Chapter 9 Haze of forgetfulness.

Masato was the last to receive his equipment and that meant that the student's trip to the armory was finished, so Mr.Lucas called backed the students; who were scattered around the armory.

"Everyone, gather here in five minutes! You don't have more than that. We still need to assign every one of you to your future roles soon."

Everyone soon gathered in-front of Mr.Lucas and everyone went towards the exit with Mr.Lucas taking the lead.

Then upon reaching it Mr.Lucas stood before it facing the students.

Mr.Lucas looked at every student a with a solemn tone he added.

"Now this door will lead you all to different places; some will be warped to the area where most combat oriented students and teachers are gathered, some will be warped observatory, some will be sent a place where various technomancers are gathered, and so-on so forth. Although, you can choose to change your sector if you want."

"Now, I'll call out names one by one and tell which sections you're assigned to."

"No.1 Elicia Welsh, you now will be sent to the combat oriented sector. Are you fine with that?"

"Yes sir."Elicia answered without hesitation.

"Alright, you can go ahead now."

Mr.Lucas then pointed towards the door and elicia disappeared inside it.

"No.2 Hellen you are also assigned in the same sector." And mr.Lucas didn't say any other thing because everyone could see that Hellen was quite happy with it.

"You may go now." After Mr.Lucas gave her the go Hellen practically rushed towards the gate, soon

disappearing inside. 

"No.2 mark stein, you are assigned to the technomancy sector. Do you have any objection to this?" asked Mr.Lucas probably knowing the answer already. 

"Yessir. No! I mean, no sir. I don't have any objection!" replied mark -- clearly flustered.

"Then you may go now"

Similarly, others also went through the door one by one;

"No.5 Gilbert Eisen, you are assigned to magic department."

"No.11 Yoru. You are assigned to the observatory."

Then after a not-so-long wait it was Masato's turn

"No.13 Masato, you were originally assigned to the magic sector, but now you will be warped to the combat sector. Do you have any objection to this?"

' Objection?' Masato had none.

In fact, Masato was surprised that he had been assigned to magic sector before, and he could guess why...

"It's probably due to my mana pool...they probably wanted to make me a mana charger or something..." Masato internally scoffed.

"No sir, I have none. In fact, I'm glad that I was sent to combat sector; I have to get used to facing those abominations anyway" Masato replied with a shrug.

"Then you may go, Masato" Mr.Lucas didn't seem too happy with his decision as he knew that Masato was that good in combat situation even though he may have a very big mana pool for his age and one of the rare affinity.

"Mana pool and affinity aren't everything."

This was what Mr.Lucas used to repeatedly say to the students when in class and Masato knew that too as he vividly remembered his dad saying stuffs like this back then...

With somber mood due to remembering his dad Masato trudged off towards the door, from which he felt a familiar pull at something inside him...

 He felt a pull at his 'soul' or whatever it was...this pull was something that Masato had always felt when something big was going to happen...like his dad missing or when he had first arrived at this academy...

Suddenly feeling a sense of foreboding Masato prepared for whatever the heck that was going to happen and entered the door, and felt the familiar sensation of getting warped to another place...

Masato felt the familiar feeling being warped to another place, and it would be a lie if he said that he didn't like it...no, he always felt a repulsive feeling from inside him every time he warped to different place.

And as soon as the came out from a different warp point he felt the sun prick his skin and with narrowed eyes he looked at where he had come - which took sometime, but his eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness, and he noticed that he was in a very barren place with sands all over him. 'Am I in a desert or what...' Masato thought after seeing sand all over the direction.

"Yep, you're in a desert."

Someone said with a bored tone as if they had read his mind.

"Huh..." Masato was startled by the source of the sound...it was a person wearing googles which looked quite big for the person wearing it- it was a girl with short brown hair wearing light armor over her petite body. There was also a black badge of the academy attached to her.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Masato asked the girl, wondering if she was a psychic...

"Because everyone and their mother has been repeating the same stuff over and over again after coming out of the gate. That's WHY." The girl said with dead face.

"Oh...then well, where is this place though? And may I ask why you're so annoyed?" Masato asked warily. This senior seemed to have short fuse…so he had to be careful.

"Huh... That's new...nobody before you asked me that question. Hah!"

"Which one? About where this place is?" Masato asked with raised brows.

"Nope, about why In the seven realms that I'm here in this heat standing in front of a gate where people ask me same question again and again! And this place is a separate dimension created by one of the professors, and they had to make it a desert of all things."

"Anyway, Thanks for asking. I needed to do that. Now, you have to go straight to north, and you'll see a camp made by the academy - that's where you'll have to go."

"You mean THAT 'rock'?" Masato asked incredulously... the 'rock' that the senior was pointing to was a god-damn hill, and it was kilometers away.

 "Yep, and don't ask me why it's so far away. I'm not allowed to tell you."

 "Huh? Why? Is this some kind of secret test or something...?" Masato asked with a frown.

 "What? No, no, it's not like that!" The little senior vehemently refused his claims, but even an idiot could tell that she was lying.

