The fallen leaves fought their last stand against the ever feared proposition of death as the moist earth had cooled. The howling chill carried the streams of light, refreshing the cold and dry barren of the mortal lands. Life, death, purgatory, they were part of a whole, what the whole was, was still unknown. What was known was that these three gears were the foundation of mortality, the very essence of living and dying, the spirit of the continuous cycle of survival, for living didn’t mean life and death didn’t mean dying.

The fear of possibly losing his life had caused Kezner a night of sleeplessness, a night of pondering, a night of praying. He pondered about why it was him that had to go through what he had, why it was him to suffer through what he had. Pondering could only answer a question asked, not solve a question asked, but it had done neither for him that night.

Waking up, Kezner barely regained any energy by laying in bed all night. He felt, excuse my French, like absolute shit as he had to get ready for his first day of school, thankfully, this wasn’t his first year or else he would be abhoriddly late.

Kezner had to put whatever the hell he was thinking about all night to the back of his head as he sped to get prepared. Even though he wasn’t late, he wanted to get some food in his system, he hadn’t eaten all day yesterday. If he attended his first day half dead, how would his new teachers’ impressions of him be?

Thankfully, he would be able to rise above the ranks in his class as he had already studied the entire year’s worth of material by pirating all the online textbooks during summer vacation. He sought information and data, this was simply a side effect of Spirit Energy, but it never harmed him. His brain was able to process information at a horrifying rate, so when he had nothing to think about, his brain would automatically come up with new and creative ideas. But after a while, there was nothing else to come up with unless he processed new ideas for inspiration. Hell, he could even come up with a better online novel than whatever the hell this is in minutes, compared to me pushing it for days on end.

After taking a shower and dried up, Kezner wore his new uniform and sneakers. The school uniform consisted of a navy blue blazer and pants, with a black button-down shirt. Though he saw it as excessive and expensive, Kezner still reluctantly had to buy a new set of clothing as he had grown taller to almost two meters.

He was actually a very handsome young man, but in this day and age, who wasn’t? After the use of genetic manipulation became mainstream, most parents wanted their children to be as good looking as possible. After a few generations, there was no need to manipulate genetics for this purpose as most people had naturally been born handsome and pretty. Society now placed strength and power over looks and personality.

His messy dusty-gray hair complimented the school colors, though he preferred gray in general. He found the color to resonate with his ability and was naturally obsessed with it, if he could, he would paint all his walls gray.

Taking another look at his living room table, he noticed something different about it. His memory was keen, even though he stood up all night. He squinted a little in thinking as he walked towards it in curiosity, “I don’t remember that card being there…”

Reaching for the newly discovered gray card on the table, he thought about the possibility of it falling out of the book and was too tired to realize at the time. The gray card that was the size of a palm was blank on both sides, so Kezner didn’t place any real importance on it. This may have had a meaning behind it, but Kezner didn’t have the time to dig past its surface value, so he simply placed it over The Overlord Weapons Art.

However, this incident did remind him to take the book that recorded the theories and interpretations of his grandmaster’s forgery skills. They may not have the strength and endurance to apply them now, he could mull over them in the back of his head, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose, so he might as well read them during his commute and lunch time.

After eating breakfast, Kezner decided to get to his school early, no point in putting it off. Taking a public bus at around 7am, Kezner remembered to read his “grandmaster’s guide”, which was how he mentally referred to it. Taking it out of his gray bookbag, which nowadays was used to store random items rather than actual books, Kezner decided to skim through the first few pages, but quickly frowned and focused on every word.

This book was made up more of theory than actual techniques, there was a large difference between the two. Techniques simply taught you how to do an action usually by showing you the motions and understanding, theory, on the other hand, was building your own technique through the understanding and teachings of others. It was like having a schematic for how someone wanted their house built versus them saying you had had to build them a nice house and what rooms they wanted. The former was a detailed and in-depth description that took you through every step while the latter was just a brief explanation with a lot of inputs of thoughts and opinions, but there was no real substance to it.

