“…” There was a silence in the classroom, many of the students within staring in shock at the sight in front of them.

Well, silence would be wrong, there was quite a bit of noise being made, the source being the members of the S-Class.

“Seriously, they’re all good at music?” a student taking the music class along with the members of the S-Class spoke the thoughts of most of the students, watching as the S-Class each found an instrument or two which they chose to try.

That was a half hour ago and by this point each one of them was good. Not famous musician level, but to the level where they probably wouldn’t be out of place on a stage playing their instruments of choice.

First was the loudest of the group, oddly enough the quietest when it came to speaking, Tony.

Tony was playing an electric guitar, at such speeds that one would think he was just fumbling the guitar around in his hands…

Instead, a heavy metal sound was released, swapping tones every so often as he moved from one ‘song’ to another, and despite its noise, watching it being done so calmly, in contrast to the actual noise, had the students confused until Tony stepped away from the guitar.

“Have you taken any lessons before this?” The music teacher, who was also the homeroom teacher for the D-Class, Julie, asked Tony with wide eyes after seeing that.

“No…” Tony didn’t really see what was so amazing about what he just did, but he liked the sounds being made.

After Tony was Edward, who surprisingly chose a classic wooden guitar instead of say, the drums.

“Everyone just expects things cause I’m the big guy…” Edward moped about even as he strummed a bit, frowning at the sound before swapping to a Spanish guitar.

Then he practiced, smiling until he tried to play Diablo Rojo.

The fast paced song was too advanced for Edward at current, but he enjoyed trying, his failure still sounding better than some other students best attempts, leaving those students staring at their hands with betrayed expressions.

Then there was Leah who so far had no instrument she was bad with, though she seemed really good with a piano, leaving many staring unintentionally when she began softly humming to her own tune.

When she was done and realized she was being stared at Leah retreated to the safety of Kazuya’s back, leaving the boy scratching his head with a chuckle.

Vince, in showing off his love for throwing people off, picked up a saxophone, took off his tie and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, and began playing.

So after removing Vince from the pile of women (and a guy or two) who practically threw themselves at him, he just chuckled while fixing his tie.

“Violin is more traditional where I’m from, but I was always a strange one, so I learnt saxophone instead of violin.” Vince said, sitting down and not noting the pointed glare sent his way by Jade for that comment.

Jade took the opportunity to step up, grab a violin, and then stomp her way in front of Vince who looked poleaxed at her glare.

“Are you implying that violin isn’t as interesting?” Jade asked, actually looking a bit mad while Vince raised his hands defensively.

“Hey, I wasn’t saying that, I’m just saying that I didn’t think it suited me…” Vince’s ‘excuse’ was ignored as Jade placed her bow and began to play.

Soft, soothing, yet dark and ominous was the song that Jade played, slowly increasing in volume and tempo as the song continued, eventually ending with a flourish, and having the bow aimed at Vince’s nose.

“Insult my instrument, even accidentally, and I will harm you.” Jade declared before she placed the instrument down, leaving Vince watching her as she walked away.

“I think that’s love.” He mumbled loud enough to have Kazuya chuckling at his side, whether Vince was being serious or joking, Kazuya found humour in the situation.

Next was Kazuya, who picked the bass guitar without hesitation.

“Huh… any reason for that? I mean, if we have to go solo, our instruments could all work for a solo act, but a bass guitar is meant to accompany.” Edward asked while Kazuya focused.

“I don’t know. All I know is that at this point in a fight I work better with someone than alone, so I figure try it out in music too.” Kazuya had to wait for another guitar player to actually test out bass like he wanted to, and then Liza stepped up.

“You play?” Kazuya asked, no change in expression as he checked the tuning of the guitar by specifications.

“Instrument… not specialty. Prefer flute, ocarina, clarinet.” Kazuya noted Liza’s answer with a shrug as they tried to play a prepared piece.