 "Hehe, so this really is a secret test. But what are they even testing?" 

 "Didn't I said that this is NOT a secret test?" The little senior shouted.

"Okay, okay, calm down. This is not a secret test, okay?" Masato said while raising his hands in defeat.

"Hmph! Didn't I say to you before? Now go away from here." The senior said with head high.

"Okay, but you don't have to register anything about me or something?" Masato asked while still looking faraway at the hill.

The senior then gasped with wide eyes.

"Shit! Thanks for reminding me! No! You WERE the one who made me forget." Then she started to fuss with her communicator and asked after a few seconds.

"Masato, Royal class first year - right?"

"Yep, and what's your name by the way?"

"Why do you even need that? Leave it, it's Luna."

"Now go away from here." She yelled and pushed Masato forward.

" You didn't have to push you know? Let me prepare at least."

"You've got five minutes that's it." Then the senior sat in the chair beside the gate.

Masato then equipped the [crossbow of doom] in his right hand, followed by the [ring of salvation] in the same hand.

Then he did something strange; he sat cross-legged on the hot sand while cursing, which got Luna's attention who was secretly looking at him through the corner of her eyes. Luna guessed that this was some kind of ritual warriors did before a big event, so she lost interest after a minute...only to open her eyes wide when she felt intense spiritual pressure coming from Masato direction making her goosebumps all over her body, thankfully, it had no effect on her soul sea.

Luna couldn't see what Masato was doing since he was facing away from her but the pressure she felt made her believe that Masato had taken out a very powerful item as this amount of spiritual pressure wasn't possible with him being Rank-E warrior...

Meanwhile, Masato was sweating bullets from the heat while his ass was heating up. He had currently placed his left hand on his heart with eyes closed trying to feel something intangible in his heart...something that was placed there years ago by his dad.

The pressure increased even more, and Luna contacted someone in hurry, then a holographic video of a woman with ocean blue hair appeared...

"Miss Cordelia! I've got a situation here in section 7!" Luna shouted in panic.

|"Section 7? Wasn't that for the first years...? What happened there?" |Cordelia asked with a frown.

"Um...a student named Masato suddenly started to meditate...then I felt a suffocating spiritual pressure from him, making me unable to approach him." Luna said while glancing at Masato.

'Masato...? Meditation... ? Is it... ?' Cordelia thought after hearing Luna's words.

|"Luna, you don't need to worry about what he's doing. I know what he's up to. " |Cordelia said with a smile.

"But..." 

|Hah...Luna, he's not doing anything dangerous and this is known by other professors too. Plus you should look at him again.|

Luna looked at Masato who was currently looking at the holographic image with a knowing smile, and she also noticed the lack of spiritual pressure. Masato had a sword strapped at his side. At least that's what it looked like to her after seeing a handle and hilt with the blade inside the scabbard.

"How's it going Ms.Cordelia?" Masato said while waving.

|See? It was nothing serious.| Ms. Cordelia said with a chuckle.

Luna just sat back at her chair while shaking her head.

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Inside a room with lights so dim that people mistake this as a horror movie set back in the old era sat two people sitting on a chair facing each other with a table between them

"Haze of forgetfulness." A calm voice uttered breaking the silence...

"What? That's impossible Artoria..." A woman wearing purple robes said while shaking her head.

"Well, it can't be anything other than spell, Madeline." Artoria said with pursed lips.

"Then that means...this invasion was done by other races?" Madeline said while clenching her fists in anger.

"I didn't mean that Empress." Artoria said with her usual thin smile.

"Haze of forgetfulness is something that can only used by humanoid races, isn't it Artoria? Then pray tell, what other did you mean?" Empress Madeline with a frown.

 "I think this wasn't done by any other races...I think we have a new player, Empress." Artoria said in a grave tone.

 "You're not thinking the same was me, are you? "

 "Yes, Madeline. With the appearance of both the haze of forgetfulness and the intelligent monsters, I think we have a new shard-holder or a player as I like to call them." Artoria answered with a smirk.

 "But isn't that quite a hasty conclusion? I mean it could be just a new type of abominations with similar powers?" The empress pointed.

 "Well, I know it as well, Madeline. But I trust my instinct more than any logic, and you know where it has got me; someone born on the streets to the Empress' personal advisor. Isn't it something directly out of a movie?" Artoria expressed with a low tone.

 "Heh. You're not jus my advisor Artoria, you're my friend as well. And don't think your reputation is less than that of an Empress like me. 'Artoria the void-walker'. You've got such grand title even." Empress said scoffing.

 "My reputation comes from fear and yours through benevolence Madeline. And I don't like my title, no one bit. Void isn't something I can 'crawl' much less 'walk'." Artoria said scowling.

 "I think it's good though...Anyway, you know what to do with what we discussed, don't you?" Madeline said with a stern expression.

 "Yes, I do. What we discussed here shall not be known by anyone." Artoria said solemnly.

 '"Then let's go and prepare for the inevitable."'

 Both of them said at the same time and vanished from the room without any trace.