Chapter 31. A New Classroom

As we were following the group of people that had assembled outside the hall, Doctor Fraga quickly moved over to us, his large phone in hand and a gleeful expression on his face. I wondered what this was about, but he didn’t take long to start speaking.

“Victoria. Althea,” he said, ignoring both Steven and Brian completely. “You girls will go somewhere else instead.”

“Eh? What does that mean?” Victoria asked with an uncertain tone of voice.

“You two have a far too high rank, so it wouldn’t be of any use to have you train under the same circumstances as everyone else here,” he explained while looking between the two of us.

“Wait, what about us?” Steven asked with an expectant expression. “We’re friends with them, I’m sure we should also go to their classes.”

“Y-yeah, you shouldn’t separate us, sir,” Brian quickly said.

Doctor Fraga turned to look at them with an eyebrow raised. He took a moment to look at their faces before looking down at the large phone in his hands. “Names?”

“Steven!” the young man exclaimed with a straight back.

“Brian,” this one said with a bit of difficulty.

Doctor Fraga tapped his fingers a few times on the phone, and after a moment he hummed while tilting his head slightly. “You’re both on the E rank. We can’t send you to higher ranks.”

“B-but sir, we’re all a team here!” Steven insisted, but the old man simply shook his head.

“It wouldn’t do you any good to be sent to a higher ranked class without having the proper tools to deal with what you’re required to do,” Doctor Fraga replied.

“B-but,” Brian said while looking at Victoria, “What if we train really hard. I mean, they managed to get this high up in rank in a week, I’m sure that we can do the same!”

“Yeah! Yeah!” Steven exclaimed while raising a couple of fists and vigorously nodding.

Doctor Fraga considered them for a moment, looking between the two of them and the large phone in his hands. Victoria and I remained quiet. I did mostly because I didn’t know exactly how this academy worked when it came to these sorts of things, but it seemed like Victoria more or less knew what was likely going to happen from the forced smile she was displaying.

“While it is true that the two of them increased their ranks in a very quick time, I can’t allow you to just join their classes since—”

“Please, sir!” Steven insisted while looking at Doctor Fraga straight at his eyes. “I-I… I’m bound to become a hero! I’ll do whatever it takes to do it, and I can’t be left behind! Give me the chance to try with them!”

Doctor Fraga was taken aback, while Brian simply looked amazed at Steven. However, after a few seconds, Doctor Fraga relented with a heavy sigh. “Okay… I’ll let you join then, but if there’s even the slightest sign that you can’t keep up, you’ll be immediately removed from the class and placed on your rank, no questions asked.”

Steven’s face brightened like a child receiving their first sword and he stood up as straight as he could. “Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!”

“T-thanks…” Brian said, although he didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic as he looked between the old man and Victoria.

“Then, where shall we go to?” I asked, now that this seemed to be settled.

“Right, I almost forgot about that,” Doctor Fraga said, tapping a couple of times on the phone. “You’re going to the C ranked class, as you might’ve guessed by now. It’s not a large class, but there’s plenty of people, and the teacher is going to be perfect for you. Please follow me.”

* * *

“Well, this is quite the surprise. What do we have here, Fraga?” a young-looking man asked, and I couldn’t help but frown as I looked at him.

He did indeed look young, with his milky-white pale skin, soft features, and light green hair, but the knife-like ears protruding on the side of his head clearly indicated that he was an elf. One couldn’t really know how old an elf was just by looking at them, as they would age particularly slowly, so the man standing at the front of the classroom could very well be reaching his hundred years or be no older than me when I was killed by the Holy Gods.

“These are the newer students that we got in this batch. I’m just as amazed as you are to have this many, so I hope you can teach them properly, Master Stormwind,” Doctor Fraga said while gesturing to us with his hand.

“Is that so…?” the elf said while narrowing his eyes at us. “It appears you might have a bit of baggage with you, however.”

Saying that, Stormwind pointed at both Steven and Brian, who reacted by flinching and blushing slightly. Doctor Fraga however, simply chuckled and shook his head. “They insisted on coming with the two girls to these classes. I saw some determination in their eyes, so I hope that you can show them the path.”

Stormwind chuckled in response while shrugging. “Very well, I shall take them in. But I won’t be going easy on them simply because they don’t have the power.” He looked at the classroom for a moment before looking back at us. “Please come in.”

I looked at the classroom. There really weren’t that many people—no more than thirty. The group was diverse with people of all sorts of appearances, from old to young, large and small. They were all looking at us, while we were standing by the door of the classroom, so I didn’t linger any longer and walked to the front of the classroom, with the other young people that came with me following soon after.

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“I shall attend to the other group of new people. I’ll leave them in your care now, Master Stormwind,” Doctor Fraga hastily said, already half a step away from the door.

“Yes. Go on now, Fraga,” Stormwind dismissively replied with a wave of his hand and Doctor Fraga quickly left the classroom door.

I had been curious about the kind of people that were in this classroom, mostly about their knowledge and the power that they could wield, since according to Doctor Fraga, they could very well be on the same level as me, but… most of the people here didn’t give me the feeling that they were great warriors or magicians. They appeared to be no different than the common people that one would meet on the roads.

The only one that stood out, mostly for the magic power that I could feel from him, was the elf standing a few steps away from me, Stormwind. The frown in my face still wouldn’t lessen, for he would remind me of the few times that the elves pointed their weapons at me.

However, I couldn’t—and shouldn’t—do anything to him, since at the end of it all, they were right. And I had to come to terms that being elves, or demons, didn’t necessarily mean that they were evil.

