an illusion of mind

professor Alfred was teaching calmly.

and then the bell rung, and professor Alfred closed his book and held up a hand gesturing for the students to wait.

"I have an announcement to make..." he said holding the gaze of the students.

"is it another test?" a student asked.

"it is, this time it's a written test." he said calmly.

this drew the attention of a couple and the professor spoke, "this test is tomorrow, so be prepared while you can." he spoke calmly as he held his book between his armpits and walked out of the door.

this school always seems to give them a short time to prepare...

"don't be late, this will affect your grades, and have a nice day, it's time for your classes." he said before leaving.

the next day.

everyone was ready, they were pretty confident, they were royal class students after all.

"did you study?" Lina asked Rica.

"yeah, I had to stay up all night..." she said, there were visible eye bags under her eyes.

"...pfffttt ahahah!" Lina laughed at her and Rica just looked away, she was too tired to argue with her.

Lina and Rica were childhood friends, they used to play at each other's territories, they were pretty close, and now that they met at school again, they wasted no time in catching up with each other.

the professor walked in with a stack of papers and distributed them to the students.

"you have 2 hour to finish it."

some students perked up and smiled, "two hours~ that's easy enough." they smirked and looked down at the test paper, and immediately realized why they were given two hours.

they got to work and finished the test, and surprisingly the first one to hand in their paper was... Adam, followed right after by unsurprisingly Evelyn and then Rica.

"this is ridiculous..." Rica looked up at the boar which had the results of their test, she had placed fifth despite being up all night studying.

"what is?" Arron asked from the side.

"this! I studied so hard and ended up fifth!"

"fifth?! I'm 24th!" Arron exclaimed, "you should be grateful that you got fifth!" he said crossing his arms and looking at her.

and then she heard it, gasps, she turned to a few students looking up at the board and she followed their gazes and there it was, the first place for theory, was Adam...

"how did he..."

"he must have cheated!"

"hey! look at second place!" a student said from the side.

"Regina? I didn't know she was smart?" Rica said squinting her eyes and looking at third place, Evelyn was third.

Evelyn was standing there next to them, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, her violet dark blue eyes shined as she glared at the second and first place, she was overshadowed by those two? this isn't how nobles are supposed to be, they're supposed to be the first! the ones that lead the commoners!

she didn't know for sure if Regina was a commoner or not, but she didn't care, she was still mad that she didn't get first place.

I will work harder, she resolved herself before turning away.

"oh, hey! would you look at that! I got second place!" a voice said from behind Rica as she turned to look at Regina, Adam was standing not too far next to her.

"and you got first!" she said pointing upwards.

"yeah, I kind of expected that." he said knowingly.

"you're acting real arrogant right now." Regina said punching him on the shoulder playfully.

Adam just snorted and turned away, "nothing I didn't already know, come on let's go."

"bastard, if you're going to be so arrogant I'm not gonna let you have first place next time." Regina said poking his chest.

"as if! I earned first place, you didn't give me anything."

"oh yeah~ you wanna bet?" she said smirking at him, and he just scoffed as if her claim was ridiculous.

"listen, Adam I was fully capable of getting first place I just let you have it."

he just shrugged and waved for her to follow, "yeah, whatever pleases you, let's go, it's getting late for lunch." he said as Regina followed after him.

rumours spread of what happened in the sorcery class, how the head researcher, alchemist Glen Skystead had requested for Regina to be his disciple and how she refused.

"that's a ridiculous rumour, it's idiotic even, that Glen Skystead asking someone to be their disciple and getting rejected? as if!" a student scoffed.

"I heard she got his attention by solving a problem the teacher of the sorcery class had challenged her with..." one student said from the side.

"I have sorcery class and I can confirm, I saw that happen." another one spoke confirming.

"no way, really!?"

"yeah and she also...." they trailed off gossiping and talking about rumours they heard.

"what's this about Regina?" a voice said walking up to the group.

the group of students looked up and stared as they saw, suzi Terras approach them, "you said something about her becoming the disciple of Glen Skystead?" she said tilting her head at the group.

"o-oh... uhm..." the students were about to speak when they noticed the royal class insignia, a golden badge on the breast pocket with two torches crossed with each other.

the torches signify the future generations and leaders of the world.

"answer." she said simply.

the students must have thought that was a threat so they spoke immediately, "sh-she got asked by the head researcher to become his disciple..."

"is that so?" she said tilting her head.

she turned away and walked without even thanking them, seeming a bit rude.

"so, that bitch isn't all talk after all, huh."

"I'll show her for what she did at the entrance ceremony..." she smirked and chuckled to herself, some people gave her strange looks but she didn't care.

"I'll have my fun sooner or later~"

"and then he told me to become his disciple, could you believe that!" Regina exclaimed.

"well, it's really hard to believe that mister Skystead himself asked you to become his disciple." Adam replied.

"what? you think I'm not good enough?"

"yea-" but he was cut off by a feminine voice calling out to Regina.

"Regina pectos!" they both turned and saw Suzi standing at the front of the class.

"I challenge you to an official duel supervised by a professor!" she exclaimed announcing to the class.

this surprised a few but others were expecting it.

an official duel is where two students agree to figure out a problem they had by fighting, and the winner gets their conditions fulfilled, and the loser, well the loser is a loser need I say much?

but there was a slight problem, there was no problem between Regina and Suzan, unless she thought I disrespected her back at the entrance ceremony...

