"Now that's everyone's here, let's get into the main topic"

Anna said as she pulled out an Avaron insignia from her pocket.

"As all of you might already know, this thing right here is an artifact that the Academy provided you with. However, there is another function. Just inject your mana or aether into it and see for yourself"

Everyone in the class complied. As they did so, pale blue light shone from the insignia, before converging in the air right before them to form a rectangular shape.

"Woah!"

"W- what is this?"

"First time seeing this?"

"As expected of some lowly commoners"

Every commoners in the class gasped at the unexpected function of the insignia, while nobles were snickering at them for their reaction.

The secret function was... basically a smartphone. Well, more like a holographic smartphone. It was understandable that they were surprised. After all, it was supposedly the thing that only nobles had access to.

I was also surprised. Not at Avaron's display of generosity by giving expensive artifacts to commoner students, but that

'This isn't supposed to be here!'

The holographic phone was not supposed to be here in the academy, at least not yet.

According to the novel, it would be another 3 years before the Holographic smartphone made its first appearance.

Immediately, I tried to look through Marcos' memories, hoping that it was just the idiot's fault. But I found nothing.

He never handed the blueprint of the phone to anyone, nor did he give any notable technological advices to any researchers.

I furrowed my brows at this fact. After all, it could only mean one thing.

'Something has changed'

I didn't know whether it was because of something I did, or it was because someone with the same knowledge as mine intervened in the plotline.

But one thing I knew for sure, the timeline was slowly changing. And I did not like it at all.

'You'd better hide yourself well' 

Only I can have the knowledge from the novel.

No, I'll make sure I'm the only one alive that does.
...

Waking me up from my thoughts was yet another shockwave.

BAM—!

'This is the 3rd time already' I sighed inwardly.

"QUIET!"

Seeing the class fall into complete silence, Anna lets out a small sigh.

"I know you're excited that you can access the Holographic phone, but leave that for later"

"As you can see, there are names of electives on the screen. Just tap on them if you want to join an elective"

"You have until next week to finish the registration so don't worry. Now, go to the training ground to choose your main weapon"

---

***

Anna led us to one of the practical training grounds.

"Pick the weapon of your choice here" Anna pointed to a venue filled with weapons of all sorts.

"After that, you will train for about an hour before sparring. Don't worry about winning or losing in the spar, I will just use it to figure out your strengths and weaknesses and give you advices on how to improve"

Having finished announcing the schedule for today, Anna turned around and left.

Well, I knew she didn't really leave. Instead, she was probably supervising us from one of the rooms above the training ground.

Instantly after Anna supposedly left, students began to group together and form their own cliques.

As expected, many people flocked towards Arthur to find out more about the first ranker. Well, the nobles got away from him pretty quickly upon finding out that he was a commoner though.

The girls didn't care all that much, as they were busy clinging onto him.

Arthur looked extremely awkward with the stiff smile he had. I guessed that he didn't want to offend anyone.

'Pushover' I snickered inwardly.

As I was walking past the crowd surrounding Arthur, I couldn't help but to overhear Arthur's conversation with a student.

"Hey Arthur, you're a Holy knight trainee right?"

"Haha, yes"

"So cool! You also have SSS-grade talents too right?"

"That's true"

"Wow! You're so talented and handsome! You could totally pass for a righteous Hero!"

"Haha, it can't be! Me, Hero? hahaha..."

I shook my head and continued walking towards the weapon rack. How could no one figure out that he was the Hero of Light?

I mean, he was affiliated with the church of Light AND he had SSS-grade talent. Do people really think that someone with SSS-grade talent could be a mere trainee knight?
...

I arrived at the sword section of the armory. After thinking for a while, I decided to just go with a simple longsword.

Schwing—!

The sword made a pleasant sound as I pulled it out of the rack.

Swoosh—! Swoosh—! Swish—!

Swinging the sword around for a bit, I nodded in satisfaction. The balance and weight distribution of the sword was extremely good.

And judging by the sound the sword made, it was very sharp. Its quality was probably on par with the weapons of high-ranking knights affiliated with a ducal household.

After choosing my weapon, I scanned around armory to see how everyone was doing.

As I expected, most students, including Arthur, was at the sword section. This kind of weapon was that famous after all.

Arthur chose a broadsword, which was his main type of weapon throughout the novel, so no surprise there.

