While the King and Cardinal were talking, the students were being led around the castle by Gaharad. Aiden was supposed to be leading too, but he was just lazily walking alongside them letting Gaharad give the tour.

“Here’s the barracks, this is where you will be spending your nights. The rooms are two person rooms, so partner up before the end of today. Now let’s go to the field.” They quickly walked to the open area just outside the barracks. “This is the field, this is where you will be practicing combat with me, as you can see, it’s close to the barracks so I better not see anyone late. Aiden, where are you going to teach them?” Hearing his name, Aiden looked up at Gaharad. “Ummm, I’ll probably teach practical manipulation here as well, but the basic learning will be in my study hall.” Gaharad nodded. “That makes sense, how about you lead them to your study hall. After you learn where the study hall is, come back to the barracks. I want to assign rooms and I need a basic rundown on your stats.” The students all nodded in acceptance before following Aiden. Unlike Gaharad, he didn’t have a rigid atmosphere around him, instead he looked uninterested in anything. “You said your name was Noboru right.” Aiden suddenly spoke up. He wasn’t speaking particularly loud, and the other students were conversing away from them so they couldn't hear what he was saying.

“Yes, I’m honored you remember.”

Aiden waved his hand. “Stop with that polite crap, I hate it. Anyway, after you meet with Gaharad come see me again, I’ve heard you have no manipulation so I need to figure out what to do with you.”

“Of course.”

“Cool cool,” he suddenly began speaking louder. “Hey, we’re here. This is my study hall, it’s got books on all kinds of manipulation and other info, there’s no better place to learn than here. Now hurry back to Gaharad, I’ve got my own things to do.” He waved his hand dismissively before turning around and moving into the back areas of the room.

“Let’s go, we need to decide on partners on the way.” Noboru got everyone moving, and they left the study hall. After the students left, Aiden muttered to himself. “So that’s the tenth, eh? He’s just a kid, the Goddess really is cruel. Well, good luck, kid.”

While Noboru was walking, Akane and Yuriko both pulled on his sleeves. Akane spoke first, “Hey hey, room with me, Noboru!” Noboru turned towards her with wide eyes. “Hey, shouldn’t you room with a girl, I mean it’d be kinda hard to change with a guy in there no?” Before Akane could respond, Yuriko pulled his sleeve again, before saying, “If it’s Noboru, it won’t be.” She looked up with pleading eyes. Noboru sighed, “Look, how about you two just room together, and I’ll take the room next to you two, okay? That way I’m close enough that you both can come over whenever.” Akane curled her lips into a pout, “But I wanted to room with you.” She muttered under her breath. Noboru realized she was muttering but didn’t hear what she said. “What was that?” He asked. Akane just shook her head before turning to Yuriko, “Well, want to room with me then?” she asked. Yuriko nodded her head, and thus it was decided they would room together. The other pairs ended up being Gorou and Orochi, Noboru and Minori, Mika and Emiko, and Naoko and Kei. Everyone seemed to also realize that making any room co-ed would be rather awkward, so they kept to the same gender when choosing their roommate.

This was all decided as they were walking to the barracks. When they entered, Gaharad was sitting at a table by the entrance. “Ah, you're all back. So have you decided who you will be rooming with?”

“Yes, sir.” Noboru responded. “We decided on the way here.”

“Good, so you guys can follow orders. Alright the rooms are through that door, pick one and settle in. Come back out when you’re done, and bring your orbs. You still have them right?” The students nodded, “We pocketed them when we left, they’re pretty tiny afterall. I almost thought they were marbles when we first saw them.” The other students nodded at Gorou’s words. “Good, take them out and show me your stats one by one. Let’s start with you, your name is Gorou, right?” Gaharad began to slowly make his way through all the students, taking notes of their different abilities and what their roles in combat would be. When they had first seen their stats, only the people directly next to them could see what they had, as such, this was a good time for the students to see each other’s stats. Noboru, being last in line, was the last to show his stats. “So, Noboru, was it? Let’s see what you’ve got.” Noboru began to pour mana into his orb, and his stats were quickly displayed in front of everyone. Gaharad’s eyes widened, his surprise evident. But that was overshadowed by the students reaction, their jaws nearly hit the ground in surprise.

“Look at his stats, that’s insane.”

“His skills too, he’s a monster, but like, the good kind.”

“But what’s with his abilities, he doesn’t have the blessing like us?”

“I was shocked for a moment there, sorry. Noboru, it looks like you won’t need too much combat training. So I’ll just have you stay with us for a few days, then give you over to Aiden to work on other things. To be honest, I’m tempted to send you to the frontline just like this, after all that’s where you’ll both gain the most combat experience and where you‘ll level up the fastest. But well, we’ll give it a few weeks for you to learn about this world before we decide that.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Now, all of you listen up. Since I’m going to be busy going over all of your different stats you guys have the rest of the day as free time. Ah, but you’re set to have dinner with the royal family and head advisors today in a few hours, so be at the dining hall on time, alright? I hope you remember where the dining hall is because I am not giving you another tour. Alright, you’re dismissed.”

After Gaharad left, Emiko ran up to Noboru. “Hey, since we have a few hours, do you want to chill in my room until dinner?” She looked up at Noboru, her different colored eyes sparkled in anticipation. Noboru chuckled before patting her head. “Yeah, I’ll hang out in a bit, I have to go meet Aiden first.” Emiko smiled brightly, her cheeks slightly flushed. “Okay!”

