Natalie's demand cracked through the room, sharp enough to jolt the class into whispers and gasps.
In the wave of confusion, three students rose from their seats.
Zolota. Caladen. And the blue-haired girl sitting at the front.
Natalie's brows lifted.
"I expected the two prodigies… but not a cutie from Earth."
The room stirred again, this time into a low simmering resentment aimed squarely at the girl.
Alphael smiled to himself.
"They're mad because she has this Mask thing?"
Before he could finish the thought, the air in the classroom shifted. His breath froze halfway up his throat. Something unseen slithered into the room—an invisible miasma that convulsed, rippled, split into three converging points… and vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Alphael involuntarily let out a jagged breath.
He blinked toward the front of the room.
He could only see the back of the blue-haired girl's head—so he couldn't notice any changes.
Then he turned right.
His forehead dampened. His spine arched as though trying to leap out of his body. His heart thumped hard enough to rattle his ribs.
Aidan's Mask stared back at him.
Made of dark, warped metal, it looked like a ruined sallet—burned over, blackened, barely holding together as it clung to his face. It looked like it should crumble into ash at any second… but it didn't. The visor was stretched open enough to reveal where eyes and a nose should have been.
There was nothing. Just a hollow abyss.
Aidan's face hadn't been hidden behind the Mask. It had vanished.
Thin flakes peeled from the top, burning to cinders mid-air. Embers curled upward like dying smoke. But the Mask itself didn't decay.
Then his eyes slipped to Zolota's Mask.
It fit perfectly to her face—flawlessly symmetrical, marble-smooth, bone-white. The mask itself was expressionless with no protrusions that resembled a mouth or nose. A single horizontal slit for eyes, glowing faint gold.
A crown of tapering spines grew from the top, fanning upward. Between the spines, streams of golden hair spilled out, falling against the crown's direction.
Alphael couldn't look away.
The moment his gaze fixed on it, his vision split. Distorted. Warped.
Static filled his ears. His stomach lurched. His nose caught the metallic scent of blood despite the air being clean.
It was wrong. Fundamentally wrong.
Something that shouldn't exist compressed into something small enough to sit on a human head. Yet it did. And Zolota's body hadn't changed at all.
Only the Mask appeared—
—but Alphael's heart raced like it was trying to tear through his chest.
"Alphael… Alphael… Alphael!"
He jolted and wiped the water that had welled in his eyes.
"Yeah?"
Fionn whispered with a crooked smile,
"That's what we need. Power that'll let us conquer the Axis."
Alphael looked at him, concern shading his face, then looked forward again—trying to ignore the classmates cheering and whispering in awe.
"…yeah, we do. Desperately. We just gotta figure out how to get them."
A sharp click echoed.
"That's enough," Natalie declared.
The three students returned to their seats. As fast as they appeared, the Masks vanished—leaving behind only a fading residue of Shroud in the air.
Natalie's tone dropped.
"As I'm sure you all felt… that is a Mask's power. Something that multiplies a wielder's ability dozens of times. Capable of mass destruction. And remember—every living thing in the Frontier has a Mask."
The room froze.
Another Axi student stood. "So… every creature has that much power?!"
"Yes. And many even stronger, excluding docile creatures," Natalie said flatly.
The student collapsed back into her seat.
Natalie continued, "It's not my style, but I'll be honest. As much as it's my passion to explore the Frontier, in this line of work you'll find your lives ending prematurely."
She tapped her temple.
"In case you haven't noticed—you're all adolescents. Matslava is in desperate need of soldiers to fight in the Frontier and potentially even other nations, if the time comes. Having the chance to lose any powerful soldiers with no replacements would be detrimental so we'd… or rather, they would prefer to use weaker and more expendable soldiers. Especially for recon and foraging. Just like the poor Humans who are forced into it."
Alphael's eyes widened.
"There are more Axi nations?! And still only fifteen percent of the world is charted?!"
Natalie sighed.
"I'm saying this to everyone. Think about what you want with your lives. If the Frontier isn't part of that dream, you're free to quit. You'll face backlash, maybe punishment, but it's still better than dying. I've seen it myself."
Alphael swallowed. Fionn's face remained unmoved.
"There's nothing keeping us here, so we might as well fight," Alphael thought. "I'm grateful she cares, even if she's Axi."
"No!"
A voice sliced through the heavy air.
Everyone turned.
A black-haired boy stood with his palms pressed into his desk.
"Don't give these dirty Vangen a choice! You said the Frontier is dangerous. That's why we're using them! So why are you protecting them?!"
Natalie opened her mouth, but he cut her off.
"The more Vangen we throw in, the less we have to fight! Which means fewer deaths for us! Which means the less time I have to share a room with them!"
Some students nodded along, glaring at Natalie.
A crooked smile split his lips.
"Isn't that why Vangen are in the official beastiary? Isn't that published research commission? The same one you said you're part of?"
Light chuckles rippled through the class.
Natalie's face hardened.
"Because it's cruel, Dagda. I'd like to avoid unnecessary deaths—especially of people who came here unwillingly."
He shrugged.
"Oh come on. Who 'unwillingly' infiltrates another world? And I wouldn't call those deaths unnecessary—they're deaths of the unnecessary."
"Sit down, Dagda. It's rude to speak over the teacher." Zolota said calmly.
He glared at her, then sat with a smug grin.
Alphael's fist clenched, nails digging into his palm.
"This waste of space… how could he say that in front of all of us!?"
A hand touched his shoulder. Fionn looked at him and shook his head in amusement.
Alphael exhaled, loosening his grip.
Natalie spoke again, weariness creeping into her voice.
"I appreciate your… sentiment, Dagda. But there's a time and place."
She turned to the blackboard and wiped it clean.
"As I was saying… this job will most likely kill you. Some of you might die in the first expedition. I only survived because my Mask helps me be agile. I got lucky."
She set the eraser down and faced them.
"Take the rest of the day and the next to think about this. I'll make sure Llywelyn knows. Class dismissed."
Her eyes thinned at Dagda.
"And you Dagda, can stay behind."
A silent moment passed by before all the students began to take their leave.
Alphael remained seated, watching the young soldiers shuffle out.
"What a first lesson. Great, now I'm annoyed."
He blinked and looked at Fionn, whose gaze was fixed forward.
Alphael raised a brow and followed his gaze which rested upon the blue haired girl.
"Ooohhh. I see now."
A smile crept onto his face. He stood and joined the stream of students leaving.
He shot Fionn a quick tilt of the head.
Fionn followed.
Alphael picked up speed, weaving through Axi and Human alike, forcing Fionn to keep up.
Before they knew it they reached just outside of the building.
Panting, Fionn stumbled beside him.
"W-why are y-you walking so fast?!"
Alphael grinned.
"That class pissed me off, so I wanted to leave."
Then his grin widened further.
"Oh, would you look at that. Hey—over here!"
Fionn turned.
Before him stood a girl in an oversized black shirt and even baggier dark-green cargos.
But it wasn't the clothes that made his jaw agape—
—it was her azure hair.
"N-no way…"