25 The orange uniform

The confrontational attitude of Vicar unnerved Izzy. She had never been in such a situation before. With most of her schooling life being uneventful and harmonious.

Now she, a short little girl was being stared down by a tall and big guy.

" Theonymphi what do I do?" she whispered through a closed mouth.

There was no response and Izzy regretted poking the hornet's nest. She really wanted to avoid this situation.

" I'll tell you once again. Get out..."

Izzy's eyes avoided his and she hoped that the other students would help her, but they all avoided her gaze. Even Weigela was now resigned to letting the scene unfold.

"What are you guys doing?" a serious voice said and Izzy felt the tension in the air pop like a balloon. She breathed out and directed her attention to her saviour.

He was a weaselly looking man in a grey robe. He was short and pudgy and looked very displeased.

His dark eyes landed on Vicar and Izzy " I see you're already causing trouble with the new student. I'll warn you now Vicar..."

A sharp whip flew out from the man's sleeve and wrapped itself around Vicar's neck.

Izzy's wash shocked as she heard Vicar gasp.

" Don't cause any more trouble for me than you already have."

The whip was released and left a glaring blue mark around Vicar's neck.

All Izzy could think was, ' What. The. Hell!'

The other students bowed their heads looking away and out of the corner of her eye Izzy saw Weigela's clench her tiny fists.

" Yes Professor Lam" Vicar's hoarse voice said. He then sat down and Weigela followed. Izzy was the only one standing, she was so shocked.

" What are you doing? Sit down!" the professor shouted and Izzy scurried to her seat.

She had never in her life seen a teacher treat a student in such a manner. If the entire academy was like this Izzy decided that she didn't want to study here.

' You should get used to this' she finally heard Theonymphi say.

Izzy frowned and whispered, " Why?"

There was no way she was going to stand for this kind of treatment.

' The strong are respected girl. In this world, the weak will be singled out and everyone here is weak. You especially are the weakest out of all the people in this room.'

Izzy suddenly felt a wave of frustration bottling up in her chest.

Professor Lam stood at the board and explained something to do with the structure of magic. Izzy tried her best to understand but had no idea what he was talking about. She was also put off by his lack of interest and general unenthusiastic attitude towards the class.

He even stopped half-way through the lecture to berate Vicar. Then continued to ramble on about how useless the orange students were and how he was so unfortunate to be their professor.

Izzy suddenly felt that they were the unfortunate ones. She decided then that she would go and speak with Ruben after this class and tell him about what was going on.

Once the class ended Izzy looked around at the gloomy students and finally understood their apathetic attitudes.

She walked out of the class and before she could make it out of the door Vicar stopped her.

" So now you're leaving," he said mockingly. He had tried to get her to leave before but now Izzy only felt sorry for him.

" No, I'm going to report this to someone."

Vicar laughed " Report. Are you insane? Do you think someone is going to listen to you a mere orange student." Izzy had heard those exact words this morning.

Vicar's voice was bitter and laced with anger.

Izzy pushed passed him ignoring him and was determined to find Ruben.

" System find Ruben," she said.

Then held the phone in her hand and followed the arrow. As she walked through the hall Izzy felt the looks of disdain from the people walking around.

She also noticed that the uniforms in the academy were colour coded. The colours were orange, green and blue from what she could see.

Izzy felt almost crushed by their gazes, laughs and was even pushed by some students. Theonymphi could feel her anger and reminded her.

' Girl, don't make any rash moves. Ignore them'.

His voice was actually soothing to her and she ignored the treatment she was receiving. Once she came to Ruben's call she stood outside a pristine wooden door. The hall seemed so much nicer and brighter and Izzy peered through a crack in the door.

She could see the entire classroom was large, with seats alternating on a lower level to a higher level. The classroom was well-designed and Izzy could see some blue clothed and a few green clothed students.

Ruben's voice was calm and serene as he spoke. He was explaining how to take down certain magical beasts and the importance of maintaining your teamwork with your contracted beast.

The class was ended and the students left. Izzy stood at the side out of their way.

" I heard the new professor is so powerful" a girl in a blue uniform smiled. A boy butted in, "They say he's the youngest Ancient level mage ever!".

" No there was someone who was younger than him and more powerful" another argued.

" He's so handsome. I'm so glad they found a beast mage for us"...

Izzy then saw another professor walk in after the students she wanted to follow after inside but stood aside waiting for the man to leave.

" Ruben, how was your first class?"

" It was great Professor Mien". The man laughed.

" I'm glad, we should get going."

" Ah yes. But I need to see someone first". Ruben said.

" Someone?"

" Yes ahh an important friend"

Izzy smiled the only person he could be talking about was her.

" She's in Professor Lam's class".

Izzy couldn't see the man's face but heard the contempt in his voice.

" Ruben we should go. Forget about that friend of yours. Professor Lam is a good teacher so there's no need to worry. Also, you can see her later but now we need to go to the meeting."

Izzy almost choked hearing Professor Lam being referred to as a 'good' teacher. The man was absolutely psychotic and abusing his students.

" But-"

" Aish, don't worry let's go".

Izzy moved aside and watched as Ruben who was wearing the same blue robe and Professor Mien walk out.

She called out to him.

" Ruben!"