Jin didn’t expect the last line when he first heard it. It sounded as if the jester had a little thread of humanity left inside him, as if he regretted the past he created. The words reverberated through his mind for several hours while he was training mana. Concentration was worse than normal, he kept overthinking about how he related to jester. It was a thought he found sickening. The more he pondered about it the worse it got. Trying to find a way to get the jester of his mind he called over a staff member and requested them to bring him a encyclopedia about the human eye. The nurse had given him a weird look before heading off towards the library. In the meantime Jin listened to the melodies that belonged to the birds outside.
A while later the nurse came back with a big book. She handed it over and left without saying a word. The book was visibly old and probably hadn’t been touched in multiple years. Clouds of dust formed when the book was opened. There was a good reason for Jin to get this particular book. He needed to figure out all there was about the eye in order to be able to use his mana in the most efficient way possible. Jin would have to study every part of it from the muscles to the nervous systems.
When he was done memorizing every part with its function he would have to calculate where the mana glands were at. The glands that let out mana to the outside world were the most complicated organ every living thing has. It was multiple times smaller than a cell and only opened when the entity it belonged to had enough mana and commanded it to be open. Every being had a random organ where the mana resided in, this was decided at birth and was impossible to change. Every organ had different ways of modifying the mana and transforming it, some were better for defense and others for attacking. Depending on the organ the mana resided in a completely different gland system was build on that. Jin’s previous body had mana stored in his heart and the glands were spread pretty evenly. he was curious about what the eye had in store for him and how he would be able to build new tactics on it.
Jin already knew a lot about the glands which would make it easier to progress in his research. He opened the first part and started with his studies until the moon started to reflect light into his room. His head was full and heavy. Jin had created a rough sketch inside of his head about how the organ worked, it still had some empty spots that would be filled in the coming week. He closed the window with a remote and got ready to sleep.
Lea woke up because the surrounding students started to dress up. The sounds of people brushing their teeth and whispering amongst themselves was enough for her to wake up. She turned around and tried to fall asleep again but was unable to. Her mind was anything but at rest, stress and adrenaline rushed through every part of her body. Today was the day she would choose a weapon, the first decision that would decide if she survived the tower. Lea wasn’t scared at all, she was rather excited. It had always been her dream to go on an adventure. When she heard about the academy and venturing into a tower like the one that appeared in her bedtime stories she didn’t hesitate to apply. Lea was a normal girl, as normal as a person could be when they were accepted into the Imperial Academy. All the people here were amazing individuals and each one of them had amazing qualities. The average person here would already be considered the best of the best anywhere else on the planet.
Lea thought about how she could easily split the students into two groups. The biggest group with over nine out of ten students would be the ones that got in with martial talents and survival skills like her. The others got in with either an exceptional contribution to a certain subject related to the tower or with money. She felt that some kind of hate already started to develop towards the second group. In some way she understood why, but she wasn’t one to judge an entire group at once. Her mind went back to yesterday, when she had wondered around the school grounds after the speech. The girl pondered if the boy she met in the hospital would also be there on the weapon ceremony. He was a pretty absurd figure: white hair, light-blue eyes and a handsome face. On top of these factors he was in the hospital from the first day. He had an aura around him like no other, a strong one. Lea felt like she was looking at a force equal to her father when she looked at him, a great and influential person.
Now that she thought about it, she felt like a tiny ant amongst the others. She was used to getting almost every bit of attention where she came from. A beautiful face, a nice body, rich roots, and charming emerald green eyes, what more could a person want from a girl? In her previous school everyone knew her because of it. Most people saw her as an idol in her home city but here she was completely looked over. She kept on worrying about how her status within the building would end up on being but her mind dwindled back to the weapons. Lea was able to handle almost every weapon to a pretty amazing extend, but she still hadn’t chosen on which one she would go for. She started murmuring to herself: “A sword? Or should I go for a long-range weapon? Ah I don’t knoooow I’ll just look around a bit at the ceremony.” Yesterday, when she had brought a visit to the ginormous library, where the boy had given her instructions towards. She had tried to get inspiration but it only made things worse. She sought after a weapon where only she would be able to excel into, something to call her own. There was only one thing she had already decided on, it would be something that had multiple uses.
