Alex stopped before his classroom 1-S door and slid it open.
Professor Jaxon, who had been teaching the class, turned his head toward Alex, and for a brief second Alex caught the flash of shock on the professor's face. The students seated at their desks had also gasped, and Lara among them was the most visibly shaken, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.
"Sorry for being late," Alex apologized, and waited for the professor to permit his entry.
The professor looked Alex over from head to toe, his temples creasing, his expression caught between two competing instincts: whether to ask why Alex had appeared in such a state, or whether to let it go entirely and spare the boy any further humiliation. The professor chose the latter, dipping his head in a quiet nod. "Come inside and take your seat," he said.
Alex entered the room and pulled the door shut behind him. The force with which it slammed made the nearby students flinch at the sudden sound, but Alex did not think much of it.
Alex walked steadily toward his desk, and his eyes paused for just a brief second on Thalia, who wore something close to pity on her face for the first time, and then on Lara, who was watching him with an expression heavy with worry.
Alex settled into his seat, and as he had walked to it, he had caught the glimpse of the smirk plastered across Eldric's face. For a second, Alex had felt the strength drain from his legs, but he managed to steady himself and sit down.
Alex looked around the classroom. The students who had gasped earlier had mostly recovered, and now their faces told different stories. Some wore slight smirks, a quiet, jovial enjoyment curling at the corners of their mouths at seeing him in such a state. Others had pity written plainly across their features. A few still looked stunned, as though they could not quite process why Alex had walked into class looking the way he did. Had no one stopped him in the hallway? Had no one told him how he looked? Had no one thought to pull him aside and suggest he make himself look someone befitting of a noble?
But how could they have known that the hallway had been nearly empty, and the few students he had passed along the way, he had been so absorbed within himself that their faces had barely registered, blurring together in his mind like smudged ink. Honestly, no one had stopped him, and he was grateful for that. Alex did not have the strength to answer the reason for the state he was in.
After all, how could he reveal that it was Eldric who had done this to him, when Eldric had already made his warning clear, promising to make Alex's life a living hell if he ever spoke a word of it. And even if Alex did speak, he had no evidence. More than that, if the truth got out that Eldric had beaten him, Alex's parents and family would come rushing to the academy, and the small, precious fragment of freedom he had only just gained would be stripped away from him entirely.
"Ahem, now where were we?" The professor clapped his hands sharply and drew every eye back to the front of the room.
Alex exhaled with quiet relief, because the collective stare of the class had been suffocating him, each gaze pressing into him like the point of a needle.
"I was about to discuss the flaws in the second theory of history, but since Alex has just joined us," the professor turned briefly toward Alex and continued, "I will give a short revision of the flaws in the first theory once more."
Alex studied the professor and found himself wondering whether the man was showing favoritism, or whether the man was simply the kind of teacher who looked after each of his students equally and was doing his best to fulfill his role well.
"In the first theory, we learnt yesterday that dragons had no recorded origin, and the very core flaw in that claim is the simple fact that dragons exist today," Professor Jaxon explained, pacing slowly across the front of the room. "For them to have not existed in the past makes no logical sense. Some scholars have come to believe that they came through the gates, but that notion has never been proven, because dragons themselves have never acknowledged any such origin."
"Their source of existence remains a mystery, in no small part because they are far too proud a species to share their history with the likes of us," the professor scoffed, his tone carrying the unmistakable edge of someone who had little patience for how dragons conducted themselves toward humans and other beings. "And then there is the question of why the gods granted the status windows to the evolved beings who had separated themselves from the rest and had neither prayed for forgiveness nor acknowledged their transgressions, yet were granted the status window all the same, evolving once more into the demons of today."
The professor continued his measured walk across the front of the class and pressed on. "Some argue that it is because the generation that had committed the sin was long dead, and that their successors ought not to be condemned for the wrongdoings of those who came before them. The gods, being merciful in their nature, extended their gift to those evolved beings who had lived apart."
Professor Jaxon paused and swept his gaze across the room. Several students were smothering yawns behind their hands, doing their best to hide it, no doubt bored with hearing the same topic a second time. The professor, as though he had anticipated this very reaction, pressed his point with renewed weight. "And here lies the deeper problem. If the successor should not be condemned for the sins of the predecessor, then why did those separated beings never return to join the others and seek forgiveness together through prayer? The story suggests they continued to live apart until the very end when the gods finally extended their mercy and released mana into the world. That part does not sit well with scholars, because the gods releasing mana into the world is one thing, but granting those same beings the status window and lifting them once more into something as formidable as demonkind is another matter entirely. That is a step the gods should never have taken, and more critically, a step they would never have taken."
"There is also a thought that has more recently cast this first theory of status window into controversy," the professor continued, drawing a long breath before concluding. "If the gods granted both the mana and the status window to the world, then why did they not revoke the status window from the demons afterward, once the full weight of the mistakes the god made became clear?"
Professor Jaxon let the silence hold for a moment before speaking again. "And that covers the principal flaws in the first theory. The more minor inconsistencies will be addressed in later sessions," the professor said, glancing down at his watch.
"As I announced yesterday, I will be conducting a test today," he added, sweeping his gaze one final time across the room. "I will stop my explanations here for now, and we will return to the flaws in the second theory tomorrow."
A collective groan rose from the students, none of them eager to sit a test on the very second day of the academy.
***
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