Novelia Academy Part 2

It was time for class, the schedule for Jun En was as follows

- History

- Specialised (classification based)

- Basic Combat

Jun En went to his first class located in a lecture hall in the main building. Walking in the lecture hall was quite large able to fit the whole cohort if it had to. There were already students when he had arrived. Looking around Jun En found an empty seat near the window, which he started to head towards.

Sitting down Jun En prepared for his first class. There were no need to take textbooks with him as everything was now digital, using his watch that was assigned to him, all information and books needed for the year were all uploaded, and could be displayed holographically. At each table in the hall were large screens that could be interacted, this allowed students to take notes using that and transfer it into their watches and it could be used by teachers to hand out information and give out tests as well or even help aid the class if needed.

As Jun En waited for his class to start he started to fiddle around with his assigned smart watch. The smart watch could be said to be the most important thing in the school, as it not only contained the credits and ID of a student, but it contained all other information and digital books which are needed when attending classes. While they are genetically bound such that if someone else wore a watch that was not their own they would not have access to anything, it was still a watch which could be taken or stolen. Unsure about whether one would get issued a new one if it is lost, Jun En thought that it was best to keep his watch safe and always be on alert. As there didn't seem to be any measure that the school clearly put in to deal with this easily identifiable problem.

The room slowly started to fill with new students and people that Jun En has never seen before. He recognised a few faces from the assembly in the morning but that was all.

As people walked in many started to try to befriend one another. Chatting up the other person or making small talk, soon some semblance of possible future groups and cliques could be seen forming.

Jun En looked at this and scoffed inwardly. He was never really very social, nor did he enjoy social company like others. All he needed was his family. Friends, this title was always put on too lightly, some people call themselves your friends but stab you in the back later. Thus Jun En was always very cautious when meeting new people, keep a safe distance and don't let your guard down.

Responding to his thoughts Dev spoke with a sarcastic tone.

"My, my aren't you a depressing one. Why. Did you suffer from a betrayal that broke your heart. Did it shatter into little pieces, o you poor -"

'Shut it, no nothing sad happened to me, nor do I have a sad past. I just read a lot and saw things like friends from an outside perspective, and objectively determined it. Sheesh I'm not sad and depressing like those main characters in novels. In fact I kinda love solitary'

"..."

'what got nothing to say now?'

"Well I can't judge much can I"

As this happened the door to the lecture hall flew open, and in walked a woman dressed in a similar garb as seen to the other teachers around the school. She walked in strides, each filled with confidence and wore a beret with the school's insignia etched into the front of it.

Her garb could be said to be a halfway between militaristic and casual. Her boots itself seemed to be similar to army boots but at the same could double as casual wear. As she walked in the the room fell quiet, only the clicks of her boots could be heard echoing in the halls.

Standing at the podium and in front of the stood she addressed the class looking down at a list of students in her hands. After she finished marking the attendance she looked up towards the students and spoke.

"Welcome to the academy, today will be the first day of your lives here, I hold no expectations for anybody here, only those who have potential and the strength can have my expectations. So if you want to do well here, you better work hard. You can call me Ms Quan and I'll be your history teacher today. Now let's begin."

Ms Quan looked toward the whole class and started to walk around slowly with her hand behind her back, looking at each of the students, with eyes like daggers.

She continued to look around the lecture hall pacing around and finally spoke "So who here can tell me why history is important".

A student raised up his hand and spoke "is it to help us value our past and understand where we came from, thus improving the morale and pride of the people"

Ms Quan stopped in her steps, as students began nodding slightly and looking at each other. She stared at the student who asked the question and spoke in a stern tone.

"right that may be true in other parts of the world or in other schools but not here, what kind of school do you think this is, we are trying to raise potential tellers, not people who have pride but no ability. What do you think we are a traditional arts and history school"

Her voice echoed through the hall as she looked for another student to answer her query. As she made eye contact with one student, the student panicked unsure how to respond to her questions as he started to sweat profusely, his body temperature increasing such that students around him can feel the heat. As she continued to look at him for an answer the student calmed himself but squeaked out an answer when he tried to talk.

