Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 7

Several seconds of tense silence follows with the only noise being that of the video until it ends as well and the instructor steps up to the box’s panel again and says, “Now, just like you saw with that video, you will be forming teams of five. So, get to it.”

Silence follows for a few seconds after his order before chatter begins to envelop the room.

I glance at Cyria beside me, and Aidan and Sophia who are walking over towards us.

Teams of five…

…but we only have four…

“We need a fifth,” Cyria says, giving voice to my thoughts as we both begin to look around at the cadets who hadn’t automatically picked a team. Which is actually quite a few. Eleven to be exact.

Although I find myself surprised when I see Rebecca alone without anyone else around her. Which only makes her stand out even more, considering her golden hair and eyes.

Figures that she would be in this class, considering her background, but I didn’t expect her of all people to not have a team. Not when considering the group of people that would follow her around before.

And unfortunately, when I look at the other ten students, I find them all splitting off into two groups themselves, albeit with one of the students seemingly going with some regret shown on their face.

Leaving Rebecca all by herself.

Shit.

As if on cue, the instructor looks at her before pointing at us and saying, “Cadet Rebecca, go join that team.” He then turns to the panel and begins messing with it again without another word.

Well, that's annoying. And Rebecca seems to think so as well, considering the look she is sending Cyria as she begins to walk over to us.

Which makes me once again wonder just what sort of history those two have.

“I guess we’re stuck together for the mom-” Cyria begins, only to be cut off as Instructor Leo begins speaking again, his voice resonating over all of the conversations in the room, “From now on, this will be your team. And that’s not just for this class, but for your entire military career, unless there’s a valid reason to leave the team or replace a person in it.”

My eyes widen in surprise as I jerk my head towards him, vaguely noting several other people – including the one who looked to have regretted not going with someone else – all doing the same. Not even a full second later, shouts of disagreement run through the hall, but they are all quashed in an instant as the instructor says, “It’s too late to change your team. I’ve already entered them into the database.”

What. The. Fuck?

Can he do that? Is he even allowed to do that?

It's possible that he's lying, but there isn't any way to know for sure.

Maybe I should just give up on not attracting attention… because it seems like it’s just chasing after me at this point.

Actually, that’s a bad idea. Although at least I’m getting numbed to it happening by now.

I just have to make sure my secret doesn’t get revealed because-

My thoughts are interrupted as the instructor continues speaking, “And since these are your teams,” he pauses as he presses one last button on the panel, causing the box to shift into six different partitions, each with some sort of barrier around them, and a single door for each partition to enter through, “use these soundproof rooms to figure out your group composition.”

And with that, the instructor simply waves the panel away and walks to the side of the room before stopping and placing his sword’s tip onto the ground. He then leans on his sword as he looks at us all with an expectant expression on his face.

Actually, all of the problems of the situation aside for the second, why does he even have a sword on him right now anyways?

My question remaining unanswered, silence follows for several seconds before the teams – including my own – each begin to file into different rooms without saying a word.

It isn’t until a few seconds after the door to our room closes that someone finally speaks.

“So, hi, my name’s Aidan!” the cheerful idiot exclaims with a grin, breaking the silence.

I almost laugh at the absurdity of his comment before shaking my head and turning to Rebecca, finding a rather amusing look on her face that she quickly clears away as soon as she notices me looking.

“Since we don’t exactly have a choice in this matter,” she begins, her face morphing into a frown, “we might as well begin with introductions.”

“You have a point,” Cyria begrudgingly admits, with a tone that expresses a desire to be anywhere but here right now. “As you all know, my name is Cyria Argent, and my affinity is Water.”

Cyria sends a nod towards Sophia before leaning down to strap her pistol’s holster to her waist as she places her sword on the ground.

“I’m Sophia Inverno, and my element is Poison,” Sophia says with a slight nod of her head towards Rebecca in greeting while leaning against the long metal staff in her arms.

After that, Aidan goes ahead and introduces himself again with both of his blades – one as long as a normal sword, the other as long as a slightly longer-than-average knife – held in his hands, “I’m Aidan Hawkins, and my affinity is Wind, with a specialization towards Lightning Magic!”

Rebecca looks mildly surprised at his declaration before simply nodding her head towards him and turning to look at me as I say, “Nathan Fox, and my affinity is Fire.”

