As I began heading home that night, I decided to take a quick look at the new book I had just gotten. I flipped to a random page in order to take a quick glance at its contents, and I was quickly left speechless.

The amount of information on a single page was absurd. The page I had flipped to wasn’t just a simple technique like any of my other books. It seemed to be an entirely different fighting style.

This book had various different forms and stances, which could possibly have influenced the entire flow of battle. There were very few pictures, it was mainly just large chunks of information. It was structured almost as a sort of research paper. As far as I could gather, the author used this book to list out and detail their many theories and ideas relating to Neptarian physiology.

A book like this wasn’t unheard of, in fact they had their own subgenre. Elemental gifts, abnormalities, even our bodies themselves… they’re ever evolving. You never know when an individual may stumble upon something game changing.

As I arrived at the castle gates, I was escorted inside by one of the guards. I quickly headed into my room and decided to devote some time towards reading.

"Well, let’s see now," I said to myself as I opened the book once more.

The cover was scratched off and indecipherable. The only thing I could manage to read was the spine of the book, which said ‘Lesson 3'. The quality of the paper seemed very expensive, but it had definitely been worn down throughout the years, and the scripture was pretty old as well, since various different spellings were used. As Sigil had previously mentioned, it was most likely from a pre-neptar era.

However, my excitement quickly faded away as soon as I began to actually read a page. I instantly realized that the techniques in the book were far beyond the realm of possibility. The only way I could describe this author’s theories was… delusional.

Most of what was in the book required the user to be able to project an absurd amount of flames, enough to propel one’s own body. Considering the fact that using even a small amount of flame requires large amounts of energy, this feat didn’t just seem difficult; it was downright impossible. Even the highest-ranking Neptarians wouldn't have been able to accomplish such a task. Hell, I even occasionally heard my grandfather of all people mention how taxing using too much flame is for him.

The worst part about all of this was the fact that most of the flame usage detailed wasn’t even used to attack, just for movement. Even the most basic stances required the use of constant flame projection. There was no way I would’ve been able to pull any of this off. I ended up chalking this book’s creation up to a lower ranked individual who’d read too much fiction and as a result overestimated how much energy was required to actually perform such tasks.

I decided to put the book down and focus on recuperation instead. My body was still very worn out from earlier that day, so I just wanted to take a small break for the night. I laid down on my hard wooden bed and slowly dozed off until eventually I had lost consciousness and fallen asleep.

The presence of fear looms from above; the walls frozen stiff, blood splattered over the floor; the room reeks of death. My legs are frozen in fear of what lurks ahead. Five bodies scattered across the floor, one impaled up high on a wall, their eyes drained of all life, their skin blue, and their insides removed. I see a young girl standing in the center of the room. She turned to me and reached her hand out as a single tear rolled down her cheek, freezing as it hit the ground. I managed to catch her seemingly lifeless body as she fell towards me in what appeared to be one last desperate attempt to run. Her skin felt cold to the touch, and all the emotion she once had seemed to be all but stripped away from her; the light in her eyes had been gone.

I continued to toss and turn all night long; I wasn’t able to get much sleep. It had been the same dream each time. I just… couldn’t seem to let go of the past.

Once the sun had risen, I heard a knock on my door.

"Sir, Lord Zant has asked me to wake you up. Your classes are starting a bit earlier today," Lydia had spoken out to me from behind the door.

I unwillingly pulled myself out of bed and opened the door. "Seriously? Again?"

"Wow…" She remained still for a moment. "You look horrible," she teased.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said while yawning, “So when are classes starting?"

"I... believe they’re about to begin; I just sent Aura on her way, so you should probably start heading out now too," she said to me while mentioning her little sister. “Wait… is today the 12th or the 13th…”

"Fine… just give me a moment." I sighed as I closed the door to change my clothes.

On my way out of the castle, I ran into my grandfather in the lobby.

"Good morning, Mistery; you’re up early. I’ve been meaning to talk to you," he said to me while not moving an inch. His eyes remained focused on the paperwork in front of him.

"I wish I were still asleep, to be honest with you," I replied with my eyes still closed.

"Oh, you sleep too much; it’s better to get out there and do something for once."

"Hmm..." My eyes remained closed.

“I wanted to let you know that I am going to be heading out to Hearth for an important meeting, and I won’t be back until sundown, so don’t wait up on me."

"All the way to Hearth? Why would you need to go over there?" I asked him, finally managing to open my eyes.

"I have scheduled a meeting with Lady Gleam; there’s a proposal I would like to run by her before going through with it. I’d rather not bore you with the details, so we’ll leave it at that," he replied as he waved me off.

"Yeah, that would be for the best," I yawned as I said my goodbyes.

Hearth was one of the three major kingdoms of Neptar along with Torn and Siren, it was located on the other side of the planet. Similar to Torn, Hearth had its own queen who watched and ruled over her people.

