Anna

Anna was having a terrible day.

It started from the onset of dawn when the sun had barely risen above the horizon. She got up early and stepped out of her temporary residence in Azure City, excited to begin her new life as a student of the prestigious Exalted Academy—only to find a set of disgusting, degrading messages smeared along the walls and doors of her stay.

She wasted ten minutes cleaning after the mess.

Next, as she trotted down the street of Azure City enroute to the Academy, she was stopped by a group of Ordinary vandals blocking her path. It was frankly a pathetic attempt to scare her away from attending the opening ceremony. With a quick blast of electricity, she neutralized the threat and called over the Sentinels patrolling the area to take the goons away.

Another five minutes wasted.

It wasn’t until she neared the campus gates when a set of horse carriages intentionally slung mud into her face that she got the message.

She was deliberately being harassed.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out why. Exalted Academy was not simply just an institution for learning, but it was also a scouting ground for Exalted talent. Each year, ahead of the opening ceremony, the Academy released a public list ranking their new students based on their admission scores. It was judged on a combination of theoretical knowledge scored on the exams and practical skills demonstrated during the evaluation. The top ten students were granted scholarships, along with an abundance of interest from the noble families and wealthy institutions seeking their talents.

Anna was the sole commoner amongst the top ten. Inevitably that drew a lot of attention—attention that she had hoped to use as leverage to demand her rightful place amongst her family’s merchant company.

What she didn’t expect, however, was the childish harassment she would receive in exchange. No doubt it was the work of students from noble families who felt their pride scratched for being rated below a commoner.

By the time she finally arrived on campus, she was already fuming. Getting her belongings knocked to the ground by another student threw her fury past the tipping point.

***

“Well, this is certainly a historic moment. Never once in my tenure at the Academy have I ever witnessed two students getting into a fight right before the opening ceremony,” a bespectacled man in his early 30s said while scratching his neck in disbelief.

There were traces of grey in his slick black hair. His face, well-structured and symmetrical, was already littered with wrinkles and signs of being worn by age. His eyes were relaxed and soft, however, bestowing him with the air of a gentle disposition.

“And it just happens to be two of my students. Admittedly, this is a rather awkward way to get acquainted, but such is life I suppose. I’m Professor Callum,” the man introduced himself, “I’m your homeroom teacher and I give lectures on mana fundamentals.”

After the fight, Anna found herself escorted to an office designated for the Academy staff. A rosy fragrance permeated the room with modest furnishings. She was seated on a couch, her arms crossed, the fingers on her right hand tapping incessantly at the hems of her sleeves. Her assailant was across from her, aghast with a mortified expression. It took most of her willpower to stop herself from lunging at him.

“Anna Seibert. Emil Milligan,” Professor Callum addressed them, “Would the two of you please explain to me what led to this…unprecedented event?”

“What is there to explain? He assaulted me,” Anna stated plainly. The boy named Emil immediately raised his hands, desperately shaking his head in denial.

“H-Hold on, that’s not—”

“What? You clearly swung your fist at me. Or are you going to suggest that I just threw my stuff onto the ground on purpose so I can have an excuse to attack you?!”

“No, I—”

“I’m sick of it! I’m sick of all you damn cowards who keep harassing me out of some misplaced sense of pride. It’s been happening all morning! If you have an issue with me, then face me head-on without any frivolous schemes!” she yelled.

All of the frustration that she kept bottled in the entire morning spewed out. Anna tried to hold onto her composure for the sake of keeping peace on the opening day. She was planning to deal with her tormentors later. That plan went into flames the moment she snapped and retaliated. Now that she was already in trouble, she aired out all of her grievances without a care.

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“Hey,” Emil suddenly said.

The word echoed unusually loud in her head. Anna instinctively froze. Her eyes went wide. The anger raging inside her heart suddenly extinguished as if she had been drenched by cold water. What the hell was that?

She glanced down. The tips of her fingers were trembling.

A surge of murderous intent.

“Can I speak? I’d like to explain my side of the story,” Emil continued. His voice sounded normal this time. The suffocating pressure that radiated from his presence vanished. The danger that seized the air was so fleeting, so instantaneous that Anna began questioning her sanity. Did I imagine that?

She shot a glance at Professor Callum. The professor was watching her, waiting with an eye raised, as if he was perplexed by her silence.

“Y-Yeah,” she replied. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck. She gulped, suddenly cognizant of the boy in front of her and the menacing scars that lined his jaws.