Meanwhile, Max, his rival, chose a short spear that was suited for stabbing.

However, Eleanor the Imperial princess chose a rapier as her main weapon, which was strange. 

In the novel, she initially chose a sabre but later changed to a rapier a few weeks into the first year since she found out that it suited her fighting style more.

Well, it was probably nothing. Minor changes like this couldn't really change anything big after all.

I then turned my gaze towards the other sections.

Unsurprisingly, Krista picked a pair of daggers, while Raun chose a greatshield.

In the ranged section was Marie and Lucy, who chose a bow and a whip respectively.

Mages of the Empire often use grimoires, which helped to increase their casting speed. While people with the healer profession used magic staves to increase the potency of their healing magic,

As such, it was no surprise that Ria took a grimoire out of the armory, while Amelia picked a staff that was almost as big as her whole body.

Unlike normal mages though, Sylvia chose a big double-handed scythe. The reason being that her casting time was short, extremely short even for an Archmage's standards. And that she was strangely very proficient with using the scythe.

After confirming that almost all the main characters chose the same weapons they did like in the novel, I moved towards the training ground.

The training ground truly had everything. Shooting ranges, practice dummies, and even gravity rooms, 5 of them at that.

Well, I had no uses for all of those fancy facilities, so I just stood in the middle of the training ground and practiced my sword art.

"..."

"..."

"..."

22 seconds

That's how long it took for me to concentrate the sufficient amount of space mana to activate [V - World Splitter]. 

Since literally no one other than me and Krista knew about the sword art, I could practice it out in the open without worrying about anything. Well, as long as I didn't actually release an attack that is.

Thus, this was what I was going to do for the next hour.

However, people started snickering at me, as from an outside perspective, I was just intensely staring into my sword.

"Hey, look at him"

"Pffft! What the hell is he doing?"

"Isn't he the one that just got into our class?"

"You mean the rank 1384?"

"Yea, how the hell did he get into our class when he's like that?"

Hearing people saying that, I couldn't help but get mad.

However, I didn't use [F - Emotionless]. I decided to use this opportunity to train myself on calming down without the use of any skills.

If I could succeed, my personality wouldn't be as affected by Marcos' memories anymore.

---

***
I basically spent the hour training to concentrate spatial attribute mana faster, and being sneered at by almost everyone.

Seriously, they could have spent the time they wasted on making fun of me to train. But I guess laughing at other people was that much more appealing to them after all.

"I've observed all of you during the last hour. Most trained to my satisfaction but some just played around without doing anything" Professor Anna said as she entered the training ground again.

"Well, it's time for sparring matches"

"Check your holographic smartphone, it should display the name of your opponent"

I checked my phone and... Arthur, I had to fight Arthur Kilvillain.

'This might work in my favor'

After all, this was basically the perfect time for me to execute the first part of my plan: Humiliating Arthur.

Well, it wasn't our turn yet so I had to wait and watch other matches.

"Alright, first up, Sylvia Ecertold and Jacob Arseman, get onto the platform"

The guy with the very funny name got on the platform that was raised in the middle of the training ground, followed by Sylvia, who looked absolutely bored.

Well, bored wasn't the right word to describe her. Rather, she was completely expressionless.

No, she wasn't expressionless because she had the highest affinity possible for the ice element. That's just stereotypical.

Be ashamed of yourself.

Rather, the reason why she was so emotionless was somewhat similar to the reason why I was wearing 3 layers of sunglasses.

That's right, she also had Magic eyes, just like I did.

But hers had a completely different effect from mine, and were much more potent. As such, wearing sunglasses or even covering her entire face wouldn't work as her eyes would affect other people as soon as she displays any kinds of emotions.

Well, I was excited for the battle though, as this was my first time seeing a main character in action.

...

"I'll prove that the so-called prodigy is just a fake" Arseman provoked Sylvia.

"..."

"I'll smash your face in" He continued.

"..."

"Tch" 

Seeing that his provocations clearly didn't work, Jacob Arseman clicked his tongue and charged towards Sylvia in a straight line.

'Rookie mistake' I snickered.

Sylvia would definitely counter his boringly obvious attack using her scythe with ease.

Or at least, that's what I thought would happen until Sylvia's soft yet cold voice rang throughout the entire training ground.

