“- and that is what you can and can't do across the school,” our adviser said as she finished reading out all the rules and regulations within Pledge Academy, “and since that's now done, we're gonna move on to enforcing the rules I just read out and start nominating your classroom officers, first starting with the president-” as she turned her back to us and wrote the words- President: - down on the blackboard, all of my classmates were suddenly looking at me, making me blink, what's happening? Is this a coup?! “- I already wrote her name down since I know that she is going to be nominated regardless but just to be sure, who here wants Neophyte to be President?”

… all hands were raised-

Wait-

Wait- this isn't supposed to happen-

The people of Everlast are rebelling against their princess! I stood up to tell everyone they're clearly picking the wrong person to become the head of our classroom here.

“I don't think I'm fit for this role though?” I said, breaking the silence borne out of unity, (or in other words, a coup,) inside the classroom, and now that everyone isn't obsessed with nominating the wrong person into such an important role, I cleared my throat and prepared a speech about how I was not simply built for this role, say bad things about myself like… my… my…

Thoughts died down from the nervousness and fear of just standing there looking like an idiot so I decided to say the first thing that came to my mind, “I mean, isn't this too much responsibility to give to someone like me?”

I heard a sigh and thought it came from Zath but apparently not since when I turned to her, she was silent and just staring at me with a tilted head.

“Put your hands down,” our teacher said and she and I were looking directly at each other now that the wall of hands went down, “your majesty,” she said, I averted my gaze and looked down, damnit, this is unfair, there’s so many others in this room that’s better at me than this- I sighed and slowly started to sit back down, “keep standing,” she said and I did, “look at me,” I did, “let me ask you, Neophyte, are you gonna shirk off your duties?”

“... no,” I answered, that would just be stupid of me, especially with Lucille in the classroom.

“Are you only gonna do your job halfway?” I shook my head, “so you're saying that you're gonna work hard and fulfill your role as President no matter what?”

Well if that's what I need to do then I have to don't I? I can't just abandon my post, “yes,” I answered, “I will, I'll fulfill my duty as president no matter what-” something snapped in me and I couldn't finish, I glared at everyone, “if I get it in the first place,” I crossed my arms defensively, I'm not backing down damnit, I'm still too irresponsible for this role, “I'm sure other people will do this role quite well too,”

“Let me ask you then,” she said, “do you know how to act as this class’ president? Do you know how to lead the other officers?”

“Yes.” Of course I do.

“Then I don't see the problem,” our teacher started beckoned for me to come to her, “write down the rest of the roles and get your classmates nominated into them,” she instructed, “after that we'll spend the remaining time discussing the start of Demon Biology,”

I nodded and stepped up to the stage to do what I was told, I wrote the rest of the roles down; Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and then finally, Officer. Once those names marked the blackboard, I started the nomination for the next role, “any nominations for vice president?”

I faced my classmates and all of them raised their hands, I scanned the room and wondered that they wouldn't find it strange for me to just straight up remember their names even though rolecall only happened once right? Right?

Right-

“Karsten?” A pious girl that's literally in possession of a Pledge that can only be described as a Seraphim wouldn't pick a bad person as a Vice President right? With a hopeful smile, I eyed the white haired girl- like white, white, enough that her hair makes my eyes hurt if I stare at it for too long, - and waited for her nominee.

Karsten met my gaze and I nodded at her.

She stood up- “I nominate myself as Vice President.”

Well… I guess she didn't pick a bad person to nominate per se but is this even allowed? I turned to our adviser and she looked up from reading her class plan and nodded, “I'll allow it,”

I wrote Karsten's name down, “other nominations-” a few hands raised themselves and I picked another student, “Hail,” I called out the name of a light-blue haired boy from House Nimbusegia.

He stood up and bowed, “I nominate myself-”

I cut him off, “is everyone just gonna nominate themselves?” I asked and got a series of nods, “is there anyone who doesn't want to nominate themselves as the person I’d be dumping all my paperwork to?”

Hail raised his hand, I nodded at him, “I thought that would be the secretary? Don't the president and vice president only plan out class activities and other projects?”

I paused at that… is that what we’re going to do? Plan stuff? I turned to our adviser and Miss Garnish gave me a nod of confirmation, huh, guess this job is easier than I thought, “you are only going to be planning for your class’ activities yes,” our teacher said, “and also making groups for any would-be projects for your subjects, and I guess you can also suggest things in the classroom and we’ll consider it,”

“Got it,” I murmured and wrote down Hail, “other nominations?” I asked.

Hands raised themselves, “Stream?”

“I nominate myself,” the blue-haired girl said.

“Okay, other nominations?” I asked as I wrote her name before turning back and picking a member from House Eruptia, “Fumerole?”

“I nominate myself,” he said and I wrote it down.

“Okay, two more,” I said, noting that all of the members of the notable Houses now have names written on the blackboard so they shouldn't be angry at me for 'being biased’ or whatever, I picked another student, “Satti?”

“I nominate Naviri,” he said without missing a beat.

