commoners like us, good. That makes me feel more at ease, to be honest. Can''t get beheaded for accidentally angering a commoner after all!


    My friends and I sat down, and I decided to stir up the silence a bit: "Daaaaaamn, yall are as silent as if we were at a damn funeral!" they were somehow startled at my sudden exclamation, but remained silent for now "If all of us stay silent like that for the remaining year we''ll go crazy you know? Gotta bring in a bit of ''social interaction'' into the mix!" I swiftly turned around while remaining sit down, looking in the eyes of the boy who sat behind me as I stretched out my hand for a handshake "I''ll get started, My name is Zach Truuben and I am 16! I hope we can get along" I smiled, attempting to put them more at ease. The boy shook my hand "Liam Co~" Liam''s eyes lit up as he promptly stood up at the same time as I registered the sound of a door opening. I followed his example and swiftly turned around and stood up with little delay, our conversation would have to be postponed it seems.


    Just as I had thought, the professor arrived, although somewhat early. We all stood, watching with caution as she walked in. She was reasonably tall, about as tall as I am, and looked to be somewhere in her early thirties. She wore, aside from the obviously annoyed expression on her face, a variation of the same robes that we were issued with and which serve as our uniform, being white in color with silver outlines. Obviously, the colors represent our school after all. She spared us all a few glances, even looking me directly in the eyes for a brief moment. ''I wonder whether she heard about the incident?'' She threw a book at the table before sitting down and sighing heavily, she was obviously in a bad mood ''I wonder why?'' Johannes and I exchanged a quick glance, inaudibly agreeing that neither of us is going to take our chances and provoke her, at least today.


    The professor looked as if she was contemplating her life choices for a few minutes, but it appears that she ultimately gave in and stood up, taking a piece of chalk in the process. She turned around and began writing, "Prof. Snakewood", had been written onto the board followed by a loud exclamation: "Professor Snakewood, this is the way that you will address me for the next year, my first name and anything else about my personal life is completely irrelevant to you tra~ oh, I mean students." What she intended to say was clear, but nobody said anything. We knew we were lucky enough to be thought proper magic at all. Nobody would die from a word or two so anything else didn''t matter. "We''ll start with the basics of the basic and make sure that everyone is on the same page, for now, that would be page 7 in your books, " a brief pause, in which we all opened the intended page and the explanation followed: "What we use to cast our ''spells'' and perform magic is mana. Mana comes in several different types, the first of which is pure mana, pure mana is everywhere around us and we constantly collect it with our bodies without even having to put in any effort. As it seeps into our bodies the pure mana is collected in our core." Snakewood pointed at her stomach area, the general location of one''s ''core'', and by some''s beliefs, the general location of one''s ''soul'' as well. "To use spells, most mages need to convert the pure mana in our cores into the corresponding type of mana that they wish to use, for that we use our Sigil." She pointed at the back of her right hand, a moment later a strange tattoo, light blue in color, appeared. I recognized this particular pattern somewhat, guessing it to be an Elementalist Sigil. "This particular one is an Elementalist Sigil, " ''Bingo'' "it allows me to convert my pure mana into either Earth, Fire, or Water mana. Advanced Elementalists are even capable of mixing some mana types, creating Magma, Ice, and Mist mana. However, Elementalists are somewhat of an exception when it comes to their big versatility in mana types,"The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    In the following hour, we also covered Shadow mages like myself who use Shadow mana, Warden Sigils, which utilize Life mana, Light Sigils, which utilize Light mana as well as Mana Shapers and Rune carvers, which both utilize pure mana in one form or another. We also covered the basics of each Sigil and mana type, but I mostly concentrated my notes on my own. Shadow mana, although technically capable of being used directly as a weapon, as demonstrated by our senior the other day, is often used more indirectly in battles, with the purpose to give you an edge and confuse your opponent rather to directly harm them. It is capable of projecting illusions, make its wielder invisible in the right conditions, and it is easier to use the darker it is. The same also applies the other way around, making it more difficult to use the more light there is at the moment. ''Somewhat tricky, hmm''.