"Is it because it allows to learn from our mistakes and helps us grow stronger"

Ms Quan looked partly satisfied with his answer and responded "that is only half the right answer"

She continued "Yes it can help us grow in strength as we learn from he past but it also holds one of the most important keys for humanity"

"what is the key for" one of the students asked, unable to understand her point.

"the key to stopping the regs once and for all" Ms Quan said with a straight face.

Ms Quan then continued "History provides us with a lot of information, yes it can help us with learning to be stronger from our past mistakes, however history also allows or gives us a hint to the main hint about the regs. Where and why have the regs appeared? Do we know the cause? These can all be figured out if we look at history-"

At this moment a student raised his hand and commented "but that doesn't make sense it's not like history will tell us where and why they have appeared, there is no clear event"

Ms Quan calmly responded "Yes but remember I said hints, the biggest hints lie here, in historical anomalies. If we look at certain events, some things may seem to be out of place or make no sense, these historical anomalies are major hints to the origin of the regs"

Ms Quan stopped in her steps and looked at all the students.

"Now let's run through the basic history of what we know to this date"

and so began the history of the known situation of humanity at this moment, from the moment which regs first appeared, including humanities first recorded case of using stories and the development of humanity from then onwards.

*****

In a room somewhere within the academy a man arrived in his dormitory room. He looked to be physically hurt and was emotionally distraught.

He laid on his bed slowly tearing up as he looked at the ceiling.

Overall he had a quite a thin and small build, his hair was long and unkempt as if someone had purposely brushed and tried to pull off his hair.

If one looked closely, one could see bruises across his whole body, along with slight lacerations around his body.

He laid there on the bed and whispered to himself "no more". He had been pushed around bullied and spat upon by some of the other students in the school, these students were rich and looked down on the hardworking class. They were jealous of the man and had been paying other stronger students to beat him up, just because he had attempted to stand for another student.

When they changed their target to him they have never let him off since then. These students while they weren't the best they had a power called money. Their parents would lobby money to the school to make sure the school stays quiet about all their dealing or misbehaviours.

When they first met, he saw his fellow students get picked as if they were suppose to become these rich kids servant.

These rich w weren't ranked but because of money no consequences ever befell them, and this made his life a living nightmare and he was sick of it. He could not sit down and take it anymore.

They would ridicule him, pick on him, beat him up, and no one helped him. Even the student he initially stood up for ignored him. This was what he got for helping people, this was what he got for trying to do good.

As the man sat up in his bed he looked as battered bruised arm. An indescribable pain arose from his heart when he thought of what would happen to his family if he didn't obey these rich students, and he was reaching a level of extreme stress.

Behind the pain and worry, anger was slowly burning, stirring and crawling out the cracks of this man's soul. Anger, pain agony and frustration, a wave of emotions ran through him. He wanted it all to stop, the people, the pain, the madness.

In his dark room at that moment he heard whispers around him. However he was unable to make out what they saying. He quickly moved to the bathroom to wash his face thinking that the voices were just hallucinations.

As he looked at his mirror he suddenly heard a voice speaking two clear words

"end it"

As the voice said it the man looked at the mirror and for a split second he saw a face that looked like his face but it was jet black with red eyes smiling back at him.

*****

Throughout the history class the teacher Ms Quan brought up some interesting ideas that captured Jun En's attention. Using history to discover the origins or regs was an interesting concept and could definitely be used in the right direction.

The regs came about ten years ago around the same time the discovery of stories or the story system came a year or two after the regs. Despite about a years difference the time of appearance for both these things seemed to be too close to call a coincidence.

There must have been some sort of relationship somehow. As the class went one Jun En continued to listen to miss Quan's take on history and its applicability, as class ended, he picked up his things and moved to the next class, Specialised class.