The Hidden World

The next day, Yuki awoke and began his daily routine. Today there were classes scheduled and as much as he wanted to work on his project, he had to attend. Yawning, he washed his face and ate cold cereal. He felt too lazy to cook.

Then he went into the bathroom and took a shower. Normally he would want a bath but that would have taken too long. When he got out, Akira was still sleeping on his bed.

‘Sometimes she sleeps like a rock,’ he thought to himself. ‘Unless there’s food. Akira, we need to go.’

Her ears flicked and she sent over a sleepy response of understanding. Then she glowed for a bit before disappearing into Yuki.

He quietly slipped out and as he walked toward the Main Hall for his homeroom, he mentally prepared himself for another boring day. He entered the classroom as usual but today the eyes of nearly everyone in the class locked onto him.

‘Eh? Is it because I didn’t attend class yesterday?’ he thought as he sat down in his seat. ‘Well it doesn’t matter. But people staring at me like that is slightly uncomfortable.’

Yuki ignored them and soon they seemed to lose whatever interest they had. Their usual conversations started up again and Yuki closed his eyes as he laid his head on the desk, waiting for the class to begin. A few minutes later, Nataru walked in and the bell rang. Yuki opened his eyes and saw Nataru standing behind his desk as he waited for the class to quiet.

“I see that all of you made it,” he started. “Or at least those of you that past yesterday’s test. Some of your fellow classmates did not and so they have been demoted to the novice class.”

Yuki glanced around and notice that three seats that originally belonged to a student were empty.

“Those of you that are still here, congratulations. You managed to kill a goblin in two days,” he said sarcastically.

His eyes sharpened and he seemed to almost glare at all of the students that were gathered there. They looked away from his intense gaze while Yuki watched with a bored expression.

“I would say that you students were lucky that a golem invaded during the first hunt,” he said. “That gave you another day to prepare yourself to kill one single weak goblin. To be frank, I’m quite disappointed. The advanced class should be considerably better than this.”

‘He seems to be at odds with Selene,’ Yuki thought. ‘Selene called this the not a complete novice class. She didn’t seem to have any high expectations for this class.’

“For the next couple of weeks you students will be undergoing harsher training,” Nataru announced. “You have been performing much below expectations and the instructors of the Academy have decided that in order to make up for your lack of talents, you will be doing more training.”

There were groans and complaints from the other students at this news but they became quiet when Nataru’s glaring eyes met theirs.

‘Maybe I’ll learn something for once,’ Yuki thought, his head still resting on the table.

“I hope you all know what is going to happen in a couple of months,” Nataru continued. “For those of you that somehow don’t, our annual Academy tournament will be held. This is where your rankings will officially be announced and where students will have the chance to prove themselves to their peers. The winner will also get a special reward that will be revealed when the tournament is announced.”

‘I hope the reward is worth something,’ Yuki thought. ‘Otherwise I won’t participate. Bragging rights are useless.’

“And so I welcome you again,” Nataru said with a glint in his eyes. “Today is a brand new start for you students. I hope you survive.”

‘Will I learn anything?’ Yuki wondered.

A couple hours later, Yuki was eating lunch as he sat under his usual tree and stared at the horizon with boredom written on his face.

‘I didn’t learn anything,’ Yuki thought.

The whole day was just like every other day. It was just more tiring and and so even more boring. They did teach students more skills and techniques but they were still basics and so Yuki learned absolutely nothing. Mabel understood this and made him not really have to practice which he appreciated. But in Combat Training, Deral had then do drills the entire time. It seemed that hell training to him was to repeat the same thing over and over again.

‘I train harder at night with Akira than I did in this “hell” training,’ Yuki thought.

The bell rang and Yuki dragged his feet to his next class. What he wanted to do right now was work on his project and not waste time on topics that won’t benefit him.

‘Well, just one more class and we will be done for the day,’ he thought.

When he walked out of his Support Magic class with Mabel, he was no longer bored. For the first time of the whole day, Yuki had learned something new and interesting. Like Mabel had promised earlier in the year, they would also be crafting things during their class. Today was the day that they dipped into this.

In Yuki’s pockets were two bracelets that he had made that day. They contained a single shield rune and would create a relatively weak barrier around the wearer when infused with mana. These were the first accessories that Yuki had ever made and he wasn’t quite satisfied with them in terms of power. But he did rather like the design he had created.

Mabel had given him a lump of some shiny metal that resembled silver and had him mold a bracelet from that. It was tedious work and required immense concentration but Yuki enjoyed the challenge. When he was finished, he had created two bracelets made from fine links that were polished through the use of his earth magic. Mabel had asked to keep one but Yuki was planning to give this to Akira so that she had something to protect her.

‘Maybe I can do something with our rings?’ he thought as he walked back to his dorm.

When he returned to his room, Akira immediately popped out and flopped down on her usual resting place. Yuki took one of the bracelets and tossed it to her who examined it with a curious gaze.

“It’s a gift,” Yuki said. “It’ll protect you as long as you wear it.”

He took out the duplicate from his pocket and put it on his own left wrist since his right hand already wore a ring. Seeing this, Akira’s eyes brightened and she hurriedly put her own bracelet on. Then she twisted her wrist as she watched the bracelet with a small smile.

“Can I customize it?” she asked Yuki.

“You mean design wise? Of course, there isn’t any reason you can’t,” Yuki replied.

Akira nodded and played with her bracelet as Yuki sat down in front of the couch and opened up his laptop that rested on the table. As he typed, Akira peered down and watch him as he worked.

A knock on the door distracted Yuki from his work and he looked up with slight confusion. He checked the time and was surprised that it was almost time for dinner. But that didn’t explain who was at his door.

He closed his laptop and placed it on the table. Then with a quick mental que, Akira dissolved and was sucked into Yuki. He went over to the door and called out to whoever it was outside.

“Who are you?” he said.

“It’s Yuna,” a muffled voice replied. “Can I come in?”

“It’s not dinner yet,” Yuki answered.

The voice that might be from Yuna didn’t reply immediately.

“There is something that I want to talk about,” she said after a while.

“About?”

“The traitor,” she half whispered. “I want to talk about the traitor with you.”

Yuki looked through the tiny peep hole in the door to see the nervous face of Yuna as she was glancing around.

‘Well, if I can get another person on this then I can be done with it sooner,’ he thought.

He opened the door and she quickly walked in.

“Thank you,” she started.

“Sit,” Yuki said, interrupting her. He walked to the couch that Akira was just laying on. “And let’s talk.”