We assembled outside the building at Hyde’s orders. I could still see she was angry at me, but she didn’t lash out. I was obediently following her instructions, as she requested.
She scanned over each of us. “Where’s Alford?” she asked Loftus. It seemed that Loftus had quickly become Hyde’s most trusted individual in this squad.
“He said he found a lamia baddie, so he went to meet her parents to ask for her hand in marriage.”
Hyde looked like she wanted to kill someone. “Why are some of you so incapable of following simple directives?” She looked at me when she said that. “He told me he would be here, and now he’s not.” Hyde’s fingers were twitching. I could see veins visibly popping.
“Most of us are still here.” Loftus tried to assuage her.
“Most…” She bit her bottom lip and drew blood. “Is that good enough?”
Loftus didn’t answer. He was socially competent enough to understand anything he said would only make matters worse.
“I suppose we’ll just have to move on. Follow me.”
Hyde took us closer into the large city. Just under twenty of us marched behind her. The walk was like a funeral procession. No one spoke. It was dead quiet.
“Oh, Loftus. I wanted to ask you earlier, but I forgot. How am I supposed to bring back my MP after I’ve used it?” I asked.
Hyde stopped. The rest of us halted our march in response. Her back was turned to me, so I didn’t understand why she stopped until she said, “You don’t even know that much?” The tone of her voice was terrifying. I couldn’t see the kind of face she was making, which only scared me further.
Loftus answered my question quietly so that Hyde couldn’t hear. “You regenerate your MP after you sleep. There are other methods like mana potions, MP regeneration items, Titles, and Skills. To my knowledge, none of us have any of those at the moment.”
Too curious for his own good, Thaxted asked Hyde, “Where are we going?”
Hyde curtly responded, “To the school you’ll be attending.”
Everyone in the squad was surprised. They murmured about the new turn of events. “For what reason do we need to attend a school?” questioned Selsie.
“There are things that I can’t teach you. Many of you are specialising into magic. I know nothing of the arcane, so you’ll need proper education to excel.”
Someone sighed a complaint. “The other teams get to do as they please. We’re the only ones with our schedules packed. We barely have enough time to do quests or kill monsters. This sucks. Everyone else is gaining levels while we’re going to a school.” The speaker kicked a rock at his feet.
Hyde kept walking but craned her neck back. “Levels aren’t important right now.” Her lips barely moved as she spoke, and her jaw was clenched tightly shut. “What takes priority is information. Understand?” Hyde glared at the complainer in such a way that they could not talk back. She swivelled her head back to the direction of travel.
I whispered to Loftus, “Why is she so mad? When we first met, she used to be so cool and calm. What happened to her?”
Hyde stopped, turned around, and charged at me. She grabbed me by the collar and lifted me into the air. “YOU happened to me! You refused to cooperate by not killing monsters and then committed one of the worst acts of theft seen in this city for a hundred years! In fact, not just you. All of you happened.” She looked at the whole squad. “Around fifty of you summons decided to leave the main party to go off on your own. You don’t listen to any advice. We’ve told you lot not to put all your eggs into one basket, but the majority of you still decided to specialise into magic. Time and time again, you heroes test my patience. I’ve just about had it!”
The group shifted their eyes to one another.
“I’m a royal knight, not a babysitter! We could’ve defeated the Demon King ourselves. We don’t need snot-nosed kids like you to do it for us.” She shook me in the air.
The complainer from before whispered to his friend, “Maybe she’s on her period.”
I saw something snap in Hyde. Her fury was quelled. She slowly put me down. She wasn’t enraged anymore. She was calm. I could see that, but there was a madness in her eyes. Her pupils twitched in rhythm with her fingers. “Who said that?” she asked softly. “Tell me who said that.” She drew her sword.
She started laughing. She cackled like a psych ward patient. “Whoever said that, I am going to kill you.” She stumbled in the direction of the speaker. “I’ve had enough of this. I’ll just kill…” She raised her sword and started charging at a random person.
The other guards rushed to hold her back. Four of them combined barely had the strength to restrain her.
“You’re dead!” she screamed like a banshee. “Maybe I’ll just kill all of you to make it easy!”
Everyone stepped back in terror. The guards dragged her away while we all watched in stunned silence.
The complainer was the first to break the silence. “Big yikes.”
