‘Why are they talking about him like that?’
Sylvie asked that question to herself as she looked at the class that was ongoing.
‘Was Astron the only one that made a mistake?’
She was a girl that liked to help people in distress or people that was having a hard time. And naturally, Astron was one of those.
Especially, she hated that gloomy look on his face.
Growing up in a household that was bright with a doting mother, father, and brother, Sylvie was a girl that always showed kindness to others.
And when she first entered the academy, she was all alone. She didn’t know about many people; she didn’t know how people lived in this place.
Since the reputation of the Arcadia Hunter Academy was spread wide, she felt overwhelmed. She saw people that were celebrities all around the world.
She was even standing in the same room with those children who were the heirs of such celebrities.
Thus, as a girl that came from the countryside, she felt overwhelmed by everyone here. And since she was a healer, her interests were also different from others, as she belonged to a specific group of people that didn’t participate in combat. 𝑂𝚟xt.𝒞𝓞𝐦
Healers were rare, but they were not that hard to find, so she needed to do her best to pass those classes.
Thus, at the start, thanks to her worries, she slightly ostracized herself and found the time to look at the class and learn about the people there.
It was at that moment she noticed Astron.
A young boy that sat on the back with his hood over his head. She couldn’t directly see his features since he covered himself with his good, but her special skill enabled her to see his emotions.
A turmoil of emotions that never changed.
A dark aura was oozing from him.
A deep dark aura mixed with the color of red, dark hues of blue and black.
It was her special trait. A trait that enabled Sylvie to see other people’s emotions by the color shown on there.
She knew the color red. It was anger
She also knew about the color of dark blue. She knew about it since she saw it whenever she visited a person’s funeral.
It was the feeling of sorrow.
However, there was one more thing that was there. And it covered almost everything.
It was the color of black.
The color that she had never seen this strong.
The color of Hatred.
When she looked at the boy covered with the hood, she could see an immense amount of hatred oozing from him.
It was so strong that whenever she looked around, she unconditionally directed her attention to him.
That was the reason why Sylvie always paid attention to Astron.
There was also another individual who took his attention. Ethan Hartley. A young man with a bright white aura of righteousness.
Whenever she looked at both, she could see the disparity.
A dark and sorrowful aura surrounded him, and a bright, inspiring aura surrounded Ethan.
And, as a person that wanted to help others, Sylvie naturally wanted to help Astron too. Thus, she wanted to approach him and decided to try her chances one day.
It was the day when she witnessed the cruelty of the world.
As Sylvie recounted the incident, her voice trembled with emotion. She recalled the day she witnessed three students bullying Astron, and her heart ached at the memory.
She saw three people surrounding him. They were mocking him, calling him names, and pushing him around. It was like they were feeding off his pain, enjoying his misery.
She wanted to step in and stop them, but fear held her back. She was just a new student, unfamiliar with this intimidating world of elite hunters. Also, she was a healer, so she knew she couldn’t do anything.
She also knew about those three, as they were in the same class.
She couldn’t understand why they were treating him like that. What had he done to deserve such cruelty?
She could still remember what they called him.
“Hey, look, it’s the orphan loser.”
“Did your mother die because she couldn’t stand giving birth to a loser like you?”
“Nah….Probably it was because his father left them…Who would want a useless son and a whore mother?”
She still remembered those words.
But there was one more thing that made her feel more sorrow.
It was because whenever Astron tried to resist, he would be beaten more.
And at some point, he simply stopped trying and defending himself.
The colors that she could see intensified, and another shade of blue was added there.
She didn’t know what it was, but she could see Astron was changing. He was being pushed at the corner.
She even wanted to inform the teachers, but none of them even cared. She could never forget what she heard at that time from a teacher she talked to.
“Tch…He is even too weak to stand for himself, but he wants to become a hunter. Useless bastard. Because of him, my niece wasn’t accepted….”
It was what she heard. This was something she could never forget.
‘How can you be this cruel? What are those people?’
She thought at that time, so she went to help Astron and heal his wounds whenever she could, using her healing art.
She was not proficient enough, but she still did her best and wanted to be a help to him.
The days went on as a month passed.
It was at that night suddenly things changed; Sylvie could see it.
The colors she could see on Astron had changed.
If before it was filled with black, red, and blue, now a color she had not seen in the people covered it.
It was the color of grey. She knew what that color represented.
Indifference.
It was indifference.
Whenever she looked at him, she could see his eyes were changed. Now, he always looked at people with dead eyes filled with no emotions.
He didn’t care about what others were saying about him.
That was something Astron had done before as well, but Sylvie knew he was just putting a front. After all, she could see his emotions changing inside his heart whenever someone mocked him or said bad things about him, but now it was different.
Now, nothing has changed anymore.
The gray color covered him like a barrier, and nothing could penetrate him.
“Thank you for your help.”
However, she remembered his words from before when she stayed with him at that time.
His words were sincere since she could feel the yellow aura of appreciation inside him. And that made her happy seeing the aura.
But soon, that was replaced by the color Dark Blue. She noticed whenever he seemed to be happy, a dark hue of blue would always replace it.
Sorrow never left him.
And whenever she had seen him like that, she felt that he was carrying a burden. But she could never bring herself to ask that, as she just watched him from a distance.
