A man stood in front of the abnormally large wooden door, his shoulders wide and pulled back, his chest puffed out, and his head held up high, with his hand curled into a fist, but clearly nervous as he took a deep breath before knocking.
“Come in.” A soft voice answered as soon as his hand touched the door.
As the man moved to reach for the doorknob, the door suddenly burst open, revealing a large office, larger than most rooms he had ever seen in his life. Large windows adorned every wall, bringing in an absurd amount of sunlight despite the perennial clouds and maintaining the room pleasantly warm, and right opposite the door, stood a beautiful and intricate wooden desk, full of stacks of documents neatly organised in three piles.
But what stood out the most, was the woman sitting behind the desk. Her silver hair flowed down her shoulders like gentle waves, contradicting her black robes. She wore a delicate smile, her rosy lips contrasted her ivory skin, and she stared at the man, almost beyond him, with her bright blue eyes.
The man couldn’t help but stare back, enchanted by those eyes, almost as if he was staring at the lake he had seen as a child for the first time, and a nostalgic smile escaped his lips, but quickly disappeared, as he focused on her strange, inexplicable expression.
“Hello, my good sir, pleased to meet. Have a seat.” Her voice was soft, yet commanding, making it difficult for the man to figure out the woman.
“Thank you, a pleasure to meet you, Headmistress Zeraphyn.” Caine replied, extending his hand out to her.
The Headmistress stood up, revealing a rather short stature, barely reaching the man’s shoulder, but her presence somehow felt overwhelming. The woman inspected his hand for a brief moment, and after smiling politely, she shook the man’s hand, her grip gentle, and the two of them sat opposite one another, separated by the large desk.
“So… Caine, I’ve been told a lot about you and your strength. How did that come about?” Headmistress Zeraphyn asked.
“There is not much to tell: I am of commoner birth, my parents - may the Gods rest their souls - died when I was but a boy, and with no one around, I left. I met a man, he saved me and looked after me, and as it turns out, he was ridiculously strong, so he trained me.” Caine replied, recalling memories of his childhood.
“I see,” Headmistress Zeraphyn replied, “and why do you want to become a professor in my Academy?”
“I spent a lot of time as an Adventurer, slaughtering demonic beasts in The Forest, and I was pretty good at it… the best of them, if I say so myself. I traveled across all seven Kingdoms, and I learnt a lot of different things from a lot of different people. But the most important thing, I learnt from The Forest. The youth are the future, and I have seen far too many young men and women needlessly die.”
The atmosphere grew somber as Caine paused for a moment and stared out of the window to his left, looking at the cloudy sky, feeling nostalgic of the days when the two suns would be painting the sky with a myriad of colours all the time.
“And I thought that I might as well teach them how to survive in the real world. And as for why I chose this Academy, it is the best in this kingdom, the Arman Academy’s graduates are more likely to become adventurers or soldiers partaking in Subjucations of The Forest, but most importantly… Sir Eteben told me the pay is ridiculous.”
The Headmistress blinked, and her smile disappeared behind an incredulous expression as her eyes widened - although just barely. For a moment she seemed lost for words, but quickly regained her composure and her smile returned, seeming infinitely more genuine now.
“The pay?” She asked, her tone amused.
“Yes, being an adventurer, the risk did not match the reward. I killed so many beasts, but I did not get paid all that well.” Caine shook his head as an annoyed expression crept on his face.
“I see. Well, that is the first time I’ve been told by a prospect that they want to work for money, but I guess I should not expect you to be like the other prospect, should I?”
“Why is that? I mean… I agree, I am better than them, that much I know, but you probably don’t yet.” Caine spoke matter of factly. “How am I different from them?”
Headmistress Zeraphyn was once again lost for words at his confidence, or rather his arrogance. He was a mere adventurer, wanting to become a Professor at the most prestigious Academy in the Arman Kingdom, and he was acting so nonchalantly about it, almost as if it was a given that he would get the job.
“Caine, I must admit you are quite interesting; I hear you are a splendid fighter, splendid enough to have been recommended personally by a Royal Guard - Sir Eteben - so I don’t doubt your ability to fight. But teaching is different. Can you do that?”
