Read Infernal :: Chapter 6-1 | Tverian Military Academy

"Wake up already, you idiot!" said the she-gorilla as she flung me across the room, sending me crashing into the wall.

What a nice way to wake up, a cute girl sends me flying.. I said internally, in a satirical tone. Charlie had definitely gotten stronger during the past year I have been staying with the Marshal.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I retorted, getting up and patting my back.

"You are going to be late for your first damn day at the academy!" she yelled at me.

"You do realise I have to go like a few days by carriage, right?" I said, trying to make her understand that maybe she shouldn't fling people.

Charlie had gotten much stronger, stronger than me in terms of physical strength during the past year. Although I couldn't hold a candle to her in terms of melee combat, I had the advantage in combat with our weapons.

Speaking of weapons.. Charlie picked a gun as her preferred weapon. Which makes absolutely no sense considering the gorilla she has become. Charlie wasn't bulky by any means, sure she had muscles, but she was still relatively thin. Her strength mostly came from strengthening her muscles with magic.

"And I hope you realise the carriage is already waiting for you." She sighed. "Seriously, be more excited. You're only going to the best academy in the entire country."

I simply shrugged. It wasn't that I wasn't excited, I simply thought there was no point in rushing things this fast. After all, Hayya had to use the automobile himself so we were stuck with the carriage. Charlie was not going to be coming with me, considering she's a few months younger than me and is legally not old enough to attend yet. Maybe next year then.

I got up and dusted my shirt and sighed loud enough that Charlie could hear. She simply huffed and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

I got up and walked to my wardrobe. This room, the very same room Hayya had given me a year ago, had been my home during my stay. Even though it was only a short while, it still feels quite depressing to leave it behind. I started hastily packing my stuff, and then wore my regular day to day clothing.

I was ready in no time, and promptly went downstairs and then outside. I saw Hayya and Charlie already waiting for me, with somewhat serious expressions, although Hayya clearly couldn't help but crack a slight smile. Charlie on the other hand, was clearly pretending to be serious, to imitate her father. I couldn't help but grin at the sight.

I walked up to the carriage and placed my baggage inside. Just as I was going to enter, Hayya placed his hand on my shoulder. I turned around to face him, and found that he had dropped the serious act entirely and was now giving me a warm smile.

"Not even saying goodbye?" he smirked. "That's rude."

"I was getting to it." I shrugged. "Well, see you in five short years.. maybe even sooner."

Hayya released his hand and backed away. I got inside the carriage, and shortly we were moving. I waved at the both of them as I went off, and they waved back to me.

We were ten minutes into the journey, and had gotten outside the city gates. The trip was meant to take roughly five days, so I prepared to be immensely bored. Luckily, I had brought my favorite thing in this world - books. I opened my book and read the first sentence before..

THUMP! I felt an immense pain in my head and dropped the book. I grabbed my head and waited for the pain to go away.. and then I started hearing things.

'You know the Holy King has lost his crown. There is a revolution coming.' said a silent female voice.

"Who is there?" I yelled. Nobody responded.

I'm starting to go insane.. I grabbed the book I dropped and looked at the cover again. The art on the cover depicted the Hero, Georgius, and his battle against the demons of the underworld. Georgius was rumored to be the first person able to use magic in all of the East, and he had used this power to end the ongoing demon-angel war by helping the angels slay the invading demonic armies. He was slain during the attempt, but not without leaving behind his legend and being awarded the status of nobility.. and in the process creating the house of Delor.

But something nobody likes to explain properly is that the armor of the Hero Georgius has horns. The church explains this by stating that the Hero wanted to show that he was on the same side with the angels, and picked an armor with horns.

But that doesn't make sense. The hero's armor is already unique, and his horns are different from those that angels have. I would say his horns are closer to those of a demon.

I brushed away the thoughts as I heard a knock on the carriage door, and stood up to open it. I found the driver waiting outside.

"We are here, sir." said the driver with a completely serious expression.

"Huh?" I said, baffled. "It's only been ten minutes, what do you mean we're here?"

The driver smiled. "Sir, I recognise time may flow faster while reading a book, but we have been travelling for days."

I dismounted the horse-drawn carriage, then got to stretching my joints and legs. We had not entered the city yet, and were waiting in front of the massive walls that surrounded the grand city. The walls were approximately fifty meters tall - in order to see the top of the wall, you had to look really high up.

The gate, in comparison, was small. However, that did not change the fact the gate was massive anyway. It was at least ten meters in width and length. There were armed guards on both sides of the gate, and in front of the gate there was a man standing to process people into the city. So while we were waiting in line, I had gone off the carriage to get a quick stretch. We had three carriages in front of us and one carriage behind us. It was pretty annoying that we were nearly at the end of the line.

After nearly fifteen minutes of waiting, our turn had finally come. I now had a better opportunity to inspect the soldier that was standing at the middle of the gate. He had white hair, but not because of old age. He looked roughly thirty years old, and weary from training. He was wearing the uniform of the Tverian military, and unlike the other soldiers, he was not wearing any armor. According to the symbol on his shoulders, he had the rank of Lieutenant. He was holding a clipboard, which I assumed he used to record everyone who entered and left.

The man finally turned his attention towards me. I was now standing in front of the carriage, in order to make it clear that I was representing the carriage. After the man sighed lightly, he started speaking as if he was depressed.

“Name?” The man’s careless attitude bothered me however there was nothing I could do about it. I cleared my throat and responded.

“My name is Daniel. I come from the city of Saara.” The man scribbled something on his clipboard without giving so much as a response. Afterwards, he looked at me again and gave a response with the same tone.

“What is your purpose of arrival?”

“I intend to join the Academy.” I responded. The man continued to scribble on his clipboard and then returned his attention towards me.

“The Academy, huh? Not to burst your bubble, but only around five percent make it to graduation. I happen to be one of the few that graduated." he boasted. "You don't look like the kid to even make it to second year."

I shot him a smile and responded, "We'll see about that."

The man scribbled down some more stuff on his notepad and motioned us to go through. "You're clear. Move it."

As we entered the city, I found myself dumbfounded at how advanced this city was. If Saara was a future city, this city was created in space. The difference was that large. The Victorian buildings looked dim under the cloudy weather, but that definitely did not take away from their glamor.

I took this opportunity to get into the Academy uniform. The Academy uniform was basically just the military uniform, except it was black and lacked the military insignias that showed a soldier's rank. The wrists had golden horizontal lines that stood out unlike the rest of the uniform.

Feeling dashing, I waited as we made it to the Academy gates. As soon as we were there, I practically lept out of the carriage and grabbed my luggage from the carriage. Wishing the driver goodbye, I stood infront of the Academy gates.

The Academy building was truly a sight to behold. It had the design of an Athenian pantheon, with white marble sparkling albeit the terrible weather. Students, similar to me, filled the yard of the Academy. There was a line in front of the gates, which I presumed was because the school was strictly checking who was allowed to enter or not. I waited roughly fifteen minutes for my turn to come up, and when it did, I was met with a graying middle-aged man checking for student identification.

The man simply looked up from his clipboard and said, "Identification?"

I pulled it out from my bag and handed it over.

"Daniel, no surname.. eh, works. We don't see many commoners around here." he said while giving back my card. "Welcome to the Academy."

"Thank you!" I smiled at him and entered through the gates.

Note: I swear with every new chapter it feels like I'm breaking a new word record. Part 2 of this chapter coming soon!