Leuko - Blind to the Sunlight

Chapter 45: How to Fail

'The most important part in the process is the choice of the berry, as its flavour will completely change the taste of the poképuff.'

Ooooooh, I see…then what is the brown one made of? Chocolate? What is chocolate? I guess it's good…or is it bad?

I thought as I read even more the book in front of me, completely ignoring the chaos around me.

Indeed, as soon as Volo released us, everyone moved toward the library to find what his lie in his presentation. Apparently it was normal for a school to hold one, so an academy that tried to pride itself in being better than any other academy would have the biggest one ever.

But contrary to the other room inside the school, this one was supposedly extremely modest, as it was only made out of wood with some desks around to allow us to sit. Finally, there was only one employee at the entrance of the library who had as his only task to stop us from causing any problem inside of the room.

However, this was not to say that this was the poorest room inside the establishment, as the books inside were the real treasure here, as some of them were even worth more than the cost of a bed! A bed! That's ridiculous!

Apparently it was because some of these book were even older than Volo…which is apparently more than…one hundred thousand years ago…of course those presented her were mere replica offered by Volo…and written by Volo…so this made a lot of their value go down from the simple fact that everyone already assume that it filled with lie.

Still worth more than a bed for some strange reason. I mean, even if it's really that important information, then the student wouldn't act as chaotic as they are doing right now would they?

"Where is it? I don't see any book from the era he was speaking of…what era was it even!?" A student said in panic as he looked at the cover of the book installed on large shelves.

"I think it was the Hisui era…and also the post-era of the Nabunaga from Kanto…" A student said as she gritted her teeth as she hesitating between two enormous books. "I really hope it won't be about the pre-existential era…because the only note we have of it is from his book…and I don't want to spend my few SP to read it…"

Oh right, I forgot to mention that to read the book here, we needed to pay some SP just to access to the most basic book of lesser quality or importance. The truly important books are at the top of the room and cost…a large amount that I didn't bother looking for.

Of course I ended up paying for my friend and some other people from my class…because they asked nicely…but others groaned a lot at this expense. So this was why everyone here was trying their best to make their SP worth it.

As for me? Well I just found this very nice cooking book about how to cook some sweets, and now I'm at the section about poképuff…so the first page…as I just read the first page over and over again.

…my progenitor didn't allow me to read this type of book usually…and when he did allow me to read some book it was not to ridicule him for having a stupid spawn.

…oh! We can make the pastry with just the skin of the berry?

That's good to know if I ever have to go back to my previous lifestyle! It means I could always have some poképuff no matter what?

"Euh…Luciel?" I diverted my attention to in front of me, just to see Iono looking at me in a mix of worry and hope. "Do…do you know what was the lie of this weirdo? I really don't want him to disfigure me…what would my fan say if they saw me filled with scars?!"

…well probably the same as usual…they already say she's ugly for being an esper after all…they might even say that now the scare makes her less ugly because their less of her face to see. Well that's what he says to me when…oh…I don't remember.

"They would probably find you as beautiful as they do now."

Iono blushed for some reason before raising her nose in an attempt to look confident. "Hahaha…well of course, as long as my smile is intact, their shine will banish all of the darkness inside their heart." Suddenly, Iono's face blanched. "Wait! What if he decides to destroy my teeth then?! My fan will be covered in darkness for the rest of their now useless life!"

"I'm…I'm sure that if your smile is that important…then he wouldn't dare to destroy it…" Allister attempted to raise back her morale, but she still looked stressed.

"You saw how he acted! I wouldn't be surprised if this was nothing more than an elaborate scheme to deprive everyone of my light!"

"Why would he do…houah…that?" Mina yawned as she tried to keep herself awake while reading her book with great difficulty. "But I guess that without light…it would be easier to sleep whenever I want…but it would also be hard to paint without the sun…"

"He wants to destroy the sun?!" I said with excitement as I finally lowered my cooking book.

Iono looked at me in surprise at my sudden excitement. "What…no…I think? I mean… It's nothing to get excited about if that's what he wants…" Iono rapidly shook her head to clear her mind. "But it would also be problematic if my smile disappeared…so do you know what his lie was?"

Everyone around us grew silent as they leaned toward me to hear my answer, as if my parole had any value.

"Well I guess it would be that is next course will be about the evolution of torture in history…" I guessed.

"Wait…you guess? This means you're not sure…and I don't think it can even be about that…he says it was about his course…" Iono's smile lowered as she started to breathe loudly. "Oh no…I don't want to get tortured by him…ah! I'm sure there is an answer somewhere!"

"…you know…I've been wondering from the start…but what does supposed to mean?" Mina asked, which immediately made everyone silent as they looked at her. Even Iono grew silent as she tried to think.