“Yes, of course.” Caine gave a brief answer, and looked directly into her eyes, trying to maintain his air of confidence despite feeling nervousness and doubt slither in his mind, like snakes wrapping around his confidence.
“I must admit, Caine, the confidence is enticing, a part of me believes you entirely. However, the lack of qualifications and experience is concerning.” She replied, still smiling.
“That’s understandable.” Caine surprisingly agreed. “In that case, assign me a class and see whether I can do the job or not. We could spend the entire day speaking, but I am a firm believer that actions speak louder than words.”
“You know, Caine,” The headmistress laughed, “I spoke with many candidates the last few days, but not a single one of them dared to tell me to change my interview process. To think that there would be one that would give me an order. Me. That is interesting.” She said, twisting a strand of her silky silver hair.
“I mean, if you’re unsure I can’t teach, we may as well check directly; why should we waste both of our time.”
Caine crossed his arm and leaned back on his chair; most people would have found such an attitude to be unbelievably rude, and Headmistress Zeraphyn thought the same, but she also found his confidence and arrogance to be refreshing.
The Arman Academy was originally built just for noble children, and as such an unimaginable amount of funding had been invested in it, and being in charge of this place, the Headmistress had gotten used to everyone bending backwards for her in endless attempts of currying favour with her.
But now, there stood a man, a commoner who treated her as any other person, as if she was no one particularly important, being rude at times, and making demands of her without offering anything in return… it was a new experience for her, and one she was ready to see through.
“Very well.” She said, standing up and guiding Caine out of her office.
The two walked in silence, with the Headmistress occasionally showing him different rooms, ranging from rooms full of scientific equipment to rooms full of musical instruments. Caine smiled softly thinking about how much he would have loved to study at an Academy like this one as a child, rather than being stuck with that battle-hungry master of his.
Occasionally he would glance at the various paintings adorning the stone walls of the halls, looking at prominent figures like the first Demigod, or the current King and Regent Queen.
They reached a series of spiral stairs and climbed them up until they reached the fifth floor, and they walked directly to the last room of the corridor; the hall grew darker, not as well lit as the rest of the floors, even the windows grew smaller and duller, but the most bothersome thing was the noise: the closer they got to the room at the end of the hall, the louder it got.
“This is as far as I go.” The Headmistress stopped in her tracks and turned to Caine. “At the end of the hall, the door on the left is for the Tenth Class of the Third Years. My school is based on meritocracy, the best get the best, and the lowest get almost nothing. That class is the lowest, full of problem children. I will see how well you do. You will cover History first and then Combat training. Good luck.”
And with those words, she turned around and walked away, not even giving Caine the opportunity to respond, seemingly unbothered by the class altogether. Caine sighed, feeling disappointed by her attitude as if she did not care about those children.
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‘How bad can it be?’ Caine thought to himself as he walked to the door, and grabbed the handle. He took a deep breath, and walked in, his ears assaulted by countless screams and conversations.
For a moment, the room fell silent as all the students stared at Caine, but then they lost all interest in him and resumed whatever they were doing, whether it was talking, screaming, or throwing things at each other.
Walking over to the desk in the front of the class, Caine stood there, ignoring the frantic noises of the students, and just sighed before writing his name on the chalkboard behind him.
“I am Professor Caine, and I will be your Professor today.”
The students ignored him, continuing doing their own thing, but one student in particular stood out to Caine; a blue-haired young woman sat perfectly still, her eyes glued to the book in front of her, but she would occasionally glance at Caine. It was the other students who were annoying him.
‘Entitled brats.’ Caine thought before taking another deep breath, keeping the growing irritation in check.
Caine’s lips curved upwards, a subtle smile growing wider each second, almost creepily. He was almost happy the children were ignoring him, wondering for how long they would be able to do that.
But there had been one thing that worried him: there were twenty-four students in the room, and it would have been troublesome for Caine if any of them started to scream, so he needed to control himself.
