Chapter 5: New Routines

A low bell rang out, echoing across the mountain that Sanum was built upon. Ten times did it ring, each one reverberating throughout the people’s bones. The tenth hour of the day had begun.

It started from a bell tower sitting atop the highest point of the mountain. Once the first bell rang, it would echo throughout the city as more and more bells joined in. Every religious institute held one at the top of their buildings. Every square in the city had a small tower in its center.

For most, it simply told the time. The tenth hour had started. In sixty minutes, they would ring again, that time ringing out eleven times. It would mark the beginning of the eleventh hour of the day.

For the students currently sitting in a lecture hall learning the basis of magical theory, it meant the end of the lecture. Books slid across the table as papers got put into bags meant for carrying. Their noises drowned out the professor at the bottom trying desperately to announce some last-minute details to her new class.

No one was paying attention to her. Instead, they were focused on a table near the front. There sat two men. One was known to most people. He was the son of the current Head Minister of Sanum. In all likelihood, if you didn’t know him, then you probably had only recently come to Sanum. No one cared about him. It was the man slightly shaking as he sat next to him.

A nobody.

No one knew him.

And yet he had managed to get into the “unjoinable” group. And he had done it the day he moved to the city from a recently established city-state nearby. That’s who everyone was curious about. That was causing excitement in the room.

The man sitting next to Nic, Sarman Chapman, quietly scoffed before standing up and quickly leaving the room.

Nic quickly threw his stuff in his bag, hoping to go after Sarman. He was stopped before he could even stand up as people of all ages, races, and sizes crowded around him, bombarding him with question after question.

“What’s your name?” “What’s it like living in a Rad-Town?” “Forget about Sarman” “What kind of magic do you have?” “Is there a special someone in your life” “What about your family” “What other classes do we have together”

Nic shrunk back from the bombardment. His mouth grew dry as he struggled to answer any of the questions. He didn’t know how to answer them, let alone what order to even attempt it in. Those around Nic grew larger as they pushed closer and closer. Nic’s heart rate spiked as sweat began to trickle down his face.

Nic was about to faint from the pressure when a clear, commanding voice cut through the chatter, forcing silence into the air.

“Listen up!”

Nic looked over to find the professor of the class staring down the horde of students around him.

“I know most of you have been attending this university and its sister facilities for lower education for at least a decade. So shouldn’t you all be getting ready for your next classes, instead of pestering someone who just started attending? Not only for your own benefit but also for Mr. Healstry’s.”

Nic was using the family name of his mother’s family. According to Ordwell and Aria, his mother had requested this herself. They all agreed to believe that he would be in danger if he used the Verilo name.

The professor’s words clearly cut into the rest of the students as they quickly backed away from Nic. Some continued to linger about, but many quickly grabbed their bags and left the lecture room. Seeing this, the professor sighed and walked towards Nic.

“Mr. Healstry, I believe I saw that your next class is Physical Training, correct?” She had looked at a piece of paper while asking this question before looking back at Nic. He simply nodded as his voice was stuck in his throat. “In that case, would you like me to give you directions?”

Nic had no idea where any of his classes were. So the professor’s offer was too enticing to pass up.

“I would love that, please.”

“In that case, Mr. Heals-”

“Professor, I can take him there personally.”

The professor was cut off by another female voice. This one, light and airy, compared to the professor's more motherly tone.

Standing next to him, appearing from seemingly nowhere, was a demi-human woman. Nic knew that Demi-Humans lived longer lives than humans, but even still, this student seemed to be around the same age as Nic, maybe a few years older. While the Sanum University did not have any dress codes, she was still dressed fairly nicely in a black suit jacket and pants. The buttons on the front of the jacket were undone, showing a white button up shirt underneath.

The face sitting above the clothes was nothing to scoff at either. A fair complexion complemented by soft purple eyes. Her long black hair fell down her back softly, but the thing that stood out most to Nic were the two raccoon ears peaking out on top of her head, as well as the bushy tail behind her.

This demi-human was a Beast Person. More specifically, she was a part of the Raccoon tribe. Nic had seen a number of them in the time he had spent in Sanum already.

“Oh, Mrs. Kiara, if you don’t mind doing that, it would save me some trouble.”