    Despite the initial remarks, it appears that this professor is professional enough to properly educate us, at least for now. "What''s next?" "Combat Training" Sera answered my question with a broad smile, of course, she looked forward to this. ''Pain.'' I am fairly certain that thought explains my feelings well enough.


    We hurried towards the gymnasium since it was so far from our previous classroom, "Honestly, I believe Johannes is the only one of us who could reach the gymnasium with much time to spare if he wouldn''t be holding back this much, thanks for that by the way, " Johannes nodded " but why are the classrooms so far apart?" "I don''t knoooooow~" Liam sounded as he sprinted by us ''Surely we aren''t so short on time to have to resort to such measures?'' I grabbed Johannes'' arm and checked the time to make sure, "Fuck. EVERYONE FENDS FOR THEMSELVES!" I screamed as I picked up the pace, I could barely make out Johannes'' smile before he overtook all of us and disappeared into the distance ''God damn Wardens'' I thought, but I couldn''t delve upon that thought for long, I had a class to catch. I leaned forward slightly and began breathing steadily, my focus was at its maximum. I had to avoid crashing into any nobles as I do this, don''t want to be beheaded after all. Step after step I progressed with little time left, ''This must be deliberate. They want us commoners to suffer.'' I briefly theorized, but I had no time for that now. Any distraction could potentially cost me my head. I kept running through the halls when it happened. An older student walked into the halls from a classroom and directly into my way. Our eyes met for a moment, he seemed certain that I would crash into him, raising his arms in self-defense, however, I managed to side-step him at the last moment. I continued onward, not giving him time to catch who I really way, perhaps I would apologize later, but most likely not.


    Drops of sweat flowed down my face, but with my destination in sight, nothing would stop me. I slowed down a bit since I would have to open the door, but it seemed that Sera didn''t have that idea, crashing into me and propelling both of us directly at the door. We crashed. My face hit the door directly, whilst Sera''s crash was somehow cushioned by my existence. I began sliding down, opening the door with one of my hands in the process and almost planting my face in the ground as well, although my other hand stopped it this time.


    "What a graceful entrance, Truuben." ''How did the teacher know my, wait... I know this voice. No! NO! NO!'' Sera stood up from me, at last, and confirmed my fears "Good day professor Trif." ''Hell, this was hell itself.''

 Chapter four: Decisions

    After our ¡®glamorous entrance¡¯, as Trif called it, we took in the atmosphere and surroundings for a few moments. The room was constructed in a way that reminded me of older theaters, with a circular area in the middle, presumably for fighting, that¡¯s surrounded by seats rising in elevation as they approached the walls. We sat down next to Johannes who had been waiting for us at one of the higher seating, watching with a smug grin as we approached. I lightly punched him in the shoulder, telling him ¡°Ah, fuck off.¡± in a joking manner. That was promptly followed by Trif heavily stepping on the floor and grunting, ¡®God damn it, I forgot his ridiculous hearing!¡¯ I pretended that I was not the one being addressed and sat down swiftly, waiting for the bell to ring and Trif to start the actual lesson.


    As it turns out, I didn¡¯t have to wait for long. A couple of moments after I had settled down the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the end. Also known as one of Trif¡¯s classes. Or well, maybe he won¡¯t be as much of a devil today? I noticed some silver badges, possibly a gold one as well, although I am not sure if I saw that right. ¡®Hmm, so we are sharing this class with the nobles?¡¯ ¡°UP!¡± The three of us stood up without hesitation, others looked in confusion, and I pitied them. One does not make Trif repeat themselves lightly. ¡°Up I said! Stand!¡± They caught on, finally. But I could see the annoyance in Trif¡¯s face, this won¡¯t be an easy ride. ¡°No fucking discipline in today¡¯s generation, ¡± That sentence was followed up by a minute of mumbling, he was probably swearing. I bet he was.


    What followed wasn¡¯t as bad as I had initially expected, we were pinned against each other in a one versus one duel format. Commoner against commoner and noble against noble. I assume he wanted to see where everyone stood before breaking them into shape, which would give me a bit of a head start. ¡®Poor whoever has to face one of us three, regular commoners didn¡¯t go through nearly as much training as we were forced to go through by Trif himself. Unless I have to face a Warden, I¡¯ll be alright!¡¯ That is what I anticipated, however, I greatly underestimated Trif.