Suddenly, the entire room went silent; all of the students - save the blue-haired one - looked around with their eyes wide open and full of shock as they held onto their throats; despite their most ardent attempts, they couldn’t breathe, some dropped to their knees, whereas others managed to remain on their feet.
The only students that could breathe normally took her eyes off her book, looking around the classroom with a neutral expression, but her eyes betrayed a deep surprise, and - like all the other student’s eyes - genuine fear.
Just as suddenly as they stopped talking, they all breathed at once, each and every one of them gasping for air like drunks, taking in as much air as they could.
“Well, hello students. My name is Caine and I will be your Professor today. If there is one thing you must know, is that I hate repeating myself. Everyone to your seats. Now.” Caine spoke, his voice commanding.
The students scurried to their seats, and before Caine exhaled they all sat down, and quietly looked at him.
“You.” He pointed at a young boy in the front row. “What topic are you supposed to be covering?”
“T-t-the Conflict, Professor Caine.” He stuttered, his voice full of terror.
“You’re Third Years, and are just learning The Conflict now? These are things children learn, I’d have expected you guys to already know this, anyone care to explain why you don’t?”
“Well, Professor, we are just commoners.” A young student answered. Everything about him was clean and tidy… well, as clean as tidy as could be for a commoner. His brown hair was slicked back and kept tidy, with not even one strand of hair out of place, and he maintained his uniform as clean as possible, although it seemed slightly smaller for his size, looking tight on his broad shoulders.
“We can study here just because we developed a mana core early, and we can fight better than most other commoners. Most of us barely knew how to write or read a few years ago, let alone actually know about things like History. How would knowing what happened five hundred years ago during the First Harvest?”
“What’s your name, boy?” Caine asked with an amused tone.
“Silas, Sir.” He replied confidently.
“You do make a good point, knowing these things is rarely useful for commoners, but you are no longer commoners. You are now students of the prestigious Arman Academy, so take pride in that, and use these years to learn as much as you Caine and make something of yourselves… or don’t, it’s not like I really care.”
Caine picked up a textbook left on his desk and then turned to the class again.
“Well, back to the lesson. Who can tell me who was involved in The Conflict?”
A young woman raised her hand confidently, although she diverted her eyes when Caine met her gaze.
“The Old Gods and the New Gods.” She answered.
Caine let out an inward sigh of relief as he realised that his students weren’t completely clueless about the world’s history.
“Yes, correct. Now, who can tell me exactly who were the Gods?”
Looking around the room, Caine tried to make eye contact with any of the students, hoping to find anyone who would answer, but they would all just divert their eyes, mostly out of fear, with some - like the young student who had just answered - just because they did not know the answer.
Caine started pacing back and forth in the class, fighting against the urge to roll his eyes at his students, and cursing his younger self for ever wanting to become a Professor.
‘Is revenge really worth dealing with all this?’ He thought to himself.
“Not much is known about the Old Gods: for centuries, it has been believed that they were the creators of everything, and their powers are mostly unknown, although scriptures suggest that they had powers relating to a Domain,”
“Domains?” Silas asked.
“Raise your hand next time. For example, The God Artorius - the God of the Skies and Wind - his Domain is self explanatory, or Shado, the Goddess of Mana, who was said to be able to manipulate mana completely, even the mana within a person’s core, to either strengthen them, or cripple them.”
Caine spoke slowly, often taking breaks between each sentence as he realised some students began to take notes, without even needing him to tell them to.
“The New Gods, on the other hand, were once just humans. Their ascension to Godhood is somewhat understood, although clouded in mystery: it is believed that certain people became enlightened and gained an insight into what mana truly is, and as a result they gained an insight into everything that exists. Not only their mana changed, but also their bodies, they stopped being humans, and instead became something… more.”
“What do you mean ‘something more’, Professor.” the young woman in the first row asked after raising her hand, her book now closed, and her eyes entirely focused on her Professor. She had blue hair reaching her shoulders, and unlike her classmates, she seemed eager to learn.
“You are?” Caine asked.
“Myra.”
