WAR: The university of WAR Chapter 1

War…

We all know since our birth that to encourage yourself to fight your enemies is hard.

And it's harder when you found out that everything is going into the enemies' way. And because of that the boy who is still rolling around on his bed couldn't wake up. The obstacle that hinders the growth of the humanity is still attacking him mercilessly.

Sleepiness.

The light that shines through the curtain got into his eyes. It's like a signal that makes the boy who's still fighting with the sleepiness finally awake.

Ester Devald stands up stretching himself before drawing his purple curtain. The strong sunlight is like an alarm clock that wakes him up. The view of the village and people happily doing their stuff as they always does.

Technology improvement triggers social change rapidly. Things are now carried out by psychic abilities and magics. Electrical energy and oil that the old world used is now minority. Even though the record which compared the old world and the new world tells us how good the new world is, there are still some factors that make this boy want to live in the old world more.

Power…

Ester feels out of place because people around him have psychic abilities but he doesn't have an ability that is notable. His magics are somewhat okay but he still failed some of his tests. The only thing that he can relies on is his physical strength. Even if his father who's scientist confirmed that his son has a psychic ability but his ability still hasn't appeared.

He heard a sound at his feet before he saw that a pile of books falls down. Ester frowned a little before grabbing a book that's under his pillow. It's a novel, volume 48 which is the last volume. He then rearrange the book properly before trying to find his backpack under the pile of posters.

"I feels like I forgot something…" he mumbles "what is it…"

He then looks around trying to remember. Ester woke up in white room as always. The room looks like it was created from white plastic.  There are piles of book and paper all around the room and the table is now temporary a paper holder.

Everything in the room looks better than the old world was. Be it the shape of the room or the technologies it has.

Ester slowly moves to open his closet. His height is around 170 centimeter. A lot of muscle and scars hiding inside his clothe. He is wearing a T-shirt and shorts, this made him looks more like a beggar than a university student.

His brain stops with the word university.

"There still are some papers that I need to submit…" Ester slowly moves to find things he needs on the table "schedule? …"

His eyes are looking at the white paper that he just picked up. The letters and the time written on it makes him fully awake. He looks out of window and sees a lot of people walking around before looking at the big wooden clock that's hanging the wall.

"o..oh"

The schedule paper dropped on the floor with a message.

Application 9.00 AM

"My G.o.ddess…"

The hour hand on the clock has already pasted 8 but the minute hand is still at 5.

With the habit that his parents always wake him up. He forgot to set the alarm clock. Even though today is one of the most important day.

Two feet ran into the bathroom. The left hand holds a tooth brush and right hand holds a shower head with the speed as if there's a gun aiming at his face right now. After 3 minutes he ran out of bathroom with a T-shirt and jeans on him. His hair which was cut not long time ago now looks like a mushroom cut because it's still wet but he doesn't care about it that much. He grabs watch and everything and wears with a lightning speed.

He then grabs his backpack and runs out of the room. His belt still hanging and one of the shoes isn't properly tied. His papers is all over the place. But he didn't realize that.

Report papers, reserve photos, school reports. There are everything in the bag. The only thing left is to get there in time.

He looks at his watch and see that there's still half an hour left.

At least I must not be late.

His left leg that stepped on a paper almost makes him trip but he still makes him way to the bus stop. A few minutes later a bus came running in. Ester rushes in before he gets squished by people that coming in.

There's a crowd of people on the bus even though the busy time has already pa.s.sed. The bus quickly ran off as if it knows how important time is. With the speed at 150 kilometers per hour and it could even temporary fly. Everything seems good for Ester.

If only he didn't forget an important thing at his house. That poor paper that almost got shredded by his feet.

After a while he spots the fence that's unique to the university. Ester quickly runs down.

Because the bus stop is a bit far from the university's entrance, he ran as fast as he could to get there. While he was running he glances at the fence that has vines wrapped around it. The pressure that he gets from it as if it doesn't welcome him but he soon looks away from it.

