Anders walked up the long steps of an academy. He had signed up, and today was his first day. He was to be directed to the dorms where he would be staying for the next few years.

The Royal family spared nothing when making the academy; it was huge. It was situated on a large hill the city was built around, anyone could see it from any part of the city if they squinted hard enough.

"Hello, are you one of the new students?"

Anders turned to see a lady wearing glasses leading a group of students.

"Yes, are you leading a tour or something?"

"Why yes, I am. I will bring you around the grounds before directing you to the dorms."

Anders greeted her and joined the rest of the group. After a minute of seeing no other students coming up the stairs to the academy, the teacher began the tour.

"This is the entrance to the school. Entering, we have our courtyard, which is larger than any park in the city. Our school is taught by experts in their respective fields, and every teacher is either a Grade Two or Grade Three plague doctor to show the status of this great institution of learning."

The teacher provided useful information as she guided the students through the premises. She made small stops to talk about a few facts before continuing.

She showed buildings used for research, training, and studying. The Royal Academy went the whole nine yards in trying to provide the best experience for its future plague doctors.

During the fall of Free City, many plague doctors died, but many also remained. The Union had a deal with all the cities in Netherane.

They would pay for a plague doctor to stay for a certain amount of time and treat patients. there were lots of jobs related to living in a city on the Union's mission boards. With the Union's destruction, these plague doctors were now forced to pick a side.

Accepting the reality, many skilled and respected plague doctors joined the Kingdom or the Empire. But it did not mean that the benefits were low; in fact, they were more than the Union ever gave.

With the population of plague doctors falling by more than 60% in one event, plague doctors became a scarce commodity.

This doesn't exclude the ones that were nurtured by their respective factions, as well as those that were only Grade One or Two. Plague Doctors of these grades were not even in the thousands!

Anders didn't think for a second that these teachers at this school weren't wealthier than the owner of the largest merchant group in Salazar!

He knew that this wasn't all. With fewer plague doctors, their diseases were now even more deadly. Without enough people recording and updating for pathogens and making cures, they would eventually have outdated information and slowly become incurable.

This also meant that the diseases a plague doctor used were now deadly weapons, no matter how weak they were before. In a few years' time, all diseases would become an epidemic in their own right.

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Institutions like this academy were a way to hold back this eventual massacre of the human populace. Anders knew this, but he also knew who would take advantage of this chaos.

Thoughts like this only steeled his mind and sharpened his will to train and become strong to complete his only goal.

After a few more stops, the tour ended and Anders was directed to the dorms. Entering the dorm building, he walked up to the front desk.

"Hello, I'm here to get assigned a room."

The person behind the desk was a middle-aged woman. She spoke respectfully and quickly.

"Name?"

"Anders Liphir."

"Room 337. Here are your keys."

Anders nodded and began walking, trying to find his way to his room. The first floor only went up to a hundred. Anders made an educated guess that his room was on the third floor. He walked to the third floor, and lo and behold down the hallway was his room.

A door with an iron plaque was engraved with the number 337. He opened the door to a spacious room. However, another person was standing with some bags in the room's center.

"AHHHH!

"Oh....sorry. I didn't hear you come in. Are you my roommate?"

"Roommate?"

"Uh, yeah, the dorms have roommates for each room, unless you're incredibly rich or royalty."

Anders was startled.

'The royals had their children studying here? Was it to show that this place was really a top-tier institution as they said, to perhaps build trust with nobles?'

He didn't know, but unlike his master, he let it go and forgot about it. Unlike Cain, his curiosity all but died.

"I'm Anders... I guess we're roommates for the next few years."

"I'm Serril. Nice to meet you, Anders!"

Anders and Serril decided to learn a bit about one another. Anders learned that Serril had come from an upper-middle-class family and had shown talent at a yearly evaluation.

He felt like he was learning more and more as he talked with a real resident of the Empire. Barch was mostly controlled by the four founding noble families, and the Royal family had little influence over them.

Anders and Serril soon became friends and helped each other set up their designated areas in their dorm room. Afterward, they went to get some food and then slept for classes the next day.

The new roommates had the same class in the morning, so they walked to class together and sat next to each other.

They sat near the outer edges; the room was set up similarly to a college's.

Abruptly, they heard a beautiful voice next to them, "Can I sit here?"

The pair turned to see a pale and beautiful girl pointing to a seat beside them. She had black luscious hair and deep brown eyes.

"Sure."

The girl beamed with joy. "Thanks, I'm Fiona, by the way. What are your names?"

"Anders."

"Serril."

The class didn't start for another minute or two, so the students began to whisper about recent events.

"Did you hear about so-and-so's background?"

"Have you heard about the young teacher from class-"

"Do you guys know that one store in the outer part of the city?"

Students whispered and gossiped, but one sentence caught Anders's attention. It was a student in front of them, talking about a name in the newspaper a while ago.

"Have you heard about the Defiant Slave? I heard he's a powerful plague doctor! Do you think he will teach here? He attacked the Kingdom, after all!"

Anders instinctively pounded his fist on the desk, garnering everyone's attention. He didn't care and looked at the student in front of him who was now staring at him.

Anders stared with cold and hateful eyes, "Don't speak that name, ever. Understand?"

Scoffing, the student replied, "What? It's just a-"

Before he could finish, Anders grabbed him by the throat and raised him above the ground as a butcher would a chicken.

As this was happening, the teacher entered the room and was stupefied. They rushed to the scene and attempted to rip the student from Anders's grasp.

However, to no avail, the student remained in Anders's grasp. The student and teacher quickly began to panic. It took Anders a few more seconds to realize what he had done and snapped out of his stupor.

He then uttered a few words before sitting back down, "Apologies. That name.... it's a soft spot."

From that day on, no one bothered Anders or spoke of the Defiant Slave. Anders even earned the nickname, "Defiant Student."

Like master, like student, as they say.