Chapter 8

The next morning, team SEER woke up almost at the same time. Ellis who is not good in morning still feels sluggish and heavy. Nonetheless, he needs to get up and officially start as a student. Four years still awaits him and this is just the first day concerning his goals in the future.

“You’re pretty shabby in the morning huh?” Ellis turned to see Robert already in his uniform attire.

Robert, as Ellis expected is from a well off family. The brook family might not be a famous clan like the major clans but their family holds several businesses which generates lots of money. They are mainly dealing with weapon production and their name is well known in weapon industry.

“I’m surprised a rich kid like you can move so well without servants.” Ellis said as he tries to stand up from his bed finally. “It’s only seven in the morning… Sheesh.”

“That is why you are poor. You must always use every time you can and make something happen beneficial to you.” Robert adjusts his collar in the mirror with a smile. “That is the way my friend.”

The two are talking until the ladies finally went out of their separation curtain. Even if they are sharing the same room, the ladies are quite nervous sleeping totally being seen by the opposite sex so the team agreed to put some separating curtain between them. Emerald is the first to step out with her usual expressionless face.

Robert smiled teasingly towards Emerald and sad beside the yawning Ellis. “I like seeing your doll face so early in the morning.”

Emerald did not say anything but the fire in her eyes is enough to shut up Robert. Emerald may be awkward between people but her fiery temper is well-known to all.

After a few more moments, Sarah also joined the trio also dressed already leaving Ellis to be the only one to still be on his sleeping attire. Ellis also realized this so he started to walk towards the bathroom to tidy him up.

“Look at this guy… tsk… tsk…” Sarah says as she picks up the blanket Ellis casually set aside. “This is why guys…”

With Robert being the only male left in the room, he also feels a little bit intimidated in front of the ladies. Now that he is looking, he can say that he is one lucky lad since he was given the chance to be in the same room with these two beauties. He wanted to talk like usual but somehow his words won’t come out at all. The fiery gaze of the two female directed at him is enough to stop his comments which he usually doesn’t have any scruples in saying but somehow, he can’t be that guy now.

The three people sat on their respective beds as they prepare their own things for the incoming lecture. Ellis did not take that long before he went out of the bathroom now with the absence of his sleepy eyes. Now that people looked at him more closely, the hue of his irises seems a bit different. His right eye seems to be tinted with some pale and nearly unnoticeable red while the left is with pale and nearly unnoticeable gold. If you look afar, the hues are not that visible but now they are a more visible.

“Ehh… with different clothes, you don’t look like a bumpkin anymore.” Sarah said with a laugh.

“Hey… I’m a bumpkin but with a style.” Ellis jokes with her as he rummages his bag he carries. He took out few notebooks and the small square object named scroll given to every student right after the dismissal.

“Dude… the notebooks are still alive?” Robert says teasingly.

Ellis looks at him with confusion since back at Lutton town the school still uses notebooks when taking down notes. The Kingdom of Vale is impossible to allocate the town with too much technology for comfort. In the end, the town if for the exiles and it is not right to give them too much comfort. Even some narrow minded people push some ordinance to completely isolate the town from Vale Kingdom. If not for the threat of the maze ruins, the ordinance may have passed and the town of Lutton will be literally sentenced to death. Even with how many seasoned warriors the town has, they still need commodities from the kingdom. If those supplies were to be removed then they will be pretty much finished. This is also one form of control the kingdom imposes to the town as precaution if ever the people revolted.

“Actually, yes…” Ellis said as he took another small bag neatly folded inside the bigger bag he has. “This is our life there.”

People also felt the little bit of resentment mixed with his tone and the other team members don’t know what to say. They lived their lives with comfort and they can’t picture out the life Ellis led back in the Lutton. They wanted to comfort him but they also know that the town is for exiles. People there are 90% guilty of heavy crimes. It is impossible for the kingdom to treat them equally with the peaceful citizens.

“Anyway, let’s get some light meals before class.” Sarah broke off the heavy silence looming over the team.

The other members did not object and the team arrives at the cafeteria not long after. The four lines up with the line that is starting to grow longer.

“By the way, what is the maze ruins like?” Sarah asked Ellis curiously.

