An official student

In the dream, Koku had seen something new. He'd seen a monster blacked out; its roar shook the ground, and its blacked-out face then faced his direction. The moment its eyes flashed bright crimson red, was the moment Koku woke up.

"That dream again..." Koku, confused and freshly woken up, got out of bed and once again did a quick little workout to warm up. After this, he went to the dining hall since they were supposed to meet there the next day.

Upon getting there, he noticed he was the only one there, so he took a seat and began reading the handbook on the tables. Two hours later, when all the students were arriving, Koku had finished reading the handbook and had placed the thing down.

After the students began chatting, around 15 minutes would pass by, and the red-haired guy with scarlet red eyes from the start of the test appeared. He slowly walked to the center of the dining hall and began to speak out loud.

"The principal is taking care of urgent matters, therefore cannot be here. That still will not change anything; I'm here to announce the dorm numbers you'll get. And yes, congrats, you're all officially students now." After hearing that last bit, the students erupted into cheer; the tough things they went through finally paid off.

"And although you passed that gruesome test, the hard part starts now," the man bowed slightly in a courteous manner. Upon doing so, he smiled ever so slightly. After this, he began telling students their dorm numbers; and they were paired with people naturally.

When they got their numbers, Koku had gotten dorm room number 107, and after doing so, the red-haired man left after introducing himself…his name was Shuuren.

Upon arriving at the dorm room, he'd taken notes on how big the dorm building was. It was massive and impressive, regardless of this, many students of the school looked at Koku with disgust.

This was because the birth certificate turned in by the knights left a bitter taste in the mouths of the school staff; the part that did so was him coming from the slums.

However, this did not change anything, since Koku really didn't care at this point. Not too far behind, Yuusha was getting lots of admiration looks and entering his room. Koku found out that the person who was to be his roommate switched out of the room upon hearing he was living there too.

After that, Koku would rest for the day, and head out during the night to work out. When he'd return, he'd go to sleep, then wake up, go to the classes scheduled for the day and back to working out and sleep again. He'd repeat this process over and over again, for 9 years.

Being 15 years old now, Koku had managed to avoid more unnecessary attention. This didn't stop him from getting hate from the students; and in this time, Koku's emotions weren't so bland. After getting used to his emotions again, Koku bonded with his companions, who also happened to be his summons.

There wasn't a person more hated in the school than Koku, as people typically always tried to pick on him, and yes, over time, Koku found a profound appreciation for hating them but not saying anything and playing it cool. However, this did not stop 3 people from being around Koku a lot. April, Aron, and Emiko.

Something to note is that in this time, Koku's personality formed, or grew quite a bit. Everyone would get to know this, and sitting in the back seat of the class, Koku looked outside the window. This class had been mostly about the human body, and the similarities it had with other human-like races. Koku really wouldn't pay much attention to this class since he'd learned everything he'd have to learn a while back in the hospital when he was 5 and was taken in by the nurses/doctors.

Looking outside the window, Koku sighed as an air breeze gently rushed past the window. That's when Koku saw it, "Purple?" Koku's curiosity was piqued, and he narrowed his eyes as they yelled due to embarrassment.

"That's right, they should be headed inside by now," Koku thought as he yawned, "And class should be…" As he was thinking about class ending, the magic bell rang, with this class was brought to an end.

So as Koku got out of his chair, he began walking towards the exit and was stopped halfway there by someone he knew well by this point. "Well, Koku. Same old same old, you never change," Aron said as he smiled. "Eh? Oh Prince Charming, what do I owe the pleasure-" Aron smacked Koku in the head with some papers, "Well here all your homework."

Koku looked at him in awe and asked, "Was that really necessary?" Hearing this, Aron broke out into laughter, "Well seeing you ignore the teacher and passing the class does irritate me quite a bit," Aron scolded Koku and eventually the teacher came into the picture, "You boys want extra homework? If not, GET OUT OF MY CLASS." Upon hearing this, both Koku and Aron ran out of the classroom, "She's scary, you know," Koku muttered as he caught his breath, "Well, extra homework, is extra work, so of COURSE SHE'S SCARY," Aron yelled at Koku.