Someone else said, “Holy shit, that was a generational crash out.”
“So, what do we do now?” I asked.
One of the guards came rushing back to collect us. “Follow me, heroes. I’ll be guiding you for the rest of today. The captain was needed on an urgent mission, so we had to take her away.”
“Huh?” Was he trying to rewrite history right in front of us? I supposed he couldn’t outwardly say that his captain was driven to madness by us.
Our new leader took us to the school and let us loose.
“You’re all free to roam. Choose whichever classes you wish to attend. You can leave and go out monster slaying too, if you want. I don’t really care.” The guard didn’t seem to be briefed on what to do in this situation.
“We can choose our classes? Don’t we need to be enrolled?”
“No. You are all considered to be heroes with the blessings of His Majesty. You’re basically VIPs. Go to any class. Request help from any teacher. Use this school to improve yourselves.”
I stretched my arms. “In that case, I think I’ll go to the library.”
“Oh, sorry. Not you. Everyone else is free, but you must go to a correctional class first.” The guard picked me up by the back of my collar. “I’ll take you there.”
“Is this really necessary?” I sighed. I was lifted and transported to a classroom.
The guard ushered me in. I entered the room to be met with a unique collection of students. Their ages ranged all the way from children to the elderly. “Is there no standardised age for this class?” I asked the guard.
“Not just for this class. It’s the whole school. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. All are welcome to learn. Everyone is treated equally here.”
“Everyone except for slaves or monsters,” I retorted.
A girl with long white hair and blue eyes approached me. “Are you a monster sympathiser too?” She took my hands into hers. “Is that why you’ve been inducted into this correctional class, like me?” The girl was age twelve, level nine, and named Newmill.
“Uh, no. I was probably put here because I freed a few slaves.”
The whole class turned to look at me.
Newmill inhaled sharply. “You’re that maniac that stole over a hundred slaves?”
I pulled my lip to the side. “I wouldn’t say maniac, and I wouldn’t say stole.”
“I’m amazed you escaped the death penalty.”
“As am I.” Hyde did say it was one of the worst crimes this century. I hadn’t realised I was such a big shot. “Anyway, you said that you’re a monster sympathiser? What do you mean?”
“The current M.O. of this kingdom is to kill all monsters, but I believe there are some good ones that we shouldn’t kill.”
“Woah. There are people in this world who have morals after all.” I pat her on the arm. “Good on you, girl. Don’t let the people of this world push you towards cruelty. And don’t let the people of my world do that either, frankly.”
The girl scratched her cheek with her index finger. “Thanks, but I’m actually a boy.” The boy continued scratching his cheek with his index finger. “Also, I’m a prince.”
“Prince?” I was speaking to royalty. I was speaking to the person who would one day rule this nation. I suddenly realised the power I had. This boy seemed a kind soul. If I could convince him that slavery was wrong, when he ascended to the throne, he could abolish it. Was I a genius or what? I placed both my hands on his shoulders which alarmed him. “When you take the throne, why not make it unlawful to kill monsters without reason? And at the same time, you can make it illegal to own slaves. Then you can create welfare services for the poor. After that you can pass a law to execute those who litter. Fine those who smoke indoors. Imprison anyone that plays music loudly on the train. If someone spits gum onto the pavement, give them a swirly in one of your black hole toilets. While you’re at it, just give me a bunch of money as well.”
Newmill’s eyes spun from dizziness. “Hold on, hold on. I’m 44th in line for the throne. I can’t become king.”
“What? How many kids does the king have? Did the queen give birth to octuplets or something?”
One of the students in the class laughed. “No. He has multiple wives, idiot.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” I tried to pull at my beard hairs, though my chin was bare. “So, you’re too young to become king, huh?”
“Young?” Newmill looked confused. “It’s not about my age. The highest level amongst us heirs will take the crown.”
“So, you’re saying there’s a chance?” I asked eagerly. “If we could level you up, it could work.”
“There’s no chance. It’s not possible, whatsoever. I’m the disgrace of my bloodline. My XP is little. I’m compassionate towards the enemy. My father, the King, believes me not even half a man. I’m shunned by my parents, my siblings, and teachers. In their eyes I am a failure. I can’t accomplish anything.” The boy was truly dejected. The judgement of others had bogged him down. I knew that my encouragement would be unable to surmount his worries. It would be like trying to save someone buried under an avalanche by picking up a snowflake.
“Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.” I pat him on the head and took my seat.
The teacher arrived. She was a short and timid looking woman who wore glasses too large for her face. “Please take your seats, everyone. I am your correctional teacher.” She flipped through some notes in a large folder. “First off, is there a Kesgrave here?”
The student who called me an idiot raised his hand. He had a sinister look about him. He was nineteen. His clothes were all black, and his body was covered in large silver piercings. “Present,” he answered.
The teacher said, “You’ve been punished for continuously graverobbing from the cemetery. Will you please stop doing that?” she asked kindly.
Kesgrave slammed his fist into his desk. The whole room shook a little. “I’ll do what I want! You’re not the boss of me.”
The teacher stammered, “I’m so sorry please don’t kill me.” She hid behind her papers. “Erm, next. Jarrow, you have been throwing buckets of water on top of people as they try to use the public bathroom stalls. Could you consider not doing that from now on?”
“Hell no! It’s what I live for.”
The teacher went through a list of all the students. Everyone had a snarky comment to reply with. Eventually the teacher got to me. She was on the verge of tears. “Yarm, you’ve committed an atrocious act of theft that has resulted in extensive financial damages. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
I placed my hands together and interlocked my fingers. “I am so sorry. I am terribly sorry. It was an act of foolishness. I hope that you can forgive me, teacher. I will dedicate my whole life to righting the wrongs I have committed. I shall endeavour with all my heart to do better in the future. Please know that I am a changed man. I will never do that particular crime again, in that particular manner.”
“You won’t?” The teacher was elated. “How lovely! I was worried that my correctional techniques might be lacking, but I see that my guidance has persuaded you to get back on the right path. My parents were wrong; I am a good teacher after all. You pass. You can leave, Yarm.”
It was that easy? I rose up from my seat and left. The guard who brought me here was nowhere to be seen. I walked through the hallways, looking for purpose.
The stone corridor was huge. To my left I saw a large open window leading to a courtyard. A student was raising his hands towards a training dummy. I jumped through the window and approached the boy for directions.
“Hotter than hot. Redder than red. From mine palms I release the flames of hell. Super inferno blazing canon blast, activate!” The boy released a cone of fire from his palms into the stone dummy.
“Woah, amazing. It’s like there’s a flamethrower in your fingers.”
The flames stopped as the student turned towards me. He was age 26, level 59, had short red hair, and yellow eyes. “There’s a person who comprehends my awesomeness? State your name.”
“Yarm.”
“Humph. What a boring, pedestrian name. I am Shilliam von Gatestead Eppingflow of the Night the Fourth.”
I looked above his head. “Nice to meet you, Eppy.”
“What? How do you know my real name?” Small flames came out of his nostrils.
“Never mind that. How did you shoot out those flames? Is that like a special skill?”
“Skill?” Eppy looked annoyed. “I am not a skill mage! I am a study mage. That was pure magical talent you just witnessed.”
“There’s different types of mages?” I asked.
“Of course there are! How could you possibly not know that? A skill mage is someone who uses skills to cast magic spells. They are limited to what they can cast by their repertoire of skills. On the other hand, we study mages are limited only by our knowledge of the arcane. We learn to cast spells by understanding and researching magic. We don’t rely on the System to gift us spells.”
“Interesting.” I had a hint of sarcasm in my voice that Eppy did not detect.
“So, which are you? A study mage or a skill mage?”
“Me?” I pointed at myself. “I’m not a mage.”
“Huh?” Eppy’s whole body tilted to the side.
I chuckled. “You shouldn’t make assumptions. By the way, are you busy? I could use a guy like you to escort me to the library.”
Eppy looked around. “Are you talking to me? I’m a girl, not a guy.”
“Huh?”
Eppy dusted off her robes. “I suppose a great fire mage like me must engage in charity from time to time. I will take you there, child.”
“Appreciated.” I tried to pat her on the shoulder but could only reach her upper arm. As we walked indoors, I made small talk. “What made you wanna become a fire mage?”
“I was simply tired of always losing my lighter.” She pulled a tube of paper from her pockets, put it into her mouth, and lit it up with a flame from her fingers.
“Huh?”
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