Misa had been teaching at the Star Academy for many years now, but this was the most troublesome year she had ever experienced in her life.
She had been made the homeroom professor of the children of some of the big shots of the Hero World, so she thought that they would be more mature than everyone, going after their disciplined parents, but they were no different than spoiled brats.
Luke was constantly bullying the #1 First-Year Cadet through his lackeys. Misa tried to help Rhian as much as she could, but she could only do so much with her reputation and not make one of the top Guilds her enemy.
Luke would make his lackeys constantly challenge Rhian to duels and then they would use powerful attacks in an attempt to cripple Rhian and gain themselves a spot in Luke’s good books.
Those oblivious students had no idea that doing something like this would most likely get them expelled and Luke Vestillo would provide them no help, cutting them off like cannon fodder. That was one cruel bastard, with an over-inflated ego to boot. A far cry from his father, Shade Vestillo, who had gained several achievements by saving entire cities from monster invasions.
Well not that she can blame him, either. Even some of the professors looked down on Rhian because of his middle-class background. They would openly mock him in class, believing that only those who came from ‘Top-Class’ backgrounds can pursue greater heights and protect humanity.
Rhian had a lot of pride too. Instead of ignoring them, he would taunt them back. This had split almost the entire First-Year students into two main factions, one pursuing the ideology that one’s blood and family determine how great a Hero one could become in the future, under Luke, and the other under Rhian, that believed that if provided with similar resources, even ordinary students can grow as strong, if not stronger, than the students from the well-to-do families.
This, added to the fact that she had to monitor Ray Laxon, who didn’t show a hint of suspicion, Misa felt that she had aged twenty years in the span of two months.
She scrolled through her documents on Ray Laxon. There had been rumours that there was a dispute between Ray Laxon and his father, Heron Laxon, and that Ray had practically left the Laxon Family and Aurum Guild.
And judging by the fact that he hadn’t contacted anyone from his family even once, even his sister, since he came to the Academy, she decided to conclude that Ray Laxon had no information on the secret meetings between the Chaos Alliance and Aurum Guild.
She decided to send her findings to the Hero League, once Ray came back from his vacation. She had pulled some strings to find his destination, thinking it might be some secret location, but it turned out to be Venezia Island.
Well, the Sanskriti Archipelago was surely one of the most relaxing spots for Heroes in the new human world. Dungeons rarely opened there, so it was good for a refreshing runaway from the Dungeon-laden Human Continent.
‘Well, now that Ray Laxon is out of suspicion, the Hero League will probably put their resources into investigating Edward Martin.’
Now that was a person she believed could collude with the Fallen.
The infamous love-child of Heron Laxon and his mistress. It had caused quite a scandal, when the news came out, considering people thought that Heron and his wife had quite a good relationship.
What Misa found even more detestable was the fact that Edward's public reputation was squeaky clean as a respectable A+ Rank Hero. But behind the scenes, he was scum that the world would be much better without. Always showing off his connections and using them to set up multiple businesses that were dangling on the thin line between legal and illegal. His morality had already hit rock bottom, making her sometimes wonder how this scum and the introverted Ray Laxon were even siblings.
Fed up from the stress, she decided to trash out all her problems and began to take a power nap.
Ten minutes later, she opened her eyes to a more refreshing world.
“Um, Misa, you have to go as a substitute for Ray to the Alpha class.”, a female professor reminded her.
The reality of the world came crashing down on her.
“I will be heading out in a minute.”, she responded, mentally preparing herself for the class.
A minute later, she got up from her seat and went to the Alpha Class. From outside the hall door, she could see the students chatting amongst themselves.
Luke was surrounded by his lackeys, while Rhian was talking to Rachel. Luke was stealing several glances at Rachel and glared at Rhian whenever she would laugh at whatever he said.
The corners of her lips lifted up.
Misa had enough life experience to know what was happening here.
Noone knew this, but secretly, she was a big fan of romantic dramas. Love triangles were her favourite, followed by cheating spouse revenge stories.
‘Guess this will keep me entertained for a while.’
As soon as she stepped through the door, the hall instantly quieted down and the attention of all the students fell on her. One good thing about being a drop-dead gorgeous beauty was that she didn’t have to sacrifice her sanity to quiet down an entire class of teenagers every day.
Misa knew she was beautiful and she squeezed out every drop of usefulness she could from it. And she was strong enough, being an S+ Rank Hero, to stir away the bad attention, so she wasn't really troubled with it.
“Well everyone, since your Magic Theory professor is on a vacation this week, you will be attending the Mana Control class with me. Put on your uniforms and meet me at the training grounds.”
Saying that she left the hall to go to prepare for the exercise.
Ten minutes later, all the students were standing in front of her in the training ground. They were wearing tight black spandex uniforms with blue stripes on them.
