Evan tapped his shoe impatiently, biting his thumb's nail as he continued to stare down the clock. He was furious about this—missing the opening ceremony would make him miss out on the opportunity to meet everyone easily.
'If it wasn't for dumb Alize, I would have been able to talk and probably start a side mission!'
Alize was a mid-game boss. She was crazy strong, with almost all her stats being that of a Banneret, except her intelligence. She was sporadic and unruly, making it pretty simple to bait her into a trap. She always showed when Evan entered Athens and tried to kill him. If she wasn't successful in the task, she would try to murder him throughout the entire game until she either did the task or got herself killed trying. A true pest through and through.
Although he managed to trick her that Gram was himself, it would only buy him a small amount of time before she found out.
Evan grabbed his head, suffering from a slight headache as he looked out the window. Standing in front of him was Veridia Academy. Although not the most prestigious, it had made its mark on the world for being one of the very few academies allowing both Commoners and Nobles and establishing equality. They'd also made strides to teach Aura Users rather than just Mages.
A deep, warm feeling began to burn inside Evan as he stared at the school. He was really there, at the place where so much had happened in H.K.U, the core of the game. The feeling was surreal.
Evan took a deep breath as he finally stepped foot on the concrete path that led to the courtyard filled with students. He quickly rushed out with both Gram and Lady, entering the main building and being told to meet with the Headmasters. Knocking on the door, Evan was let inside alone as he was met with a young man. He had a bright smile and short blonde hair. His build was also slim yet firm, like a soldier's.
"Hello, Headmaster. I am Evan Asteria. I apologize for being late; I ran into some complications on the way here," Evan explained as he took a seat.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Mr. Asteria. Complications happen—it's understandable. Since you recently registered into our academy, unfortunately, we still do not have your schedule ready yet, along with your associate Gram Devishe."
'His last name is Devishe? That's dumb.'
"You are welcome to the campus and all its wonders, and if you would like to attend today's classes, then by all means. All I ask in return is that you not cause any disturbances while we ready your schedule for tomorrow. Will you be able to comply?" the Headmaster asked, with his fingers intertwined with each other.
"Yes, it is quite understandable. I thank you for your kind gestures as well," Evan said in return as he rose from his seat and began to walk out.
'You know, I thought that would have been way worse for some reason. I've never seen him before as well, so I would have thought he'd bad-mouth my reputation a little. A school about equality, huh… this school is so freaking awesome!'
Evan clenched his fist in the air as he began to wander the familiar halls. Almost everything was identical to the game—from paintings he analyzed to see if they had any meaning to anyone (they didn't), to the classrooms, which were in session. Gram watched in the back with Lady, with grossed-out eyes, as Evan continued to fanboy over every little aspect of the place.
***
Being given an assigned dorm, Evan wandered to the doors alone since Lady wasn't permitted within the boys dorm and Gram was given his own room. Opening the door, Evan unpacked his things and began to set up his area, taking the left side of the room for himself. It was closest to the window, which would be needed if any random death flag were to occur in his bedroom.
After laying in his bed for around an hour writing down the future events that would take place soon in a journal, the front door of his dorm room opened. Walking inside, a young and familiar boy nervously entered the room. When the two's eyes met with each other, the boy loudly yelled while pointing at Evan.
"Wait, what are you doing here!?"
Confused, Evan looked around before pointing at himself.
"Who me? This is my dorm. I'm required by school rules to live here." Evan explained as the boy rapidly shook his head.
"No! No! No! No! No! You are the owner of that super shady market place!" the boy explained as Evan finally began to understand.
"Thats what you meant. Well what I do for a career is none of your concern really. I don't want any trouble so if you're really bothered by it then let's just ignore each other." Evan said, turning over on his side to continue writing.
The boy stammered over a few attempts on trying to clear the awkward air. Coughing a bit, he once again grabbed Evans attention by his loud outburst.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Rocha Jakarta! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Jakarta announced.
"Yeah yeah, nice to meet you too." Evan mumbled, now lost in thought with the plot of H.K.U
Evan had to be ready for the future events that would take place. He continued to twist and turn in frustration, before giving up for now.
'Strange though. I should remember how to do most of this easily, but for some reason it feels like I've forgotten a few key parts. Maybe it has something to do with Evans' memories mixing with my own. I've also been acting more like Evan as the days go on. Yikes.'