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Her warm and cozy blankets were pulled away all of a sudden without even the slightest warning. Surprised she looked around wondering who did it. “Wake up sleepyhead, you don’t want to be late to the ceremony, right?” It was a girl with black hair. She was clearly from an Asian country but Lea was unable to link a specific country with her. Every student had been placed in one of two dorms, the male or female one. It bothered her a lot that she had to sleep in a room with twenty other girls. Even though the rooms were very clean she hated the design. It was way too old-fashioned for her, like a medieval castle. The cold stone wall and candle holders didn’t make it better. Lea was used to an ultra modern home with a bed that massaged her muscles overnight. The ratio of girls and boys was pretty stable with there being around nine hundred fifty girls and a thousand fifty boys. Inside of the dorms, the girls slept with twenty in each room. It was a massive building and the cafeteria was shared with the boys' dorm.
Lea started to get cold and decided to get up and prepare for the day. The question on which weapon she would pick clenched on her mind like a tattoo. She changed her clothes to a training fit that she thought would fit perfectly with the day, not too casual or formal. She walked out of the dressing cabin and noticed the tense atmosphere could be detected throughout both dorms. Lea saw that the others were waiting for a teacher or just any kind of guide to open the door and bring them to where they were supposed to go. Whispers filled the room, every girl trying to make friends or just wanting to talk about their expectations.
“I heard there are some pretty insane people in this place.” A girl said, she was the first on to actually start talking in a normal tone. “Like whom? And insane in a good or bad way?” A girl close to the first one asked. The first girl began talking again: “Well we have nine people from a royal line, around twenty kids belonging to billionaires and a few unknown ones who aren’t even mentioned on the list of student. I’m kind of disappointed though” The second girl nodded her head and looked at her. “Why are you disappointed?” she said. The first one let out a deep sigh and sat down on her mattress. “Well, to be honest it’ll sound pretty dumb. I just expected the boys to be… you know… better looking?” The moment the words left her tongue reactions from all over the room started to come up. Some started to giggling while others nodded their heads in agreement. One of the girls opened her mouth but was interrupted by a blonde girl next to her. “Yeah it’s true,” she said “almost all the girls look nice but that clearly isn’t the case for the boys. They might be muscular but what are those faces? Even the pigs we had back home looked better than some of them. Like only a few are worthy of even looking at.” Now the room really opened up, discussions about which boys looked okay and which ones looked bad sprouted like weed. There she stood, with a confused expression. Lea knew that most girls liked to judge, but this was a new experience to her.
Lea was about to comment something on their behavior when she heard a scream from the dressing cabins. Nineteen heads twisted into the direction of the sound. “Are you okay over there?” one of them shouted. “No! There’s a man trying to peek from the window. I can’t leave the cabin because I forgot some of my clothes on top of my bed. He saw me naked I think. Can someone please help?” Chaos erupted. Girls stormed towards the changing hall that was connected to the room. On the way a girl, who was very mad, said: “The damn architect who designed this building is terrible, who places such a large and wide window in a hallway filled with changing cabins?” The others agreed and arrived at the place where the voice had come from. Lucky for the girl stuck in the locker Lea had taken her clothes with her. She handed them over to her via the opening between the roof and the top of the door. “Thank you so much.” she answered. “There he is, lets go fucking kill him.” One of them shouted. She opened the window and climbed out of it. the others followed her and started to walk up to the man. Lea stayed inside making it hard to clearly see the man. He looked quite old and had a camera in his hands.
When he spotted the girls he turned his back to them and started to run at a quick pace. Lea executed her moves without realizing it herself. She had grabbed a dark-gray stone the size of a balled fist from outside and threw it with full force in a clean arc. It seemed to split the air as time passed by as if it was slowed. The stone had now passed the group of girls who had started to chase the man. They looked up and watched how the projectile thrown by Lea crashed with full force into the man’s head. There was no resistance, he just fell on the ground without moving a muscle. The group reached him and checked if he was alive, than they dragged him back to the building. “You were amazing! Such an amazing throw! WOW! You’re insane, in a good way of course!” Compliments started to flow out of the girls’ mouths making Lea flustered. The girls surrounded Lea like a fan club. She felt uncomfortable and wished for the overdose on attention to stop.
“What’s going on here?” A woman with black hair who weared a uniform said. She stood in the door opening and looked at the scenario. Nineteen young girls screaming around one girl and next to them an old man who was laying on the ground, passed out. Bloody stains started to form on the ground. One of the girls looked at the person who was probably their guide. “We’re fucked” she whispered.