Ellis looks at her then looks around. This action was noticed by the other three and did not ask further. Ellis took the same meal yesterday and fortunately did not meet the lady yesterday. He will really feel embarrassed if the lady throws more teasing towards him so early in the morning.

When the four people sat in one empty table near the edge of the cafeteria, Sarah looks at Ellis once again hoping for Ellis to answer her earlier question. She read some files about the dangerous areas of Sielaria but it only contains about general information. She is hoping for Ellis, who frequently dives in one of the most dangerous places, to tell her some more things about the maze ruins.

Ellis did not disappoint her and started to talk some more things not written on the files. He told them about some rumors and some legends about the place. He also told them about the general strength of the Grims inside the ruins.

“I myself have not reached the deepest part on only about near half of it.” Ellis said after swallowing a piece of egg. “But some rumors said that there will be more artifacts on the deeper parts.”

“Then why is the kingdom not sending manpower to excavate the place?” Robert said doubtfully. He thinks that the Kingdom is impossible to let those valuable artifacts to fall in the hands of people of Lutton town.

“Some old folks said that the kingdom tried a few times long ago but failed due to the strength of the maze.” Ellis said with a cold tone. “Because of that, they are using us to scout the area and take the brunt of everything and pay us with those artifacts we get. Those artifacts are not the best out there after all.”

“What? That’s cruel!” Sarah said with a face of disbelief.

“This is how the world works Sarah. That is what it means to be exiled.” Robert said as he sighed.

“It’s ok. The people of Lutton also understand this matter very well. If they want to be free, they can redeem themselves already but chose to remain because they have no place to stay in this whole Sielaria anymore. Lutton town is our last haven.”

“That is just sad.” Sarah said while wiping the tears that are threatening to fall.

“Don’t mind it; we can’t do anything about it anyway. We are too insignificant to do so.” Ellis said trying to lighten up the mood.

The four of them ate peacefully with few small talks here and there. The people around them are curious about this new team because of Emerald Rose in it. Her fame in the capital is really high and people can’t help but want to know about her affairs especially her new team. They are shocked to see that the team is quite harmonious even though Emerald is not saying much.

When the four members of team SEER finished eating, they walked around for some time until the bells went off. Ellis mistook the bells for some kind of siren of warnings and Sarah and Robert laughed at him for some time because of it. Them, being the city kids never expected someone treating the bells for a siren but deep inside they also understood how bad the living standards of Ellis back at the town of Lutton.

When the four of them found their respective seats inside the classroom, people started to murmur things once again while looking at them. Ellis can only bitterly smile because he knows that all of this is because they have Emerald on their team. He sometimes thinks if all this attention is worth in the end. In the end, he can only oblige with the arrangement of the school. He himself doesn’t think that the arrangement is bad anyway.

The classroom is still noisy with people whispering on their own when a teacher walked in. He was wearing a neat suite and sharp looking spectacles which only gives him the aura of a professional with strict attitude. The teacher looks around the room and his gaze stayed on those that still are whispering. After noticing the sharp gaze the teacher is giving them, they finally settled down.

When the room is finally silent, the teacher opened his bag and took out a few miniature figures of Grims. He placed them in the table neatly and for all to see without any difficulty. When everything is ready, he stepped out the stage prepared and looked around once again.

“I am Eddard Cartwright. I will be teaching you about Grims which most of you only knows so few about them.” He looks around and his vision stayed into one student with spiky hair on the front. “You… Please stand.”

The student hastily stood up following the instruction. He was surprised for a bit but composed himself fast to not embarrass himself right on the first day of class.

“Introduce yourself and what you know about Grims.” Eddard said.

“Ahem… I Richard Nox, I came fro…” He was not able to continue because he felt the sharp glare of the teacher.

“Get on what you know about the Grims. Your family name and where you came from is irrelevant.”

“Yes Sir!” The student can’t help but respond like that.

“Grims are the product of all negative feelings of humans. Anger, sadness, longing, fear and many more is their main source of power. They appear on places where these feelings linger for longer time.”

“Sit down.”

The student sat down and can’t help but thinks if he did good or bad. The teacher walks back to the stage and grabbed one of the miniature Grim.

“This is a Nevermore Grim. You can see a few of them outside of our borders nesting on the forests. How can they appear there when there is no one to feel those negative emotions inside the forests?”