{Kneel}

One simple word was all it took for Jacob to stop dead in his track and kneel down, almost like a humble servant paying respects to his master.

However, it Jacob wasn't the only one affected by Sylvia's word.

Everyone in the training ground was affected by it and also knelt down.

Well, everyone except for me, Arthur, Anna, and somehow, the Imperial princess.

However, I was probably the only one who knew what Sylvia did.

Every dragons have their own ways of activating their Authorities.

Some did it through their line of sight like me, while others with a simple wave of their hand.

However, Sylvia's activation method was none of those. 

The way she activated her Authority was through her voice. As such, her Authorities has merged with the innate skill that every dragons had.

[SS - Dragon voice]

A dragon's mana-infused voice that had the ability to command over any mana-based beings.

Coupled with the fact that her Authorities were assimilated into this skill, her [SS - Dragon voice] was much more effective than any dragons of the same rank as her.

I, with my part of true dragon bloodline, was not affected by the skill. As such, I had to fake kneeling down or else I would garner Sylvia's attention, which I would definitely not want.

In the case of Anna, she was A+ rank so of course it wouldn't work on her due to the difference in mental power of each rank.

Arthur, though, his will was literally unbreakable. The only thing that could make him vulnerable to mental attacks like [SS - Dragon voice] was the sight or even the mere mention of Void fiends.

Me, Anna, and Arthur were the special exception. However, the Imperial princess was just an F rank.

Even if she was an Angel, an Aether-based race, it still didn't make sense for her to still be standing after that.

After all, even if [SS - Dragon voice] didn't work, [Authority] definitely would.

'It's probably nothing'

I just shrugged it off to the princess' training. After all, it did make sense for her to have an extremely high resistance to mental attacks. Considering how high her position was in the political landscape, the Imperial family would definitely not want her to be affected by any sorts of mind control spells.

---

***

Tok—! Tok—! Tok—!...

Footsteps rang out, slowly, but loudly.

The figure of Sylvia with a scythe in her hands slowly walking towards the kneeling Jacob, all the while still having that face devoid of any emotions, looked like a grim reaper coming to harvest a mortal's soul.

Swoosh—!

One fast and concise strike was all it took for Sylvia to completely take out her opponent. Using the blunt edge of her scythe, she completely knocked Jacob out.

"Sylvia Ecertold wins"

Instantly, the effect of her [SS - Dragon voice] vanished, and everyone returned to normal.

Every students were scared shitless because of what Sylvia did. After all, the feeling of doing something against your will was not something very pleasant.

Well, there was one person who didn't act scared, and he was Max.

"As expected of Sylvia, you completely destroyed your opponent!"

Max continued to blabber on and on while Sylvia was completely ignoring him.

Instead, she looked in the direction of Arthur, the boy who wasn't even a little bit affected by one of her most powerful skills, with interest. 

However, she soon shook her head and exited the training grounds.

'If you're powerful enough to break my curse, then I'll be forced to hear about you sooner or later.'

And with that thought, Sylvia put her interest of Arthur at the back of her mind and went back to her dorm.

---

***

"Arthur Kilvillain and Theodore Gray, get on the platform."

Finally, it was my turn.

'Yea, I'm purely doing this for the plan'

Who was I kidding? Of course a part of me wanted to do this for the satisfaction of getting to beat Arthur up.

I could use my [B - Authority of Fear] to win the match instantly, but I didn't want to take the risk of completing breaking Arthur's mind. After all, he was very sensitive when it comes to Void fiends, and making him experience the trauma of seeing his father getting killed again won't do Arthur and me any good.

Thus, I resorted to beating him at his own game, swordplay.

"I hope we have a good match!"

"..."

Staying completely silent, I tightened my grip around my sword.

Despite saying that I would beat him up, I wasn't completely sure if I could do so. He was the protagonist after all.

Arthur didn't seem offended by my silence and made his first move... a charge.

Confused at the plainly obvious movement, I thought about the possibilities of his attack.

'Is it a feint?'

'No, it's too obvious to be a feint'

'Is he that confident in his strength?'

'That must be the case'

Thinking that he must have put a considerable amount of force behind his strike, I tried to dodge out of the way.

However, I was one step too late.

Left with no other choice, I raised my sword to block his attack, and braced for the immense force that would soon come. But...

