“Welcome back after your week of vacation. That being said, I got some Sage worthy things to talk to you all about, take notes if you want to, but we aren’t going to be working much today.” Jonathan said as he walked into the class, five minutes after the bell had already gone off.
The seven S-Class students nodded, already recognizing the cues of one of Jonathan’s serious lessons.
“Today we talk about the second of the three enemies of humanity, namely the Fae.” Writing the spelling of the word on the blackboard, everyone tensed slightly.
All seven of them were too young to have been around when the Fae Wars ended over fifty years ago, let alone when they started almost a century ago.
But the effects of the War still hit everyone today, and it showed its effects in different places.
For one, the human population was fragmented, travelling between cities required guards (Sages) as you might be attacked by Mystic Beasts or a group of Fae who believe you to be trespassing.
Leah had even lost her family in an attack by the Fae Races over land, now known as an Incursion… humanity fought back by doing their own Incursions, but always making sure that it was minor villages.
The War ended, but battles still went on…
“Although we use the term Fae, old Gaelic for ‘fairy’ there are no real fairies amongst them. The Fae Races, as they are collectively known, are a gathering of different races, each with the ability to control a singular element, much like a humanoid Mystic Beast.” Jonathan added that information to the board, with the note ‘one element limit’.
“Of the Fae Races, there are ten tribes known, however two of them do not exist in the modern era, leaving only eight of the Fae Races left. We will start with the ‘lower four’ and then the ‘higher four’.” Jonathan added, drawing a circle around the word Fae and then extending four lines from it as if replicating a compass.
“As I mentioned, each tribe, or race, of Fae possesses a singular element with which they have much greater control compared to us humans. Much like the Mystic Beasts, they lack the versatility we possess. The first tribe we’ll talk about is the Fire Tribe, the Djinn.” Jonathan wrote the name of the tribe out at the ‘north’ point of the Fae compass.
“The Djinn are considered the most barbaric of the Fae Races, but after some surveillance it has been determined that this preconception is false.” Jonathan added, tapping the name.
“Djinn are a warrior race; they possess deep tans and pointed ears, and notably wear very little in regards to clothing, typically forgoing any footwear as well. The strength of Djinn warriors can be determined by tattoos they wear visibly on their bodies, the more one possesses the stronger they are, with ten tattoo’s signifying a ten Star Djinn warrior.” Jonathan added a note about the tattoo’s to the board.
“But while they are considered warriors, Djinn also appreciate art, something we only learnt after we completed an Incursion on a small Djinn village and found remnants of beautiful pottery and knitting. The closest human example for the Djinn would be Vikings in regards to their love of both combat and beauty.” Jonathan added the term Vikings and moved on.
“For the Wind Fae Race, we have the Garuda, a race of avian beings. They possess feathers lining their arms and legs, and a pair of wings on their backs, dressing similarly to the ancient Greeks.” Once more, Jonathan added to the board.
“Are they named after the Indian Garuda?” Kazuya found himself asking, a bit confused on the name.
“You’re on the wrong track little hero, they named that thing after the Fae Race, not the other way around. The Garuda are masters of the sky, and are amongst the reason we do not attempt travel by air anymore, other than the other aerial Mystic Beasts.” Jonathan admitted with a frown…
He always wanted to ride an ‘airplane’ but riding in one was practically suicide above a certain altitude.
“The Garuda are admittedly not as strong as the other Fae Races, but they make up for that with being amongst the most intelligent, and it was after the War that we learnt that the Garuda were responsible for a large part of the enemy strategies. Telling the strength of a Garuda warrior can be done by considering the colouration of their wings, the more green they are, the stronger they are. Once their wings are forest green, they possess ten Star strength.” Jonathan added all the bits of information onto the board.
“Next are the Gnomes. Like the name suggests, they’re pretty short and live slightly underground, and by now you should know that they are the Earth Fae Race.” Jonathan added the name in.
