Back to class

"I'm sorry that I'm late!"

I was currently prostrating in front of Lindsey, my head face down on the table between us. The table was a small corner side table in the café that we had decided to meet in.

Lindsey's face was expressionless like it almost always was, but her eyes were sharp. She didn't seem too happy about me forgetting that we had agreed to hang out. Although I had an excuse, that I was busy talking with James, I didn't dare to speak it.

"It's fine. It's not like you were supposed to be here an hour ago and I had to fight off a number of random students who tried to hit on me."

"Well, you are so pretty that they probably couldn't resist!"

My attempt at lighting up the mood failed miserably. Now, Lindsey wasn't expressionless anymore, she looked incredibly pissed at my lighthearted joke.

In the end, she just sighed, and let go of her anger knowing it wouldn't make the situation any better.

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

'Since when did she become so rude?!'

It was mysterious, all the women around me seemed to become blunter and blunter, not afraid to throw harsh words at me. First Sarah, then Misa, and now Lindsey.

'Is it because of me? No, it couldn't be...'

"I'm going to order. Do you want anything?"

She stood up and waited a bit for my answer, "Sure, just a black coffee please."

****

It was time for my second return to the class of 1-A, although this time I hadn't been absent for as long as the first time.

The classroom was empty as it always was during my arrivals, and my seat had my good old butt pillow ready for me to sit on.

It didn't take long until the door opened again, and the star of the show arrived, almost glowing like usual. When our gazes connected, he just gave me a slight nod as if to confirm that he had understood my words yesterday.

As the others arrived, not much had changed in the dynamic of the group. They still didn't seem to like my presence, although it appeared that Akane was even more scared than before.

'Guess my violent display was pretty in line with their already established view of me...'

As they had already seen me as evil before, our duel didn't change their perspective of me. It probably just acted as confirmation of their preconceived notions.

In the end, I was still pretty much an outcast with Lindsey being my only friend.

"Now, I'm not going to bother with a roll call as I can see that everyone is present."

Our teacher entered the room and immediately started homeroom, looking a lot more serious than usual.

"In a month's time, you will be doing your first excursion to the wastelands, where you will be doing a hunt for four days. In preparation for this, we will be doing a dungeon dive every week. These will be done on Sundays, and I expect you all to show up at your best. If anyone of you arrives late or hungover, you will be exempt from the excursion. A report will also be written that will be shown on your resume, stating that you might not be suitable to be a hunter or adventurer."

Though he may have sounded strict, it was something that could be called the bare minimum. No one would want a person that couldn't be on time or didn't show up at all.

That being said, I couldn't help but feel a bit bad when Lindsey started looking at me when he mentioned the "late" part. 'I'm sorry, okay?!'

Our teacher carried on, turning on the digital whiteboard behind him, "These will be the new parties for this semester. Just like before, it doesn't matter what you think of each other, these groups are non-negotiable."

[Group 1: Lindsey, Akane, and Miren.]

[Group 2: Arthur, Bayyan, and Brad]

[Group 3: James, Suzuka, and Sarah]

This was not good, no, this was a disaster in the making. Although I was happy that I would get to party up with Lindsey, how in the world would me and Akane be able to cooperate when she was deathly scared of me?

Unfortunately, my internal complaints didn't matter, I already knew that our teacher wouldn't budge, no matter how much I tried to argue.

"Now, our first dive will be this Sunday and we will meet at five in the morning at the artificial dungeons."

****

We had just finished our classes with Mrs. Johnson and it had gone a lot better than I expected. Although there was a lot I didn't understand, there were also a lot of things I did understand, like the correlation between the present socio-economic structure and the war between District 1 and District 3.

It was mostly just thanks to Misa who had taught me for hours every day while I was bedridden and thus didn't have a choice. I had already accepted that I wasn't a good student. Even though I could learn things quite fast, the problem was to actually open the books. I truly hated studying.

It didn't take long for me to reach the principal's cabin and he brought us to the traditional dojo without a word. When we arrived, he signaled for me to sit down on the floor and he took his seat in his chair.

"So, little hare, would you mind explaining just why you went ahead and almost killed yourself during the duel?"

'Oh, shit...'

I had already forgotten that there was a big risk that my master might be incredibly pissed that I acted recklessly when fighting James. His gentle grandpa-like smile was nowhere to be seen, there was only a cold look in his eyes which felt like it pierced right through me.

I already knew that he expected me to answer completely truthfully, which coincidentally was the only thing he expected from me, and I had already promised to do so. Even if his request might have appeared to be limited to that conversation, I felt like he had insinuated that it would be binding in the future as well.

"At first I thought it was a good way to teach him a lesson in humility, as he seemed to use the duel as a way to promote himself. However, I quickly lost myself to rage, losing sight of what my intentions were, and just acted out as some sort of revenge."

I still didn't know if he would let me off with this, but I explained what happened honestly and there wasn't much more I could do without just making excuses.

Bracing myself for having to withstand a wave of his insane pressure, I closed my eyes and waited.

But the pressure never came. As I opened my eyes, his cold eyes had mellowed a bit and he didn't seem to be quite as angry anymore.

"It's good that you are telling the truth. If you tried to lie I would most likely force you to return to the academy by yourself."

It sounded like a pretty soft punishment but I didn't dare to think it was. After all, I had no idea where we were. For all I knew, this place could be full of dangerous beasts and monsters.

"Thank you, Master"

My shoulders sank a bit, as I could finally relax a bit, knowing he had let me off the hook.

"Now, I guess you have been waiting eagerly for your promised reward." At the same time he was talking, he brought out the essence and held it in his hand.

He wasn't wrong. I had been quite excited to get my hands on the essence he had promised me, even if I already knew the risks that followed.

"I assume that you already understand that you have to be extremely cautious while absorbing the power inside of it. As a safety measure, I want to observe you when you do it for the first few times, so we can make sure you don't blow up."

"Yes, Master!"

I wasn't against his proposal at all, on the contrary, it made me extremely happy to know that he might be able to save me from exploding if things went wrong.

His warm smile was now back and he was once again the gentle old man I knew to be the principal.

"But before you even start absorbing the essence we need to get your mana manipulation up to par. You will have to work hard again, young hare."