At first it was odd, obviously as this was Kazuya’s first time playing, being able to work brilliantly from the beginning like Edward and Tony was strange, not the norm…

And Liza, as stated, was not amazing with a guitar, good, but not amazing…

Then Kazuya was beginning to get the idea of the bass guitar, adding the underlying tones necessary to make Liza’s average song into something sounding really good…

“Huh… you barely notice the bass… but if you notice it, you can’t forget it.” Julie narrowed her eyes from the front of the class, looking at the seven S-Class students with a sigh.

When the bell rang, most of the students left planning for more lessons, while the S-Class found themselves faced to face with Julie.

The originally shy teacher seemed confident now… then again, she was confident as long as Jonathan wasn’t around.

There was a story behind those interactions, but the S-Class couldn’t ask without being told off.

“I’ll be blunt, all of you are really talented with instruments. If it’s just instrument playing, you could all go do small shows now really… so knowing this, I recommend you all go pick up singing with the exception of Liza.” The six other students looked to their strongest before looking back to the teacher in silent question.

“I’ve heard her sing before, recall that she’s the headmaster’s adopted daughter. Liza is a brilliant singer that likes to be quiet… a shame really.” Julie sighed with a shake of the head, not catching Liza’s roll of the eyes.

“In fact, Liza is probably the best person to go to for lessons in that regard, I’m not a singer even though I know a bit about every instrument.” Once more, the connection between Leah and Julie was clear in that the latter had to be an aged up version of the former.

Shy, multi-talented when it came to instruments, a possible crush on a person with blackish hair…

Kazuya was unfortunately ignorant to that last bit when it came to Leah, and as for Julie that was just the S-Class speculating.

“Well, head on home now, you’re free until next week.” Leaving the class, the S-Class waved goodbye to the teacher and moving towards the trains.

It had been a month since school started, and the students learnt how their extracurricular lessons were to be done…

After school, every day, for an hour.

Mondays were cooking, Tuesdays were commerce/sales work, Wednesdays were dance lessons, Thursdays were music lessons such as today.

Fridays were combat days and thus left alone at the end of the day, beyond the fact that it was the start of the weekend, a period of rest for the students.

There were also alternatives to the aforementioned lessons, such as being able to learn mechanical repairs on Mondays instead of cooking, Vince, Tony and Edward opted for mechanical repairs rather than cooking…

This was mostly because the teacher for the cooking classes threatened Vince if he ‘dared to enter the holy place where food was created’ with his ‘black hole of a stomach’ the teacher would find a way to make Vince’s life miserable.

The teacher’s words, they were.

Chef’s typically liked to cook for people like Vince (within reason) but if he were to actually make the food… well, it might vanish before the teacher could grade it.

As for Tony and Edward, Edward couldn’t cook without setting the fridge on fire and Tony didn’t want to deal with the slowness of cooking.

“Man, we were already coming out at three every day, now we have to leave at four… how did we always leave with the second and third years last year?” Vince complained as he sat on his seat in the train.

“You can test out of the classes.” Kazuya answered, flipping through a book with a thoughtful look.

“Book?” Liza asked, looking at the unadorned cover even as Kazuya looked up at her.

“It’s one of those brainwashing books from the Null Sons. Get into the mind of the enemy and all that. I’m thinking about reading a propaganda piece from the Supremacists next and comparing the two.” Kazuya answered with a shrug, though he had made certain that Edward wouldn’t hear his words…

The Null Sons were a sensitive subject around the prince even now, with the deaths still continuing.

“Weird. Singing lessons?” Liza asked the group, who looked to her and then amongst themselves.

“Sure, we can opt out of the music classes with those, then we’ll get Thursday afternoons back…” Edward seemed to think for a bit nodding.

“Y-y-yes… any ideas on what we should focus on, Liza?” Leah frowned cutely at her stutter while Liza thought about the question.

“Slow songs.” Liza pointed at Leah, before turning towards the others.

“Jazz. Suits saxophone.” Vince smirked at that, standing and bowing exaggeratedly at an imaginary audience.

