Next morning...
Without their parents waking up calls, most of the children were fast asleep well past their usual morning routine. Not to mention the whole intergalactic summoning shtick.
Naturally, the sun was already high up in the sky by the time when the class of Highschoolers was awake.
At breakfast, they were introduced to the nobilities who were in charge of the land.
"The Heiligh Kingdom is most grateful for the noble choice, Great Heroes." Queen Luluaria bowed her head at the table.
Luluaria was accompanied by her daughter Liliana, and her younger son—prince Lundel; who took interest in Kaori as soon as he laid his electric blue eyes on her.
"What does your world look like?" The young prince asked.
"It's rather hard to explain, um, prince." Kaori scratched the side of her cheeks. As much as she was fond of children, a child bouncing right next to her was rather uncomfortable.
It didn't help that Lundel was being rather inconsiderate. Personally, Kaori would never raise her voice against a child, but it was disturbing nonetheless.
Barring her distress, Lundel slipped out of his seat and forcefully sat on Kaori's lap with a big smile.
"Call me Lundel!"
"Um, I'm more than positive that won't be allowed..."
Kaori sent a hopeful glance toward the Queen, but she shook her head with a smile.
"Oh, no. The royal family is in full support. Besides, I think my son has taken likings to you."
"That, I can see..."
Kaori muttered. With utmost gentleness, she pushed the boy out of her lap and sat a little closer to Hajime.
Lundel stood dumbfounded for a solid couple of seconds as if he couldn't believe he was subtly refused. And then, he stomped up the table to Hajime with a huge frown.
"And who are you supposed to be?" He barked.
Hajime smiled back; he knew antagonizing children would only give them more reason to do whatever they felt like.
And this was how he usually deal with conflict: By not fighting back. It usually worked too—well, worked, as in the bullies would let him off go without the last punch. Taking his last paper money. Etc.
However, the trick didn't work this time. The infuriating prince sneered and kept poking him in the sides with a fork, demanding that he'd: "Keep Kaori for himself for the breakfast."
Most of the class was unsure if they had any right to interfere. To be blunt, more than half of them were internally sneering at Hajime's blatant passiveness; he couldn't even stand up for his girlfriend.
Hajime was used to receiving degrading stares from people. Normally they wouldn't faze him too much, but this time it rather nibbled on his mind.
'It's not like I could fight back,' Hajime thought to himself. 'Young or not, he is a prince. And the Queen doesn't seem to find it a problem either.'
And by 'not finding it a problem, it meant Queen Luluaria stopped Liliana from interfering with her misbehaving brother by putting a hand on her shoulder.
On a similar note, Satoru was locked in with Shizuku with an arm wrestle match, struggling to keep her from leaping over the dinner table.
Lundel wasn't oblivious to these situations and smirked up at Hajime.
He knew that his status as a prince combined with his minor age gave him more or less free rein on basically anything. Maids couldn't do much more than quietly mutter to stop whenever he'd suddenly lift their skirts and run away, and butlers couldn't even scold him too hard whenever he'd pull their hair or beard.
In short, he was a very spoiled child; a brat.
Finally, Kaori gave in and let the prince back on his lap.
But right when he was about to sit down, someone intervened.
"Hey, prince!" To everyone's surprise, Mikasachi Kaito came over to the spoiled prince. "Care for a magic trick?"
Prince Lundel frowned as another disturbance appeared. "What do you mean by 'magic trick'? I already know what magic looks like!"
"Yeah. I bet you people never even saw one of these." With that, Kaito pulled out a coin from his pocket.
Lundel's frown only went deeper. "What is that medal for?"
Kaito flipped the coin in the air. Lundel's eyes naturally followed the coin go upwards, until the magician caught it in his right hand.
"Now look closely..."
After a few waves, he opened his right palm to reveal that the coin was gone.
The young prince's eyes widened in shock for a second, then he sneered.
"It must be on the other hand. That's a neat little trick, but—"
"Who says that?"
Kaito opened his left hand to reveal that the coin wasn't there either.
"Whoa!"