The security guard at the entrance stopped him before he could ran in. With a bullet proof suit and light heavy machine gun, Ester doesn't want to risk dying so he stopped.

"Outsider please verify yourself. If not you can't go into the university."

Even though the heat from the sun is burning him, he still needs to show his watch that has all of his information. 3D hologram picture of himself came out from the watch and information that's like in his ID card. But the important things now are this two things.

Ester Devald : WAR university student (still not registered)

Filed : …(Still not determined)

"Ahhh… Lil bro, everyone have already register. You are so late, run in fast." [TL note: in Thailand people usually called each other like this if they are friendly. Pretty much like in China. Ex: big sis, lil sis, etc.]

The security guard smiles while shaking his head. He then tells Ester direction and points the way.

"The register area is in the second a.s.sembly building on the first floor. That building that looks like gym and has wooden color roof. Turn left on that sign but don't go too deep because nothing can guaranteed your safety. You might even get shot to death so be careful."

Ester answered happily because from his word there's still some time left more or less. Ester bows a little before running to the direction that the security guard told him. Without noticing that there's a big crowd of people leaving from the entrance.

This university can be divided into 2 parts. One is a small town that people live in and another purpose is for transporting goods. Two is the place that Ester is running through at the moment. It's a school that fights can happen anywhere anytime. Because the place is covered by a big scale magic, when people die they will get transported to a big castle that's in middle of the university and because of that fighting in this area is normal. And of course no fighting in the living area.

The inside of the building is really big. The floor is made from big planks of wood. Ester is really surprised because there's no one in here except a chubby girl in black clothe who's waiting in here with a big pile of papers.

"You are to last one to come." The girl smiles "there's still time left. Please give me the papers"

Ester sigh with relief before putting his watch up to verify himself. Then he give her all the papers he has in the backpack. She looks at the papers for a while before calling a magic wand to absorb the information away.

"It's all done. From your tests that didn't specify any field, the university will determine it for you. For now go look around the university." She who dressed like a witch then smile. "You are the only one in few years who didn't specify the field. You really do like gambling huh?"

"You can choose the fields?" Ester was clueless.

He didn't like reading so he didn't read all of the information.

"Ah. It was 2 days ago. First come first serve" The chubby teacher said while walking out the building alongside Ester whose face is so white as if he's sick.

Ah s.h.i.t. My G.o.ddess.

After a while the girl that was walking stopped and look at him. "And what about the dorm papers?"

"Umm…Didn't I just give it to you? …"

He has a bad feeling when he saw her shaking her head.

"It's the same one that you showed me in you watch but we need the real thing too. The university need it for certainty that your parents agreed to it. If you don't have it, you can't live in the dorm. And as the rule says everyone who is a student must stay in university's area because it's more fu… oops for everything to be in order"

d.a.m.n it. Not only I didn't choose the fields, I even forgot the real papers in my room.

"Can I go get it now?"

"You can't"

There's no hope left anymore….

"Right now, it's already past the register time. Even if you could fly, you wouldn't get it in time" She suddenly sounds more serious but he knows… that she's having fun.

"A little warning, this university is an open war area as the name say University of WAR. Here, we need to be ready for fight every minutes. Even though it looks like a soldier camp but there's no strict rules like that because of the magic barrier. Because of that you could be caught in a fight anytime. It's only that how strong you are and can you survive in this environment or not. Even if you have only your remains left, you will wake in the infirmary. All of it thanks to the magic barrier in this school and if you tries to sleep in the middle of the university for fun you might die every day."

His face is getting more and more white after he heard what she said. Ester wanted to cry so bad. Because from what she's said he right now isn't much different from when he's dead. If he experiences that pain everyday he might get crazy before he graduates.

But before he could say something there's a sound.

It's a bell.

The chubby girl raises her eyebrows a little before she pulls her magic wand out. Pictures then come flying to her face but Ester couldn't recognize it at all.

"The princ.i.p.al already sent me your information. You got chosen to be in fighting field and tactic field."

She smiles but he didn't.

The fighting field is one of the most brutal field you can study and of course Ester wanted a field that doesn't have much enemies like quartermaster more.

