On the edge of a large and high cliff sat a city surrounded by large castle walls, and encompassed by a huge transparent blue dome, a magic barrier to protect it from aerial assault. This city had been cut into two halves, with another row of castle walls dividing them. The closest half to the entrance, where a tall gate protected by many guards stood, had a myriad of living spaces to one side, separated by the main road whereby the markets and entertainment areas had all aligned in another maze of a district, spiraling towards the corner of the city, to the inner depths where all manner of trades were conducted.

The main road, however, twisted around buildings, but otherwise kept a single path that led to the inner half, the academic area. This place had another gate leading into it, one way in, one way out, protected by seemingly even more guards of better quality than the first. In this area stood many tall buildings, each erected from varying levels of ground height, and large spaces of land were left between them for people to walk around and train in. In the furthest space, stood the tallest and widest of buildings, one that individually took up a fourth of the total academic area.

At the entrance to such a place, Silas walked out scratching his head, receiving numerous gazes of passing students, while murmuring to himself, too focused to pay attention to his surroundings. In his haste to class, he seemed to have forgotten one simple thing.

“Fuck, that was embarrassing. Walked into a class that I didn’t have. Forgot it was the weekend, I’ve no classes then… Why are my memories so hazy when it comes to the past month? It’s like he’s trying to hide something from me, despite us being one. This must be because of the fragments, unlike the full pieces I saw from his childhood… But what’s stopping me from making his recent memories full too?”

But he stopped his mindless soliloquy upon realizing the few side glances he received. He waved at a few of them, causing them to redirect their attention elsewhere out of embarrassment of being caught.

‘I’ve got to stop blabbering to myself like I’m two parts’, he proceeded to sigh, lamenting the vicissitudes of life, until he realized the chance the current day brought him.

‘I need to set my foundations in this academy. I've another year and a bit to get through, and I’ve not conducted any plans on how to live outside of it. Going back to the estate is what I was originally going to do, but that may not end up too well for me, as my parents have done their best to ensure my sister inherits the title…’

‘No, what I need to do is make a way for revenue, something that I can cultivate to both support me here and when I graduate. But more important than that, I need to understand the gist of my gift…’

Silas was recounting his memories wondering what he could do to support his goals, but suddenly stopped in the middle of the pathway, a sly smile growing on his face.

‘I’ve got it, a way following an unethical dilemma, a practice I would never have thought to conduct, let alone condone on Earth. But such a dilemma won’t restrict me…’

He nodded along to himself, continuing his movements, but instead of randomly wantoning around, his trajectory followed a clear sense of direction, as he continued to think to himself.

‘I can practice my ability using them’, and contemplated how to do so, ‘it seems I can influence myself, and others, unrestricted by rank considering I used the blood of a God. Freija whilst a God was in the form of a human however, so I can’t guarantee that I can influence beasts or spirits, or even demons too. I’d also need to test it on other humanoid races, and with other weapon types…’.

Silas stopped for a moment exclaiming suddenly before continuing.

‘Speaking of which, the knife that I died to… Wasn’t… On my body when I woke up. I doubt anyone retrieved it given that I have… Granted, inexplicit memories of stabbing myself. But the door remained locked when I checked… And… Could it really have been my summoned weapon? But considering Leoghan didn’t have a gift of his own… My ability couldn’t have manifested at that time… Surely?’, Silas was puzzled.

There was too much undisclosed information he’d need to unravel. Had he a system like Freija described, perhaps all his questions would be answered. It did seem highly informative after all, but…

‘Previous Silas fucked it up, couldn’t remain cool headed… Though perhaps he had a point to be made…’

“Bow down to no one, huh”, he muttered under his breath, ‘not a bad goal to have, but… A little difficult in this world’.

He proceeded to smirk, ‘yet the idea excites me. Was a wish that both my parts were enraptured by. If I’ve learnt anything from their experiences, this is it. This ought to define me’

As he walked, he didn’t go aimless. To test his powers, he needed someone to test it on, and other weapons to test it with. Was it reliant on his summoned blade, or other weapons that he could wield with the use of his ability. And how powerful was it? What were the restrictions? There were so many questions. The most important of which was how to activate it at all. He had already tried back in his room, yet nothing came about it.

The only current way to answer his questions was through the use of money and resources, but unfortunately he didn’t have either. That was the first thing he checked before leaving his room, yet all he had was chump change.

Silas took what little chump change he had gathered from his pocket. This city he was in had its own standalone coin, called points, that was produced and utilized for all transactions inside its jurisdiction. It was a coin with one side showing the founder of the academy, depicted as a balmy old man, with a great long beard.

The resemblance to the current headmaster was uncanny, which wasn’t strange as there were rumors they shared the same bloodline, the academy in itself, an inheritance. He flipped the coin in his hand to the other side, revealing the amount of points it had. Each coin could range from 1, 5, 10, 50, 250, 1000 and 10000. The current he had was a mere 5.

Outside the city, the coin was useless as each kingdom had operated under a different currency, utilizing the bronze, silver and gold coins, whereby 100 of each increment was worth 1 of the next in line.