This time, there was no hiding it. Lundel was fascinated over the disappearing coin, his blue eyes twinkling with excitement.
With a broad smile, Kaito offered his sleeves to him. "Care to check?"
When the prince made sure the sleeves were coin-free, he looked up at the trickster with awe.
"Where is the coin?" He demanded.
"Now? Here." Kaito reached behind the prince's right ear and pulled out the same coin. Needless to say, Lundel was fascinated; and he bounced back to his seat in excitement.
Hajime was about to sigh in relief when Kaito sneakily muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
"Keep better check on Kaori, you dolt."
Before he could reply, Kaito was already going back to his seat far away.
* * *
After breakfast was over, the class was asked to gather around the training ground. Their training was about to begin.
Everyone was buzzing with a differentiating mixture of excitement and concern; except for Hajime.
"You don't have to mind too much, Hajime." Kaori had said when he tried to apologize to her during the short walk from the dining hall. But Hajime couldn't erase the feeling that she was a tad bit let down by his inactivity.
Kaori was currently standing next to Shizuku since everyone involuntarily decided to stand in the same formation to their seats back at school. It was how they'd stand whenever they went out for P.E, and it made it easier for Aiko to check that no one went missing.
And that meant—
"Hey! What's the long face for, He-man?" Satoru asked with a heavy thump at his back.
"I don't want to talk about it," Hajime grumbled, more out of self-loathing than anything else.
Satoru shrugged and didn't comment any further. Hajime was thankful for that; now he could be alone wallowing in self-degradation.
Half an hour passed with nothing. Some guards bustled around with mild to moderate frustration on their faces, which wasn't comforting much.
Eventually, Aiko had enough and grabbed the Vice Commander of the Heiligh Army, Jose Ranciad, and demanded an explanation.
"Oh, we're searching for the Commander. He's supposed to be in charge of the training, but he is rather hard to find whenever it is time for him to work."
"I like him. Sounds Inspiring." Satoru said without any notions of lowering his volume. Few students snickered, Shizuku rolled her eyes, and Jose awkwardly smiled before rushing away again with a solider.
After another half an hour, the Vice Commander returned while towing a tall man in his early 40s, with well-trimmed brown hair and not so well-trimmed beard.
The man was pushed onto the slightly elevated floor, fit for an announcement.
"Jeez, you don't have to be so rough. You know I outrank all of you guys, right?" The Commander complained.
Jose was hardly intimidated. "We know Commander. Maybe if you started acting like one—"
The Commander waved the scoldings away before it began, and turned to the students with a bold grin.
"Alright, first things first; Introduction!
My name is Meld Loggins. I'm the Commander of the Heiligh Army, and I'll be the one teaching all of you how to not get your throat ripped off by a monster.
But no pressure, eh?"
Commander Meld roared out laughing as if he just said a hilarious joke, which wasn't reflected by anyone—not even Satoru.
But Hajime noticed the seemingly carefree Commander quickly scanning the room in the middle of his laughter. And soon, he realized that this was his way of thinning out who was actually on board of the danger layered ahead, and who was here because...reasons.
"Now, time for work. Get the Plates!"
In an orderly fashion, a silver plate was handed out to everyone. It was just barely bigger than an average palm, which meant it was convenient for carrying around and losing it at the same time.
"The [Status Plates] will tell you what kind of abilities you have. Also, it works as your identification cards, so put a leash on them! Or you'll get arrested as a trespasser and be thrown down to the [Reisen Gorge]!"
"And where is that?" Hiyama asked out loud, his voice trembling with fear.
Meld roared with his signature laugh. "Oh, just an average 7000 ft deep canyon that divides the whole landscape of Tortus.
Down there, you'll find one of the fiercest monsters lurking in every corner. We send our most vile, nefarious criminals down there as an execution, and—"
"Commander, stop trying to scare them off!"
The Commander waved an apology before continuing with the explanations. Most of the students shared nervous glances—save for a few such as Kouki, Shizuku, Satoru, etc.
Hajime himself wasn't too worried; he doubted anything too dangerous was going to happen. Up until now, the situation was more or less similar to how most of these stories went.
