Welcome To Your Classroom, Hubert

The cold moonlight stared. The windful breeze shivered.

The headmaster, Tianna, waited. 

Hubert thought, clenching his fist.

His sense of righteousness forbade him, yet he knew of the uncertainty that risked his future. Consequences that made him contemplate the risk of failure, failure of his mission.

He risked not only himself, but of someone much greater.

"Mother…" he called plightfully, hoping for an answer that would rung in his mind, like when the voices of those he despised did.

Yet the voice of the one he delighted the most never came.

Then he thought of another person, oddly. A person that shouldn't have entered his mind, not now and not forever. Someone he knew out of his league and even world, someone holy, with white hair and eyebrows.

"..." his silence spoke as he reminiscent of the last time he met her.

"Take your time, Hubert," Tianna's voice echoed against the seas of trees, her tone contrasting with her words.

"I…" the battle in his mind raged on, confusion took place in him, disorienting him and his clear conscience. One side was his own sense of justice, the other, his fear of disappointment and wreckage.

Tap

Tianna's finger sounded against the rock on which she sat.

Hubert stood there, like a pitiful, lost cat, unaware of what he should have done at that moment.

Then a voice came in his head, the voice was full of warmth and the voice was comfortable.

"I think you're the best…"

Unlike before, his head didn't hurt. Instead, he felt the battle in his mind was over, as the victor had been decided. The words were stuck in his hoarse throat.

Yet he pushed on. His voice came, though barely heard.

"Tianna… no, master," Hubert called.

"You've decided," Tianna, the headmaster, answered his call.

It was all over at last.

"Return to your room and worry not, I will not expel you, Hubert," Tianna continued.

Hubert gulped his saliva down. Then he turned around.

His eyes widened upon the sudden change in scenery. The sight of his dormitory building, surrounded by not a single tree, greeted him. The thickened lines of trees were nowhere to be seen.

Hubert, mouth agape, turned around once again, searching for the headmaster or the rock which she sat on once. And yet, for one more time, he was greeted by the ordinary scenery of the thin treelines that he had entered barely a few moments ago.

…

The night was done, the moon sank, and the sun rose, as was decreed by the sky.

The students of the academy were awakened by the ringing sound of the bell that echoed in the morning. This was their fifth day after being born again through the awakening ceremony.

As such, this was their first day as an official student of the academy without any risk of being expelled.

The boys' hair slicked and their faces washed. The girls' hair brushed and their faces altered. On their chests were pinned emblems of the learning halls they were in.

Some had the emblem of the sword, signifying the first learning hall, master of weapons and lethalness.

Some, marked with the emblem of the fist, symbolizing the second hall, master of body and dexterity.

Some had the emblem of the book, symbolizing the third learning hall, master of knowledge and histories.

Some used the emblem of the staff, telling of the fourth learning hall, master of magic and spells.

They all left their room and made their way to their new places of studies. Not the classroom or the field of which they meditated, but to their own respective learning hall.

1221, Astian Calendar, 22nd of Junal, marked the end and dissolvement of 72nd Cohort.

Yet, on Hubert's chest, was nothing.

His ear shook, responding to every bit of sound that reached it. He had waited patiently, as he sat on his bed, until his ear couldn't intercept any sound of the living in the hallway.

"Ha… it's time," he sighed.

His time came, and the silence filled his ear.

He lifted himself up and made his way to the door. He opened his door and was greeted by the mingling smell of fragrance, some of sweetness and floweriness, some of alcohol and freshness. Though he also smelled the hint of dust that was mixed between the various smells.

He locked his door.

He was given no instructions, and he had not a single intention of waiting for one. Bravely, he picked up his steps and moved forward, one at the time. In his mind, he retraced all the steps he took that day, the day he was brought to the office.

Though his memories were hazy and often confusing, he convinced himself enough that he knew of the way. Clenching his fist as he took his steps, he braced for everything that would happen that day.

