"The others say that one should never show pain. It hurts one's friends and brings joy to one's enemies. However, always remember: there are reasons that people are able to express their pain. When your friends see you in pain, they will do their utmost to help you. Perhaps there will be a cost for them to do so, but it is their choice to pay it, not yours. Perhaps you believe that the price is not worth it, but it is their choice to decide, not yours. Perhaps helping you is beyond their capabilities, but it is their choice to try, not yours. To hide your pain from those dear to you is to look down upon them, to take away their choices. Never look down on your friends, Lhetan"

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Fenrir’s school life was… rather uneventful. He made sure to always restrain his combat abilities to the level he had shown in the entrance exams, making minor increases to imitate growth. As such, he was viewed as a prodigy by many, and all manner of people tried to form connections with this “prodigious girl”. However, his soul vision notified him that each and every one of these people had ulterior motives, so he coldly rejected them all.

Personally, he felt rather annoyed by this fact, as there was a chance, though miniscule, of it affecting which form he differentiated into. Now that he thought of it, he was definitely not yet eighteen, as that hadn’t happened yet. Well, at least he had a general estimate of his age now…

The Academy’s graduation was not based entirely on time spent studying there; instead, it was based on the strength of the individual. Every year, the Imperial Academy hosted a huge tournament, the Grand Tournament, and participation was mandatory for all students of the institution. The Grand Tournament was in a round robin format, where students got 2 points for a victory, 1 for a tie, and 0 for a loss. The students were then ranked based on the number of their points.The top ten students were allowed to graduate, regardless of what year they were. Meanwhile, places 11 through 50 were allowed to skip two years, and places 51 through 100 were allowed to skip one. The bottom fifty were each evaluated by teachers, who decided whether or not each of them would be allowed to continue studying at the Academy. Those above the bottom 50 but still within the bottom hundred were held back a year, and those between the bottom hundred and top hundred just advanced regularly. With approximately three thousand students in total, all of the students coveted the higher positions and were desperate to avoid the bottom hundred.

It had been a week since he had taken the examination, and he had already established a routine of working on his spy network at night and attending the Academy during the day. The Imperial Academy didn’t have many strict rules; attendance was only optional, and courses were chosen by the students. Grades were only given so that the students had an idea of what place they’d get in the tournaments. Teachers were alumni who decided to work at the Academy; after all, a position as staff at the Imperial Academy, which raised a huge portion of humanity’s strength, held prestige on the level of a high noble rank. Students technically didn’t have to attend any classes at the academy, but that would impact their ranking, and no absentee student had ever placed high enough in the tournament to avoid expulsion.

Fenrir honestly didn’t need to take any classes, but he decided they had three merits: Firstly, they served as a good cover for him while he built his spy network. Secondly, he could learn something about humanity’s culture through observing the students. And finally, he could spend time with Yerin. After the dream, he had found that talking with Yerin seemed to help help him ignore a feeling of confinement that had been steadily growing within him.

Apparently, he had had to complete more exams, spanning the course of the whole week, apparently to help him determine which classes he should enter. During this time, he hadn’t been able to contact Yerin; during the day, she was taking exams in a different location, so she was busy, and he refused to trouble her at night as he knew that mortals needed sleep. And so the stifling feeling grew gradually, to the point where a mortal mind would be on the brink of insanity.

Such was his condition when he attended his first class.