"Gosh, you two are loud." A girl said walking up to the two of them. "April!, you got here quick," Aron told her with a smile on his face.

"You guys smell that? Ewww, it smells like someone's in L-o-v-e, I wonder who it could be-" Immediately after getting that far into his speech, Koku was punched in the back of the head. "THE HELL'S YOUR PROBLEM ARON," Koku yelled after getting hit.

Both began to bicker with another, and eventually April stepped in and calmed Aron; and as she did, Koku began teasing both of them. "AWWWW look at that. Two love birds, so pretty-" Koku was once again hit in the back of the head. This time by April, "SHUT UP KOKU."

"Why are people so aggressive…" After this, they all parted ways, and Koku was headed off to train himself further. "Let's make use of these private training facilities," Koku told himself as he entered the private training room that could only be used by one person at a time.

Training every day for hours at a time (6 hours), Koku would then learn something new, as he went to the library commonly. More like every day; going to the library, Koku would meet Emiko there.

Emiko loved to read and study in the library, and since Koku's thoughts of her changed very little, he no longer minded her being around or being around him.

In the time Koku was at the academy, he learned many potentially useful skills, such as farming, herding cattle, and such animals; he'd learn how magic worked and how to tell which magic was going to be used. This was simple since seeing and feeling the magic particles around the air were indicators of the magic type.

Fire would warm the air and sometimes even create little embers around it. Water would moisten the air, and water would begin to form at the mage's choice of area close to him/her. Air would create airflow around, on top of its sound effects. Lightning creates sizzling in the air and is very visually noticeable. Earth magic can be noticed purely by sound and sight.

Koku learned all these things and over that, he got to see the Academy's fighting styles. Koku himself took the time to learn and perfect them, and although he thought they were mid, Koku still, in fact, learned. This wasn't the only thing he knew since he'd learn many things, such as how to properly wield the spear, axe, daggers, and bows. He learned how to use these to the point with them alone; if seen by anyone else, they'd consider him an expert in those classes of weapons.

In this time, however, Koku was able to stabilize Voidpulse's condition and get it full of void aura; and although he did this, he couldn't recklessly use that sword since if he did, he'd get lots of attention very fast; bad attention. Something he was able to do with concentration was, using the sword with it hiding its aura and presence.

But only by hiding its aura he could use this sword without gaining attention, and within the years he's been at the academy, Koku was also building his power and use of the Void powers. He'd significantly improved by much more than he had been at 6 years old, this and he learned that his summons could be instantly summoned at 2 times the strength in a situation where he's about to die.

(Fast-forward 2 months)

Koku had been training when a magic projection appeared, and a man was visible in it. "Students, I the academy principle must announce something to you all. As of this month, we will be entering the Academy games." Hearing this many students began cheering and Koku could hear them from the private training room. "Damn, even from here I can hear them… well, they can't hear anything from in here, so back to it," After this Koku continued to train his close combat efficiency.

The Academy games are pretty simple. Academies would face each other in free-for-alls. These games consisted of many challenges that the students would face and in the end; their top-scoring students in the Academy games would get to fight another for a prize and fame.

Leaving the training room 2 hours later, Koku crossed paths with someone, "Eh, look who we have here, the dead-last student, Koku. You had better get out of my way before I get angry," Yuusha demanded angrily. Koku did, in fact, move aside and ignored him; worry not Koku had something planned, and now that the Academy games were here and starting very soon, Koku smiled to himself as Yuusha walked past Koku.

Simply put, Koku was anticipating the Academy games months before. "Delightful, seeing all my pieces falling into place, I'll…" Koku's smile faded and he moved on with his day. Something Koku, however, wasn't expecting, someone who he'd not seen in years, at the library. "Oh, there you are, it's been a while, Koku...