Misa herself was wearing a training uniform but this one had golden stripes on it.
“Well now that everyone is here, come and get your weapons.”
Behind her were multiple tables, set up with all types of weapons. Swords, spears, bows and arrows, daggers, whips, and guns. Unlike regular weapons, these were perfectly safe and made to avoid lethal wounds during training.
After everyone had taken their weapons, she started to divide the students into groups to perform mock battles. She had memorised the names of all of Luke’s lackeys and made sure to keep them as far away from Rhian as possible.
Soon the sounds of weapons clashing could be heard all over the ground. Misa surveyed her students to evaluate their fighting styles and check them for any weak points or flaws.
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As she checked Rhian’s performance she was a bit surprised. His sword movements, itself were flawless but she found something wrong.
The sword movement was a bit familiar to her. She had seen Edward Martin use a similar type of sword art. His sword art utilised the elements surrounding him to increase the power of his attacks. Rhian’s sword style gave her a similar feeling.
‘It’s a strong style. I wonder who he copied it from.’
There were a few Sword Arts with moves that utilised a person's surroundings instead of relying on direct attacks and techniques. But no matter how hard he tries to copy them unless he obtained a skill for element control or a Sword Art that provides temporary terrain control, it would be hard for Rhian to reach his full potential.
Well, considering how strong he was, I am sure any one of the organizations he joins in the future, they will be happy to attain one for him.
Still Misa decided to advise Rhian about it after class, since he won't be able to fully utilise his power, without the Skill. Whatever decision he will make after that, will be on him after that.
“Ahh.”, a shout came from behind her.
Misa turned to find a boy falling to the ground. His opponent, an E+ Rank named Thomas, was looking at the fallen student from above, a mocking smile decorating his face.
She had seen boys like that before -bullies, who increased their self-esteem by looking down on others.
Though Misa was not a fan of such acts, she wasn’t going to do anything about it. A Hero who can’t even stand up for himself would never be able to protect people. He will only be a burden to his fellow Heroes. That is why such buds are best cut off before they can put others and themselves in danger. It was cruel but reality was hardly ever easy.
She noted down the name of the other boy. He had bangs covering part of his face and a bō staff in his hand.
‘His name was Rohan Claeg if I remember correctly. There were rumours that he could see ghosts or something.’
In the past, stuff about psychics would have been dismissed as a bunch of fake rumours. But ever since mana descended into the world, many descendants of famous shamans had Awakened with powerful Skills. It would be hard to say whether the rumours surrounding him were fake or not.
After completing her evaluation, she walked over to them. Rohan had a big cut on his forearm.
“Rohan, go to the nursing station and get that wound patched up. Thomas, you can go and find another partner to fight.”, she ordered the two.
Rohan slowly got up from the ground and walked over to the nursing station, a bit away from the ground. A healer there placed a hand on the wound and light started emitting from it. Soon, his arm was as good as new.
Heroes with Light Mana Compatibility were quite rare, covering only about 1% of the Hero Population, making their healing powers highly coveted.
After checking that Rohan was okay, Misa returned to evaluating her students. After the two-hour class was over, she went back to the staff room to grab a coffee. Her desk was covered with documents she needed to send to the League.
‘Guess it's another busy day for me.’ Misa sighed as she sipped the coffee and began her work.
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Rhian was busy practising his Skills. The first-years had been given a 105-storey building as their dorm, with each floor having 15 flats. The bottom three floors consisted of a mess, an open gym, and a recreation room. As one went from the bottom to the top, the Rank they had scored will be higher.
On the top, there were 3 penthouses, housed by the top three first years. Each penthouse was equipped with a personal gym and training room. Currently, Rhian was practising his Sword Art in his training room.
There were several empty blood bags on the floor, and the blood inside them was orbiting around Rhian. This was his Skill, 'Blood Manipulation'. Since he couldn’t practice it during class, he was making up for it now.
Things had been so much easier before he came to the Academy. He could go to the wild forests outside the city barriers, and practise his Demonic Dance Art for days, away from the public eye, and even kill monsters and sell them to make a quick buck. But now that he had classes for five days, his practical training was restricted to just the weekends.
But, he was happy with the fact that the goal he had in mind when coming to the Academy was progressing smoothly. His knowledge about mana had increased significantly and he could witness his efforts in his training.
Professor Ray, unlike what he previously thought, was quite helpful, even recommending Rhian some books when asked. Though weirdly, he didn’t try to get close to him like some other Professors who tried to get close to the #1 First Year, hoping to take credit when he makes it big in the future. Professor Ray kept their interactions strictly professional, never mocking him, unlike all the other Professors that came from well-to-do families.
Rhian, who knew the importance of power, and was familiar with corrupt ideals it brought with it, felt it quite refreshing to see an unbiased person. Rhian decided to form a healthy connection with him for future use.
