Inside a large, white-themed infirmary, with white sheets, white beds, and white walls, two students were currently resting in peace.
They wore a similar set of white shirts and white pants with a soft green glow covering their body from the runic symbols placed underneath the covers of the soft bed. With the usage of magic, Winston and Noel received a speedy recovery and can be expected to be fully healed before lunch.
In the silent room, Winston soundlessly opened his eyes and gazed at the white ceiling with a glimmer of gold in his ordinary brown eyes.
Placed on top of his normal vision was a strange floating screen, with a man clad in darkness, wearing a white lab coat and a pair of plain glasses. He crossed his arms with an air of arrogant confidence, and he stared at Winston with a blank look.
Morning, morning, Greed. Winston greeted cheerfully.
“Morning, Pride,” Mammon greeted back as the endless dark abyss around his figure shifted into a different place.
This time, the backdrop behind him changed into a plain white room, with laboratory and research equipment scattered around in a haphazard manner. On the decor-less walls, Winston saw some strange pods and indents filled with mysterious liquids and items, with a tinge of vitality left within their twisted appearances.
Mammon grabbed something from the table in front of him as he pulled back a chair and sat down. As he sipped on a glass of unknown green juice, he asked, “How’s your progress?”
Winston shifted around his bed and answered with his mind, So so. It’s been going well all things considered.
Tsk, once I whistle some info about miracle magic from Noel, then that lazy ass Sloth would have no reason to not venture to the dragon’s cave. Like dude, his entire job is to decipher how it works or steal it from some other source!
“Hey now, you gotta at least think from his perspective. He’s literally a powerless human being without Fortune Stealer! Even we’d be scared shitless if we have to enter a dragon’s lair.” Mammon retorted.
Powerless my ass. We can literally steal the heart of a Grand Mage without breaking a sweat and that’s an easy win. We’re fucking overpowered! What’s there to be scared of?! Winston snorted.
“Fair… But it’s a dragon. A blink and you’re basically dead. Besides, that’s not the most important thing to worry about. We still have to find a way for Lust to take over the Alchemist Guild. Then there’s also Envy with the elves. Not to mention the bodies Wrath and you have to inhabit later just so we can start the first step of the big bad heist later.”
Oh yeah! Any progress on our dear tyrant’s godly body? Winston asked with a smile.
“It’s going… decently well. We’ve already gathered corpses of fresh mermen along with some hydras, sea dragons, and deep sea squids, and we also found signs of the mythical leviathans. Overall, it’s going well.” Mammon paused and stood up.
“Also, you better be ready for your task later to create Gluttony. Envy is too busy playing princess in her magical elven life to infiltrate the devils.”
Ugh, that little annoying objective. And then I also have to deal with our dear Sloth’s future plans. Fuck, if he gets to be a goddamn protagonist later on, then I’d be pissed off as hell.
Mammon ignored Winston’s ramblings and stood up to take a light walk. The screen followed behind him as he stepped right beside a green pod with a strange, humanoid body with dark raven hair and bright purple eyes staring dazedly at the screen. Besides that, the humanoid body had sharp claws, strange runic markings scattered all over its body, and pale white skin seemingly made out of something inorganic like jade or marble.
Damn! My new body’s looking fine! Winston exclaimed.
“It nearly has all the features you asked for. Extreme space aptitude, insane innate movement speed, terrifying sensory abilities, the intrinsic abilities of leapfrogs, phase worms, void mantises, and bla bla bla. With this bad boy, you’ll be near unstoppable.” Mammon tapped the green glass of the pod and laughed.
Whew, boy! I cannot wait to ride that body! Winston nearly salivated at the sight, but his daydreaming was interrupted by the sound of the door opening with an audible click.
Winston immediately stopped moving as his gaze turned calm and serene. The screen moved to the corner of his peripheral view, while his face morphed into one of boredom.
“Oh, you’re awake?” a soft and soothing voice mumbled. Then, from behind the white curtains, a young man with pale white skin, long black hair, and scarlet red eyes walked in, covered from head to toe in white garments similar to a nurse or doctor.
“Lance?” Winston asked as he feigned a groan and looked up to look at the man’s face clearly. “How long was I passed out for?”
“Almost three hours by now,” Lance answered as he placed on some gloves and prepared to inspect Winston’s body.
“Oh, wow, my body must have been fucked up real bad then,” Winston coughed and nuzzled his head back to the pillow.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Indeed. You had several bone fractures, torn tendons, ruptured muscles, blisters and burns, and other various injuries.” Lance pulled out a list briefly read through the details regarding Winston’s injuries and looked back up to inspect his relatively fine state by eye. “Luckily for you, I was here to speed up your recovery.”
“A great doctor indeed, the genius of blood magic who had pushed the fields of medical research by leaps and bounds. How fearful it is to know that you and I are in the same class,” Winston murmured and chuckled.
Lance’s gaze flickered with a strange gleam for a moment as he shook his head with a smile. “The same can be said for you. I’m a genius known for having reached the level of a Vampire Marquess by the age of 16, which is equivalent to being a Royal Mage, but you’ve displayed abilities on par with a Royal Mage already with that exciting fight of yours as a mere human without any special blood or innate talent.”
“Oh, deary me, I’m starting to blush,” Winston laughed lightly and smiled.
He then extended out a hand and said, “I forgot that this is our first official meeting. The name’s Winston Champ, but you can just call me Winston.”
“Lance, Lance Bloodthorn. As for what to call me, you can call me whatever you want,” Lance accepted Winston’s handshake and smiled courteously.