“Gnomes, despite being the Fae Race of the Earth, possess weaker bodies than expected. They make up for this by being excellent assassins, silent and deadly, with extremely accurate control over Earth. The teacher of the D-Class, Julie, actually gained her amazing control over the element through multiple battles against Gnomes.” Jonathan admitted, pretending that Edward’s eyes did not gain a fire in them.
It was possibly literal, considering the teen’s control over the element, and Jonathan didn’t want to consider such a bit of extreme control of an element was used for such a petty reason…
“The Gnomes were in fact the reason why the Great Wall of China is partially destroyed, as they tunnelled under the wall during an attack, the damage done would eventually result in part of the wall caving into the ground.” Jonathan added observationally, moving onto the next race…
Gnomes were assassins, you wouldn’t be able to tell their strength until you fought… and if you were in a straight up fight with a Gnome, it usually meant they thought they could kill you.
“For the final member of the lower four Fae Races, we have the Water attributed Undine. These are your stereotypical mermaid-merman people, except these guys possess a stable combination of gills and lungs, meaning they can breathe in and out of water.” Jonathan added, completing the ‘cardinal directions’ of the Fae Race compass.
“The Undine can be considered peaceful amongst the Fae, I must admit, the only issue is that entering the water with them around is just asking to be killed.” Jonathan said with a frown.
“Inside water, the natural pale colouration of the Undine and their movements give them natural camouflage, blending into the water around them. And they can breathe underwater, we can’t… the Undine were limited in the war when it came to land, but they single-handedly shut down any attempts to send support via the sea.” Jonathan added as he absently wrote down that identifying the strength of an Undine would be easy…
Inside the water, treat them all as a ten Star Sage, outside the water, the power differences were obvious like how they could tell that Liza had three Stars and the others had two.
“Next are the four greater Fae Races, which include the elements of Lightning, Metal, Ice and Wood.” Jonathan added four longer lines to the compass, now adding ‘north-east’ and other such combination directions, so to speak.
Thinking about Fae Races with regards to the compass made things easier.
“First let’s talk about the rarest of the four greater Fae Races, the Lightning Sprites. Quite honestly, we aren’t too sure about these ones because they were the origin of the term blitzkrieg, after their attack on Bonn, levelling the city in a surprise attack which lasted only ten minutes.” Jonathan said, recalling the old German city.
“They attacked quickly and powerfully, barely giving any proof of their existence beyond the remains of the battle field.” Jonathan said, adding the term blitzkrieg to the board.
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“Eventually a Sage managed to kill one, recovering the corpse of a Sprite, their appearances denote them as the smallest of all the Fae, having appearances extremely close to the original idea of a fairy, with spiky blonde hair and yellow eyes, they wear baggy clothes and move with extreme speed. We’ve never seen a ten Star Sprite, but we can assume they have identifying methods for that.” Jonathan added, not liking the lack of information but not having anything to provide to the students.
“For the next group, Wood, we have the Elves. They look exactly like you can imagine, fair skin, model level features and surprisingly hygienic for a tribe that lives in forests. Long range and ambush specialists, they are the tribe that lives the longest among the Fae… this also means that the longer they live, the more experienced they are. And experience usually equals skill.” Jonathan warned, signifying that while Elves are typically bow users, but the longer they live, the more skill they gain overall.
“Elves are also the representatives of the Fae Races, being easiest to communicate with… as long as we pretend that we’re talking to extremely snobbish nobles, we get the idea along easy.” Jonathan joked about the most annoying conversation partners amongst the Fae…
Well, most annoying that wouldn’t immediately try to kill you.
“Next we have the Metal Fae Race, the Dwarves. Don’t take that stereotype at face value, they’re large, and they consider it an honour to be compared to giants, though their proportions are similar to those afflicted with dwarfism. Their size is also where the idea of ‘dwarfing’ something came from… they literally made humans feel like midgets.” At this point, the constantly relaxing Liza frowned, knowing that compared to Dwarves, she must be essentially a new-born.