“Pop, R&B.” Edward pointed at himself with a blink, trying to be certain that Liza was pointing at him, only for her to move on.

“Opera and country music.” Jade was a bit surprised at the latter, but she seemed understanding at the first bit.

“Rap, Grime.” Tony’s one almost brought a record scratch reaction but instead everyone just accepted that Liza knew what she was saying, even as Tony looked contemplative.

“Opera, alternative rock and classic.” Kazuya shrugged, liking his choices, noticing he shared Opera with Jade with a glance between them.

“And you Liza, what do you do?” Liza looked to Jade at her question before thinking.

“Most anything. Not suited for rap. Good at Opera?” Liza shrugged at that, and everyone agreed, even at her most vocal rap just didn’t seem the right genre of singing for her, but Liza had powerful control over her own voice.

There was some odd conversation being made after that, talk of classes, talk of movies, books, television series, the Sages took the chance to be normal teenagers before disembarking the train, leaving in their separate directions with their greetings being said.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Kazuya watched his friends leave for a moment, breathing a puff of cold air as he strolled through the streets of Berlin, pulling up his scarf to cover his nose and mouth.

“I need a hat…” Kazuya complained, realizing that if it snowed his hair would end up wet.

And it did snow, quite a bit, between December and February.

It was the first week of February, so the cold season was ending soon, but it was still pretty cold.

Kazuya considered moving to go buy himself a hat of some kind but instead shrugged, walking to his house.

“I’m home!” Kazuya… Hiiro, called out to his parents, even if he knew it was likely that they had sensed him from a few hundred metres away from the house.

Hiiro hadn’t even known his parents were seven Star Sages until about four months ago when they fought Rogue Sages planning on kidnapping Hiiro…

They didn’t act like powerful Sages after all, he had never considered his parents dignified, and yet Sages actually looked up to his parents as ‘the ideal love story’ or something.

“Ah, Hiiro, you’re home! Your father is waiting for you outside the city.” Hiiro sighed, wordlessly reaching out for the lunchbox his mother placed in his hand, walking up to his room and changing into his combat clothes before leaving the house.

Making sure that his bow was properly secure, Hiiro crouched before dashing through the city.

Sages above five Stars weren’t really allowed to do this in a city due to possible dangers, but weaker Sages were actually given paths they could run along to stay out of the way of normal humans.

Once in a while this wasn’t really adhered to, such as now, with a child standing on the side of the ‘Sage highway’ and moving forward to pick up something she dropped on the floor.

Hiiro didn’t even bother slowing down, instead leaping over the child without breaking stride, the child might not even realize Hiiro was there as she ran back to the sidewalk.

Within a few minutes Hiiro was outside of Berlin, breathing deeply.

“Stamina is key Hiiro, you need to have lasting strength to take advantage of your abilities.” Hiiro nodded at his father’s words, not even caring that his father was sitting in a tree the entire time.

“Whatever, come on, time to start your bow training. By the way, test out of your extracurricular classes as soon as you can, more time to train will only help you.” Izuki Kazuya told his son with a pointed look, only getting a roll of the eyes from Hiiro before he removed his bow from his harness.

When he wasn’t in his combat uniform, Hiiro kept his bow either in his hand as long as he could, but in his combat uniform he had a harness to hold said bow.

“How long have you been holding the bow?” Izuki asked, watching as his son went through basic maintenance, checking that the draw weight was correct, that there were now cracks and that the string was not loose/wobbly.

“Cumulative, roughly eight hundred hours?” Hiiro didn’t keep a specific count, but he’d had the bow for a bit more than fifty days now, and he still wasn’t great with it.

“You’ve logged over seventeen thousand hours with your spear, and about eight thousand odd hours with the katana. Your bow has to be in the same area, eight thousand hours minimum. You only gain skill with weapons you hold.” Hiiro felt like getting annoyed at the reminder, but it was the truth.

Hiiro’s father had a very basic rule for teaching Hiiro how to use a weapon.

