Chapter 30: Hells classroom

He was woken by Irose knocking on his door, slowly opening his eyes. He could barely remember how he even got back.

But Irose only continued knocking after his silence as an answer, finally having enough. "I heard you, old man." As he stood up.

Irose opened the door just a moment later. "I see, sir, you have woken up already."

Steven could only shake his head. "Of course, you woke me with all this banging." Irose stared at him innocently. "Well, it was more than just time for it; your classes for today will start very soon."

As Steven hit his head hard against the wooden frame of his bed, he had completely forgotten that yesterday was only his first day at school.

"Fuck all this," he cursed, having jumped down from his bed and already on his way to grab some new clothes.

How was he supposed to even survive a week of this? How had he managed to do things in his youth?

Changing clothes, he gave a short glance towards June’s clock, finally feeling a bit of happiness as he realized Irose had woken him in time.

Meaning he didn’t have to sprint towards class and might even be able to get something to eat first.

Even if his usual cafe probably wasn’t open after what happened yesterday. Leaving his part of the dorms, he found much more activity to be doing.

The maids were in a much happier mood, and even the guards were talking casually. It seemed like Lucy had told everyone that Franclin was dead.

He felt a slight grain of worry that Lucy might’ve portrayed him like some kind of hero towards the whole school.

Even if he would appreciate a bit of praise after saving all of them. As his smile turned smug, he walked past a group of maids who only gave him a disgusting glance.

Steven froze for just a moment; he got the feeling Lucy hadn’t told everyone the truth about last night.

She most likely made him some kind of monster or, even worse, just a lazy brick that didn’t want to help.

Slowly feeling his anger rising, he simply walked past all of them, hearing their whispers disappear.

He was going to show her the form of his fists after class.

Shaking off his anger, he walked outside, stepping through their giant courtyard.

Steven made his way to the main street, which seemed to nearly explode from activity, with seemingly every student either trying to sell or buy something.

Walking past a few people with a smile, they greeted and made space for him as usual; Lucy’s stories probably didn’t reach them yet.

His smile only faltered at the sight of a destroyed cafe completely empty.

Instead, he chose a small bakery for his breakfast, with a nice young man at the register as he bought some snacks.

Slowly starting to feel good about himself again, he had made his way towards the enormous university with a relaxed pace.

The university was pretty empty, most likely because most classes only start later in the day, except for, of course, the one of Elizabeth.

This woman was really a demon when it came down to teaching; well, she was a demoness either way, but that didn’t matter.

Sitting down at the first row, the room was barely filled, only with some people still preparing for the class.

As the room slowly filled up with students, Ms. Trellen also entered the room; he glanced lingeringly on him for just a moment.

He could watch Lucy walk past him, not daring to look into his eyes, June greeting him as happily as usual as she passed him.

Merency was the last to enter the room, going up to Ms. Trellen and whispering something inaudible for him.

Getting an answer, she walked away with a satisfied smile and sat down at her empty seat in the back of class.

Just a few moments later did the giant school bell ring, signaling the classes were about to start. As quietness filled the room, Ms. Trellen positioned herself on her table.

’’For today’s class you’re going to need a partner, so everyone please pick one of your seat neighbors.’’ She sounded annoyed as if she didn’t want to announce it herself.

Steven turned his gaze towards the empty seat beside him, which should’ve been occupied by Lumiel, but he was most likely still recovering from yesterday’s events.

As he could hear somebody rise from behind him, turning his head further, he watched Merency stand up, walking towards him as if it were the most normal thing to do.

As she sat down beside him, her face filled with a smile so bright it could’ve probably killed shadows.

He finally understood her plan; she must’ve heard what happened to Lumiel, so her talk earlier with the professor had just been forcing her to change the layout of today’s class.

She was smart; he had to admit that, but he could’ve never expected her to go to such lengths just to sit beside him for one singular class.

The rest of the students also organized themselves in duos, forcing June and Lucy to work together because of their missing seat neighbors.

"Everyone, please position yourself next to the whiteboard. Slowly every group got into their positions as he could watch Ms. Trellen walk past them with a satisfied smile.

’’Due to the staggering amount of attacks on students in the last few days, survival training had been moved up in the plan. As she pulled out something similar to military rations and threw it towards every single group.

"All of you will be placed inside the famous forest, and the last one to leave will be the one to get full credit on the task. The room fell silent as she added.

"Also, as usual, if any sapphire or higher class fails within 48 hours, they will be moved down a class."

A satisfied smile appeared on his professor’s face.

As Steven could watch Merency’s smile fade in the meantime.

He had a feeling this was going to go really bad.