“It’s fine Professor, really. Come on, Nic, let’s start heading over there.”

The two women had a small exchange before the demi-human, Kiara, spoke to Nic while motioning for him to follow her.

Nic didn’t have a lot of stuff on him, so he was up and rushing after Kiara by the time she had left the room they had been in. He silently fell in line slightly behind her, letting her lead the way to their destination.

As they walked, Nic tried to memorize each and every turn but was finding it hard to keep track after the fifteenth or so turn. In every corridor they walked through, Nic could feel the gazes as people turned to look at the two of them. Some were directed at him, but the majority seemed to be directed at the demi-human leading him.

“Uh, Ms. Kiara?” Nic finally broke the silence after five minutes of walking.

“Just Kiara is fine, you don’t have to be formal with me.”

“Ah, then Kiara? Why did you offer to take me to my next class? The further we go, the more I feel like you’re out of place.”

Nic didn’t mean offense by his statement, it’s just that the crowds around them had gradually changed in certain ways. For starters, nearly everyone at this point had some sort of martial weapon attached to their bodies. Nic could see a wide variety in the people they passed. Swords, whips, knives, and even a hammer or two could be seen.

Secondly, there was a sizable difference in Kiara’s muscle mass compared to everyone else, including the other women around them. While Nic knew that Kiara could simply have lean muscles, something about her made him think she didn’t.

“You’re right, I don’t normally come this way. However, today I’m also meeting…”

“KIIIIAAARRAAA!!!!!”

As if on cue, a loud, excited voice echoed down the hall, cutting Kiara off mid-sentence. Running towards the two was a girl who was the complete opposite of Kiara in terms of looks. Short blonde hair barely reached her neck. While Kiara was slightly taller than Nic, this new girl was almost a head shorter than him. Kiara had little to no visible muscle, but the new girl had very visibly toned muscles. Her body was overall fairly toned and lean. The only thing she had in common with Kiara was that she had a face that most men could easily fall for, albeit with vibrant green eyes instead of purple ones.

But the most important difference was that this new girl was a simple human. At least, Nic could not see any visible signs of her being an Elf or Beast Person.

The one thing Nic didn’t understand about the whole situation was why a number of men around them had started groaning as soon as they heard the scream. It wouldn’t take him long to figure it out though.

“Ah, Sarah, good you- oomph”

While Kiara was trying to talk she was jumped on by the new girl, Sarah. In the blink of an eye, Nic was watching as the lips of the two of them interlocked. At that moment, Nic recognized the reason for the groans.

In front of him were two women with faces that could cause men to fall for them, and a number of them probably had. Unluckily for them, those faces would belong to no one except for the two girls.

“Ummm…” Nic spoke up, slightly uncomfortable standing there in silence. As the two broke apart, he gave them a weak smile and waved as a small apology for ruining their moment.

“Hmm? Who’s this?” Daggers penetrated Nic as Sarah glared at him, annoyance dripping in her voice.

“Ah, Nic, this is Sarah, my Fiance. Sarah, this is Nic Healstry,” Kiara used her elbow to prod Sarah a bit in her side. “You know…”

“Nic…?” Sarah continued to stare daggers at Nic as she inspected him. It was clear she already knew his name from somewhere. “Ah! It’s you!?”

Nic recoiled as a finger was thrust into his face, getting awfully close to hitting him in one of the eyes.

“Me?”

“You’re Master's new teammate!”

“Huh?”

The finger jabbed in his face turned into a hand patting his shoulder as Sarah mumbled something incomprehensible. Nic turned to look at Kiara, unsure of what was going on. Kiara simply hung her head and shook it a bit before putting her own hand on Sarah’s shoulder. Sarah’s own hand retracted immediately as her face turned deathly serious.

“Nic has his next class in a few minutes, let’s talk and walk.”

With Kiara’s declaration, the duo turned trio, continued on their walk, the scowls of certain individuals following them the entire time. As they walked, Sarah explained what she had meant to Nic.

It turns out that Sarah was actually a student of Yuuki Ito, one of the people on Nic’s “Team” at the university as well as someone Aria had known in the past, alongside Sarman. Specifically, she was learning how to fight with a sword from Yuuki.

