‘I wonder if I rushed her right now, if she’d expect such an attack? To shoot her with my own blood…’, but he stopped and breathed, calming his bloodlust. Quenching it was not an option for now.

Only half of him cared anyhow. To have such strong feelings for her, the other merely observed.

‘Fuck, am I developing split personalities? These feelings are hard to keep in check… Tch’, he clicked his tongue once again as he watched her blooming smile slowly flatten.

She looked away to another part of the room, at a group of guys talking amongst each other, then looked back to him slowly losing interest.

He was about to take another step forward, making way for his desk. Yet another pair of feet moved past him, a pleasant aroma wafted by as a long mane of straight pink hair obscured his vision. He glanced at the girl's backside as she scuttered up the steps.

“Ack”

But a sudden leg moving from under the desk and onto the narrow steps was all it took for her to come crashing down, the books in her hands scattering amongst the floor.

“Watch it you fucking cheater, or do you want a taste of true royalty?”, the boy who tripped her proceeded to shove his foot in her way, in front of her face.

But his friend hit him on the shoulder, “you’re a bastard son yourself, one of nobility, don’t spout such bullshit. At least she’s a royal bastard, how else’d you think she’d be kept here after all she did?”.

Silas walked past her, ignoring the bickering while climbing the steps to a vacant desk. A quill and inkpot were placed in meter intervals along the desk that traveled to the other row of steps on the other side of the room. He made sure there was no one around it. But on placing his books down, he couldn’t help but look back at the girl, the poor damsel in distress.

As he sized up her chubby fingers picking up each book, applying them to her busty breasts, he couldn’t help but reminisce of the past. As she was now a reclusive fat lass, bullied worse than himself. But once she stood as a tall empowering figure, lean and graceful like a ballerina.

A reference realized by how eloquently she performed the swings of her saber, representing her techniques with a deadly luster almost as if performing a dance. She stood at the center of attention much like how he was on Earth. Though that only lasted a year before she got caught for cheating, her appearance humbling overtime alongside her treatment.

But he didn’t care for her current state, it was survival of the fittest after all. Rather, while he knew there was more to her fall of grace, an aspect most plebians such as himself had ignored in the past, what he cared more for was what he stared at. Upon observing a while, he managed a glimpse at the emptiness in her yellowed eyes masked by her long hair as she stared down at her books. Following such a state devoid of emotion, Silas couldn’t help but smile.

Perhaps he could use her for his plans, especially if she proved anything like himself. A potential scapegoat even, only made possible of course, if they shared a similar ideology.

He walked forward with his crutch, leaning on it as he picked up her last book on the step above her. He offered it to her while she looked up, giving him a closer look at her rounded chubby squeezable face.

“Are you okay?”, he questioned, his smile from earlier still forced to linger on his face. While fake and unauthentic, he prolonged it only for thematics.

She stared at the hand for a while, her hopelessly lost eyes returning a glimmer of hope as she looked back at his plain looking face.

“Ah. Yes”, her eyes slowly brightened, as she steadily grabbed the book from him, as if savoring a rare glimpse of positive human interaction.

“Um, thank you”, she got up and weakly smiled.

But her eyes suddenly became pained, her shy smile stagnated and twitched, as Silas’s mouth turned upside down. Timid-like, she thanked him again before hurrying off to an isolated desk above his own. Yet lingering in the area, Silas’s frown did the same as he finally sat at his desk.

‘Nevermind, she’s not someone I can make use of’, he recalled how easily her expression brightened after a moment's hesitation. While it didn’t last for long, he knew she wasn’t what he wanted.

‘Perhaps another year would do her well, but I will not wait for her’

He looked to the open sliding door, and the vacant stand that the professor would frequent. While waiting for the class to start, he leaned back against the wooden wall that extended towards the next person's desk, engaged in his own thoughts.

‘Actually, didn’t her sister arrive a year after her? That’s when she was accused of cheating to achieve a higher rank. Clearly her sister pulled some strings to make her life hell, probably to overthrow her in the succession of the throne. No she’s a bastard, probably just wary of her potential, she wasn’t ranked second of our year group for nothing’

‘In a way my own sister did the same though. Kiyah among a select few may have first placed the target on my back, but my sister's entry to the academy would have only added fuel to the fire. After all, where there’s factions there’s politics, and what best way to play the game then to curry favor with the most likely successor to a family name by trashing on the weaker player’

‘Anyone would jump at the prospect of projecting their insecurities on one supposedly better than them. My family may be new, but it’s probably more powerful than most countries in the Grismere kingdom. The best part of being neglected is you blend in and hear things, and I've overheard much at the estate of how other nobility within the kingdom had become wary of us’

Ding… Ding… Ding

‘Professor’s running late again… Anyhow, that girl's younger sister is the head of one faction, perhaps I could curry favor with her? Though she mainly has the Aksumite nobility on her side, and I risk being abandoned when I’m revealed as a fallen noble. I have overheard of some guy nicknamed The Master at odds with her though, but he’s the leader of the demi-humans which don’t have the greatest rep here at a mostly human school’

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

‘Otherwise there’s the commoners, the Serafin nobility, or the Grismere which includes Kiyah, but I doubt anyone in the know would want to join them. Everyone’s aware of the demon invasion, but I don’t think everyone yet knows of our devastating loss. Otherwise I’m sure Kiyah would have already-’

“Hey stickman”

“Hm?”

A man as tall as himself stood before him. He was as blond as himself as well, but his skin was tanner, his eyes greener and his physique more muscular. Besides all that he stood while Silas sat, encompassed by his shadow.

“No, call him a stick bug. It rolls off the tongue”, a guy from behind the boy spoke up.

