Chapter 2: Famous and Lying

What a cluster of problems this has become for Barbados. Standing in front of a captivated audience with no presentation, he hadn't anticipated that teachers would leave their lessons to come see this joint-effort of the younglings. What should he do to continue this facade of a trapped hero? Criticise the monarchy? Possibly even utter names of Demons that should strike fear into the hearts of mortals. No, that would probably turn everyone against him. And then it hit him, he could just come up with a fake identity and live that life to its fullest. With a calm grin, Barbados straightened his back, put his hand on the hilt of his sword and calmly breathed before speaking. But before he could utter any words, most teachers were ready to attack him with any means necessary. "Damn," he thought, "Just woke up and already have people after my neck." But who could blame them, stood in front of them was a stranger that had been freed to a stone prison, who they didn't know the dangers he posed.

Another idea came to mind and Barbados went with it.

"My name is Barbados, son of Sansar the Creative." He decided to lie and play with the pesky humans.

"Those 2 girls mentioned my father's name, but I assure you that I am no threat. I am a hero of the past tasked with awakening when any major threat were to appear that threatened the safety of this world. The weapons I wield were his." As Barbados lied without a drop of hesitation, he grabbed the handle of his majestic sword, brought it up and declared that today is a day for celebration. The teachers were unfazed, not even amused, but the children were cheering at the thought of a day off from school, especially the older students who looked like they had faced Grul the Desolate. But, at the furthest corner of the group, Barbados could feel his intuition screamed at him to apprehend caution at the individual dressed in a maroon 3 piece suit.

That individual was in his late 40s, maybe early 50s, and had a calm demeanour surrounding him, lacking any signs of shock or devastation. While the teachers in front could be compared to predators, that white man with a smirk across the face was closer to a leviathan. If it wasn't for Barbados's amazing poker face, he may have yelled in astonishment. Not because he feared him, but because he never expected such a strong human to ever exist in an era of peace. Undoubtedly he realised that Barbados had spotted him, but he didn't move, but adorned a smile. At long last, the maroon gentleman began to move from his isolated corner, approaching without touching anybody else in the crowd. But the others still noticed him and began forming him a path to walk through, those he passed bowed at his grace and upheld the patriotic-like bow. Although he took his time, he made it seem like a spectacle. "Looks like a parade." thought Barbados, feeling a part of his consciousness became jealous and angry at the difference in presentation skills.

Between the two was no space left and they stared at one another, which quickly silenced the rowdy crowd from mere minutes ago. Barbados didn't expect him to fight, and he was correct, the gentleman offered his hand out and wished to greet the old age hero to the new era.

"Welcome Hero, welcome to the Academy of 5 Stars. My name is Adam Grem, the headteacher of this establishment." The man's gentle smile pierced Barbados's ancient heart and his conscious self fell to his knees wishing he was born a human and balling his eyes out in a pathetic manner. But his poker face was still onpoint, presenting him as a stoic and fearless man.

"I appreciate the warm welcome. I mean it. This truly feels admirable. As you probably heard, my name is Barbados and have been watching this-'' but Barbados stopped his utterance and tried to think of a better phrase to use. He had tried to ignore a glaring fact that caused Adam Grem's aura to be so dangerous. Adam was blind, and it seemed to have been a birth defect, yet he stood in front of him with a stronger sense of self than the rest.

"I apologise for my rude remark earlier." But to Barbados's delight, Adam didn't scorn at him or change from his calm captivating semblance.

"Believe it or not, you aren't the first to make such a small mistake, so don't focus on the past and think of the future. Now as you were saying, I was watching this what." Adam pronounced the last few words in a manner that weren't meant to be interpreted as hostile, but as rivalrous. Taken back, Barbados decided to welcome this friendly chat.

"Ah yes, as I was saying, you probably heard", Barbados putting as much emphasis as possible on hearing,"this is my little charade that spontaneously occurred as I was stuck in the moment."

"I see, but may I also ask about the soft-edged gems you gave to the young children," said Adam with a sly smile escaping from his composed face. This trapped Barbados in a corner, if he told the truth then it would imply that he was never trapped of his own accord and would lead to everyone re-assuming their attack stances, so how could he spin the truth and the lie to be beneficial to him and not make his hands drenched in blood.

"Those are weapons from my forge. Not capable of destroying nations, but still powerful enough to make up for any lack of talent. I gave them those weapons as a gift for their thousands of hours of joy that gave me entertainment while I waited." That was true but now he needed to include a lie to do with the marble statue and the gemstones. Even though Adam was blind, he could probably still sense the environment and feel any changes.

"They are also gifts of appreciation for helping me after the statue I awaited in had decayed from the passage of time and the gems that would let me exit fell from their respective holes." Barbados on the inside threw a fist into the air and felt his years of insanely talking to himself pay off, while still keeping that calm shell exterior.

"Very well then," exclaimed Adam with his interest piqued,"show me." The headteacher wished to see just how powerful one of those so-called weapons were. Barbados grabbed one of the many soft-edged rocks from his pocket and awakened it. A mace made from moon-blue steel with obsidian ridged spikes manifested into his hands.