His absorption of the material had almost cost him the stop he got off. Quickly departing from the bus and putting his book back into his bookbag, Kezner hastened his pace as he reached his school at 7:30am, his brain was enthralled and addicted to the book. You have to keep in mind that Kezner could only be considered a talented amatuer that had potential, but at the end of the day, he was still an amatuer. There were many thoughts and ideas that were leagues above what he usually read, his brain couldn’t get enough of it.

The government made it difficult to receive advanced material from the center of the Galaxy for the average man, a general populous lacking in intelligence made them easier to manipulate. Only the powerful and wealthy could buy items from the deeper parts of the Galaxy, be it Martial Arts or research journals, as everything not only became more expensive but more sophisticated, not any schmuck could understand the profundity of such writings.

When humanity conquered the Galaxy, what came about was another renaissance of sorts, new ways of thinking and inventions had been created, especially in science, with the discovery of the phenomena in the center of the Galaxy.

Kezner wasn’t the only one thinking to show up early, as there had been a line formed by predominantly freshmen. In a culture that emphasized learning and intelligence, many families took school seriously, be it poor or rich, as it reflected their children’s future. So freshmen usually came in as early as possible in their first year as to show how prepared they were.

Kezner looked at the line of blue blazers and the large holographic sign in front of the school, “North Central High School”, which was a very small school. It reminded him of his first day last year, how he was intimidated by the amount of students that came as early as he did. That entire year barely anyone had heard his voice and those that did couldn’t even recall it, his presence was so low than when his name was read for roll call every morning, everyone would think a new student had appeared. He didn’t mind however, being in the background was sometimes better than being in the spotlight.

The traffic outside of the school had swiftly and smoothly entered as the school had been doing this for more than a hundred years, so it had perfected the art of having students easily maneuver through scanning. Almost every proper and official school in the Galaxy had some sort of metal detectors and x-ray machines for bags. This was to avoid terrorists getting past security under the guise of a student. When you were in a war, you could always throw bodies to the frontlines but you could never have your next generation losing their lives, as those were the pillars of the next generation for a country. This happened too many times before the politicians got off their greasy asses and did something about it.

Looking at the holographic chart for seniors in the lobby, Kezner found his name and went straight to his homeroom, 5-402, which made him sigh in disappointment. The 5 represented the floor number, as freshmen were mainly on the second floor, sophomores on the third, juniors on the fourth, and seniors on the fifth. The first floor contained the auditorium, gymnasiums, and cafeteria, nothing too special.

The 4 represented his grade, as freshmen were represented with a 1, etc.

The 2 represented the class he got into, there were five in total, with 5 being the worst, mostly held for those that didn’t really care or attend school, while 1 represented the smart students that studied diligently. You see, for freshmen they take your middle school overall average to place you into your homeroom, while sophomore homeroom took account of your overall freshman average, and junior year looked at both sophomore and freshman overall averages. Senior year obviously took the previous three years’ overall average and placed you into a class. However, Kezner was a very special case.

Kezner hadn’t gone to school since the 5th grade, the principal couldn’t be blamed for putting Kezner in the 5th class, as he didn’t expect him to catch up to the students in the other classes. But Kezner proved his diligence and intelligence to prove otherwise. Kezner’s grades were the highest in the class and was close to reaching the top scorers in the school, which shocked the principal. Unfortunately, when he wanted to put Kezner in the 1st class for his senior year, every teacher was against it and believed it was unfair, since Kezner hadn’t spent three years in any school and was in the easiest class, for all they knew, he had been studying the past few years.

Unwilling to lose face and not provoke the teachers, he decided to compromise and put Kezner in the 2nd class, though it was a number’s difference, to these teachers, these classes represented the school’s reputation, an atrocious mark in their most prestigious class in the school was laughable, they were barely in the rankings for the top 200 schools in the capital of Zeklon.

Steadily going up the stairs to the fifth floor, Kezner was lost deep in thought as to what mistake he had made, unknowing that the principal tried to vouch for him. He could only resign himself and try to strive higher and make up for whatever he did, what was he going to do, sue the school?

Entering his class room, he noticed only another student was here. She had light lilac hair and was busy drawing on her holo-watch. The second Kezner laid eyes on her, his anticipated mood did a whole 180.