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I wrote it down and faced the groups of raised hands for one last name, “Lucille?”

The girl blinked like she wasn't sure I just called her name before snapping up- “well uhm- I want to nominate Zyra?”

“Not yourself?” I said with a smile and decided to push a bit more, come on, nominate yourself and be a part of this thing like in the game pleaseeeeee- it’ll really give me peace of mind if you dooo- “I think you're capable enough for the role of vice president but if you don't want to then…” she stayed silent and I held back a sigh as I wrote Zyra's name on the blackboard.

I was on the first letter of Zyra’s name when our teacher said something that even I was surprised about; ”you were the one who killed that Demon Baron with your team correct?”

“Well- uhm-” I turned back in shock and saw that all eyes were now on Lucille and I get it, I completely do- she killed a Baron? Wait no- that's only a bit surprising since she's the Hero, “yes…” she meekly said while looking down.

“I saw the dead Baron and the corpse was dried up,” I said, adding my own two cents into the conversation, “and you do have a Sanguine Pledge so it checks out,”

“There could be other people who have Sanguine Pledges inside the Academy,” Fumerole said in denial, “it couldn’t just be her?”

“How’d you beat it?” I glossed over his words and questioned Lucille.

“Well, we beat it, me, Nickos, Yhaine, and uhm, Zyra,” she pointed to all the mentioned people and I smiled, guess she did get her standard “starter” party after all, I didn't comment and simply stayed silent, “but as for how… we worked together-”

“Lucille did most of the heavy lifting though,” Zyra pointed out, “Nickos gave us silver coating and boosts sure but it was Lucille's idea to splash the Demon’s legs with condensed light so that it gets crippled, she also dealt the killing blow using the same method.”

“You were the ones who ransacked the first aid kits in several classrooms correct?” The party nodded guiltily, “in any other circumstance, you would be paying for the property that you ruined but I’ll let this one slide and not write it down, good job on such a feat.”

“Thanks,” Lucille bowed.

Things calmed down- but sadly Lucille still refused to be a part of the Officers, - and I finished writing Zyra’s name and faced my now silent classmates, “okay, that’s the last one,” I said and started the next part of the nominations: Voting.

“Anyone wants to vote for Karsten?” A lot of hands were raised, I counted them all, and wrote down 11 next to Kartsen's name, huh, I didn’t expect her to get that many votes honestly, that’s almost half the class, “Hail?” a measly 4, “Fumerole?” 5, “Naviri?” 3, and then finally, “Zyra?” got the remaining 3, which is Lucille, Laceresta, and Fafnir, Zath and the rest of her party voted for Karsten earlier.

I wrote Karsten's name next to the role of Vice President, she went up the stage and gave me a bow, “I’m honored to work with the Saintess,” her hair somehow became brighter after she said that…

“I’m not the Saintess,” I refuted as I removed my hands from my eyes, my words only earned an understanding smile in response.

“... right, moving on, nominations for the secretary are now open,” I said and despite this being literally the role where all the Officers will dump most of their workload onto, a lot of hands still went up and in the end, we got a willing guy who will write everything down in the form of Nickos, good for him. I think?

For the Treasurer, we got a guy from Whirlia named Slue and after he got nominated we started the nomination for the last member of classroom officers, and to no one’s surprise, the role of Officer was a battle between Garth, Charcoal, Laceresta, Eber, and Frovan and one won amongst them all by a landslide- the Beast King.

I smiled at Laceresta as she walked up the stage, “I never expected that I’d get nominated,” she said, grinning a bit, “so do I punch people or?..”

“Goddess no!” Karsten said in- genuine, - horror, “you just scare them into being proper students,”

“So I punch them,” she said, waving the pious girl off, “it’s fine, they’re Pledge Bearers, they’re strong enough to take a punch or two,”

“...” Karsten simply remained silent in response which honestly? Yeah, that’s fair, I don’t think I’d say something about it either, if anyone wants to mess around with Laceresta acting as the Officer of the classroom then great, I wish them luck.

So the picking of the classroom officers went by without a hitch and now that we're done, we went back to our seats.

Afterwards our homeroom turned into Demon Biology and without wasting time, Miss Garnish went forward to start her lesson, “first, I welcome you all to Pledge Academy, congratulations for getting in,” her words were met with calm claps to ourselves followed by silence, “good, I expected this much discipline from all of you,”

“Now, to start the first of our lessons,” she grabbed a chalk and wrote down the words Demon Biology at the center of the blackboard, “we will have a brief introduction into Demon Biology by discussing one of a the Demons’ most vital body part,” she turned to us and looked around, “so, what is Demon Biology?” Miss Garnish walked to the side of the classroom and picked up the Demon statue that had half its insides exposed and placed it up front, “Demon Biology is exactly what it says, it is the study of the various parts of the Demon Body as well as how it functions,”

She pointed at a part of the exposed brain, at an organ that had an oval shape and a smooth surface, “for our first lesson on this subject, let’s talk about what makes Demons so dangerous- no, it's not their sin, put your hand down Karsten,” the pious girl did so with a frown, “but their reproduction,” our teacher pointed at the smooth organ at the top of the Demon's brain, “this organ is mostly responsible for that, it doesn’t have a true name that we have translated from the spoken words of the Demon Lord but we do have a term for it; Bleed.”