"Oh, hello, Hubert!" Vinc's voice greeted him in front of the entrance to his dormitory building. His thick glasses, as usual, were reflective of the blinding sunlight of the morning.

"Instructor Vinc? What are you doing here?" Hubert asked, surprised.

He looked around, the place was empty except for some of the students, whose presence were just disappearing around the corners of some building. Hubert instantly knew after deducing all the possibilities.

Vinc was there for him.

"Ah, the…" Vinc hesitated.

"The headmaster?" Hubert completed.

"Yes, it's nice seeing you being that comfortable around your new master!" Vinc replied, scratching his head, his eyes, just like before, were baggy, though his glance was sharp.

"Master…" Hubert echoed, his tone was grim, disliking the forced title that seemed to drag every time he spoke of it.

"Ehm, maybe I shouldn't speak of that too loudly, it is a secret after all… Well, anyway! Let's go, I'll lead you to the place," Vinc said, then the two of them walked.

The way was confusing, with turns he had never taken and places he had never seen. A few hundred steps had passed, and the way didn't seem to stop any time soon.

"Are we there yet…?" Hubert asked.

"So, I found out about the theory of the existence of essence, and what? Are we there yet? No, not yet! Anyway, let me continue with my findings!" Vinc continued. His sentences were boring and excruciating.

Two hundred steps and even three hundred steps passed. Only then, Hubert reached the first place he hazily remembered of. The forest that had a road that seemingly tilted upward.

"Are we… there yet?" Hubert asked once again. At this point, his legs felt as fresh as usual and as strong as since they started walking, but his ears reddened.

"This thesis closely resembles that of the church's writing! Can you even imagine it, the place with the most preserved theories and writings of historians and researchers. Oh, wait, what were you asking? Oh, yeah, relax. It's still a long way! Anyway, I desire to enter the church's archive, at least once in my lifetime!" Vinc continued.

A few more hundred steps at it felt like walking in a circle, first the forest, then the hill then the forest and the hill again.

"A-Are we close?" Hubert asked.

"You know? Some people say that creating a knighthood order is easy! But that is clearly not the case! This is what I learned from the royal historian, a writing of his a few hundred years ago, I think it was… four hundred years ago? During the reign of Gregorius the conqueror! One of the… Oh, you were saying? We're close? Ehm, maybe? I don't know either! Anyway, back to Gregorius, he founded what I think was bla bla bla," Vinc continued.

Hubert's eyes widened and mouth gaped in disbelief. He covered his ears with his hands.

One hundred steps, at this moment, he felt bored. His eyes rather peered into any of the scenery, even if they were just a bunch of trees crumpled up together.

It was a better choice than hearing Vinc's squabbling.

"So so so, the thing about the founding of this academy relates heavily to its name! Kexer, an archmage who wielded his affinity, one of the rarest ones, I believe! It was gold and he used that as leverage so that the 3rd king, Cyrillus, allowed him to create this academy! Thus, this became the only academy that rivaled the greate- I mean, the first ranked academy of the whole kingdom! The Royal Academy of Creopia! And you know that bla bla bla is bla bla bla" Vinc continued.

Hubert closed his ears for so long that, at one point, he felt it was better to be deaf.

"Oh Goddess, grant me the ability to mute people," he whispered.

At one point, he heard a different sound.

"What?" he asked himself, and looked around.

The sound was of nature, different that Vinc's long words. It was incoherent, but refreshing. A mix of flowing and falling.

"So, yo- ah… Hubert, it seems that we have arrived," Vinc stopped his words.

The sight was magnificent, it wasn't something he had ever seen that close before.

Flowing and falling at the same time, a body of water that was pulled down by gravity, into another body that followed the stream of itself. It was huge and deafening, it was tall and violent.

It was a waterfall.

Beside it was an entrance, the entrance was dark and eerie, like an abyss that stared at Hubert.

"Welcome, to your classroom," Tianna greeted, her voice coming from the dark entrance.