Renew

School, The Most Hellish Place

Someone please knock me out.

On a dark night like this, I'd be sleeping peacefully on my bed, dreaming about food or talking with Nikeo. But no. I have to be slapped awake by my still-agitated mother to go early for a stupid opening ceremony.

A ceremony for a school I'll only be attending for 2 years.

Slapped awake, being forced to wear an uncomfortable blazer on me, my unkept hair combed and here I am. With sleepy eyes and a tired face, my mother and I are standing with the crowd in front of a closed gate to a school.

The school looked normal enough, a large red building about 4 stories high and a wide enough range to cover more than 30 rooms. There was also a small flag at the tip of the roof.

Hopefully a grand school like this would accept pets. I brought Aoi along because she wanted to see it for herself what a 'school' was.

"So this is a school. A majestic learning industry, dedicated to teaching kids on how to survive in the harsh world with logics and hands-on activities..."

I swear, she just made school sound like a heavenly place. Too bad deep inside, its actually hell.

A hell within a heaven. How ironic.

Or not.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" I asked, irritated with the constant pushing the people beside me are doing. They almost pushed Aoi from my shoulder several times!

"Few more minutes." My mother answered.
"You said that 100 times already! Just admit we came here too early and have to wait an hour for the gate to open!"

Ever since I asked her half an hour ago, she's been giving me the same reply. Ugh, I wasn't born yesterday. I was only reincarnated some weeks back.

After a 'few minutes', the gate to the school finally opened, with the Sun rising from behind ever so quickly. Gee, I didn't know in a 'few minutes' it could go from a dark night to morning.

Parents immediately rushed into the school, including my mother, and pulled their unwilling kids with them as well. They really do look reluctant! It's as if they are forced to go jump down a volcano or something.

As soon as I stepped past the gate, I felt a sudden wave of uneasiness, almost nauseating, splash over me.

What was that about?

I gave a look back at the gate, though the heads of people were blocking it. It doesn't seem any different, but then why did I feel so disturbed about it?

Maybe it's just me being queazy. I did get slapped awake early in the morning. Ugh, the very thought angers me and yet I still remember it.

"Hurry up. We have to get seats!" My mother rushed, pulling me up with her.
"Take it easy on my arm! It hurts!" There's no other way to do this. If it's to make my mother release her hard grip on my arm, so be it.

I let a slight bit of magic flow, just enough for a faint yellow line to appear. It's easy to restrict the rate of magic flow in your body. The way it's done is similar to how a person chooses how much strength or energy they want to channel in their hand.

Magic is like that, just only need to channel the flow.

"You've improved," said Aoi. "But when did you know how to do it?"

"The idea came to me." I said, not minding the volume. In a crowded area where people are rushing to a certain destination, the noise level is so high!

And I hate it.

Whatever, it's all going to disappear once I dash across!

"Mum, where are we heading to?!"
"The Hall, just a level up and next to the staircase!"