Eight

Every 6:30 in the morning. The schools large clock tower rings as an indicator for the start of a brand new day. Only Bathala knows just how much Kawlan wishes to drop a grenade at that clock tower once it unceremoniously awakened him from his deep slumber.

DING! DONG!

Kawlan's face scrunched up in frustration as he grabbed his pillow and pressed it deeply on to his ear in an attempt to shut off the noise of that comes from the ringing of the humungous clock tower as he closed his eyes tight wishing to once again go back to sleep.

DING! DONG!

'Curse that damned tower!' Kawlan deeply hissed as he forced himself to sit up from his comfortable bed.

DING! DONG!

The clock was still testing Kawlan's patience as it continued on ringing.

'Why is it so deafeningly loud?' Kawlan with a darkened gaze glared at the direction of his rooms window where the sound was coming from.

Visible veins popped on Kawlan's forehead as he grumpily threw his thick blanket to the side and walked his way to aggressively open his window.

'...'

Only then did Kawlan know why the clock towers ringing volume was enough to ring his ear to death. The clock tower was distanced only by a few miles away from his dormitory.

Kawlan was now wishing to commit a crime against the school architect for designing it this way.

Kawlan knew that going back to sleep was impossible due to the imprudence of the clock towers noise and so he unwillingly just went and refreshed himself and went out to eat.

Tuwaang meticulously placed the well plated dishes on the table and stood still and stiff as he awaited for his served young master. He saw a glimpse of Kawlans black hair and was immediately frightened to death when he was faced with Kawlan's pale face as he sat on the table. Kawlan was walking with drooped shoulders looking lethargic and was even sporting on a weary face with visible bags underneath his eyes.

"Y-young master! What in the world happened to you?!"

Kawlan really didn't feel like explaining himself and so he just gave Tuwaang a dismissive wave and wolfed down the food on his plate, which as yesterday's, was finished by him in a matter of minutes. After he finished his meal he thanked Tuwaang for the food before he stood up and walked his way wearily towards his classroom.

Tuwaang worriedly glanced at the micronutrient deficient looking young master but before he could voice out his concerns Kawlan had already walked away and so he quickly ran to catch up to him. Kawlan was a small distance away but stopped when he remembered spmething and turned to look at his servant.

"Where's Linggisan?" He asked with a weary voice once he remembered his picked up baggage.

"Linggisan? Oh you mean that puny heron! I have sent a letter regards to that bird to Master Kudaman and he had given instructions to send the bird to be trained as a servant so he may serve you in the near future. Once his training results are up to oar we shall enroll him here in this academy as your secondary servant once you safely pass and level up to a sophomore level."

'That's IF I do level up.' Kawlan silently thought.

Kawlan didn't really put much pressure on himself as he continued on walking once he heard the answer to his query.

By the end of the school year there will be a grand examination to rank up. For freshmen there will be the the Grand Test called: Kasadpan. If a freshman passes the Kasadpan test then he/she could move up to sophomore year. Similarly, the sophomores would also face a Grand test called: Sidlakan, once passed they could level up to Junior level. Juniors will face the Grand test called: Habagatan and once safely passed they can level up to senior level. Lastly, the seniors would face the Grand test called: Amihanan once passed they could safely graduate. For every grand test level, the higher the level the harder it gets and so only a few people could directly rank up, mostly of the people would need to repeat a grade and face the test in the next year. Those students who fail are called: Usabans.

As for the matter of servants, nobles could have in school servants but its limited depending on your level. Freshmen students can bring but 1 servant. Sophomores could have a maximum of three servants. Juniors could bring up to five and seniors could have the maximum of ten. Servants in this place are like the convenient assistants that CEO's have back in his former world but the only diffirence is that the servants here take care of their masters well being all too seriously.

Once Kawlan arrived at his room his already weary self became 10X more weary at the sight of the varying bright hair colors near his seat. He fought his sudden urge to turn around and just skip class but still he knew better and so he walked his way towards his table.

The handsome silver haired man seated next to his seemed to have noticed Kawlan's entrance as he looked at him and flashed him a friendly smile that he was sure would make those hormonal teenage women swoon.

"Good Morning Kawlan."

Kawlan paused and visibly frowned.

'How did he know my name?'

Dakila seemed to understand as to why Kawlan was frowning as he answered Kawlan's inner query.

"I asked around about your identity. Your brother is quite famous and so learning your name from the faculty was quite easy. I hope you aren't offended."

'Just the fact that he directly asked the faculty just for my name is frightening enough.'

Kawlan felt a shiver from his spine and once again his decision to keep away from the protagonists strengthened and as he did before didn't bother greeting back and merely gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

'If I greet him back now, then I'll have to greet him back tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after, and by the time I'll next notice we'll be on speaking terms. And I don't want that.'