"what do I get if I win?" Regina asked.

"well, you get the honour of defeating me, Suzan Terras the daughter of Signus Terras." she said crossing her arms and cocking her head back.

"not that you would ever win." she spat arrogantly.

"alright, I accept, so there are no conditions? we just fight for the heck of it?" Regina asked tilting her head to the side.

"exactly." Suzi confirmed.

Regina smile widened almost turning manic, she got up and stared straight into suzi's green eyes, they were roughly the same height, and that was saying something because Regina was on the shorter side.

"good, I was almost dying of boredom~"

Suzi just smirked and gestured for her to follow.

the rest of the class watched in surprise as a duel was scheduled in front of them.

some students followed after them to get to the duel arena to watch.

while others just shook their heads.

"should we go watch?" Arron asked Rica.

"yeah, let's go, what about you bella?" she asked turning to Bella who just nodded and got up.

"alright then let's go."

Regina stood on the opposite side of Suzi who was cracking her knuckles and stretching, Regina just held a rapier in her hand and stood with perfect stance one hand behind her back and her rapier hand extended forward.

"a rapier? not gonna use a staff?" she asked smirking confidently.

professor grey stood in between them and waited for them to be ready.

there were a lot of students present, some from the royal class and others who just wanted to see a fight between royal class students.

the prince was here along with the princess, they stood far away from each other though, Arron was chatting with the princess while Bella stood as close as she can to the Arena so she can have good vision of what happens.

there was Adam there too he sat on a bench and surprisingly, Evelyn sat not too far away from him.

"the rules are, no fatal injuries and that's it, once one of you is unable to fight anymore or forfeits, then the win will automatically go to the other." he said simply.

"are the combatants ready?" professor grey asked.

"yeah." Regina replied calmly.

"yes!" Suzi nodded eagerly, she was ready taking her stance, like a tiger she had her palm open her fingers were veiny and they look tough.

this must be one of the styles Signus utilized, Signus Terras was known as the strongest berserker in the world and some even call him the strongest human in the world, but they're wrong.

"then let the duel begin!" he said before he disappeared from the arena in an instant.

Suzi rushed at Regina but she just stood still and waited.

she pounced at her intending to tackle her to the ground, however Regina just moved to the right and let her fall to the ground, Suzi smashed the ground and a crack formed where she punched.

"hm~ a quick one I see-" she was interrupted by a kick to the face which sent her stumbling back.

"don't speak when you're opponent is on you." Regina just said smirking.

she got up and smirked as blood leaked from her nose.

"that's neat, it's really neat..." she spoke her eyes darkening as she took her stance once more.

Regina's hair stood on end as she felt danger approaching, Suzi disappeared from sight and appeared right in front of her, aiming to punch her stomach, Regina dodged by moving to the side, the punch narrowly missed her by a hair, she countered by thrusting her rapier into Suzi's arm puncturing it.

Suzi was a monster she didn't care that she was stabbed, she twirled around and slashed with her hand like it was a claw at her side, and hit Regina in the side.

Regina gasped as she felt pain on her side and strangely there was blood, it's like she had been cut by an actual blade.

did she use weapons? Suzi jumped back creating distance after having landed her hit, she was bleeding from the small hole in her left forearm.

"that hurts pretty badly doesn't it?" Suzi asked as she smirked at Regina.

Regina was too focused on the deep gash in her side, "you hit me... you actually hit me..." she broke out into laughter as Suzi was taken aback.

Regina continued laughing loudly as Suzi there confused, she was about to ask when Regina stopped laughing abruptly.

"you sure got me good~" she said clutching her side.

"wha-" before Suzi could finish her sentence, she felt it, she felt the world shrink around her and darkness surround her, she looked around in panic at what's happening.

and her hair stood on end as she felt her beastly instinct screaming at her to run, where to? she didn't know she just knew she had to run away, away from here.

but she was frozen, she couldn't move, she slowly turned her head to where Regina was supposed to be, and she was gone, darkness surrounded her as she panicked, her breath quickened her chest falling and rising rapidly.

the darkness got even more oppressing as she couldn't hear anything or anyone, not even the sound of her breathing.

and then she saw it, where Regina was supposed to be stood a figure, a black figure with no features and no clothes, it was just a black surface who's figure roughly resembled a woman.

her heart raced.

and then it happened, the figure opened it's eyes and spread it's lips apart if it even had any lips to begin with, there she saw black pupils with blood shot eyes, and white yellowish teeth attached to black gums.

she tried to move but she couldn't, and the figure started moving gaining on her, she tried her best to move but she couldn't her beastly instinct screamed in her head but she still had no control over her body.

once the figure was one her, it slowly raised an arm towards her and pushed lightly at her chest, she fell on her back with a thud as everything returned to normal, she was still sweating and her heart was racing, her breath was quick as she sucked in air greedily when light returned to her vision.

she looked up at where the figure was supposed to be, but she saw Regina standing there smirking at her as she laughed.

"look at little suzi~ so scared and afraid~" she said crouching down next to her.

Suzi was too out of it to reply, she was sweating bullets, what just happened?

"professor? is this my win?" she said as she positioned her rapier at Suzi's neck.

"the winner is Regina." he said, his eyebrows raised slightly.

and the crowd of students broke out into susurrations discussing the duel.