Chapter 7: Class

There is only silence between them. Karl deicides to break it. "So, how are you feeling now?"

"Better. Just few cramps here and there." Karl smiles to that.

"You seem in a good mood. Did something happen?"

"Well, I got to know how average man in early 1900s feels after a late night of drinking and coming home to see his wife. Let me tell you. It's a great feeling."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Look. Apparently, someone broke into my room yesterday and they beat my roommate Kareena to a pulp."

"How do you know that?"

"Look at the news?"

"IT CAME ON THE NEWS?"

"Stop. Yelling dumbass. Obviously, talking about the school news." Andressa sees Karl's unsatisfied face.

"Oh. You lost your memories. There is an online page which is managed by the news club. There they post latest news, announcement or any other school related thing. Give me your watch." She grabs Karl's hand types few buttons in it.

'Good info.' Karl reads the article on top of the page.

"A FEMALE KNIGHT APPRENTICE WAS FOUND BEATEN UP IN HER OWN DORM. IS KNIGHTHOOD GONE IN BLACK PEGASUS ACADEMY?"

'Knighthood? What is that? And she was knight? I didn't see any sword in her room.' Karl looks at the Andressa.

"You want to ask something? Shoot away."

"Um. What's Knighthood and knight? Aren't we in a mage academy?"

"When a super strong person performs an incredible feat he or she is awarded with the title of an knight." Andressa explain with her hands moving up and down making her look very cute.

"Also, when a Sentinel Family sees potential in a knight and takes them in, that knight receives Knighthood which means their offspring are also knights and are also required to serve the very same Family till the end."

'This is straight up slavery and abuse of power. But what is a Sentinel Family anyway?'

"What is a Sen-"

"After the Crack, the remaining Stellars created their own families to pass on the Knowledge of the Great sage. But as the generations changed the families prioritized their own offspring over the public. Rumours say that they were afraid someone with greater talent and proficiency will take their power away. So, to avoid that they just stopped sharing their spell and tactics."

Andressa gives time to Karl's brain to harvest this information. Seeing the lack of response Andressa continues "Honestly, this is just greed at this point. Their hunger for power will be the doom of the humanity. The battles on the red border are the prime example of that. The difference between the top class solider and low class knight is so large that you can't even call it a comparison. All the normal mages and warriors are just dying while this knights just piss on us from above."

Andressa grits her teeth. "The knights are in scarce. They can't cover the entire border so my father has to stall the enemies till the knights come and save him. Why? Why? Why?"

Karl stays quiet and listens to her. Tears falls from Andressa's eyes.

She looks dowm and cries. Karl just stands there. "

Sorry. You had to listen my ranting again. Wait was it your first time?" To which Karl doesn't answer.

"To end this greed and meaningless death. I will become a high class knight and achieve knighthood. Then release all the secret knowledge to the general public." Andressa looks up and Karl sees her red eyes with her chubby big smile.

For sometime, they continue to walk silently. Then Andressa suddenly asks "By the way. How do you know the Phirsecots?"

"Well, let's just say I become Ian's brother in arm just yesterday." Karl smiles awkwardly.

"Wow, you become an apprentice of the knight who never fights." "What? What do you mean?"

"You don't kn- Great Horizons, you got yourself in a mess." Andressa says that in an exaggerated manner.

"Explain now."

"Here we go, Ian Desouza Phirsecot is the only child of the Phirsecot house. He is a diagnosed with mana poisoning. Which made him sicker the more mana he uses. Just few months ago, Ian's father who was the head of the house got crippled in the battle. With no promising knight from the Phirsecot house the Sun blazers family kicked the Phirsecots house from its ranks. To save his house's respect and knighthood Ian applied to various school but they rejected all of them. Then as a last option Ian's parents sold almost all of their fortune and somehow got him in our school."

"And what's a brother in arm?"

"Basically, you got accepted into Phirsecot house as an apprentice and you sworn that you will follow Ian till death."

Karl thinks for a second 'A failing knight house who needs their hero to save them? Smells like a main character plot to me.' Karl smiles.

"Okay. I think about that." Andressa looks at her watch.

"Are we going anywhere specific?"

"Of course. We are going to our class." To which Karl sighs loudly.

After walking silently for few minutes. Karl sees the same large wall from the wind range. But this one is not tall as the range one. Karl notices dark clouds appearing in the sky.

At a distance there is a large open gate with a lot of students with different uniforms coming or going out. Andressa notices Karl looking around 'He is just like a kid.' Andressa giggles softly.

"What?"

"Nothing. Welcome to the center of the Black Pegasus academy." Karl and Andressa passes through the gate only to be greeted by a giant Pegasus statue which made from a black material.

It stands at height of forty meters. Karl who is fascinated by the statue looks around and notices that his hair are floating. He looks at Andressa and sees her are floating too. Every human in the academy has some kind of pull to them. Weak but there is faint pull.

'This is due to that high tier thunder range?'

"Don't worry this will go back to normal after a while." Andressa ensures Karl.

"Okay" Karl responds and follows Andressa inside. Inside there is a vintage style corridor with a lot of room leading to different classrooms.

Karl stands closely behind Andressa.

Karl has been ignoring this fact but there is significant difference between his height and everyone's height. Somehow this puts Karl in a bad mood.

"Is something wrong?" Andressa asks.

"No. Why?"

"Well, your face looks like a beat-up rotten orange."

"Shut up."

Andressa continues walking with Karl following her closely. At a random moment Andressa goes inside one of the classrooms. Karl also follows in but sees a man writing on the blackboard with a book in his hands.

"Wait, can we just go like-"

Without listening to Karl. Andressa goes in and sits in the far back seat. Karl clicks his tongue and sits in the seat which in the front row near the door.

"In order to connect the magic circuit with mana chip A234CW we need to circulate our own mana in the top of fingertips. Especially on the index finger and the thumb as they make most contact with the mana chip. This diagram will be asked on the next Monday's test. Okay any doubts?" The teacher faces the students.

He looks around for any queries. But there none. Karl also looks around the students. All are wearing the uniform as the Karl and Andressa. But none of them are paying any attention to the lecture at all. Karl even sees some of them straight up sleeping.

Karl faces back towards the blackground and sees the teacher standing infront of him. "Mr. Avaritia meet me in my office." 

After a few seconds of silence, Karl nods hesitantly nods and the lecture continues. Most of the lecture Karl just practices his magic. He summons a rock from the void storage and puts it back. 

'12, 13, 14, 15, 16...what?' The magic circle on Karl's hand disappears. Karl tries to summon it back. But nothing changes. 'What is happening?' Karl tries again but it doesn't work.

Karl's face visibly looks paler than before. As if he was starving for days. He starts to take heavy breaths unconsciously.

SLAM!

"That's it for today. We won't have any lectures till next week so make sure to revise this regularly. See you all on monday." The teacher leaves the class.