“Demund! Your ride is here!” called Mrs. Blanner.
Demund quickly stuffed his bag with three small presents and hoisted his bag onto his back. After making sure all his supplies were ready, he adjusted his uniform and glanced at the red and gold Tartis logo on his jacket.
He took a deep breath and slapped his face lightly. He was back.
“Coming!” he yelled.
He ran down the stairs, and after saying goodbye to his parents, opened the front door. The small car was parked in front of his house, the windows rolled down and revealing a girl with red hair.
Demund waved at her and quickly put on his shoes. After getting up, he approached the car and opened the door. Enariss made room for him, and he took a seat right next to her.
“It’s been a while,” said Demund as the car began to accelerate. “Are you ready for school?”
“Readier than ever,” replied Enariss with a confident smile. She turned her attention to Demund and inspected him. “Did you grow?”
“I guess?” Demund tapped on his prosthetic. “I had to increase the height for this, so I think so.” He cleared his throat and slightly turned his head away from Enariss. “You haven’t changed at all.”
Enariss looked like she hadn’t grown at all. Her proportions were all the same, and her hair held the same style it held on the last day of school. Long and slightly wavy, it covered her back.
“Not really,” she stated. Crossing her arms, she let out a long sigh. “Apparently, the doctors said that my ability might affect my growth. If I use it too much, I won’t grow. Spends too much energy.”
“Oh.”
She shrugged. “You look like you’re ready for school. Did you look over the links I sent you?”
Demund nodded.
“Good. Honestly, I don’t think the special class is that different. It’s just filled with more talented people. I’m sure you’ll get used to it quickly.”
“I hope so. If everyone was like you, I’d be screwed,” he joked.
Enariss smirked and tapped Demund on his shoulder. “Giving up already? Didn’t you say you would try and get the highest grades in the special class?”
“Not at all.” Demund crossed his arms and closed his eyes. “I’ve been through a lot of training during the summer, you see…to finally get closer to you.”
Enariss froze momentarily then realized that it was Demund she was talking to. “How so?”
“You’ll see…” hummed Demund.
While curious, Enariss didn’t press the matter further.
The car finally entered the gates of the school, and the two of them got out of the car.
“I have somewhere to visit,” stated Demund as he put on his bag. Can you go to the auditorium first?”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Just…something to give to the people who helped me out.”
Enariss watched Demund’s back as he ran towards the right side of the school building. She let out a small sigh and closed her eyes. It was good to be back. Her frustrations had built up somewhat, so it was nice having someone to turn her anxiety towards.
She turned around, and after walking a few steps—she stopped.
She spun her head towards Demund, but he had already vanished behind the school buildings.
He had been running. Not slowly, but a full-on sprint. Had her eyes mistaken it?
Wondering what kind of things Demund had done during the break, Enariss treaded her feet towards the Auditorium.
〄 〄 〄
Demund caught his breath and cleared his throat in front of the room next to the student council. The sign next to the door read, ‘Student Life Committee.’
Three students had assisted him after the accident he had gone through. While they hadn’t conversed much, it was a fact that they had been a great help to him. They made sure he felt assisted, helped him carry his belongings, ate lunch with him.
He wanted to thank them somehow. He hadn’t been able to do it before the break as his attention was on other things, but after some thinking during the break, it was only natural that he gifted them something for their kindness. He took out three wrapped parcels from his bag and took in a large breath.
He knocked twice.
No response.
He knocked again.
Still no response. Perhaps they had gone to the auditorium already. It was weird for such an influential and large committee to not have anyone present inside of the room.
However, the names of his benefactors were labeled on the parcels. Thinking to drop them off on a desk, he turned the doorknob of the room and slowly pushed it open. The door creaked inaudibly, and Demund peaked his head inside of the room.
He immediately spotted a head at the end of the room. Brown, straight hair you could find anywhere. But for Demund, it looked like someone he knew.
“Wane…?” His body was hidden behind the back of a couch, but his shoulders looked very familiar. “Wane!”
“…whoa, who—what?”
