Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The next morning, Evin went towards the Helm Class's room, feeling satisfied with the previous day's progress. At the end of it, he was able to create a portal out of sight, by extending his grid-filled sight past his natural vision. It made him feel quite accomplished, but it was just him memorizing the landscape down to the smallest details, so he could confidently imagine it on his 3D Coordinate.

'Am I going to have to memorize the entirety of Alvox if I were to teleport to wherever I want?' Evin thought with some dread before appearing in the classroom.

"You're late, Vice Commander Evin," a familiar voice greeted him.

"Sorry, sir! Supreme Commander, sir!" Evin replied almost instinctively.

"Wrong! You're not late! Use your head! And you're too subservient!" Arza replied.

He was the only one in class, as he usually woke up way before everyone.

"Sorry, sir! Supreme Commander, sir!"

"Stop apologizing for every little thing!"

"Sorry, sir! Supreme Commander, sir!"

"Argh! Go sit in your seat!"

"Sir, yes sir!" Evin replied, barely holding a grin.

Evin found Arza's random orders annoying at first, and only cooperated with lazy reluctance. But eventually, he learned to play along and just enjoy the situation. Besides, it was hilarious to see everyone else struggling to handle Arza like he and Phel did. It was a good way for him to distract himself from the torture that happened during this day of the week.

"Adept Decatur, I am still waiting for your apology regarding your position," Arza was harassing his prime opposition.

"Fuck off with your stupid games!" the young Count replied.

"I'm afraid I'll have to remove your name from the World Shard list once more. Such a shame… This week we were getting some conceptual Shards as well," Arza sighed. "I even promoted you to Adept considering your talents, but to think that you still can't accept my goodwill."

"I don't need your fucking Shards," Decatur replied and walked towards his seat.

As Evin was looking at the scene, Decatur turned towards him and spoke in a deadpan manner.

"Don't look at me, you murderer."

Decatur stared at Evin, not bothering to hide the immense hatred he bore for Evin. It wouldn't have been weird of the he started casting a spell too. Evin sighed and pretended he didn't see what just happened.

Perhaps if he was brave enough, he would've confronted Decatur, telling him to stop acting like he ruined the boy's life… but all of that sounded like too much trouble for Evin.

'And I feel like it wouldn't do much to change his mind in the first place…'

If Endra's stories taught Evin one thing, it was that arguments rarely ever achieved anything. You didn't call drug addict a 'fucking addict that's ruining their lives, and should really do something with their addiction' and expected them to actually do that. Apparently, they became even more deranged.

Evin sighed and shook his head. There was no reason to become philosophical first thing in the morning. His was doomed to go badly today, so he shouldn't try to make it worse.

He resumed watching the other students struggling to call Arza 'Supreme Commander'. Some were alright, like Phel and Dagan, but there were some bad cases. Bella was the worst by far.

"Good morning, Second Vice President!"

"GoodmorningSupremeCommandersir!" Bella blurted out before running next to Evin's seat.

After being denied a World Shard for the past two weeks, she was finally swallowing her pride and doing as Arza commanded. Sure, she could've afforded to buy a Shard for herself like Decatur did, but to do that, she needed to beg her father for it, which was simple unacceptable.

"Just embrace the act, enjoy it," Evin said to her, as he struggled to not snicker at her.

"Shut up!" Bella buried her head in Evin's chest. "Why are you so into this, anyway?!"

Evin stroked her hair and sniffed her on the head. A smile crept up his face as he noticed her blushing.

'I wish she would always act this cute…' a thought appeared in his head.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Evin spoke. "It's just a harmless joke. And besides, this classroom needs to lighten up a bit as far as I'm concerned."

"This is not a joke, Vice President," Arza added from across the classroom. "I would appreciate it if you stopped spreading misinformation."

"Sorry, sir! Supreme Commander, sir!"

"I'm really not joking!" Arza sighed.

He seemed like he was about to say something, but he stopped as the Chairman entered the room. Evin also noticed someone else walking behind him, a skinny old woman, who was dressed rather drably.

"Alright, everyone, settle down," the Chairman said as he waved everyone down to sit down. "Today's lesson will start with Miss Sufia Zurikh checking out everyone's compatibilities with Heart-casting."

Evin heard many rumors about the new teacher, stuff about her losing her mind after spending too much time in a World… or about her always being crazy, so she was a perfect fit for Heart-casting. He knew that most of them were bullshit, since all the rumors came from the students themselves.

'But I guess that if someone who looks like that and teaches a spellcasting method that makes the user go crazy, they would get a couple rumors surrounding them…'

"Miss Sufia, please," the Chairman said and gestured towards the class.

"Hmph," the woman snorted at the Chairman as if she was looking at something disgusting.

'Maybe she isn't so bad after all?' Evin smiled as he looked at the Chairman's dejected face.

Sufia then began glancing through the classroom. Evin looked around and saw the students trying to avoid eye contact with her. Evin supposed he also fell into this group. Only Arza looked genuinely interested in Sufia, while Decatur looked as if he couldn't give a damn.

"Hmm…" Sufia hummed as she walked through the class.

She definitely took her time. Although she would walk past some students without an ounce of hesitation; some poor student would be subjected to her lifeless stare for at least five minutes before she continued on.

The longest student she stared at was Arza and Decatur, but Evin also received their fair share of staring. Though she seemed to be appraising Evin and Bella at the same time.

After having walked through the room, she walked next to the Chairman and spoke in a husky voice.

"For the pompous blonde over there, it's Irratas and perhaps Lumiaris. He can enter it very easily, but I'm not sure how well he'll survive it." Then, pointing at Bella, she continued. "It's the same for that long-haired girl over there… but I feel she'll be able to last longer in them."

The Chairman nodded in agreement.

"That red-haired boy can access Ivelisi, Tenarak, Lochra, Apdenul, and maybe Ferlour. It won't take much effort as well."

The Chairman's eyebrows rose ever so slightly. "That many?"

'Water, Earth, Thoughts, Life, and Emotions… Is it rare for someone to be able to access five Worlds…?' Evin thought. 'Wait, in the first place, certain mages can only access certain Worlds?'

Then, Sufia looked at Evin.

"Him… He can access Seyethe, Exivear, Lochra, Qanatohm, Therae and Ori-Etu. With some training, he'll last quite long in them as well…" Sufia looked like she wanted to add something on it, but she seemingly decided not to.

"A rather unique set of Worlds. Air, Darkness, Thoughts are relatively common; but Weight, Space and Time are quite rare, aren't they?" The Chairman looked satisfied, but he didn't look very surprised. Perhaps he was already expecting something special from Evin.

"Mm," Sufia nodded in reply. "I'll leave the rest to you."

Saying so, the woman walked out of the room without further ado.