Henry made his way out of the office, a newfound pride in his ability to bullshit gained.
"Lunch time." Henry felt his stomach rumbling and made his way to the lunchroom.
It was empty on this day, though it was a Thursday, so people would most likely still be asleep, trying to spend as little time doing class as possible. Henry didn't fully care, however, so he gathered his breakfast and sat down in his usual spot. The girl whose name he had just learned, Edith, sat across from him, quietly eating a small meal.
"Eating so little, odd choice. I'd expect everyone to pig out, especially with the fast metabolisms we get from being awakened."
Henry was slowly starting to realize that he was quite judgmental, though he wasn't here to make friends, so it wasn't of concern. However, something curious happened. Edith spoke to Henry.
"Was your trial hard?" Edith seemed sincere, almost sad, talking to Henry.
Henry thought hard, looking above the girl, seeing a large amount of strings all swirling with blue, a deep feeling of sadness entering his mind.
"Sorry, that's an odd questi—"
"It was scary." Henry knew it wasn't what he should do, but it was the right thing to do.
"I was terrified, but I pretended that I wasn't to survive." There wasn't an ounce of falseness in Henry's words; he meant them all fully.
"Mine was too," Edith spoke up quietly.
"If you don't want to answer, that's okay, but what was it like in your trial? Did you have to fight?"
"My trial was short, at least for me. It was only around a dozen hours. Pretty lucky, I guess." Henry let out a small chuckle, reliving the trial from his memory.
"I got lucky a few times. I met someone; he was pretty cool, tried to make sure I was okay. I don't know how well I did the same for him, but it was nice meeting him."
Edith was looking closely into Henry's eyes.
"Uh—but to answer that last question, I did have to fight. It wasn't the longest battle, but it was scary. I won, though. I have my wits about me sometimes… Sorry for rambling."
Henry began to eat his food, feeling a bit embarrassed from his rambling. Looking up, he saw Edith looking down at her food, smiling. She stood up to go put her dishes away but turned to Henry to talk.
"Thank you, Henry. You know, you're not as bad as what others say about you." It was a kind gesture until Henry realized,
"Wait, who's saying what about me?" Henry yelled out to Edith, but she had already quickly made her exit.
"Are people seriously talking shit behind my back?"
Henry stood up, wanting answers to his questions, but he had bigger fish to fry, realizing he had just signed up for a class that started that same day.
***
Henry made his way to the Veil Studies class. Walking in, he saw two familiar faces: Kleo and Edith, the dynamic duo. Just his luck—he gets his nosy neighbor and a girl who has apparently heard nothing but bad things about him.
Henry didn't see a teacher in the class yet, so he covered his head and made his way to the furthest seat in the back of the class. Unless he wanted a month of hell before the second trial, he would hide from his classmates.
Eventually, a middle-aged man walked into the class, throwing down a couple of books on a desk before writing on a whiteboard.
"I am Mr. Wilson. I am your teacher for the foreseeable future, sadly. Let's get this down: I'm not going to teach you anything you can't read in a textbook that you are given for free for being here. I am required to teach you due to a shitty contract, so leave me alone and do your own thing. Preferably, don't die in the second trial so that I don't fail a review in the future."
The teacher sat down in a chair and laid his head back, preparing for a nap from the looks of it.
'What the hell? I don't even get a good teacher!?'
Before Henry could make his own statement out loud, Kleo made a loud notion.
"Sir, if you won't teach us, how will we survive in the second trial?" She seemed quite angry, but Henry couldn't fully tell if that was just how she was or how she felt in the moment.
Sighing, Mr. Wilson lifted his head up.
"Everything in Rylah is luck. No amount of teaching will get you to survive without it. Either you're lucky or you're a genius, and I doubt any of you guys are geniuses."
Immediately, the teacher laid his head back down.
'This has to be the worst school experience anyone could get.'
Henry was almost ready to get up and leave before realizing that this would be his class that would have to teach him to survive, so he might as well get the most out of it.
"If you can't teach, you can't be a genius, so how did you survive the trial? Did you get lucky?" Henry's notorious teasing might have some merit after all.
The teacher sighed and stood up.
"You caught me." The teacher began writing on the whiteboard.
"As you know, all awakened have Veils. These are what make you tick, how you work, and how you survive. I take it you all know the Veil grading system as well?"
Well, Henry's Veil had a different grade than all the rest of them, so he didn't fully know, but he shook his head anyway to not be a smartass.
"Great, you're all not stupid. The higher a grade, the more potential your Veil has. This does not mean that a higher Veil equals a stronger person, however. It is the user that creates the power, not the Veil."
Henry was starting to drift away, unable to understand where the teacher was going with this.
"I want you all to imagine that a high-grade Veil had a competent user. If that happened, what do you think the result would be?"
Kleo raised her hand, and the teacher reluctantly called on her.
"It would create a powerful Veiled?"
The teacher clicked his tongue.
"Correct, two points to the one with above elementary school intelligence. I was lucky enough to be the least educated student in this academy twenty years ago, but I was also the luckiest, being a competent person with, you guessed it, a high-graded Veil. Now I am back at the school, being forced to teach because it was the only other option besides prison! Is that enough for you gremlins to leave me alone?"