Now if they checked their abilities, Commander would be surprised to find such Gifted youngsters and hype them up that they might be able to achieve the impossible with proper training, by motivating them to cooperate.
Though while checking those who weren't intimated, Hajime spotted a black sheep.
Hajime couldn't remember his name, and his bland black hair/eyes with freckles didn't help in remembering who he was. The boy was excited beyond comprehension, grinning ear to ear, looking down at the silver plate as if it was the Golden Ticket.
Satoru noticed Hajime was staring elsewhere and followed his gaze. "Who's that?"
"No idea."
"Hmm...I think his name was something in the line of Yukata Shiman."
Hajime was about to point out that no one with an ounce of sense would have a 'Shiman' as a surname, but a whispered voice butt in before he had a chance.
"That's Yukitoshi Shimizu. And please, will you two be quiet? It's hard to listen to the Commander."
"Sorry." Hajime quietly muttered.
"My apologies, Madam Sona Yuki," Satoru said with a small bow.
"It's Sonobe Yuka!" Yuka hissed back. Though judging from the slight blush across her cheeks, Hajime guessed she was slightly flattered by being called 'Madam' by Satoru.
He turned his attention back to the Commander, who was just explaining how to activate the Status Plate.
"The Plates given to you are all unregistered. If you slip your mana into the circle at the back,"
Meld held up his Status Plate as an example. The magic circle glowed in a pleasant mint color, and words appeared on the front of the Plate.
"Ta-da! And that'll be your first training; try to activate your Status Plates. Controlling mana would be the key part when it comes to combat, so it'd be better if you get used to it sooner."
After that, the training ground was quickly filled with various attempts of students trying to feel the mana within their bodies.
"I've got it!" Kouki triumphantly shouted within the first minute. He was quickly followed by Kaori and Shizuku, and the three were called up to the front.
"I'll be announcing all of your status—that will help you find appropriate partners in training, but keep in mind that these are supposed to be private information."
Meld gathered the Plates from the three students and read off the writings.
Kouki Amanogawa
Age: 17 Gender: Male Level: 1
Job: Hero
Strength: 100
Vitality: 100
Defense: 100
Agility: 100
Mana: 100
Magic Defense: 100
Skills: All Elemental Aptitude, All Elemental Resistance, Physical Resistance, Composite Casting, Sword Proficiency, Superhuman Strength, Armor Proficiency, Increased Mana Recovery, Sense Presence, Language Comprehension
Shizuku Yaegashi
Age: 17 Gender: Female Level: 1
Job: Swordmaster
Strength: 80
Vitality: 50
Defense: 30
Agility: 130
Mana: 50
Magic Defense: 40
Skills: Sword Proficiency, Improved Drawing Skill, Lightened Step, Sense Presence, Intimidate, Language Comprehension
Kaori Shirasaki
Age: 17 Gender: Female Level: 1
Job: Priest
Strength: 30
Vitality: 80
Defense: 50
Agility: 40
Mana: 150
Magic Defense: 130
Skills: Null Magic Efficiency, Light Magic Efficiency, Composite Casting, Increased Mana Recovery, Mana Detection, Language Comprehension
Pushing aside the lists and lists of skills, it was obvious that all three of them had apt abilities—Kouki's being the most outstanding out of the three.
"Nice assets." Meld complimented, handing back the Status Plates. "I'd suppose our god gave the saviors of the world some extra boosts."
Kouki and Kaori took back theirs with beaming pride, and or embarrassment as the others looked up with awe and expectation. Shizuku, on the other hand, looked down at her plate as if it has just eaten her lunch without permission.
"If anyone has trouble with activating their Plates, I'll help you out," Kouki said to the majority. Instantly, half a dozen girls gathered around him.
It wasn't long until most of the students managed to turn on their plates. Satoru quickly left Hajime's side as he managed it all on his own, and his status wasn't half bad either.