The reason why this city, Easthrer, the neutral city of academics, had its own form of currency was simple. To reduce the difference in ranks from affecting academic life. This stopped the children of kings and other influential or wealthy backgrounds from buying their way to the top in the academy. No, only those who were talented or relentless in their efforts for growth, were rewarded as the best and the brightest.

For those that achieved high ranks within the few hundreds of their year levels, would receive a great amount of points to use however they wished. This privilege also spanned a difference of treatment from living conditions, to services like a personal escort, discounts and even special clearance to high valued items on the market. These gifts of points were awarded every term, increasing exponentially from the top 10, as it neared first place. But there were always other ways to get more if you were willing to work for it.

While the intention to divide ranks by feats of power or wisdom was commendable, the system in place still had a few huge flaws. Graduates were often bribed in the outside world's currency, to transfer all their leftover points, after all, where would they use those points? Some lower class students even opted to transfer them for this very reason between terms, exchanging them for varying amounts, should they decide to spend their holidays back at home.

In some rare cases bribes with outside money were accepted by professors, or even loan sharks disguised as simple merchants, to perform all sorts of underhanded deeds. The rules against such actions only made it slightly harder to pull off.

‘It truly is a trash system’, Silas thought to himself, since points were a tangible resource, one could easily steal or extort from others as well.

Of course, you’d be punished had you been discovered taking it from someone without consent, but with the difference in ranks here, how would a mere baron, nay! How would a talented commoner go against the word of the prince of a nation! As students were pushed around, they often opted to keep their mouths shut. Safety was assured in the academy, but no one could live their lives there forever, and students often had families stationed outside of these walls to worry about as well.

This system just encouraged more practicality of force, threats, and bullying. In fact, Silas wouldn’t be surprised if that were the reason he was broke. With Leoghan’s memory of recent times proving unreliable, it was highly likely he had been extorted for all his measly wealth.

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Silas’s feet halted outside a large building, looking up, he couldn’t help but feel like an ant in comparison. He walked in, confidently, despite the attention he received from a few girls as he strutted on by. He was in the girls dormitory.

Guy’s were only restricted access here during the late afternoons. But even in mornings they were a rare site, due to the drama and gossip it brought witnessing a guy enter a girls room. Though that wouldn’t stop some.

He walked right by the receptionist, who sat behind a desk in the middle of the wide room, 3 hallways of equal width, going from both left, right and behind her at the center. She was there to help aid people to their rooms, or to alert others of guests. She gave a glance at Silas as he walked on by.

Noticing her gaze, he turned his head, and pointed ahead of him with his index finger, signaling that he knew his way.

Of course she didn’t entirely know what he meant by his signal, but she didn’t really care, if they didn’t go to her, it wasn’t her responsibility to do anything. The left and right hallways were for the least standing, or the first year students.

Only the rankers of the school would warrant a warning of people arriving at their doorstep, and those rooms were down the hallway behind her, with additional security stationed further down, so even if someone did sneak behind her, it would be someone else's responsibility to stop them. With that thought, she just turned her attention back to her lunch.

Silas walked down the corridor that curved inward ever so slightly, ignoring the first staircase offered to his left, taking about a dozen meters before doors appeared, sparsely populated to the left and right of him. He continued further for another half a kilometer, where the second staircase resided instead of a door. He walked up it, past the second, third, and the fourth, onto the fifth floor, knowing there were another two above it.

Silas proceeded unabatedly, walking down the corridor once more, passing by a few people leaving their rooms, until suddenly.

“Logan?”, a soft voice ushered his name. The girl that called was standing next to another with long ears hidden behind her hair, they appeared to be buddies.

After a simple side glance, his movements didn’t come to halt, proceeding at the very same speed, almost walking past her. This triggered the girl, making her next words arrive in a flurry, reaching her arm out to grab his arm.

“Logan, what the fuck. Stop”

Silas proceeded to do so this time, whether with or against his will, her arm anchoring him with a strength he didn’t initially believe a girl with those skinny wrists could have. Tilting his head, he peered past her nourished purple hair that wrapped around her neck, into her melancholic eyes that matched with her hair, and down to her reddish pursed lips, noticing how it slowly curved into an alluring smile.

“I knew it was you”

“I know my name’s hard to express… But had you not tried, how was I to realize you were calling for me?”, Silas made an excuse.

The reality was that he knew the girl, how could he not? But he didn’t want to get entangled in her shenanigans.

“Oh don’t be like that, that’s no way to treat your classmate”, she leaned closer to his ear, whispering seductively, poking at his chest “and you’re”, she emphasized, “childhood friend”, giggling.

She leaned back to examine his face, but Silas was as stoic as an Ox, much to her disappointment.

“Are you done Kiyah?”, he exclaimed, yoinking his hand away from her clutches, as her grip softened in response to her disappointment.

“Aw… What’s got you so stern today? Normally you’d be all cute-like, fumbling for words”

“Woke up on the wrong side of the bed”, he proclaimed, curtly.

Her lips moved, indicating she was about to say something, but he interrupted, “on the ground to be specific, so please. Excuse me”.

Without further ado, he turned heel, walking away as his face grimaced and distorted, accompanied by a single cold sweat that slid down his collarbone.

