The Academy

"Isn't this kid too ruthless Merlin?" an old man wearing a wizard hat looked towards the old man who Sora met in the slums. Merlin rubbed his beard while looking at the floor, where the image of the two kids Sora fought was shown

"He is ruthless, but not a bad person. almost everything he did was out of self-defense, and the fact he was proven. The kid is from the slums, yet unlike others from the slums, he is different." Merlin said calmly while looking around at the 9 other mages who stood around in the circle, looking at the image below.

"let's go back to the first encounter with the kid in the carriage, he proved him to draw him into making the first attack, allowing him to act in self-defense. He took his money, but he could naturally say that the kid gave him the money as an apology. with this first move, he got himself money and got a reading of the strength of others. he also found out that we are not going to move to stop fighting, or at least not yet." Merlin said calmly

"When the servant attacked him, that was a killing blow. he waited until the last moment to dodge. most likely he wanted to see if we would act to save him when someone would have been killed, caught off guard. but since we didn't, he took action into his own hands and landed a heavy blow on her. now with the actions that we wouldn't act, what did he do? he took things further to test us, kicking the carriage driver, breaking that kid's arm, and following through with his words and breaking that other kid's legs." Merlin said making everyone stunned

"Now, he got himself a servant who is scared to death of him and would give him all the information he wants. he made a warning that would scare off anyone else from bothering him, and only those truly strong would bother him. he is not a person who fears danger or else he would be watching every step he made, he is sure more powerful students would target him, but this is nothing new to him. be it the slums or here, he knows the importance of struggles." Merlin said making everyone look at each other for some time.

"can someone like this become the hero you speak of?" Someone asked, to which Merlin nodded slightly,

"He isn't a bad kid, he just grew up in an environment that forced him to be ruthless. he wants to be left alone, but trouble comes his way. He wanted to reject my offer to enter the mage academy. he only joined out of fear I would have killed him due to how freakish he was. his parents threw him out because he was freakish, he was sure a stranger like me might just kill him. To him, he was forced to come here." Merlin said softly while looking towards the scarlet red-haired girl who was happing the two kids,

"I say we watch him for a bit longer than, but if I see him as unfit, I will have him leave," an old man with a sword said calmly, to which Merlin shrugged...

"but I'm a girl..." the silvered-haired woman said seeing the boy's bathroom Sora wanted her to enter, yet Sora ignored her, and she had no choice but to follow after Sora who went on to look around the bathroom.

the bathroom was no modern-day bathroom, it was something one could instead find thousands of years into the past. there were holes where one sat and went to work at, but at the bottom of the whole were some magical bugs that feed off the waste of others. the bathroom was huge, having 7 such places to work with,

as for the place one wash their hands, it was a bit magical, as one used magical energy-powered sinks. if you want hot water, you simply had to move a handle to the side, and if you wanted cold water, you simply moved it to the other side.

to dry your hands, well it was no problem as this was low-grade level magic, after some time, the water would disappear, leaving your hands clean and dry. the water was mixed with some other magic which seemed to have the effect of cleaning the hands, so soap was not needed.

"water your clothes, while you are at it, you can watch mine," Sora said calmly, stunning the silver-haired woman who almost cried. could she not have done this in the female bathroom? at least stand at the door and block others from coming,

with tearful eyes, she took off her wet clothes, but she left her bra and underwear on. although she was the beauty, Sora was not interested in such things, the last time he fell in love he was stabbed countless times over, and all over a miss understanding, although Sora wasn't the type who likes to live in the past, that was going to leave behind a scar which he would never forget.

Sora took off his clothing and got butt naked, the silver-haired woman was uneasy, thinking Sora might do something. but her attention was drawn away to another matter when she saw Sora's body. Sora was a 5-year-old body, she of course wasn't lusting over anything. instead, her attention was on the scars which covered Sora's body

growing up in the slums wasn't easy, Sora got into many fights, and many times he came out filled with injuries. Sure, he only started fighting once his grandmother died, but that was a year's worth of fights, and a year's worth of scars to show.

Many times Sora was beaten to an inch of his life, lucky he was back to 100% within 24 hours. there were bugs and incents that he slept with, and many were more than happy to take a bite out of his flesh.

Sora ignored her and went on to go wash his body, which was covered in a lot of dirt and stuff. the scars he had now were nothing compared to his past life, not his girlfriend stabbing him, but from his childhood...

"Tell me, who is the Mizunoken family?" Sora asked calmly, the woman froze for a moment but seeing Sora throw her a cold glare, she quickly answered

"The Mizunoken family is the royal family of the Sword King Empire, an empire built of swords... it said that the found once took the scales of a dragon and used it to form a sword capable of slaying dragons. form there, he up massed countless scales and formed the powerful armor which he called the Sword King Armor." She said softly, quickly trying to think of any useful information.

"that kid whose arm you broke was the prince of the empire, and the first person to use magic for a long time. I was his servant for many years, due to the fact I too had the chance to become a mage, I was to be by his side and be his teacher." She said tears almost flowing down her face. the more she realized she backstabbed her young master, the more guilt she felt. but she was too scared, that was the first time she ever felt so close to death, she was ready to die... she couldn't.

