章節 39: Raucous
Following his discussion with Naitus, Will elected to move to the back of the classroom. One of the reasons he had arrived as early as he did was to ensure he had the best vantage to view the entire class, so he ended up taking the seat second furthest from the door, leaving the corner open. Professor Naitus observed this, but as there was no seating arrangement, he didn't say anything.
Seeing Will pull out a journal enchanted with Obfuscation Magic and prepare an expensive-looking black and gold pen, Ohta raised his brows in curiosity, asking, "What's that for? Taking notes...?"
"In a manner of speaking," replied Will. "I want to establish a baseline for how everyone in our class behaves. My memory isn't terrible, but having a record to defer to is convenient."
"That's super creepy..." noted Ohta, but Will just smiled and shook his head. In reality, the likelihood of him referencing the journal was slim, at best. The act of writing down his observations simply made it easier for him to recall specific details.
'Now, let's see who the most prudent among my classmates is...' mused Will, waiting patiently for around fifteen minutes before the doors to the class opened, followed by a slender figure with refined facial features and short, raven-black hair entering. It was difficult to tell whether they were a boy or a girl at a glance, but the flow of Mana within their body and the fact they were wearing a skirt implied the latter.
Sensing Will's gaze or simply noticing there were others present in the room, the raven-haired girl gazed at where he and Ohta were seated with apathetic, cobalt-blue eyes. It wasn't discernible from her expression, but Will got the impression she was annoyed they had arrived before her.
'Sylvia Proxima Pipoltr...' noted Will, recognizing the girl as the person who had seized first place in the entrance exam. The Pipoltr Asterism wasn't a particularly well-established lineage, but as it was the line from which the current Queen originated, it was quickly gaining prominence within Axial's inner circles. More notably, it was a line of Demons, their origins traceable to Levios, the Lord of the Abyssal Chasm.
After briefly meeting Will's gaze, her expression unchanging, Sylvia all but ignored Ohta in favor of greeting Professor Naitus. Then, as if to reinforce her standing as the top-ranked student, she claimed the centermost seat at the front of the classroom before taking out everything she might need and carefully arranging it on the desk in front of her.
'Leshien wasn't wrong when she said Demons had infested the Capital...' thought Will, not in response to Sylvia but to the trio of boys that arrived as she was finishing organizing her desk. Two looked fairly ordinary, with near-perfect human transformations, but their presumed leader, a brash-looking youth with bone-white hair braided in a ponytail, barely made an effort. His uniform had been modified to expose his scale-covered hands and forearms and to accommodate his broad wings, purple and yellow on the inside and black, covered in scales and spines, on the outside. He also had a pair of large, primarily bone-white horns with a black, soot-like tint, golden eyes with snake-like pupils, and pointed, fur-covered ears.
Demonstrating their familiarity with one another, the winged youth, whom Will recognized as Iode Nergle, focused his gaze on Sylvia, snorting as he remarked, "Of course, you'd be the first to arrive..."
"You're mistaken," replied Sylvia, her voice pleasant but devoid of emotion as she closed her eyes, declining to elaborate.
"Huh...?"
Disregarding Naitus, as he knew Sylvia wasn't pedantic enough to count their instructor, Iode looked to the corner of the room to find Will smiling back at him and Ohta with his face buried in his arms, seemingly sleeping with his head down.
"Oh...you're the Gamma Star of the Oirthear Constellation, right?" asked Iode, his expression disproving as he appended, "Aka, the selfish a-hole who made things awkward for everyone else by not attending last night's banquet..."
"Guilty," responded Will, maintaining his relaxed smile. His nonchalance caused Iode's right eye to twitch, but despite being a Wrath Demon, the demonic youth managed to retain a cool head, clicking his tongue before he and his groupies greeted their cat-like Professor. Then, causing a slight frown to adorn Sylvia's face, they elected to claim the trio of seats behind her, occupying the centermost row.
'This kid might prove to be a little problematic...' thought Will, scribbling a few notes into his journal. It was faint, but he could sense the pulsing of a Dragon's Heart within Iode's chest. This was the name given to the Magic Crystals that naturally congealed within the bodies of Mages and Warriors throughout their life. However, while most Dragon Hearts were used in the production of legacy weapons and heirlooms, there were cases like Iode's where they were implanted in the bodies of compatible children, boosting the recipient's power and growth and allowing the transplanted crystal to be developed across multiple generations...
With such thoughts in mind, Will turned his attention to the duo flanking Iode. One had short, somewhat spiky white hair with a blue tint, squinty eyes that made it look like he was scheming, and a too-broad smile that gave the impression he could unhinge his jaw to swallow objects whole. The other was even taller than Will, but his most prominent features were his stomach, arms, and overall proportions. His torso made up more than 2/3rds of his stature, and his arms were muscular and long, the tips of his oversized hands and fingers extending all the way to his knees, attached to short, stubby, and muscular legs. As for his stomach, Will didn't know its exact dimensions, but he estimated the Buddha-like youth to weigh at least 300kg.