"Ah. I forgot to tell you. My name is Rena Surround. You can call me either teacher or professor. I'm a nurse teacher at the infirmary in the castle. Eventually every students will have to meet me. And don't worry even if you die, no one will complain."

I will be the one who complain!!

The name of this university is WAR. In the language of old world, it means war. [TL notes: this sounds so wired in English lol] the name comes from the near town named war. And after a long time it became the name of the university. And of course it would be strange if the name is WAR but the insides are normal.

This place is a center of technology and have places that's really bizarre. From the forest that goes as far as the eyes can see to a big gulf that isn't far from the university. There are evidences of monsters living is those area that you shouldn't mess with all over the place.

And the ones who move those monsters here aren't just anyone but the teachers from the time the university was found to the present princ.i.p.al.

Only in front university, Princ.i.p.al building and the town area that can communicate with the outside world. Because of that when the start of semester comes this place will be seclude. And around the time it was found they didn't have the magic barrier so a lot of people died. Because of that there are rumors going around that there are still souls of those who died still wandering around in the university.

Even if he was born with a psychic power doesn't mean that he could see ghosts or is used to it. And magic only uses power from nature. (Unless it's a dark magic like one that can control ghosts.)

This unlucky man is thinking about horrible things that's going to happen to him in the near future.

Ahh. This is not good. I still don't know how to use my psychic ability properly and my ability to use magic is still bad. I will keep on dying in this university like professor said for sure.

Ester glace around at the ground around him because this place will be like a home for him from now on. A lot of roads all around the place, a tall tower so tall that it looks like a multiple tower, a lot of skywalks linking places together, the big forest that has mountains here and there and if you look carefully, you could see the sea and gulf.

He gulped when he remembered the information about this school. There are a lot of architecture styles from a lot of eras. Even if got divided into a lot of zones but the old traps that could kill you in seconds are still active. The mix pictures of castles and buildings make Ester a little surprised because some of it doesn't look like it welcomes him much.

"And… what about other teachers and students?" He turned and asked her.

"They already went to work. There's only me left who still have to stay unless the time runs out. And about the students if they didn't go back to get their stuff, they've already gone to their dorm—"

The sentence suddenly ends. She then pulls her magic wand out and hold it up. A picture of a white hair old man with a serious face talking with the girl about something he couldn't hear showed up. That conversation made her looks back at him for quite sometimes. Because of that it made Ester a little scared.

"Um… the princ.i.p.al wants to talk with you"

Ester nods a little before the screen came at him. His silver hair is blown away as if there's a fan behind him. Princ.i.p.al face is so smooth that he thought he would better become a salesman more than a teacher.

Lauren Aegis, The princ.i.p.al of this university.

"Ester Devald" he smiled "Nice to meet you. You should've already known who I am if you are studying here"

The words that he said were friendly. However, his eyes looks like he's pushing him into the ground.

"I don't want to talk much. So let's get to the point." Lauren sighs. "For this to not waste any more of my time. In the case that you forgot your papers, at first I thought about getting you right into the dorm if your parents agreed. But from talking with other teacher, this happened because you are careless and didn't followed our news properly."

From this sentence Ester could only stood there.

"I will have you stay in a storage room… that is a little bit special and we haven't been using it for quite a while now." Ester who saw a glimpse of fun in other party eyes gulped. Because the word "special" that he found throughout his life haven't been a great thing.

"And for the punishment" the old man keep talking "I will forfeit your chance to get a weapon from the university."

s.h.i.t…

Ester grits his teeth when the back luck comes greeting him.

The weapon choosing ceremony will be held on the start of semester by letting the students write down the description they want for their weapons and then the university will sent them the weapons that's appropriate for them. There are a lot of weapons inside for example normal weapons, weapons that can create more weapons, anti-war craft weapons, etc. There's even rumors that there was guy who got a weapon from the war era which is super rare. Ester himself doesn't have any weapon in his hand at the moment. The only things that he has is books. Because of that he's really interested in this ceremony.

