A week silently passed, with Elias slowly getting used to his new life as an academy student. He was slowly getting in tune with life as a hidden Apostle, practicing his abilities while making sure to keep them concealed from the public eye.

His investigative efforts were also starting to bear fruit, as the academy's archives gave him a lot more opportunity to learn things he wouldn't have been able to gain access to if he had only perused the public library.

He felt like he was getting closer and closer to uncovering some of the mysteries surrounding his life, all the while enriching his viewpoint of the world, causing him to see it from an entirely different perspective.

Elias now knew that the world held a lot of prominent underlying dangers, as the dark hands from the abyssal depths of hell were just one step away from ravaging the entire world.

This made him see the world in a new light, as he never imagined that society as a whole was just one step away from being sucked into the spiraling chaos of death and destruction.

This made his will to gain control of his apostolic abilities and become stronger all the more prevalent, as he knew in his heart that the only way to guarantee the safety of one's self and loved ones in such a glaringly dangerous world, would be to ensure it with one's own strength.

Elias walked to his lecture hall at a calm pace, making sure to respectfully greet any professor and non-teaching staff that passed by him.

He soon came before the doors to the hall designated to first years, as the sound of casual chatter echoed behind its walls.

Elias then walked in, waving to the duo of Damien and Aamiya while walking to his group's seating area.

Making his way to his friends, a conversation soon caught his notice, causing him to slow down his pace while slowly turning his head towards that direction.

A group of three were picking on a pale-faced young man in the corner, their every word laced with mockery and disdain.

"Hey Zane... I heard that vampires don't fancy blood from dirty and infected sources, is that true?"

"Oh come on... why would you ask him that type of question, Timothy? Don't you know it is rude to question people about the preferences of their meals?"

"Haha... I know I know...I almost forgot that he is a lowly red mosquito. His people aren't picky as long as they can get their fill of blood. Dirty or healthy, rich or poor, young or old—it makes no difference to them, as long as they can sink their talons in, they are satisfied."

The trio laughed in amusement, obviously satisfied at the sarcasm hidden within their exchange.

The target of their insults shrank into his seat, trying his best to hide his presence to avoid the attention of the group of troublemakers.

He sat at the extreme corner of the hall, his seat in the shadows and away from the sunlight streaming in from the hall's porcelain windows.

He seemed quite timid and shy, his crimson-red eyes hidden behind a pair of reading glasses. He hugged a book to his chest as if to make it obvious to the trio that he wanted nothing more than to be left alone to study.

The group obviously didn't seem to care, as the leader of the group, a noble-looking youth named Konrad, suddenly moved and whacked the young man on the back of the head.

This caused the young man's head to violently slam into his table, causing his glasses to crack and a bruise to appear on his forehead.

The entire lecture hall went still, as almost every student turned toward the source of the commotion.

Konrad and his gang gazed at him with shocked expressions, as if they hadn't expected such a result.

"Hey Zane, aren't you a bit too weak? I thought you vampires were supposed to be the superior race when it came to physical power?"

Timothy looked at the whimpering teenager, his eyes filled with mockery. "Maybe the poor little red mosquito hasn't had his daily fill of blood yet... Such a poor thing."

The youth beside Timothy, who looked like the type of person who enjoyed fights and brawls, laughed out loud, his voice filled with venom. "Maybe we should help him out. Come, Zane, here is my neck. Why don't you sink your teeth in and enjoy a healthy breakfast, you obviously look like you need it."

Timothy yanked the youth named Zane up by his silky black hair, holding his head close to his neck while the latter squirmed in pain.

The surrounding students all had complicated expressions on their faces as if they didn't enjoy the spectacle but couldn't do anything to stop it.

In the end, they all focused back on their own individual activities, as if trying to pretend like they didn't notice the obvious bullying happening in front of their eyes.

Elias's gaze lingered on the scene, his eyes deep and unreadable. He took a long hard look at the unfolding spectacle, before closing his eyes and slowly moving towards his group.

He took his usual seat beside Damien, noting the unusual looks of seriousness on the latter's face.

Damien's gaze was fixed on the scene of the three teenagers bullying the defenseless young man, but even he who was a believer in justice and fairness moved to do nothing to stop it.

Elias lingered on his friend, noting his obviously clenched fists, before sighing heavily.

It was quite understandable why even Damien couldn't stop the unfair treatment, as some things just weren't as simple as they seemed.

The vampires had been one of the most revered races in the past, with their societal authority and respect being only second to the human race.

Before the dawn of the New Testament Calender, the vampires held significant social standing among the other races, as their race was the only group that exhibited supernatural abilities and high natural ether density before stepping into the apostolic path.

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The vampires were capable of manipulating blood, morphing into bat-like apparations and were able to use a subtle type of mind manipulation.

This naturally made them revered among the other races, as their entire race was renowned for being the closest to the nature of the supernatural.

This caused all of the other races, including the five churches, to hold them in high regard, as everyone saw them as the pinnacle of mortal nature before divinity.

Every single racial kingdom tried to foster favorable relationships with them, causing their island-city territory of Hale to be one of the most prominent locations across the three seas.

That remained the same for thousands of years and stayed the same until tragedy struck their clansmen, leading to the imminent downfall of the once prominent race.

It was soon found out that the patriarch and elder vampires had been carrying out blood rituals and sacrifices to the evil god overseeing the authority of death—known as The Pale Demonic King, Indra, cultivating their faith in him while regarding him as the deity of their belief.

Apparently, most of their clansmen had been fostering a belief in this god of death for thousands of years in secret, as their elders and leader of the race felt like his teachings were more in tune with the inherent nature of the vampires.