Such a measly thing as a good impression is amounted to nothing in Kawlan's eyes. As a man who was raised isolated from society only to be accompanied by 7 demons for sure is no master of making a good impression nor making friends.

A certain red-haired man saw Kawlan's disregard and was immediately unhappy. "Snobby bastard." Tanum seated beside Dakila hissed at Kawlan but as Kawlan did yesterday, he never spared him a glance, this angered Tanum even more but before he could explode Dakila gave him a warning glance and so he just let out a huff in anger while crossing his arms and stayed quiet but his deep frown showed his extreme distaste.

Kawlan's weariness once again came over him and a sense of lethargy could be felt all throughout his body.

'Kuya Sakim is draining too much of my strength.' Kawlan deeply thought as he buried his head in his table and slept to restore his strength.

The three main characters glanced at the Kawlan's sleeping position and merely shook their heads at him.

Homeroom period quickly ended and soon the instructor for the next subject, Introductory to Basic Mahika, Instructor Hagilap entered and evryone immediately greeted him with respect.

Hagilap roamed his eyes all around at the newly enrolled freshmen and he was satisfied in seeing a lot of strong candidates present inside his class.

"Good Morning guys. I know we've met yesterday but once again I am your Basic Mahika instructor, you guys can call me Ginoong Hagilap."

(A/N: Ginoong is an honorary title in the Philippines you add in front of a respectable older man as a sign of deep respect. It is equal to calling someone Sir in English.)

"Good Morning, Ginoong Hagilap."

Everyone in the class greeted one after the other.... all except one.

Hagilap's gaze stopped and bore deeply at a black haired youths sleeping visage that was seated at the end of the classroom. He was already familiar with that certain student and was well-aware of his background. He really had no good impression of this young man since as a member of the faculty and as a hidden Hukom, he knew the secret behind his enrollment.

Every school who enters the inter-school tournament for Royals has a hidden department staff called Hukom's. These people are the ones who will evaluate every school student and narrow them down based on capabilities and skills to choose as the royal candidates, but of course, their jobs are concealed for the fact that they do not wish for Hukom bribery to happen.

Hagilap was someone who values abilities and talent above all. Once he knew that Kawlan entered using a backdoor he really had zero amount of expectations for him and so he adeptly chose to not mind his presence and directly ignored him.

'He'll surely end up as failing the Kasadpan Test, maybe he'll end up a freshman all his life unable to graduate. In every class there's always that one hopeless kid. Oh well.'

Hagilap retrieved his gaze and once again gave the rest of his students his attention.

"Okay guys! Now I'm sure you are all familiar with all your mahikas and since you're all hot blooded you must wish to show off your prowess so our first activity will be..." Hagilap elongated his words and stared at his students one by one to create suspense, which clearly worked as the students visibly awaited in eager excitement at his following words, " sparring," upon hearing his last words the room boomed in murmurs of excitement as the hot blooded teens looked at each of their classmates to probe the level of skill they have.

The booming murmurs didn't fail to awaken a certain someone's slumber as Kawlan scrunched his forehead and massaged it to stop its throbbing. Kawlan immediately noticed the rooms top heightened level of excitement and felt visibly confused as to what he had missed.

"Ginnong Hagilap announced that we'll be having a sparring activity." Kawlan's kind seatmate kindly filled him up on with the details. Kawlan was grateful and so he instinctively glanced at his side and gave out a small thanks. Once he glanced at his seatmates face only then did he remember his identity and immediately snapped back his gaze towards the front.

'Oh well. What is done is done. Plus he did help me so a thanks was necessary.' Kawlan inwardly defended himself.

Hagilap lead the students onto an open field at the school grounds that was specially designed so that student could freely shoot their mahikas and not damage anything.

'Sparring?' Kawlan silently thought and felt troubled. He didn't know how exactly the 'sparring' in this world work. There was no such information inside the book that he read, or at least none that he remembered, not to mention he later dropped it and didn't bother finishing the said book.

Also not forgetting the unfortunate fact that he was in absolutely no state to spar. He was feeling quite lethargic, not as much as he did during the early morning but still, currently, he only has a small amount of energy to spare.

The cogwheels inside Kawlan's mind was busy spinning when a voice broke him out of his rambled thoughts.

'DID I HEAR SPARRING?!' A loud excited voice reverbed inside Kawlan's head making him wince in pain.

'Kuya Sakim how many times must I tell you to NOT yell inside my head.'

"Heheheh my bad kid! I heard the word sparring and I immediately awakened!'

'We don't even know if the sparring here is similar to the spars we've seen on earth.'

'Bah! Whether it be on earth or here sparring will never loose its essence!'

