6:40 a.m.

  That’s how early I had to wake up to make it to the academy in time

  Someone could say “how is it possible? You live in the academy’s dorms, they should be close to the academy, right?” Yeah, they’re close, in fact it takes less than 10 minutes to reach academy by walk

  Problem is the lessons start at 7:00 a.m…

  So you can see the problem here

  I roughly had 10 minutes to:

  Wake up and accept that I have to get up of the bed, which took me 47 seconds,

  Wash my face to completely wake up and eventually use the bathroom, which takes from 20 seconds to 2 minutes

  Get dressed in the Aegis Academy’s uniform, which took me 7 minutes (damn necktie),

  And then eat breakfast, which I was doing while walking to school,

  While I was preparing to get out, I could hear my neighbors students panicking whether because they woke up late, they miscalculated how long it’d take them to eat their breakfast or to get dressed

  So loud… Was I the only student in the dorm who preferred peace and a scripted routine?

  Ironic considering my Armor, but hey, that was the truth

  As I was walking, I suddenly felt a pair of eyes on my back, I turned around and another student promptly turned his gaze away from me

  “Hey, it’s him, right?”

  “Yeah, I heard he’s the first year with the random Armor”

  Ah I see, people were talking about me first thing in the morning…

  Ugh, so annoying, is this what they call being gossiped? I thought as I resumed my walk to the academy

  As much as this was annoying and totally the opposite of the peaceful life I want, I expected it to happen, it happened when I was little, so of course it’d happen even now

  Although it’d be much better if they would just mind their own business… I thought as I headed for my classroom.

  The classrooms were all the same: the instructor’s desk was positioned on a sort of stage, close to the large blackboard hung on the wall, while the students desk filled the space almost wall to wall, leaving only narrow aisles between them, facing the aforementioned blackboard and instructor desk.

  The seats weren’t fixed so the students could change their seat each day

  You might think that the best seat to stay unnoticed would be the back seat on the corner of the classroom, but sitting there attracts the instructor’s attention, the actual best seat to remain as much unnoticed as possible, from my experience, is in the corner of the front row

  Instructors usually tend to keep an eye on the students sitting on the back row, and of course the ones at the center of the front row are literally in front of them, while the middle rows are in the exact spot to be easily seen by the instructor’s peripheral view, the only spot that can’t be noticed unless you purposefully gaze there is the corner of the front row

  But this reasoning works because of the classroom layout, if it were to be an even smaller one, then the corner of the front row wouldn’t have been as hidden as it is in this classrooms

  But enough of this, I sat on the famous front row corner and waited for the lessons to begin,

  As I was waiting, the rest of my classmates swarmed inside of the classroom, I didn’t even bother looking at my classmates list so I didn’t know a name here, not like I cared though

  “Hmm… excuse me…” a student timidly approached me

  “Are you… Aren Valen…?” figures, I sighed before replying

  “Yes, it’s me” the student’s face lit up immediately

  “T-then, I was hoping you could give me some advice with-”

  “You’re wasting your time then” I cut him off as soon as I heard the word ‘advice’

  He wanted fighting advice

  But unfortunately for him I didn’t intend on training anyone, that would’ve made me stand out too much and as of now, I was already the center of the attention in my class

  “Hey! You could’ve let him finish at least” another student chimed in, with an upset expression,

  “Why should I help him in the first place?” I coldly replied to him, which only made him angrier

  “It doesn’t cost anything to you, and you would do a good action” he fired back, exactly as I expected

  “It does cost me my free time, and I’m not doing a good action at all, if I teach him my fighting style, it would be useless, he won’t understand how I created it and it won’t feel his because he didn’t create it naturally” I argued, and this time, the angry-looking student hesitated before replying, actually, he didn’t reply at all

  “D-don’t act so high and mighty just because you won a stupid exhibition match!” he angrily shouted before walking back to his seat

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  I then turned to the timid student who asked me first

  “So, that’s it, the best way to learn a fighting style, is to do that on your own” I told him, he just nodded, looking a bit disappointed but not entirely,

  He was probably thinking something like: ‘It wasn’t the advice I wanted, but it’s still something’ or something like that

  And, as if he was waiting for this little scene to end, a professor entered in the classroom

  He was a man in his late forties or so with brown hairs and beard, he was wearing the Aegis Academy’s uniform for the instructors

  Unlike the one that the students wore, which was a simple suit with the academy’s sigil on the left side right over the heart, the one for the instructors was visibly more elegant and also had on the opposite site another symbol which changed depending on the instructor’s specialization, which often depended on their armor category, but technically nothing denies a non-Armor user to become an instructor at the Aegis Academy