"Well…well I guess it's something bad…I mean…he tries to threaten us no?" A student tried to answer, but he was clearly also confused now that he started to think about it.

"You…you don't know the definition of the word?" Iono couldn't help but ask, but from the expression the others gave us, it was clear that only a few of them knew…among those who knew were me, Sabrina, Clair and the girl who tried to steal Pandora from me.

"Well torture is when…" Iono was about to explain it to everybody, but she stopped talking in the middle of it as she grabbed her arm and looked down in a rare expression from her, one of unease. "Actually…all things considered…maybe it's better that it stay that way."

People grew surprised at her shift in demeanour, which only made them even more anxious. "Is…is it really that bad?"

"Oh, it varies a lot from the person who does it, or the victim from the torture, without forgetting the type…but from him…yeah… I think it's that bad...maybe even worse." Acerola answered the question, but she still kept silent about the explanation on what it was, as if she also agreed to Iono's decision to keep shut about this topic…well as long as no one asks me what it is, I won't answer either.

"Luciel…do you know what torture is?"

…I slowly looked toward Allister, who innocently asked this question, yet it created a big reaction from Sabrina and Iono, who vigorously shook their head. But as my friend asked a question, I had no other choice but to answer.

"Torture is when someone wants to cause pain to another person." My answer was so simple that even Sabrina was stumbled.

"Well at least the answer is simple enough…it shouldn't create too much panic…" Iono murmured, which made me satisfied.

Even Allister was a little surprised, but the answer looked to be to his satisfaction. "Oh…if we don't find his lie…he will cause us pain…so the same thing as today?" Allister hugged his plushie a little harder, but his expression showed that it only bothered him a little.

The same was for the rest of the class, while they were clearly displeased about suffering the same treatment as today, they at least stopped panicking in the library.

I was confused why they would brush their future torture, as even I disliked to get my arm torn off, my fingers broken, and my back whipped…well it probably just me then…It's pretty evident that I'm just that weak.

But suddenly, Iono's eye squinted as looked at Sabrina. As if she already knew what she was going to ask, she closed her eyes to avoid getting even more annoyed by the stupid gaze of her. "You can read minds can't you…so that means you know about what he was thinking. So why aren't you just telling us his lie?"

Sabrina forced herself to open her eyes back just to look in annoyance at Iono who now made the rest of the class look at her. Which gave her pressure to answer. So in an instant everyone received their answer…except me…as they suddenly looked more apologetic toward her and didn't press her for further answer.

Without even having to ask me, Allister turned toward me to give me the new information. "She said that she can indeed read into his mind…but also that he pertinently know that…so he told her with his mind that if she ever give the right answer…then she will be the first one used as an example…and she did say that she was sure that he would know no matter what she do…so she prefer to stay silent."

"Oh." That was my only reaction, as I slowly lost interest in the topic, nor was anyone passionate enough to continue it, so I resumed my reading about poképuff, Volo is apparently not even allowed to torture me, so I don't really have to worry…and even if he could…I still wouldn't be worried.

My disinterest prompted the other to resume their own activity, but at least they looked less worried than earlier.

***

"To resume, the creation of the supreme weapon was done out of the pain and fury that its partner felt when it died, so this tragedy could have been completely avoided if humanity hadn't chosen violence as the answer. So this is why building ties with pokemon and themselves will always be more advantageous than the other option, whatever angle you look at it, economical, social, industrial or expansional." Lenora concluded her presentation with a jovial look.

Lenora was the history teacher of the other class. She was a black woman with poofy green hair that was restrained by a red bandana. She wore a formal outfit of the colour beige but that was also clearly made out of common silk. She also wore some brown boots that gave her the aura of a hardworking person. Yet despite her slight lack of classic fashion, she was still more than qualified for this prestigious job, and the student certainly had no complaint after today's class.

Even Cynthia, who was expecting this class to be a total bore like the previous the one couldn't help but be impressed by her way of handling herself and raised multiple points that even she didn't know. But not only that, she formed her point in a way that everyone could understand her argument while she presented the history of the Broken War. She even encouraged the participation of her students as she allowed them to ask as many questions as they needed to understand the topic.

This was vastly different from what Cynthia was used to, but she should have doubted that it would be the case considering that her professor was Volo, and there was no way he would even attempt to act as a good human being, even less to be a good teacher.

"Now, the class will soon end, so does anyone have any questions they would like to ask me about the content you learned today?" Lenora asked as she changed to her last slide, which was just a little caricature of herself with a thought bubble above her.

Immediately, multiple rows of people raised their hands, which only made Lenora more satisfied with herself.

'I can't help but wonder what teacher he is then, I don't think this bastard would fit in any other study field… It's the only one where he would even care to teach to…'

The thought that maybe Volo was teaching the class with Luciel briefly crossed her mind, but she rejected it because there was no way this maniac would be willing to teach what even this academy would consider as failure.