---Earlier - Arlean Ocano’s Crappy Apartment---

Arlean had spent her morning bickering on her premium edition holo-watch with her father about attending a crummy school in the middle of a gross and poor neighborhood, only to be forced to go to said school for half a year more. Originally the deal was half a year, but the more she thought about it, the more she thought it was beneath her status to attend, so she called her parents and complained, as any child throwing a tantrum would do.

She quickly got to school using her private driver as opposed to using public transportation. After the run-in with Kezner, her Family was a lot more worried about her safety, especially knowing of her personality. Speaking of Kezner, after Governor Vanya’s attendance at the Ocano Mansion, Arlean had been warned by her father and the elders about what to do if she ran into him again. They had been terrified of the person that would make the Governor herself visit, that meant either his position was either higher or necessary to her. It didn’t matter which one it was, they both meant that this small Family couldn’t afford to offend this young man, not even the Clans that spanned over hundreds of star systems could hold a semblance of what he was worth.

---

Turning her head, Arlean first saw the gray shoes of a young man wearing the school uniform, but the more her vision went up the more her heart palpitated as that physique had looked all too familiar to… Kezner!

The Ocano Family had already reported of Kezner’s identity and reported an hour after Governor Vanya got hers from the task force to get the identities of the old forge, which was a total coincidence. To be fair, the Ocano Family did act fast under a moment’s notice, taking them only about an hour to find his identity and organize all of the data about him including hospital records and every place he had been in the past week.

After looking at the frown on his face, she thought that if she didn’t get his forgiveness, the Ocano Family might be doomed. On Kezner’s side, he was frowning because he was thinking he was in for another fight with the Ocano Family, he did take millions from them. Those guards were some of the most highly paid bodyguards in the entire Family, not for their strength but for their experience, taking a few months worth of pay from them was the equivalent of stealing an heirloom from an up-and-coming Family.

The situation paused like this for only a few seconds, but the tension caused by it almost broke Arlean. Kezner, on the other hand, was thinking about the best way to evade if she made the first move and didn’t sense any tension on his part.

“On behalf of the Ocano Family, I would like to formally apologize, if we knew you were connected to Governor Vanya, we would have gladly welcomed your visit.” Arlean’s apology was sincere and humble as she knew Kezner’s position alone outweighed any prestige she enjoyed in the city by trillions, well the position she thought he was in anyways.

This caught Kezner off guard, but it didn’t really show as his surprised face was simply raising an eyebrow as he assessed the situation. After a second he simply scoffed and said in a whisper, “That brat isn’t worth the title of Governor.”

With her hearing, Arlean heard every word and could only gulp, to dare address a government official in such a disrespectful manner meant that his position was above hers, in other words, he was at least directly related to a Duke… “What have I provoked?!”

Dukes were the highest titles for a Noble Clan, only just barely not qualifying as a House. Dukes basically governed Sectors, a rank above Governors. Throughout the Milky Way Galaxy, there exists 150 globular star clusters, but there exists about 1,100 open star clusters.

Open star clusters were very loose and spread out, so it was hard to govern over multiple star systems that were so far apart. To solve this, a compromise was then made within the Dominion, Dukes would not only look over Governors but had direct control over open star clusters while Governors didn’t. A Sector usually contained 3 to 5 globular star clusters while the amount of open star clusters would vary based on Sector size. Within the Dominion existed 7 Sectors, with 26 globular star clusters, while the number of open star clusters weren’t exactly counted for.

Sectors were just the Galactic measurement, in the Dominion, they were usually referred to as Duchies, with the title of Duke either bestowed by the Emperor or inherited by a direct descendant. But that’s not to say that Dukes couldn’t be kicked out of power, if they abused their powers they could easily be removed from office. On top of that, they also had to abide by the laws referring to Clans, meaning that with great power came great punishment.

In the unwritten rules of etiquette, if a person of a higher status didn’t press an issue farther, that means they dropped the problem. In this case, Arlean felt it was like a pardon, as offending a Duke was the equivalent of offending a portion of the entire country. Nobody would investigate if the Young Master to the Duchy brought a few bodyguards to a frontier planet and a small family disappeared.

When Kezner sat down into the desk with his name on it, he finally realized something was off, “Why the fuck is she here?!”