“Well Myra, there is actually no answer to that, or rather it is not something we are able to understand, They reached a higher plane of existence, and it is just not something we mere humans will ever grasp. Think about it as a human not knowing what it feels like to have wings, we simply lack the parts necessary to comprehend it.”
Myra looked at him, trying to process the answer she was given, and then simply nodded. Caine let out a sigh of relief as he was worried that the girl would not understand such an abstract concept, but it turned out that his worries were unfounded.
“The New Gods were powerful, more than you could ever imagine, and that caused a shift in the world. For the first time, many humans stopped worshipping the Old Gods. and instead turned to the New Gods who showered in this love. These new worshippers were small in numbers, but comprised mostly of powerful mages. Any guesses what happened after that?”
“The Culling.” Another student raised his hand and answered.
“Yes. the Old Gods did not appreciate these new worshippers, maybe they felt jealous - if they could even feel such a human emotion - and all these worshippers were slaughtered by the Old Gods. Tens of thousands of humans killed. It was a genocide.”
Caine let the words hang heavy in the room, fighting against his instinct to scoff at the thought of the Old Gods, or the Gods in general. Throughout his entire life, Caine had always felt disgust toward himself, and the Gods were a constant reminder that there was always someone stronger than him.
At least he found some solace in knowing that his Master was still undoubtedly stronger than all the Gods, which made his weakness feel more bearable.
“After The Culling, the New Gods dedicated themselves to revenge. They attacked humans, knowing that the Old Gods would defend humanity, and that is where The Conflict began. Their clashes caused great destructions, mountain ranges, forests, fields, cities… they all vanished.”
“How did The Conflict end exactly? I know the Old Gods won, but how did that happen?” Myra asked.
“That is not clear. One day, the fighting just stopped; the Old and New Gods vanished. Personally, I believe the truth lies in The Forest. That hell appeared a few years after the Gods vanished. Some believe that a stalemate occurred, and the Conflict reached a temporary break, and some even believe that in the future it will resume, and the devastation will begin anew.”
Most of the student’s faces stiffened at those words, the thought of such a large-scale conflict being something that their young, naive mind could not even begin to imagine. Caine allowed the silence to linger for a moment before he continued.
“Before the Old Gods vanished, they procreated with some of the greatest mages that remained and then came the Demigods, the pillars of our society, those who are sworn to protect humanity. They are like us, but they are stronger, faster, and were born with a mana core, giving them an innate understanding of mana.”
Another student raised his hand, a thin young boy with pale skin, and messy black hair who looked like a porcelain doll.
“I don’t get why the New Gods would let them do that?” He asked.
“Well, the New Gods had no problem with this, they were once human, so there is always the possibility of New Gods reevolving from us humans and joining their ranks.”
Caine froze and stopped pacing in the front of the classroom as a thought entered his mind.
‘Was Master a New God?’
He shook his head, and cringed internally at even having such a thought; Caine remembered when Oliver had told him that he was a mere human, and he couldn’t bring himself to even begin to consider that Oliver may have lied to him.
“In today’s day and age, the Godblood has diluted considerably, the Demigods are not as strong as they used to be, but there are some, which are even more formidable than you could ever imagine: the Irregulars.”
As soon as the students heard that name, they all stiffened, every single one of them struggled to maintain their composure; Caine fought the urge to curse out loud, his hatred for Demigods growing anew as he thought about those ‘beasts.’
“Irregulars are just different, the difference between them and Demigods is larger than the difference between Demigods and regular humans with undeveloped mana cores. They are stupidly strong, and many would even believe them to be on par with some of the Gods, although that is not backed by any evidence.”
The class stayed silent, their faces still full of fear, and Caine walked to the window, staring outside.
It had been over twelve years since the Long Summer ended, and the Great Fall begun. The days felt shorter, and the comfortable warmth Caine had grown up with and was accustomed to had long vanished and while the two Suns created a lot of sunlight during the day, a chill was always present in the air.
Outside, he saw a large, sandy field enclosed in a cage, and a smile grew on his face as a bell started ringing in the halls.
“Well guys, History’s over. Are you ready for Combat Training?”