Apparently, Yuuki was the top sword fighter on campus. She was even believed to be the top martial fighter overall, though she would routinely turn down fights and competitions if the opponent was using anything other than a wooden sword or knife. No one knew why she adamantly refused fights with anything other than these conditions.

“Ahhh, you get to have a physical training class with Master, that’s bound to be a fun class. I wish I could have that.”

That’s what Sarah said when Nic explained what his next class was. Apparently, similarly to how Sarman had been in his first class that day, Yuuki was in his second. He wondered if Aria would be in one of his two classes the following day.

They soon arrived at the field where practical martial training classes were held. Kiara stayed back as Sarah introduced Nic to the instructor for the class. As soon as she had passed him off, Sarah had run back to Kiara’s side and the two of them left together.

“So, you’re the new member of Yuuki’s team huh?” The instructor had a deep voice and very clearly took his physical strength seriously. Large muscles permeated every part of his body. Nic wouldn’t be surprised to see an eight or ten-pack if the instructor lifted up his shirt.

“That’s… Uh, yea that’s right.”

“Well, let’s show you to the locker room.”

The instructor led Nic to a set of two doors on one side of the room. The one on the left had a sign that said “female” above it while the right one had a sign that said “male”. The instructor led Nic to the right one and showed him to a locker that had been empty for a while according to him. Once the instructor left, Nic quickly changed into some clothes more suited for working out and moving before heading back out to the auditorium that they had been in before.

A large square, nearly 50 mer in width. Its ceiling was 20 mer up, giving plenty of room for activities to have vertical options. One wall, opposite where Nic had originally entered from and to Nic’s left at present, had a bench that extended the length of the wall. It was clearly there for spectating events that go on in the room. The center 20 mer square of the room was full of mats that gave little leave when stepped on.

By the time Nic left the locker area, multiple people had also arrived in the room, wearing clothes similar to his. Due to the weather, most had opted for shorts of some kind as well as short-sleeved shirts.

But there was one person that clearly defied that trend.

Yuuki Ito.

Standing near the center of the room, talking to the instructor, she was wearing baggy pants instead of shorts. Her shirt had long sleeves, though it conformed very closely to her body, unlike her pants. And to top it off, she was still wearing the same beanie she had been wearing the night they first met.

Nic walked towards the two of them, mainly wanting to talk to the instructor. A part of him couldn’t deny the fact that he was curious about what the two of them were talking about. If Yuuki was considered the best martial fighter in the entire university, what use did she have in attending a class like this one?

“Copy that, I understand my job for today.”

“Good. I’m counting on you.”

Nic had come in too late and was unable to hear anything but the tail-end of their conversation.

“Nic, you’re with me today. Let’s get to it.”

At some point, Yuuki had noticed Nic walking over and turned her attention to him. It seemed like Nic was not being given a choice on the matter of what he was doing today. He quizzically looked over at the instructor who just shrugged.

“Hey, I’m leaving you in her care. You two are on the same team so she has the motivation to make sure that you learn everything you need to know in this class.”

With a simple wave of his hand and that short explanation, the instructor turned and started gathering the rest of the class, leaving Nic to follow after Yuuki.

She stood before the final wall that was opposite the locker rooms. It was covered with racks of wooden weapons of all sorts. Picking up two wooden swords, Yuuki tossed one to Nic. Not ready for a throw like that, the wooden sword hit Nic in the head before falling to the ground.

“Get up. Surely you know at least how to swing a sword right?”

“Never used one before, but I feel like it can’t be that hard.”

Nic patted his shorts as he stood up. Turning towards his teammate before him, answering her question, he waved the wooden sword around. It was like a kid who had just found a large branch. His swings were wild, unrefined, and crazy.

Yuuki narrowed her eyes as a strained breath whistled out of her mouth.

“Fine then. Let me show you what you will be striving to survive…”

“Huh…?”

Staring down at him from above was the class instructor as well as a few of the other students. At some point, he had fallen to the ground.

“Arrrggghhh!!!”

Nic tried to sit up but was forced down by the immense pain swirling through his chest.

