Chapter 170 - The Identity of the Illuminated Ones

  “Professor!” I was making my way dowairs, passing some students as they were leaving.

  I need more information.

  Professor Sincir was tidying up her desk.

  “Professor!” I called out as I approached her.

  She looked at me and smiled.

  “The first curious one!” she said, smiling.

  The first curious one?

  Natasha seemed to uand my fusion from my expression.

  “Don’t worry, it’s just a little joke I have with myself every time I teach this lesson to a new css for the first time,” she said, returning to her work.

  “I wao ask you something.”

  She turo me, but before she could respond, a hand nded on my shoulder. The grinning wolf woman was staring at me.

  “Kid! It’s a diplomatic crime for your professor to talk about the Human Empire outside of css. You wouldn’t want to put another ne the lihe Headmistress said, ughing.

  I o know everything! I don’t care about diplomacy.

  The Headmistress looked over at the professor.

  “However, Natasha has this special little tradition she does every time she teaches her first-year students for the first time.”

  Professor Sincir looked at me.

  “I always allow the first curious oo ask me a single question, and I will a, no matter what it is. This is a unique gift I give to this special student. So, what will be your one question?”

  Damn! One question? You’ve got to be kidding me.

  My mind was rag with possibilities.

  “Before I ask, will we have more csses about the Theocracy? I don’t want to waste my one question for nothing,” I said.

  “Not like today. You learhe most important part, kid,” Headmistress Victoria said. “The main thing is to uand why your enemy wants to kill you. From now on, you’ll only have lessons on the historical flicts our people had with them and the military aspects. Professor Sincir won’t give regur csses, and when she does, she’ll only cover those historical topics. What you learned about their religion today will be the first and st time. She could face a death sentence if the authorities of the three kingdoms believe she’s trying to preach her ion here."

  Stupid ws…

  “What is your question?” Professor Sincir asked.

  Damn… if I’d known this, I would’ve thought it through better.

  “Need my help?” Athena asked. “I e up with an excellent question…”

  Get out of here! I o think fast.

  Looking at the professor, only one question crossed my mind. However, I feared she might actually a.

  “Why are they called the Illuminated Ones?”

  The professor looked at the Headmistress.

  Headmistress Victoria sighed.

  “All right, you show him…” she murmured.

  Professor Sincir picked up a book from a box. I noticed it was her book, and the box had s and a lo it.

  They lock her religious book in that? It seems there aren’t many copies of it avaible.

  “That’s an easy question to answer,” she said, opening the book. “They’re called the Illuminated Ones because of this—these are the Illuminated Ones.”

  Professor Sincir showed me the image depig the Illuminated Ones, and my heart froze when I saw them.

  This ’t be real...

  ***

  I was wandering around the school campus, asking Cyl to give me some space. I had a lot on my mind after everything I’d just discovered. There was aire people dedicated to wiping out my race, and knowing their reason gave me a strange, uling feeling.

  So the Illuminated Ones are like gods to them…

  What I saw in that book—what the Illuminated Ones looked like—had me genuinely unnerved for the first time in ages.

  As I walked, I found ay benear a tree. It was rare to find a pce without other students around, and I just o sit down and refle the question I’d asked and the answer I got.

  I sighed and headed over.

  Oops, someone was already here.

  There was a student crouched by the tree.

  I looked around. Most benches were either taken or had others sitting close by.

  Might as well stay here. I’ve got too much to think about.

  My mind was swirling with thoughts, trying to make sense of this world’s situation. We’ve always been at odds, and the st big flict hit my family hard when my father and uncle died. I would have had a pletely different life if I’d had those two raising me… I wish I could have known that.

  The war at the border held ba invasion, but that border remains on stant alert to this day. Not a single day goes by without the border being watched. The kingdoms send resources to help all the time. If that border were to fall one day, it would spell trouble for everyone.

  Now I get why the army needs mages.

  There’s a massive stone wall at the border, reinforced by earth mages and other specialists. They’ve got defeactics, like having water mages flood the area from above to slow down anyone who gets too close, and they even use magical seals.

  ‘Sniffle’ I heard a sound that pulled me out of my thoughts.

  ‘Sniffle’

  I looked bad saw the student curled up, hiding her fa her knees.

  “Are y?” I asked.

  “Don’t look at me… I’m n,” she mumbled.

