The banquet had ended, and I returned to my room.I went to sleep early and woke up early, well before the start of classes.
I headed to one of the private training halls that I could access with my card.After training, I returned to my room, took a quick shower, and then went to the cafeteria for breakfast.
...
And now, here I was, walking down a wide corridor searching for my assigned lecture hall.
Naturally, wherever I went, hateful glances followed, but after what I had done yesterday, none of those fools in gray uniforms dared come near me.
"Finally, here it is."
I looked at a door labeled: A5.
I entered to find a large lecture hall.There were still a few minutes before class began, so the teacher hadn’t arrived yet.A few students were scattered around the room, all wearing black uniforms.
My classmates for the rest of the year.
Unlike the others, they didn’t look at me with those angry or disgusted expressions.Instead, curiosity shone in their eyes.
I walked to a seat at the side of the hall and sat down.
A headache struck me just thinking about studying again, let alone those damn theoretical tests.
It’s true that the Axis focuses on combat, but theoretical knowledge is still important.Failing could mean losing privileges and dropping in rank.
As I pondered these trivial matters, I felt someone approaching.It didn’t take long before he reached my side, sat down, and greeted me.
"Good morning."
I turned my head to see a young man with golden hair and bright yellow eyes, a perfect face as if sculpted by a master...Of course, it was Elliot Sivrax, the great hero.
It seemed he had developed a strange interest in me after our battle.
I nodded to him and returned the greeting.After that, he turned his gaze forward without another word.Perhaps he just wanted to sit here.
Not long after, an old man wearing small-framed glasses entered from the front of the hall.He went straight to the desk, placed his bag, and adjusted his glasses, scanning us all with his eyes.
He smiled."Hello, my dear students of the Elite Class."
"I am Dr. Rowan, your History and Geography teacher."
He opened his bag and pulled out some papers."Today, our class will be about history.In this course, you will learn about this world, its history, and the ancient civilizations that once thrived in it, even forgotten languages...But before all that, what about our history?"
He placed the documents on the desk."Before we learn about other creatures and civilizations, we must know something important.In your opinion, what is it?"
He looked at us, waiting for someone to raise their hand to answer.A girl with black hair and red eyes did.It was Princess Ellen Asterval.
The teacher gestured to her."Please, Princess."
Her beautiful voice filled the hall."The answer is our history.Before learning about others, we must know ourselves and our origins first."
The teacher nodded with approval."You are right, Princess.Most of you know that this world was not our original home."
He scanned the crowd, and seeing that no one was unaware, he continued:"We are merely strangers here.Circumstances brought us to settle in this world.So, who among you knows where we were before?"
Many raised their hands.This time, the teacher chose Elliot."Go ahead, Elliot."
Elliot’s voice echoed beside me."Humans once lived on a small planet in a corner of the vast universe, called Ancient Earth."
"Do you know how we got here?"
Hands were raised again, but the teacher ignored them and continued.
"Some like to distort the truth and say we abandoned Earth after it became irradiated and uninhabitable...But those are mere fabrications.We didn’t move to a new world for prosperity or development...We ran away."
The teacher walked a few steps around the desk, hands behind his back."We humans, proud as we are, fled, leaving our original world behind...We ran because we did not want to face extinction.We didn’t want our species to cease to exist."
Silence.
Everyone waited for him to continue.Even I found myself listening intently.
"Thousands of years ago, the first human civilization began to flourish on planet Earth.At that time, humans possessed no supernatural abilities, and there were no Awakened.Everyone was ordinary, fragile, weak.Even animals at the time could easily kill humans."
He paused for a moment, his tone becoming serious."But what sets us apart from other beings is...our ability to adapt."
"As time passed, humans evolved further.We made weapons and improved them, built civilizations, and waged wars upon one another."
He appeared disappointed.
"That fertile soil, those green plants, that fresh air...we destroyed everything while killing each other with weapons of mass destruction,polluting the oceans, eradicating all life on that planet."
"The technology developed for human prosperity became the very tool of our extinction."
He sighed."These are humans.If they cannot rule the world, they will destroy it...unless a new threat arises, something dangerous enough to unite them once again."
He looked at one of his papers and continued."In the year 2131, according to Earth’s calendar, the first System Window appeared to an ordinary person.Then it appeared to others, one by one."
"They were taught how to awaken and use Essence.Wars paused temporarily, and humans focused on studying this new phenomenon called Essence."
"Essence changed their view of the world.It redefined the laws of physics.It created sciences they had never thought of before."
"They even began to rebuild Earth, making it habitable again...but after exactly one year... they realized."
He paused, his tone growing more ominous."They realized that all of this was merely a prelude...a prelude to the end of the world."
"The year 2132...the fabric of space was distorted for the first time, and a rift formed between worlds."
"And from that dark rift...emerged beings whose existence we had never even imagined."