Startled, Wane turned his head around and got up from his seat. “Who—oh. Hey…Demund.”
Demund heard him stutter slightly. “Hey,” he said back.
“What brings you here?”
Demund walked into the room as the door automatically shut behind him with a small thud. “Well...it’s nothing much, but I want you to have this.”
Fetching the parcel with Wane’s name on it, he handed it over to Wane who accepted with a small frown.
“A present?”
“Yeah. Since you helped me before.”
“Oh. Oh yeah. I did, right.”
Wane rolled the parcel in his hand. There was something off about him. He was usually much more friendly and talkative than this.
“Do you know where Portia and Rory are?”
“Those two? They left for the auditorium. You should get going. It’s going to begin soon.”
“Well, these are for them. Would you mind giving it to them for me? I don’t know if I’ll see them.”
Demund watched as contemplation rose to Wane’s face. But it quickly disappeared.
“Yeah. I can do that.”
“Thanks.”
Demund handed the remaining parcels to Wane.
“You’re in the special class now?” Wane asked as he spotted the red and gold logo embroidered on Demund’s uniform.
“Yep.”
“I see.” Wane smiled. “Thanks for the gift. Wish you good luck.”
“You too.”
Demund walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Come to think of it, why wasn’t Wane at the auditorium? Demund glanced at his phone and sighed in relief. He still had around twenty minutes left—plenty of time to get to the entrance ceremony on time.
He thought about returning to the room and bringing Wane with him, but let the thought dissipate. He probably had things to do, which was why he was in the room. Something had occupied his mind so deeply that he hadn’t been able to hear his knock twice.
Determined to start the year with a blast, Demund ran across the hall.
〄 〄 〄
Demund sat next to Riley and Rhyne as principal of the school continued to speak through his microphone.
Rhyne yawned and rubbed his eyes.
“Why…did school have to start again…”
Riley sighed. “I know. I’m already tired.”
They glanced over at Demund, who was swinging his feet with smiles on his face.
“How are you so happy?” Rhyne groaned.
“We’re finally in the special class,” replied Demund cheerfully. “Doesn’t that make you excited?”
“Well…”
Riley raised his index finger. “More homework, probably. More challenging material. That makes you happy?”
“Well, you guys were aiming for this.”
Riley sighed, as did Rhyne.
“Yeah, but…”
“Riley, it’s no use. Demund’s in love with studying.”
“…you’re right.”
Demund grinned. “Let’s have a blast this year. I can already feel it.”
His two friends smiled meekly.
Finally, the freshman representative came up to speak. This time, it was a boy. Demund wondered where Alina was. He hadn’t messaged her since last week, but hopefully, she arrived safely. He glanced around the room to see if he could spot her, but there were too many people. He gave up and relaxed on his chair.
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Enariss was seated at the front. Demund felt like there was a slight rift between the students who had originally existed within the special class and the students who had recently entered it. All of the newcomers were seated behind the originals. The adults hadn’t instructed it. Yet the rift had still formed.
Perhaps it was natural. Time would tell.
〄 〄 〄
“So, how were the classes?” asked Enariss.
Students at TISE High could choose from a variety of classes. For special students, things were a little different. Instead of choosing from a broad spectrum of subjects, students of the special classes began to take specific courses that would eventually lead them to their preferred jobs. It didn’t necessarily determine which career they would take, but it meant that the courses were that much more difficult.
Demund had no clue what he would become. For now, he was taking the courses Enariss were taking. Thankfully, they were mostly science-related, at least for that year. Some literature classes were mixed in including history.
“They were okay,” replied Demund while packing his things. “But some things seem advanced.”
“Obviously.”
Excluding the weird glances he received from some of the students, Demund’s first day of school hadn’t been that stressful. Sure, things were a little harder, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.
Though he feared he would have to say goodbye to his perfect scores.
“Anyway, I need to go now.”
“To the club, right?”
