The interior of bungalow looked old, it had light cracks on the walls, old brown curtains, large windows, a thin staircase at the center followed by two rooms at the left and one room at the right. The kitchen was besides the room on the right and in front was the large hall with one giant hanging lantern and with 5 chairs and a circular table in the center. The table and a chair were occupied by a man who seemed to be in his mid-50s. He had grey hair, semicircular glasses, a moustache, a long-sleeved white shirt which was tucked in his loose trousers and had bunch of documents in front of him.

He looked at Elaine and Beatrice and gave a bright smile while he got up from his chair, that was when they noticed that his left leg was a wooden peg leg. He limply walked towards them and gave a slight bow.

“I am pleased to meet both of you. Please make yourselves comfortable” he pointed at the chairs in the hall...

“What would you like to have? Juice? Wa-” The man was interrupted.

“Can we get something to eat?” Elaine said while Beatrice glared at her for being rude. “What?” to which Beatrice just shook her head.

“Oh Sure!!” He pointed at the lady standing beside him and she went inside.

“Uh, forgive our rudeness she is just tired from the journey.” Beatrice nervously tried to reason.

“Oh, it’s completely understandable no worries. Oh, let me introduce myself. I am James, mayor of this village” he continued as the same lady came out with some fresh fruits in a plate and pointed at her.

“she is my wife, Felis” to which the lady smiled and bowed.

Without hesitation Elaine grabbed a pear from plate and started munching on it while Beatrice gave her an irritated look.

“Don’t be shy please enjoy yourselves, while you are at it let me fill you with some information you must know. You might already be aware of ‘The last battle’ isn’t it? The battle between the evil and queen Mawiya?”

“Yes, Sage has very well explained the basics to us.” Beatrice said while gently grabbing an apple from the plate.

“Hm, let me start and please avoid interrupting me because I tend to forget what I am talking about if interrupted.”

“Continuing what I said earlier you are here to attend a new school, a school that is completely different from what you had seen in your town. Why? What is all this about? After Queen left the darkness has been slowly swallowing the world, as days pass people are growing more and more inhumane. Assassination, abuse, murders, jealousy, greed. The humans are transforming into living monsters, and we believe this is one of the powers of the evil. We call her ‘Tamas’. She dreams to gain control over this world with her power and she has already taken the first step by putting the queen aside.

She has cast a certain curse onto the generation that was alive during the tragedy making it impossible for the people of that time to even try to fight. Yet 3 people of that same generation stood up to fight “if we can fight, we can still help the next generation to fight instead of suffering the same misery” which is why this academy was founded.

‘Sage Sanatan’, Sir Ethan and (he sounded bit sad) Valay together brought up two academies. So, the master of this academy is Sir Ethan.

“*nom**nom* So does the outside world know about these schools?” Elaine interrupted with food still in her mouth.

“Yes and no. Some of them are aware but most of them are not because the more common people are aware of it, the more they will fall victims as hostages by the enemies to bring out information.”

“*munch**munch* Ohh I see”

Beatrice gave her a disgusted look for speaking while eating.

“Ok so... what was I saying??”

“Um about the two academies sir.” Beatrice nervously replied.

“Oh yes. So as the legends say when the rightful people for jewels are brought together the darkness will fade away. Alas, years have gone by and we aren’t able to find the rightful people. So many students reached near the Tamas, 2 of them reached the closest yet no one survived.

So let me remind you as fearful as it sounds this isn’t a drama where the hero is destined to win and will suddenly be gifted the inhuman strengths. This is a preparation for war ,a war to protect this world from Tamas and-”

“SO WHO WERE THOSE TWO PEOPLE WHO GOT NEAR HER? WHY DID THEY FAIL? WHAT DID THEY DO TO FIGHT HER?” Elaine gets impatient and starts asking questions loudly while spitting out bits of food.

‘Bang!’ “STOP SPEAKING WHEN THERES FOOD IN YOUR MOUTH ITS DISGUSTING!” Beatrice shouted and hit her on head in frustration.

“Apologies sir please continue.” Beatrice said while pulling Elaine’s ear.

“OOWW”

“Eh where was I?ugh I forgot what I wanted to say,sigh never mind just go to the room at the left and get rest.” He angrily huffed and left the hall.

“Sigh… let’s go.” Beatrice got up while Elaine followed her, stuffing her mouth with last bit of the remaining fruit.

They entered the room. It had a large window in the front wall, two beds near each other in the right corner, and one bed at the left corner which was occupied by none other than Umid. He seemed sound asleep and was facing the wall. Both of them sat on the beds on the right facing each other.

“If only you had stayed quiet, we could have heard a lot more. You are hopeless.” Beatrice said while rubbing her forehead.

“ITS NOT MY FAULT THAT I WAS CURIOUS, HE SHOULD HAVE CONTINUED! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING?” Elaine lunged up from the bed.

“It was already too late, and did you forget that he warned us not to interrupt him? Such an idiot ah.”

“WHAT? WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN IDIOT?”

“You moron.” Umid interrupted their convo while still facing the wall.

“DON’T INTERUPPT OTHER PEOPLE’S CONVERSATION YOU RUDE WIERDO!” Elaine angrily pointed at him.

“I mean he’s not wrong pffft” Beatrice jokingly chuckled.

“WHAT? THAT’S MEAN AHH” Elaine screamed in irritation.

“Shut up you are too loud.” Umid said in a low voice.

“HUH? IS THAT A PROBLEM?”

“Unlike you I have to share a room with a brat, just get lost if you can’t keep quiet.” Umid tilted his head behind and turned back after finishing his sentence.

“JUST WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY??!” Elaine kept one leg on the bed while looking at Beatrice, pointed her finger at Umid, and screamed with irritation on her face."

“I-” Beatrice placed a hand on Elaine’s mouth before she could speak further and whispered in her ear.

“Stop it, maybe we can ask him if he knows about what the mayor was telling us.”

“Ugh, fine you do it.” Elaine pouted, folded her arms, and sat down on the bed.

“Hey um, I was wondering if you could please tell us a bit more about the academy?”

“Ugh, here we go again. Didn’t the mayor tell you enough?” Umid tilted his head behind again with a sharp look at Beatrice.

“Well, he did but couldn’t know the details, if you may please.”

“Sigh, students are recruited from various towns by taking their certain observation tests or by their parents’ history. They are trained with various types of magic and weapons here. Exams for finalizing each person’s place in each group are conducted. Until the students are completely trained and strong, they are not allowed to leave the village unless it’s an assigned mission. You will meet Sir Ethan in the afternoon. Ask him whatever details you want now shut your damn mouths and let me get some rest for once.”

“WHAT? THAT WAS SO VAGUE! AT LEAST TELL US ABOUT THE LAST TWO FIGHTERS!! HEY!! DON’TIGNORE ME!”

Elaine angrily shouted.

“Ugh” Umid just placed earbuds on his ear and ignored her.

“Elaine, be patient, we’ll get to know it soon. Come let’s get some rest, we have to visit academy soon.”

Beatrice gently smiled and placed the blanket on Elaine.

“UGH FINE.”

Chapter ends.

Writer : Manasa.

Editor: Black Beary