Always carry it. The longer you carry it, the more used to it you will be. If possible, sleep with the weapon, eat with the weapon, and at some point you’ll think of the weapon as something naturally in your hand.

Moving your arm was easier than moving something in your hand. Izuki’s weapon training method was a way to make you think whatever was in your hand was a part of your arm.

Kazuya was originally horrible with the katana, he was horrible with a spear too, but going around with them everywhere, constantly training with the weapon, constantly having their presence and weight in his hand or nearby, Kazuya found himself slowly getting better with his weapons until now.

Now he was probably the greatest spear user in his generation, and while he wouldn’t claim to be the greatest swordsman, he was the equal of Jade whose rapier was her main weapon.

So clearly, despite it being nonsensical, it was working somehow.

Finishing his maintenance, Hiiro stood, looking in the distance, seeing targets lined up.

Sages unaffiliated with Elem High could train basically anywhere outside of the city, and his father claimed this section of land for Hiiro’s ranged weapon training.

Though Hiiro occasionally saw damage that he hadn’t caused, so maybe any long-range Sage could use this training ground if they knew it was there… basic etiquette said that they had to keep the ground usable before they left though.

Each target was a successive fifty metres, so the first was at fifty, the second at one hundred, the third at one fifty and so on and so forth, up until five kilometres.

Hiiro was well aware that powerful Sages had absurd ranges, he recalled Everburn, the eight/nine Star Fire Sage punching someone flying a few kilometres.

Looking back, Hiiro considered that the Rogue Sage wanted to be knocked flying, as his parents didn’t go flying when they sparred rarely.

It was probably the same reason why Sages could break the sound barrier sometimes, and then move at the exact same speed without breaking said sound barrier, a matter of wanting to.

But Hiiro still hadn’t hit a target two hundred metres away. Well, consecutively.

His father didn’t consider a ‘range’ conquered until Hiiro could hit the target three times in a row without fail.

“Alright, you know the drill, five hundred shots, break to eat and practice Element control, and another five hundred shots.” One thousand shots daily, Hiiro considered that he wouldn’t have been able to do such a task until he became a three Star Sage.

Bows for Sages were specially made in a manner similar to Vince’s guns, using engraved Runes to enact effects, in the case of bows they only had two Runes, one for enhanced durability, and a second which formed arrows when the user demanded it.

The arrows would be made of the user’s Element, though the user could forcibly use an arrow that wasn’t of their Element, it took longer to do such a thing most times.

Hiiro was used to being abnormal as he could swap between arrows easily without pause, and if he tried to fire an arrow without focusing on an Element… well, his Element was Essence.

The arrow appearing in between his pointer finger and middle finger was white at first, but it began to cycle between purple, blue and green, though it was mostly purple as he notched it, pinching the arrow in place as he took aim.

“Alright. Begin.” Izuki’s katana flashed, and Hiiro moved.

Oh right. He was to be attacked by his father while firing arrows too by the way.

Hiiro let his arrow fly, and clicked his tongue when it missed the two hundred mark target. A slash from his father had him spinning out of the way as he formed another arrow.

Try, and try again.

Hiiro could understand it, but he hated it. Pretty much how it always worked with his parents training… the only silver lining was that his father would always move at Hiiro’s top speed.

Which meant that Hiiro would never had leeway, but also always be able to maintain the starting distance unless he made a mistake.

It would be about an hour later, now five in the afternoon, that Hiiro finished his first five hundred shots, breathing heavily as he lay on the floor.

“Hey, focus. Eat your food, swap Elements and practice your control while doing so.” Hiiro groaned as he sat up, opening his lunch given to him by his mother and eating slowly, narrowing his eyes.

In front of Hiiro, a small whirlwind started, swirling around and round… Hiiro then slowly started to eat, making sure to keep the whirlwind going.

He already knew his father would probably whack him upside the head if he increased or decreased the current rotation speed while eating.