"Uh hey you kid over there with dark blonde hair. Come here." Barbados handed the weapon to the unsuspecting child and told him to swing with all his might into the anvil Barbados conjured. He did as he was told and easily shattered the compressed iron into millions of splinters, like cracking glass with a stone, but he also caused a spark to form that disrupted the heat energy and caused the temperature to reach freezing levels. Adam clapped with astounding astonishment, feeling the younger self of his body yell with curiosity.

"That is on the weaker side of weapons but it's still a wonderful example of the power that each individual one possesses. I named it 'The dark side of the moon', inspiring isn't it?".

"It's long, tacky and unnecessarily poetic" thought Adam, but to not create any commotion, he nodded in agreement.

He called the boy over and asked to feel the weapon, only if Barbados allowed it which he did. The lightness of the weapon made it easy to swing.

"Brilliant" he uttered and gave it back to its rightful owner. "Truly a one of a kind weapon." Adam turned to the crowd and ensured a warm welcome for the ancient hero. Although Barbados appreciated it, he felt it was immorally wrong to create unnecessary panic about the end of the world. "What kind of disaster could even occur when the world is in equilibrium" thought Barbados while subconsciously thinking that he was jinxing himself.

***

Far, far away in his mind a crack could be heard within his mind, but he was oblivious to this. He thought it was the marble statue breaking down even more. However, he couldn't think about that now, he was supposed to be having a meeting with the entire teaching faculty at the academy, but since it wasn't going to commence for a few hours, he went to explore the large building. It was much bigger than he had expected. The place where he was trapped as a statue was a small area that was secluded and isolated from the main campus. Additionally it was built atop a hill to the right of the Academy which was done to prevent any of the elderly students from messing with the younglings, which he had no way to prove but believed in his intuition. While that area resembled a cathedral, the main building could be considered a castle, both enormous and over excessive but also pleasing to the eye. There was a mixture of old style architecture, large stone pillars and towers, and new, tinted windows and complex metal structures for support. The inside of the building was more themed to be on the simpler side. Strange advanced levers could be used to transform this lively interior into a world devoid of life.

There were many rooms in the building. Many that formed the circular base for the castle. They weren't small either, they were grand auditoriums easily able to house 50 students for the strangest of lessons.

"What is the benefit of learning the impact of music on mana," thought Barbados as he poked his head though every empty classroom whilst avoiding the one with learners,"A student could easily find out the results of that in their own free time." One aspect of the academy that shocked him was the outrageous concoctions and experiments the students could perform and study. An example being the impact of poison on mana, not applied to the mana itself but to the body. Another one that interested him was the impact of physical training on mana, such as using it as a layer of protection to block attacks or using it as an extension of one's self while performing a pull up. "Mortals sure are creative. Almost puts my title to shame" thought the Sinborn while carelessly wandering the large facility.

Heads turned from the few students that were around in the corridors or in their specially allocated club rooms which he happily greeted. The news spread like a virus and every kid inside knew his name. At the end of his adventure on the first floor, Barbados decided that the upper floor would be better explored when he had an actual guide. All that remained for him to find on the first floor would be the gymnasium, the cafeteria and the assembly hall. The cafeteria was simple enough to find, being located in the centre and creating the illusion that it was the centrepiece of a masterpiece. Outside behind the academy was a large colosseum-like building with a glass dome covering it. Inside he saw some students training and trying to master their control of mana. And it was only at this point in time that Barbados didn't actually know how mana worked. He tried to enter the room but his sharp collar bone-shaped wings with skin stretched thin to the point of transparency blocked his entry. He stood in silence at the pathetic view, this time truly wallowing in sorrow, but a kind student came and showed him the marvels of technology. A second door could be opened that was camouflaged to mirror the look of the curved building.

That student's name was Jorvik. He was a Blossom 2nd year, which Barbados had no clue what it signified but just nodded as a sign of interest. Barbados thanked him and sat down furthest from the arena to view the few students that were training either their weapon skills or magic capabilities. Jorvic returned to his partner, a girl with dark grey hair that appeared to be in the same year as him. "Ah young love" thought Barbados while gazing around. At the back of the interior was a wall displayed with countless weapons. There were the usual swords, spears and bows and other conventional weapons, but there were some niche ones too like the Jagdkommando tri-dagger and rope darts. The only reason he knew about the newer weapons was because of his hobby. Barbados lived the life of a blacksmith and artisan so it was expected of him to have knowledge of every possible weapon.

"Wonderful, aren't they," spoke a strong but silent voice next to him, "they are the future of our nation."

The voice scared Barbados and almost made him squeal like a child and spout profanities at the quiet figure.

"Ahem, yes. One may even describe them as remarkable." But Barbados was only lying. Their skills were that of bugs when compared to the beings from the past. The only student that actually stood out was Jorvik who used a war flail to near perfection with each strike shaking the metal, but inefficiently. He would get right up to his opponent and swing, which didn't use the entire length of the flail and would cause it to rebound off her shield instead of ensuring a strong hit.

"May I ask for your name?" asked Barbados, deciding that it would be good to break the awkwardness between the two.

"Yes, where are my manners? My name is Okla, a teacher of physical and mana enhancement." The shadow surrounding the figure slowly condensed and revealed a person wearing thin black armour with their helmet resembling a traditional mediaeval England helmet and with the texture of a snake etched on it.

"I also run the Stealth club. Oh and before I forget, Adam said that you should make your way to his office." And just as their coarse voice finished speaking, they slowly dissipated and disappeared into thin strands of air.

"How the fuck…"