Working of the Academy

(Julianna Pov)

When I opened the gate and entered the class, a few students who noticed me averted their gaze just as fast.

Their reaction was only natural.

My face was half burned and quite badly at that. Anyone who saw me would be repulsed.

At first, it used to bother me but now, it doesn't.

Heaving out a sigh, I started walking towards the back seats.

The classroom seemed to be quite huge.

Except for the quiet mutterings of some students whenever passed by them, everything remained quite normal.

I just have to ignore them until they have their fill and then they will all go back to focusing on their own conversation.

"Um.. is this seat occupied?"

I asked a black-haired boy slumped in his seat.

He slowly turned his head towards me and looked directly at my face.

"It's occupied for my sleeping," he replied, his voice ...held no emotions that could be gleamed, and his eyes that looked at me remained indifferent.

A part of me felt terrified, there was something about him that simply felt ...inhumane.

And a part of me was quite surprised to see how he hadn't shown any adverse reaction on seeing my face.

It's been a long time since someone looked at me without giving any sort of negative reaction, I know it might just be that he is good with concealing his emotions but not having to worry about or noticing their expression and how uncomfortable they feel looking at you when you talk is something I appreciate even if I have gotten used to it.

I felt a bit thankful to him for being so inexpressive, well, labeling him as inexpressive so early in our conversation isn't the right thing to do.

...A smile tugged on my face, I placed my bag on the chair, the bag mainly contained my personal weapon and tablet that would be required in classes, I hadn't brought anything else along with me.

As I occupied the seat, I decided to initiate the conversation with him

"You shouldn't have come if you wanted to sleep"

He once again turned his head towards me, looking directly at me without any repulsion or any aversion showing on his face.

...Now that I can see his face more clearly, he is ..handsome, no that would be an understatement.

He is fucking hot!

"If you were going to sit here anyway, there was no reason to have asked" He replied.

...

I turned my head away to the side, to hide my flushed face.

Calming myself down.

Is he a human? Is he the same age as me?

For real?

He doesn't seem to have long ears, so he can't be an elf but..

God isn't fair, is he? Some people get so much in their life.

I felt a bit envious but putting a lid on such emotions, I turned towards him as I decided to introduce myself.

"My name is Julianna. Yours?" I asked.

We are going to be classmates from now on it made sense to at least know the names.

"...Noah"

He took quite a bit of time before answering me.

Was he ...not comfortable giving his name to someone like me?

Ah, maybe I got over my head a little.

Just because his face seems inexpressive doesn't mean he doesn't have emotions.

I felt a bit sad.

"You are weird" Those words left my mouth.

I don't know why I said it but I mainly said it because I didn't know what else to say. I don't know what he is thinking right now, does he think why someone like me is talking to him? Am I making him uncomfortable?

Those thoughts plagued me.

"We haven't even talked that much yet and you are already labeling me as a weirdo? What the fuck is wrong with you?" He asked, even though he used pretty crude words, his indifferent voice made a huge contrast.

It felt almost funny.

Then it hit me.

Didn't his words in a way imply that I shouldn't label him anything without having conversed enough with him yet?

If so, would a person like that really hesitate to give his name just because of my appearance, maybe there is another reason he hesitated ...

"You are weird but in a good way" I said in whisper like voice with relief washing over me.

I could tell he was going to say something but before he could the bell rang and at the perfect moment a man appeared as if he had been waiting for it, wearing a suit.

His blond, smooth hair and sharp sapphire eyes looked at us all as he went behind the podium.

Standing silently over there.

All the students quickly sat down on their seats and stopped conversing.

The man remained silent and then after a few seconds his lips parted and a voice entered our ears.

"Good morning to you all. There won't be any classes today, and all I am going to talk about are some instructions, so you can all relax. There is no need to be so tense, just be sure to listen carefully" 

"First, let me congratulate you all. You have done a wonderful job getting into the academy but please don't think this secures your future, you will still have to work hard to secure your future, so don't lag behind, train every day, push yourself to your limits, and surpass them, there are quite a lot of facilities that you can find throughout the academy that would help you boost your growth." He paused and then continued.

"Well then, let me introduce myself. I am Oliver Orlean, an S-ranker. Well, you might have already guessed that much after seeing my handsome face" He said with a smile and some of the girls blushed while some boys simply muttered something under their breath, probably cursing him.

...

Charm is kind of dependent on rank. Those whose charm felt otherworldly were sure to be an S-ranker, well this is mostly the case for humans.

Elves even with low ranks are quite breathtakingly beautiful.

I turned my head towards my neighbor and looked at his face.

"Stop staring."

"What is your rank?"

He is a first-year like us, he can't be a high ranker, there has never been any case of a high ranker while being a 16-year-old.

"G+"

...

"Y-you aren't joking?" I asked in disbelief.

"Why would I?" He questioned.

...Crazy.

What would his charm be when he becomes a high ranker?

He might even surpass Elves in beauty.

My blanked mind came back to its senses as Oliver Orlean began to speak once again.

"Check out your smartphones, there must have been an email sent. Open it up" He told us.

I pulled out my smartphone and clicked on the mail I had gotten. The moment I did, a message appeared on my screen surprising me.

'Please wait for a moment, the system is being synchronized'

I read it, confused, I looked around me and everyone seemed to be surprised and confused just like me, well, almost everyone.

My neighbor seemed to be completely fine.

"Do you know what's going on?"

"He is gonna explain, what's with impatience? What kind of important deals do you have to attend to? Just be quiet and listen" He replied, slumped into his seat.

"No need to be so rude" I said, grumbling.

