“Do any of you notice that at every morning, you would smell a fragrant but disgusting-like scent after you woke up?”

Tauzad spoke of that while smiling softly. He really does enjoyed teaching. Always had been fond of someone like that.

Most of us nodded. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who had smelt that.

“You see, around the edges of the wall, there are nocturnal plants called Shreskav. Shreskav is a plant that buried itself during the day but after night comes, it would come out but it is hard to spot them because it’s quite indistinguishable from normal grasses. After the sun rises again, Shreskav will buried itself again but the process of burying itself let’s out a scent. People from Eoum had been using Shreskav as a means to wake up on time, which is right after when the sun would rise.”

An alarm clock that utilized the senses of smell! No wonder when I woke up, I always smelt that!

“Oh, I thought that something had died drowning in a pool of expired perfume every morning.”

Kiefy had said something funny with a rigid, serious expression as though he consider the possibility of what he said was something that was highly plausible. This just made it even funnier.

Most of us burst into laughter as Kiefy and Erganisu looked at us curiously. Those two seems to forget to water their sense of humour daily.

--

After being lectured about the numerous flora and fauna on Eoum, I realized that the fact this is truly a fantasy world. Dangerous beasts roam and deadly plants lurk near the edge of what can consider being Athryshiayl borders. Tauzad didn’t go into details but he recommended that we should go to the library to further study about the various beasts and plants in this world.

Still, I wanted to ask him about other nations or kingdoms in Eoum or whether Athryshiayl is the only civilization. Seeing that Athryshiayl was hegemony, the probability that it was the only civilization was high.

“Um, Dekhine, why wouldn’t you teach us?”

Vefal pleaded towards her. She was currently sitting beside me on the left side.

Right, we were inside a lecturing hall where Dekhine Folcruza was teaching. Although, ever since we entered here, she had been glaring at me with a vexed expression.

She would just stood up there, occasionally stomping the ground loudly and mumble something incoherent to herself.

I know that the fact was part of it was my fault but in truth, she had more fault than I did. Not being childish here.

We haven’t even made any eye contact at all.

Erganisu and Akujin was having an intense debate about which was more beneficial, a carrot or a broccoli, both native to also the earth where I came. I realized that the worlds where those two had come from had the same food ingredients as us. Kiefy was observing the debate with focus.

Earlier, Kiefy, upon being told by Akujin that he had made a joke, tilted his head in confusion. He really didn’t understand what was funny about it.

When the debate had started, August and I had chuckled on the point of the debate. Kiefy, seeing us being humoured, probably thought that to further delves into the complex world of what is funny, the debate was a good pointer. I have seen Kiefy laughed at jokes before but I think it was mostly something to the level of a basic joke.

Now back to my situation.

“Argh, I’m tired of this! One thing I can’t stand than doing something that is a pain in the ass like studying is two people who can’t resolved their problem and just leaving it to simmer!”

August, who was sitting on my right, got up and turned towards me. He forcibly took my right arm and dragged me. I don’ feel like resisting because maybe it’s just what I need and he was much stronger than me phyiscally.

He brought me to the surprised Dekhine.

“… I’m sorry I burned down your library.”

I muttered without looking.

“… It’s not alright!! You can’t just say you’re sorry!! I know it’s not your fault but it’s just so….arghh.”

And she childishly assaulted me as she rains down futile punches on my thighs.

“T-they say they’re going review my capabilities and competency as an Eomancy instructor because of that!! What do I do!!? Now my parents have to bow down their head to that Old guy who’s pretending to look young to restore back our library!!”

An old guy who’s pretending to look young? Huh.

“Wait, are you gonna get replaced? What about this old guy??”

August was dumbfounded as he looked on at the outburst of Dekhine.

“No, I’m not gonna get replace but I’m might get downgraded. They probably will ask me to take someone as a co-instructor and that old guy probably gonna ask for a favour for restoring the library like taking her daughter as the co-instructor… grrr!!”

Dekhine fumed once more.

August and I were looking at each other, puzzled.

Vefal got up on the stage and tried to comfort Dekhine. Oh, she tried to pat her in the head with her left hand and was repulsed.

“Stop trying to take advantage of the situation.”

Dekhine looks at her with a pout on her face. Vefal, unsure on where to put her hand, settled on just her right shoulder and smiled.

Upon being comforted by Vefal, Dekhine looked teary but took a deep breath and exhaled. She was back to her composed and calmed self.

“Whatever, I had enough of moping around. Let’s get back to the lesson. Whatever comes, comes. Everyone, let’s begin.”

With that, everyone took their seat.

“Last time it was about Enchantments and the Colours right? Ruigne, recite the number of colours of Eomancy!”

You’re still mad at me huh? I stood up from my seat.

“They were Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink, Green, Purple, Orange, Grey, Black, White and the special Colourless. Every colour has two shades of light and deep.”

Dekhine nodded begrudgingly as she had her eyes closed after I finished recited.

“I only told you guys about Red, Blue, Green, Purple and Grey right? Akujin, tell me about Eomancy of Red!”

Akujin got up.

“It is true that the summoned special abilities have their roots on Eomancy but there are definitely differences. For example, Eomancy does not or cannot make a time-related effect like August [Reaction] or Entities producing like Vefal’s [Shadow] or Drafgnai [Eternal Soldiers]. Kiefy [Dispersion] seems to be the same like the Physical Defence Eomancy of Grey but Kiefy [Dispersion] protection is absolute or definitely out of norm than the certain level protections of Grey and it is also an offensive ability that synchronized with defence. Erganisu [Indomitable] has the same effect as Eomancy of Light Red, Grey, Blue and Purple combined but most Eomancy effect don’t last longer than sometimes a few second and the longest are a minute but Erganisu [Indomitable] can last for an hour and not only that, You can only mix two Eomancy colour to combine their effect but never more than that, so [Indomitable] can’t be considered an Eomancy.”

she then went back of the stage and gets a few books from there. She then distributed them to all of us. It seems to be the books about the rest of the colours.

“There are also special abilities that are deeply connected with Eomancy such as your eye of [Synikorvus] or [Dexcrozus]. I heard that in one of the groups, there is someone that can invoke a special type of Circle as a special ability.”

After she finished distributing, she looks once more at me.

“So you see, you can say that special abilities are in their own class. It’s something unique that only one or maybe several times in the whole summoned in has manifested. The most notable abilities that had existed before are [Synikorvus], [Dexcrozus] and [Caelux]. I think someone in the Heirs has [Caelux] although, it always had manifested on an Heir.”

I nodded understandingly. She seems considerably calm right now after her outburst, quite an impressive child.

“Well, after a week had passed and you know all the fundamentals, we will commence on practicing Eomancy.”

--

After the Eomancy class ended, we had some free time before evening combat training. I decided to wander off in our living quarter area. I was trying to find the edge of this area so I know what type of boundary they would place. If they had put a portal here, then that means that they wanted to regulate the going and leaving.

I was alone as the rest of my group decided to have the supper. I wasn’t particularly hungry, and so I opted out. For fifteen minutes, I have been walking non-stop but I still see nothing like a wall or a barrier that stopped me. I reached into some sort of a clearing and there was a lone tree in the middle of the clearing.

I imagined I had seen the tree before but then again I just went through a forest, a very definition of a place full of trees, so I casually dismissed such thought.

I took a rest under the tree shades.

After a minute, I swore I was hallucinating. I was hearing a deep, grating voice asking me a question from the direction of the tree where I was resting near. I turned back.

“Friend?”

It spoked.