“Shut up, I’m the leader here, I talk”, he pointed to himself, yet he finger guned over to Silas instead.

“You. You’re sitting in my seat”

“What?”, while absorbed in his own thoughts he wasn’t oblivious to anyone new entering the room.

Besides, while his recent memories may be vague, he recalled always having sat at this spot for years beforehand. It had been ingrained in him to sit there.

“No I’m not”, his brows furrowed as he motioned at the quill in the inkpot in front of him; it was quite obvious what was about to happen next.

“Yeah I don’t think stickbug here is buying it, should we pick a better excuse?”

“Shut it, how many times do I have to tell you?”

The boy before him turned around as he told off the other who wouldn’t keep his mouth shut. But this time served for Silas to observe them, there being 4 in their group. Yet in such a narrow passageway where he sat, only 1 could get to him at a time. And the leader in front of him seemed confident in his position there.

Silas brought down the quill under his desk, rubbing the ink off onto his pants.

‘Anyone here is naturally stronger than me, I don’t have a strong foundation to work with. Only my gift, but should I use it so openly? Or… Wait, wouldn’t it be suspicious if I suddenly displayed this power? I can’t pretend I never had it, the academy requires students to use a globe of observation in their first years, they have my document pertaining to my qualifications. Fuck, would I be presumed a demon in disguise? There are such things as mimics after all…’

Yet the argument between the opposing group seemed to have finished.

“Besides, why do I even need an excuse?”

Slap

He turned around at that moment, his palm hitting the side of Silas’s face, flinging it the other way. He felt a whisper in his ear, the boy leaning down to taunt him.

“Take this as a courtesy call from Kiyah, you’re to meet at your regular spot behind the dorms after this lesson”

His head already turned at the right angle, all it took for him was to lift his eyes up, to meet Kiyah’s own, full of anticipation. She couldn’t help but wave her fingers at him while wearing an alluring smile, performing a simple greeting gesture as if she hadn’t just orchestrated this.

But as Silas applied a pressure to his thumb under the table, his eye wincing as a result, her cheeks flushed red, unable to contain her true emotions. Her smile would have lasted longer no doubt, had his empty eyes glared at her for longer.

Yet as if to counter what she desired, he brought up his hand containing his bleeding thumb, only waving back. A blood trail trickled down as he gave it air and time to bleed. She gave him a face full of question marks, but he turned around in that instant, applying his other hand to his assailant's collar and lifting himself to his height. When they met face to face, he immediately stuck his thumb inside of the boy's mouth. He bit down instinctively as a result, while Silas endured.

“Whada fuh?”, the boy murmured, the rest of the class equally confused.

Yet confusion proved a distraction as Silas headbutted the boy, his thumb still in his mouth.

Crunch

Only Silas knew where the sound came from as both skulls collided, his own head recoiled, his noggin felt swollen as he felt like he headbutted a brick wall. But in the moment, Silas’s finger had been ripped out from the mouth, and as it came out, his other hand containing the boy’s collar swiped down. In the process, he fell down on top of the boy, his balance lost.

As they hit the floor, Silas was cushioned by the boy’s body. Yet it was that same boy who spat out a mouthful of blood, his body spasming as he had a stroke.

‘No one should trace this back to me if no one saw it explicitly’

The class, his group, Kiyah, all remained confused as Silas leaned back, grabbing at his seat to lift himself back up. He sat only after looking down on the boy, staring back to the rest of his friends.

“I think he’s having a headache, will no one call for a medic?”

“I think he’s having more than a headache, how ‘bout I give you the same treatment?”

But a boy from the back of the group placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Dude, just carry him to the infirmary before he dies. He’s a big bloke, you both will need to haul him there”

The one who kept yapping squinted, “why don’t you do it?”

“I mean look me”

And so they did. He was on the skinny side much like Silas, sporting short brown hair and a pair of emerald green eyes. He flashed a grin, a stark contrast to the mood set by his friend's spasming body, yet he clutched his muscles all the same.

“You actually think these will be able to carry that?”

He pointed to his friend on the ground, had they been standing side to side, he’d be a few inches shorter.

While they sorted themselves out, Silas realized the attention had diverted away from him. With a bit of free time on hand, he decided to peer back at Kiyah unsurprised to witness her amused by the situation, her hands still leaning on the table resting her head as she stared at the trio arguing with glee. Only on noticing his gaze did she tilt her head, suddenly exhibiting no discernable emotion.

‘Why must she veil her thoughts behind a curtain of mystery’, he sighed internally.

He could respect the effort, but it didn’t change his feelings on her. Yet suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey I’ve decided friendship be magic, he telepathically communicated he’d rather I end you and die”

Thud

The moment was interrupted as the door slid shut, an authoritative voice echoing throughout the classroom.

“All right everyone, into your seats. You get off the floor, I won’t say it again”

Silas turned to the new boy before him, “you heard the man”.

“Screw you”

Silas stretched his arm up, “professor Brombock, if I may. I don’t think this guy is feeling well, could his friends take him to the infirmary?”, he kicked the squirming boy on the ground to further his point.

“Hmm”, the professor twisted his monocle as he examined the student coughing out blood.

“Oh yes, quite so. Hurry off you lot, don’t disrupt me further”, he took off his tophat and settled his lecture notes.

“Tsk”, the two goons carried off their friend, the last guy who made a point of showing off his inability merely sat back at his desk a few rows higher.

“I won’t forget this”, the boy spat as he carried his friend out the door.

“None of you should forget this”, the Professor spoke over him as the other two closed the door behind them.

“I know this is a theory lesson, but if you don’t take body cultivation seriously, a pierced spleen will be the least of your worries. So please try to listen well, my teachings could very well save your lives”