The Ignorants Are Scared

The Babylonian Academy of Magical and Military Arts had one of the largest private territories within the Italian Empire due to its high reputation among all centers of learning. For this reason, it was also one of the most important educational institutions for the training of Wizards and Knights who came from the best families.

To instruct youth in the Magical Arts, this Academy possessed various Faculties, consisting of Light, Darkness, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Thunder, Summoning, and Space. Each college had its own set of independent buildings where its classes were taught, had its own library, laboratory, training grounds, and housing district. Add to that the structures of the Military Arts section, and the entire Academy was practically a small independent city.

Bryan was a slave owned by the Necromantic School, which was currently considered a mere sub-category within the Faculty of Dark Magic. At first, this discipline was a faculty in its own right, but its constant decline made it lose much prestige over several generations. In addition, the young Necromancers had to work with skeletons, zombies, and similarly unsightly undead. For all these reasons, it ended up becoming the most unpopular school, where only those who could not afford something better studied and were even mocked by students from other more prestigious disciplines.

Thus the 'dead' slave had been serving the students of the weakest and most despised magical school of all during his years as an errand boy for the Academy. Not to mention his other miserable tasks, such as transporting corpses or skeletons to the garbage... several books could be written about the endless contemptuous looks and acts of contempt that he had to endure until the end of his life. Every day was hell for him.

Bryan followed the path in the memories of the dead slave and took a small side path that led him from the rocky mountains to a small gate reserved especially for errand slaves returning at night.

Most students were already sleeping, as the moon had long since reached its zenith. Since Bryan was using an isolated route he didn't meet anyone on his way back. He took in the surroundings around him as he admired the impressive stone architecture of the Babylonian Academy: gigantic marble columns on top of which rose magnificently carved stone arches that supported vaulted ceilings. It seemed that all the walls were covered with beautiful reliefs, although his eyes could not distinguish them despite the moonlight that entered through huge windows that he found every so often in his path. The whole environment made him feel quite small and insignificant. He was also very reminiscent of images of some countries in former Western Europe from his own world.

Finally he, after some effort, managed to find his way to the area designated for Necromancy students. But poor Bryan didn't own anything resembling a room, instead, he lived in a warehouse, a place appropriate to his condition as a slave.

The warehouse was filled with a myriad of items, most of which were discarded trash or ingredients left over from experiments. These items were sitting there waiting for Bryan to organize and dispose of them. The students often dumped their trash through a small hole cut high in the wall for Bryan to dump out before dawn.

The warehouse wasn't very big to begin with. Excluding all the scattered rubbish, the only other thing of note was a small wooden bunk with a pile of straw on top that he used to sleep on and which always ended up covered in a mountain of rubbish at the end of each day; because the students never paid attention to where they dumped their trash.

The first thing the young slave had to do when he was done with his grueling daily chores was to remove all the rubbish on his bed so he could get some sleep. And first thing in the morning he would have to dispose of the rubbish before another servant searched the warehouse and then went to inform the foreman about him, or he would earn himself a round of cruel whippings.

When Bryan entered these chambers that seemed more like a den of filthy rodents than a space destined for human life, his eyes misted with tears and he felt a deep pain for the unfortunate young man he now incarnated. How could he have survived like this for years!

The air in the warehouse was so stale that he immediately gagged and would have thrown up if there was anything in his stomach. The stench was so strong that he practically felt it clinging to his skin. Leaving the door open was of no use because the smell came from the mountains of filth that were dumped inside daily. And this time there was more trash than usual piled haphazardly on the small bed. It seemed that the students had continued to dump their waste as usual and hadn't even noticed that the slave was dead or maybe they just didn't care.

Han Shuo tried to push his way through the warehouse, but even taking a few steps was quite an arduous task as everything was littered with abandoned garbage. He finally got to the bed and was about to clean it, as the deceased always did when he suddenly stopped dead as he clenched his fists.

"I will not resign myself to living like this!"

As that thought formed in his mind a burst of rage erupted from his heart. At first, it was only mild anger, but the Magical Essence within him seemed to react to his anger and began to move rapidly throughout his body, magnifying that emotion until he felt as if a volcano erupted deep within him, wanting to spew forth pieces of his heart from his chest. Finally, Bryan fiercely proclaimed

"The birds in the sky, beasts on the earth, and fish in the water have happier destinies than this! And having more soul... DO I HAVE LESS DIGNITY?! I'm not that weak Bryan! I will not tolerate this! Bryan oh Bryan! You were denied a place to rest, you were denied any form of appreciation! You didn't even have a simple burial! The most elementary of the privileges of a human being! What law, justice, or reason could these soulless wizards have to allow this?! But it is thanks to your body that I can live again! It is thanks to your death that I have another opportunity to rebuild my destiny! So at least let me honor your memory by helping you punish Lisa! "

In his current state, he couldn't realize he was behaving abnormally. His way of being was usually pusillanimous and he would never have considered risking doing something so dangerous on the mere impulse of a sudden idea, no matter how many reasons he had for it. The original Han Shuo hardly dared to brood on bad thoughts as he lacked the courage to try to carry them out.

He quickly left the warehouse and headed towards the female quarters. In the silence of the night, he crept forward until he reached the bedrooms. The unfortunate slave had often cleaned these buildings, so he was quite familiar with the area. Of course, he also knew where Lisa lived.