Enariss nodded. She had been offered the position of captain after Deion had graduated but had refused it. She was too young. However, as there was no one skilled enough to take the position of captain, Enariss—as the vice-captain—acted as the head. A small group of upperclassmen assisted her, which alleviated the work she had to do, but it was still a lot.
“See you soon. In front of the library, right?”
“Well…”
Demund scratched his head. “I was thinking…maybe I could join.”
Enariss’s eyes lit up. “Really? But what about your leg?”
“I’ve been exercising while you were gone. You could say I’ve gotten used to it. And…I made a promise with you.”
Without warning, Enariss went in and hugged Demund as a guy would. She slapped his back and laughed.
“That’s the spirit! So, you’re coming with me now?”
“I am,” stated. Demund. He smiled and slung on his bag. “Let’s go.”
〄 〄 〄
Inside, Enariss was pouting.
Yes, she was happy when Demund finally agreed to join the MMA club. She could see his growth more that way. This was what she had planned for and wished for from the beginning of last year. But after Demund lost his leg, she had almost given up on it. So right now, the progression she was experiencing could be called miraculous.
Demund was heading towards the direction she wanted him to go in. That was good.
But he, himself—
—When had he become so composed?
Had he gotten used to her?
He hadn’t even flinched when she gave him a hug. It was drastically different from the boy whose cheeks would light up ever so slightly when she approached him.
She wanted Demund to be head over heels for her. But looking at the current situation…they were more like friends.
She swallowed a grunt. She had lots of time. The opportunity would present itself sooner or later, and she’d finally be able to control Demund like a marionette.
But…
Now was fine too. She calmed her heart and continued to walk.
〄 〄 〄
Ah…life was good, thought Demund as he looked at the clear, blue skies.
He had thought of this countless times during the break. There had been a time when he had craved for adventure and magic. Well, it wasn’t that he had grown used to it. He still loved going out to fight monsters while casting multiples spells at the same time. The exhilaration he felt was incomparable to anything else.
But when he returned, he understood the importance of peace. He had taken it for granted as it had been too boring without lots of stimuli in his life.
The past two months had completely changed his view. Tonight, he’d return again, so he had to enjoy this moment of peace to its fullest.
“Usually I leave class earlier to set up, but I told them that I was going to see you off for the first day. Well, we’re here now,” said Enariss.
Demund looked up at the clean square structure of the battle house. Finally, after all the moments he spent at the library looking at the building—he was here. Not as a guest—
“Welcome to the MMA Club, Demund.”
—but as a soon-to-be member.
Enariss pushed opened the thick steel doors and walked inside. Demund followed behind her. There were already a few people inside who were stretching, and excited whispers and talking could be heard around the room Besides Demund, many of the freshmen had also come to check out the biggest and most well-known club in the school.
Having a high ranking within the club correlated with popularity. It wasn’t always the case, but within the school, there were a lot of students who absolutely adored the fighting skills of the MMA Club members. It was one of the reasons why Enariss was so well known and popular. Every single official match was also recorded and was open for the students to view.
And therefore, many people were desperate to join. The place didn’t have unlimited space. So—
“You’ll have to take an examination,” explained Enariss as they walked to the back of the building. She smiled and waved towards some of the students who greeted her. “I can let you join without it, but…I don’t think you’d like that.”
Demund grinned. “Of course not. Let’s get this over with.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
At the back of the first floor, there was a door that led upstairs.
“The second floor handles the paperwork and training,” explained Enariss as they went up. “It’s really simple. Fill out a sheet of paper, let a machine scan your body, and do some basic fitness checks.”
The two of them walked across a white hallway. Demund spotted some rooms that read, Unarmed Combat 1 or Staff-Training.
“We’re here.”
Enariss stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway. The sign read Main Office.
They went inside together. There were around six desks put together at the center of the room and one lone desk that resided at the center end of the room.
Enariss walked to one of the desks and picked out a sheet of paper. “Here, fill this out.”
Demund quickly took out a pen from his bag and scribbled the required information onto the sheet of paper.
“Illnesses, none. Disabilities, I guess missing leg. Prosthetic leg. Medicine to take, none. The school won’t be responsible for any type of injury?”