'Huh?'

The strike, it was... weak.

It was not a feint, nor did it have overwhelming power behind it.

Although I was confused, I still continued to attack Arthur. 

Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!...

We exchanged a series of blows.

Though it looked like that we were evenly matched from outside, Arthur was actually being pushed back, and I was not even using any of my sword arts.

It was strange, he shouldn't be this weak. Or was it because I was too strong?

Whatever the case was, we were still fighting, mostly because I wanted the fight to last just a bit longer.

Then, Arthur used his magic for the first time in the match.

[Fireball], he casted.

It was an extremely basic Fire spell, but it was effective nonetheless.

Coating my sword in mana, I slashed at the flaming ball that was flying towards me. The ball of flame split in half, before exploding behind me.

[Water ball]

Slash—!

"..."

[Wind ball]

Slash—!

"..."

[Earth ball]

Slash—!

"..."

I sliced every spells Arthur threw at me in half with my mana-coated sword. However,

'Why is he keep using ball-shaped spells?'

In fact, ball-shaped spells were the most basic of spells. They were often used the casters who don't have the sufficient proficiency of mana control to form any other shapes.

I mean, making your attack in the form of a spear would greatly reduce drag and increase the speed, all the while having the same or even greater power than its ball counterpart.

However, Arthur's annoying voice woke me up from my thoughts.

"You... your swordsmanship is indeed decent"

Clang—! Clang—!

"But in the end, what you're displaying have no essence"

Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!

"Your sword, I can hear its cries and sorrows"

"What bullshit are you sprouting?" I accidently said my thoughts out loud.

Arthur, not particularly minding this, continued to sprout more bullshit.

"Tell me, what is a 'sword' to you?"

Well, it wouldn't hurt to humor him for just a little bit so I answered truthfully.

"A tool to kill"

Clang—! Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!

We exchanged blows for a good 10 seconds before Arthur started to speak absolute bullshit again.

"Now I see why the cries of your sword sounded so painful!"

"..."

"People like you only think of swords as simple weapons for slaughter"

"Then what else are they supposed to be?" I was starting to get a bit annoyed.

"Swords are your partners, and your most trustworthy companions on the path of justic—"

Clang—!

"Bullshit!" I was now really annoyed. He dared to project his naive view of the world onto me?

"If you don't believe me, why don't you try to beat me in pure swordsmanship?" Arthur spoke as if he wasn't the one that started hurling spells at me as soon as he was about to lose.

"Swordsmanship?"

"Yes, neither of us will use any mana"

'Hm...'

"Alright then" I stopped a good distance away from Arthur and nodded my head.

"We will go when I count to zero, you alright with that?" Arthur asked.

I nodded.

Then, Arthur started counting.

"Five"

Arthur tightened his grip on his sword as he looked at me warily.

"Four"

He got into a stance and was concentrated on finding even the smallest of openings I made.

"Three" 

I also got into a stance and activated [F - Emotionless]. I would definitely need the skill active if I wanted to do that.

"Two" 

We tensed our muscles, readying ourselves for the clash of pure swordsmanship, as well as the clash of two opposing ideologies.

The students spectating our match was holding their breath in anticipation.

"On—"

[Splice]

My eyes flashed red as I appeared right in front of Arthur. 

Not giving him any time to react, I raised my left leg and...

Crunch—!

"ARRRRRGHHHHH!!!"

I.. kicked his balls.

Arthur rolled on the ground while clutching his crotch. I would have cringed in pain if I didn't have [F - Emotionless] active.

Without waiting for him to recover, I repeatedly kicked him in his face.

Bam—! Bam—! Bam—!...

The loud sound of me kicking Arthur's face and stomach rang throughout the training ground. Luckily, Anna didn't judge my attacks to be fatal, and thus didn't intervene.

Well, Marie tried to jump onto the platform to save Arthur but was held back by Anna.

"Y- you promised t- that you would be pur—" Arthur spoke as he somewhat recovered from the worst pain a man could experience in his entire life.

"What did it fucking look like? I lied"

Arthur had a look of disbelief on his face as I said that.

I then activated [F - Emotionless] again, and kicked him in the face a few more times before squatting down and coldly whispered in his ears.

It was a small whisper, small enough that even an A+ ranked individual like Anna couldn't hear what I said, but just loud enough for Arthur to listen to each and every of my words clearly.