    Of the three of us, I was the first to come onto the fighting area. The ground was solid, some kind of stone, covered in inscriptions. I assume that was at least partially what kept the others relatively uninjured, although they would survive any wounds that didn¡¯t immediately kill them with Trif around. Just like the people before me, I was presented with a choice between three weapons, those being: a sword, an axe, and a spear. None of their edges were particularly sharp, I assume another measure to keep us from killing each other on the first day. They weren¡¯t the standard weapons used in combat, but one can easily attribute that to Trif¡¯s old fashioned tastes.


    I took the axe into my hand and swung it around for a bit, I really liked the swoosh sound that it made as it sliced the air, the weight felt just right and I could swing it around with a single hand easily, contrary to the axes that I used to chop wood back in the day. I settled on it after a bit more thought. I didn¡¯t like spears, even if they would have given me more of an advantage, I doubt I needed it against another commoner. And I wasn¡¯t very fond of swords, too much skill and experience involved that I didn¡¯t bother building up. Axes, on the other hand, I swung for as long as I remember! Always having to chop firewood and all, it was a nice fit. However, not choosing the spear quickly seemed like an even dumber decision upon the following. Trif pointed at my duel partner, and to everyone¡¯s surprise, well, everyone who realized the meaning of the badges by now, he had a silver badge. This was the first time that he made a commoner face a noble, but in retrospect, it was to be expected. He knew that a regular commoner stood little chance against me, even if I was never really fond of physical labor. What I went through made me at least above-average when compared to the others. And Trif loved to see me suffer, so he would obviously choose someone who could provide a good show, as well as someone who¡¯d be willing to.


    The noble kid seemed angered, facing a copper badge was beneath his honor, and he would let out his rage on me without hesitation. That¡¯s something I have always noticed when comparing nobles and commoners, their set of morals work differently from ours. They would punish those who hurt their honor severely, but could I get away with holding back against a noble? On one hand, I could be punished later if I somehow beat him, especially in front of this crowd. On the other hand, if he noticed that I was holding back, he could be even angrier. And even more importantly, I don¡¯t doubt that Trif would fail me if he notices, and he would notice. I cannot afford to fail even a single class. I do not have the luxury to take such risks, if I get thrown out for poor performance I will never get another chance¡­ No matter what I do, I lose.


    While I was contemplating my chances mister noble stormed towards the stage, every step thundering across the gymnasium and his rage visibly manifesting in his eyes as he approached. Luckily, he picked up the sword instead of the spear. Likely, using a weapon such as a spear and winning would only further tarnish his honor, so I was kind of lucky in that aspect at least.


    Now that he was standing directly in front of me my confidence shuddered even further. He was only a bit taller than I was but tall enough to look slightly down at me with that intimidating glare ¡®Can you calm down? I didn¡¯t CHOOSE this!¡¯ I really wanted to say something out loud, but I didn¡¯t wanna further ruin my chances of survival. ¡®Let¡¯s go over this with again! His family cannot possibly kill me until I finish school, right? The school should protect me until then at least. And after that, I will be in the army! They can¡¯t touch me while I am in the army, especially if I do well in school! Yes! YES! That makes sense!¡¯ I grinned ever so slightly while I continued thinking on this line of thought, this may be the only lucrative path ¡®And honestly, looking at him up close, it¡¯s very likely that he¡¯ll kick my ass anyway! So I shouldn¡¯t have to worry! Heck, I just need to impress Trif a bit by lasting long enough, if I win? Even better! Trif wouldn¡¯t want a promising candidate to be killed, right? Worst case I get a couple of beatings while in school, but I can take that. Yes, this is the safest choice. I just have to give my all!¡¯ I paused for a moment to take another look at his intimidating stature, a single drop of sweat going down the back of my neck, ¡®I think¡­¡¯If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I took a deep breath, I¡¯d have to concentrate on this. I wasn¡¯t a Warden like Johannes, and I wasn¡¯t overly gifted with both talent and enthusiasm like Sera. I put in a fair bit of effort, but was that enough? Nobles are usually trained from childhood to be ready to join the army and take high ranking positions, and I doubt the guy in front of me is an exception. Everything went silent as I heavily focused on my opponent, staring him directly in the eyes as we stood roughly two meters opposite from one another.