The teacher pulled out the egg-shaped organ and started showcasing it, “Bleeds are what can be considered as the reproductive organs of any given Demon, including the Demon Lord himself and what it does to “birth” more Demons is a mystery to us but theory has it that it is essentially capable of harvesting the energies of infected lands and turn it into a living being.” Her grip tightened around the organ, “Bleeds are thought to coalesce the energy on top of the sleeping Demon before materializing it when the Demon gives the ball of energy an image through nightmares so vexing that the creature accidentally casts a powerful Technique in its sleep, and thus is the birth of a Demon,”

The lesson went on about the organ and how it functions as well as the various theories surrounding its function and how it may very well be able to be used to create materials out of nothing or even create living, non-demonic creatures, until eventually, it ended with our teacher saying- “now, I’m not saying these following words to say that Pledges and Demons are the same but we do have ways of suddenly creating items in the spot don’t we?”

I nodded at that, huh, I never thought of that before…

“And no, we don’t have organs for Pledges on our brain,” our teacher said while staring in a particular direction, “it’s in our soul and according to most confirmed studies, calling a Pledge is the same as casting Techniques, in that it causes our soul to suddenly flare up whenever we do it,”

Miss Garnish placed the Bleed back onto the head of the Demon before dragging it back to the side of the stage, “now, in our next lesson, I’m gonna discuss why it’s so hard for us to utilize Demon parts for our uses, which is mostly because they turn into sludge during death but also because of another, particularly odd organ within their stomach,”

Our teacher picked up her stuff from the desk on the side of the stage and waved at us.

“See you next time- and wait for your next teacher in silence, I don’t want any of you to be loud during the small moment where you’re all alone got it? Neophyte, go up to the front with Laceresta and make sure that they don’t do anything stupid.”

We all nodded and I stood up to go do what I was told and Laceresta quickly followed, I sat on the teacher’s chair while Laceresta stood next to me and glared at everyone, not that her authoritative actions stopped her from talking herself of course, “so Demons can cast techniques?”

“They always can,” I answered, “the Demon King being the best example for that but you can also look at the sins,” I said, “we managed to… study them on the field after we found a way to put them to sleep using Techniques that somehow manages to make it so that they don't kill themselves and after dissecting the sins, we found out that the Bleed of these particular Demons are larger than most, it also has a series of roots that goes down onto the brain and their spinal cord,” I said, “and thanks to their upgraded bleed, they’re in a constant state of casting some sort of Technique,”

“So you knew about it?” Laceresta asked, I nodded, “then why did you look like you realized something earlier?”

“I… never thought about creating something using Bleeds before,” I replied with a frown.

“But you have with other methods?” Laceresta asked.

“Yes?” I said easily, there’s plenty of “duplication glitches” within the game, and the most common one is- “you can ask the Goddess for something and if you’re dedicated enough, she’ll give it to you,” I said, “you can also find a Cavernous Pitcher Plant on magical forests, like the one around Exube and give it a seed called Heart’s Desire followed by a piece of the thing or being that you wanted to duplicate and you’d get it,” I hummed, “I never knew that Bleeds can work like that too,”

“Why research that?” Someone from the front asked and since Laceresta didn’t glare at them, I assumed that the Lioness was curious about it as well.

“Just felt like it,” I said without facing the student, I can tell that it was Inferno from the voice alone though.

“Or you want to make something that you can’t naturally make yourself,” I blinked, then just who the speaker was caught up to me and I glared at Charcoal, I swear if she says- “do you want to make a child sister?”

“W-what? No!” I defended and got stared at by several accusing gazes.

“It does make sense,” Karsten said with a thoughtful nod, “I remember two old men back in my hometown asking the Goddess for a child and succeeding so I guess her majesty's claim makes sens-”

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SCULPT!” I shouted before snapping my mouth shut and covering it with my hand. I cleared my throat, “sorry, but that’s really not my goal-”

“How do you know it was sculpting?” Asked Frovan- and dude, I thought you were meek!

“Yeah Neo? How did you?” Charcoal asked accusingly and I groaned.

“I’ve heard stories…” I trailed off and got met with silence thick with skepticism, “... and uh, among them is that particular story of two guys practicing their sculpting until it was good enough for the Goddess so she gave them a child for their dedication, it sounds like a myth so it’s pretty widespread.”

“Nope, never heard of it.”

“I didn’t even know that the Goddess did that!”

“How widespread is it? I’ve never heard of it.”

“Is it from a faraway Kingdom?”

“Yes, it’s from a faraway Kingdom.” I said with a nod choosing to reply to one comment among many.

“Neo, you’re not helping yourself when you say that,” Naviri said with a chuckle.

“Okay, just so you all know, I am not planning on making a kid okay?” I glared at all of them.

They all nodded. Good!