He recalled upon his memories of the past. How he couldn’t help but act like a lamb before her, perhaps a roasted one, as he would cook himself up at her whim. She had a unique way of manipulating people, and for a time seemed to focus on him most of all.

Despite knowing of her true nature, he fell for her schemes again and again. He knew, because they had grown up together as neighbors and heirs to their lands for a time, it was natural as their parents frequented each other's estates, for them to be brought along, and exposed to one another.

While she expressed herself innocently, borderline seductively to him, like a tease, from one who knew, to another. He knew how sadistic she truly was, how delighted she felt watching someone squirm in anguish, embarrassment, or in fear. He never understood as Leoghan, why she was like this, but as Silas he had a rough idea.

It was much the same feeling as taking away the privilege that someone relied upon, and watching them realize that all they had taken for granted in their lives wouldn’t help them before him. Just less on a qualified scale, and perhaps more of a quantitative, he assumed, considering her broader range of victims; most still unsuspecting of her.

He would have been fine, if that were all if it came down to of course. But perhaps because she knew of him most of all, she garnered a great delight in making the first of his years miserable, being the mastermind behind his first true taste of bullying, at least in this life.

She had revealed his uselessness before many in his class, after sharing with her such info pertaining to a lacking affinity within a moment of vulnerability. Beyond that, she seemed to enjoy playing innocent, persuading people that he had done things, causing his friends at the time to ditch him like the trash they believed him to be. Worst of all, she persuaded him to take on these allegations, the pushover that he was, when he had thought her to be the only one by his side.

He would never forget that dreadful ear to ear smile she had given him, when he threw away his naivety and finally realized that she was the root for all his suffering. He would never forgive her for her actions, and never forgave himself upon his ignorance. At least that’s how the old him felt. But he wouldn’t let those feelings consume him. Not here at least.

“Oh”, only a few meters away from them, he turned his head around quickly after settling his facial features down to indulge in an afterthought, “hey, you didn’t happen to steal my points did you? You or that boyfriend of yours”.

“Ah… Nur?”, Kiyah answered in surprise at his sudden change in disposition.

He stared at her for a few seconds analyzing her face with a still glare, before tilting his head away in thought causing her to perform the same action at him. But it wasn’t long before he looked back into her eyes.

“Good, that’s good”, he nodded, before continuing to walk away, his face from earlier being overwritten in contemplation.

“It’s not good, where did my money go?”, he mumbled to himself after only a couple of steps.

Emotions were one thing, but money was another, and right now one weighed more to him than the other. Though the reason being to satiate the weight of curiosity which was heavier than both combined.

“What’s up with him”, she questioned upon watching his back get farther and farther away from them, eventually losing sight of him as the hallway curled the further he went.

Her hands held each arm as her fingers tapped at her fair skin.

“He finally grew a pair”, her friend smirked, having watched quietly on the sidelines.

“Mmmmm… but it seems like something else. Like he’s a different person almost”, she murmured as she leaned from side to side, then pointing her index finger to her head, closing her eyes shut, seemingly in deep thought.

“Just seems like he’s had it to me”, her friend shrugged.

A strand of her curly black hair fell in front of her face revealing her long pointed ears, prompting her to blow at it, trying to get it back up into place and hide it.

“No… his posture’s all wrong, his speech pattern’s completely different, hmmmm….”

“You’re surprisingly observant”

“Only about him, I’ve known him since we were three…”, she went back to pondering.

Her friend started to tap at her almond skinned hands that held each other as she leaned on the wall. Breaking the silence, she spoke up again once more.

“Where do you think he’s going?”

“Probably to see the sister he loathes so much. I don’t think anyone else would want anything to do with him”

Her friend closely examined her face, with a scrutinizing stare, “except you apparently”, she muttered.

Ignoring her quiet remark, Kiyah changed the direction of the conversation, “maybe, he’s a mimic in disguise”.

“You mean those chests with the long tongues”, her friend clasped her hand into her other.

“Eww, nuur. What are you insinuating”, she giggled, her cheeks flushing red.

“What? Gross, no… You’re the one that brought it up”, her friend turned her head to the side slightly, to hide her emerging blush.

“Mmmmmm…”, Kiyah stared in the distance where he had left.

“Come on girl, you just gonna stand there thinking about him all day?”

This response made Kiyah’s cheeks go from red to a light pink, “nurrr”, she mumbled abashedly.

“Come on, you already have Jake…”, her friend's playfulness suddenly shifted in a serious tone, “stop thinking about another guy, that’s not good for you”, she mumbled the last part.

“Mmmm, that’s not what it is though”, Kiyah finally decided, turning heel and departing, her friend quickly catching up to her.

“But Jake’s been acting a little too tame lately, he’s not been fun at all”

“Tell that to his face”

“Hmhm, you do it. You barely get along with him anyway”

“... If he bores you, then leave him already. He’s only so influential because of you”

“That may have been the case before, but now I’m not so sure…”, she lamented with a depressed chuckle.

“Oh. But I've just thought of a way to awaken the beast inside him”, she exclaimed suddenly, smiling eerily, “we’ll just have to reenact a scene from the past”.