    The only sound that reached my ears was Trif announcing the beginning of our duel, upon which I dashed. I couldn¡¯t give him any time to react, I had to use my status and his assumptions that I am easy prey to swiftly end this. Sadly, my opponent seemed to have a faster reaction speed than I would like him to have and began slashing at me from the top, the exact moment that I entered his approximate range. ¡®EEH~¡¯ I stepped to the side swiftly barely evading the swing of the heavy iron and feeling the slash pass by my face from the sheer wind that followed it. Raising my axe, I remembered to counterattack, swinging directly towards his hands as his blade descended further towards the ground, where it made a loud thump sound upon impact. Using the features of my axe, I somehow caught the hilt in between the ¡°blade¡± and the handle of the axe. He grunted for a moment, it seems that I caught some of his fingers with that one, but he didn¡¯t let go. I pulled intending to disarm him, however, he still refused to let go of his weapon and I ended up pulling both his sword and him. I didn¡¯t hesitate, and with my free hand, began throwing a punch directly at his face, causing him to go with one of his hands to shield himself. Bad choice, the resistance against my pulling his sword visibly reduced and I managed to pull the sword from his hands. My punch never even reached his face, it was merely a feint that achieved its purpose, I rather used both hands to quickly pulled at the sword and make sure he loses it.


    He was visibly angered, punching me in the face once while leaving me no time to think, I didn¡¯t believe I¡¯d make it this far, to be honest. Another punch, however, and I realized that I had to capitalize on this opportunity, jumping back a bit when faced with the next attack and winning some range. I raised the arm that had been holding on firmly onto my axe into the air, following which I began swinging at his weaponless state without mercy, just the way Trif liked it. He offered a bit of resistance at first, however, after getting hit by a lump of metal a couple of times, he covered and fell to his knees very soon. That did not hinder me at all, and I continued. I already went this far, so I am already a lost cause and there is no use in holding back. I hit his sides, his shoulders, and also his head, although I held back a bit on those. His blood had splattered, ruining my robe as I lifted and swung. Again and again. Eventually, Trif stepped in and took the axe from me, and whilst breathing heavily I bowed as I staggered back to the stands. I threw a couple of stares at the others, attempting to intimidate them, and judging from their looks, I¡¯d say it worked. Of course, the blood that covered me might have helped a bit. I resisted the urge to throw up with all my might, I had to play strong right now. Otherwise, they would come for me later, and that wasn¡¯t something I was looking forward to. After I sat down I heavily clenched one of my hands in the other, digging into my own flesh with my nails as I tried to prevent myself from shaking. ¡®Did I really have to go this far?¡¯ I had already regretted my actions, it seemed logical at the time, and he certainly wouldn¡¯t have held back against me had I not won the upper hand, but was this much violence necessary? I buried the thoughts, I didn¡¯t have time for those kinds of thoughts. I had to survive and graduate, that¡¯s all that matters.


    Sera and Johannes threw me a few concerned glances, but I assured them that I was alright. After the classes for today ended, I headed back to my dorm room, Johannes had something else to do, and I didn¡¯t pry any further. Not like I had the energy to do that anyway, I was a mess right now. The walk to the door of the dorms felt like an eternity, every step I took made me ache and send a zap through my body. I didn¡¯t even want to imagine how that noble felt, although he received some first aid from Trif, Trif mostly never fully heals you for some reason. ¡°Builds character¡± my ass. And the descend of stairs wasn¡¯t much more amusing either! Seriously, there has to be a way to speed this up. I cannot imagine doing this twice a day, five times a week. After reaching my floor I just kind of fell onto the ground, face first, and didn¡¯t have any plans of standing up anytime soon. I could rest for a bit before going to my room right? Well, it seems that I wouldn¡¯t be given such luxury, since someone thought it would be appropriate to lift me from the ground and promptly slap me across the face! This quickly awoke me from my tired state and I took in the surroundings, there were at least a dozen people¡­ All of which, at least those whose badge I could properly see from this angle, seemed to be at least silver. And worst of all, the guy who I beat the bloody hell out of earlier was amongst them¡­