This revelation led to them incurring the unfiltered wrath of the five divine deities, as revelations were soon sent down to the popes by the five archangels, ordering for the annihilation of every infected member of their race.

This led to the historical purging known as The Culling War, a battle which saw every single vampire practicing the beliefs of the Pale Demonic King annihilated without exception.

Blood flowed through the land of night, dying the once-dim streets in the stench of blood and rotting decay. Every single believer in the evil deity was annihilated without question, with amnesty granted only to the few who refused to take up the unorthodox teachings.

The four human kingdoms at the time also aided the divine churches in the purification of the vampires, as it was also revealed that most of the sacrificial victims came from humans living in outer city settlements.

The Culling War ended with the eradication of more than 80% of the vampires at the time, with restrictions being heavily placed on the survivors which still persisted to this day.

The innocent few ended up suffering for the sins of the many, causing them to almost always stay secluded within their territory, hiding away from public anger which seemed to prevail even after all these years.

Any vampire that ventured out of Hale had to be prepared for the discrimination that would follow, as the sins of their ancestors seemed to always follow them closely as a persistent second shadow.

Zane was only the second vampire to have the guts to enroll into White Helm Academy since its inception, with rumors of the very first being a young girl who had ultimately committed suicide right before her graduation.

Elias didn't seem to understand why though, as the young man seemed too timid at heart to be capable of making such a bold decision.

Gazing at the whimpering young man Elias sighed heavily once again, before pulling his mind away from the entire ordeal and chatting with his group.

This group of 'peculiar' individuals had gotten much closer in just the span of a week, with even the usually absentminded Ne'em pitching into their conversations every once in a while.

Elias had been able to get a bit closer to him, mainly due to Damien's never-ending pestering which forced the young Sapphite to be forced to pause his reading to answer some of his questions.

Elias had taken one of such opportunities to ask him about why he had a gem embedded into his forehead, to which he had answered quite naturally that it was a second brain.

Apparently, the main reason the Sapphites were as naturally intelligent as they were was due to the presence of this mystical gem, a gem that was as supernatural as it looked.

"This gem's purpose is to act as an external brain, capturing informational data from the outside world which would usually be unnoticeable by other intelligent races.

"The presence of an external and internal processor duo helps us to analyze and output a lot more information in less time, causing our intelligence quotient to be naturally higher when compared to other races."

This was the answer Elias had gotten to this question, causing him to be mired in astonishment.

He had previously considered a lot of different answers to the question, but none that were as simplistic and straightforward as that.

Elias had then asked about what would happen if a person attempted to extract the gem from his head, to which the Ne'em scoffed, his tone laced with daring amusement.

"I'd like to see them try."

His answer was so spine-chilling that even Lars was affected, causing the latter to warn Elias to never try to touch that crystal.

Shivering in recollection, Elias turned to offer the person in question his good morning greetings, to which Ne'em waved off dismissively.

Elias didn't feel dispirited, but instead turned towards Damien and Aamiya and engaged them in friendly conversations.

After about an hour of leisurely free time, their professor calmly walked into the hall, his presence throwing the entire hall into stilling silence.

His face still looked as stern and cold as before, gazing at his orderly students before nodding his head in approval.

He felt like they were always calm and gentle in his presence, without knowing that it was his naturally oppressive aura that was to be thanked for that.

None of them wanted to know what would happen if they angered him.

He then went on to teach a general ed class under the course of Paranormal Studies, to which most of the students paid rapt attention due to the interesting nature of the class.

Elias sat at the back with a bored expression on his face most of the time, with him being the only student not engrossed in the lecture.

He had already read up on this particular class almost four days before and could be said to be well-equipped to tackle any question related to it.

This was also one of the disadvantages that came with reading early, as he wouldn't have anything else to do in class while the topic was being taught.

He could always try to read something else of course, but he feared the professor too much to study another course while he was in front of him.

This left Elias with nothing to do through most of his classes, causing him to desperately engage in banter with Lars when it came to it.

While almost drifting into sleep, Elias briefly heard Professor Windsor mention a term he was unfamiliar with, one which wasn't part of their current study syllabus.

The man faced the class with indifference, his hands folded calmly across his chest.

"Now this should normally have been taught to you at a later date, but seeing as how most of you would be going for your commissions starting from next week, I've decided to shift forward the schedule to start getting you in tune with this earlier.

"I'm going to be talking on the topic of Oddities today, in order to give you guys a basic idea of what to prepare for in future commissions."

The reticent professor then moved closer to his class, the eyes behind his glasses scanning his students with intent.

"Now... Which one of you arrived here following the Naric Sea route from the port in Lytton?"

A good number of students raised their hands, causing Professor Windsor to nod before regarding them once again.

"And how long did it take each of you to arrive at the Island once you embarked on your journey."

Each student swiftly gave their answers, Elias included the results causing him and all of his other classmate's brows to furrow.

Each of the travel times didn't seem to match, with some being as long as two days while others only taking three to four hours.

This seemed perplexing, even after taking into consideration all the various obstructions that might happen at sea, as a four-hour to two days time ratio was way too significant to brush off just like that.

Professor Windsor noted his students' confused expressions at the results, causing him to smile in satisfaction.

"Good... It seems most of you have noticed the underlying issue here. Their journeys seem to have vastly different time durations for the same distance. This obviously cannot be written off as a mere coincidence, as it defies every known scientific and physical law."

"Then how would you react if I told you that the journey from Lytton to Estica, as estimated by naval researchers and nautical pathfinders, should actually be..."

The man paused for a bit, his gaze turning sharp.

"As long as seven to eight days..."