Sora asked many questions and she answered them all to the best of her capability was washing the clothing. by the time Sora was done cleaning himself off, she was done with his clothing and quickly gave them to him with shaking hands before finishing up her clothing and moving on to washing herself clean.

Luckily, no one came. but it was to be expected, with everyone coming, who would have the time to explore the bathroom? instead, they would be busy looking at the academy and being shocked by all the stuff the academy had to offer.

now, with the both of them looking clean, all put Sora who had ripped clothing, they headed out and went on to explore the academy, with Sora going over the paper which was given to him.

the first thing Sora had to do was to sign up, which was done by going to the office. the second thing was to wait until the sun was down, and they could pass the time by exploring the academy building, it had 4 floors plus a basement, and on each floor were up to 12 rooms.

this building was built to be able to hold over 10,000 people, even if there were several mages to fill it up. So, after signing up, Sora went on to pass the time, sure he got many looks thrown at him, but he ignored them all as he was more busy knowing where everything was.

it didn't take long for the sun to set, and everyone was called to the entrance of the academy building where everyone gathered to see the 10 strongest mages the humans had to offer, and standing at the peak of all humans was Merlin.

"Magic is still a new concept to the human race, while other races are born with the instincts to use magic, we humans have to create it, learn it, and pass it on. We humans face another disadvantage in the fact that some magic might swallow us For the past thousands of years, many mages came and gone, but many have been unwilling to pass on their magic to others. I want to change this." Merlin said calmly

"for the past dozens of years, I traveled all over the world to collect all the knowledge I can gain. and with this knowledge, I gained all of the magic ever created, and I have it all stored away here. the students who manage to enter this academy would not only have the best conditions to learn and grow but would not need to forcefully learn magic which isn't suited for them." Merlin said shocking everyone who heard this, who would not be shocked hearing this?

there were many types of magic, but the rarer and more powerful types of magic were not easily given to others. not everyone was a fire mage, yet the fireball was so easily passed around anyone could learn it, everyone had a talent for different fields,

"To enter the academy, one must pass the exam. due to people here being from all parts of the world and different statues, the exam would be simple. a survival exam. I have created a world where you all would enter, within there you must adapt and survive. there would be many poisonous incents, as well as powerful magical beasts. your goal is to simply survive for 1 month, once the month is over, those who survived would be able to enter the academy." Merlin said causing everyone's faces to drop slightly,

Merlin smiled before waving his hands, a screen appeared before everyone, showing them a store that exchanged money for items.

"money within the academy would be useless, so it's best you use them all up now for a chance to survive... I will warn you all, there is a chance more than half of you would die, and there is even a chance only 10 of you would come back alive. So for those who want to back out now, take this chance to leave." Merlin said calmly, making everyone's heart shake with fear, and many of them quickly step out, unwilling to die

Merlin looked at everyone for some time, before nodding, from the 2,502 people, the number had dropped to 2,190. but his eye twitched seeing someone amongst the people who had stepped out, his face darkened seeing how this person dared to meet his gaze.

confused, everyone followed his gaze and saw Sora who had stepped out. of course, Sora stepped out, he didn't trust this old man. anyone who would go out of their way to do something like building this academy was too righteous, they must have some dark side or something. who knows, the old man might have a magic that allowed him to steal other's bodies, and he was seeking the most talented person to take over.

Although Sora's instincts told him he wasn't a bad person, after being stabbed by the woman he called soulmate for more than 10 years, Sora had a hard time trusting anyone. who knows if this old man would go crazy and start stabbing him, at that point how could he fight back against someone so powerful?

to say the least, Sora was greatly hurt by the way he was killed. that was the most pain he had ever felt. he was cold now, but it's not like this was new. back in his past life, he was the same, so one could imagine how hard it was for him to fall in love, and the pain he felt after being killed by her.

Sora didn't need this academy to grow strong, he alone could do it. he was planning on leaving the slums soon anyways, he would have traveled the world and found a way to grow strong on his own. Since the old man gave him a chance to step out, he took it.

"..." Merlin looked at Sora for a moment before looking away, and drew everyone's attention by speaking of the rules, with everyone's attention caught, he secretly cast a spell that teleported Sora among the crowd, and at the same time had him unable to move.

{this old man is powerful and can read your mind, although your mind is shielded from others gaining any system-related information, you should avoid thinking of bad things around him.} the system said while Sora calmly looked at the old man.

'this old man is up to something, people like him are after something. he traveled around the world gaining all types of knowledge and is now sending so many children to their graves, and is even giving the wealthy an upper hand, I shouldn't have come. I should have dropped the latter and run. using underhanded means to keep me here, a shameless man who is willing to do anything to get the job done. he puts himself forward for the world to see him in a good light and has overwhelming power. no matter what, I don't think there could be such a saint in this world.' Sora thought, making the old man who can hear his thoughts speedless, but he shook his head before teleporting everyone to where the exam would be taking place.

'This brat is troublesome, it seems like I will have to force him to become the hero.' the old man thought helplessly.