Chapter 3: A Professor's Nostalgia

"How cold-hearted of you, Valdemar." The hero's breath hitched after Visha's words stroke like a thousand lightnings. "Of all people I know, I thought you'd be the one who's initiate "change". But, I guess, you're still a huge coward. Just like you always were." Visha taunted, pouting.

Valdemar scowled at his taunts. He hated being pitied among all things. "I'm not a coward. I've never been one."

"Then, why didn't you save me, you pathetic excuse of a hero?" Visha asked, his red pupils and silver irises piercing through Valdemar like a thousand needles.

Valdemar's lips trembled not responding. His throat was dry, as if he lived in a desert for thousands of years. There were no words that his mouth could utter.

"Do they have some kind of special relationship?" Kenneth asked the class, and the whole class face palmed.

Visha's face lit up, answering Kenneth's question, "that's right! I'm in love with Valdemar Regulus!!" He declared, grinning from ear to ear.

"Visha!" Valdemar scolded, his chest tightening. All of the sudden it was hard to breath.

"What? Shouldn't you be glad that the greatest villain is infatuated with you?" Visha sighed, he acted as if he was being denied.

Valdemar clicked his tongue. "You have to leave, now."

"I'll visit you again, soon." Visha said, blowing a kiss to Valdemar. "Bye!" He bid as he disappeared, taking the darkness with him.

He looked away, not wanting to see Visha's grin for it will only make is heart ache.

"Prof! You didn't tell me the greatest villain was infatuated with you. That's so cool!" Kenneth complimented.

"Open your books to page 69." Valdemar changed the subject.

"Oh, come one. No fun." Kenneth groaned.

"Kenneth, be quiet or no flying." Valdemar threatened.

"Shut up, Kenneth!" The whole class erupted.

"Alright, alright. All of you are always ganging up on me. Geez." Kenneth opened his textbook.

"Let's continue our lesson and we will have a short quiz after this." The number 23 hero announced.

"Ugh..." Kenneth laid his head on his table.

"Ken." Valdemar called.

"I know, I know." The young villain sat up straight.

"We will have a five question quiz." Valdemar explained, the whole class was dead quiet, eagerly listening to their mentor. "Number one, who is the first Dark Emperor?" He asked. "Wrong spelling wrong. I need to the whole name." He waited until most of the students put stopped writing.

"Number two, who was the rival of the first Dark Emperor?" He asked, again, then waited.

"Third question, who won in the first world war? Is it the Dark Emperor or the rival?" Valdemar started to pace around the room, looking for cheaters.

He paused before reading the next question. "Fourth and fifth question, this is worth two points. What is the difference between a hero and heroborn? What's the difference between a villain and a villainborn?" He inquired and the whole class wrote their own various answers.

"Alright, two more minutes and we will check your papers." He said, looking at the clock on the wall.

After a while, the clock's long hand ticked. "Time's up! Exchange your papers with your seat mate."

"Number one answer. Yes, Nathaniel?" Valdemar called the student.

Nathaniel stood up, saying his answer, "Darkar La Rouge."

"Correct. Wrong spelling wrong. Wrong capitalization is wrong, the L in La is capitalized. La and Rouge have space between them." Valdemar nit-picked.

"Second question. Who was the Dark Emperor's rival?" He asked, choosing Sierra.

"Hercules Greene." The girl said in a stern voice.

"Correct. Again, wrong spelling wrong. His surname Greene has an e in the last." The professor uttered. "Third question. Who won in the first world war?" He questioned, pointing at a random student.

"The Dark Emperor, Darkar La Rouge." The student answered.

"Correct, it's okay if you didn't put his title, his name is alright. But, if your answer is only the title then it's wrong. There's been hundreds of Dark Emperors now, be specific next time." Valdemar told his students. "Then, last two questions, first hero and heroborn, what's the difference? Yes, Nathaniel, again."

"A hero is either a civilian or a villain who turned into a hero and a heroborn is someone who is born in a family of heroes ad continued being one." The young hero answered.

"That is correct."

"Next—yes, Ken." Valdemar cut himself when Kenneth kept on waving his hand.

"A villain is either a civilian or a hero who turned into a villain while a villainborn is someone who has villain parent/s, and pursued their career as a villain." Kenneth answered with pride.