"Oh, and one more thing. I didn’t have the chance to ask you yesterday, but how did class go?" He had asked me.

“Well, besides being late on my first day, having to fight Blade, losing to Blade, embarrassing myself in front of everyone, and being called out several times, I’d say it was great…just…great…" I sighed.

"You tend to overthink things too much. I’m sure it went fine, you should really try to lighten up a bit."

"Yeah… I think I’m gonna go now."

He gave a dismissive laugh, "You take care out there."

That old man is going to be the death of me.

----------------------------------------

The academy grounds were located within Torn’s commercial district. There were three major districts across Torn: we had the commercial, noble, and residential districts. Within those were smaller areas, like the outskirts. The academy consisted of a fairly large building with a few rooms inside containing study halls. It also had a huge training ground next to a large forest where students could practice any combat skills or abilities they had developed.

As I arrived, I noticed that there was no one around; the sun had just barely risen.

"Well, that’s strange..." For a second, I thought I had shown up at the wrong place, but instead of investigating like any normal person would, I… decided to take a quick nap under a small tree.

Not long after though, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and as I turned around, I was instantly met with more than a few scoldings.

"Unbelievable!" an all-too-familiar voice began yelling in my ear. "Lying down in a place like this? What are you? Some kind of animal?"

"Huh? What’s it to you?" I yawned as I closed my eyes once again, attempting to ignore her.

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Aura was Lydia’s younger sister; she was a very short and pouty girl. She had bright yellow hair and always wore a variety of fancy dresses.

"Y-you’re royalty; you shouldn’t be acting in this manner." She sighed "I swear, you’re unbearable sometimes." A few sparks of flame began to form across her hair. That tended to happen whenever she’d get too emotional.

"Yet you’re the one nagging me," I remarked.

"Hmph… Some prince you are," she scoffed. "And you seriously couldn’t even bother to change your clothing?!"

I opened my eyes and looked down at my shirt. "Uhh... these are different clothes,"

"Well you expect me to know that?" she continued nagging. "I mean, you wear the same thing every day, and look, your hair is still a mess!"

I had no idea what she was so angry about today.

"Alright, alright, I get it. I'm a disappointment, surprise, surprise." I decided to finally call it quits and stop provoking her.

And for a moment, there was actually silence. However, as I slowly opened my eyes I found that Aura was still standing beside me.

"Can I… help you with something?"

"What’s it to you?" She crossed her arms and looked away from me.

"I mean, you’re just standing there; don’t you have a class or something?"

"I just so happened to get here early today," she said as she placed her hand on her waist in a prideful manner.

"I guess that makes two of us then…" I replied while stretching. “Seems your big sis got her days mixed up again.”

“I-I told you I’m just here early. She has nothing to do with this.” Her face became flushed red and the embers on her hair grew larger. So obvious.

"Well good for you I guess. Anyways… if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a nap,"

"Y-you’re just going to ignore me like that!?"

"If I say yes, will you leave me alone?"

"F-fine, I’ll leave. But, y-you… better not disappoint me today, you hear?" she had said to me.

"Wait, what do you mean... disappoint…?" I opened my eyes, but to no avail. She had already left.

Aura had always been quite stuck up and prideful, in a good way at least. Actually, I found it quite funny because you wouldn't be able to guess just by looking at our interaction, but Lydia used to tell me that she really looked up to me, funny how that works huh?

I took a deep breath. "Finally, some peace and quiet,"

"Mistery?" A deep, gruff voice spoke out to me.

"Ignis all mighty, you’ve got to be kidding me," I banged my head against the base of the tree in frustration.

"Well, that's a surprise; you’re actually early today." I heard the captain speak, "Even Blade hasn’t arrived, and he’s always the first one here,"

"I was told classes would begin early today," I said to him with a hint of pain in my voice.

"That was yesterday…" the captain had said to me with a disappointed look on his face.

"Yeah…" I sighed. "That would make more sense," damn you, Lydia.

"So? I hear from your grandfather that you’ve been keeping up with your training. Are you still aiming for that royal knight position?"

"Let’s just drop that subject; you know full well I only got into this course due to dumb luck."

"And why is that? Because you think you aren’t as strong as everyone else?"

"I’m just sick and tired of everyone thinking I’m someone I’m not."

"And who is that someone? If you don’t mind me asking, that is."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Is it someone strong? Is it someone courageous?" He crossed his arms and turned over to the field that made up the training grounds. “Oftentimes, one's own perceived value is different than what others may think and while it may be hard to change how people view you, ultimately the only person who gets to decide who or what you are, is yourself.”

"I…"

"Yo!" Riza had arrived at the training grounds. "What’s up, Prince? You look awfully gloomy today. More than usual, at least," she laughed as she sucker punched me in the arm.

"This is how I always look; why does everyone keep making fun of my appearance?"

