3rd Person POV :

“Looks like they managed to win.” Boba sighed in relief, relaxing visibly.

“They did not win, they were allowed to win.” Clovelyn stated, not tearing her eyes from the battlefield.

“Yeah, I noticed that, but a win is a win.” 

“I did not expect Grey to go that easy on them, much less let them win.” Daniel observed with confusion visible on his face.

“Grey might seem to be heartless, but he’s got some kindness in him left.” Jei pointed out, smiling at the battlefield.

Back with Grey and the rest. Zach let the vortex drop, wiping off beads of sweat from his forehead, Regulus had taken less of a toll, but was still visibly winded. But the most exhausted of them were Ryla and Ryoto. Ryla had to use most of her mana for that one massive spell, which Grey had so easily diverted. Ryoto, on the other hand, had to make constant use of his genetic trait in large amounts and having to use a decently big fire spell to obstruct Grey’s vision, before diving straight into liquid concrete to score a hit.

The same concrete he was now waist-deep in.

“Um, somebody care to help?” He looked around nervously, unable to break free.

Grey sighed, transforming the concrete to air and releasing the first year.

“Thank you.” Sighing, Ryoto began climbing up from the depression on the ground.

“Did we win?” Ryla asked, walking forward to help the kitsune up, who muttered a quick ‘Thank you.’

Grey nodded tersely, “Yes, as a result I shall be ‘going easy’ on young Zach.”

Zach sighed in relief, he wouldn’t have to go through that hellish training regimen again. Regulus turned towards him, flashing him a smile and a thumbs up, which Zach returned shortly after.

“The five of you are dismissed for today, get some rest. And I mean it Ryoto, no staying up late concocting more poison for your arsenal.” Daniel barged into their conversation, warning Ryoto in the end.

“Oh come on, it was one time!” 

Daniel raised an eyebrow in response. 

“Fine, two times. I’ll try not to do it again.” Ryoto admitted after a while.

“I suppose that’s the best I will get out of you,” Daniel sighed, “Now, back to your rooms.”

“Yes Master Dan!” 

________________________

Life went on normally for the students of Sanctity, there were no other incidents. Grey never pushed his disciple too much, although some still thought he was being unnecessarily harsh. 

The five students advanced quickly in their battling skills, but lacked that expertise when it came to academics. Even then, only two of them were behind. Zacharias, being the knowledge seeker he is, had already finished most of the curriculum for the first year, Hazel and Ryoto had been taught in advance by their respective masters.

That left Regulus and Ryla, neither of who had such luxury. While he was wandering in the human empire, Regulus did not give much thought to education, and Ryla hadn’t had the chance to prepare in advance, she wasn’t even sure she would make it.

Ryla sought out anyone who could help her, so she approached Hazel first, hoping that she could help. But it turned out Hazel was behind in her studies and couldn’t help. Regulus was in a similar predicament as hers, and couldn’t really help either, as such he went to look for Zach, knowing he could help them. 

Ryla did not wait around for long and went in pursuit of a certain kitsune. Try as she might, she could not find him. After scouring most of the academy, the areas students were allowed to go, that is, she was ready to give up when she spotted something red on the roof. It was a person, and exactly who she was looking for.

On the rooftop lay Ryoto, disguised by his racial ability, sitting with his hand resting on one leg and holding a book on geography.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Her voice would have startled him off the building had he not heard her approaching him.

“I like coming here from time to time, it’s…peaceful.” He let his gaze move towards the girl in blue, “Why are you here?”

“About that,” She laughed nervously, “I need help catching up with my studies.”

He raised a single eyebrow, “I would’ve thought you would go to Zach.”

“Yeah, Regulus went searching for him.”

Ryoto shrugged, “I can’t promise I’ll be as much of a help as Zach, but I can try.”

“Thank you,” She breathed out in relief.

“So which subject do you help in?”

“All of them.”

Ryoto sighed, this is going to be a long night.

________________________

“Hey Regulus! What do you need?” Hazel asks him as he walks into Zach’s room.