Enariss shrugged. “Don’t worry. We still supervise.”
“Ah. Hmm…sign here—done.”
Demund capped his pen and gave the sheet back to Enariss. She took it and placed it on the desk.
“Well, that’s done now. Let’s go take a scan of your body.”
“Yeah, but…they have that here?”
“Not here. In the school building.”
The richness of the school always shocked him. First, the desks that had screens. Now, this. “Lead the way,” he said.
They walked out of the room and entered a door to the side. There were some stairs that led down, and at the end, they came out into the open.
“You take the scan at the infirmary. It’s really quick. Can you do that?”
“Yeah. You’re pretty busy, right? I’ll see you soon then.”
Enariss smiled. “See you soon.”
She entered the building again, and Demund headed towards the infirmary.
Inside, he saw a familiar face.
“Ms. Clarn.”
“Hello…Demund. It’s been a while. What brings you here?”
The school nurse looked as tired as ever. She smiled weakly and waved her hand. Demund scratched his head as the nurse organized some supplies inside a drawer.
“I’m planning to join the MMA Club, and someone told me that I had to get a scan.”
“Ah…a scan. Of course.”
Ms. Clarn closed the drawer and looked at Demund with her pale blue eyes. “Follow me.”
To the side of the room, there was another room, and within it, a machine that resembled the one that measured SAP. Though this one looked bulkier.
Demund stood still while the machine rotated around his body. After a few seconds, it made a beeping noise.
“You’re free to go now,” stated the nurse.
Demund frowned. “That was it?”
“That was it.”
“Well…great. Thank you.”
He thanked the tired-looking nurse and went out of the infirmary. Some people never changed. She looked the same as when he last saw her a couple of months ago. Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since he had visited the infirmary. Once his body had grown enough, there was no reason to constantly use anexide to heal his muscles.
Perhaps his visits would increase again. Perhaps not.
He returned to the battle house as the first match of the day began. Spotting his friends in the crowd, he snuck up to them.
They both let out surprised yelps when he grabbed their shoulders.
“Demund!” exclaimed Riley. “What are you doing here? I didn’t notice you at all!”
“I’m a member of the club now,” stated Demund. “You’ll be seeing me more often.”
“You…for real?”
Demund nodded. “I just took the body scan at the nurse’s office.”
“That’s great!” said Rhyne. “But how will you fight with…you know. Your leg.”
“Not a problem.” Demund jumped on the spot a couple of times and let his friends observe him. “See? It’s practically my leg now.”
“Nice,” they both said at the same time.
They quieted down as the matches began. Even though it was only the first day of school, two people had already been challenged to a match. Two platforms had been elevated somewhat to let the other members of the club observe the matches better.
The fights finally began. For Demund, it was perhaps the first time he would see some ‘normal’ matches where outrageous abilities weren’t involved. He focused on the contestants’ movements and observed how their legs touched the floor and how their arms swung in the air.
According to his friends, the fifteenth seat was battling the twelfth seat, and the twenty-first seat was battling the nineteenth. It was common for members to challenge someone much above them. Rankings below the top six or seven changed very frequently.
His friends cheered while he watched in silence. He circulated a little bit to help his senses observe the fights but lowered to a trickle. Even his normal eyes could follow their movements.
To be blunt—
It was disappointing.
〄 〄 〄
Shaden opened his eyes and yawned.
He subconsciously activated his stealth skill right away and spread his presence in a fifty-meter radius around him to detect enemies. After confirming that there were none, he undid his stealth and got up.
His tutor—or more accurately, his beautiful aunt—was snoring loudly a couple of meters away. Sighing at her apparent lack of caution, he stretched and jumped into the woods to find some prey to eat.
He soon spotted a striped deer and slit its throat in an instant. It silently fell to the ground, unable to make a sound as its voice had been cut off from it. After wiping his hand on the grass and using some water magic to wash it off, he froze the striped deer’s throat and slung its body over his shoulders.
He was currently eight years old. According to his aunt, just in time to be ripe and picked.
