WIEDERGEBURT: The Missadventures of Nevaria Academy - Chapter 2

Two weeks had passed since the opening ceremony. Everyone was sorted into their classes, were introduced to their teachers, made friends or joined up with existing friends, and began learning. Classes were fairly standard but far more advanced than what most students at other schools would have.

Eryk found himself struggling.

Although an avid reader and a competent academic, many of the lessons they were learning were much more advanced than what he had to deal with at his last school. He was doing okay in English and Japanese, and he excelled in classics and history, but his math was… yeah, the less said about math the better.

He didn’t know who invented math, but he was certain their entire purpose for creating something so convoluted and ridiculous was to torture people. When would he ever use advanced calculus in real life? Never. He didn’t plan on becoming a frigging rocket scientist. All he wanted was to get in a good college, find a good job, marry a nice woman, and start a family. Learning how to calculate slopes and velocities would serve him no purpose.

But he still had to exceed if he wanted to graduate and get into a good college.

That was why he had found a tutor.

“This particular problem can be a toughy if you don’t input the correct formula. You can take this equation and simplify it here. That’s called the difference quotient,” Kari explained as the pair sat together in the library. They weren’t alone. Quite a few students had joined them, but Eryk didn’t think any of them were studying.

He glanced to his left. A pair of boys were glaring at him like they wanted to murder him. It was like he had murdered their ancestors or something. A glance to his right revealed similar glaring faces. Even turning his head to look behind him didn’t change the scenery by much. Same glare. Different hair color. Had he done something to offend these people? He had no idea. None of these faces were familiar to him. He was fairly positive he didn’t share a class with any of them.

“Hey. Are you listening to me?” asked a pouting Kari. Her cheeks had swelled like a pair of balloons.

“I’m listening. You plug in this equation, and you can simplify it to get what’s called the difference quotient, right?” asked Eryk for clarification.

“It seems you were listening, but can you actually do the equation like I showed you?”

“Uh…”

“See that? You might have heard what I said, but that’s not the same as listening. Pay attention.”

“Yes, sensei.”

“Oooh. I like that. From now on, you may feel free to call me Kari-Sensei when I’m tutoring you.”

“Speaking of, thanks again for tutoring me.”

“You’re welcome. I’m happy to help.”

The school offered a tutoring service for struggling students. Whenever someone was having trouble with a particular subject, they could request a tutor via the school’s website. Other students who had applied for the position of tutor would then take on students at their leisure. He had not expected to get Kari as his tutor, but he was grateful the person teaching him was a familiar face.

Kari took him through several more problems, and he did his best to ignore the people glaring holes through his head. He would have been swiss cheese if these people could shoot lasers from their eyes. How Kari could deal with all these glares was beyond him—oh, but maybe she wasn’t being subject to them? That had to be it. Well, that, or she was the oblivious sort. She didn’t strike him as the type, but maybe…

“I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere right now,” Kari smiled wryly.

“Sorry…”

“It’s fine. Math is tough for some people. That said, I am surprised you’re struggling this much. Didn’t you pass the entrance exam with a perfect score?”

“Yeah, but that test was nothing like what we’re learning…” Eryk leaned back in his seat and sighed. “Also, and this is going to sound like an excuse, but I studied my butt off for that test. I haven’t really had time to study these subjects in depth yet.”

“You’re right. That does sound like an excuse.”

“Hey!”

Kari covered her mouth to hide her giggles. Eryk tried to put on a stern face, but he eventually began laughing too.

“Well, since we’re not getting anywhere with math, maybe we should take a break?”

“I have been meaning to check out the library. There are so many books.”

The library was huge. Ginormous. Humongous. It was several stories tall and there were a number of staircases and ladders leading to higher levels. Shelves so large you needed a ladder to reach the top covered every wall. Tables sat in the center of the library, and it was at one of those tables they were sitting at.

“Oh? You like to read?” asked Kari as she stood up and stretched.

“I do,” Eryk confirmed. “Mostly fantasy and scifi though. How about you?”

“Same. I’m partial to stories that explore places I’ve never been to, or places I can’t visit in real life.”

“Right? I think that’s what’s so great about fantasy and scifi. I’ll never be able to explore these places since they’re the product of the author’s imagination.”

“Exactly. You really get it! So, what’s your favorite book?”

Eryk and Kari were wandering the library, browsing through the absolutely massive selection. There was a booth with a PC they could have used to look up whatever they wanted. They didn’t use it. Using a PC to figure out what books they had not only stole the magic away from searching, but they might find a good book they would never consider reading before.

“I wouldn’t say I have a favorite…” Eryk placed his finger against the spine of one book titled Reincarnated in Another World as an Incubus With Gynophobia. “But the book that really got me into reading was The Tale of Anderil.”

Kari was suddenly in his face. “You’ve read The Tale of Anderil?!”

Somehow, I was able to miraculously reclaim my voice. “Are you kidding? I’ve read it over ten times! A young man leaves his home village.”

Her eyes grew brighter as she said, “He journeys across the land.”

“Exploring ruins,” I added.

“Confronting danger,” she pressed on.

“All for the sake of quenching his undying thirst for adventure,” we finished together before smiling.

“It’s rare to find someone else who’s read this book. It’s so old. Did you know it was one of the first books considered fantasy in the entire world? Fantasy didn’t exist back when this was first written. It really was a revolutionary story,” Kari said with a dreamy sigh. She clasped her hands together and wiggled with joy.

