…

"Alright, now you guys are good to go, just don't shit everywhere." Dante put the small baby owls in a small handmade bed made of clothes.

He then looked at the owl on his head, "You, clean up their poop or something, I'm going to let the window open. Now I need to attend lessons."

With that, he changed into new clothes, as his old ones were covered in stomach acids and blood.

This morning, he had of course caused quite the scene as he brought birds into his room. Not just the birds, but also the smell…

On his way toward his class, everyone looked strangely at him. On one day he was extremely weak, the next day he would come to the academy covered in blood, the next he would come covered in disgusting fluids, blood and with birds.

At first everyone despised him because he was too weak, now everyone despised him because he was weird.

Dante, of course, liked this new change of path. He has always been a loner, if he could be left alone then it would be amazing!

The corridor leading to his class was filled with people he knew. When they saw him, they all started gossiping and whispering among themselves.

"Hey you bastard! What the hell are you doing every morning?"

Before he could walk calmly, he heard a male's voice, he clearly knew who it was. "God damn it… Here we go again..".

When he looked around, he saw a boy with red hairs and green eyes, Rowan. He must have heard him, as he looked a little angry.

"Hey Rowan, when was the first time you confessed to the girl you like?" Dante asked with a smile.

"Wh-what are you talking a-about?!" He looked flustered.

"Just answer?"

"Why would I tell you!" He rebuked.

"Same" Dante grinned and made his way toward class.

This exchange didn't go unnoticed because everyone started chuckling. Which made Rowan even redder..

As Dante made his way toward his seat, he saw Sylph who had already sat. "Good morning Sylphie." He sat next to her and put his head on his hands. Supporting himself on the table with a smile.

"Morning.. You reek of blood."

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"Would you believe me if I told you that I was eaten ten times yesterday?" Dante jokingly said.

She pondered for sometimes, as if taking my question seriously, "Maybe".

After a while, the purple haired teacher entered the room and started her lessons, It was all very basic. We were young, so we were just taught the basics.

Even Iris looked pissed off at how boring and easy it was. Imagine teaching to multiple class the same thing, every year…

Toward the end of the lesson, the teacher announced.

"Next week, we will have a written test, I want to test everyone's knowledge and if you've learned something.

This is just a blank test to put you in the bath, however know that next test, it will count. At the end of each trimester, if your average score is under a certain threshold, you will be expelled. No matter from where you came or what your family is or does.

We can't allow dead weight to fight against demons. If you're not good enough, then just go and become a soldier"

After that, she left. There was a heavy atmosphere, they were anxious and didn't want to be expelled. This atmosphere was broken by a laugh.

"Hahaha! Look at these kids, they haven't even started yet, that they think they already failed." Dante laughed. After that, he stood up and walked toward the door.

On the way, everyone looked at him in anger..

He and Sylph had Monday afternoon off because they didn't want to learn Alchemy. He had noticed that, every single one of Sylph lessons were chosen for combat orientation.

As Alchemy was useless to her, he also didn't want to participate into it. He had already got the gist of it when looking at books.

It was horrendously complicated and burdensome mentally. You had to memorize every single one of thousands and thousands of herbs, fruits, leaves etc..

It was just inefficient for people who wanted to get stronger. Sylph had thus not chosen that class and used the free afternoon to train.

He was of course authorized to not participate in it because he was assigned the same schedule as her.

Dante wanted to practice swordsmanship but couldn't as Rave, a teacher, had to teach other students. He waited for Sylph to when he asked if they could train together, he was disappointed.

"No."

"Alright then, see you later." Dante then walked toward his room.

On his pathway, there was a red haired boy leaning on the wall with his hands crossed. "Here comes the fun" Dante muttered to himself as he hid his grin.

Just as he was about to walk past him, he heard him speak. "Let's have a duel."

His tone was calm, not like his usual explosive voice. Dante looked up then ignored him but was stopped by a hand landing on his shoulder.

"If I win, never get close or talk to Sylph." Threatening said Rowan.

"And what do I get?" Dante inquired.

"Anything, I could make your family rich, give you women, gold and other." He said smugly, proud of his status.

"Alright, I have nothing in my right now, but isn't that unfair to you? I just have to not talk -"

"I don't care, All these things are worthless to me. So do you accept or not?" He cut him off.

"Alright, then let's do it Thursday during swordsmanship class. I don't have time now." Dante then walked away, but stopped after a few steps and looked back at Rowan.

"Anything is allowed, right?"

"Like you can win against me, do whatever." He sneered and walked away. As he was turned away, he couldn't see the creepy smile and red glowing eyes on Dante's face.

..

After entering his room, he headed toward one of the rooms where he had left the baby owls. When he opened the door, the playing baby owls frantically ran toward him, asking for food.

"Alright alright, you're all going to get your food but, you can't keep freeloading forever, can you?" His smile grew bigger and bigger as he took out the three out of the ten crocodile cores.

His hands started wriggling and separated into a several flesh bloody tendrils, his red eyes slowly dimmed, becoming their original dark gray before slowly becoming hazy and clouded by something.

The owls felt something weird, but couldn't understand what. Before they could make a head of it, coos and cries from birds resounded from the deeply sound insulated apartment. Silent to everyone…

…

Author's note:

(Good evening, wanderers, I am here to unfortunately inform you that my writing quality will most likely decline as I have lots of exams to do and focus on. I know that my writing quality is already bad but it may get worst. Don't hesitate to criticize any mistakes made or way i could make thing more smooth. I would appreciate if you did so. Thank you and have a good adventure!)