The Hidden World

“Yuki, it’s already past 8,” Akira said as she shook him. “You need to get ready.”

Yuki rose with a yawn and then leaned his head on Akira’s shoulder.

“Thank you for waking me up,” he muttered.

“What were you doing?”

He pulled his head back with a little effort and stretched his arms. Then he went outside to the kitchen, Akira following him.

“I was testing something in my mana dimension,” he explained. “Then I got sidetracked by something.”

“Testing?”

“Yup, just an idea I had yesterday. I’ll tell you more about it later. I need to get ready for the trip today.”

Yuki went around grabbing a loaf of sliced bread and popped it into the toaster. Akira watched him from the entrance of the hallway, leaning on the wall.

“What did you get sidetracked by?” she asked.

“Well, I was looking through some books that I got from Ancestral Knowledge,” he started. “While I was doing that, I also requested some books on stealth and speech so that I can improve my Assassin skills. I haven’t really been practicing them.”

“Then?”

“One of the books that came up from my request was named “How to Lie Good” and it caught my attention from the obviously intentional poor grammar. So I cracked it open and it was actually surprisingly helpful.”

“It taught you how to lie?”

“Yes and no,” Yuki said. “It did teach me some tips on how to avoid speaking the truth and the obvious tells of a person lying but the title had a double meaning. When it said lie, it also meant lying down.”

“Sleeping?” Akira said. “What can you possibly learn about sleeping?”

Yuki grabbed his toast and started to munch on it.

“They were just tips on how to get a better nights sleep or how to fall asleep faster.”

“Like?”

“Erm, how do I say this,” he said, scratching his head. “Some were very explicit. One tip was to tire oneself by doing various, um, activities. In bed.”

“Oh.”

“Want to try some of them?” he asked with a wink.

Akira tilted her head before her eyes opened wide and she turned bright red.

“Wha-what do you mean?” she stuttered.

“I’m joking,” Yuki said, finishing his toast. “Of course not.”

He walked past her as he headed toward the bathroom.

“For now~,” he whispered.

Yuki closed the door before he saw Akira’s reaction.

“Wait, what!” she exclaimed. “Huh?”

---

 

When Yuki got to the front gate of the Academy, he saw that he was rushing for no reason. There were only two people there.

‘Well, we do still have ten minutes before the appointed time.’

“Hi, Yuki,” Yuna said to him when he arrived.

“Hello,” he replied. Then he turned to the other person there. “Hello, Mabel.”

“Welcome, Yuki. Glad to see that you will be coming with us,” she said back. “The others will be here in a couple of minutes. That’s how it is usually.”

“Yuki, why are you calling Instructor Mabel with just her first name?” Yuna asked.

“Oh, I let him,” Mabel answered. “He’s the only person in my last class so I would rather have it so that we are comfortably with each other.”

“Oh, I see.”

A few minutes past and like Mabel had predicted, a flood of students began to arrive at the gate. Yuki saw them come as he was sitting at the base of the gate, leaning on the brick column that it hung on.

‘I think this world enjoys punctuality.’

“I see a lot of you came for the trip,” Mabel addressed the crowd. “I’m happy to see that. I’m going to be doing a headcount really quick so please bear with me.”

She started to point towards people quickly, her mouth moving as she counted.

“Hi,” a male voice called to Yuki.

Yuki glanced up and saw the face of the male elf that was trying to talk with him the day before. He ignored him.

“I don’t think I’ve introduced myself,” the elf continued. “I’m Jared Heim. Nice to meet you.”

[You can just humor him,] Akira advised. [I don’t think he’ll go away.]

‘I don’t think so either.’

“Yuki,” he said, sighing.

“Our conversation was interrupted yesterday,” Jared said. “I saw you fighting at the tournament.”

“So I gathered.”

“You were better than I expected,” he said with a smile. “How did you get so good at fighting?”

“The normal way.”

“I told my friends that I thought you would be able to beat up some of them but they just laughed at me,” Jared continued. “They said there was no way a girl could beat them.”

“That’s nice.”

Mabel clapped her hands and drew Jared’s attention away from Yuki.

“Okay, let’s get started on this trip,” she said. “Everyone follow me to the station.”

During the walk toward the station, Yuki decided to stick near Yuna in an attempt to prevent Jared from talking to him. And if he did tried to talk, then Yuki would be able to deflect it onto Yuna and have her talk in his place.