“Okay,” she says, her gaze returning to Cyria as she finishes putting on the pistol holster and begins strapping her sword’s sheath to her back, “my name is Rebecca Hunter, and my Special Magic affinity is Gravity magic.”

My eyebrows raise slightly at her affinity before I lower my head slightly while rubbing my chin in thought.

Gravity magic is a very useful Special magic in that it can increase or decrease the weights of people or objects with ease, but at higher tier spells I’ve heard that it can even create small black holes. In our case though, she could be on both support and offense with her affinity.

I raise my head, only to find everyone looking at me as I think.

“What?” I ask, slightly weirded out by their attention.

“You looked like you were thinking pretty hard over there,” Cyria says with a relatively blank look on her face.

I squint my eyes at her before looking at the others and sighing after finding each of them with a very similar look on their faces. Even Rebecca, surprisingly enough, seems to be looking at me in the same way.

I sigh again before beginning to speak my thoughts out loud, “With Rebecca’s affinity, she can fill the role of both support and offense, especially with the weapons she picked,” I pause as I point at the bow she has draped over her shoulder and the knife she has sheathed on her thigh. After that, I turn to look at Aidan as I say, “Meanwhile, Aidan will obviously be the main attacker, what with his lightning magic working for his offensive strength, and his usual wind magic working for his defense.”

I look between the two of them before continuing once they both nod in agreement, “As for Cyria, she will be the healer, seeing as she is the only one amongst us who can even use healing magic.”

Cyria nods her head at this before turning to look at Sophia.

“And Sophia,” I begin while crossing my arms in front of my chest, “can be both damage and support.”

Sophia looks surprised at my decision before tilting her head and saying, “I’m surprised you know.”

“Know what?” Aidan asks with a confused look on his face. “And why would a poison affinity holder be a support?”

I glance at him before answering, “Because poison is a relative term, and can be beneficial as well.”

My answer only seems to confuse Aidan even more, making me frown as I try to think of a way to explain it to him in a way that he would understand. Fortunately for me, Sophia suddenly begins speaking instead, “Think of it like this. The poison that can be made through poison mana can be any type of poison, both for humans and non-humans. But something that’s poisonous to some other species of animal might be beneficial to a human.”

A look of understanding dawns on his face as Sophia asks, “Do you understand now?”

He nods his head with a satisfied look on his face.

Okay, having her here will definitely come in handy. Explaining things never really was my strong suit.

“And I’m guessing you’ll be our eye in the sky and sniper?” I hear Cyria ask, prompting me to look at her, only to find her alternating her gaze between my face and the sniper sticking out over my shoulder.

I simply nod my head in agreement while shifting the sniper slightly to get it into a more comfortable position.

Once I see everyone else agreeing with the setup, I let out a mental sigh of relief.

This should help a lot in hiding my secret. Because sure snipers have to fight a decent amount as well in close combat – at least, if that video was anything to go by – but that’s still a lot less than the other positions have to fight. Not only that, but I’ll be fighting far away from the battlefield, so even if the enemies on a battlefield notice my condition, my own allies won’t be nearby to see it.

Most likely.

My thoughts are interrupted as Aidan suddenly asks, “By the way, who’s going to be the team leader?”

A few seconds pass in silence before the other four turn to look at me as if in sync.

“Okay, I can vaguely understand why you three would make this choice,” I state with a frown while looking at Aidan, Cyria, and Sophia before turning towards Rebecca and asking, “But why are you agreeing with them?”

The girl just shrugs and says, “Because Cyria would never see me as a team leader, I would never see her as one, and you’re the most responsible looking one of us all, with the only exception to that possibly being Sophia.” She pauses at this point with a look towards Sophia as she adds, “Although she seems like she would be better for a second-in-command position than a leader role.”

Sophia nods her head at this, prompting Rebecca to turn back towards me and finish, “Not to mention that you’ve already made your strategic knowledge known to us.”

My frown deepens at her answer before I sigh again and mutter, “Fine.”

Not like I can say no in this position. At least, not without it having some major drawbacks for the team.

Although…

“By the way,” Aidan suddenly begins while looking between Cyria and Rebecca, “how do you two know each other?”

…there’s still that.