Rhian went back to focusing on his training. Currently, he was trying to shape the blood into different kinds of weapons as fast as possible. In his previous life, it would happen without him even thinking, much like an instinct. But in his current state, unless he held a solid image of what he wanted it to transform into, the blood would not take shape.
After using the Blood Domination Skill for three hours, Rhian drank a Mana Potion and started to train his other skill, 'Blood Absorption'. He took out a blood bag from his dimensional ring. Since he couldn’t get his hands on the blood of Awakened humans, he decided to use the blood of monsters he had hunted last weekend.
He slowly started to sip the red liquid, careful not to make a mess.
A small laugh came out, as Rhian imagined how ridiculous he was looking right now. If anyone entered the room right now, they would be thinking that Rhian was a vampire, ready to prey on his next victim. The blood he was sipping currently came from a Cyclops that he had hunted.
‘Honestly, I can never get used to the metallic taste. Neither in my previous life nor this one.’
Once the blood was in his system, he could see memories of the enormous monster hunting small rabbits and wolves in a forest.
The one flaw of Blood Absorption was that Rhian never got to choose the memories or skills he could use after drinking the blood.
But coincidentally, the ones he got were mostly always useful to him, in one way or another. It was like some God was helping him to take his revenge.
‘Well, there should be some sort of God or higher being somewhere in the world. Otherwise, there would be no way I could reincarnate on another planet and get a second chance at life.’
He would get stronger on Earth, hidden away from the Demon Lord, and when he was ready, he would show no mercy to the Demon Lord.
And that other guy.
Rhian still remembered about him. One day, he suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was suddenly appointed as the Demon Lord’s right-hand man. He was his greatest advisor, and also the one who led the Demon Lord down his path of destruction.
The annihilation of Rhian’s family was also something that man had planned.
When Rhian first got his memories back, the first thing he had vowed was to rip that man, limb from limb.
‘Knock, knock’, the sound of knocking from his door brought him out of his thoughts.
‘Crap, I forgot I was supposed to meet Rachel.’
Rhian quickly started to stuff the blood bags in his ring and locked up the room. His training room was no different from a crime scene at the moment.
“Just a moment.”, he shouted out, as he started to change out of his bloodied uniform and quickly took a shower, to wash away the smell of the blood lingering on him.
Five minutes later, he opened his door to find Rachel giving him a stink eye.
“You forgot about our plan, didn’t you?”
“I am sorry. Training took too long. But I am ready now.”
“You are such a training freak.”
“Well, I didn’t become the #1 First Year for nothing.”
“Haha. Don’t worry. I will snatch that title away from you when they reshuffle the ranks in a few months, after the mid-term exams.”
Chatting and laughing, the two entered the Academy Portal and came out of the Capital City Portal Station. Rhian was originally from Aquilo City, the Northern City, bordering the domain of the elves. Since he didn't know much about Capital City, Rachel recommended that they go on a tour of the city today.
Leaving the Portal Station, they found themselves in the southern part of the town. It was the commercial district of the city and was quite lively in the evening. The dark purple sky, along with the lights of the market was quite a beautiful sight.
“Come on, let's have a look. The shops here sell everything.” Rachel dragged him to a clothing store. There, Rachel dressed him up in so many different outfits that Rhian swore not to even look at another clothing store for the next ten years. After purchasing a pair of jeans and a hoodie, they decided to go to a nearby café that had quite a good review on social media.
But when they went inside, they met an unexpected acquaintance.
“Miss Misa, I didn’t think we would see you here.”, Rachel greeted their teacher.
“Ah. Rhian and Rachel. Had fun shopping?” Misa asked, noticing the shopping bag in Rhian’s hand.
“Ah. We were just touring Capital City since Rhian isn’t from around here. What are you doing outside the Academy at this hour?”
“Ah, I just came back from the Hero League Headquarters. I had to drop off some documents.”
“Oh. Umm, did you see my grandfather by any chance? He hasn’t come home in a while.” Rachel hesitantly asked.
“As a matter of fact, I just did. But you know how busy it is being the Head of the League. Keeps you up all night. And the documents I dropped off are probably not gonna help that.” Misa replied awkwardly to her.
“It’s okay. I was just a bit worried. I will text him later.”
“Sure, you do that. Well, then, you two enjoy your date, while I head back to the Academy for work. Oh, and don’t forget you guys got a curfew. Be back before 9.” She reminded them, as she left the café, sipping her takeaway coffee.
“Um, this is not a d-date.”, Rachel tried to explain, but their teacher was already gone.
“Well, why don’t we go grab ourselves some coffee and enjoy this…date?” Rhian offered with a huge smile on his face.
“It is not a date.” Rachel punched his shoulder before the two of them went up to the barista.