Emil quickly explained his side of story, stating that he was on edge from all the Exalted roaming on campus. Apparently, their presences made him nervous due to an incident in his childhood. When Anna addressed him from behind, he panicked and lashed out inadvertently.

“Again, I’m sorry for knocking into you. It was an accident and I seriously didn’t mean any harm,” he apologized, lowering his head without hesitation.

Anna narrowed her eyes. She considered herself a good judge of character—a skill that she honed from a young age as a former merchant apprentice. Still, she found himself confounded. Emil’s apology felt genuine, but—

—He has the face of a liar.

The incongruity only raised more alarms in her head. Her instincts were rarely wrong. And yet, somehow her gut feelings told her two different stories.

“…Fine. I accept your apology,” she said, deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt. There wasn’t much she could do anyways. She might have been able to pressure the professors to punish him, but Anna felt like it was unnecessarily cruel. The stain on her reputation would have been far worse than any vindication she could receive.

Her declaration earned a loud, satisfied clap from Professor Callum.

“Great! I’m glad this was all a misunderstanding. We can forget it all happened,” the professor said, a bit too eager to drop the issue, “Anna, if you like, the Academy could investigate on your behalf to find out who’s been harassing you.”

Anna waved him off. “It’s fine. It’s all just petty nonsense right now. I can deal with that myself.”

“As long as it’s within the Academy rules,” Professor Callum said as he glanced at the clock, “Now then, if you hurry, you might still be able to reach the opening ceremony on time.”

***

The opening ceremony was conducted in the Grand Hall located in the southeastern quadrant of the Academy. True to its name, it was a hall—and it was grand.

Aside from those attributes, the hall was quite disappointing from Anna’s point of view. The name of Exalted Academy should have commanded more grandeur than a simple set of chandeliers dangling from the ceiling and a set of portraits engraved in gold frames adorning the walls.

Anna found herself surrounded at the center of the hall. The massive stage towered from the front, granting her line of sight onto the speakers on the platform despite her diminutive height. The first one to step on was the Headmaster of the Academy, Ivar von Tuatha.

The short, round man trudged onto the platform with a slight hunchback—his physique hardly impressive compared to his title. Yet as he stepped onto the podium to address the students, his voice rang with unmistakable authority.

“Class of Year 75, I greet you as the Headmaster of Exalted Academy! Welcome!”

Deafening applause filled the hall in an instant as Ivar beckoned for a reaction. A natural orator, Anna thought as she followed along with the cacophony.

Ivar’s speech was short and to the point, introducing himself and giving an encouraging welcome to the arriving class. A stellar performance befitting of the person who led the Academy’s operations. The other speakers that accompanied him, however, were far less impressive.

Each of them sounded like pompous, self-important people who came on just to present a thinly veiled speech to boast about their greatness. There was a special kind of off-putting boredom that involved listening to people who were in love with the sound of their own voices.

Anna fought the urge to roll her eyes. The only thing that stopped her was the uncomfortable number of glances shot in her vicinity.

Yes, yes, I’m the girl who got into a fight this morning. How could you possibly tell?

If she had to guess, it was her brilliant scarlet hair—an apparent hallmark of the Seibert family. The faint traces of mana lingering around her body and the edges of her uniform that were charred by electricity probably didn’t help either. Rushing to the ceremony didn’t afford her any time to change.

Whatever, she sighed. Her original plan was to keep a low profile until the Clash of Dawn tournament later this month, but that idea immediately got derailed. At least she had some infamy now. Whoever was actually behind all of her harassment this morning will probably stop after she’s shown her willingness to get violent.

On the topic of violence, Anna glanced down on her hands, frowning as she recalled this morning’s confrontation. Emil Milligan. As hard as she thought, she couldn’t recall seeing his name amongst the top thirty students from the admission scores.

…I got stopped by a non-ranker? Heat flared in her chest. She grinded her teeth, her hands suddenly balled into fists. She didn’t hesitate in that brief exchange against Emil—she attacked with all her might, fully intent to strike him down. Despite that, her attack was stopped.

The realization drove her mad. Her plans to make a name for herself at the Academy was in serious jeopardy if she couldn’t even overpower someone of his caliber. Suddenly, her goals seemed unreachable.

This is unacceptable!

She severed relationships. She gave up opportunities. She pushed herself to brink of insanity—just so she could attend this academy to have a chance to choose for a future for herself.

The opening ceremony came to an end. Anna glared at the podium, immersed in her despair, to the background of thunderous applause.