Splitting his concentration, recovering his physical stamina, while draining his absurd Essence reserves, that was the purpose of eating and doing this control training.

Hiiro did it begrudgingly, slowly the whirlwind picked up dirt, little rocks and pebbles, before a small sandstorm floated, suddenly halting and compressing into a ball of dust, floating there, not moving higher or lower, just existing.

Izuki watched his son while eating his own lunch, his face neutral.

If it weren’t, Izuki would probably be somewhere between too excited to breath correctly, proud, and maybe a bit scared.

Hiiro didn’t even realize what Izuki was teaching Hiiro to do, which was par for the course when it came to their interactions.

Izuki remembered his son protesting at having to carry a weapon everywhere for about a year before he started realizing that he was showing constant improvement in his weapon handling, and the protest vanished.

Ever since then, Izuki’s training was to be accomplished. Hiiro didn’t need to understand it, he only needed to do it, and results would eventually show themselves.

Izuki couldn’t wait to see what his son would be capable of when he grew stronger… Especially with Izuki laying the foundations for subconscious Element control so early.

They were extremely rare, but there were Sages with the ability to have their powers respond to their will without even being conscious about it, a Wood Sage finding himself helped up by a tree, a Lightning Sage shocking an unseen enemy behind her, it was rare but Sages eventually got to the point even without specifically training for it.

Assassin’s like the Baqri were amazing for being able to bypass such things, but even they had their limits… Izuki recalled the man who taught him this method of training his Element.

The King of Lightning had taken an interest in Izuki’s skills back when he was still in Elem High training, and after winning the International Juniors, Izuki was offered training by the King of Lightning.

Izuki however, refused, stating that he could not leave Miya, even back then he had been smitten for her.

Acknowledging his resolve, the King of Lightning had told him one simple thing.

“Okay then. From now on, when you eat, when you drink, maybe even when you’re in the toilet. Create a loop of electricity in front of your eyes. Maintain perfect control, keep the flow in the same pattern constantly. Only do this when you can’t focus solely on this action.” Much like Hiiro… Izuki didn’t get it.

Then while fighting in the Fae Wars, during a dangerous fight which was taking all his concentration, Izuki just barely survived with Miya…

And afterwards she thanked him for saving her with a Lightning attack… which he hadn’t even done.

Izuki still hadn’t perfected the ability, don’t get him wrong, but from what the King of Metal said, Izuki’s skill left him with the subconscious control of an eight Star Sage even though he was a seven Star Sage.

Beyond that, the shifting of Elements that Hiiro was doing was insane to Izuki, even knowing his sons oddities, adding in that he had to gradually change from one Element to another, his son would be able to mix Elements and possibly have the entire world working to protect him without even knowing.

Izuki found out about this exercise when he was a four Star Sage well on his way to five Stars.

Hiiro started this exercise from the moment he became a Sage.

“Alright, I’m done eating.” Izuki looked down at his food, noting his food was missing.

And in front of Izuki was a circle of yellow light.

He was getting better it seemed… better keep training.

“Defend yourself!” Izuki shouted, Hiiro cursing as he rolled away, their lunchboxes left behind while Hiiro fumbled for his bow, getting a laugh from Izuki who had always wanted to say a line like that.

“Damn it dad!” Hiiro cursed, getting a laugh from Izuki who knew he’d have to talk to Hiiro about the curse later… Miya didn’t like even the idea of Hiiro cursing after all.

“By the way, I’ve noticed that you only fire straight, or in parabolas. Why don’t you try curve shots? Sage archers can control arrows after they fire them you know?” Izuki complained, and Hiiro responded back with a biting shout.

“I’ve been trying, but the concentration it takes is better used to dodge you!” Izuki widened his eyes, hitting a fist into his palm, realizing that Hiiro was actually saying the truth.

“All the more reason to get better control while you eat!” Izuki rushed, and Hiiro rolled, letting loose an arrow in the middle of his roll.

