'The Next Day'

Azrael was in the best mood. 

It was the first ever since he transmigrated. He went through his classes with a smile on his face, and he could tell both Adham and Caspian noticed because they've been staring at him since morning. 

They didn't ask anything though, they were most likely waiting for Azrael to say something about it but he was still thinking of an excuse.

'I still can't believe Eirian agreed...and he even joked with me. How lucky am I?' Azrael hadn't gotten the chance to actually fan-boy about Eirian because of the dire situations he's been in for the past few days, but now he can. 

He tried his best not to show it much but he was a big Eirian fan. How could he not? He knew everything good Eirian has done despite everything he went through. 'And he looks better than what I imagined from reading the novel.' 

Azrael, even as Zak, was straight, but he knew how to appreciate handsome men. To him, no one could beat Eirian's face even if he wasn't as colorful as characters like Valerian, Caspian, or even Caelum. He just had his favoritism. 

'I hope I can get closer with Eirian. Not only would it make the plan easier, but it'd be amazing if I was his first ever friend.' He thought, smiling to himself as he rests his chin on top of his palm. 'But I don't want to be greedy.'

Azrael knew that no matter how much of a fan he was, he had to establish boundaries to respect Eirian. As much as it would be great to befriend him, he knew how much Eirian hated the idea of being close to someone. 

Besides, it should be enough that he was allowed to be an ally. 

Yes. 

'But it wouldn't hurt to hope we could be friends.'

"Prince Azrael."

His thoughts were disrupted as he heard someone call his name. Azrael flinches a bit as he looks up to check who it was, when he realized it was Cassius, his Celestrian History professor, he straightened himself up. 

"Y-Yes?" Azrael had to clear his throat a bit because he ended up stuttering, his face a bit red as everyone's eyes were set on him. 

"As much as I'm glad you seem to be in a good mood today, it's such a shame you aren't listening properly in my class." 

'Was I that obvious?' He couldn't help but think as he forced out an awkward smile. As soon as the professor said that, whispers erupted all around them, as usual. 

"Every time I see the prince, I swear he's in a different mood." Azrael could hear some students whisper around him. 

"Maybe, he's gone crazy? I heard he stopped bothering Prince Valerian."

"Doesn't that mean he finally became normal?"

"Does that look normal to you?"

Azrael ignored them, not really caring at that point because they all whisper about him everyday. He could see Adham worriedly looking over at him, as well as Caspian who was beside him, but nothing could really ruin his mood today so he just decided to answer.

"I was listening, professor." Though, he was lying, he couldn't really say that he wasn't listening as well. 

Cassius chuckles quite sarcastically. "Is that so?" The young prince nods. "Well, then you wouldn't mind giving answering a question?"

'Oh. Now I didn't expect that.'

"Of course, professor." Azrael stands up from his seat nervously, his initial joy earlier decreased slightly because he didn't know if he would be able to answer Cassius' question well. He was starting to regret saying yes but then again, this was the first time in days that a professor had taken notice of him again. 

'I swear to God anytime they see me in a good mood or happy, they try to call me out. Do they dislike Azrael that much?' He thought referring to his professors. It could not have been a coincidence that this was the third time already. 

Cassius smiles and Azrael couldn't discern whether or not it was genuine, but the professor spreads his fan open then pointed to the chalk board. Azrael's eyes followed as to check what was written. 'Celestrian Lore?' He thought, tilting his head a bit to the side.

"As you all know, there are many variations of our empire's beginning, how certain things began and ended, so on and forth. One of our most popular lore that have quite a lot of text and ideals is how night and day began. My question is, Prince Azrael...what was said to be the real story of how night and day began from our history?"

A few silent gasps erupted around them. Adham, who was sitting near the front and was initially trying his best not to make it obvious that he was glancing at Azrael, turned his whole body around. 

Even Caspian whispered "Oh no." beside him which made Azrael very confused. Not because he didn't know it, but because he didn't know most people weren't aware of the actual story. 'I read about this in the novel. It's not a difficult question to answer.' 

Azrael smiles confidently all his nervousness washed away, not expecting to be so lucky getting a question he knew the answer to. 

Seeing Azrael's face light up made Cassius raise an eyebrow at him, but Azrael didn't let that affect him as he began speaking as if telling a story.

