Bella fell into thought at the refusal, and all of a sudden, her tone of voice shifted into something much colder. “What do you want for it?”

The words sounded too much like a threat in Evin’s ears, so he found himself curling behind a makeshift barrier. He regarded Bella in a different light, before deciding that he should simply refuse the latter.

“I don’t want anything. I just don’t want to talk about it.” Evin was sure to add a tone of finality to his voice. Bella scowled back, and the voice’s wisdom reminded him to not cut all ties so randomly. “Please remember I’d refuse anyone else, not just you.”

“Alright,” Bella sighed and went back to her seat. “Thank you for your time, Mister Evin. And if you ever change your mind, then please don’t hesitate to remind me again. Of course, if you wish for something, anything, then I’ll be glad to help you out.”

Both of them were almost rudely serious and honest with their words, which left the atmosphere stirred and cold.

“No problem,” Evin smiled and pulled his attention back to his seatmate.

Kona was curiously pondering upon the exchange she had witnessed, her brown eyes lingering on Bella for a moment. Evin noticed that she was letting her hair grow beyond the length allowed for a 4th grade, which was just about shoulder length. It was a bit shorter than that, perhaps reaching the base of one’s neck, but those were overcomplications in Evin’s eyes.

Kona was also letting her hair loose, as most other girls of her age preferred. Before this, she had to bundle it all up and hold it all above her head, while making sure to leave a few strands hanging to make sure others knew it was the proper length. Again, weird overcomplications.

Her eyes looked soft, but they weren’t the droopy sort, but more of an intelligent glint of the eyeballs themselves. Now that Evin had a proper look at it, Kona’s face had rather sharp features. Evin judged the it was mostly because of her thin diet as a 4th grade. It made her look more mature and womanly compared to someone like Bella who still had fat on her cheeks.

“Sir?” Kona asked, her old habits taking over her tongue. There was also apprehension in her voice and distrust in her eyes. Evin didn’t know where they popped up from, but they were certainly real.

Evin realized it was most likely from his stare and apologized.

“Sorry, sorry. Something took over my mind as I was looking at you. I had some pill yesterday for this,” Evin gestured at his broken arms, “and it makes me slow and dull in the head.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kona said and sat straighter.

She turned her attention towards the bundle of scrolls in her arms, not bothering to ask about what happened to Evin’s arm. Whether because she thought it was impolite, or because she was disinterested, Evin couldn’t tell.

<Hmm, nice job… very smooth.> At least the voice was enjoying the situation.

Silence reigned in the classroom for the three, and Evin couldn’t help but feel as if he’d offended two girls in very quick succession. His hopes for other students coming in to still the silence was dwindling quickly, until it was completely killed by a plump woman entering the class.

“Oh, I thought there would only be two students in my class for a while,” she exclaimed, looking at Bella.

“I’ve asked to be put in this class only yesterday, I’m sorry for the surprise. Here’s the paper I was told to give you,” Bella said and handed the teacher a folded paper.

Evin wondered at Bella’s sudden change of heart. He wondered if it was because of him, but he quickly let go of his hopefulness.

The teacher read through it, nodded and smiled warmly. “You’ll always be welcome in my class, dear. It’s been a while since I had more than one or two students in my class. It’s weird how youngsters dread history these days.” The woman shook her head exasperatedly and eyed her few students. “Well, welcome to my class. You may call me Teouka.”

Teouka then explained to the three that they were free to bother her about the subject whenever they wished, and taught them how to contact her. A few other pleasantries later, she started the lecture.

“While some teachers prefer to start from what’s happening around us today and then track our history backwards, I’ll just start from the beginning. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to interrupt me,” Teouka said smilingly.

Evin went silent and focused on the lecture.

“Sigh… Every year I resolve myself to find a better way to start this lecture and every year I find myself behind a podium remembering my forgotten resolutions. Anyhow, we all know that the year we live in is 1493. 15th day of the 4th month, True Spring of the year 1493 to be exact. We’ve left behind a long history of almost 15 centuries. Now, what do you think happened in the zeroth year?”

“The Empress created the Twelve races, divided the land between them and founded the Empire,” Bella replied.

“Exactly. Then let’s just start a tiny bit earlier than that. No one knows how long this era lasted, but most historians agree on its name: ‘The Creation of Alvox’. No one can presume to know how our Empress willed an entire world to be, let alone filled it with such a vast variety of life and nature. There are many theories regarding this process, but none of them can be confirmed to be true, as the Empress herself refuses to speak of it.”

“And however the world was created, it did not change what happened afterwards. On the Zeroth Year, the Empress created the Twelve Races: the humans – us; the Ivari and the Cobfolk – our friendly Northern neighbors; the Layeq – our eccentric Eastern neighbors; the Colossi, the Griffins, the Undines and the Myrmis – these would be our current Southern enemies. These seven races rein triumphantly in the current era, the Era of Four Countries.”

“There are also the Chaos Race, the Skinshifters and the Metalshifters… but the Chaos people have fallen to the level of beasts, and the Skinshifters live in hiding among us, not much differently than the race the assume the form of, and the Metalshifters are as rare as stars falling in daylight, so they don’t really count as part of the Twelve Races.”

“On the Zeroth year, the Empress had also created the Dragonshifters and the Hivemind, but unfortunately, or fortunately, they are no longer with us. We’ll get to how that came to be later on.”

<I always doubted this story as a minstrel’s fancies, but to think the same story would be told inside an Academy of mages…> the voice sighed.

Evin remember how the voice ranted about the implausibility of creating a world and twelve races to live on it, but it seemed to begrudgingly accept it after convincing itself that the Empress was indeed almighty. There was nothing before the Empress.

“And with the Zeroth year came the Era of Twelve Races. In the first five years, the Empress’ man, Two Tales, gathered the leaders of each race under the Black Tower and taught them the Empress’ wisdom. Most of our knowledge of magic comes from these lectures, but there we learned many other things from these as well. The Imperial language, our measurement systems, the way we count time… many things that we regard as common sense today all came from these meetings.”

<Hmm?>

“If they had to be taught Imperial, then does that mean they were created with various different languages inside the heads?” Evin asked, under the insistence of the voice.

“Yes. The denizens of the world were born with many knowledges chucked inside their heads. They were created complete. People created as blacksmiths knew about blacksmithing, people created as seamstresses knew about sewing from birth, and people born as rulers of a race knew about many things. But they still remembered to properly convey these knowledges to their offspring, so that their crafts would not die with them… Except of course, the Hivemind. But anyhow, these people were called the Origin Generation. Many of the customs and crafts we possess these days originate from their wisdom.”

The voice fell into thought again, so Evin thanked Teouka and asked her to continue.

“Anyhow, the first five years. During this time, the people received a comprehensive and all-encompassing method of measuring things, which was unceremoniously named the Imperial Measurement System. We also learn to divide our years into five seasons and 10 months; months into four weeks and 40 days; days into 30 hours; hours into sixty minutes; and minutes into 60 seconds. I won’t list them all, but if you track back the origins of some of the customs we follow, then more often than not, you’ll learn that they originated during these five years.”

“Afterwards, Two Tales informed the leaders that he had nothing more to teach them, and reminded them not to bother the Empress any longer. The Twelve Races were free to do whatever they wanted, they only needed to remember that they were part of the Empire and fell under the Empress rule.”

“Some say that at this point, the true history of the Empire began. That those five years of learning and peace were the only years of peace the Empress offered to the children of her miracles.”