Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Classes

Author’s note before we start: I decided to grow a braincell and use italics for Al’s lines.

 

 

“Hey Abigail, we should probably get going.”

The clock has reached 8:25, sparing us a little time to travel to the opening assembly.

“On my way.”

I grabbed Al and headed out the door.

“You don’t have to take me with you.”

“Don’t you want to come along?”

“Of course, but you didn’t take me to dinner yesterday, so why now?”

“Just thought it would help you catch up to date, given how the headmaster will probably include the school’s background in the speech. Besides, you’ll get lonely, won’t you?”

“So you do have a heart...”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I just didn’t want to head back for my sword.”

Half truth, at least. I also wanted some company.

“I knew it!”

“Hehe. See? The lie hurts you more, did it not?”

“Fine, you got me there…”

 

The opening was to be held at the indoor training grounds building 1. Though calling it that would be a bit too fancy, given how it’s just a massive empty wooden building with a storage room for equipment. It’s more like an empty warehouse than anything.

I walked in to find the room lined with ten rows of seats, each twenty long. Every seat has a piece of paper with a number on it, presumably numbered from 001-200.

The place was already about half full by the time I arrived. A sign at the entrance told us to sit at the seat with our room number.

I hurried and found mine.

Heather was already at her seat as she waved at me.

I lightly waved back and sat down after removing the piece of paper numbered 153.

She somehow managed to fix her hair from earlier.

This was the first time I saw how she normally looked, without her having her hair wet or roughed up by bedhead. Her hair was a lot more wavy and fluffy than I thought. She had it tied up in a twin tails with it dyed pink at the ends.

“How long did it take to get that hair fixed?”

“About five minutes I’d say.”

“Five?”

“It happens basically everyday so I got used to it.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

“It’s still suuuch a hassle to constantly have to fix it though. And drying it’s a pain too. Maybe I should cut it like yours?”

“I think chin length is a bit too short. Besides, your hair looks really nice.”

She was about to respond but the bell rang. We turn to face the front to hear what the headmaster has to say.

He was a tall man probably in his 40s to 50s, with his short hair tainted with white specs.

“Greetings, students, I am Gilbert Frankston, the headmaster of Eden. As you all know, Eden began twenty-six years ago….”

Oh boy, this is going to take a while. I already read all this when I applied so I tuned most of it out.

I tapped my left leg twice.

“Yeah?”

Al piped up.

“I got bored, do you have anything you want to talk about?”

I whispered and hoped he could hear.

“Nah, I can barely hear you. And besides, this is interesting.”

It is?

Oh well, I guess I’ll listen along too then.

In short, they explained the government policy that happened during the war, the condition of the school during and after the war, as well as past headmasters. Apparently Frankston’s the 5th one and it has been that way for 4 years.

And then there's the school motto, rules, yadayadayada. The only thing worth mentioning is that we’ll get our uniforms during variety class.

“....and with that, we welcome you to Eden! Your student number will be your room number and will remain that way for the rest of the year, so we hope you get along and have a wonderful year! You have about ten minutes before your first class.”

And thus, we were dismissed.

 

Heather still had to grab her sword so I went on ahead to the area where swordsmanship classes were going to be held.

To be exact, it was just the back of the building for the indoor training grounds I was just in, called the outdoors training grounds 1.

Though similar to the indoor training grounds, it’s a bit fancy to call a big patch of flat land without grass the “outdoors training grounds”. Then again, what else could they have called it?

You don’t need much to train swordsmanship after all.

So here I was just standing around and waiting. There were a few other students around as well, most of them keeping to themselves.

“What did you find so interesting about the assembly?”

“I mean, you said it yourself, didn’t you? I get to be up to date and keep track of what I missed. Though it’s sad that my grand legacy as the-”

“Please don’t…”

“you-know-what was not remembered.”

I put my hand to my head. Why’s he so hung up over that title of his? He’s clearly not fooling anybody, so why does he call himself that?