…right?

***

"Hello everyone for your final class of the day! And your most important one too!" A brazen man said confidently as he looked at all of us.

The bell rang earlier, which made the time Volo allowed us to spend in the library stop as we had to run to our next class, the combat class.

For this class, we had to move to somewhere called a gym, which had a completely different design than the other class of today, as not only was it completely flat and a seemingly open sky. Even if it was just a bunch of mirrors that tried to make it look like an open sky.

…what was sure was that the sun was as annoying as ever, even with my umbrella.

The ground also tried to make it look like we were outdoors, as it looked like a normal clay path, while grass was all around us with some trees to complete the landscape.

The good news was that this class combined the other two, so I wasn't separated from Cynthia anymore, and the teacher for this class didn't seem like bully as Volo was…but he was loud…too loud…

"Hahaha! I can see it in your eyes, all of you have the determination to aim higher! Much higher than you are imagining right now! Well do not worry, for I, Palmer, will help you reach the high beyond your view as your combat instructor for this year, pleasure to meet you!"

This…Palmer, was an old person in his fourteen if I had to guess, with blond hair in spikes and yellow eyes filled with fire. He wore a green coat over his white polo, and a golden button on his side. Finally, he wore some loose brown pants to complete his attire.

The moment we entered his gym, he instantly started to yell at us about how awesome we would be, and how he is even more awesome for being able to make us awesome.

It had already been ten minutes since the start of the class, and it didn't look like he was close the finishing his speech. But apparently it was working, as most of the class took his parole with pride. All of them are probably coming from the super class that I wasn't in.

"Now of course, not everyone wants to reach the same high, but even more importantly, not everyone is standing at the same level right now, and this is what today's class will be about!"

…wait, is the class finally starting? I was just about to shut down for the hour…well…I guess that among my responsibilities as a student.

"Now, before we start, I want to make clear of something clear, it's true that not everyone is on the same level, and their no shame in that. I know that some of you are younglings from rich families with centuries of knowledge in their library, while others are coming straight from the sewer of the most polluted town in existence. So maybe some of you will think that it's enough, that they could never reach the level of others and they might as well give up…but that's false!"

…oh, never mind, he wasn't finished.

"Your background will never be your weakness! Your history will always be your experience! As all of your choices, all of your determination led you here! An academy with thousands of applicants, yet only you were able to reach these highs! Which means all of you can reach higher than the other! So don't stop climbing now."

…what we all of these references to climbing higher…I noticed that Geeta made the same during her introduction speech. Something about reaching the zenith…what is that about? Why would someone want to touch the sun, even for everyone who is stupid and thinks the sun is nice know that actually touching the sun will hurt.

It is almost as if they proposed such a grandiose goal to distract us from their real intentions, probably even raising our ego and pride in ourselves to get manipulated even more easily. They don't need to have a meaning to their words, just need to make what seems important, not to let the student even think about what it means.

…well, at least I will make it easy for them, so there's no need for the machination, they can take it easy.

…well of course that assumes they even have that goal, and as I was able to think about it, that must mean it's a stupid deduction.

"But…well…despite all of the flowery words, it's true that some people here are stronger. I evidently think about all the archons who gave are now under our care. So that's why we decided to implement a ranking system. The ranking system will place everyone according to how strong they currently are so we can give them the more adapted education they need. And it will also affect how much SP they will receive each month."

At the mention of SP, everyone's ear perked up, probably because by now, everyone must have realized how high the price actually was here. Even if most basic installations were free, it was practically impossible to buy anything right now with the little SP they currently had. So the prospect of obtaining even more was more than enough to motivate even my class.

"I shall explain the functioning of this ranking, each student will own their own ranking that will determine their capacity and strength with their pokemon. The stronger you are, the lower your ranking, so being ranked 1 would mean you are the strongest student. That's pretty understandable right?" Palmer looked around just to see most of the students nodding.

"Good, but I think I need to clarify by what makes you the strongest student, as if we would only consider the strength of your pokemon, then a certain student would have won against our dean last night." The class froze at the sudden jab against Lance, and they all looked at him in fright that he would explode. But contrary to their expectation, Lance stood completely unperturbed with his arms crossed.

The instructor seemed satisfied by his lack of reaction as he nodded to himself. "Good, I'm glad to see you still have the ability to learn. As your Dragonite was by all means, way stronger than her glimmora, but you know the result. And I won't go over all the reasons why you lost, she already did after all. Instead, I'm going to show you how to win!"

"Normally, pokemon wielders are simply as strong as the pokemon that they have, but in this academy, we will show you that your own ability will now allow you to determine the fate of a battle." Palmer raised three of his fingers as he continued his speech. "So for the ranking, we will also evaluate your combat strategy, the moves you were able to teach your pokemon, and their willingness to follow your order. Other factors will also be taken into account, but none will be as important as those mentioned. So for each of these categories, we will give you a note, then these results will allow us to place all of you in your respective categories. Any questions?"