“Hm?” Stormwind said while looking at me, and I worried that perhaps he also recognized me like Bo’guth and his wife had. “Is something wrong? Do I have something in my face?”

“What?” I asked, since I didn’t expect him to react that way.

He pulled out a mirror, and looked closely at his own well sculpted face. “It’s just that you were glaring magic bullets at me, so I worried that I had some dirt on my face. But I’m looking as fine as ever.” He put away the mirror and looked at me again. “So is something wrong?”

I shook my head and looked away from him. “No, it’s nothing.”

“Really…” he said, not quite believing my words but still shrugging in response. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Why don’t you guys introduce yourselves?”

I nodded, both because it really didn’t matter why I was glaring at him, and in acknowledgement of his question. I took a step forward and stood as straight as was usually expected of me.

“Althea—”

“Steven Sainz!” the young man interrupted before I could present myself.

I turned to look at him, thinking that he did so on purpose, but I found him almost shaking and standing unnaturally straight with a tense body, without looking at anyone in the classroom in particular, just at the ceiling.

“I-I-I come from a p-public school in the s-south of the city!” he continued, his voice as shaky as his body. “M-my dream is to become a hero!”

There were some chuckles in the group of people, but they were mostly harmless, save for one man dressed in all white that quickly stood up while slowly clapping. I remembered him, he was the one that claimed to be a Follower of Leyfall—Daniel.

“Very good! That’s the kind of personality that our world needs to rid the world of darkness,” he said with a soft smile. “If you ever need help, please don’t hesitate to find me.”

“Y-yes! Thank you!” Steven exclaimed with a bright smile.

Stormwind sighed and shook his head. “Please sit down, Daniel, let the others introduce themselves.

“Yes, of course,” Daniel elegantly replied while sitting back down.

“Okay…” Stormwind said before turning to look at us again. “Anything else to say, Mister Steven? Or would that be all?”

“O-oh… that would be all,” the young man replied, loosening up some of the tenseness he carried in his body.

“Next one then,” Stormwind said, not looking at any of us in particular.

I decided to wait in case that someone else in the group wanted to speak up, and sure enough, I saw Brian take a step forward.

“Hello. Name’s Brian Tasis. I also come from a public school in the south. I like to play soccer and listen to music in my free time. I just hope to use my powers to get a good living,” he calmly said, “I hope we get along.”

“Welcome, welcome,” Stormwind said with a nod. “It’s good to think about how you’re going to earn your keep, and using the talents that you have for that is a great idea, Mister Brian.”

“Thank you, sir,” Brian said with a shy smile.

“Next one then…” Stormwind said, this time looking between me and Victoria.

Once again, I waited to see if the young woman wanted to talk before me, and just like the other two, she took a step forward, a deep breath, and clenched her hands a couple of times before speaking.

“M-my name’s Victoria Graciani… I went to a private school in the north until last year, when I graduated. I’m currently nineteen years old… I also like to listen to music in my free time while reading… and my rank is C+, according to the System Watch,” she said with a low voice, barely audible to the people in the room, especially the ones at the back who were asking themselves what she said, but she didn’t seem to notice. “I hope we can get along, and that we can use our powers in peaceful ways.”

“That’s very good, Miss Victoria. I also hope for that, but well, one must always be prepared for anything,” Stormwind commented while nodding before turning to look at me. “Okay, only one left.”

“Yes,” I replied and took a step forward.

Once again I stood as straight as I would when talking to a crowd. Although this time, there was no need to use a speech, so doing the same as the other kids did would be ideal.

“I am Althea, He—” I paused myself, since I almost sputtered Hero of the Holy Gods, “Here to learn about the world, and most importantly, find the right path in this strange life, by doing what is right, and fixing the mistakes of the past.”

“Oh!” the Daniel man exclaimed once again, “So that’s your name! Quite the special name I might say.” He stood up once more, ignoring the glare from Stormwind. “Your values do align with our values. You should come talk with me and—”

“Mister Daniel!” Stormwind snapped and the man looked back surprised. “This is neither the place nor the time to be recruiting people for your… ‘cause’. So please don’t do it.”

“Right…” Daniel replied, his surprise turning to a glare. “It’s no surprise that someone like you wouldn’t understand. But don’t worry, I won’t create any problems for you here.”

Stormwind sighed and Daniel sat back down on his chair. The elf then turned to look at us with a soft smile. “You guys go ahead and find a place to sit. We have hardly moved on this subject, so I don’t think you’ll be lost, but do come find me if you need anything after class, okay?”

We nodded in response and looked for a place to sit. There wasn’t anywhere with four chairs in a row just open for us to take, so we had to split up. Brian and Steven sat close to each other at the front of the class, while me and Victoria moved to the back, and sadly, close to Daniel. I didn’t want Victoria to be close to such a zealot, so I took the seat next to him.

He didn’t waste any time in turning my way with a soft smile. “It seems like the Holy Gods have placed you once again in my path. Surely, you are fated to be the guiding light of—”

“I’m not interested,” I sharply replied, turning with a glare at the man. “Please don’t bother me with that anymore.”

He raised his eyebrows momentarily, only to have his expression soften once again a couple of seconds later. “You may say that now, but I’m sure you’ll find that the path of the Holy Gods is the right path.”

I decided not to indulge the man anymore, so with a scoff I turned to look away from him and to the elf that was done by now with whatever he was doing with a computer. I could also notice the glances I was getting from the people closer to us, but I ignored all of that to focus on who I assumed would be my next instructor.

“Alright then, let's not take any more time,” Stormwind said and the people in the classroom quieted down as they listened to what the elf had to say.