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The days flew by as I spent my time exploring the campus’ amenities and the establishments in the capital a short distance from campus. And frankly, I am blown away by the sheer variety of the products available.
If I were to compare the disparity between the capital and back home, I would say, from weapons, armor, magical tools, and alchemic products, all the way to clothing, furniture, and household items, the variety and quality on display in the capital is like comparing a high-end department store that has everything to a mom and pop stores back home.
But with all the positives of living in a big city like the capital, where merchants and traders flock to with all their myriad products, was the downside that came along with them.
The first is the cost of living, just from walking around window shopping, buying snacks, and eating at the local taverns and eateries, I was paying almost twice the price for what I would pay for back home in Glenfell.
Next was the tight living conditions and heavy traffic of this dense urban area, and along with that, came the smell of shit and piss that came from the occasional alley. All in all…. Not that surprising, I have seen worse in my old world when traveling through some of the cities in developing countries.
After getting all the sightseeing out of my system, I buy a few snacks to bring back to my room and rest for the rest of the day. It is a big day tomorrow, 1st day of school and all that jazz… just need to trudge through all the mandatory classes before I can get to the elective classes.
***
The next day, I get up bright and early, hit what counts as a gym in this world, for a short morning workout, go freshen up, get some grub, and I am off to class.
Through my tour of the campus, I already know where my class is. I made my way to classroom 5A. I open the classroom door to see a quarter of the class is already here and chatting with each other.
As I entered the classroom, the room quietened like it does in old western movies when an unknown person enters a saloon and all eyes were on me.
And like in those old western movies, I give a slight nod (I wish I had a cowboy hat to tip) and walk up the row of seats to the back of the class and took an aisle seat.
Soon, the sound of conversation picked up as my new classmates started talking again, most of them giving me the side eye and were most likely talking about me and asking each other if they knew who I was.
As I waited for class to start, I took out my Higher Language Studies textbook to get ready for class, I looked around and noticed that everyone seemed to know each other, even the students who entered the class after me.
Now that I think about it, it may be the case that all these kids may have been together all the way from year 1 of lower education, and I was just inserted into their 5th year of school life. Oh well, I will just go with the flow and see what happens.
Me and the other students wait as more kids start streaming into class. Around 5 minutes before class start, the door opens to a rowdy bunch of 5 kids, 3 boys and 2 girls.
When they entered, I could feel the atmosphere change and saw a number of the kids avert their gaze to avoid eye contact with the rowdy 5. I have watched enough TV to know these kids were the popular kids and/or bullies in the class, and from their and the rest of the class’s demeanor, they looked like trouble.
But that is not my problem, I just need to trudge through the mandatory lesson and get to the fun activities.
Asi was trying to mind my own business, I saw one of the boys in the group look around, his gaze fell upon me, he then signaled some pompous-looking kid who seemed to be the leader of this group and they started coming toward me. It would seem like I caught their attention, either the universe is conspiring against me or this is just them checking out the new kid.
When they got up to me, the pompous kid said loudly, while pointing at me “Who are you, peasant? Never seen you before.”
Sighing internally, I replied, “I am Luk-”
“Doesn't matter who you are,” he cuts me off, “Move! You are in our seats.”
This little shit is pissing me off, and before my brain could catch up to my mouth to provide a diplomatic answer and de-escalate the situation, a “Fuck off.” escaped my mouth.
The class was silent for a moment before the pompous little shit’s face literally turned red and shouted, “You peasant scum, I will teach you to respect your betters!” as he raised his arm to strike me.
As the sloppily thrown fist came toward my face, I easily slapped the hand out of the way and pushed him back into his group, “That first punch was free, try that again and you are really going to get hurt.”
As he steadied himself, he once more stepped forward to confront me, but less confidently this time, “Bastard! Do you know who you are dealing with?!”
I gave him a deadpan look, truly sick of this immature bullshit, “No, not interested, but I have a feeling you are going to tell me anyway”
The pompous prick puffs out his chest, emphasizing a coat of arms below the small sewn-in emblem of the Royal Academy, the sewn-in patch of what I assume is a noble’s coat of arms is one with a downward-pointing sword superimposed on it, which means he belongs to a knight or martial house.
Was I also supposed to have my house’s coat of arms on my uniform? Nobody told me that.
“I am Oswald Berkeley, son of Marquess Alan Berkeley. Who do you think you are to lay hands on me!” the asshat Oswald practically announced to the whole room.
Being mentally too old for this shit, I waved off Oswald and his hype group who has been throwing in their own verbal jabs, and said, “I care not who your daddy is, stop acting like a sniveling child and fuck off to an empty seat before I really “lay hands” on you.”
Impressively, Oswald’s face got even redder than before as he shouted in rage and threw a haymaker at me.
It was so wide and telegraphed that I would bet even my sister could dodge it. I have given him a chance to walk away, but he chose violence.
I leaned back in my chair as Oswald’s fist flew past my face, I grabbed the thrown fist and pulled it further forward to bring him off balance, and with my other hand, I grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the table.
Before Oswald could slump off the table, his 2 male lackeys bum-rushed me. The first of the lackeys was some lanky bucktoothed motherfucker, for him, I simply gut-kicked him into the opposite table, his back slammed into the edge of the table and he was down for the count while clenching his lower back in pain.
The second lackey was more on the chubby side and was almost upon me, for him I grabbed my rather thick textbook and slapped the shit out of him. This changed the course of his charge, missed me, and crashed head-first into the chairs beside me.
When the guys were down, I pointed my textbook at the 2 girls and asked, “You two are not going to do anything stupid, right?”, to which they vigorously shook their heads.
That was when I heard the door close partially loud. When I turned to look, I saw a middle-aged scholarly-looking man.
He looked at me, looked at a file in his hand, back at me, then at the shivering girls standing before me and boys groaning on the ground. He then took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let out an epic sigh.
With that sigh, I know that he knows what happened. And if this school was as bureaucratic as I think it is, that meant more paperwork for this man who I assume is the teacher.
Yes students need to avoid confronting bullies because of the paperwork...
Putting the little hotheads in their place, nice
Teachers always find the worst time to enter the class, lol