The Necromantic School had far fewer students than the other disciplines, so each student was assigned their own quarters. Each room was quite spacious and had all the implements you might need to meet your daily needs. This was heaven compared to the hovel Bryan lived in.

Lisa was staying on the second floor, and Han Shuo was not allowed to enter the building at night. The good thing was that there was a big tree growing near her window. So he stuck his body to the trunk and started climbing using the branches for support like a skinny monkey. He could look out the window if he stood on his toes.

When Bryan saw that the window was open he experienced that euphoria of having the luck of his side for revenge, an emotion that until then he had not known. He got up and looked out. The young witch had decorated her room with pastel colors that created a pretty nice atmosphere. Multitudes of fluffy and adorable stuffed animals were everywhere, resting in mounds on the rugs or in rows on the furniture.

His nose caught a light perfumed scent that his current body was not used to making him hesitate involuntarily. He hadn't anticipated that Lisa, who was so infamous for her harsh and angry nature, could decorate her room in such a feminine way. When he looked closer, he could see some pink fabric curtains in the corner of the room, which were probably a canopy to cover her bed.

He couldn't expect a positive outcome in a direct fight against a magician and he knew it, but he had a plan prepared. He took out a small bottle with a broken cap from his bag containing traces of blood (typically used in experiments) and quickly dabbed it around the corners of his eyes and his mouth. Then he shook out his filthy brown hair to mess it up as much as he could. After finishing these preparations, he took out a broken fragment of some mirror that the late slave had collected from among the garbage. As he gazed at his reflection, he saw a terrifying face covered in bloodstains staring back at him.

"Since I can't beat this little asshole, then I'll at least scare the shit out of her! Then she'll learn her lesson!"

Bryan was smirking, quite pleased with his current makeup. When everything was ready, he climbed on a branch and began to swing near Lisa's window, moving back and forth constantly. He then reached out his malnourished hand to tap on the edge of the window.

"KNOCK KNOCK..."

The young magician was deeply asleep, but the strange sounds woke her up. So, she got up half unconscious, opened the pink fabric curtains, and got out of bed still barefoot. Her little porcelain white feet walked slowly on a rug made of animal skin. Under the soft rays of the moon, her five fingers were quite adorable.

Lisa was slightly younger than the late slave and she was the daughter of a noble house. Bryan couldn't help noticing that she was an extremely beautiful young woman, even considering the fact that she had murdered the original owner of her new body: She had a beautiful face adorned with long, silky blonde hair, a height of 162 cm that it made her slightly taller than himself, her eyebrows were delicately arched, she had an elegant nose and seductive red lips.

Dressed in adorable pajamas, Lisa didn't look as scary as the late slave had always made her out to be, though that might be because she was still half asleep. After she got out of bed, the young woman instinctively looked toward the source of the sound… Then she saw a familiar, blood-smeared face staring back at her with a blank, lifeless stare, thick chunks of the foul red liquid, now half-dried, smearing from its eyes and nose. A malnourished body swaying from side to side in the window.

"Ahhhh!..."

Her startled scream echoed through the corridors of the women's dormitory.

Bryan was smirking as he thought 'This time I'm going to scare you until you faint. or maybe scared to death.' His expression became more and more chilling as those cruel thoughts grew inside him. After staring at the window for a while, he decided to complete the act by rolling his eyes and swaying harder.

With his eyes rolled up, he could no longer see Lisa clearly. But her room had fallen silent after the initial terrified scream, and she continued to do so despite the gradual change in Bryan's expression.

"Probably this damn witch has passed out," Bryan thought. Then his ears began to pick up the sounds of frightened screams along with the swearing of other students from the necromancer school who had been awakened by the scandal and were starting to pour out of their rooms. "I better leave her while I can, otherwise, I could be in a world of pain if they catch me."

Just as he began to reverse his eye position, incredible pain spread across his face from the bridge of his nose. Immediately after, another intense pain surprised him at the top of his head and he couldn't help but fall from the tree. The impact against the ground was so intense that it made him lose his breath along with his senses for a long time, but when he woke up he wished he hadn't, because he felt like the wounds on his body that had not yet healed were opening up again now.

A short time later, a rain of merciless kicks and punches fell on him, while a voice shouted furiously

"Damn slave, it seems that you finally developed something of value! But it looks like your brain has rotted away! I am a Necromancer, you fool! I spend every day studying skeletons and corpses! Were you really stupid enough to think you could scare me by pretending to be a ghost?! Looks like I have to remind you who I am! Did you think that a genius student like me would be unable to tell the difference between a body with a soul and an undead?!"

Although the beating hurt, what bothered Bryan the most at the moment was his self-love for him. Apparently, the foolish slave, who spent years as an errand boy for the school of necromancy, never bothered to find out any details about the master wizards' activities from him. This first time he mustered up his courage to do something bad, he ended up making a fool of himself, badly hurt and getting beaten up by a girl.

"Necromancy! Can that magic determine the nature of spirits? So there is definitely utility in it! It seems like I have a lot to learn if I'm going to survive in this world, otherwise, I might end up losing my new life before I start it."

While Lisa kicked her out more, Bryan continued to think at full speed as he tried to get over the pain. The evil magic that Chu Cang Lan had mastered contained the word "demon", while the necromancy did not sound like very benevolent magic either. What would happen if he trained in both disciplines at the same time? Would there be a conflict between the two magics or would they grow stronger together?