  Oops.

  I turned away and tried to ig.

  ‘Sniffle’ The quiet sobbing tinued.

  Teenagers…

  I stood up to leave.

  “Wait!” she called.

  “I was just giving you your space to cry.”

  “I… I’m n…” she muttered.

  “Well, I’m not here either. Everybody wins,” I replied, heading off.

  “I ’t… let you leave. You might tell someone where I am, and I ’t be seen g…”

  I sighed.

  “I thought you said you weren’t g…”

  “I’m not… maybe… just a little.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. You could also just get up and go ‘maybe’ cry somewhere else.”

  The g stude her face hidden in her knees.

  “I ’t leave… once I start g, I ’t stop.”

  Teenage dramas… definitely not something I have the patience for.

  “You’re studying at the best magic academy in the world; why are y?” I said, sitting back down on the bench.

  “I… I’m afraid I won’t be a good mage.”

  Hmm… maybe that makes sense, paring herself to the other students here.

  “It’s normal to feel that way. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Figure out what yood at and focus on that.”

  I’m struggling too—there are things beyond my trol…

  “My family puts a lot of pressure on me… I have talented siblings,” she said, sniffling.

  “So what? Don’t pare yourself to them; pare yourself to you. Focus on beier today than you were yesterday. If you improve little by little, you’ll overe your challenges.”

  That was advice that helped me over the years, something Sifu oold me. I was frustrated about having the arms of a child and the strength of an average person. It took me a while to accept that would be my power level in bat, and that I’d never return to my peak. I’m stu a human body… or rather, a half-elf body.

  “Even so, I ’t reach the level my siblings were at when they were my age…”

  “ a water mage have the same training as ah mage? Answer me that.”

  She kept her head down.

  “No…”

  “Then why pare yourself to others?”

  “But they have the same element as me…”

  I guess she didn’t quite get the metaphor…

  “I meant that it doesn’t matter if they’re both mages. Each has their own learning style and way of uanding how to haheir inner nature. Water ah are different elements, just as people are, even if they share the same element. You ’t force a bird to swim or a fish to fly. You o find where you fit in and what yood at.”

  “Th-th-thank you…”

  At least, that’s how I think the old monk’s advice went… I might’ve gotten some things wrong, but the core is there.

  “ I go now?” I asked, a bit surprised at pying the role of a mentor.

  “You … sorry about that.”

  “It’s fine… I’m used to dealing with my own limitations too.”

  I ’t overdo it either, or I might end up in a pce where I’m no longer seen as human. The st thing I want is to be isoted again because people fear me.

  I started walking away.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Nathan.”

  “Oh! I think we’ve met before.”

  “Have we?” I turo see the owner of the tearful voice.

  “Princess Melina?” I asked, surprised.

  She quickly hid her fa her knees again.

  “Don’t look… my face is still a mess.”

  The st person I’d have expected to be the owner of that tearful voice was her… Now I uood why she didn’t want ao see her like this.

  I had to wait while she calmed down, wiping her face with a cloth. I said goodbye with a smile, but that smile was fake. I wasn’t in the right headspace for this, but it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault… it was the fault of the truth I had discovered.

  I walked through the campus, casting a goward the dark forest and murmured the secret.

  “The answer Professor Sincir gave me… the reason why those beings are called the ‘Illuminated Ones’… it’s because of what they are,” I whispered to myself.

  “The Illuminated Ones are shadowy figures with glowing eyes… they’re just eyes shining in the darkness.”

  I took a step toward the forest and stared into the shadows. “The Illuminated Ones are the beings I saw that day in my vision. The voice with red eyes and its dark minions. They are something far beyond any human… they radiate evil and possess, at the very least, eyes as powerful as the Celestial Eyes… and they were after the Celestial Eyes that are with me…”

  ‘hat was the he Illuminated Ones gave us. The creatures that want to kill my people are the same ones who desire these eyes. I’m entangled in something far too big for a mere human.

  I started walking back toward my dorm.

  “What are you really?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t get an answer.

  For the first time, I saw it move, reag to what I’d said. In the darkness of my mind, it revealed part of its monstrous head, and I caught a glimpse of it.

  “A survivor…” it murmured before retreating bato the shadows.

  I was taken aback to hear it respond after years of silence.

  “Still, that tells me nothing…”