"See what I did there? In a real battle, no one will give a shit about your bullshits"

"Wh—"

"Shhh, I'm not done talking"

"..."

"Good boy" I mockingly patted his head.

"..."

Glaring at him coldly, I continued.

"That is why you have to throw away that soft mindset of yours to get stronger. After all,"

I paused for dramatic effects.

"You won't be able to avenge your father if you keep being like like this, oh great Hero of Light"

Arthur hung his mouth open in surprise as I said that.

Not giving him the chance to sprout any more of his bullshits, I hit the back of his neck with the flat side of my sword and knocked him out.

"Theodore Gray wins"

Unlike when other people won, there were no claps, no cheers, only complete silence.

That was, until someone finally broke the uncomfortable silence.

"ARTHUR!" Marie shouted as she went to check on Arthur.

Seeing that he was still alive, Marie used Wind magic to quickly carry him to the infirmary.

SLAM—!

The sound of Marie slamming the door of the training ground shut seemed to have woken everyone up from their stupor.

"THAT COWARD DARED TO USE DIRTY TRICKS AGAINST MY BELOVED ARTHUR" a girl screamed out.

"YEA! DO YOU HAVE NO HONORS?"

"GO TO HELL, COWARDLY BASTARD"
...

Nobles and commoners alike were cursing at me for being dishonorable and whatnot.

Well, it was mostly girls and boys who wanted to curry favor with those girls that openly insulted me.

Others were either giving me looks of distain or didn't seem to care at all.

'I expected this much'

In fact, I had expected this kind of outrage immediately after Arthur suggested that we use pure swordsmanship to fight.

Well, I did not care anyways. Rather, I couldn't even care, since I still had [F - Emotionless] active.

Considering how egotistical I could be due to the influence of Marcos' memories, I would definitely lash out at everyone if I didn't use the skill.

Well, Krista and Raun came and tried to talk to me. But I promptly ignored them.

I didn't have any energy to deal with them right now. And talking would just deplete my mana faster. I wouldn't want to pass out in a room full of girls trying to skin me alive after all.

Thus, I spent the rest of the lesson standing in a corner.

---

***

"Alright, class dismissed" Anna said as she quickly left the training ground.

As we didn't have any more classes on the schedule, I walked towards my dorm room.

Well, of course things didn't go as smoothly as I wanted them to be.

"Hey! Stop right there!"

"..." I ignored the annoying voice and continued walking.

"I SAID STOP!"

"..."

"LISTEN TO ME!"

The owner of the voice grabbed my shoulder and forcefully turned me around. She was... well, I didn't know what her name was. She was probably an extra who had a crush on Arthur.

"..."

"I'll make you pay for what you did to Arthur!"

"..."

"Say something!"

"..."

"GOD! JUST SAY SOMETHING AND TAKE THOSE STUPID SUNGLASSES OFF"

I wanted to stop her but alas, I was too late. She reached for my sunglasses and ripped them off my face, tossed them to the ground and stomped on them.

Grinning at the 3 pairs of broken sunglasses on the ground, she turned her head back up to me, only to be absolutely horrified by two dull gray eyes staring back at her like they could pierce her entire soul.

"AHHHHHHH!" Shrieking in fear, she fell to the ground and tried to crawl away from me.

"H- HELP ME!" 

"..."

"P- PLEASE S- SPARE ME!"

"..."

During that entire exchange, I just stood still, not moving even by a little bit.

Sighing at the absurdity of the situation, I continued back to my dorm, not caring about the weird and often hostile gaze I received from every students in the hallway.

'Looks like my reputation is going down once more'

Arriving at my dorm room, I didn't even try to take a bath or have a meal.

Instead, I just plopped down onto my bed. It was a long day for me after all.

'Am I forgetting about something?'

'It's probably not something important'

And thus, I fell into deep sleep.

---

***

"He forgot about me, didn't he?" A young girl with pink hair and blue eyes pouted as she was standing outside the gate of Avaron Academy.

The girl, whose identity was Alicia Gray, had been waiting for Theodore to pick her up and get her to his dorm room for around 5 hours now.

It was getting dark. She really didn't want to stay in the streets during the cold night. Thus, there was only one thing she could do.

[Refraction mirage]