Bella fell into thought at the refusal, and all of a sudden, her tone of voice shifted into sothing 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 rember I'd refuse anyone else, not just you."
"Alright," Bella sighed and went back to her seat. "Thank you for your ti, Mister Evin. And if you ever change your mind, then please don't hesitate to remind again. Of course, if you wish for sothing, 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 mont. 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 soone 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. Sothing took over my mind as I was looking at you. I had so pill yesterday for this," Evin gestured at his broken arms, "and it makes 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.
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 exclaid, 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 welco 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, welco to my class. You may call 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 so 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 ," 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 rembering 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 na: 'The Creation of Alvox'. No one can presu 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 confird 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 talshifters… 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 assu the form of, and the talshifters 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 ca to be later on."
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