Chapter 20: Morality.

Julius flinched his eyebrows as he looked at the answers Alseace chose on the test. He slowly lowered the paper and gave a sharp gaze at Alseace, who was reading the book. "(How can someone have 30% morality. Is he a psychopath?!)" Julius thought as he looked at the test results in disbelief.

"Alseace... you said that you were taught to survive. But are you really that heartless to let a person die in front of you even though you can help them?" Julius asked out of curiosity because he wanted to know if Alseace was indeed a psychopath or not.

"Almost all the questions on that test were ambiguous and unclear that it was impossible to give the right choice. I only chose the answer that help me survive," Alseace answered as he kept reading the book. "For example, that question you asked earlier. A woman was in danger, but it was unclear what made her in danger in the first place. Was it monsters? Or human? If it was a monster, how she ended up like that, and where she was that put her in that situation. If it was a human, then why she was in danger?" Alseace kept blabbering and asking so many questions of Julius.

Julius judgingly stared at Alseace and tried to put his mind in Alseace's shoes as he tried to think like him. He looked at all the questions and realized that most of those questions indeed felt ambiguous and unclear for Alseace.

"Let's just say it's from a human being, like a group of bandits. The woman is being attacked by them because they want to rob her," Julius said and looked at Alseace with curiosity.

"In a real-life scenario, I might help her if she's in Dasmein where I know there isn't a single threat to me. There will be a lot of people and places that will be able to protect her afterward. But if it's in another world where you don't know where you are, how the world there works, and especially if the bandits there are stronger than S-Rank Candidates here. I would prefer to let things go without my interference until I gathered enough information. I'm being rational because I don't want to risk myself fighting an unknown enemy," Alseace answered as he rested his left cheek on his fist.

Julius hummed as he nodded his head with understanding, and then he stood up and leaned against his desk. "So you're fine by seeing a woman being killed by bandits if it's in another world?" Julius asked.

"I don't see a reason why she won't give her money to the bandits. Nobody is stupid enough to protect their wealth over their own lives. Even if I did protect her and kill the bandits, what makes you think it would solve the problem? If they're just underlings, there will be another group of bandits, and this time they might pillage the area and all the people they saw out of anger in the future. Playing hero is more dangerous than playing ignorance if you don't know the situation," Alseace answered, and looked Julius in the eye.

"What if she needs that money to feed her family or to buy medicine to save one of her family members?" Julius asked.

"We can argue about this all night as you add more and more reasons to save her, but do you think we will be able to find all those reasons if we just met her in a real scenario? Let things happen and dig for information next to make a move afterward. That's a way of rational thinking and acting," Alseace stood up as he closed the book in his hands.

"What's the main reason for your way of thinking?" Julius asked as he rested his hands on the desk.

"I have a reason to stay alive, and that's to meet my brother and sister that are in another world. I have been stuck here for five years, not knowing how are they, if they're dead or alive. I don't know if they survived those bandits that slaughtered my town back then. I have to live to see them, and they're my utmost priority," Alseace answered.

Julius understood now the reason why Alseace had that kind of thinking and understood his situation. He decided to not pry on it and started the lesson since he had been paying attention that Alseace wasn't a bad kid or a psychopath. He also knew that Alseace took an interest in the book he gave him.

Julius taught him about morality, ethics, and the real purpose of becoming an Agent. To serve and protect the people was their purpose, and as long as an Agent could do that, it was more than enough. He didn't force Alseace to change the way he thought, but he tried to make Alseace understand and appreciate the importance of morality.

A week had passed since Alseace went to the Academy, and he started to get used to being there. He didn't need anyone to accompany him or someone to talk to since his only reason there was to study, not to socialize.

"Time's up, give me the paper," Julius said as he reached his hand to Alseace.

Alseace gave the test and continued reading a book while he waited for Julius to give the result. It didn't take a while, and Julius put the paper back on Alseace's table.

"60?" Alseace looked at the score on the top right of the paper.

"Yes, you almost passed the test, but that's not a problem since we still have months," Julius sighed as he walked back to his desk. "By the way, how are you doing? Enjoying your stay here?" Julius asked and sat down.

"It's fine. I have nothing to complain about," Alseace answered as he kept reading the book. "Are we done here? Can I go back? I want to go to the cafeteria to grab my dinner," Alseace looked at Julius with his eyebrows raised.

Julius looked at the time, and it was already late. He knew that the cafeteria already closed at 9, so he offered Alseace to eat outside with him. Alseace didn't decline the offer and went outside the academy to get dinner.

"I almost forgot..." Julius paused to wipe his mouth with a napkin. "Next Monday, all the students are going to do a portal training, and you're invited to join the course if you're interested," Julius continued as he cut the steak.

"Portal training?" Alseace asked with a glass of water in his hand.

"A portal special course and it's a hunting training. Since you're going to be an Agent, you're going supervise the students inside," Julius nodded his head. "That's if you're coming," Julius continued.

Alseace thought about it for a moment and said, "I don't mind. I have nowhere to go and have no plan anyway."

"Perfect! I'll put your name in the course later," Julius smiled.

They went back to the Academy, and it was already midnight when they got there. Julius went straight to the instructor's dormitory to do a bit of work before he went to sleep. Alseace wandered around the garden near the dormitory to sober up a bit after drinking wine.

Alseace felt a gaze pointing at him from the back of his head and slowly looked over his shoulder. He saw someone hiding in the shadows near the breezeway, and when he squinted his eyes, it was Cleo. When he walked toward her, he could see blood on her nose and her lips.

"We meet again," Cleo said with a smile even though her bottom lip was ripped a bit. By the look of it, she was punched in the face really hard.

"You were fighting someone?" Alseace asked as he pointed at his bottom lip.

"Something like that," Cleo answered and kept smiling at him. "What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" Cleo asked as she leaned on the pillar of the breezeway and wiped the blood from her nose.

"Went out for dinner with Instructor Julius," Alseace answered, and looked at the night sky covered with stars. "Do you need help with that?" Alseace glanced at Cleo touching her lips to check how bad it was.

Cleo stopped touching her lips and looked at Alseace with her eyebrows raised. She then approached him and stood right in front of him as she leaned her face toward him.

Alseace put his right hand in front of her lips and used Healing Magic. He used the Mana from his surrounding to heal the tissues on her lips. It was enough to stop her bleeding and the wound on her lips.

"Wow, you can use magic? How lucky," Cleo said as she rubbed her lips and she no longer felt the sting. "Can you do this one as well? I think I broke my nose," Cleo lifted her head up so Alseace could see her nose better.

Cleo thought that Alseace would use Healing Magic to fix her nose, but he put his thumbs on her nose instead. He fixed the nose and it caught her off guard which made her groan in pain as she cursed to endure the pain.

"That should do the work," Alseace chuckled.

"Thanks," Cleo said as she rubbed her nose. "Well, thank you for the service, I'll pay you with a kiss if you want?" Cleo stared Alseace in the eye with a naughty stare and an eyebrow raised.

"Where?" Alseace asked as he leaned his face toward her face.

Cleo was taken aback, but then she smiled as she bit her lips. She gave a little kiss on Alseace's right cheek, and then slowly took a step back and said, "I guess we are even now?". Cleo winked and walked away without saying goodbye to him.

Alseace could see that Cleo's face went red, especially her ears. She was flustered and she left hurriedly because it was too embarrassing for her.

After that kiss, Alseace was sober and decided to go to his room to sleep.