Tatsuo Satoru
Age: 21 Gender: Male Level: 1
Job: Athlete
Strength: 90
Vitality: 150
Defense: 80
Agility: 100
Mana: 20
Magic Defense: 20
Skills: Superhuman Strength, Lightened Step, Language Comprehension
And, while the rest of the class wasn't as outstanding as the prime four, they were all substantially over average according to Meld.
Meanwhile, Hajime was having trouble even turning the damned artifact on. It was doubly embarrassing as one by one, the late-bloomers hurried over to the waiting class.
Soon enough, he was one of the two left behind. The other was Kaito, who was flipping around the silver plate in frustration.
Hiyama, in his usual bully mode, quickly jumped to pick fun on the unfortunate. "Hey, what's taking you two so long?"
His thugs quickly picked up the line of insults.
"Maybe they're too weak to even turn on the Status Plate!"
"Ha! That's a fantastic explanation; especially for Mr . Otaku over there!"
Of course, even when there were only two people to laugh at, Hajime was the one getting picked on.
And to add insult to injury, soon Kaito shouted "Yes!" and waved his arm; a shining Status Plate in his hand.
He rushed over to Meld, and he read off the information.
Kaito Mikasachi
Age: 17 Gender: Male Level: 1
Job: Trickster
Strength: 20
Vitality: 25
Defense: 15
Agility: 20
Mana: 30
Magic Defense: 25
Skills: Hand Tricks, Language Comprehension
For a moment, the entire class was silent. It was the worst status out of the entire classroom by a long shot.
At that moment, Hajime had finally managed to make a light flare in his plate.
Meld, now looking rather grim, beckoned at Hajime to come forth. Hajime didn't bother to check it firsthand and handed the plate over to the Commander.
Hajime Nagumo
Age: 17 Gender: Male Level: 1
Job: Synergist
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Defense: 10
Agility: 10
Mana: 10
Magic Defense: 10
Skills: Transmute, Language Comprehension
Hajime nearly fell over on the spot. His head was spinning, his heart pounded inside his eardrums in humiliation.
Somehow, his status was worse than the previous worst; and that record only appeared seconds before he unceremoniously overtook it.
Hiyama's laughter broke the silence.
"What the hell, man! Both of you are fucking worthless! There's going to be citizens stronger than both of you combined!" He jeered.
Thankfully, the adults intervened before things quickly grew into a jeering fest.
"That's enough!" Meld shouted in an unusually stern voice, which quickly drowned out the ridiculing laughter.
Aiko, rightfully furious at the attitude of her pupils, went on to lecture about how it was wrong for anyone to belittle anyone just because they have a lower status than the other.
But none of the troublemakers took the lecture into their hearts.
They were overjoyed at the aspect of being able to outclass Hajime—Hiyama especially since he loathed Hajime ever since he had the gall to become Kaori's boyfriend.
Hajime looked down at his Status Plate with his pitiful status written on it. He desperately wanted to find Kaori, but the class was quickly separated into smaller groups to get taught by the respective instructors.
Meld came over to him with a stiff grin.
"Don't worry. Sometimes there are late-bloomers. I'm sure if you try hard enough, you'll..." His voice trailed off as the Commander struggled to find a non-offensive term for 'Not Useless'.
"Great. Thanks." Hajime answered. It felt doubly heavy when it was spelled out in numbers like this.
His gaze naturally moved over to Kaito, perhaps the only one who could identify with his despair.
But Kaito was already bustling around, asking the tutors if he could listen too until one kind Magician allowed his company.
There was a certain difference between the two. Briefly, Hajime considered asking around himself, but he quickly gave up on the idea. It's not like he was ever talented in combat in his life.
Besides, his job—Synergist, didn't feel like something that can be trained in the training ground, as ironic as it sounded.
So, Hajime turned to Meld and asked:
"Is there a library here?"
Sorry I was abesnt for the long time.
College was a bitch for a whole month.
It isn't particularly nicer now, since the Mid term exams are nearing, but at least I have things under control...as much as I could, any way.
Currently, I have a bad case of non-Cvirus cold, so I'll cut short. Now that we're through the early set ups, I'll return soon with a new chapter!