My phone bell rang and so did everyone else's, the ring of notification resounding in the lecture hall.

I looked towards my phone which showed that the synchronization was complete.

I found that the user interface of my smartphone changed quite a bit.

...This is annoying.

I thought as I tried operating it.

"All right, is the synchronization complete for everyone?" Oliver asked and we students simply nodded.

"I know guys, you don't like what just happened but still this kind of response is a bit disheartening," he said before continuing "Okay, so let me explain. The school system has been synchronized with your smartphones. It contains quite useful stuff that you would need for the academy. Go to the profile app and open it, then register yourself and you will see what useful stuff I am talking about"

I did what he said, looked through my phone to see the app, opened the app which asked for my fingerprint and retina scan and I gave it.

My neighbor seemed to have already done it. How does he know what to do beforehand?

Once my scan was done, my phone screen showed my registered ID...

Yes, my ID was being shown in the app and there was another option that showed points...

==================================================

Name : Julianna Claire

Course: Hero Programme, First Year Student. ---Class yet to be designated

Current Rank: F-

Potential Rank: None *The individual is a Human*

Academy Rank: N/A

Grade Rank: N/A

Current Academy Points: 20,000 AP

Class: Assassin

Affinity: None

Skills : [Stealth lvl.2] [Hearing lvl.1] [Silent Footsteps lvl.2] [Cooking lvl.2] [Poison Resistance lvl.1] [Mental Fortitude lvl.1] [Dual Weilding Dagger lvl.1] [Mana combustion lvl.1] [Mana Surge lvl.2] [Shadow swap lvl.1]

========================================================

Class yet to be designated? I am already in A-2 though.

And what's academy rank? Grade rank, as in our own year? Academy points?

What is all this?

I felt a bit overwhelmed along with questions that surged into my mind.

Chattering among students was quite evident, they were all discussing trying to understand and piece together what was happening.

I looked at my neighbor, still as inexpressive as he was before, completely calm.

"Do you know what's going on?" I asked and then I regretted asking.

"How many times do I have to say, just sit and let things proceed? If you have questions after he is done, then it would make more sense to ask someone but ...let the guy do his job. He fucking gets paid for this shit unless you are going to pay me then don't ask me for an explanation" He replied still in his monotonous voice.

Damn him!

I shouldn't have asked him.

"I know you are all confused but quite down a bit, will you all? I will explain everything. That's my job, no need to worry" Oliver said and everyone as if remembering he does exist in the class looked towards him waiting for the explanation as they all silenced.

"Alright, good. Now then, let me explain, anyone who came to this campus last week must have gotten an ID card, right? Well, they are now useless. So you can throw them away if you want to. As for students who came to the academy today? Well, great don't worry about what I just said. From this point on your smartphones will work as Id's. In case you end up losing your smartphone or destroying it then make sure when you buy a new one, you get the academy system synchronized once again, you will have to go and talk about that stuff with the IT department."

"What is the use of this ID? Well, You will be using it to access various facilities available on the campus. Without your Id's at hand, you won't be able to access those facilities, you can't go to your training grounds for personal practice, you can't use the buses around the campus to travel from one place to another, and the like"

"Now, I will go one by one on each thing. The first thing that your ID shows is your name. No questions about that, right? Good. Now, onto the next line, you can see it's talking about the program you are in and your school year ...now here's where you are all wondering 'What's with the class not yet designated' right? Well, to answer that, your current class arrangement is temporary"

What?

I thought as the murmurs began all around the classroom, bafflement apparent on everyone's faces, mine included... well, my neighbor seemed to be fine, if anything he is yawning.

Oliver clapped his hands and the murmurs stopped as students looked directly at him, one of the students questioned.

"Um, sir what does temporary suppose to mean?"

"It's just as it sounds, your current arrangement is quite random. But once your academy rank and grade rank has become determined your classes will be allotted. The higher your rank the better the class and privileges and the lower the class, the lower the privileges, you will understand later down the line, no need to fret over it. Just know that the current arrangement is not permanent."

"Um, if I may ask how will the academy rank be decided?" The boy in the front seat asked.

"That's not something I can tell you, as I said you will learn about it in the future. Don't fret about it that much" Oliver waved his hand dismissing our worries and questions.

"Well, onto the next question that you might be having about Academy Points. Well, they will work as your money of sorts. If you want to buy something at the academy then you will have to spend your points to buy it. Until now, those of you who came to the academy last week were able to buy things using the money you brought with you but now if you want to buy something you will only have to use the academy points, and you will receive them every month"

I looked at my neighbor and asked

"Did you come today or before?" 

"2 days ago and I bought hella stuff with my money. I don't have any need to use points anymore."

His reply felt a bit bizarre.

"Great" I said.

I don't even know what else to say to that.

"Well, the rest of the stuff is something you all understand. Right?" Oliver asked and I along with other students nodded.

"That's great to see. If you still have any questions, you should read the rule guide that your guide app contains. Oh, and I will be your homeroom teacher until your classes are assigned. Well then, you can go home, make friends, and explore the campus or go and train, I will just advise you all to use your time wisely. Anyone has any questions?"

A student questioned.

"Um, why do we have things so complicated?"

"Well, you guys know some geniuses have weird quirks, right?" Oliver questioned and students nodded as he continued "Well, that's how it is, this prestigious academy has its own quirkiness" Oliver said with a smile as he concluded. He waited for more questions but none came his way, and then with a nod to himself, he left.

Still dazed by all the information students remained seated in their seats, almost all.

Noah stood up and started walking away.

I looked on my left and met another student's gaze who averted his eyes. 

I silently stood up and decided to leave as well.