Do your best!

Despite having consumed more blood than ever before, I fell into a deep sleep that night. A deep sleep that brought with it the images of a time that did not exist as well as allowed me to gaze upon a man that also wasn't real.

Walking over the battlefield covered in blood, the black-winged being in front of me didn't seem to mind it at all. No, in contrast, he relished it. As his huge claws trailed the weapons sticking out of the ground, whose owners had already left this world, his whole ambiance showed just how much he enjoyed it.

Because this whole battlefield, all of this, was his creation. A creation that could only have been made as a result of losing *****. For when ***** died, he accepted reality for what it was, and more importantly, accepted what he had become. For he was, and would always be ******.

==========

Walking through the combat halls, preparing myself mentally for Mr. Faer's course, an arm suddenly found its way around me.

"Yo, Aarick! Good morning!"

Once again I had been mercilessly ambushed by Astor, but this time it had even before classes began.

"Good morning, Astor..."

Just like always, his smile was so unbearably bright and cheerful, even this early in the morning.

Still, even though I had somewhat accepted that I wouldn't be able to get rid of him, getting all physical was a bit too much. So while he continued talking, and I kept walking, I casually brushed his arm from my shoulder.

"So, what class are you going to?"

"UCPC."

"Oh, that's... What is that?"

"Unarmed combat practice course."

"Cool! I guess it makes sense as you already have your weapons as part of your abilities. Anyway, I was thinking..."

Then, his mouth was off to the races again, and for some reason, I just allowed him to walk with me until I got to class.

=======

With Mr. Faer now inspecting my dark, sleek-looking claws while we were standing in one of the many rings in the classroom, I was wondering what his verdict was gonna be.

"Hmm... Those do complicate things a bit. Though you still have to use the basic technique behind a punch to be able to swipe, a lot of the things I was planning on teaching you might be useless with your ability."

I could somewhat understand where the problems laid. With these claws, it was, for example, impossible for me to grab someone, or at least it wouldn't serve the purpose a grab was designed for.

Also, there was still a bit of a difference between punching and swiping. Though both of these moves had the same core mechanic of rotating your lower body to build momentum and allow the rest of your body to follow, they were still used in different ways.

Rubbing his chin for a bit, my very well-trained teacher had to think for a bit before coming up with a plan of how we would proceed. Thinking about it, I had been pretty lucky to be the only student to have picked this class as that meant that Mr. Faer was using all of his time just to help me during the lessons.

After some time, he seemed to have made a decision about what I needed to learn first.

"Having looked at your fight with Hugo, I guess we should start by fixing your footwork. Though it was sort of impressive seeing you dodge all of his attacks while tumbling around on the ground, I think you as well must be aware that if you had gone against someone who had been serious from the start, you shouldn't have stood a chance."

Although there were a lot of thoughts running through my head hearing him talk about my match with Hugo, there was one question that stood above the rest, a question that I had to get an answer to immediately.

"You... saw the match? But you weren't there? So, does that mean...?"

His buzzcut didn't move at all when he nodded heftily, swiftly confirming my suspicion.

"Of course, I saw the match, it was broadcasted all over the academy, after all. Everyone who wanted to see it was able to tune in and watch."

It turns out, that even though I thought I had come to terms with that it didn't matter how other people viewed me it was still not a good feeling to know that the whole academy might have seen my 'performance'.

Unfortunately, or maybe it was fortunate, my well-built teacher didn't want to waste any more of our class, instead throwing me a pair of protective headwear as well as a sort of protective vest to put on my body, both colored bright blue.

Noticing my confused looks, he explained with a smile.

"Put them on! When training footwork, it's always better to force the body to remember the movements by creating a bit of a carrot and stick."

"Hmm?"

"So, please do your best to dodge!"

*WOOSH!, BAM!*

Feeling a sudden gust of wind lick the side of my face, I slowly turned my body to see just what exactly my teacher had done. Behind me, creating a small indent in the bars that now looked a lot more like prison bars than anything, a very ordinary-looking tennis ball was rolling slowly around the rubbery floor.

Setting my sights back on the overly excited teacher, his arms were now suddenly filled to the brim with the lime-green objects that obviously were going to be the bread and butter of whatever kind of bizarre training I was about to get exposed to.

"Are you ready, Aarick? Because the lesson starts now!"

"Actually, thinking about it, I'm not sure if I stretched..."

"Let's go!"

==========

Even with the increased regeneration of a demon, my body was still covered with large, blue bruises from being unable to dodge the tennis balls of doom that Mr. Faer had thrown at me.

It wasn't all too hard to understand that the training itself had some pretty good thinking behind it. Dodging the green spheres not only increased my reaction time, enhancing the connection between my mind and body, the added condition of trying my best to stay on my feet quickly forced my body to start adopting movements that my body didn't exactly find natural.

That being said, as my entire body was now hurting not only from exertion but from actual physical pain inflicted by a very excited teacher who knew how to handle his balls, I wasn't exactly looking forward to my next lesson with him.

"This means that even though the state should in a vacuum be regarded as the most influential actor of any sovereign state, it is still dependent on the current cash flow that the guilds have in relation to the current state of the nation."

Then again, when comparing it to the torture that was trying to comprehend whatever Ms. Zito was currently speaking about, it didn't seem that bad anymore.

I didn't think it would be too hard to understand it if it wasn't for the fact that my vocabulary had a very clear gap due to my absence of interaction with the world, but alas, this was the current situation that I had to deal with.

Even worse because the beginning of my fall was now imminent.

Putting one hand on her hip,

"Next Monday you will be having your first test, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as you have listened intently and been diligent with your notes. As you might have already figured out, your academic results will also be a deciding factor when it comes to your rankings, so even if you happen to be a talented awakener, that does not mean you can slack off if you want to maintain a high ranking. Dismissed."

'Well, it's not like I care about the rankings anyway...'

After deciding that I wouldn't care whether or not Dona would continue to be my homeroom teacher, it also brought with it an absolute uninterest in the rankings. Because to me, it didn't matter.

Though I suspected that even after I graduated, I would have to spend at least some time continuing to increase my proficiency and strengthening my blessing, I didn't have any ambitions of joining one of the larger, more exquisite guilds.

If anything, I felt a lot more inclined to strive to join a group of mercenaries. Just like guilds, mercenary groups were also a gathering of hunters, often operating in parties, with the main difference of being non-affiliated. In other words, there was no one that could force them to do anything they didn't want.

Not legally, at least.

Thinking about it, my life truly had taken a turn that was quite unfathomable for a little street runt like me, but I didn't dislike it. Because for the first time in my life, even with all the challenges around me, I finally felt like I was able to control my own destiny.

Even if it was a destiny where I was hiding the fact that I was the enemy of all the students around me. And that also included...

"Let's go grab some lunch! Oh, right, are you still doing that strange diet? Never mind, you can just sit with us anyway!"

Letting myself get dragged away by the yellow-haired boy, it was hard not to feel a slight tinge of guilt when thinking about us. Because no matter how much he seemed to want to get closer to me, we were still part of different worlds.