'Envy, Wrath, Greed, and Gluttony...if I count myself as Pride, we nearly have a complete set...' mused Will. As far as he could tell, the duo flanking Iode were descended from Greed and Gluttony Demons. Sylvia's ancestor was also known as the Heavenly Demon King of Envy before their exile to the bottom of the ocean, so with Iode and Ohta representing Wrath, they were only missing representatives of Lust and Sloth.
Thinking of Lust and Sloth, Will couldn't help wondering what Andrika and Tom were up to. In their first incarnation, Tom was a white-hat hacker and gaming whiz who won several championship titles in his youth. Will didn't know precisely how much time had passed for Tom since then, but as the representative of Sloth, he would presumably thrive in any world centered around technology and decadence.
*feewooo*
Interrupting Will's reverie, the doors to the classroom opened to reveal a familiar figure with long, dirty blonde hair. Will associated the latter with Madeen, but as she was in uniform and wearing a visor that reminded him of something a Valkyrie might wear, there was a momentary disconnect in his mind.
Proving that she was, in fact, the person Will suspected her to be, the girl looked directly at Will before making her way up the aisle toward him and asking, "Were you saving this seat for someone?" in reference to the seat he had left open in the very corner of the room.
"Not in particular," replied Will, prompting Madeen to claim the seat while explaining, "This visor has a recording function that works in tandem with my ability to perceive the world using Mana and Aura. It recreates images and text using a form of Projection Magic, but the technology is still in its infancy. If there are any issues, I'll be depending on you to take sufficient notes..."
Though she couldn't read what Will was writing, Madeen could sense he had a journal open and was documenting something within its pages. Her visor attempted to interpret what it was using the pen's movements, but due to the Obfuscation enchantment placed on the journal, the image was hazy and started to glitch out.
"This stupid thing..." grumbled Madeen, tapping the side of the visor in an attempt to get it to function properly. Lucky for her, this helped to sell the fact it was a budding technology, causing Will's usual grin to soften as he replied, "Sure thing. I'm not the best at taking notes, but I should be able to help if you missed something or have questions."
Looking up at Will as he spoke, Madeen remained completely silent for several seconds. Ordinarily, she saw everyone around her as blobs, but thanks to her visor, she could now make out at least the broad details of Will's face. She didn't really have a concept of handsome, but when she saw him smiling at her, her heart began beating noticeably quicker.
*feewooo*
Causing Madeen to feel slightly disappointed, Will looked away to see who had just arrived. There were only twenty minutes remaining until the start of class, so a group of six arrived all at once, headed by a boy with vermillion-red hair, matching eyes, and confident features. Going by the emblems on each of the group members' chests, they each hailed from fairly affluent families in Iarthar Duchy to the west. Thus, it wasn't much of a surprise that they had formed a clique on the very first day of class, possibly even earlier.
Fortunately, while the Great Iarthar Constellation was at odds with the Oirthears, none within the all-boys group did more than glance in Will's direction. For many nobles, attending the Royal Academy was their first time leaving home. Some had spent the previous evening crying due to homesickness and being without the comforts they had come to rely on, so while they were bound to butt heads at some points, none of the boys were in a hurry to antagonize someone they knew to be stronger than them. Especially not when their Head Professor was standing at the front of the room, closely observing each of them.
*feewooo*
Causing a change in the room's ambiance, Aisha, followed closely by her brother, Azir, entered the classroom and called out, "William Oirthear! You better be in here...!" while looking around.
"Present," answered Will, raising his right hand as if he were responding to a roll call. Aisha's purple, cat-like eyes locked onto him like a predator the moment she heard his voice, but before she could issue another outburst, Naitus interjected to say, "Ms. Aisha. When indoors, particularly in a place of learning, it is inappropriate to raise one's voice. Please take a seat with your brother and prepare for the start of class."
Though she was initially going to ask Naitus who the hell he thought he was, Aisha tensed when she met the cat-like man's tranquil yet piercing yellow eyes. Her instincts were fairly attuned thanks to her partial-zoan heritage, so when she sensed the veritable gulf between her and Naitus, she immediately became more docile, responding, "Yes, teacher..." in an uncharacteristically meek tone.
With some of the only open seats being those at the desks in front of and to the right of Will's station, Aisha elected to take the seat right in front of him, much to her brother's chagrin. As she prepared for class, her jackal-like ears gave Will the thought of flicking something between them, but as humorous as the notion was, he ultimately decided against it.
"So, any particular reason you were shouting for me?" asked Will, waiting until after Aisha had finished unpacking her books and supplies.
Turning sideways and bringing her left leg up onto the bench-like seating, Aisha gazed at Will with half-lidded, accusatory eyes as she replied, "You didn't appear at last night's banquet, so I went to your room to make sure you were alive and wouldn't be late to our first day of class. You and I are rivals, so it makes me look dumb if you don't take things seriously..."
"Ah...I see..." muttered Will, the corners of his smile curling upward as he took a moment to jot down that Aisha was a tsundere. She was no doubt going to be a tremendous pain in his ass over the next five years, but that didn't make her worrying about him any less adorable...
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