He honestly thought her jokes went too far sometimes.
No—they definitely went too far more often than not. Like that time she had dropped him inside a pit of snakes on ‘accident’…
He shivered from the memory.
After arriving at their makeshift camp, Shaden began to skin the deer with his dagger. With precise motions, he carefully cut off the strings of flesh that connected the skin to the fat of the deer, then cleanly ripped off the skin completely when it reached its limbs.
As the area had begun to smell like blood, he created a small gust of wind to blow the smell away. Monsters would catch on to the scent, but they’d be gone by then.
He fetched a marble-sized mana crystal from his pouch and ignited it. The fire slowly ate away at the condensed mana, and with a few commands, Shaden was able to produce a hearty fire. Fetching the stones they had used the night before, Shaden made a crude stove and put a sanitized shield on top of it.
As the shield grew hotter, Shaden quickly sliced the deer meat into thick portions of steak. He tossed some fat into the shield/pan while he prepared breakfast, and it made a delicious sizzling sound. After making sure that the pan was well-oiled with his telekinesis, he threw the chunks of meat into the pan as watched as it fried.
At least the smell was great. While the meat cooked, he rummaged through the sack of supplies and took out some bread and cheese. His tutor growled in the distance as she smelled the breakfast that was being made.
Seriously, it was a bad habit of hers. But it was funny to watch, so he never mentioned it.
Shaden chuckled slightly as his aunt’s nose twitched. He calmly sliced the bread, sliced the cheese, then tossed the cheese onto the meat that was almost done cooking.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and she vanished into thin air and reappeared before the food that was being made.
“Can you fetch the plates, please,” asked Shaden. It was always so amusing to see her do that.
“Arggg…mmmmmm….” groaned his aunt Lytha. Showing no signs of the quick movement she displayed moments before, she groggily crawled on the floor, found two plates, then returned in front of the food.
She wasn’t usually like this. Yesterday, they had fought and killed two giants for a bounty. Shaden had distracted and assisted; his tutor had dealt the finishing blows. But it had tired her out—the skill that allowed her to touch living creatures without them noticing consumed a lot of mana. The giants’ thick skin along with their freakish body hair had made the job even more difficult.
It was better to call them forest titans. They swung trees in a barbaric manner, and their brown fur sometimes even made them seem like trees.
Unlike the official Giant race, their intelligence was comparable to that of gorillas.
With his telekinesis, Shaden made two deer-meat-and-cheese sandwiches and placed them on the plates.
Instantly, one of the plates he had been holding vanished. It had reappeared on his Lytha’s hands, and she began to hungrily munch on it.
“It’s tough,” she complained.
Shaden sighed. “Then you should cook next time.”
“Hmph.”
Honestly, Shaden didn’t think that his tutor was suffering from mana overuse at all. There were times when her behavior was genuine, but the battle before had been nowhere near that difficult. However, the reason why Shaden couldn’t be sure was—because his aunt was so damn good at acting.
And she used it to benefit herself. He had learned to accept it and pass it on. If he questioned every action she made, he’d lose his mind.
“So,” Shaden asked while chewing on his sandwich, “what’s the plan for today?”
“More traveling,” stated his tutor. “Since winter is approaching, we’ll begin to head south.”
“I see. How about training?”
“Same as usual. After dark.”
“Can’t we just take the black trees?”
“No. Never grow too reliant on them. This wilderness training is for your benefit, Shaden.” With her clean hand, she ruffled through his hair. “You’ve been doing great.”
“I know.”
“Cheeky kid.”
His aunt (if one ignored the sudden, drastic training programs she came up with that would leave a trauma in the heart of a normal boy) was a kind person. Her beauty matched her behavior, and Shaden was grateful to have her as his tutor.
Shaden dodged a small dagger that was aimed at his side and activated his stealth.
She would have been perfect if she didn’t seriously try to injure him.
He undid his stealth and returned to his sandwich.
“Very good! You were even faster this time. Not your fastest, but still an improvement.”
“Hmph.”
Well, he was used to it.