~ Hope - 1 ~

The next day was unusually calm, although, the same cannot be said for Sora. Sora felt a bit faint, not understanding how he would face his friend Rizel after successfully hitting his own foot with his other foot.

Getting a good night's sleep, he concluded, that he had behaved very childishly. He realized he was one of those who during the night lost all of their reasoning and became sort of gamblers.

His mind having cleared of all the clutter, kept flashing with instances of him and Jeha in the library, making a deal over scanning and blood. At that time the idea had felt brilliant, although now that he thought about it, he was doomed in the upcoming days. A light cored enchanter like himself, making contracts with familiars and beasts… it would surely be questioned on how he did it. Even if he could somehow clear away those charges and sold himself out as a hybrid to his professors and master, wouldn't he end up getting caught in a whirlpool of doubts and suspicion?

He had slapped himself just after waking up, and ended up regretting his decision. But now what could he do, take back his words? Even if he wanted to Jeha wouldn't let him.

So after much thought, even during class Sora mulled over it with a brooding face. His mind was having a dilemma on what to do.

It wasn't as if he was an idiot, or couldn't make proper decisions, but he was… strangely impulsive. And that impulsive side of his made his future shaky, and his own person hated how bad it got sometimes.

Even he wasn't foolproof, he made mistakes and took decisions on impulse… he knew there must be reasoning behind his actions, he despite being careless was actually not that random of a decider, however most of the time, he felt the negative impact of his own decisions on himself.

Well, it was still better than years before when he was still a child, he had almost sold off his body just for some mere medicine for fever. At that time his parents had just died and everything that belonged to him before, was snatched away by his relatives… if you can call them that.

Their fiery greedy eyes still haunted him.

Whatever the case now, he was doing better than before.

"You alright?" it was a young lady's voice, which he knew better than his own. Because this young lady was his three years senior, one who introduced him to the examination center of the Sect. Without her help, he would have been lost.

"Sister Yin," he greeted happily, not caring whether the people next to his bench would hear him. Currently, he was in class, with other students, having relieved of duty since the main professor was running late. He wondered what the sister was doing here, she rarely came to visit him so openly.

"Ah, I will get straight to the point," she said, her wide bright eyes as bright as the sun and her wheat hair complimenting her tan skin tone. "Quirsay told me you are participating?"

Sora nodded, inclined to face the beautiful sister of his with full concentration, listening to her without missing her words. Some might say he showed favoritism to her, but it wasn't like that, he just considered her someone older, wiser and truly worthy of being called a sister. If he had siblings, he would have wished for her.

"I have been wondering if you would want my help with your training," she asked warmly, smiling like before.

Sora's eyes widened, she was not an enchanter, but a warrior who practiced martial arts, had more championship trophies under her belt than the hair on his head. Well he was exaggerating, but it was true that she was known for her skills and brave encounters. She rarely was in town, most of the time her whereabouts were unknown.

Right now her offer was that of a God's.

Sora agreed without hesitation, as other students listened in, some paling and some getting stunned. Because having a senior to teach you was like passing heaven's glorified tribulations.

"Good, come meet me in the back valley after your class, I am free today and tomorrow."

"Thank you very much sister," Sora got up and bowed with respect, only for sister Yin to feel embarrassed as she persuaded him to keep it low. Although Sora believed her coming in and giving him help had already spread outside the class by now, so keeping low was out of question.

"Eat less, I will be making you run rounds of the valley until you are almost dying on me," she reminded Sora with a big grin.

Sora put up a simple smile, "I will try my best."

~

The word about Sora and martial sister Yin started to spread like wild fire, as flocks of people who hadn't yet known that their president was participating, even they got the shock on random time. Everyone wished they could be as lucky as him, while some wanted to see just how powerful that young man was to have bagged a sister who would be helping him train.

Somewhere in the vicinity, a blond grey eyed young lady sat eating lunch in the mess hall, her hands gripping the spoon extra hard and her aura gloomy. She was none other than Rose, one of those who never wanted a junior to step over her in seniority.

The group of graceful girls surrounding her, were actually shivering under the harsh expression their leader was making.

"How dare he rush to that shabby loser for help, how much of a dog is he?"

"Miss R-Rose…" a junior mumbled, feeling bad for the lady.

"Shut up, all of you, you are pissing me off," she glared around, scaring her crowd into sweat, "I will not tolerate him any longer, it is time to meet that ginger head and his boss."

"That man? Miss Rose… he is dangerous!"

The young lady huffed, "You all are just wimpy trolls, always yammering in front of me like scared chickens. Don't follow me next time, it is better to have no one than be surrounded by useless hags."

The young ladies giving Rose company, instantly turned pale with fright, because they knew how dangerous it was to have no leader to support them. In their campus, it was not only shameful to be a loner, but also dangerous. Because their race wasn't normal and the stronger always preyed upon the weaker. It was the norm.

So if you are born weak, and you were studying in a sect, you either latched onto a golden partner or dived under someone's umbrella.

So the ladies knew, if Rose left them, they would be forced to run around like headless chickens. It was a shame they had to beg for their life from such an arrogant female character.

Anyhow, that afternoon, Rose saw how impressive her girls were with boot licking, almost as if born with those talents. And her annoyance temporarily got appeased.