When I awoke… for a long moment, I couldn’t move as the crushing pressure from before lingered on in my mind.

Then I stretched out a hand and pushed off the ground and onto my feet. Standing there, wobbling, I blinked rapidly to find that we were a few meters away from the field made of red stones.

I wasn’t the only one trembling as I stood, as the others who had fainted were also in the same situation.

But we stood to attention as best as we could, as the man slowly walked over to us with a smile on his face. A dangerous smile from a very dangerous man.

That bloodthirst was almost like bloodthirst transformed into bloodlust and I remember the feeling of being sliced apart vividly as my limbs trembled.

Strangely though, I was able to keep my calm, whereas, pools of vomit stained the ground beside the rest of the students who had fainted.

It was almost like I had gone through this experience before, but no matter how much I thought; I drew a blank.

It was like a mental wall that was even now causing me to wince in pain as I sent my thoughts hurtling into the depths of my mind.

But even more strangely, I could somewhat feel each and every part of my body in its entirety. As though my sensitivity to the caress of the air, the movements of my hairs, the feeling of the clothes on my skin, the light in the sky, the details around me; everything seemed as though it had gained multiple folds of improvement in clarity. Including the pain.

Gasping out suddenly, I tensed as I remembered what the teacher had told us in the start. That iron ranks could enhance their minds with warforce.

Wasn’t that what I was doing now, unconsciously?

Hastily stopping it, I came back to the present as my body suddenly lost the feeling of being one with the world, and then, painfully, I stood as I went back to normality.

It was akin to the feeling of losing an arm after you’ve been used to using it for your whole life, or so I thought.

Mechanically following the rest of the students, we reached a wide low building in which many bales of materials were stacked.

Focusing, I saw that there was an empty space in the middle with looms laid out in a circle with a bale of material behind every machine.

Smiling slightly, I thanked my stars that my time in Yamal had taught me sewing, and looking at Sia; I saw that she, too, was looking delighted.

Taking our places behind the machines, we waited as the man walked to the center where he… he clapped.

In a moment, all the students had threads in their hands and were busily inserting them into the loom and wrapping them around the pegs that the loom had. Then, more threads were taken and then began the actual weaving of the cloth as the weft danced between the threads previously inserted.

Sitting down, Sia and I looked at each other, a smile threatening to break free, before we began weaving at a speed that caused consternation among the other students.

We weaved, and we weaved for a long time as the bale of material was quickly woven into cloth, cloth which I realized was the same material as the uniform that we were wearing.

Finished with the bale of material, I paused as I looked down at the cloth. Touching it, I felt it was a little… crisp… for a better word. It was also a little rigid, which lent itself to the crispness and it was heavy. At least it was heavier than the cotton that I was used to wearing.

After an hour, in which time I had weaved another half a bale, followed by the eyes of the man as I fetched the bale; We were again called to attention and marched off to a different building.

Here, joyous looks surfaced on mine and Sia’s faces as we saw needles, scissors, thread, and all the equipment we required for tailoring on the surface of the tables laid out in a line.

Taking my place behind one, I lost myself to the familiarity of the tailoring as I thought back fondly to how beautiful Sia looked in that white dress.

Glancing toward her, I saw a pink blush on her face as she met my eyes, and I knew she was thinking of the same thing as I was.

Turning back to the tailoring, I barely managed to finish half of a shirt, even with the warforce boosting my speed before the man coughed, and our time at the place was done.

Walking behind the man as we followed him, we reached a place where a solitary person was busy building log houses of the same kind that had been allotted to me.

We stood there silently as the man exchanged words with the other person, and then the man barked, “Your work for today is over. You are to wait here as I return and then you shall be dismissed.”

Stifling the cheer that threatened to erupt from me, I stood stock still as the man walked away into the distance.

Time passed agonizingly slowly as we waited for the man, and bored, I began glancing around at what I could see.

Which was not much.

We were in a clearing where the only other individual was the person in front of us, and the only activity of interest was his shoddy building of the houses.

Watching idly, I noticed how the person cut the logs before stacking them, and then arranging them in neat piles. The person then would take one log and remove the bark with his knife. An even more agonizingly slow process than our waiting.

Bored, I turned away and saw that almost all the other students were also standing there with puzzled expressions on their faces.

Suddenly alert, I looked at the students and then at the person currently working away with the knife.

Intently, I looked at what the person was doing, only to be stupefied as the person continued with the job peacefully.

After ten minutes, the man was back, and clapping he said, “You are dismissed to your accommodations. Remember, you are to head straight to them and if you are found in any other places...well,” and he trailed off with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Silence met his words, but it didn’t seem to bother the man who strolled off with his hands behind his back.

Confused as to where to go, me and Sia stood until the students began walking toward the end of the clearing where a small difficult trail was.

Enlightened, we followed the student’s and, passing the trail, found ourselves at the wooden houses that the man had led me to before.

I was about to head over to talk to Sia when I noticed that all the students were heading straight to their accommodations, and soon the sounds of bolts being drawn were heard all over.

Hesitating, I nodded as Sia shook her head at me, and then we headed to our respective ramshackle log houses.

Stepping inside, I heaved a sigh of relief and with a moan; I turned to the bed to throw myself on the mattress.

Only to stop as I realized that I had been baling fooled again into thinking that the day was over.

Looking around at the room, I murmured to myself,

“Welcome to Yamal Academy.”