“So you took one of Yuuki’s signature blows straight to the chest, eh?”

The instructor looking down at him chuckled slightly before reaching down and hoisting Nic onto his feet by force. If it wasn’t for the instructor holding him up, Nic would’ve crumpled again from the pain.

Halfway across the room was Yuuki. She was picking up the wooden sword that Nic dropped when she attacked him.

“So, ready for round 2?”

“Yuuki, do you really think that he can stand another hit like this?” The instructor shaked Nic a bit, causing him to groan, in order to emphasize his point. “I know I told you to train him, but this was too much.”

“Tsk.” Yuuki clicked her tongue. “Nic will need to learn to be able to survive one of those hits if he is going to survive in this class.”

Nic heard the Instructor sigh at Yuuki’s response.

“Alright then, class, I’m changing your assignment for today. Anyone who lands a single hit on Yuuki will get full credits for the entire week.”

The entire class began murmuring as the instructor spoke. At first, it was excitement, but that quickly turned to suspicion. Most knew that Yuuki was unparalleled in her fighting ability among the student body. Surely there was a twist to everything.

“You can attack her any way you want. Nothing is off-limits. Attack her solo, in pairs, or even as one large group. You have until the end of this class to hit her once.”

The murmuring turned into a clamor as every person in the class rushed to the wall to grab a weapon.

For her part, Yuuki quickly ran to the other side of the room, away from the now-armed group. She turned to the instructor, fury in her eyes.

“What are you doing, Kingsley?!”

The instructor, Kingsley, finally let Nic stand on his own as he shrugged in response to Yuuki’s question.

“If I wasn’t able to beat you one-on-one at the tournament last year, I sure as hell wasn’t going to make the class fight you one on one. This way, they might have at least some chance to beat you.”

With those words, Nic and the instructor headed over to the wall with the bench and sat down. A gruesome scene was playing out in front of them.

“Since you’ve been on the receiving end of one of her hits, I think it’s best if you see it from another person's view.” The instructor nodded toward Yuuki as the fighting began.

While the class decided not to attack her all at once, they still stuck to attacking in groups of two to three people, sometimes even more. Each time, Yuuki was faced with multiple weapons attacking her at multiple angles. Each time, she used the two wooden swords in her hands to knock out her opponents before their attacks could connect.

Honestly, Nic was captivated by the entire thing. Sure, he wasn’t able to keep up with her movements. He could barely catch glimpses of her as she weaved her way through the class. But still, the points he did see, he could see the amount of work and effort she had put into honing her blade work. Even to his untrained eye, this was abundantly clear.

By the time class finished, not a single person had left a mark on Yuuki. The locker rooms were dead quiet as everyone sulked in their bruises, pain, and misery.

Nic quickly changed himself before waiting inside the auditorium for someone. When he finally saw Yuuki walking out, he waved her down and walked up to her.

“Oh, Nic, did you need something?” Yuuki’s purple eyes quizzically looked over at Nic as he walked up.

She was wearing similar clothes to what Kiara had earlier. A nice pair of black pants, slightly baggy once again, and a black coat over a purple shirt. And of course, to ruin the nicer image of her clothes, she had on the same beanie as every other time Nic had seen her.

“Yea, actually. I was hoping you could explain some things to me. If you are free after this of course.”

Yuuki nodded.

“Well, you see, I don’t know my way around here. I had to get help from Kiara and Sarah earlier to find my way here.”

Nic started talking as the two walked out of the auditorium. Of course, once again, Nic could feel the stares as they walked through the students standing around in the hallways. Almost all of them were filled with hatred at the woman walking alongside Nic.

“Ah, you’ve already met Kiara and Sarah? That’s good. And what classes do you have?” Nic took out a piece of paper that had all of his classes written on it and handed it to Yuuki. She only took a quick glance at it before handing it back to him. “Well, I’m in the same language class as you tomorrow first thing in the morning. So I can just lead you there from the dorm. As for the arithmetic one, I believe that’s the same one that Aria is in. Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

Yuuki quickly took charge of their course. Nic was silently glad that he had at least one class with Aria. And at the very least, he only had one class with Sarman. For some reason, he got a distinct feeling that Sarman hated his guts.