  The instructor that entered in our classroom had a symbol composed of two open hands

  Before signing to the Aegis Academy I had looked up the meanings of these symbols, and apparently, the symbol of two open hands means that the instructor isn’t specialized in one specific field, but rather handles the class and the students within it

  In other words, he takes care of the paperwork and makes sure that the students behave in the class

  “Sit down students” he ordered to the class, and said students obliged, when everyone took their seats, he spoke again

  “Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Graham Thalmyr, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher during your years here at the Aegis Academy. I won’t teach you anything too specific, I’ll teach you the basics of fighting monsters while the other instructors, specialized in more specific fighting styles, will teach how to use your Armor’s uniqueness to distinguish yourself as fine Armor users”

  The instructor Thalmyr explained, I think I saw his gaze shifting briefly towards me when he talked about ‘uniqueness’ but I’m probably overthinking it, he was explaining in short the academy’s program, it wouldn’t be so strange to take a look at the whole class

  “Now then, I’ll give to you all a tablet, it’s provided by the academy and you’ll use it to access all the study material you’ll need through your years in the academy, using it for your personal business and changing or modifying its component and programs is strictly forbidden” Thalmyr explained as he took out from his desk the aforementioned tablets and begun to distribute them between us students

  Oh, right, I haven’t mentioned it until now because it wasn’t really necessary, but I think I should do it now

  Our technology is pretty advanced, if I may say so, tablets and phones are just an example but we also managed to create supplementary devices to add to our Armors, nothing too elaborated of course, just a small device tells you yours and nearby Armors’ status, but it’s a pretty remarkable achievement considering we still don’t know the origin behind the hearts that allow us to summon our Armor

  However, even an army equipped with nothing but the best of the best military equipment, is still nothing compared to a single Armor user that knows what they’re doing; which is why Armor users are so important

  After the instructor gave a tablet to everyone, he got back to his desk and sat down

  “For our first lesson, open the first volume at page 3,” instructor Thalmyr ordered to which we all obliged as the good students that we are

  The first lesson went over the very basics of monsters, instructor Thalmyr explained us simple monsters’ anatomy and behaviors,

  “Goblins are commonly known as the weakest monsters, I think all of you know them, they’re simple green humanoids with a face that resembles the one of a pig; despite being weak, a normal person without an Armor doesn’t stand a chance against them, that being said, they aren’t intelligent monsters but they usually hunt in group, however, killing the strongest one in the group can easily make them retreat”

  I noticed some of my classmates taking notes frantically, as for me, I was simply listening to the instructor, no point in taking notes on information that I already knew about

  “Once you’ll graduate from the Aegis Academy and be recognized as official Armor users, you’ll most likely take care of the eventual group of goblins out here, as proof of completion of the assignment, you’ll be requested to consign the goblins ears, known for their toughness and thus almost impossible to cut unless the goblin is dead” instructor Thalmyr added

  Now that was something I didn’t know so I decided to write it down

  “And that’s it, there isn’t much else you need to know about standard goblins” the instructor ended his explanation

  Why did he specify ‘standard goblins’? I silently wondered, maybe I was overthinking it but it feels strange for an instructor to specify ‘standard goblins’ when he called them ‘goblins’ for the whole lesson

  I decided to write it down just in case, you never know what they might put in the first written exam, it’s better to always prepare for the worst instead of playing with the odds

  “Next we’ll-” the sound of the bell ringing interrupted instructor Thalmyr “Never mind, it’s time for your next class, although it’ll be more like an introduction, follow me students” our instructor explained and the whole class got up from their seats and followed instructor Thalmyr

  We were guided out of the academy’s main structure, and entered into the arena where I fought at the entrance ceremony, I noticed that as soon as we entered, the faces of most students immediately lit up in excitement,

  Don’t get your hopes up, you’ll only end up disappointed I replied in my mind to their sparkling gazes

  I also noticed that part of the ground was still under repair…

  I didn’t realized I had used so much strength at the time, oh well, can’t do anything about it but it’ll be another thing to stand out for… Ugh, annoying

  “We’ve arrived, as I believe most of you already know, this is the Aegis Academy arena which also serves as training grounds for the students” instructor Thalmyr explained, he then looked around and cleared his throat before speaking again

  “I should take my leave now, but your practical instructor still hasn’t shown himsel-” instructor Thalmyr was cut short by the sound of fast, approaching footsteps

