13 Blake's Disapproval!

I arrive at one of the stops that Bria makes to drop students off. I pushed a Phoenix button that was on the wall, and above it--it displayed 'Call Platform?' on another holographic screen.

I hear the Magic platform rising, and once again, I am met with Bria. She still hasn't moved from her spot as the platform operator, which makes me a bit worried because I wonder if she even moves at all from that spot.

I walk onto the platform and stand right beside her—she then asks, "Hello once again, Mr. Kima. Where would you like to go?"

"Top floor, to the Headmaster," I said in a commanding voice.

"Very well…" she uses her magic to raise the platform. I spark another conversation with her again, "So, Bria? Did you eat yet?"

In her usually monotone voice, she replies, "That doesn't concern you."

I sigh and say, "Can you just confirm one thing for me before I go?" I arrived at my destination.

"What is it?" she turned her head and looked at me finally.

"Do you ever leave the school? Do you ever leave your post at least?" I asked two questions instead of one…oops.

She sighed. Did she just show emotion? Oh shit!

Her monotone voice lightened, and she didn't sound so strained either. She turned to me, and it seemed like she wanted to look irritated, but her face was somewhat stuck in her emotionless poker face. She says, "First off, you asked me to confirm ONE thing, not two. Secondly, why ask such trivial things? Lastly…yes, I do take breaks and leave my post when school is closed." Her polite demeanor changed slightly, and she spoke to me normally.

My worry went away, but it was replaced with curiosity—I then say, "That's good, I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for dropping me off." Her eyes opened slightly when I thanked her, and she looked away.

I walked off, and she says, "You're welcome…Mr. Kima." We depart, and I start walking towards the Headmaster's office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knock on her door…but no answer. I open the door myself, and I see that she's pulling out books from her huge shelves into other shelves—using her Magic. They're flying around the room so fast like birds trapped in a building. Quick and elegant. I better watch out before those books hit me. As I walk cautiously around, trying to prevent myself from getting a concussion. I successfully get away from the path of the flying books and take a seat at her desk.

The Headmaster finally notices me and quickly finishes up her task at hand to attend me. "Hey, Mair. Eliza told me you wanted to see," I wave.

She cleared her throat and spoke, "Oh my…Blake is the only student who calls me by my first name. I'll grant you a pass on that, otherwise you would be disciplined for disrespecting the Headmaster," she giggles a bit.

"Oh! Forgive me. I shouldn't have been so rude to our Headmaster…" I said nervously.

She laughed, "It's alright, I said. I give you a pass. Quite frankly, it makes me feel young again!"

She walks over to her desk and sits down gently in her seat, "But yes… I called you here to speak to you about your future here at Siren Academy." She looks at her crystal and brings up my profile and the report from the trials. "I congratulate you on passing the trials. Now I can finally finish your enrollment." I sat quietly, but I was secretly excited. Mair kept looking at my profile and said, "I see…the enrollment trials facility hasn't sent me their official test results, but they have granted me access to the information I need to complete your enrollment at least. How odd…"

I mention, "Arial said that they would be in by tomorrow."

Mair is swiping on the holographic panel and looking through my profile. She stops, when I mentioned what Arial said, she says, "That's odd indeed. Usually, they would send the results immediately after the trials for evaluation. However, this time they're delaying it. I wonder if they're slacking off, I ought to teach them a lesson if they are." I could feel an immense pressure resonating from Mair as she said that. "Even so, I cannot force them to speed up this process. Something must've happened. But from the looks of it, your compatibility with the sword is very high. Are you comfortable with the Sword Arts or how they say in your world 'Swordsmanship'?" She asked.

Should I mention that I can wield Pure Magic? Or wait until tomorrow…I'll be here forever if I do, I don't know what kind of response I'll receive if I do. I guess she will have to find out tomorrow…

I reply, "I've never had the experience, but it felt quite natural to me. I mean…I had the choice of many weapons, I just chose a sword. How can you guys tell that I'm not good with anything else?"

"Good question. It may sound redundant, but regardless of what weapon you chose, we can still judge if you're proficient with a weapon," she said. Mair then raised her finger in front of the crystal on her desk and showed me a screen of all the classes as a visual representation of what she was talking about. Swiping through as she spoke, she says, "Hence, why you were put in a life & death situation. If you didn't feel comfortable with using a weapon, we could tell. Just because a weapon looks cool to a person—doesn't necessarily mean they will be good at using it. We would take notice, and layout a few weapons for you to pick up during the trials to help you as a last resort—even though we are unable to help you in the first place…just letting you die right from the beginning would be a waste."

Finishing off her sentence, she cleared her throat and widened the screen of all the classes. It showed mini descriptions of them, with a picture of the weapons above that can be learned/used there. You can also see radar charts of all the pros and cons. She then speaks again, "Still, if you really want to learn a different class then what was suggested to you-you can come back here and fill out a form to switch classes, but you must come here within 30 days to do so." I nodded as she finished.