"Correct. It doesn't matter how they formed the sentence; a heroborn is from a family of heroes while a hero is a turned one. And, a villainborn is from a family of villains whole a villain is a turned one. Alright, write the scores on the right side of the papers and pass them to the front, then to me." Valdemar instructed. "You may all have your recess." He bid arranging the papers.

"Prof, are we still having flying lessons?" Kenneth asked the green haired man.

"Yes, we are." Valdemar confirmed.

All of students bad gone out to eat some snacks and he did the same. He picked up a cup and filled it hot chocolate, he went to sit on one of the chairs where Dominique was. It was also her class's break.

"You really like sweets, huh?" Dominique chuckled, gulping her Black Coffee.

"Yes." Valdemar stirred his drink.

"I can't handle them. They make me nauseous. I like coffee, better." Dominique said, sticking out her tongue as a sign of disgust.

"You mean Black Coffee?"

"Hey, I love bitter things." Dominique announced.

"Yeah, it's obvious." Valdemar shook his head.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Dominique asked but Valdemar kept his mouth shut. "Anyway, you should decline being that Dark Prince's rival. It's dangerous. Look what happened to my brother after he encountered one." She told the man.

"Yeah, I know." Valdemar paused, taking a sip from his cup, without blowing on it. He licked his lips, the pain from the heat didn't hurt as much as he thought. "I know that more than anyone else." He continued, looking down on his drink. The hot chocolate was still and consistent, he has hoped his life was like that.

But, peace was something he could never attain when both the villains and gods existed.

He sighed, drinking the whole cup.

Soon, class had started, again.

The whole class 4—A were out in the fields.

"Alright, here are your bracelets, I've imbued them with my power. Use it wisely. We will have a small performance test. It's been two weeks since we've started this lesson. Let's see who's good at flying. The finish line is right there. You will compete on three's." Valdemar explained, thoroughly. "The criteria is composure, skills, balancing, and control, the points in each aspect. The winner will get five extra points. If it's a tie, you'll have two extra points and if you lose. Well, you'll have nothing." He said, tapping his hands on the grading papers. "Now, who's ready?" He asked his students.

"Prof, the three of us will go first." Kenneth volunteered, Sierra and Nathaniel behind him.

"It is logical to go first." Nathaniel commented.

"Hm." Sierra hummed.

"Alright, line up then." The three of them lines up in a horizontal formation. "Activate your telekinetic bracelets." They clicked on the yellow button and yellow aura started to cover their whole bodies. "Ready, set, go!" The three of them floated and began flying at a fast pace.

Valdemar smiled as the students began to cheer on the top three heroes in training.

"Go! Sierra!"

Sierra was steadfast. Valdemar wrote on her paper.

"Kenneth! Kenneth!"

Kenneth's feet almost touched the ground. Valdemar sighed, writing on his paper.

"Nathaniel, you can do it!"

Nathaniel was consistent, but not as great as Sierra.

Sierra won, then, Nathaniel came next, leaving Kenneth as the last to finish.

"Aw, man." Kenneth turned off his bracelet and so did the other two. "Why are you so good at this, Sie?" Kenneth asked, but Sierra took it as a compliment, blushing.

"As expected from Sierra. You don't disappoint." Nathaniel complimented.

Sierra's face became redder. "Thank you." She said.

"Friendship at its finest, must be nice." Valdemar mumbled, a bittersweet smile was plastered on his face.

The rest of the class competed, and the test scores has been released.

"Woah, Sierra got perfect in all. She got 45 points." Kenneth was now holding Sierra's results. "How about you, Nate?" He grabbed Nathaniel's, as well.

"I got 40." The brown haired boy said.

"Damn, I only got 37." Kenneth frowned.

"That's not so bad, Ken." Sierra reassured in a apathetic voice.

"Really?" The turquoise haired asked his friends.

"Yeah, if there wasn't extra points, you'd only have three mistakes." Nathaniel patted the young villain's back and Sierra nodded.

"That's true." Kenneth agreed, laughing.

Valdemar observed the young teens from afar. He stared at their lovely smiles, like the ones he had seen before on himself and his former friends.

He loved the way they laughed and joked with one another.

Though, he hated it at the same time.