As their hands shook, a faint trace of mana drilled its way into Lance’s body, before it then disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Lance didn’t seem to notice it, however, and simply went on to inspect Winston’s body to make sure nothing too serious was left unchecked.
While this happened, Mammon, who was watching through the invisible floating screen suddenly stopped moving and his gaze seemed to pierce through time and space entirely. In his view, the fabrics of time warped to reveal a colorful and wondrous scenery, where something akin to a tentacle of light stretching out from the abstract void.
With a stretch of his hand, something transparent was pulled out of thin air and disappeared right into his forehead, along with a set of memories that sunk deep into his mind.
…
Inside a wide, open, and boring classroom, Anna found herself once again dreading nothing. It’s like her mind is just an anxious and worrisome mess and this foreboding feeling had been knocking at the back of her head.
As she rubbed her temple and closed her eyes, she felt as if that feeling was metaphysically grabbed by something and was yanked out of her mind, causing that subtle ache at the back of her head to disappear altogether.
Huh? She opened her eyes and looked around the room in bewilderment. She slowly reached out to grab the back of her head to feel for anything but didn’t find anything special.
Well, at least my headache’s gone. Anna exhaled softly and slowly found her mental state returning to its normal, happy self without any headaches.
Time quickly passed and class finally ended. She subconsciously lowered her presence and connected her mind with the spirits roaming in the class to get a third-person view of the classroom.
Like before, she saw Melvin and Leo group up and walk outside with their lunch. With the help of wind spirits, she heard them talk.
“Are things going well on your end?” Leo asked with a soft voice as the two spoke cryptically.
“The supply lines are going well. By the time we open, we’ll have enough products stockpiled to last us a while,” Melvin answered and smiled slyly.
“Great. If we keep up this pace, we’ll take the entire empire by storm and usher Tyr into a new era,” Leo murmured as his smile turned into a twisted grin.
Her vision then moved from the mysterious duo to a more wacky and chaos-inducing trio.
Rob, Elaine, and Holly met up outside the classroom by the hallway and greeted each other before they went away to eat lunch.
Through the eyes of the spirits, Anna spied on them silently and efficiently as she waited for Noel to arrive outside the classroom. She leaned back on a wall with one eye closed and one eye open to keep track of the different points of view currently running through her brain.
“I heard that two students from your class almost died this morning. Is that true?” Elaine asked inquisitively as she turned to look at Holly with a curious gaze.
“That… well,” Holly chuckled awkwardly as she remembered the fight of epic proportions and rubbed her cheeks in slight dismay. “Uh, I guess that is true that they almost died.”
“Huh?!” Rob gawked upon hearing Holly and wore a proud grin. “It seems like Class 1-A isn’t as great and orderly as what the rumors say. At least Leo didn’t almost die back then, unlike yours.”
“So true!” Elaine chided in and teased Holly. “It seems like your class’ reputation is going to take a big hit with this issue! Ehehehe.”
Holly rolled her eyes at the two’s chattering and decided to change the subject. “Anyways, did you guys know, there had been recent rumors that Simon Belford is planning on opening a new company with Leo and Melvin?”
“Oh, that?” Rob clicked his tongue and furrowed his brows. “I’ve heard about that… It seems to be true, and the main product of their company would be potions from what I’ve gathered from my sources.”
“Why do you look so angry then?” Elaine inquired with slitted eyes. “It’s just the son of a businessman making a company, it’s nothing too strange.”
“Oh, it is! It’s because that shithead Trix is the creator of their special product!” Rob smacked his lips and harrumphed.
“Trix? You mean your rival at the Alchemist Guild?” Holly asked with raised eyebrows.
“It’s her! Yes, it’s fucking her!” Rob cursed. “That plagiarising little bastard, stealing my potion formula…!”
“Can you really call it stealing if she made an improved version of your potion?” Elaine teased gleefully as she didn’t miss the opportunity to further anger Rob.
“Fuck you!” Rob glared at Elaine.
As the three continued to walk, they came to a stop and stared at Kain and Alice who came from a nearby hallway, and the two groups eyed each other for a while before Kain finally broke the ice.
“Uh, good afternoon?” Kain mumbled, then his eyes lit up when he saw Holly’s blushing face and couldn’t help but pray to the gods inwardly.
Alice seemed to have realized something too as their eyes met with a spark. Immediately, Alice took a step closer, leaned forward with a bashful face, and asked, “You’re Rob and Elaine, right? We’ve been hearing a lot about you two from Holly over here!”
“That’s right!” Kain also approached the two and wrapped his hand around Holly’s neck with a big wide grin. “Whenever we’re in class, she’d always talk a lot about you two, especially you, Rob!”
Elaine, who was apprehensive at first, slowly eased down as she heard their words. With a casual glance at Holly’s blushing face, she felt her heart palpitate in glee as she came to realize the two’s wicked plan.
“Really? That sounds surprising!” said Elaine with an exaggerated shocked face.
“Right?” Alice grinned. She then placed her arm around Holly’s and interlocked them together, before turning to look at Rob with a warm smile. “You guys won’t mind if we eat together with you three for lunch, would you?”
“Oh yeah! Holly hasn’t eaten lunch with us for like forever! Isn’t this a great opportunity to break the ice and get to know each other?” Kain agreed within a heartbeat.
“I didn’t know that!” Elaine gasped. “Sure, sure! You two can eat lunch with us, right, brother?”
Rob glanced at his sister with a deadpan stare and sighed. “Sure, let’s eat with them.”