“Do you actually have a legacy?”

“Depends on if you count a name on a gravestone. If I get one, at least.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

A while later, Heather came running out from the dorms with her sword in hand. She jumped and landed next to me with a thud, right when the bell rings.

“Just in time!”

“Yup.”

“Alright, if I may have your attention, please.”

Someone shouted.

We looked over to the front to see a man who looked even older than the headmaster standing in front of the building with a sword at his side.

“Hello everyone, I am Adam Brooks, and will be your instructor for swordsmanship. Now then, first things first, I’d like you all to introduce yourselves, starting from student 151. Just say your name, age, student number, and anything else you want to share.”

“Okay.”

A tall boy with sharp eyes responded.

“I’m Brandon Rowe, age 15, student number 151. My brother graduated from here a few years ago so I want to do the same. I like running in the mornings.”

I don’t really remember seeing him but I guess I wasn’t really paying attention to the run

Next was Heather.

“Hi everyone! My name’s Heather Granner, age 14, student 152. I like fashion and talking to people. Favourite food is strawberry shortcake. Oh, and I can’t stand bugs or fish. Nice to meet you all!”

“Next.”

And now it’s my turn.

“Abigail Lawson. Age 15. Student 153.”

There was a bit of a pause as the instructor stared at me blankly.

“You know, it doesn’t hurt to tell a bit more about yourself.”

Al chimed in.

I shrugged. He did say ‘anything else you want to share’, so it’s not like I have to talk. Besides, I don’t really have much going on for me. Unless they’re all that interested in my oh-so-amazing talent of waking up at 6 o’clock sharp or my incredibly interesting hobby of reading.

“Alright then… Next.”

And so, the self introductions continued all the way until 200.

“With that out of the way, let’s get started. We’ll begin by doing some warm-up. Five laps around the field. I’m going to be timing you. The last five have to do two extra laps.”

He pointed at the field I saw people running in this morning. Right now, there was another class running there as well, probably also for warm-up.

We headed over to the fields, put our swords on one of the benches there and began our run.

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I was never that athletic so I quickly fell behind. By the time I got to my fourth lap, some people were already done.

“Let’s go Abigail!! Woot woot!!”

I smiled. At least I have a cheerleader in the benches.

 

“11:23.”

The instructor called as I finished. By now, the class that was here previously had already left and there were only a few others from our class still running. My legs were completely drained at this point as I gasped for air.

I wasn't last, but I was still 46th place, still within the penalty zone.

I started heading back to begin my extra laps when the instructor tapped my shoulder.

“No need.”

Huh?

He pointed at one of the students who finished.

“You, go. four laps.”

“Huh? Why!?”

The boy exclaimed.

“You only did four laps and tried to blend in with the ones who came in first. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Now go.”

The boy sighed and got up.

“Oh, and students 159 and 187. Four laps as well.”

Wait, he kept track of all of us along with our student numbers?

I limped over to where my sword was as the other two students got up. Heather was already hanging out and talking to some people over at another spot.

I tapped Al, grabbing his attention.

“He’s as sharp as always, eh?”

“What do you mean?”

“I tried that same trick back when I was in his class. Caught me all twelve times I’ve tried. The guy’s got the eyes of a hawk.”

“He taught you?”

“Yup. You should’ve seen him back when his hair was black and didn’t have that mustache. What few girls we had back then were all over him.”

I was too tired to ask him anything else so I just left it at that.

Afterwards, we were taught how to hold and swing the sword and just practiced that with some breaks in the middle as the instructor corrected our posture and gave us advice.

By the time the bell rang my arms were practically dying.

“Good work everyone. We’ll be practicing more tomorrow. You’re all dismissed.”

At least I’ll get to rest during magic class.

 

The classroom was in the main building on the second floor.

As we walked in, we were greeted with 25 large desks, enough room for two people each. They were angled to face a table and a board that said for us to sit wherever we want.

On the table were three baskets, containing notebooks, pens, and erasers.