“The largest known Dwarf was their king, a seven Star Dwarf.” That got some surprised looks amongst the class as Jonathan smirked.
“Unlike the other tribes, Dwarves decide leaders based on skill in crafts, building, forging, sculpting, painting, they compete in these manners instead of fighting, because fighting amongst themselves would lower their power against other races… that, and they fight amongst themselves every day, so the winner would be obvious.” Jonathan joked, recalling a rare time where he was accepted into a Dwarf village.
The Fae in general disliked humanity, but like how no one is wholly evil, the Fae know and can acknowledge that good humans exist. On rare occasions where they acknowledge a human, the human will be treated as an equal of their race.
Jonathan managed to earn that right amongst some of the Dwarves after assisting the pregnant wife of a village leader while she was being attacked by Mystic Beasts.
Seeing how Jonathan helped them out regardless of race, the Dwarves, honourable as they were, accepted him as an equal.
“For Dwarves, uniquely, the strength a Dwarf possesses isn’t that important, as they are usually engineers first and warriors second… don’t mistake that for weakness though, Dwarves are the sturdiest of the Fae.” Jonathan warned, writing in everything on the compass before adding in the final race.
“As for Ice, they are known as the Yeti, all possessing white hair and animal features, eyes, ears, tails, scales, they’re also considered Beast-men amongst humans, but that is a great insult to their people.” Jonathan warned.
“Yeti as a tribe, are all extremely blessed physically regardless of stature. Even the youngest of their number are powerful enough. A one Star Yeti has the physical strength of a two Star Sage, and because of this, the Yeti were the frontline-fighters for the Fae.” There were horror stories of the Yeti, especially in snowy areas and during winter…
“The only known weak-point of the Yeti is that they are sluggish in hotter weather, and the Fire element bothers them greatly. The Yeti are also separated from the Djinn in combat styles by weapon choice, the Djinn are barehanded fighters whereas the Yeti are weapon masters. Some of the greatest Sages learnt their weapon styles through imitation of Yeti’s.” Jonathan added to the board, completing the image.
“If it weren’t for their glaring weakness against temperature change, the Yeti would be nigh-invincible. The aftermath of the Fae War has not been kind to them though, and it is hard to find a Yeti even if you look for them these days.” Jonathan wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or sorry.
He was a human, regardless of how much they could be friends, it was a fact that the Fae and Humans couldn’t be friends in a larger grouping just yet.
Jonathan was sorry that he would never get to see a proper Yeti village, but also thankful that he’d never have to worry about a squadron of Yeti charging at him.
Now on the board was a complete compass, with North as Fire, West as Earth, East as Air, and South as Water. Then for the diagonal positions, North West was Metal, North East was Lightning, South West was Wood, and South East as Ice.
A general compass for how elements actually worked truthfully.
“But sir… if these are the only Fae Races left, what about Light and Darkness?” Jade asked in confusion, only to be answered by an unexpected source.
“The Darkness was the Demons, deceptive and cunning, but so free-willed that they refused even the laws of the world. The Light was the Angels, honest and hopeful of the potential of others, but unable to see beyond the limitations set onto them by the world around them. And thus, the two warred over the Earth, driving each other to extinction, until the day came where both races agreed to leave the Earth for the other fledgling races, agreeing that their battle should not drag in those who know not what they fight for.” The quiet, but so, so clear voice spoke out, drawing silence from all others as they looked to the smallest person in the room.
“…” Kazuya was also rendered speechless as he looked to the sad expression of Liza sitting next to him, and she was not willing to look anyone in the eye after her speech.
“Well, that’s that. Little Liza let you all know. The Demons and Angels, the Fae of Darkness and Light respectively, no longer exist. In fact, we wouldn’t know of their existence if it wasn’t for the fact that they have left proof of their existence.” Jonathan added with a sigh, the students all looking confused at that last bit while Jonathan clicked his tongue upon realizing his faux pas.