"Maybe it’s because you always wear the same thing," Blade had come up behind me.

"Oh, I don’t need to hear it from you, Mr. Silver Armor,"

"I’ll have you know that this one is a custom made design since you broke my last one," he said, becoming oddly defensive.

"It looks exactly the same," I whispered.

"Alright, that’s enough chit-chat; now that everyone is here, we can begin our first lesson. Riza and Trock, both of you will be team captains,"

"Team Captains?" Trock had asked.

"Yes, I have a fun team exercise you all might like," he announced. "The way this challenge works is pretty simple. Each member of your team will receive a marble, your task is simply to destroy the other team’s marbles by any means necessary. A victor will be decided once one team has destroyed all of the other's marbles," he chuckled. “Riza, you may pick the first member."

"What?!" Trock shouted, "Why does she get to go first?"

"It’s because he knows who you’re going to choose, it’s more interesting to balance things out, wouldn’t you say?"

"Whatever, just get it over with," Trock responded.

"Hmm..." she stopped for a second as she started eyeing me up and down. "Prince, you’re with me," she smiled.

"What a surprise…" I said under my breath.

"Oh come on, don’t tell me you’d rather be with that guy?" she said, pointing at a furious Trock behind her.

"Y-you’ve got a point," I nervously laughed and went along with her.

"Interesting choice, Trock, you’re up next," the captain had spoken out.

"Fine, have it your way. I've got Marz then," he said to the captain with a seemingly menacing look on his face.

Riza was up once again, and she went on to take a close look at Blade. She decided to eye him up and down and even inspect his armor. I wasn’t allowed to give her any advice, so I just quietly stood there, hoping and praying that she would choose him.

"Yeah… no. Sparky, you’re with me." She pointed and signaled toward Joule.

"Well, I don’t want him either," Trock responded.

“Too bad, that leaves Blade on Trock’s team," the captain said to the class. It was clear that Trock really disliked Blade, I mean he wasn’t the nicest person to begin with, but there was a distinct way he would treat Blade. My guess was due to the fact that Trock came from a high-ranking noble family while Blade was a commoner, yet they were at a similar level in terms of skill.

"You may now take a moment to converse with your team and come up with a plan," the captain had announced. “Today’s session will begin shortly.”

Joule then nervously walked closer to us without so much as a whisper.

"So what’s the plan?" I asked the group.

"Well… It shouldn’t be a problem if you just used that neat little power of yours, whatcha say?" Riza said to me as she gave her signature smug grin.

"That’s not how this works." I replied and brushed it aside.

"Joule was it? What do you think?" I asked her instead.

"I… umm… I don't think I'm the right person to ask about this." She whispered as she turned away, cowering in fear.

Unlike everyone else here, Joule was from the planet Otoma, so instead of projecting flames, she had the ability to control lightning. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.

Joule was also an incredibly shy girl though; she had shoulder-length blonde hair that often stood up on its ends due to the static her body emitted, and because of that, she would always wrap a part of her hair up in a bun though it was still hard for her to keep it neat and styled..

The captain had then come over to our group to give us each a marble.

"You should all prepare yourselves; you’re up against a very formidable team," the captain had warned us with a forlorn look on his face.

"Yeah… we’ve got nothing," I jokingly said to the captain while looking at my team in contempt.

The captain just shook his head in disappointment as he walked away. He knew we were about to be outclassed in every way imaginable.

“Well, if you two aren’t going to cooperate, I have a suggestion," I said to my group as Riza began to actually listen. "It’s no secret that we are completely outclassed here. I mean we’re up against number 1, 2 and 3 in A-rank.”

"Sure…" Riza reluctantly agreed.

"However, we can expect one thing: their cooperation will be worse than ours."

"You think? How so?" Riza wondered

"I mean, I don’t know the guy too well, but from what I saw, Trock seems to be a very short-tempered person, so he will most likely get angry at his team for the smallest mistake."

"M-Marz isn’t going to follow any plan either," Joule whispered to me

"Are you certain?" I asked

"Y-yes, I’ve known him for a long time, and he can be a bit... difficult at times."

"Well…now the only problem I see is Blade," I said to myself.

"Oh I can take on Blondie," Riza said to me.

"A-are you sure?" I questioned her. “We shouldn’t be too overconfident.”

“Oh, quit your whining. I’ve got this.”

“Alright fine… So Riza takes on Blade. Joule, can you handle Marz then?”

“I-I’m not sure about that…” she responded.

“Prince, I think you should be the one to take him on. I’m not usually one to praise someone; however, taking on Marz is out of the question for any of us.”

“I agree…” Joule spoke out.

“What!? Me take on Marz? I-I think you two are overestimating my…”

"Everyone, prepare yourselves. We’re about to begin!" The captain had cut me off, giving us no time to gather our final thoughts.