“I-I was just coming over here to see if you guys could help me study for a few things in class…” Regulus replies to her.

“That works out pretty well then! Deyah is over here to study with us so one more person wouldn’t be a problem.” Hazel tells him, reassuring him.

“So I need to know the sine of 35 degrees, it’s adjacent over the hypotenuse right?” Deyah asks, slightly confused.

“No, that would be the cosine, sine would be opposite over the hypotenuse,” Zach tells him. So instead of .82 for your answer, it would be .57- oh hey Regulus, what’s up?”

“H-hey Zach, I needed some help with my Social Studies and World History Classes.”

“Alright, I’ll take over with helping Deyah with Trigonometry, you help Regulus.” Hazel says.

“Got it.” Zach tells Hazel, turning to Regulus. “So what do you need to learn about World History? They normally only go from about the year 350 to 1450.”

“I-i need help with the stuff about the war of 834.” Regulus told him, bringing out his textbook from his bag. “I tried to read the textbook but I could never understand what it was saying.” 

“Alright! I can help you with that! That’s one of the wars I know the most about!” Zach said excitedly.

“S-so, what’s the Fen Empire?” Regulus asked him. 

“Shouldn’t that have already been touched on? They played a pretty big role in The War of Raijura.” Zach says perplexed.

“Th-the textbook said some stuff about it, but I wasn’t really able to understand it.” Regulus said, feeling upset as he did.

“I see… I’ll explain it to you then but this may take a while.” Zach responds

“Thank you Zach. I hope I’m not bothering you too much with this.” Regulus blurts out, apologizing.

“Not at all, I enjoy talking about this stuff anyway. Just stop me if I start to get too complicated.” Zach says, walking over to his bookshelf and pulling out a book full of maps.

________________________

“The Fen Empire was an empire that ruled over most of the Beshea region, the area where most beastkin reside now, and even expanded into parts of the Ebril region, the area where most of the humans reside now. It was a decently large Empire and was easily one of the top 10 most powerful Empires of the 400s. As they began to expand even further into the Ebril region and got close to the neighboring Uspea region of the elves, a man named Raijura wanted to challenge the Empire as he felt it was treating the human citizens unfairly. He started a rebellion in the Ebril region and created the Eclein Confederation. Raijura called on the Elven Kingdom of Illyria to-”

“W-wait, the Kingdom of Illyria? Aren’t they still around today?” Regulus interrupted, surprised by the mention of the nation of the Elves.

“Yep! The very same. This is actually how they gained most of their modern day culture and history.” Zach told him.

“Oh wow. That’s pretty interesting.” Regulus said, intrigued. 

“So then after the Elven Kingdom was called upon for the war, Raijura was almost certain he would win. Long story short, Raijura lost a few key battles in the Eclein homeland which led to his defeat. Illyria didn’t invest much into the war and kept most of the territory they gained in the war. After the war, even though The Fen Empire had spent far too many resources in the battle and couldn’t afford to occupy the Ebril region. Instead, they put a ruler they thought would favor them in charge.” Zach finally said as he finished his exposition on the War of Raijura.

“So that’s what caused their decline?” Regulus questioned.

“That’s what started their decline for the most part.” Zach answered him.

“So, that explains the Fen Empire. Could you also explain the war of 834?” Regulus asks Zach.

“Sure! I was going to explain the stuff in between it, but I’ll just skip to that if you want me to.” Zach tells him. Regulus nods in response.

“So the Fen Empire was able to survive another 400 years, trying and failing many times to reclaim it’s old lands in the Ebril region. The War of 834 was a major one that redefined the next few hundred years and beyond to the present day.” Zach started.

“So it was that important? Regulus asked.

“Unbelievably so. It involved most Kingdoms and Empires in that part of the world.” Zach told him.

“Zach, I’ve heard your rants about the War of 834. We don’t need to keep Regulus here all night. Just give him the basics and stop there.” Hazel told Zach.

“But it’s really interesting!” Zach argued back.

“Me and Deyah are almost finished with our stuff over here. So don’t get sidetracked and hurry it up.” Hazel responded.

