The professor's finger wasn't pointing directly at me but a few centimeters behind me.
I turned around, confused, and saw the tip of a fire pin aimed at my head.
My eyes opened wide.
"Tell me, why aren't you wearing the protective uniform?"
—Protective?—
"They didn't give it to me..." I said.
—Is there something I should be protecting myself from?—
"I see, then I will have to ask you not to come to this class until you get it."
And so, I was indefinitely banned from the class.
And here I am, in the counselor's office.
"Don't worry, we will give you your uniform."
—They should have done that earlier—
I thought, though I didn't dare say anything out of courtesy.
"I see, thank you very much."
His smile was friendly but mysterious.
"You know, in this academy the weak die, the academy kills them,"
he said with a friendly smile and eyes slightly narrowed.
—Is he trying to scare me?—
I was puzzled by the comment.
"Well, if I leave school, my mom will definitely come to kill me."
The counselor laughed loudly.
"Shadow, do you know the counselor?"
The cat immediately bared her teeth and hissed with animal ferocity.
"I don't want to have anything to do with that sly cat."
I looked at Shadow in surprise at her unique reaction.
"Have there been deaths in Solaris?"
I asked with some fear.
My thoughts swirled over the counselor's words.
"Yes, although it is kept secret, deaths are not uncommon for unfit people, especially in the world of magic."
I swallowed hard and had to confirm something:
"By any chance, am I an unfit person?"
The silence from Shadow told me everything.
Night had come.
I had practiced all day, as I had the day before yesterday and the day before.
I locked the door securely, although it was pointless in a world where magic exists, it calmed my restless heart.
Wake up...
A whispery, high-pitched voice like a girl's sounded in my ear.
I jumped awake, sweat on my forehead.
—Hallucination?—
I was breathing heavily, staring at the firmly closed door.
"What was that?"
I lay down, confused, before falling into a deep sleep.
I could hear a voice say something, but I didn't fully understand.
"Did you sleep well?"
I looked like a walking dead as I stared at my plate of food in a restaurant outside Solaris Academy.
"Yes, but somehow I'm tired, what luck I have."
Camila stared at me as if finding something strange.
Her gaze made me slightly uncomfortable.
Normally, I would have said,
"What do you see?"
But now my respect for her had risen greatly because of her strength, and I simply couldn't.
"Oh yes, tell me, who do you know here?"
Camila's gaze drifted as she looked around.
What is she doing?
I waved my hand in front of her.
"Oh, sorry, hahaha, I'm a bit distracted."
I smiled ironically.
"Ah, I see, just because you defeated a professor you think you can ignore me."
Camila quickly began to launch excuses.
—Obviously a joke—
I thought while watching her nervous appearance.
After she made a whole lecture of excuses and clarified that she didn't consider herself superior to anyone despite her strength, and that her power was for protection—words I considered unnecessary because she had repeated them a million times already—she approached the table, looking at me intently and speaking softly:
"Don't say I told you, but I hear from Lucia many rumors about other students, and most of them are supposedly trained in 'special' academies of certain countries to be assassin weapons,"
she said with a completely serious face.
I kept the silence this statement deserved, my face was completely serious.
Puff
My suppressed laughter burst out from my mouth, leaving Camila with a disappointed face at my reaction.
"What are you laughing at?"
I couldn't help the corners of my mouth from lifting.
"Hahaha, it's just that's so... HAHAHA."
Camila sighed.
"Seriously, you can't be told anything serious."
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, maybe now those human robots will try to eliminate you because you're a young talent."
The irony overflowed in my voice.
Camila's face turned slightly pale.
I looked at her completely surprised.
Did she believe it?
The sun had set again.
This time I was leaving the combat practice room late.
Before leaving, Shadow had thrown me some words of caution:
"The night at the academy is dangerous..."
She kept speaking, but honestly, I stopped listening.
After all, she had been giving me instructions for hours, and I didn't want to keep tiring my brain with her guidance.
"Is that you?"
A woman's voice spoke behind me.
She seemed familiar, but for some reason, I couldn't quite recognize her.
Without turning, I spoke,
"Do I know you?"
Heartbeat.
I heard a heartbeat as clear as if it came from a giant heart.
—No one is nearby—
I thought, looking at the darkened paths of the academy.
The only thing I could see was a small light on my finger.
I swallowed hard.
The sensation the person behind me generated was strange, like she didn't belong to this place.
"Don't you want to see what's inside this academy?"
Heartbeat, closer.
It had come so close it thundered in my ears.
I held my breath and without waiting another second, I began to run as fast as I could.
"Phew,"
I said while catching my breath.
"Luckily, she didn't chase me."
About to open the door to my room, I saw a golden light to the left.
Without thinking much, I turned.
A young girl about 18 years old was standing still, not moving an inch.
"What do you want?!"
I said alarmed by her presence.
The ceiling, floor, and walls began to shine with golden light.
I couldn't move an inch.
The girl turned around and I began to follow her, hallway after hallway.
