Asphodel

Nathan grew up in the wildlands for as long as he could remember. He was taken care of by a frail middle-aged man who seemed to be injured by someone. He was always deathly pale and coughed all the time but he raised Nathan until he was eight years old. He was an interesting character in the wildlands. He seemed so weak that even a child could probably knock him out but in his eight years of living together with the man, he had never seen anyone even attempt to attack him. He also knew how to read and write for some reason and he taught Nathan how to do so as well.

But when Nathan turned seven, the middle-aged man disappeared. Nathan didn't know where he went or if he was even alive. From that day, Nathan lived alone in the wildlands. Normally, kids of his age would fight for food or better clothes or something like that in the wildlands but he was different. He always sought out strong people to fight with and he did that daily. In a way, he seemed to be training his fighting skills which was an absurd thing to do in the wildlands where even survival was difficult.

When he was eight years old, Nathan learned a fact. Human life was incredibly fragile and even worthless at many times. Nathan killed a man for the first time and the look on the man's face was imprinted in his mind. The despair and helplessness made him realize that a small piece of iron was enough to end his measly life once and for all. This led to a change in Nathan's 'training style.'

In the next two years, Nathan had killed an incredible number of people. His targets were always people who exploited others and enjoyed life themselves, in other words, the scums of the wildlands. Living in the woods for most of the time while being surrounded by dangers, Nathan had become a master in stealth and concealments.

When Nathan turned ten years old, his behaviour changed slightly. He seemed to be waiting for something. Something very important and that important thing came in the form of a truck. A man hopped out from the truck and took every single healthy kid of around ten years of age which included Nathan as well.

When the truck reached its destination, Nathan looked at the tall building and clenched his fists.

"Wait for me, Luo. Eleven years. Eleven years at max. and then we'll do as we promised."

Nathan listened to the man who received them and he wanted to spit on his face.

The reasons sounded grand on the surface but if someone told him that it was being done for the sake of raising elites, he would spit in their faces. In the ten years of his life, Nathan had learned two major things.

One, nothing was ever for free in the world.

Two, the weak will only get eaten by the strong.

So, he didn't even bat an eyelid when he heard the man say grand things like 'for humanity' or stuff like that. But he knew what the price for this treatment was. He only came to this place because he knew that the price he needed to pay was something he could afford to pay. As for Berus's comment on these eight years being the most torturous period of his life, he wasn't too bothered by that. Pain and cruelty was something he lived with for almost his whole life.

The kids were taken to their dorms after the brief introduction. There were seven kids living in a single room and each person got a small bed, a little closet, and a table. They were provided with four pairs of clothes as well.

Living in the wildlands, Nathan always carried a dagger with him but it was taken away when he entered this place so he felt a little uncomfortable without it. His roommates didn't bother with introductions that day. There was no need for that. They were living dangerous lives before and they had no idea about their current lifestyle so they didn't bother with trivial things.

Nathan went to bed early as there was training very early in the morning the next day but he couldn't sleep. He was too excited for tomorrow.

At five in the morning, a piercing alarm rang through the entire building and everyone woke up instantly. Nathan had been waiting for this sound for the whole night so he got up and went to the bathroom to get fresh.

Twenty minutes later, everyone was on the field ready for the training. There were eleven people waiting for them in the fields, three women and eight men.

Seeing that everyone had gathered in the field, one of the men walked in front and looked at the kids on the field. It was Berus.

"We have exactly eleven hundred kids here and eleven teachers for training this batch. Each of us will be taking a hundred students with us and you'll be taught by your respective teacher for a year. For the first half of your first year, you'll learn four things: 'Melee Combat', 'Ranged Combat', 'Language', and 'Assassinations'.

After half a year, all of you'll have a test on these four topics and those who pass will move on to the second half of the year while the rest will be expelled.

Now, let's start with the basic rules of the Asphodel. Everyone is required to be punctual. If you're late for any classes or training, you'll be punished accordingly.

You can only fight with others in the training area. If you're seen fighting anywhere else, you'll be punished.

You cannot miss classes or your training under any circumstances. Of course, if there's an emergency situation, things may be different.

Now we'll start separating you into groups and we'll move forward accordingly."

Fifteen minutes later, the groups were divided and Nathan found himself on one of the three woman's groups. She was called Julie and she apparently specialized in long-distance fighting. Julie was accompanied by two men who carried batons in their hands and looked incredibly menacing. She led a hundred students into the second floor of the building and took them into a hall.

The hall was slightly smaller than the one they were led to at the start but it could easily accommodate at least 500 people in there so it was quite spacious for a hundred ten-year-old kids.

"Okay, now that the groups have been decided, let me introduce myself. My name is Julie and I'll be your teacher for half a year. All eleven teachers are permitted to teach the students in any way they like so I'll give you a brief explanation of how our classes will run.

I'll be giving you a test once every month which will include everything I teach you at that time and the students will be divided into three grades: S-grade, A-grade, and B-grade. The students will be treated according to their grades for the following month. There will be ten S-grades, 20 A grades and the rest will be B grade students. S-grade students will receive individual guidance from me on any topic they want. That will be any topic, even ones besides the four topics. Obviously, I can't give personal guidance to ten students every day so each student will get two hours a day and we'll rotate everyone's turn.

A-grade students will get a special class where I'll focus on the four topics extensively and obviously S-grade students can join as well.

B-grade students on the other hand will not get any special opportunity so work hard since everyone has a similar starting line.

Of course, this is only one of the many benefits of being a high ranking student. As for what the other benefits are, you need to get a rank for that."

Nathan wanted to spit when he heard 'everyone has a similar starting line'. This was complete bullshit. Even he, a person who had never left the wildlands was a master in assassinations, hand to hand combat, and language. Assassinations and hand to hand combat were obvious since he lived in that hellish environment. Language on the other hand was taught to him by the middle-aged man of his so he was proficient in that as well.

So, if a person like him already had an edge over three of the four topics of the course, then the ones that have come from big clans would be even better. He had learned that out of the eleven hundred, hundred of them were from big clans from the empire. So, it was obviously biased but he didn't say anything. He never expected this place to be fair. So, crying about fairness was useless here. All he could do is do his best and not lag behind the other aristocrats.