“…Wasn’t supposed to mention that yet, that’s a lesson for another time. Alright, pull out your books. I said you weren’t going to be working much today.” Jonathan managed to draw a few groans from his students as they began to work.
It was the end of the day when on the train-line heading to Berlin that the S-Class students separated from their Rank one and two respectively, giving them space.
“…” Liza and Kazuya sat next to each other in silence, the other members of their class staying far enough away that the two would not be heard unless someone actively tried to eavesdrop.
No one should try after seeing how distressed Liza was… hopefully.
“…If it hurt to say it, why would you say it?” Kazuya asked, skipping the banter and heading straight to his issue with the problem.
“…You don’t care for conversation flow huh?” Liza joked, not talking in her usual halting tone…
Not that Kazuya believed in that tone in the first place. Liza didn’t need to speak like that, as mentioned she was a good public speaker when she tried…
But so far, to Kazuya at least, it seemed that Liza only spoke properly when with those who she wanted to care for her words.
“I can, I just choose not to when it’s unnecessary.” Kazuya added, once more being as blunt as possible, making Liza giggle… that giggle did odd things to Kazuya’s stomach.
“Right… well, to answer your question… I guess I told that story because it had to be heard. It has sentimental value to me.” Liza mentioned, looking out the windows to the passing scenery.
“It brings up bad memories huh…” Kazuya said, looking to the ceiling.
“No. It brings happy memories, of a better time…” Liza added, and Kazuya realized his mistake.
“Oh. It’s not the story itself that is sad, but the knowledge that the happiness associated with it can’t be returned.” Kazuya added aloud, letting Liza know his thought process.
“Yes. That’s the best way to put it Kazuya, no, Hiiro. I’ve never mentioned how I reached three Stars… did I?” Liza asked, and Kazuya shook his head, inwardly finding it oddly acceptable when Liza said his first name.
“There is something that mister Jonathan doesn’t want the S-Class to know about just yet. It is related to the proof of the existence of Angels and Demons. I earned my three Stars in a situation related to that proof.” Liza admitted sadly.
“I see… so they helped you gain the strength you have today, and that’s why the loss of the Angels and Demons hurts, or is it something more?” Kazuya asked, uncertain as to why he needed to know this…
But just as Kazuya was uncertain as to why he asked the question, he had a greater feeling… a feeling that if he didn’t ask the question, he’d regret it.
“A bit of both… I am thankful to those Fae, but I knew of them even before I encountered their proof… from a lullaby I remember from my childhood.” Liza finally looked back to Kazuya, and for the first time, Kazuya actually looked into hers.
With his blue, almost purple eyes staring into her own crimson red, Liza spoke.
“I don’t remember my parents. As far as I can remember, I’ve always either been alone or with the Principal.” Kazuya looked to the girl in question.
“But the one thing I can remember about my parents is that lullaby. The one about Angels and Demons. I’ve been obsessed with stories about them since then… Any mention of the two races has me remember my parents and that makes me sad.” Liza admitted, looking to her knees, clenching her fists.
A pat on her head had Liza’s eyes start wobbling.
“I don’t have much I can do to help you Liza. I haven’t experienced what you have, so I can’t empathize. I don’t know what would make you happy. All I know how to do is be here.” Kazuya added, not daring to look at Liza out of fear that she’d see the blush on his cheeks.
He was a man damn it, he wasn’t used to being sappy!
Still stroking her hair without looking, Kazuya didn’t see the tears going down Liza’s cheeks…
He also didn’t see the smile she had as she subconsciously pressed into his hand.
When you are in pain, sometimes just knowing someone is there for you can make all the difference between despair and hope.
Kazuya didn’t know what else he could do… but he didn’t know that he had already done so much just with his presence in Liza’s moment of vulnerability. It hurt, but it would get better.
“That’s so cute!” Damn it Vince.