Heather and I decided to take the same desk.

We we talked as the instructor walked in.

He was a slender man who looked like he was in his thirties. His bald head and glasses shined brightly as it reflected the sun shining in.

He just stood at the front silently, as the room filled up and people began to awkwardly introduce themselves to their desk partners.

Until finally, when the bell rang once more, he immediately yelled.

“ATTENTION EVERYONE.”

We all snapped towards him.

“Thank you. As stated on your course sheets, I am Thomas Kingsley. You all have already introduced yourselves in Mr. Brook’s class, so I’ll just do a roll call. When I call your student number, please report your name, say you’re here, and come up to the front to grab a notebook, pen and eraser. 151.”

He said loudly.

“Brandon Rowe, here.”

“152”

“Heather Granner, here!”

We all got up one by one until everyone was accounted for.

“Thank you. Now let’s begin the lesson. For today’s session, we will be learning some prior information before we start trying magic, starting with the practicality of magic. It is advised that you take notes.”

He erased the contents of the board and began writing.

“Using magic is barely practical in everyday life. That’s just the simple truth. While we are surrounded with magic tools, those don’t require us to learn how to cast magic. Learning the actual logistics of how to cast magic is far too inefficient and impractical. For example, I can create a fireball with the snap of a finger.”

And just like that, he created a fireball the size of his head in front of the board.

“But a fireball even one tenth this size can take an amateur up to ten minutes to produce. And the size of it doesn’t even matter, because all you need is a spark hot enough to light wood if you want to use it to cook. The young man over there, can you come up please.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I just need you to do a quick demonstration for me.”

A boy sitting at one of the front seats stood up and walked to the front nervously.

“Do you have any experience with magic?”

“No sir.”

“Perfect. Take this lighter and press down on the button on top of it. Be careful not to put your hand over the hole.”

He handed a cylinder with a button on top and a hole to the side to the boy. The boy pressed the button which made a small fire come out the front.

“See? With just a few pennies, you can replicate what I’ve trained a year to do. Maybe one day, it’ll just be a big magic stone teaching the class instead of me.”

He chuckled.

“You may sit back down now.”

“Yes sir.”

The boy handed back the lighter and walked back to his seat.

“As I just demonstrated, magic for daily use can easily be replicated without fuss, because they're simple. Even more complex magic…..”

He began writing on the board.

The lecture went on as he explained a multitude of things, from how magic tools work to how magic has been used in combat.

Eventually the bell for lunch rang.

“Alright, that’s it for today. We’ll be learning how to cast and maybe try to cast some spells tomorrow.”

I took the notebook in my arms and got up.

Heather somehow managed to fall asleep during his lecture, so I tried to nudge her awake.

“Hmmm?”

“It’s lunch time.”

“Oh, it’s finally over!”

“How do you manage to sleep when he’s so loud?”

“I mean, it was just so booooring!”

“I found it pretty interesting though.”

“It was fun the first time, but I already learned this stuff.”

“Fair enough, I guess.”

Some of the people she was talking to during swordsmanship class came over and asked if she wanted to have lunch with them, so we went our separate ways.

“You’re not going to join them?”

“Nah. too much of a hassle. Besides, it’s Heather they want, not me, so I’ll just be tossed aside anyways.”

“You do you, then.”

 

 

Author’s notes: I hope I wasn’t too heavy on the exposition/worldbuilding. Making classes was kinda tricky given how I didn’t just want paragraphs upon paragraphs of information when said information will barely come up if ever, but I also don’t want it to just be “he taught us some stuff, onto the next class.”. My original idea was to tell this part from Al’s perspective but decided against it, cause even if it’s told from a different perspective, that’s still a whole ass infodump I could just skip. Still, I feel like some bits of exposition should be used, so I hope this made it somewhat interesting.

Also: I suck at character design and describing them so I just modeled Heather after Saki and Abigail after Ena from project sekai. Thank you very much for reading.

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