The question left the students baffled and confused. If the definition of Grimms is as simple as that, then wouldn’t the Grimms appear inside the town and not outside? The situation is too common that they also did not consider this before the teacher opened this subject. Now they are thinking why.

“All of you know that they came from negative emotions. That is normal but do you think that only humanity, Faunus and Half-lings are capable of those negative emotions?”

Once again the classroom is as silent as it can be. The teacher placed the figure of the Grimm back at the table and pressed a button from a remote. Then texts appeared on the hologram screen for all students to see. The students can understand some but most of it left them confused.

“Grimms… One can call them mindless beings only seeking destruction. But don’t ever underestimate them. They occupy more than half of our planet and that speaks volumes on what they are capable of. We all concluded that Grimms came from negative emotions but that is not the only reason for their appearance.”

“Grimms can be attracted by those negative emotions which gave birth to the idea that they are born from it; which is actually true and false in a sense if you ask me. I can’t confirm it but I will share my observation to you.”

“Grimms are truly born out of those negative emotions but they are not born just like that. Grimms may have been collecting these emotions from us like bees. How they collect? I am not able to tell yet but let’s put a Dragon Grimm as an example. In history, a Dragon Grimm is one of the major reasons why Beacon academy fell for the first time. The records wrote about how this Grimm rained down Grimms from the sky. Reports said that black pools fell on the ground which in turn became Grimms of various shapes and sizes. From this event, we can conclude that the birth of Grimms is not just because of negative emotions.”

The students are focusing so hard on every word the teacher is saying. For them, these kinds of information may not actually be proven right now but they are also trying to pick up the reasons behind the words of teacher Eddard.

“I believe that they can be created with some method we are not aware. It is true that this method also concerns about negative emotions but I don’t think that is all there is. The studies about this part are not advancing much because of how little we experience about the birth of Grimms.”

“I want you to take this chance and learn whatever you can in my class and I expect all of you to know every nook and cranny about the Grimms when you finally leave my class in four years. If you die due to your lack of knowledge about a Grimm then that will just be too sad in your part.” Eddard says as he pushes his spectacles upwards.

“In this class, I will be conducting some matches between some selected students and a specific Grimm so you all better prepare yourselves. Even if you won’t die due to it, a broken bone or a limb will still haunt you for many nights if you injure yourself.”

“First of all, let’s discuss the most common Grimm, the Beowolf.”

The class went on as the teacher discussed more and more about the characteristics of Grimms. He pointed out some of their habits and their way of combat. Students were faithfully taking down notes furiously. In all of these, no one noted someone writing traditionally on a notebook. Other students are furiously encoding words and copying the picture on the screen when someone is manually making a drawing towards his own notebook.

Ellis admits that the knowledge he has may be many compared to others since he lives outside the walls of safety of the kingdom but the new knowledge he has to their origin is also minimal. All he knew is that they are attracted to those negative emotions. They gather in a place where there is a think remnant of those emotions but he can’t discredit his teacher’s theory too.

With how vast the world is and how many Grimms scattered all around Sielaria, there will be places where humanity has never intruded yet there are presence of Grimms out there too. If his teacher’s theory can further progress, then they might just be able to untie the mystery behind the birth of the Grimms and maybe eradicate the cause once and for all.

“For the Nuckelavee Grimms they are classified as mid-level 7 Grimms. One can say that they are unique amongst the Grimms. They already have their behaviors, routines, intent and even started to feel some emotions such as anger and sorrow. It is not every day that you will meet one so you can breathe a little actually. Grimms may be mindless but they are actually able to evolve and step into higher ranking Grimm which greatly boosts their powers compared to us which needs a long time to train and perfect our skills. Once they evolve into a higher ranking, they gain boosts of powers and some of them start to have intents but not too much.”

“Sir, a question please.” One female student raised her hand.

“Go on.” Eddard said.

“If they start to feel emotions, will their intelligence also start to develop?” the said then sat back to her seat waiting for Eddard to answer.

Eddard frowned and was quiet for some time. His look tells the student that he is actually taking the question seriously and trying to come up a satisfying answer. After a few silent moments, Eddard’s vision landed on Ellis.

“I have some information but those were not confirmed and I am not willing to divulge you to information that might be wrong and without any credible evidence behind so let’s ask someone which might be able to answer your question.” Eddard said as he nodded towards Ellis.