Do you want me to smack people's heads with novels!? He thinks to himself while praising princ.i.p.al's ancestor "Isn't this punishment too severe?"

"In the schedule that we give you through the network told you to move your stuff into your room… but looks like you haven't done any of it. I will give you time until midnight pack your stuff to that storage room." Said princ.i.p.al not bother to care about his complaint. He then points to a shabby building behind Ester.

The boy could only widen his eyes when he sees the building.

It's a building made from bricks. It has white color and a little bit of grey color as if it got smoked. From the outside looks, it look like a bathroom in an old gas station and there are sign of gun shots, magic circle that isn't completely erased, a trace of burnt and a lot of blood here and there. Even the roof has holes in it. Only one metallic door on the front and there's no windows.

No matter how you look, it isn't a place for a person to live.

My G.o.ddess…

"Umm… those holes on the roof… are those windows?" The boy mumbles before he notice that the old man already threw him the key through the screen even though it looks impossible.

A black key. Couldn't identify the type. There's smell of blood from the key made him even more disgusted.

No matter how amazing that throw through the screen was, it couldn't stop his frustration from getting a bad room to sleep.

"Don't make a face like that. It's already yours. Even you stay there for 20 years no one would complain."

Staying in this building that looks like a toilet?!

He picks the key up while shaking his head before looking at the key in his hand. After a while he says goodbye to the princ.i.p.al and the teacher and then left with frustration.

"Ah. Before you go I have things I want to tell you." Said the old man with a smile on his face. "That room is really yours now so everything in that room is also yours. And if something happens to the stuff inside, you have to look after it yourself because it's you responsibility after all and of course the key in your hand is also yours."

Um…so if there are lions inside trying to kill people on the outside then it's my fault huh…

"Another thing Ester, there are still more things that I still don't know, something that I still don't know all of it and it's you guys duty to find the answers to it."

Ugh. Is this room still not enough?

"And the last thing. Don't hesitate to kill for things you wish for." The old man shakes his head when he sees Ester's expression. "Life here is fighting. If you only avoids it, death will come at you instead. I want to remind you that you are in a battlefield now. Not just a normal cla.s.sroom."

"Understood…" Ester answered cheerfully unlike what's he really thinking.

"Welcome to the University of WAR"

Even if he's still suspicious of the princ.i.p.al's word but he couldn't care more about it than finding a way to survive here. The last thing that Ester thought about was bombing the building and rebuild it and of course it's not easy as he think.

I have a bad feeling about this… but forget it.

He said goodbye to both teacher before going back to get his stuff inside to building.

After Ester has already walk away.

"Princ.i.p.al, you are fooling around again aren't you? To give him cursed this building that even teachers don't want to get near it. What are you thinking?" The kind heart witch teacher said with serious voice.

"Teacher Rena, Do you think we have to solve all the problems that students made?" Said princ.i.p.al. "The matter about that room is already done now, you know? That kid isn't that strong and his tests are normal. I just play a little prank on him. If he came to make a complaint, I would of course move him to the dorm. Hahaha."

"But you won't collect the key back right? He's like halfway in h.e.l.l only having that key."

"I just only wanted to test if the students this year is better than the last year or not." Said the old man with a face like he's expecting something.

"Last year, there are some people who try to challenge it but just ran away. And some who I punished to guard that building entrance still got unconscious. This place is university of war, I don't want people who is weak. It's only just a toilet from an old gas station but people are still scared about it. If that guy can really stay in this place, then the seniors won't try to lose their faces. So this one way to improves our university. Hahaha" After Rena heard what princ.i.p.al said, she shook her head.

"I will gamble that even if he can stay there, he won't stay there more than two weeks." Said the princ.i.p.al with a lot of fun.

"But I think he can stay more than 2 weeks. I can see that he's a promising kid. Don't underestimate my eyes when I look at people." The chubby witch said with displeased voice. "If it's other thing then I might lose but if it's this thing I will surely win."

"We will see" Said the old man. "That girl isn't just some normal girl"