“Fine…” Zach sighed sadly. “So anyway, The Fen Empire was starting to plan another invasion of the Ebril region. The major nation that was in that area at this point, Ostain, decided enough was enough and rallied the other human kingdoms together to get rid of the Fen Empire once and for all. As the war started, the Fen Empire began invading most of the Ebril region, both sides incurring numerous casualties as the war kept going. Even the normally neutral dwarven kingdom of Tver was forced to join the war as Fen threatened to invade if they didn’t support them and launch a preemptive invasion of Illyria before they decided to join on the side of Ostain. A small community of beastkin inside the nation didn’t like the direction that the Fen Empire was heading, so they seceded from the empire. They called themselves the Oswen Monarchy. They were ignored by the Fen Empire for the most part because they were so busy with the war. Long story short, this led to the Fen Empire’s fall and the rise of Ostain and Oswen.” Zach says, finally finished with his explanation.

“So, why did Oswen rebel? What didn’t they agree with?” Regulus questioned once more.

“They believed that the beastkin shouldn’t interfere with stuff outside of the Beshea region so the other races wouldn’t interfere with them. Later the Oswen Empire would reform to become the modern day Zaeson Federation.” Zach told him.

“Alright then, thank you Zach. That will help a lot.” Regulus replied, thankful..

“Finally finished then Zach? I think this is a record for your fastest time to stop talking about the War of 834.” Hazel jokes, referring to Zachs hours long rant about the war,

“I remember when I tried to get him to help me with history… I was stuck here for 3 hours as he ranted about it. He only stopped when you finally got here to save me.” Deyah says, partially joking as well.

“I remember that. You did do fairly well on the test the next day though, so I think it was worth it.”

“That is true.” Deyah says while laughing. “Maybe I should recommend a few of the other people in my class to get tutored by him.”

“Maybe.” Hazel responds to him, laughing as well.

“I could get my sister to talk to him about it. She normally gets a little interested in that stuff.” Deyah suggested.

“You mean Alaya?” Hazel asks.

“Yep.” Deyah replies.

“No, the last thing we need is her starting to get corrupted by Zach,and start ranting about history and politics twenty-four seven. No offense Zach.” Hazel says, making sure to turn to Zach to make sure he wasn’t offended by any of this.

“None taken.” Zach reassures them.

________________________

“So do you understand now?” Ryoto asked Ryla, as they sat on top of the roof as it got dark. Ryoto was holding up a flame lit hand so that they could see the paper.

“I think I understand now.” Ryla says confidently. 

It had taken Ryoto a little bit longer than he thought to help her, but he had finally done it in the end. 

“Well, I’m glad you finally got it figured out.” Ryoto says, stretching his arms. 

“I think I’ll be able to pass the test now. Thanks Ryo- Ryan.” Ryla says, cutting herself off.

“It’s fine Ryla, when it’s just us or one of the other 3, you guys can say my real name. I’m fine with you guys saying it.” Ryoto tells her.

“Alright then. Thanks Ryoto!” Ryla replies.

“No problem.” Ryoto says. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

“Alright, see you later.” Ryla replies back.

________________________

“Good morning class.” Professor Jonah said. “I have an announcement to make, and I’m sure half of you know about it already, given how fast rumors fly.” 

The class broke out in whispered mutterings as most of the students discussed just what it could be. They were excited, rightfully so considering how uneventful the class had been so far, especially so when it was supposed to be the Adventurers Paradigm class. The beginning for all things adventuring. Yet at this point all they had learned were the edible mana beast and plants that grew in certain areas. Many had dropped out of the class because they found it even more boring and unnecessary than the basic classes. The class had shrunk to about 30 class members total.

“We have had our class field trip to the Eletril Forest scheduled for 2 weeks from now! You need to be prepared for the trip at least a week in advance. The list of supplies needed will be posted at the front of the class.  I wish you luck on the upcoming trip!” As Professor Jonah finished, the class began to burst into cheers.

The trip to the Eletril Forest would be upon them soon.