“I did know that.” Eryk nodded, even as he admired the girl with stars in her eyes. Something about seeing her so excited set his heart blazing.

“Wanna see if we can find it here?” asked Kari with a grin.

“Might take a while, but sure, I’m game,” said Eryk with the same grin.

***

It was late in the evening and Eryk was finally heading home. He and Kari had gotten completely lost exploring the library. They had not found The Tale of Anderil, but it had been a lot of fun to just explore like that. This library was so much bigger than the local library he used to visit in his hometown.

Eryk lived alone, but that was no surprise since he didn’t have parents. He used to live in an orphanage. However, they were overcrowded, and so, Eryk had decided to leave after entering high school. Part of the reason he decided to attend Nevaria Academy was because of their scholarship program. Not only did they offer free tuition for promising students, but they had housing for students like him or those who didn’t want to commute.

The student dorms were not located on campus. It was a twenty minute walk to reach them from the academy.

“What do you think you’re doing, pig?! Let go of this princess right now! You will regret touching this princess!”

“Hey, hey! It looks like we gotta feisty one here!”

“Don’t be upset, babe. We’re not looking to hurt ya. We just wanna have fun.”

“Do you really call yourself ‘this princess’? Who even does that. What are you, a child?”

“OOoooh! Now this princess is mad! Nobody makes fun of her manner of speech!”

Eryk stopped walking when loud voices reached his ears. One of the voices was female, but the rest were male. It sounded like a bunch of random men with no common sense were harassing a woman, and, much as Eryk felt like this wasn’t his business, he couldn’t just ignore something like this. It wasn’t in his nature.

He turned around and looked across the street. A group of boys were surrounding a girl in front of a convenience store. Eryk glanced at the people watching from a distance and clicked his tongue in disgust. Did no one care to stop this from happening?

As Eryk walked across the street, he studied the young woman being harassed. Her skin was much darker than someone of Japanese descent, and her almost diamond-shaped eyes made him think she was Egyptian. She wore the school uniform of Nevaria Academy. Hers was heavily modified, however, with the first three buttons undone, her blazer wide open, and her skirt several centimeters shorter than he believed was appropriate. She had even tied one side of her shirt so it hiked up her torso and showed a hint of her flat stomach!

Scandalous.

“This princess swears to all the gods that if you don’t let her go right now, you will regret it!” The girl hissed.

The man who had grabbed her arm laughed. “Who’s gonna make me regret anything? You? What do you think you can do? Now just come with us!”

“Didn’t your mom teach you that it’s rude to grab a girl without her permission?” asked Eryk.

“Huh?” The man turned. “Who the fuck are—”

“Eryk Punch!”

“Gaaa?!”

A loud crunching noise echoed around the convenience store parking lot as Eryk slammed a very powerful straight punch into the man. Blood spurt from his broken nose as he stumbled away from the girl.

Eryk knew better than to let him recover, and so he planned on attacking again, but the girl moved first—two steps forward and one shot to the groin. Even Eryk winced when the man grabbed his nutsack and screamed. His voice had risen several decibels. Huh. Who knew this dude could become a falsetto?

“That was a good kick,” Eryk complemented.

“Thank you. This princess practices her kick every day,” said the girl.

While the young man who got his nuts busted hadn’t recovered, his friends were more than ready to throw down. They screamed and charged at the pair, who found themselves back to back as they fought against everyone present.

Perhaps it was because he was an orphan, but Eryk had already taken part in his fair share of scuffles. He also had learned martial arts in his youth from a kindly matron who’s compassion was only secondary to her skills in the art of asskickery. These men were also untrained. They were just thugs like those random ass jebronis in stories who’s only purpose was to cause trouble so the protagonist could step in and show off.

What surprised Eryk was how good the girl was fighting. She was a scrapper. He wouldn’t say she had any official training, but the way she moved was just amazing. She twisted her body like a belly dancer and lashed out with kicks so powerful that each one sent someone flying. Just what did this girl do to get such strong thighs? Did she train like Chun-Li?

It wasn’t long before all the men were lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

Eryk wiped some blood from his lip where someone got a lucky hit in as he turned to the girl. “That was quite the scrap. You’re pretty tough.”

The dark-skinned girl flipped her hair. “Hmph. So are you. This princess could have handled the situation without help… but she thanks you nonetheless.”

Now that he was looking at her more closely, he could understand why those guys were hitting on her. Aside from her erotic manner of dress, she was also quite the beauty. Her dark skin, golden eyes, and long straight hair were all rarities in Japan—not that he could speak. His hair was green, after all.

“I’m Eryk, by the way.” He held out his hand.

The girl took it. “This princess knows. You were the second person who spoke at the entrance ceremony. You may call this princess Lin. It is a pleasure to meet you… Darling.”

“Yeah. It’s nice to meet you too—wait. What?”

Eryk had almost missed what she had called him at the end, but fortunately, he wasn’t some dense harem protagonist who would willfully ignore something like that.

“What’s wrong?” asked Lin, tilting her head.

“You just called me Darling.”

“This princess did.”

“Why?”

“You saved this princess, and she has felt the call of destiny. She has read about this situation in your Japanese stories. The heroic protagonist rescues the princess from a group of ruffians and the princess falls in love with him at first sight.”

“Ah… don’t tell me.”

Lin’s face lit up like a thousand watt bulb. “This princess has decided that you shall marry her. Consider it an honor.”

The sound of Eryk smacking his face with his palm was heard for miles.