"Our world was created as a gift of an almighty God to his twin sons whose names are unknown but were referred to as the God of Light, and the God of Darkness. I'm sure I don't need to explain why they were called as such..." Azrael says with a chuckle as he placed his hands behind his back and continued. 

"The almighty God told his children to take care of the world as it has life. It had humans, animals, and plants. God made it clear that he had big plans for this world, so they must be the ones to watch it on his stead."

By this time, each of his classmates seemed interested in the story, but Azrael was mostly watching Cassius' expression to see if the story he was telling was right, it seems it was considering he looked at him in disbelief. 

"The God of light and darkness decided to rule this world alternately, as they initially did not get along well despite being twins, their powers were such contrast to each other that they could not stand to be together for long."

Azrael held out both of his hands which had its index fingers raised, he raised his left hand a bit higher. "During this time is where the concept of hours were also created as they decided to evenly portion their reign to twelve hours each. So, the God of Light had twelve hours."

He raises his right hand a bit as well. "And the God of Darkness also had twelve hours. Now, most of you are thinking that you already knew this story." He says referring to how Cassius now looked at him with a look that said 'Ah. So you DON'T know the real story.'

Along with others who seemed bored or disappointed that they thought he knew something different. 

"What do you mean, Prince Azrael?" Cassius asked with a hint of smugness and curiosity making Azrael mentally role his eyes. 'What is your problem?' He wanted to ask out loud but bit his tongue. 

"You asked me what the real story was according to our history, though that part is real...it's inaccurate because there are information missing."

Cassius' face drops once again. "Go on..." He says, his tone filled with uncertainty, as if he thought Azrael was trying to fool him. 

Azrael just nods then continued. "When the God of Light reigned, the humans are overjoyed because light illuminated the world. They were able to hunt, plant crops, and other things humans liked doing before, something like that." He waves his hands a bit, making some students laugh. 

'That's new.'

"But when the time came for the God of Darkness' turn, most of them were already tired, some did not enjoy the lack of light. So, they took that time to rest and sleep, leaving the God of Darkness alone with no one to speak to." Azrael frowns a bit as the story was getting to the part that he disliked the most. 

"This goes on for years and years. With the God of Light enjoying his time with the humans, while they slept in the God of Darkness' presence, but as the God of Darkness noticed that most of the humans favored the God of Light, even went as far as make offerings for him...the God of darkness had enough."

Azrael looks down a bit as his thoughts went to both Eirian and Caelum because he couldn't help but see their faces as his mind visualized the twin Gods. 

"The God of Darkness, tired of being unappreciated, skipped any form of confrontation and decided to go down to this world during his brother's time. Of course, most humans became disoriented and confused by both of their presence at the same time, so the God of light got furious, demanding his brother to leave his time alone."

'Ah. I really don't like this part. This part is the whole reason everyone justified their abuse towards Eirian.'

"The twins fought which wreaked havoc in their world, none of the two wanted to back down. It led to a point where even our very world almost ceased to exist because their power was too strong together, it affected the world...so their father, the almighty God had to intervene." Azrael lets out a soft sigh. 

"Seeing that his sons could not get along, even almost causing the world that he created for them get ruined, he punishes them both by turning them into the sun and the moon. They were never allowed to meet and forever stuck in the same cycle until their consciousness slowly disappeared and both ceased to exist but humans still recognized their existence till this time, mostly known as day and night."

Azrael finally finished with his story, he took a deep breath because he remembers the moment he read about this in the novel. It was from Eirian's flashback. He was crying to his father on his sixth birthday, wondering why Caelum was always allowed to celebrate his birthday in Aetherhaven, the Celestrian empire's capital where the imperial family lived, while no one even came to his party. 

'King Thorian told him this story, and said that the reason everyone did not like him was because of a silly mistake the God did, and that as long as he didn't become greedy like the God of Darkness, people will love Eirian as much as he did.' 

It was a small memory but it impacted Eirian greatly and taught him to be kind despite his adversaries, but King Thorian didn't tell him the whole reason though, Eirian had to figure it out himself as he grew up. Most of the people thought that the prophecy was a warning of the God of Darkness' revenge. 