'And its essence is?'

'Beating the shit out of yo' opponents till they're dead of course!'

'....I'm pretty sure that's not how sparring works.'

'Bah any other way of sparring is only for the wimps!'

'Well I'm a wimp so I'll gladly take the other sparring way.'

'Bah! You chicken!'

Kawlan ignored the voice inside his head that was currently hurling out insults at his body constitution and gave out his attention and listened to the instructor that was speaking in front.

"Okay now for me to see your current skill I shall randomly call out a name and if a person wishes to spar with the person I called just raise your hand. " Hagilap then raised his hands ang the ground visibly shook frightening the students as some fell to the ground. Kawlan balanced himself and prevented himself from falling but the rest of the students weren't so lucky. Amidst the shaking a rectangle shaped soil rose a few centimeters off the ground, which was similar to a size of a boxing ring.

The students we're all clapping in amazement at Hagilap's display of earth mahika. His way of controlling the ground seemed seamless and effortless that it looked almost too easy to do. However, students who also has earth mahika knew best just how much control and high skill abilities it needed to do just half of what he just displayed and did.

"As expected of one of the top Earth Mahika!"

"I wonder just how long I have to train to be that good in controlling my earth mahika?"

"Maybe a hundred years?"

"Fuck off!"

"Kyaa! Ginoong Hagilap is so cool!"

Hagilap raised his hands and the boisterous students immediately quietened.

"The spar will be held in this little rectangle stage that I created and the loser will be determined once one is pushed off the rectangle stage. Do you all understand?"

"Yes, Ginoong Hagilap!" Everyone yelled in excitement, all but one of course.

"Okay! I love seeing your determined looks and so I shall announce the first person!" Hagilap roamed his eyes once again to leave the students in a state of suspense....

Kawlan felt a nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. He seemed to notice Ginoong Hagilap's eyes stop at his direction and he could immediately feel his stomach churn.

'Bwahahahahaha! Looks like you're the first to be beaten up!' Sakim joked inside his head.

Kawlan right now deeply regretted awakening Sakim.

"Okay I've decided."

'No. No. No. Please for the love of Bathala don't.'

"Student Kawlan Kudaman why don't you come up on stage and show your classmates what you got?"

'Yeah Kawlan show 'em what you got!' Sakim mocked with a voice that poked Kawlan's irritation.

'I have nothing to show really.' Kawlan inwardly thought but sensing the gaze of everyone turn to him he merely let such thoughts go as he let out a sigh of surrender and lethargically made his way up on stage.

"Kawlan? Who's that?" someone whispered.

"He's a Kudaman so he must be that Kudaman Juniors brother?"

"You mean that strong as hell swordsman?!"

"Yeah!"

"But I thought his genius younger brother was still in grade 5?"

"Stupid! Then he obviously is the second child!"

"The Kudaman Noblehouse has three sons?!"

"Well I guess? But I've never heard much information about the second child except for the fact that he was antisocial."

"So you don't even know what type of mahika he has?"

"Yeah."

"If a nosy bastard like you don't know then I guess no one does. Well then that's something to look forward to."

'.....Please its really nothing to look forward to. After all I am mahikaless.' Kawlan inwardly retorted.

Kawlan's physique was unlike the residents of this worlds. Due to the fact that his soul doesn't originate from this world he has no mahika within him. And the reason why no one knew the fact that he was mahikaless was because every time that his school announces that they'll test everyone's mahika he would mysteriously 'fall ill' and would be in an unfortunate state that he'd be unable to take the test. He fell ill every single time.

He had a stomach ache when he was in grade one, he caught a flu when he was in grade 2, he injured his ankle when he was in grade 3, he broke his elbow when he was in grade 4, he hit his head when he was in grade 5, and finally he almost drowned in a pond when he was in grade 6 and had to rest. However, unfortunately for him, today was quite different from all those days from his past since this time he had no way to think and make an excuse.

"So who would like to challenge Kawlan to a friendly spar?"

Everyone was silent and they looked at each other. Everyone felt alert because they all know the dangers of facing someone with an unknown mahika for they had no way to determine his skills and abilities. They don't even know the basics of his capabilities. Was he a Pisikal or a Hiram?

If Kawlan heard their question he would have bluntly answered, 'None of the above.'

"Come on guys? Not even one of you wish to challenge him?"

There were no movements coming from anyone when suddenly two hands we're raised up making Kawlan immediately want to spurt out blood.

"I would like to have the chance to spar with him Ginoong Hagilap!"

Kawlan: "..."

"No! No! I want to spar with him!" Another man voiced.

Kawlan: "..........."

'Bwahahahha! Aren't you popular?!' Sakim mocked.

'You've got to be kidding me!' Kawlan aggrievedly thought.