All vision turned to Ellis at this moment and everybody is looking at him doubtfully. In their head, what can a country bumpkin add in this information based discussion? He is mysterious but it does not mean that he is also that knowledgeable compared to them which grew up surrounded with information they want to get. They are having some air of superiority actually and they are not willing to believe someone which they think below them in many aspects.

“As you know, Mr. Moon is not from the kingdom of Vale. Many of you may already hear some information about his family and their circumstances but compared to you all, his experience towards Grimms is way more superior by far. I once visited the town of Exiles and I saw first-hand the situation there and I will tell you, no one here will survive there for a month with your mentality and possibly by skill. I am not looking down of you but the things I saw during the entrance exam are enough for me to come up some situations and compute the chances of you guys overcoming the situation.”

Some students wanted to protest and they are talking in low voice clearly showing their dissatisfaction but they are not brave enough to clash with the teacher in front of them with superior prowess compared to them.

“Now hush! You can all argue with me but that is my opinion. It might be wrong for you but it is right for me. We shall proceed since you want to know if Grimms will be able to develop some intelligence in the long run. Mr. Moon if you please? Can you shed some light regarding the topic?”

Ellis is hesitant but since the teacher asks him to, he can only comply and share some knowledge.

“They can and I have seen one.”

When Ellis said that, the classroom literally lit like a powder keg and exploded. Some were in shock and some were angrily shouting that he is lying. Ellis is not actually caring about if they will believe or not. It is not his duty to and he also does not want to say more than that.

“Interesting…” Eddard says as he pushes his spectacles back up. “Mr. Moon, if you have the time this afternoon, please meet me and we can talk more if you don’t mind.”

Ellis don’t know if he should comply or not but the slight elbow beside him is enough to hint him what to say. “I will make some time.”

The classroom is still in uproar and Eddard slammed his hand towards the near table which made a lot of noise. The classroom became quiet and the attention is once again focused on the body of Eddard.

“Chet… that actually hurts.” Eddard shakes his hand a few times before looking at every person who still clamors somehow.

“If you can’t accept information and be open into it, why are you even studying? What is the goal of learning? To keep what you know true and make it stay that way? Why the cat are you in here then?”

The rebuke of Eddard made all the faces of those students awkward. Those that are still being rowdy quickly lowered their heads due to embarrassment. Even if they will not accept the information, the information may be true even if they don’t want to accept it. In the end, if they did not open their view to new things then they might as well be miss most things and suffer because of it in the future.

“Since we are running out of time, I will end the discussion a bit earlier but you will not be going out just yet.” Eddard said as he started to turn off the hologram and started to put back the models inside his bag once again.

After all of the models were placed inside the bag, he looked back towards the students once again.

“You should all prepare for tomorrow. We will be trying if your skills can back your confidence to yourselves. I will prepare various Grimms for the session tomorrow and we will be holding the lesson in the training yards. Remember; bring all your skills out if you don’t want to lay down the bed for some days.”

After saying those words, Eddard walk towards the exit and when his body was out, the bells also started to ring notifying everyone that the first half of the day is done.

Every day, first years only attends two classes. One in the morning and the last part on the afternoon until the weekdays are over. The next following week will be the same but they will be having different subjects and those will last until the week is over. All in all, the students have six subjects and they will be consuming a week for each one before changing into another.

“Well that is kind of… what can I say… educational?” Robert laughs himself and looks towards his teammates to see who got his joke but sadly realized that no one laughed and he looks silly.

“You really tweak your mind a little bit.” Sarah said patting his shoulder before walking past him heading for the door.

“What? it is not funny?” Robert said seeming like he was in so much injustice.

Emerald looks back at him before following the back of Ellis which is also heading towards the door. Robert was left inside the room with just a few students still packing up their things. He looks around but only saw a twin fighting among themselves and a red-haired lady which is panicking while moving her hands around which seems like looking for something usually attached towards her waist.

“Will this scene be more interesting than my joke?” Robert said in doubt.

“Well… three hours of lesson about Grimms is enough already to dampen my mood. Who knew that they were that tricky to deal with?”

Robert walks towards the door with a little smile on his face. The lesson is interesting enough and he is looking forwards the next lesson of the day.