"Jakara. Do you know what the Headmaster said for orientation?" Evan asked as Jakarta, who was setting up his side of the room, looked up towards him.
"Yeah. It was something about being a breath of fresh air and giving both real and practical experience here. I just hope that when they say it's real, they mean sending us into a rift." Jakarta said, laughing to himself a bit about the strange idea.
"Yeah me too."
"S-so… Fang, how was the ride here? It must have been an exhausting ride." Jakarta asked.
"My name is not fang. It's Evan Asteria. Get it right next time."
"Oh sorry! It's just that your shop said Fangs Emporium… so i thought that might be your name." Jakarta explained as Evan once again dismissed him.
Wandering around his area and placing down most of his belongings, he reached into his bag and grabbed a small portrait of himself a bit younger, and his teacher smiling beside him with her arm wrapped around him. He gave a faint smile before placing it in his drawer.
"Hey Evan, there's this nice restaurant within the campus! Want to grab a bite to eat?" Jakarta offered, only to see Evan trying to sleep.
Evan pulled the sheets over himself as he forced his eyes closed, wanting to wake up bright and early for the long day awaiting him tomorrow.
***
After receiving his schedule from a letter, he excitedly entered his first class. It was a basic magic theory class that was being taught by a professor Evan couldn't give a single care about since he served no relevance.
As he sat down in his seat, he noticed he was a bit early and the class was almost completely empty. Besides himself, only two others had arrived at such a time. The first was a girl who seemed quiet and timid, reading a small book on her desk, while the other was none other than Talon Asteria.
'Just looking at that guy makes me want to punch him!'
A sudden tap on Evans shoulder made him turn. Gram stood behind him with a stern look on his face. It was the one that clearly told Evan "Try anything and you're done.". Evan sat down in his chair as Gram sat next to him in silence, also reading a small book. Taking a look at the cover, it seemed to be an ordinary story book.
"Do you fancy reading? I didn't even know a commoner like you learned how." Evan remarked.
"For your information, I do in fact like to read. The stories one book can hold are mesmerizing in a sense. Each character here has their own lives and are depicted very vividly."Gram explained with a slightly angered look.
'Yeah I totally get you. H.K.U and its character one hundred percent captivated me when I first played. Gave me a sense of wonder to see what each character was going through and stuff.''
"What, surprised I can actually read?" Gram remarked at Evan, who was just staring at him.
"No, just curious about that giant red bump on your nose."
Gram quickly began to feel his nose for any signs of a bump only to realize he had been fooled by Evan, who turned away with a smirk on his face.
"Want to fight? I'm confident I can beat you this time!" Gram said, only to be mocked by Evan.
"Why are you even here? You're an aura user right? You can't even use mana so why bother listening in?" Evan asked.
"My schedule's still in the works unlike yours and Ladys, so I decided to keep an eye on you in the meantime."
"Stalker." Evan quipped
"Criminal"
"Touché"
As more and more students began to fill the classroom, Evan scanned the entire room for anyone important. Nobody worth the effort was in this class, causing Evan to feel a bit disappointed. He sat up straight and stared forward at the giant chalk board as the professor walked in with a confident demeanor.
"Welcome to class idiots! Today's first lesson is me getting to see how capable your minds are. Does anyone know why I must know this?" The instructor asked as a few students instantly raised their hands to answer.
Even sat back in his chair, watching those who raised their hands panic when they realized they weren't getting picked. The Instructor's eyes wandered to student after student, until he saw one who clearly was disinterested. He pointed towards Evan with a cold face.
"You young man. Care to answer?"
'This bastard. Fine, ill play your game!'
"You need to know how mentally trained we are so you can help us work on improving it and how much we could handle." Evan explained, as the professor remained the same.
"Correct. You may sit."
"Knowing your limits is ultimately the rate on how much you can progress in a period of time.In order to know how far I should push you, I must understand how much you can currently handle. With that explained, I want everyone here to try and cast a basic flame magic."
Evan scoffed at the task as he rose out of his seat like everyone else except gram since he was a swordsman.
'Get ready professor! Although Evan is a garbage tier mage, I'm confident in my mental imaging!'
As flames began to emerge from everyone's hands, Evan froze in place. This was the first time Evan had tried to use magic without having to press a button to do so. Sweat began to drip down his brow.
'How do I use magic!?!?!?!'