The Hidden World

“So what do I do about this?”

Yuki was staring at the smoldering scarlet jewel that was lying before him on his bed. Akira looked over his shoulders and saw the jewel.

“Why do you have it in the first place?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered, shrugging. “I don’t remember ever storing it in my ring. I do know I picked it up to admire it but that was it.”

“Well apparently that wasn’t all you did because for some reason you have it now,” Akira said with a raised eyebrow. “And you can’t really just hand it over because then questions will start to be asked.”

“Yeah, I know,” Yuki sighed. “But then what do I do?”

He fell silent and began to contemplate his next move. Like Akira had said, if he turned in the stone personally then it would only create problems for himself. They would start to ask questions on how he came across the stone and just saying that he found it wasn’t going to solve anything. They have proof of him being at the tournament and so couldn’t have been merely walking around when the jewel was stolen.

“You can keep it,” Akira suggested.

“I can,” he said.

If he kept it then the Academy would never know who took it since they would be expecting the Shikaku to have it. The Shikaku wouldn’t know who had it since they would be thinking that the Academy had retrieved it.

“No one would know that I have it,” he continued. “And I can just hide it in my ring.”

There was also another reason for why Yuki was thinking about the possibility of keeping the Blazing Jewel. Whenever he thought about giving it away, he felt a strong urge to put it away and hide it. It was as if his very being was telling him to not let it out of his possession. And whenever he looked at the gem, his thoughts would always return to how beautiful it looked as it smoldered in the light.

“I’ll keep it. Maybe it’ll become useful in the future,” he decided.

“I don’t have any complaints. By the way, don’t you have classes today?” Akira asked. “It’s Friday.”

“Yeah, I do,” he said. He glanced at his watch. “I have a little more than an hour to get prepared. What do you want to eat?”

Akira didn’t reply.

“Akira?” he asked as he opened the door of his bedroom.

“You never asked me that before,” she said.

“What?”

“What I wanted to eat. Normally, you just cook and then I eat it,” she explained.

“Oh. That just means that I’ve been inconsiderate,” Yuki said. “But really, do you want to eat something specific?”

“Sausage?”

“I have bacon.”

“That’s fine too.”

Nodding, Yuki went to the kitchen and the sounds of oil frying soon filled the dorm. The aroma of eggs and bacon followed it. A few minutes later, Akira came out and leaned against a wall as she watched Yuki cook.

“Here you go,” he said, holding out a plate of food to Akira.

She took it and walked with him to the living room where they sat and ate in silence, Akira sitting next to Yuki.

“I wonder who is going to be your homeroom instructor,” Akira said, holding her fork thoughtfully.

“I don’t know. I just hope it’s not someone boring,” Yuki replied as he cut his egg with his own fork. “Classes are already tiring as they are now.”

Yuki finished and went to the bathroom to clean himself. Then he took a quick shower and changed into his uniform. When he walked out, Akira had just finished eating her breakfast.

“Would you mind washing the dishes for me?” he asked.

Ever since Yuki had created Uriel who was at the moment busy with whatever she was doing, Akira was able to stay in his dorm by herself. He hacked into whatever surveillance was in the room and altered what they recorded. Now Akira would be able to walk around for most of the day though sometimes she opted to go with him to class.

“No problem,” she said with a small smile. Then she tilted her head. “Are you not going to go back to your human form?”

It was then that Yuki realised that he had not put his disguise back on. He had slept as an elf and walked around the whole morning without realising it. Being an elf was so natural that he didn’t even notice when he was brushing his hair.

“Thank you for reminding me,” Yuki said.

He went to the door, putting back on his human disguise as he did. He opened the door and before he left Akira called out to him.

“See you later.”

“You too,” he replied, closing the door.

Yuki arrived about five minutes before his homeroom started and he sat at his desk, ignoring the eyes of the other students that followed him. When he sat down he noticed the shadow of someone and looked up to see Yuna.

“Hello, Yuki,” she greeted. “How was your small break?”

“It was fine,” he answered.

Glancing around, he saw that the gazes of the other students hadn’t abated. If anything, they seemed to have increased. Especially the males’.

‘And they seem to be glaring at me,’ Yuki observed. ‘Looks to be jealousy or dislike. Yuna must be a popular girl.’

“Do you have any plans for the actual break?” Yuna asked, ignorant.

“Not yet,” he said. “I’ll think of something when the time comes. You should go back to your seat soon; the class is about to start.”

She nodded and walked back to her desk in the middle of the room. Yuki watched as some male beastkin tried to talk to her but was skillfully ignored.

“Hey, um, I saw you at the tournament.”

Yuki glanced at the source of the voice, a male elf that was sitting in front of him. He was turned around and seemed to be trying to have a conversation.

“You’re better than I thought,” he continued. “You’re pretty strong for a girl, you know?”

Yuki stared at him for a bit.

“That’s nice,” Yuki said.

The elf opened his mouth again but before he could speak again, the sound of a door opening distracted him. Yuki flicked his eyes toward the direction of door closest to the front of the room and saw a familiar person walk in.

“It seems like I made it on time,” Mabel said softly as she walked. “I was just notified of my new role maybe twenty minutes ago and given that time to review over everything for the rest of the year so I hope you understand if I stumble at times.”

She stopped behind the desk that Nataru used to use and looked about the class, her eyes scanning the entire room. Then her eyes lighted upon Yuki and they seemed to brighten.

“I see that some of you I have in other classes so I don’t believe this will be a difficult class for me,” Mabel continued. “Your performances in the tournament were very good and so I congratulate you all on that.”

Yuki saw smirks and grins appear on the faces of the other students.

“You’re rankings will be determined in two weeks which leads into our most important topic for today,” she said. “As you all might know, next week signals the start of our mid-year break. For the next two weeks, you students will be free from your academics but please don’t go too wild.”

There were snickers around the room.

“Because of the upcoming vacation, there is a little special thing planned out for all of the students of the Academy. Tomorrow is the weekend and there will be a school field trip. Each year will be going to a different location. The first years will be going to the city of Fenrir, located at the border between Libra and Keynal.”

Yuki had heard of Fenrir from his research online. It was near a popular hunting location and so had become a major city. Tourist came from all over to see the powerful hunters and it had also became the center for most guilds in Ethros.

“This is just a trip. You are not expected to learn anything from this and you’re only objective is to have fun and relax. We will be booking a hotel for everyone and will be paying for most basic expenses but you are all welcomed to bring your own money.”

‘I should go hunting there. Maybe look at some of the guilds to see how they work,’ Yuki planned. ‘Akira would like to go hunting. But we’re going to need to be careful.’

“And so, that concludes all of today’s announcements,” Mabel said. “Everyone who will be going on the trip is expected to report to the gate of the Academy at 9:00. We will be spending the whole weekend there. I hope to see everyone there.”