The following sensation was clear as day, hitting like a bombardment of heavy things; his fist on my stomach made an impact that left the others around holding their breaths and contemplating my fate. 

‘Shit, this much pain is a little…’

Inoyva’s pathetic form reflected off the headmaster’s eyes, he asked the same question from before, “Name and birthplace?” He was not remorseful after inflicting such a powerful blow to someone half his age. Well, I did show misconduct at him when laughing, so it was a given.

‘Damn… I thought I want going to die.’ Inoyva could at least reassure himself that he would not leave the mortal realm of living. Even still, it was not like he had escaped the dire situation he found himself in.

“If you can’t find the words to my answer, then, tighten up your stomach for another knock or two?” Clearly from that monstrous voice, he would catch yet another one of those deadly blows. Perhaps this time Inoyva would finally die.

Cai looked at Inoyva with his head hung over. The ground made a nice scene as he spewed more contents of the stomach onto it. 

I predicted as much…

“I’m done waiting…” 

Seriously, huh? A few seconds was all he had in him to finally arrive at the point of delivering a firm punishment. But I did something to something… 

With his thick hand clear to assault Inoyva, he shuddered when noticing.

Blood suddenly left the lad’s mouth, splattering at the ground with a red thickened form.

“Is that blood?”

“He got internal bleeding from that punch?!”

I could see it clear as day. The murmurs of students gasping all around whilst holding their breaths. I could soon die from the strike of the headmaster of one of the most prominent elite academies of all time. I wonder what the headline on the newspaper say?

“Someone get a doctor!”

The headmaster halted another strike. Cai found no inclination to stay at her position when regaling at Inoyva’s slew of blood. “Inoyva…!” Her voice reached his ears and heart. She attempted to support him when grabbing him by the shoulders.

A ghostly pale expression filled her face. It was a given when the one person healthy and breathing, was now in a critical stage of fatality. His eyes would narrow down from her embrace as the movements of fellow students frolicking in panic to find a suitable person to aid him.

“Inoyva!” 

He could hear Cai calling his name, though he could nevertheless react towards her. 

He suddenly got tunnel vision.

***

I opened my eyes.

Feeling my body as if it was a hard stone. The weird smell of disinfectant. And a bright white ceiling at firm view.

‘A hospital…? No, probably the infirmary of the academy.’

Inoyva regularly shifted his gaze at the interior of that room. Even though it seemed like a room, the white curtains had displaced that thought. Of course, he wasn’t betting on being in an exclusive room.

‘It’s not like they would want the masses knowing what happened.’ 

For all those times the academy made headlines, only good news followed. If this would hit the slight mass of people in the media, it could have reduced Irisdescent in a sharp decline of popularity within a week, not to mention a day.

‘That went by perfectly…’ 

A slight smirked filled his face. Inoyva was elated for the fact that what he was reaching for, actually reached success. 

‘I thought that maybe I would have to aggravate some bullies in order to seem like I was beaten up.’ He could care less which method he would have to take, as long as the ultimate goal was reached.

‘The reason I could receive such fatal injuries was because of those glass shards, huh.’ 

I recalled that singular fact not too many people actually knew. Even though it came from a disaster, it proved to work for the better.’

“…”

On a particular day when there was an invasion of a Abyss horde, I thought I found myself in the jaws of death without exception. But when I lied on the ground, losing consciousness, I remember being inside of something.

I could only describe it as a small room, away from the panic and destruction.

Afterward, the emergence of the Knights was predictable. 

And at very second the upheaval of smoke dissipated, I was back on the ground, with multiple people I can only perceive as Knights, calling out to me while carrying my injured body.

To my current self, I could still use that “room.”

‘Well, I could go inside it, until I reached the age of thirteen. Maybe I was not able to enter since my growth spurt suddenly emerged. I could not find the answers…’ Inoyva sat upright. Holding a hand towards his chest, and felt the same sensation of a heart beating.

‘…But, still I could use it for other uses. I used the glass shards to cut up some “less” fatal internal organs inside to induce that I was too weak through the same room. With that I could further manipulate the correlation of my body, removing those shards from completing more damage.’

Suddenly, his hand disappeared when stretching across the air. 

This was the power of the room which aided him before. As if reality was breaking around the disappearing remnant of the arm, the glass shards would exit out with a command.

‘I could use them since I also infused Ethereal energy to strengthen the path I did not want them to take. Even still, that was a dangerous decision. I can’t repeat it again.’ It was an unthinkable occurrence. It felt as if this was the work of a mad man when describing it to the common person that kind of situation in quite the abstract sense.

With all things that have meaning, there was meaning in my actions from now.

His hand scurried inside the disappearing room. 

‘It was somewhere here. It’s not like it could have been misplaced since this weird power is quite complacent.’ He am pretty certain if anyone looked at him right now would think that he incited the movements of a clown. Thankfully there was no one except for him inside.

‘I couldn’t feel any presences around me…’ He was at a pursuit to utterly claim what was his.

He felt a familiar sensation, ‘There it is.’

Immediately what emerged was neither a weapon nor something of the likes. Quite contrary to that, it was actually something that bode well with the academy setting with its’ varying countless pages, red cover and new smell of “book.”

It was an elegantly-looking red book.

‘When remembering when I got this book, it feels weird…’

I recalled, on my eleventh birthday, Cai’s mother, who found a liking to me, told me to choose whatever deemed to pique my interest. The birthday party was initiated in her home. As such, I scurried my eyes to find anything that looked interesting. And what I found was this book which looked relatively eye-catching. I almost thought that it was a fantasy-setting story or something. However my expectations were betrayed. Though on the outside it looked quite fascinating, the pages were far from interesting.

‘This book is actually a form of teachings from utilizing Ethereal energy. From her expression, she was elated that I had such a sharp mind despite my age. I could no longer refuse it for another gift.’

Inoyva took a glance towards this collection of pages, contemplating the process by which it ended up in his hands.

When opening the starting pages, a clear illustration of person’s body, showing meticulous points where something flowed. Also, there multiple illustrations of various muscles located at the limbs and key muscles of the body.

‘Well, it was not like I would throw it away even if I hated it. It was a gift from a dear person. Though I would not give it the time of day, my mother, noticing that the cover steadily gathered dust, forced me to actually read it. So, I did. However, the only thing I can recall, was when following the instructions, I was seething with pain at my muscles to the point where I couldn’t move for a while.’

Maybe it was because I was too young at the time. For times like this, I asked myself why she could not at least give me a warning?! I lowered any expectations of that I could do whatever I saw on those pages. But what appeared on them was too enticing of a thing to just pass up. There was a certain glimmer at my gaze.

‘Still, I bothered myself with reading it. I was a fanatic for reading, so it was a given that I could perhaps find something interesting within these pages.’

Right now at entering the age of twenty, he could feel the consequences of attempting to act out the contents of the book steadily lessen to some degree. For that same point, this is the perfect point where he could finally reach a peak.

The degree of strength that he wanted was something only he could achieve through his own means.