“So do you have any plans?” Yuna asked him as they walked.

‘Oh yeah, she likes to talk as well. At least she stops when I make it obvious that I don’t want to speak.’

“My plan is to just wander around by myself,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens.”

“Do you want to go with me anywhere? I don’t have any real plans either.”

“That kind of defeats the purpose of “by myself” now, doesn’t it?” Yuki replied. “Maybe some other time.”

“Okay.”

They fell quiet and continued their walk toward the train station.

‘See, she doesn’t constantly talk. I like that.’

A few minutes later, Yuki reached the station and went into one of the many private cabins where he barricaded himself. Then he went to the list of stops on a screen in the cabin and selected Fenrir.

‘Now no one annoying can come and talk to me.’

[Are you going to be staying at the same hotel as them?] Akira asked.

‘I have too. Otherwise they’ll be asking where I went.’

[I see. Well, I talk to you more when you get to Fenrir,] she said then quieted.

‘And I like Akira even more because she ends conversations.’

A couple hours passed by, Yuki entertaining himself with music, and the train made its final stop in Fenrir. Yuki didn’t know just how large this world was but the distance from Junction to Fenrir was about six hundred miles. Normally, a transporter would be used for distances that large but it seems that Mabel wanted to keep an eye on every student.

‘I still haven’t tried using a transporter yet.’

Yuki got out of his cabin and waited outside in the station with Mabel as the other students got off.

“Alright, everyone is here! The time is 10:00,” she said, looking at her watch. “We’ll go to the hotel and then you are all free to do what you want for the rest of the day. Just make sure you check back in by at most 22:00.”

Then she led them through the city. Fenrir was a city that was quite different from Junction. It was large, but not as large as the capital. The buildings weren’t made of glass or metal but were instead brick and what seemed to be wood. On closer inspection, Yuki saw that it was some sort of synthetic material that only imitated the texture of wood.

‘It doesn’t look as modern but this city is cozy. Never thought I would use that to describe a metropolis.’

The roads were paved with stones and the buildings were of an old fashioned design. There were many squares with a multitude of people going about and most had a fountain in them. Scattered throughout the city were flowers and small trees that provided shade for metal benches.

‘But this city seems prepared for war.’

Many of the people that could be seen seemed to be a hunter or a soldier, dressed in armor and armed with weapons. The layout of the city was very gridlike and planned. Most of the “bricks” and “wood” were artificially made materials that were stronger than most metals based on Yuki’s quick analysis.

“We’re here,” Mabel announced.

Yuki turned his head forward and saw the five story building that stood in front of him. Though it was only five stories, it was the tallest building that could be seen for a while.

“This place is called the Showcase,” Mabel said. “We’ll be staying here for the next two days. It’s located in Guild Central which is where most of the big guilds are located. The headquarters of the Guild Management Department is also here.”

‘Oh, so the Showcase is a business. Maybe they change the designs of their buildings to fit city they are in.’

“I booked us four large rooms to stay in. Two will be for the girls and two will be for the boys. I can’t have you all in separate rooms since that would be expensive and troublesome,” she continued. She noticed the look on some of the student’s faces. “Don’t worry. The rooms are really large. They can easily fit five of you and there are only seventeen of you here. Oh, Yuki.”

Yuki snapped his wandering eyes back on Mabel.

“You’ll be staying in a room with me.”

‘Oh yeah, my gender thing,’ Yuki remembered, nodding.

“Okay! Now that everything has been explained and in order, you are all free to go,” Mabel announced. “Have fun.”

She waved at them as the students began to disperse into the city and mix with the other people. Yuki went inside the hotel and handed his bag of to a porter that was standing near the entrance.

“Can you hold this for me?” Yuki asked. “I’ll come back later for it.”

“No problem, ma’am,” the porter replied. Yuki ignored the last part.

He left and began to wander off until he slipped into an alleyway. He quickly checked to see if anyone that would recognize him was around and found no one.

‘You can come out now, Akira,’ he told her.

With a flash of light, she appeared right next to him dressed in tight fitting track pants and a short sleeve shirt. Then Yuki removed his disguise and there in the alleyway stood an elf and girl with cat ears.

“So what are we going to do first?” she asked brightly.

“Want to do some killing? Monsters, that is.”

Akira smiled, an evil glint in her eyes.

“Why not?”