A Sign of Godhood

I entered the classroom like normal, of course, that didn't mean what proceeded was normal. Instead of the fuss I would normally get from some people, namely Hasrem, I just got stares. Most stares were just observing me, maybe they were trying to get something out of watching my movement, not a bad idea in the sense of it, but for my type of fighting it wouldn't help much. What I was most interested in were three of the twelve or so eyes looking at me.

One was happy to see me, like a light found in a pit of darkness. It looked at me fondly, like a good friend returning from a tough battle. But it was also expectant at the same time. This gaze belonged to Capcis.

Another that stood out was the gaze I got from Hasrem. She looked at me in a questioning gaze, no, I would call it wonder more than anything. Like she had a question but didn't care enough to ask it right now. Instead, she continued to organize her desk, moving papers around and preparing for today's lesson.

The final gaze was one of confusion. It was one that tried to peer into my very soul. One that asked the question, "How are you the way you are?" It wasn't derogatory though, it was a question of substance. One where the answer would be used for their own self-reflection. This was the gaze of the man I beat up last night and stole a bit of Talent from. It was Spiravit.

I wasn't sure what to think about this. It was so strange. I haven't known Spiravit for a while, but I was good enough at reading people to know this look was extremely out of character for him. Even with the death of Pulchra, why would that change how he looked at me? I did nothing to him except toss him around a bit yesterday. So why was it that instead of looking at me with hatred like normal, he looked at me as an example of how to look at himself? I couldn't think of an answer. I didn't have enough clues yet. I would just have to get more when I visit him again tomorrow night. It wasn't as though I was concerned with his well-being, it was more of me having a bad feeling about the whole thing, and after living for a while, you learn to trust that feeling more than yourself.

But I couldn't do anything about it for now, so I would continue to let him observe. Instead, I was more interested in Capcis' reaction to my entrance. I didn't do much besides manipulate her emotional attitude, so why was she looking at me so fondly? It's not like it could be explained as a crush, she didn't have that sparkle in her eyes. Maybe... it was a sort of abandonment issue? If her only close friend was Pulchra, and she died... then maybe because of her social anxiety, she developed some kind of close attachment to me?... I would confirm it fully after school today. If I was right, then that would be amazing. That was basically a free servant to do whatever I ask without questioning why.

I sat down in my chair and watched as students poured in. It didn't take long for the class to start, and it went by as normal. Hasrem still obviously had something on her mind, but she didn't let it get to her lesson and gave a good lesson on the history of the world. I already knew most of it with my self-study, but there were some things not recorded in textbooks. Like how the wood sovereign who founded the Jungle Lotus Sect of the Nine Great Powers was the most knowledgeable of all of the other sovereigns, resulting in the Jungle region becoming the most book and scroll-heavy of the ten Regions. Apparently in the Jungle Lotus Sect lies a library that holds infinite knowledge, but that was more of a rumor than anything. Only the powerful of the world knew the truth of that rumor.

After a two-hour-long history lesson, Hasrem let us out of the room for us to move to the Martial Arts classroom. But as she has done many times before, she pulled me aside as I was about to leave behind the crowd. But this time, I didn't let her catch me by the neck. I dodged her grapple and backed away a bit before waiting for the door to close as the last student left the room. The other students didn't pay much attention to Hasrem making me stay behind as it happened so often, so they just calmly left without much fuss.

I looked at Hasrem who had a question on the tip of her tongue but just didn't seem to be able to say it. I already knew how she worked, so it wouldn't do me any good to stand here saying nothing, so I decided to ask the question for her, "Are you wondering why I've been acting as I have lately? If so just go ahead and ask. I'm already used to being interrogated for my actions after Capcis and Beulus, so ask away."

She looked at me dumbly, like what I said was the dumbest thing she had ever heard before sticking her finger in her ear, searching for earwax, and said, "Why would I care about that? You just put some snot-nosed brats who used to never give you the time of day in their place. I heard the whole thing from a couple of guards at the bar yesterday. I heard that you strategically used the mass numbers of the enemy against them and beat them in a magnificent performance. Isn't that just the coolest?! A good revenge story never hurt anyone, plus it'll only bring long-term profits to the other students, so I really don't mind. In fact, you should continue giving them beatings."

She really was as dumb as she was smart. Being able to masterfully see the long-term benefits of constant battle, but her bent logic behind why she really supported me was a bit worrying. But if she really didn't care, then that just meant less work for me. Though, I still had a question on my mind, "So if you weren't questioning that, then why did you pull me aside this time?"

She blew the freshly picked earwax off of her finger and answered me, "Oh yea, Convir wanted me to pass a message along to you. He was sure you already understood how he was at odds with the L'Amour Family and is asking if you want to join our party that defies their goals. Of course, you'll get some benefits, but he doesn't want to put you in more danger than you already are, so they'll have to be more discreet. So, are you on board?"

That was quicker than I thought. I guessed it would take him a week of deliberating the pros and cons before asking me to join him, but he was more decisive than I gave him credit for. He must be really desperate for more firepower if that were the case. Of course I would accept, it only brought benefits. But I'd better ask some questions before agreeing.

"Hey Hasrem, what is it that the L'Amour Family wants?"

She looked at me, wondering why I would ask such an obvious question before remembering that I had only shown up at this sect about a month ago and answered, "Well, they want to change this sect into a clan, specifically the L'Amour Clan. No idea why though. This place is doing fine as is, that's why I joined Convir's faction in the first place. Don't fix somethin' that's not broken right?"

That was an interesting piece of information. But I still had more questions to get through.

"Specifically, what are the benefits I'll get, and what do you mean by, "the danger I'm already in"?"

