Second Step [8]

"Munch... munch..."

The food at the cafeteria was just as delicious as it had been yesterday, if not even more delicious today. 

Sleep, training, and proper nutrition! No matter what had happened before at the training fields, I was still not going to skimp out on these three things.

Not to mention the fact that there was no reason to dwell on the past, the only thing I could do was to face the future with everything I had!

"...why are you sitting here again? Don't you have any friends to eat with?"

"...no."

Hearing the words from the girl with snow-white hair and a face that showed no emotion, it would be a lie to say that I didn't feel a bit hurt. Not hurt enough to stop eating though.

"Munch..."

Unlike yesterday, however, Zoe opened her mouth again, surprising me not only by the fact that she did so but also surprising me with what she said. 

"How did you hurt your hand?"

'She's sharp.'

The fact that she had noticed that I was primarily using my non-dominant hand to eat as a result of the pain I felt in my right hand was pretty impressive. But I had still no reason to tell her that I hurt my hand by throwing a punch with all my strength into the palm of our teacher. 

"I tripped."

Zoe's face didn't change at all when she got her answer, with not a single wrinkle showing on her almost porcelain-like skin. Instead, she turned her face back to her plate of food, giving me a very curt and succinct response. 

"You're bad at lying."

With that, our conversation was concluded for the day, as neither Zoe nor I felt the need to speak anymore. 

-------

'Room 1-A. This should be it, right?'

After struggling a bit to navigate through the large campus, I had found the building where our homeroom was located. Just like most buildings that contained classrooms meant for theoretical studies, this building was very modern-looking, the outside walls more similar to sleek, white metal rather than stone, contrasting the more traditional buildings.

The insides of the building were also very up-to-date in terms of design. The walls and ceiling were all white, and the ceiling had fully integrated LED lights which efficiently lit up the space beneath it.

There were also tables and chairs placed in quite a fair amount of places in the house, social spaces meant for not only studying but also to spend some time between classes. 

All of the rooms in the different corridors were neatly marked with a room number, which was the main reason why I had been able to find my way to the correct room. So without waiting, I opened the door in front of me. 

Beyond the door was a room similar to the lecture halls found inside universities on earth, with all of the student seats aligned in a half-moon position, with the seats farther away being higher up to make it easy to see the lecturer. A lecturer who would be standing right in front of the huge whiteboard and behind the small podium meant for the teachers to be able to put down all kinds of miscellaneous objects like books and papers. 

"...he came."

Although I had tried to come a bit early, I hadn't been the first to arrive. In fact, it appeared that I wasn't even part of the first half of the group to arrive. From the green-haired archer to the dagger-wielding Frey, I wasn't all too surprised to see their reactions to my entrance. 

'It would appear that I have made a pretty gruesome impression, haven't I?'

It was never fun to realize that people disliked you, especially as I hadn't had any intention of making enemies just for the sake of it, but truthfully, it still didn't matter that much. In the end, they were responsible for their lives, and I was responsible for mine.

It was as simple as that.

'It's a bit of a shame, but it can't be helped.'

As soon as I began to lie awake at night and mull over what other people thought of me, I knew that it was over for me. 

Therefore, with my hands in my pockets, I took a seat in the corner seat farthest away from the whiteboard, aware that my dear classmates wouldn't want me close anyway. 

After that it didn't take long until more and more students entered the room, all of them sure to throw me a glance before finding a seat of their own. Meanwhile, I was taking this as an opportunity to cram their names, checking up on how many I remembered.

'Ken, Fatima, Evan... Sam? No, it was something else... Ah, Samuel!'

There was no way that I would be able to remember everyone's names, but I still impressed myself a bit with how many of them I did remember.

Currently, there were thirteen students inside the classroom, and despite my not remembering everyone's names, it was very easy for me to realize who the two vacant classmates were.

Cerus and Celine were the only ones that hadn't arrived yet. Naturally, I did feel a slight pang of guilt, but I still wasn't entirely sure what the reason behind Celine's extreme reaction was.

Yes, she did lose, and yes it might have seemed like I didn't give it my all, but it's not like anyone else got that upset from losing.

'Maybe she has some serious performance anxiety? Something similar to kids on Earth feeling forced to be straight-A students to prove their self-worth?'

Cerus' reaction was something I understood more than well. Not that I had been in a situation like that, but to him, I was the reason behind his friend's pain and anguish. Arguably one could say that he overreacted, but I wasn't in a position to have an opinion of it as it could also be argued that I was the cause of it. 

*Click*

The door to the classroom once again opened, this time welcoming a pretty familiar face to all of us. A rough face adorned with an absence of hair and two bushy brows sitting on top of a large build with very well-developed muscles. 

In contrast to when we were out on the fields, Mr. Folm no longer wore the white uniform jacket that I assumed symbolized the teachers and instructors at the academy, now opting to only wear a black dress shirt instead. 

His hands were holding onto a stack of papers, which he promptly put down on the podium as he made his way to the space in front of the whiteboard. Then, before he opened his mouth, his eyes scanned the room, seemingly counting the students who were present. 

It was pretty obvious, though, that when his eyes fell on me, he stopped for just a bit longer than on anyone else. And that in turn made it impossible for me not to remember what he had said to me earlier. 

'-You... you are a real bastard, aren't ya?'

Personally, I didn't think I was that much of a bastard but it still didn't feel particularly good that our teacher had such a view of me. Ultimately I simply had to hope that he was professional enough to not allow such feelings to cloud his judgment and do his job as a teacher properly. 

"Welcome... It seems like we are missing a couple of students but I will still begin the lecture as it is now the appointed time. For this lecture, you will all get the general curriculum of the term and an overview of important dates for specific events that will occur. Other than that you will be choosing one major and two secondary courses that you are interested in, which will make up a large chunk of your first semester at the academy."

Picking up the stack of papers that he had put down on the podium, Mr. Folm continued to speak while distributing the papers to us. 

"Please read all of the information carefully and although you have to choose your courses before this lecture is over, I still want you all to think deeply about what you truly want to do. It's not too rare that a student gets kicked out of the academy simply because he chose courses that didn't suit his or her inherent affinities. Remember, a lot of the time it is smarter to develop your strengths rather than try and lessen your weaknesses."

A smaller stack of papers was promptly put onto the small, foldable 'desk' in front of me by the teacher who had now gotten so far as having distributed the documents to all students except for me. But thankfully, he didn't say anything to me, instead just walking back to the front of the room, standing in front of the whiteboard with crossed arms. 

"Now, please choose your courses. The time is... 13:11... you have until 16:00 to complete your choices. If you do not make your choices before that, then I...!"

*Click!*

"I told you that we would be late! Why did you think that..."

"It wasn't my fault! I had no choice! When that bear showed up I just..."

Out of nowhere, the door had yet again opened and from it, two very out of breath students showed up while arguing with each other. An act that our teacher very much didn't find amusing. 

"...you two. Sit your asses down."

"Yes, sir..."

"Yes, sir!"