A hand was raised to his proposition, coming from…oh, it was the ginger guy who was involved in the brouhaha this evening.

"Mister, me and a germ have a fight planned for later, but I thought that maybe it would be more interesting to show my capabilities immediately so you won't have to waste your time judging me, nor will your eyes have to bleed to look at his performance."

The one he was referring to seemed extremely angry, but before he could object, probably one of his own friends forced his head down so he wouldn't cause even more problems.

This seemed to be the right decision, as the teacher immediately tried to diffuse the situation. "I did hear about your little disagreement, and I'm glad that you were able to come up with a decision that wouldn't cause trouble to your other schoolmate. However, I will have to decline your proposition, and also refrain you from fighting after the class is over…and you know what…everyone is stopped from going into any better, otherwise I will be forced to lower your score for this test!"

"WHAT!!!? NO FIGHT!!?" A completely unrelated person screamed at this declaration, revealing herself to be a caramel-bronzed girl with a ponytail behind her head. But she was also so pale that I wouldn't be surprised if anyone told me she was close to death, despite seemingly having no injury on her body. "HOW CAN I SURVIVE WITHOUT MAKING ANY BATTLE!!!?"

But the teacher wasn't perturbed by her comportment, and instead seemed happy she even brought this up. "Excellent question! This is exactly what our first session will be about!" As he finished speaking, blue screen slowly converged together to form various shapes, all of them appearing to be humanoid.

Without missing a beat, Palmer pointed at them with an excited grin. "These are the new top technologies that you can encounter inside the academy, hologram! Creation made out of complicated light shows that can simulate a real body, and can even be fought against. All of them are controlled by an IA, which can augment the level of complexity they fight on! And this is exactly what we're going to do today! Each of you will have to fight a hologram each that will all copy your pokemon moves and strength, with the only variable being the intelligence of the trainer! So you're success or defeat will only rely on you!"

"Oh! That's interesting! My strongest adversary will be me, how fascinating."

"That's perfect, now no one will be able to use the excuse that I'm only strong because of Melody, this will shut their mouth right up!"

By the reaction of the student, they looked motivated, but someone still raised their hand to ask a question.

"Sir…how will each degree of difficulty will change the complexity of the battle?"

"Mmmh…if it wasn't for my duty, I would have answered you that you just had to discover it by yourself…but now I'm a teacher, so it's my duty to give you an appropriate response." Palmer sighed as if his next words were made from a giant sacrifice.

But the other students still converged their gaze toward him as they were also curious about the answer.

"So there will be ten levels, but I really don't expect anyone here to reach the last level…or even near that, so I will just explain the start."

"Level 1 to 3 are sincerely easy level and if you can't win against them, then you only got there because of the strength of your pokemon…which isn't bad by itself, as you being able to make such a strong pokemon listen you mean you still have the potential require to be here! You just need to put a lot of work into it! The reason why I consider these levels easy is because the intelligence of the pokemon is programmed to sometimes ignore its trainer, and the trainer itself will make some obvious move or stupid decision."

"Level 4 to 5 will be where I expect some of you to stop, nothing to be ashamed about it, we must all start somewhere, and sometimes it's not at the top. For this level, the pokemon of your adversary will listen to the order, and the hologram will make rational and educated decisions, but nothing that a normal battler wouldn't be able to come up with, so it's not that hard either to surmount them."

"Level 6 to 9 is where the true elite among us will determine themselves, as each of these artificial intelligences will be based on the capacity of other talented battles, so it will be like fighting a professional. And for those curious, the rank 8 represents me, so if you can win this level, you are free to assume you have a chance against me…a chance to lose that is! Hahahah!"

"And…what about level 9?" A student delicately asked, which made the teacher stop laughing.

"…well that's Geeta level…yeah, at this point if you can win against this IA…well… that's some serious potential you have." Even he seemed less confident about his statement, as the prospect seemed to terrify him.. But he casually dismissed the idea as he returned to his confident attitude.

"And there's no need to talk about level 10 because there's absolutely no way you reach this level on your first day, otherwise there would be no reason for you to even be here."

Suddenly, to the surprise of everybody, Lance raised his hand for a question.

Even the teacher seemed surprised as he called out its name.

"Will we be allowed to use our power for this test?" Lance asked.

Palmer's eyes widened before nodding confidently. "Of course you can, we want to judge your skill as a trainer, it would be unfair to seal an ability that you possess!"

Lance grinned at the answer before confidently walking toward the instructor. "Then it wouldn't be a problem if I show an example to the rest of the class about the future exercise? I need to show them how it is done and that even that measly level 10 can't scare me!"