"Well, for one, if you have any questions about anything you can ask the faction directly in the bar. Knowledge is power after all. Oh yea! He also said something about helping you cheat in the mid-exams. As for the danger you're in... I mean that should be obvious. The entire L'Amour Family is under the impression that you killed Pulchra, so they want to take your head. If they send anyone, they'll definitely be Stone Class. And there is a possibility they are able to get passed security, so you have to be careful."

I thought as much. If they wanted to have the ability to convert this sect into a clan, they would need to make their presence of power undeniable. So a potential murderer like me walking around scot-free was a big problem for their ideals. Murder was a common method for getting rid of problems, so I expected to get some unwanted visitors soon. But if they're stone class... I'll have to make some preparations.

"Another thing Hasrem, if you don't mind answering, I do wonder why Convir is giving me any benefits. Should his helping me not be killed be enough? It's not like I'm not grateful he is helping me, but I still want to know why." I may have asked this, but I was expecting her to dodge the question. Why would you want to show the weakness of your faction? But it didn't look like she cared much about that and answered me anyway, "Well, if I had to guess, I would say Convir is scared of you running off to the Neutral Faction. He wants to keep you here since he thinks you'll become a powerful individual in the future... oh yea, I almost forgot that you weren't born in the sect. The Neutral Faction is the biggest faction of the three. They represent the group of people who don't care about our struggle and are instead trying to keep the sect afloat even amid a civil war."

Hmm, interesting. That means I have some more leverage than I thought originally. I still had one last question. It was more of a check-up on how things worked with Beulus than a question, but I'll still pose it as one. It would be bad if Hasrem caught wind of my goals.

"One last question. If I do join, won't there be some conflict of ideals since I'm sure a lot of people think I murdered Pulchra?"

"Nope, after Beulus returned practically in shambles last night, he explained your situation. I didn't really care about it so I tuned him out, but it changed mostly everyone's opinion about you. You are no longer the friendly boy who still had a lot of lessons to learn. Quis, you are the man with questionable principles and methods, but a strong heart nonetheless."

She smiled, as though she were happy about my sudden promotion, and said earnestly, "I'm glad people are seeing you like how I do."

I nodded in affirmation before agreeing to join Convir's Faction. But as I was about to leave Hasrem said to me, "Oh yea, one last thing. Convir wanted me to tell you that he was raising the allowance just for this next week to 25 Dschungels for everyone's hard work. I'm sure you know what that means."

Tch, I sure did. That dean was quite the stingy one. He was telling me, "I need you to leave 5 Dschungels from now on, or else you might lose my support." I wasn't dumb though. There was a chance that I could ignore him and it was just a bluff. But could I take that risk? While I might be important to him, was it so important to give up a lot more money or give up on the growth of other students? I didn't have enough information yet.

I turned around and looked at Hasrem who was cleaning up her area after the lesson and thought, 'She saw me as that a while ago huh? But she still wanted to help me... Maybe this means I've already earned her allegiance without knowing. But I still couldn't say for sure. Should I take the risk and say something now? No. I would do that when I needed her for something and had more power to back up my cause. Right now, I still needed to turn Telferr on my side completely and get a feel for how the old teacher was fairing.'

With this in mind, I left the classroom ready to start part two on indoctrinating Telferr.

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As I entered the Martial Arts classroom, I realized why the students who were in front of me were standing still in confusion. The classroom had a much different scene than normal. Before it was a spider web of different environments and arenas for all of your sparing and exercising needs. But now, while the room still had a large portion of that spider web, the change in front of us was apparent. It was a coliseum. A smaller one than I was used to, but still one nonetheless.

This was peculiar. While most of the buildings I've seen so far have been similar to buildings in my past world, this one was the same in architecture and material. On top of the very similar magic system, it made me consider an interesting possibility, 'Could the creator of my world originally been an inhabitant of this world?'

It was an out-of-the-way hypothesis, with not too much evidence behind it. But this building is the exact same as the one in my world was too much of a coincidence. It was also possible that after becoming a God, the creator came to this world and spread his culture... but I feel like that was unlikely. This world was untouched after all, otherwise, I would have immediately noticed their stench. So it could only be that they spread this culture of their original world to their created world. This was the first clear sign I've seen of the possibility of becoming a God in this world. It's not like I wouldn't keep moving if I didn't find any, but this was a lead. Maybe the Wood Sovereign was the creator of my world? If so, I'd better go to the Jungle Lotus Sect eventually.

After noticing that discreet detail, my mind began to wonder about other things. Why was there a sized-down colosseum in the Martial Arts classroom? I could only think of one possibility as I stared at the menacing pose Telferr was in.

Telferr stood before the coliseum with her legs spread and a sword sticking into the dirt in between her legs. She held onto the stump of the sword as though it were a cane and stared at us, excitement in her eyes, "Hello my pupils. At the request of the Dean, the Martial Arts Class will be speeding up our course. Starting today, Martial Arts Class will be four hours long. Half will be dedicated to exercises, while the other half will be dedicated to learning some basic Martial Arts. Are you all ready? If so, get stretching, because we're starting with exercise!"

'It's as I thought. If I'm going to be stealing the resources Convir gives to the students, he's basically said that I better make up for it by making them stronger. I can use this though. He thinks I'm his subordinate now. Maybe he thinks that while I show a cool attitude, I'm still hurting from Pulchra's death and this is a good time for him to indoctrinate me. Maybe he just thinks I'll do his bidding for the benefits he's offering. Help in the mid-terms isn't something to scoff at after all... But he's wrong.'

I smirked a little as I stretched before Telferr who would correct postures every now and then.

'I didn't join him to help him. Quite the opposite. I joined him to use him. I'll gain the service of all the people he needs to go against the L'Amour Family under his nose while stealing his resources, and then once I'm the head of the faction with him just below me, he'll think, "I should have let the L'Amour Family kill him."'