I say, "Either way, I don't think I will switch to any other class. How does it look for a substitute Pawn-Wielder to wield anything but a sword? It's stupid if you ask me."

"Ahaha, you aren't wrong about that, Mr. Kima." I made her laugh with a witty joke.

I start thinking back at the trials of how I displayed my comfort with the sword and the whole magic scenario. Embracing the idea of me using Pure Magic back there, strikes a smirk on my face. Mair looks at me and smiles, "That face tells me a whole lot. I will put you into the Sword Arts class then." She filed my records into the Siren Academies student archive.

"Am I all set?" I asked—I'm not in a hurry though.

"Indeed, you are, Mr. Kima," said Mair. She glanced at the time and it was 14:00. "Oh my, you'll have to start your first day here tomorrow. So, get a good night's rest and I'll see you tomorrow." I nod and get up to go back home. Before I leave, I say, "Thanks, Mair...seriously. It means a lot for you to let me enroll here at your school. Despite me being a mistake…." I bow humbly, and she tells me to go with a smile.

I open the doors and I see a certain someone coming my way. I start walking towards him; his face is as arrogant as ever…he carried a cheeky smirk, always looking down at someone. If you didn't guess who already… it was Blake. We eventually came shoulder apart and we both stopped instantly like we knew this would happen. He then speaks, "I heard you went through the trials and enrolled in our school, newbie." I try to act all calm and collected even though I wanted to punch his lights out. I reluctantly reply, "Yeah, I did. What of it?" From the corner of my eye, I can see his smirk fade away, and he turns to face me. I turn around as well but at the same time that I do; he raised his hand out towards me, the air felt like static, and in a blink of an eye, I get hit by a blue spark that generated from the palm of his hand. I get pushed back and hit the wall behind me.

He looks at me with a sinister smile, "Oh? So even a weakling like you can activate their own aura?" I get confused for a second, but I look at my hand flickering white. He's right, my aura activated, and I wasn't in pain either. He walks up to me and I'm scared for my life seeing the two blades he wielded on the side of his hips. "Nonetheless…that alone won't help you in this school," I glare at him, and try to stand up, but he yells, "You fuckin' hear me!?" He grabs my collar and lifts me up against the wall. I can still breathe but it's hard; I'm struggling to get him off of me, but his strength is absurd.

He got really close to my face, and spoke, "I heard all about you from Mair. You were brought here by mistake because of that air headed Sternbriar! Talk about a joke, and to make matters worse; Mair made you a substitute Pawn-Wielder! You're not cut out for this type of role, let alone becoming stronger because of some burden that's been forced upon you. What a half ass resolve! It's like it came straight out of a film, hahaha!" he laughed hysterically.

I tried to close my fist and release some Magic and fight back…, but the words from Blake stunned me. It was the truth…the cold hard truth. He wasn't lying when he said I wasn't cut out for it either.

My arms gave out and my struggling ceased. He's spot on….my resolve is just something I made up, so I could have the motivation to stay here and help. Yet, what am I going to fight for anyway? I never belonged to this world in the first place…so why should help them?

Blake smirked, "Hmph, exactly. Your resolve is as weak as yourself. If I were you, I would go back to where you came from and leave this realm alone."

He lets go of me, and I dropped to the floor—my back scraping against the wall as I fell on to my knees. I'm catching my breath, while he's staring at me, waiting for my next move.

But I don't have any.

I hit the floor with my fist, and mumble, "Damn it…" I reacted in such a way because I felt powerless and my will left as fast as it came. I'm so pathetic…

Blake then asked, "Clarify something for me. Why did you accept becoming the substitute Pawn-Wielder, knowing you wouldn't be up to the task? Also, why do you want to become stronger? Don't even think about saying because 'Mair asked me to' bullshit. Man, to man, why?"

I stay on my knees, thinking…and think about what has happened in the past few days. "I…" I can't think of anything to say. My head is clouded with negativity and confusion, but then suddenly…Eliza pops up in my head.

Her smile beamed through the darkness from within me and I can hear her thanking me from earlier. "Thank you, Kima. I guess it wouldn't be so bad to have you around after all." Her voice echoes within my head, and I'm filled with courage to say what I have to say to this asshole.

"I want to become stronger because I need to become stronger. Plain and simple. If the real Pawn-Wielder isn't here and I have to make up for it; what else is there to do besides that and bring peace to this world…?" I slowly get up, using my knee as support and I face Blake once again.

Blake then backs up as his eyes darken, and says in a mellow tone, "How naïve…" He turns around to walk away but finishes by saying, "That's exactly the kind of answer someone of your caliber would say. When the day finally comes when you have a proper resolve to fulfill the role as Pawn-Wielder, then… I will acknowledge you. But for now… cling to what you said with your life if you're willing to go through with this." He walks away and the suffocating atmosphere of anxiety dissipates along with him.

I watch as he goes down the platform with Bria at the end of the hallway.

"…"