They thought that before he completely disappeared, he made a vow that a child cursed with his powers will appear, and the God of Light was aware of this, he made sure a child would be blessed with like to stop him. 

Everyone used that story as an excuse to mistreat Eirian. It never made sense to him but until the end of his life, he was never greedy even when he found out that he suffered for nothing because in the end...he wasn't really the child cursed with darkness. 

Azrael shrugs it off, he knew he shouldn't be too sad now because Eirian had him to help. He wasn't going to let the same bad things happen to him anymore, not when he's around. He already managed to convince Eirian to let him help. 

And now, thanks to his knowledge of the novel, he also managed to avoid another humiliation. 

Speaking of...

Azrael looks up at Cassius and his classmates, realizing that they were all still quietly staring at him. He felt quite awkward because wanted to sit down but didn't know if he was allowed to. 

Though, the more Azrael stared back at people, the more he saw that their gazes didn't seem too bad like how he was starting to get used to. No, they all seemed more surprised. Still, it felt uncomfortable having all of them stare that long so he cleared his throat. 

"Uhm. Professor?"

Cassius, who seemed dazed, snapped out from his trance. "Yes?" 

"May I sit down now?"

"Oh...uh, yes. Good job, Prince Azrael. That was correct. I'm amazed you knew that, it's not common knowledge you know. I usually have to teach it to most of my classes. I'm very impressed." Unexpectedly, Cassius did seem genuinely impressed. There were no hints of sarcasm or anything negative.

Which made Azrael even more happy. 

"I don't think I need to explain it further since Prince Azrael did an amazing job. I'll just be taking some questions for anyone who has one then we'll head on to how magic began in our empire but first..." Cassius smiled as he points to Azrael again.

"Let's give a well-deserved round of applause to Prince Azrael." He says as he starts clapping, soon enough, the rest of the class followed. 

"I think this is the first time he's ever participated in class."

"That was the longest I've heard him speak and with emotions too."

"Maybe, he is becoming more normal now."

Azrael laughs awkwardly, not really sure what to do with the sudden positive reaction, but he was still glad. 'I initially wanted to give Azrael a good reputation on my first day and gave up because I thought it was impossible but...it doesn't seem that way anymore.'

He turns his head to Caspian who was smiling and giving him a thumbs up then at Adham who was clapping happily along with the other students, probably proud that Azrael actually participated. 

"Thank you." Was all he could say at that situation and then everyone stopped clapping, classes continued on with Cassius taking questions from other students. 

Now, Azrael was free to think again since they were now distracted but that didn't last long because he suddenly felt someone poke him from the side. 

"Prince Azrael." Caspian whispered, making Azrael look at him. "I have a question."

'Oh? That's interesting.' He thought as he smiled. "What is it, Caspian?"

Caspian pressed his lips together for a moment as if debating whether or not he should ask but after a moment of silence, he opened his mouth to speak quietly again. "If the God of Darkness was the one who attacked and the God of light just wanted to defend himself...Why was the God of light punished as well?"

Azrael was surprised that Caspian asked that but also, it made him think as well. He never actually thought about that fact even when he read about it. "That—I actually don't know. I always figured it was because they were twins but now that you mention it, it really doesn't make sense."

Caspian nods in agreement. "It's quite confusing but then again, they're Gods. As much as we have the prophet to thank for preserving our history, there are still things that could be missing or we do not know."

That was true. 

At the end of the day, was there any information they knew that was a hundred percent accurate? Just the fact that they based the identity of the prophesied children on their appearance should have alarmed everyone. '

'Ah, maybe majority of the people here are just that dumb...but come to think about it now. Eirian and Caelum are like twins. They were born on the same day, at the same time. I can't really fully blame them for making the correlation.'

It just annoyed him that they jumped into conclusions without a certain confirmation. 

'Ah. Whatever. I shouldn't be thinking about this now. Everything's settled with Eirian, and I've spent my free time being happy but now...'

It was the real Azrael's time as well.

'Before I forget, I have two agendas for this day. One, is to find out how I can get out of the academy for a bit to get Eirian's magical sword, then two, I have to look for the person who pushed Azrael and maybe I can trigger another vision or get some answers.'

Both sounded easy but something inside Azrael was telling him that one would be easier than the other.