"The belief in the thirteen great deities stems from the thirteen great families of the Empire." A man in his early forties with short blonde hair combed neatly and a clean short beard declared to the twenty or so students sitting in front of him.
He wore a long overcoat in deep charcoal, below it was a fitted black waistcoat and beneath it was a white button-up shirt and normal dress pants.
He was the professor of History, mainly History of the Divine. And these were fresh first year students who sat with boring expressions on their faces.
"Now now I know this is your first lecture and so I won't go too deep into the lecture. Instead one of you should come down and distribute these files to everyone." He declares and grabs a handful of files to pass to the girl who came down.
She had long red hair, going down to her knees, light blue eyes and wore the academy uniform.
Which consisted of a black high collared tunic, with a black formal longcoat over it. Slightly reinforced at the shoulders, with a black belt to go with the black pants and ankle high black boots.
The rest of the students wore the same uniform, the only difference was golden linning across the chest indicating a senior student.
She carefully went and distributed the files to everyone, and at last only two remained in her hands. One for herself and one for the boy sitting at the very top besides her.
He had short jet black hair which shone under the light in the room, his eyes were of a steel gray color, unamused by anything the professor said.
"Thank you," he said as she handed him the last file before sitting down.
"Okay now that everyone has gotten the files, you should open them. This file contains the course outline and everything you might need for an exam, a quiz, assignment or a practical archeological trip." He paused and sat down on his chair and opened his version of it.
"Now, before we begin anything I should introduce myself. My name is Edmund Hawthorne, you can address me as Mr. Edmund or Professor Hawthorne, and I'm the senior professor for History."
The students nodded at his introduction as Edmund Hawthorne was a genius of his time, having written over a hundred research papers on the History of the Divine.
But the black haired boy at the end raised his hand to ask a question. "Yes, Cassian. What do you want to ask?" Edmund replied with a smile.
"If I may, then what are your thoughts on Transmigration?" Cassian asked with the same deadpan expression, the only change in his posture was that he had leaned in a bit.
Silence followed his question as Edmund looked back at him, thinking of his response. He was astonished that someone asked such a question this quickly.
But Cassian lowered his head as he figured he left Edmund speechless, 'this got awkward really quickly. But considering everything that has happened, this information is vital and who better to ask than the best of the best History professors.'
Cassian reassured himself over and over again but then the Professor's voice cut in, "that's an excellent question Cassian, but that's an advanced topic. We'll talk about it later."
He dismissed the question and look at his pocketwatch, the lecture had finished so he grabbed his things and walked out of the room.
***
Cassian trailed behind Professor Hawthorne as his response to the question was weird, normally any other professor would've given a short simple answer rather than completely dismissing it by saying that's a too advanced of a question for the first lecture.
But before he could get close to Professor Hawthorne, he was stopped by a few seniors. The group was of three boys, one with short red hair, the other two had black and brown hair.
Despite them being seniors, Cassian towered over them. He came from a Count family from the northwest region of the Empire called the Ironveil territory ruled by one of the if not strongest family The Ironveil family.
The Morrigan family is a vassal of the Ironveil's, both aligned with the God of War. He didn't look at them as his focus was on Professor Hawthorne but he slipped away so Cassian sighed.
"What happened, seniors?" He asked, as politely as he could. It was his first day, he knew better not to pick a fight as he'd be at a numbers disadvantage.
"Nothing, but you seem strong." The brown haired boy spoke with a rather brutish way.
"Are you a noble or a commoner?" The black haired one asked with his voice full of malice towards the word 'commoner.'
But the red haired boy kept silent and look at Cassian's eyes before he smirked and extended his hand.
"Ignore these two buffons, I'm Eric. Eric Thalassar, nice to meet you umm—"
"Cassian Morrigan, nice to meet you too." Cassian replied as he shook his hand.
Eric's grip tightened around his hand and scales grew on his forearm as he put his strength into crushing Cassian's hand, but he was no ordinary guy. The third son of Count Morrigan and being a follower of the God of War, they naturally had superior strength than others.
A slight smile formed on Cassian's face as he went toe to toe and didn't let Eric overpower him.
Both of them let go of each other's hands as Eric laughed slightly. Last year when he was a first year, he overpowered all of his seniors and yet he couldn't overpower his junior but that was not insulting to him.
Connections are formed through experiences and this was a first for Eric. "Cassian, if you need help with anything don't hesitate to come to me. I'm intrigued at how you will do here." He smiled and walked past Cassian towards another room but stopped.
"Oh and one more thing, do check out The Tactical War Table, you're under the Ironveil's, sure you'd join the club headed by one of the Ironveil daughters."
Cassian stood there until he was out of sight and then continued his pursuit of Professor Hawthorne.
He knew that the man took a left from the next crossing but not where he'd have gone after that.
Who cares, he thought and turned left. He entered a corridor which led to various faculty rooms as well as administration buildings, around him several graduating students moved doing their own thing.
It was too crowded for him to investigate anything so he walked straight towards the balcony which was in the middle and showed the whole expanse of the academy as it spread far and wide.
He leaned on the edge of the wall and stared at the distant sun, almost about to set. The students enjoying their lives not knowing what was going to happen soon.
A grim look formed on Cassian's face, as he knew what was going to happen, and to survive that ordeal he would need to get the information Professor Hawthorne had.
'Who knew I would one day wake up to find myself transmigrated into the novel I wrote as a pastime. I just want to go back home…to my daughter and for that I must get the information one way or the other.'