Izuki let a small smile appear on his face when he saw the arrow move unerringly towards the two hundred metre mark, hitting dead centre of the target…

Hiiro hadn’t seen it though, and during his roll he ended up facing away from his father, giving Izuki ample time to make his face stern… raise his katana… and yell-

“Protect your neck!” “Damn it dad!”

Meanwhile, at a train station in India-

“Ah… after having my bag swapped with someone else’s, my clothes stolen, and getting attacked by seven dogs, nine cats, three parakeets and one gerbil, and having a train ride being interrupted by food poisoning, a Mystic Beast attack and having the conductor barely surviving said attack and poisoning and being stranded until he got better, I’m finally in India.”

Nero’s complaints had quite a few people stare at him and step cautiously away from the source of quite a bit of bad luck, not that Nero minded.

He didn’t like being around normal humans anyway, they tended to blame him for all their bad luck, whereas Sages would just comment that he ‘lived an interesting life’ or chuckle.

“You sure live an interesting life.” See, this guy said it exactly like he was reading Nero’s mind!

“It’s just written on your face kid, now get up, you’re causing a bit too much of a scene.” The Sage that had helped Nero get out of his last conundrum said, helping Nero stand with one hand, easily lifting Nero into the air and letting him stand.

“Sorry… thanks again Mister Faire.” The man waved his hand, chuckling even as he smiled.

Nero couldn’t help but feel like he knew this man from somewhere, the soft smile, the white hair with stray strands of black, and the long white jacket…

Rather, that jacket was suspiciously clean of Mystic Beast blood even after Faire killed that monster… Nero couldn’t even see it happen.

There was just a moment where Faire looked at that beast… then it became absurdly powerful, to the point where Nero felt his throat constrict just being in its presence… and then suddenly it was gone, a red mist being blown backwards, only Faire sighing letting the people on the train know what happened.

Faire stood in front of Nero, standing taller than two metres, though the man was a bit thin for someone so tall, wearing a white coat, his arms covered in black sleeves and gloves at the end of them, wearing shades which he took off now, his eyes still closed for some reason.

“No problem kid, I look out for everyone you know? I feel sorry for you though kid.” Faire said, opening his eyes to reveal those sad blue orbs.

“You’re fighting a battle you have no part in… maybe you don’t even know you’re fighting? But regardless… you’re just an unfortunate casualty of existence.” Nero blinked, very confused by what Faire had just said, patting Nero’s head.

“I hope you find some peace in this lifetime, before the next comes.” Fair then walked away, his gloved hand being removed from Nero’s head, leaving Nero to watch as the man walked away…

“He’s weird… his hands felt so cold, through the gloves…” Nero said for a moment, picking up his bag, setting on his path, looking for a bus or something to get to the Temple.

And as he waited, thinking back to Faire and his odd riddles…

“He looked kind of like Liza.” Nero sat on the bus thinking this, then shrugging, leaning against the side of the bus and shutting his eyes for a bit.

He’d miss his stop by the way, and wake up lost and needing to find his way back to the Temple.

Just another odd happening in the life of Nero.

Faire on the other hand, strolled away thinking about what he felt like doing… and with a flex of his power, he stepped away, finding himself at the entrance of Babel, the capital (and only) city of Australia.

“Huh? Hey, you looking for entry into the city?” Someone on the wall shouted, and Faire looked up and at the young six Star Sage.

She was likely over sixty even if she looked to be in her early twenties, but she was still young compared to Faire.

“Yes, I’m just here on a bit of curiosity before I’ll leave again!” Faire shouted back to the girl, watching as she narrowed her eyes, likely suspicious.

Understandable, Sages entered and left this city in groups or died, those who moved alone were either Aboriginals, Fae, or absurdly powerful.

Faire was most certainly the latter.

“Uh, okay! Welcome to Babel!” the girl shouted and Faire walked into the city with a small smile on his face.

Ah, Faire loved his life… such a shame for that Nero kid though, he had nothing but an empty void waiting for him…