“One other thing, Yuuki… Could you explain the team system to me? When they were explaining it in the orientation it kinda got jumbled up badly in my head.”

“I’m not that surprised. Don’t take offense, but you don’t exactly feel like the smartest person.”

Nic internally clutched his head when he heard that. He knew it was true, but it still stung to hear from someone else.

“Well, here are the basics. First, when you join the school, either in the lower education school or this one, you are put into a team of four. You stay with that team throughout your entire career here at the school. These teams are like your family at the school. You share the same dorm space. There are always at least two members of a team in each class you go to. And if one member does something bad, or fails in some way, the entire team gets the punishment.”

Nic would need to be careful. He had a feeling that Yuuki was emphasizing some words because she thought that they applied to him.

“On the other hand, if one of the team was to do something good or outstanding, the entire team would benefit from it.”

Well, that was good for Nic, it seemed. Even if he did so terribly badly, he was sure that Yuuki or Aria, maybe even Sarman, would be able to quickly make up for it.

The tour had reached the lecture hall for Nic’s arithmetic class the next day and had turned into a walk back to their team dorms. The entire time there, Yuuki continued to explain the Team system.

“There are a few things that really help. If every member of a team passes their midterm and final exams for each class, then their slate is basically wiped clean of any wrongdoings for that year.”

Nic knew that would never happen. Of course, he refused to say that aloud to Yuuki. Most people from Rad-Towns didn’t even have a school. Despite that, S-012 had one, but Nic had skipped class almost every single day for years. Nic had no plans on telling Yuuki, but on every single one of his entrance exams…

The air between Aria and Sarman was electrifyingly tense. It had originally been caused by Sarman, who had been tensed up every single second since he saw Aria again since she had been back. But gradually that tenseness had transferred to Aria herself.

The two walked in complete silence from their language class to the team dorm. As they drew closer, Aria thought she heard Sarman try to say something, but when she turned to ask him what it was, he simply looked away.

When they finally reached the door to their living space, Aria went to open it, only to freeze on the spot.

“YOU DID HOW BAD?!”

A familiar voice was raised inside the room. Yuuki was yelling at someone inside the room, and based on the fact that it was their team dorm, Aria had a good idea of who was on the receiving end of those words.

Aria opened the door, letting herself and Sarman in. With the door shutting behind them, they looked upon the scene in front of them.

On the couch in the communal area, a girl in black wearing a beanie was currently strangling the boy beneath her. In her hands was a wad of paper.

Hearing the door shut, Yuuki turned to look at who had come in. The minute her eyes laid upon Aria she quickly got off of Nic and held up the wad of papers.

“Did you know about this, Aria?!”

“Those are?”

Sarman was the one who spoke up, as Aria already had a pretty good idea of what they were.

“These are his entrance exams.” Aria sighed as Yuuki spoke. She had known this was probably gonna happen. “That he failed.”

“Failed? Which ones were they?”

Sarman, confused as to why Yuuki was making such a fuss about a failed entrance exam or two, asked a simple enough question.

“Nic failed every single one. I was already planning on helping him learn at an expedited rate so that it wouldn’t negatively affect us.”

Yuuki was seething as Aria answered Sarman’s question before her. Everything she had said was true. Nic had failed all of the entrance exams. But Aria had already said she would help him. There was no need for Yuuki to get so worked up over it.

“How bad did he fail them? A couple of points?”

“His highest score, Sarman, was a 35.”

The room got so quiet, Aria was pretty sure she heard the people across the hall talking.

The passing grade for each test was 65. Nic had gotten at least 30 extra points wrong at the minimum. Aria knew that his lowest score was an 18 on the arithmetic test.

“35… A 35… HE GOT A 35?!”

Now Sarman was worked up about it. He grabbed Aria by her shoulders and violently shook her.

“THIS IS NOT SOMETHING YOU GET TO WORK ON BY YOURSELF!” He let go of her and turned to Nic, who was rubbing his neck while sitting up on the couch. “AND YOU! YOU ARE GONNA GO THROUGH HELL, YOU HEAR ME!?”

The next day, a rumor was spreading throughout the student body that someone had been screaming in terror into the early hours of the morning.