It was the same this time as well.
Sylvie watched as she listened to Eleanour’s complaints to the students, but in the later parts, her words were only directed to Astron.
‘Why is she only targeting him?’ She asked herself.
Sylvie could never understand why Eleanor behaved like that.
I mean, she could see that Astron was not putting in the best effort, but insulting and humiliating others would not work, in her opinion.
Rather than doing that, wasn’t it better for her to try to understand Astron’s problems?
That was what she thought. But in the end, she was helpless as Eleanor was the one that was holding the title of instructor.
But it looked like Astron was unbothered by her insults, so Sylvie just sat there and watched him from a distance.
******
Just like that, today’s classes reached their end.
“As today’s classes come to an end, I have an important announcement to make,” Instructor White said, her stern gaze sweeping across the students. “Starting the next day, we will be having a series of anti-human close combat lessons.”
Murmurs and whispers spread among the students as they exchanged curious glances. Anti-human close combat was a crucial skill for hunters, especially when facing human adversaries. It involved hand-to-hand combat and weapon skills tailored for fighting other hunters or human enemies.
“We will be pairing up for these lessons, and I expect each one of you to take them seriously,” Instructor White continued. “You will be tested on your close combat abilities, so make sure to practice and hone your skills.”
As she finished her words, Eleanor White left the classroom and made her way over to her office.
‘Ah….Close combat lessons…’
Sylvie’s heart skipped a beat as she heard the announcement. She was a healer, not a combat specialist, and close combat was not her forte. However, she knew the importance of these lessons and the need to be prepared for any situation.
After all, even though she was not going to be graded for her participation in her class, she still needed to develop herself to the point where she could defend herself.
As the students began to pack up their belongings and head out of the classroom, Sylvie heard a voice coming from the door side.
“Hey, where do you think you are going to?”
It was a voice filled with scorn, and as she turned her face to the source of the commotion, she saw that one of her classmates was blocking Astron’s path.
If she remembered correctly, he was a boy that ranked around one thousand.
‘What was his name?’ She couldn’t remember his name since there were quite a lot of students there.
‘He is filled with such malice.’ She thought, seeing the darkness oozing from the boy. She could also see the feeling of pride and thrill from him. It appeared that the boy was thrilled to block his way.
“Hey? I am talking to you; where do you think you are going, you last-ranked bastard?”
Seeing no response was coming from Astron, he became agitated as he raised his voice.
“Don’t talk to me.”
But the reply he had gotten was something he was not expecting.
An indifferent voice came from the person before him.
His purple eyes were filled with indifference as his face didn’t contain any type of reaction he had expected.
‘This bastard! How dare he!’
The boy glanced at the girl that was sitting in the front seat, and seeing the uninterested look on her face; he got more agitated.
‘What a primitive act.’ Astron saw through his reasons from the start, but he wasn’t bothered with this ‘person’ before him.
He simply ignored him and went his own way. However, that act made the boy more and more agitated.
The boy’s face flushed with anger as Astron ignored him and continued walking towards the exit. “I said, don’t ignore me!” he yelled, his voice laced with fury and humiliation.
But Astron remained unfazed. He didn’t even spare a glance at the boy as he passed him by. It was as if the boy’s existence was completely inconsequential to him.
In fact, it was. Astron had never seen this boy in the game, be it as a villain or a character. But he still remembered his name and his rank.
‘Liam Wayne. Ranked 1025. Specializes in swords.’ He recounted the information he knew about the boy.
He was someone that didn’t benefit him in any way; thus, he wanted to use this boy before him to set an example here.
Enraged by the lack of response, the boy saw red and decided to take matters into his own hands. Without warning, he lunged at Astron from behind, aiming to tackle him to the ground.
Different from normal villains, he didn’t even bother with shouting. He simply raised his fists and attacked.
SWOOSH
However, Astron’s instincts kicked in, and he swiftly sidestepped the boy’s attack. With a deft movement, he evaded the boy’s grasp and turned to face him.
The boy stumbled forward, losing his balance due to the failed attack.
THUD
His pride wounded and his anger boiling over, he quickly got back on his feet and charged at Astron again.
‘An overly charged attack from the right.’
SWOOSH
This time throwing a wild punch just as Astron expected, he aimed to injure him.
But Astron was no stranger to close combat. He was someone that learned how to combat unarmed in both his memories. On earth, he was interested in Martial Arts, and in this life, it was taught to him by Aaron.
SWOOSH
With a fluid motion, he dodged the punch once again, but he never raised his hand and tried to attack.
Rather, he simply tackled the boy as he disturbed his center of gravity.
THUD
Making the boy fall to the ground in response.
“I warned you,” Astron said calmly, his voice devoid of any emotion. “Don’t talk to me.”
The rest of the students who had witnessed the confrontation watched in stunned silence. They had never seen Astron fight before, and they were surprised by his skill and composure. He was ranked last, and they knew he was weak, but none of them expected him to act in such a manner.
Something looked fundamentally different, but they ignored it not long after.
Only Sylvie and another girl with red hair were looking at the scene.
Sylvie rather wore a happy smile, seeing Astron finally holding his ground, and Irina….
She was doing her own thing….
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You can check my discord if you want. You can see the illustrations of characters there.
The link to the discord server is in the description of the book.