  “Finally, he’s here” I heard instructor Thalmyr murmur to himself as a visibly younger man came running in the arena, he stopped when he reached us, panting heavily

  “You’re quite late, instructor Ignivar” instructor Thalmyr said to the newly arrived instructor with a cold glare

  “Eh eh, sorry, got the time wrong, thought I had the third hour instead of the second” he replied (which made some students giggle and chuckle), still recovering from his running while scratching the back of his head, instructor Thalmyr just sighed in response, then turned towards us

  “I shall take my leave now, instructor Ignivar, they’re in your care” our homeroom teacher declared before leaving

  “No worries Thalmyr! Well then guys, my name is Keith Ignivar, and I’ll be your practical instructor for your years at the Aegis Academy!” he energetically introduced himself, him and instructor Thalmyr seemed to be polar opposites, both in personalities and in aspect

  In fact, instructor Ignivar was visibly younger by at least 10 years and his uniform wasn’t as neat as instructor Thalmyr’s, another difference was in their symbol on their uniform: instructor Ignivar had a symbol made of a simple yet unmistakable fist, that meant he specialized on bare-handed close combat his Armor most likely provided him with a significant strength boost or whatever thing that would make him prefer his bare fists over weapons

  “Since this is our first lesson, I’ll just teach you the basics of general fighting, you know the boring basics, no Armors yet” instructor Ignivar explained, which earned some groans from most of the students, I couldn’t say I was happy myself but I preferred this over having to show off our Armors, for obvious reasons,

  Probably they’re making us go over the basics again to understand our initial level I thought, and if I were to be right, then it would be best to hold back a little, if I appeared ‘average’ to the instructors and the other students, they would lose interest in me more quickly

  My thoughts were interrupted by instructor Ignivar clapping his hands together loudly “Alright guys, line up in front of that training dummy please!” he ordered to us, pointing to the aforementioned training dummy on the left corner of the ring, we did as he ordered and I of course lined near the end, not the last one because that spot attracts more attention than being in the middle, most people don’t notice it, but when they have to memorize a series of the same event repeated consecutively before them, they tend to memorize the first ones and the last ones more strongly, with some exceptions of course, but that’s how it generally goes from my experience

  “Okay! Now, as I said before, let’s start with the basics” instructor Ignivar excitedly said, probably trying to lift up the mood since most students didn’t look as excited as they were when we stepped in the arena

  We then proceeded to go over all the type of punches and kicks once each and our instructor would correct our mistakes, that being said, he didn’t seem to be the smartest instructor in the academy, he probably wouldn’t notice if I held back my technique on punches since he was most likely expecting some mistakes from everyone

  When it came my turn for the simplest punch, the jab, I deliberately took my stance a bit wrong, my elbow was too tight on the right side and I kept my left hand a bit too high, when I threw the jab, I deliberately put too much shoulder into it making it slower and easier to read

  “Hmm, over all not that bad, but you put too much shoulder and power into it, the jab should be fast not powerful” instructor Ignivar corrected me

  Well… thank you, but I already knew that he either didn’t notice that I deliberately made those mistakes, or he was playing a prank on me, the last one didn’t sound really probable so I guessed he didn’t notice

  The rest of the lesson went on just like that for two hours, then the bell rang and instructor Ignivar told us to go back to our classroom and suggested to take a shower once we got back home

  Who wouldn’t agree?

  Once we got back to the classroom, we found instructor Thalmyr waiting for us, we took our seats just like before and another lesson about theory began for another two hours, just like I did before, I simply wrote down whatever I didn’t know about or sounded too strange to me

  The bell rang for the fifth time that day and instructor Thalmyr finished the explanation and got up from his seat

  “Rest well for tomorrow, this was just an introduction, but tomorrow we start to get more serious” he added as he left

  Since this was our first day at the academy, the lessons ended after only five hours instead of having lunch break and then more hours in the afternoon, we were allowed to return to the dormitory but some students remained behind to explore the academy main building, I personally hadn’t much interest about it, I only needed to know where I could find a quiet place to spend my future lunch break

  Luckily for me, on my way out of the academy main building, I noticed a sign indicating for the academy’s library

  Found my quiet place for the lunch break I thought as I stepped out of the building and walked toward the dormitory, I’d probably have to eat my lunch somewhere else but it was fine

  Still, as I walked away from the school, I had the feeling of a gaze over me, but there was no student looking at me unlike this morning, this time I was probably really overthinking it

  Guess I’m tired after all… I thought as I accelerated the pace of my walk to my room