“HEY! No fair, I want to hang out with Noboru too!”

“Hm? But he said he’d hang out in my room, Akane, not yours.”

“Hah, how about we all just hang out in my room when I get back, okay?” Noboru sighed as he spoke up to stop the fighting. Yuriko pulled on his sleeve from behind, when Noboru turned toward her she tilted her head, all but asking if she could also go to his room. “Yes, you’re invited too, Yuriko.” She smiled cutely before quickly running off to barge into Noboru’s room. Well, I guess it’s better for them to be lively, after all most people would be scared if they were suddenly thrust into this kind of situation. Noboru waved goodbye before turning around and walking out of the barracks towards the study hall.

I’ll need to be on top of my game if I’m gonna survive this situation… No, I can’t just survive, I need to keep everyone alive. How should I do that? Do I help teach them? Or maybe I just go to the frontlines first and try to end this before they even need to fight. After all, the Cardinal said my stats are the strongest he’s ever seen. Noboru let his mind wander as he walked towards the study hall. However, he broke out of his daze when he bumped into someone while turning a corner. He was quite a bit larger than the person he ran into, so when he hit them they began to fall. Noboru reacted on instinct and caught them.

“Ah, sorry! I wasn’t paying attention.”

He looked down at the figure in his hands, it was a girl in her midteens. Something about her appearance seemed familiar.

“I-It’s okay!”

Hearing her speak made it suddenly click in Noboru’s mind. It was Princess Elizabeth. Noboru’s mind quickly went into overdrive. Oh crap, I just bumped into and touched royalty. I’m not going to get executed am I. Oh god, I need to apologize, like right now. He quickly let go of the, now stable, Princess and took a step back before deeply bowing.

“Please accept my apologies, Your Highness. I was not paying attention and accidentally bumped into you. I am terribly sorry.”

Noboru decided to apologize more eloquently than he ever thought he would have to in an attempt to appease the princess, however he seemed to have misjudged Elizabeth.

“I really don’t mind, and I don’t really like polite speech so if you could talk to me normally I’d really appreciate it.”

The Princess’s volume got lower and lower as she continued to speak, ending her sentence in almost a mutter. Noboru seemed to understand what kind of person she was just based on that. I see, she’s never really interacted with anyone aside from royalty I’m assuming, so she’s shy around others. But she doesn’t seem to be a bad person.

“Oh, thanks. I was really scared for a second, but you seem friendly.” Noboru scratched the back of his head before turning back towards the Princess. “Ah that’s right I introduced myself to you earlier but let’s do it again. I’m Noboru,”

Noboru dropped the excessively formal speech and began to speak as he normally would.

“Ah, I-I’m Elizabeth…”

“Nice to meet you, Elizabeth. Let’s be good friends, okay?” Noboru smiled brightly, and looked at Elizabeth not as a Princess, but as a normal girl. She began to blush slightly.

“...all...e...liza…”

She said something quietly, so quietly that Noboru wasn’t able to pick up on it. He leaned toward her slightly.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Call me Eliza…”

She really is just like a normal girl, he mused.

“Got it, Eliza.” When he said her name, her cheeks flushed a deeper red, and her eyes began darting all around. “Oh, right I need to meet with Aiden. Sorry, Eliza, I need to go. Oh, but I’ll talk with you at dinner tonight, yeah?” He called out an apology while running off towards the study hall, leaving Elizabeth at the intersection where they bumped into each other. Eliza reached down to the small of her back where Noboru had caught her, and smiled slightly before walking away.

Noboru turned the corner and walked to the study hall door, bumping into the Princess took a bit of his time, but it wasn’t as if Aiden had given him a specific time to meet, he just said after Noboru meets with Gaharad. Noboru gave the door a quick knock before pulling it open. Aiden was browsing the isles of books, when the door opened he looked up and saw Noboru.

“Ah, Noboru, come here and sit.” He gestured towards the table in the center of the room before sitting down himself. Noboru walked to the table and sat on the opposite side, facing him.

“So, what did you need to talk about? Something about me not being able to use manipulation?”

“Yeah exactly, the majority of my teaching to begin with will just be basic knowledge that everyone in this world would and should know. But, it will start to focus on manipulation before long, and since you can’t do that I was wondering what to teach you. But let’s not worry about that right now.”

“Wait, Aiden, how did you know I can’t use any manipulation? You’ve never seen my stats.”

“Ah, it’s an ability of mine, it lets me see anyone’s stats without the need for an info orb. Although I must say, your base attributes and skills are incredible, but your abilities…”

“Ah, yeah. I only have the hidden one, I wonder what it is.”

“No, that’s not a bad thing, in fact most hidden abilities are far stronger than non hidden ones.” Aiden suddenly leaned in and whispered, “Just between you and me, that ability that lets me see your stats, was a hidden one too.”

“Really?”

Aiden nodded before leaning back again. “The problem with your abilities is the fact that you don’t have the “Blessing of Life” like the others do.”

Noboru tilted his head, confused. “I mean, sure it’s a downside that I don’t have it, but why is that such a problem to you?”

Aiden sighed and shook his head, “Because it means you aren’t a hero.”

“Wha-”

Aiden got up and a small book from the bookshelf. “Here, read this. It’ll help you grow despite your deficiencies. Come and see me again tomorrow, after you’ve read it.”