We approached areas that weren't even on the academy map.
I searched for a way to escape but my body didn't respond to me.
Even moving my mouth was impossible.
We arrived at a room full of black and red inscriptions, like congealed blood.
"Open it," she said in a chilling, whispering voice.
I heard something behind me.
"I see someone beat me to it, no matter."
I felt my body freed from captivity.
I immediately ran out without looking back.
"This is your uniform," said the counselor while handing me the academy clothes wrapped in transparent plastic.
"Thank you."
He looked intently at my face.
"You look tired."
I sighed.
"Yes, I haven't been able to sleep well."
I stood up from my seat to leave.
When I was turned around, about to open the door—
Heartbeat.
The blood left my body.
I turned around scared to find the counselor smiling.
"Is something wrong?"
He asked with a worried expression.
"Nothing."
"The theory of magic complexity explains that..."
I listened carefully to the professor's words, who continued speaking about very complex topics while teaching us ways to apply the theory of magic.
As soon as the professor's class ended, I tried to talk to the person closest to me.
"Hey, have you by any chance heard about monsters in the academy?"
The person looked at me strangely.
"Actually yes, the older students say strange events often happen in the academy..."
Halfway through the sentence, a friend of theirs interrupted.
"We're going to the practice field," said Professor Raul as soon as he arrived at the classroom, and a flash covered the place.
I opened my eyes to find myself in a tall coliseum.
"The teams are on the screen."
—Diego— I said while looking at the screen.
"Diego!" I shouted.
"You must be Mateo."
"These will be your teams for the rest of the year," he said as if angry.
Since Camila beat him, he seemed even more reactive than before.
The scene changed to a large city.
I looked up at the screen rising over the sky.
[It will be a duel, prepare your positions 1, 2, 3]
Strong explosions began sounding in the distance.
"What's happening?!"
I asked as I crouched.
"It's a fight, you've never been to one, right?"
I shook my head.
"Follow me."
He began walking, hiding the sound of his steps with magic.
I strengthened my body.
We went outside where we could see magicians flying high in the sky.
"The trick to survive here is to avoid facing the strongest."
I briefly glanced at the flying magicians before following Diego.
In the streets, we encountered magicians.
Without saying a word, the battle began.
I jumped onto the rooftops to gain height and visibility, but that was a big mistake.
Out of the corner of my eye, two blocks away, an unknown magician had done the same thing.
A cross of fire flew toward me at great speed.
My reflexes and combat instincts, improved by constant practice with Shadow, allowed me to dodge the attack by jumping backward.
I landed on another street, far from my companion.
Just as I was about to jump, a diagonal slash predicting my jump stopped me.
The concrete hit by the slash split like butter.
I smiled fiercely.
The student quickly approached me and launched a horizontal slash at neck height with his shining steel scythe.
I dodged by lowering my center of gravity, supporting my left hand on the ground.
I hit his left leg, unbalancing him, before continuing with a combination of upward kicks to the abdomen, chest, and face with my heel.
He dodged by making a small jump backward.
When my leg was about to come down, he approached me, spinning in the air vertically, planting his scythe in the ground.
I moved to the left to dodge and made a big jump over the wall.
From the rooftop, I saw Diego fighting against the two mages.
"Hey! Get down quickly, I need help," he said calmly, dodging precisely the opponents' coordinated fire and wind attacks.
He maintained a perfect distance, preventing them from surrounding him.
I heard someone land behind me and got into a defensive stance.
The steel mage's scythe grew bigger, with small branches protruding.
He wrapped the handle around his neck, the blade facing backward, and prepared to spin.
His blade barely grazed my shin.
—Even though we're three meters apart, the blade reached me— I thought reflectively.
"So then!"
I lunged forward, overloading my legs with power, which started bleeding even more.
Compared to the pain from the training room, this was nothing.
I clenched my fist.
Just as I was about to reach him, he jumped backward while spinning his scythe in all directions.
The blade was about to hit me.
Desperate, I broke through the roof and entered the house.
Before I could even touch the ground, the scythe cut the house in two, taking my leg in the process.
"Haha, they're too strong. So this is what having talent for combat means."
I looked into the eyes of what now seemed like a lifeless doll.
The sky was completely exposed.
Holding his scythe, he approached me.
"Ahggg!"
I screamed as I lunged at him with my only remaining leg.
The upper half of my body flew off my body, landing far from my legs.
I held my aching abdomen while looking at the stadium roof.
"Tell me, was that a training with other students?" I asked.
"No, that was just a simulation adapted to the general level of the class."
"Hahaha," I laughed at my own weakness.
—There's no way I can win at this level.—
Professor Raul approached me.
"You're weak, you don't deserve to be here."
He spoke with hostility.
"Well, tell that to my genes. I just work with what I have."
The professor clicked his tongue before walking away.
"Trash," I heard Raul mutter.
"Most magicians are very demanding with strength, especially those who have been on a battlefield before," he said before leaving.