Soot Academy: The Doomsday of Elysian

[Chapter 1]

Meet Caelum

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I watched mom's mouth blabbering in front of me, for some reason I couldn't understand her. I just want to get out and be done with the day immediately.

"Young lady, are you listening to me?" She snapped her fingers when she noticed I wasn't listening. Her red newly manicured nails were still up so then I forced myself to look at her.

"Yeah, yeah, go home early and train. I get it, it's the usual." Sagot ko sa kaniya. Hinila ko ang bag ko nang maramdaman ko ang konting bigat, papasok pa lang ako sa university ngunit sermon agad ang umagahan ko.

"Don't give me that attitude, Caelum." Madiin niyang sabi.

Mama came to us and calmed mom, as mom only stressed her nose bridge. "Love, don't be too hard naman."

Maybe mom's just using this 'training' as an excuse to beat me up. Well, that's what I see. I like physical activities, but I don't see the necessary of training too hard when I learned all the basics and complicated things in fighting.

It was ridiculous when we started training with arnis, then the next day she brought out swords.

Ngunit 'di ko rin siguro mapigilan kung may galit nga talaga sa'kin si mom. Even I didn't like the way I used to act when I was a kid. Since then, I have thought that this is the punishment for being cruel.

Natapos na ang sermon sa'kin ni mom, kaya naman nagpaalam na akong papasok ako.

Before I go to my university, I went to the table where our breakfast is prepared. I grabbed a pandesal and stuffed a scrambled egg in it.

I glanced at Moon, my little brother who's two years younger than me. 'Di ako close sa kaniya, mom said we both have an 'attitude'. I mean, I'm fine like this anyways.

Moon's not my brother by blood, before I got adopted by my mothers, he was here before me. I get that he doesn't like me, perhaps he doesn't like sharing the attention of mom and mama to me.

Moon just stared at me, and before it gets awkward, I walked out of the kitchen.

I bid my goodbye to mama and went on my way.

While walking, I saw a familiar face across the road. A brunette girl with a bob cut hair. I groaned to myself and used my earphones, just so I could avoid interacting with her. Hopefully she wouldn't see me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I know she saw me. I could see her waving and calling for me, but I couldn't hear her due to the blasting music I have.

Marin tapped me when she crossed the road, kaya napilitan akong tanggalin ang earphones ko.

"What?"

"Grabe, kanina pa kita tinatawag!"

Marin, she's my research partner. That one loud social butterfly in our class. I appreciate her effort for trying to be close with me, although I couldn't stand annoying and loud people.

"Bukas, ha? Baka kalimutan mo na magcocompile na tayo." Marin reminded, as both of us were waiting for a jeepney.

Tumango lang ako sa kaniya at sinaksak ulit ang earphones sa tenga ko. Eto lang ang panglaban ko kay Marin para hindi niya ako kausapin tungkol sa irrelevant things.

Sabay kaming nakapunta sa university, half day lang naman ang schedule ko kaya maaga ako matatapos ngayong araw.

But being home early means longer training, that sucks.

I forced to listen to my professor, even though I know most of it through advance reading. Ngunit 'di mapigilan ng utak ko na lumipad sa ibang bagay.

Training, since I used to do horrible things and was an... agressive child, my mom made a deal with me just to stop my behavior. I liked the thought of fighting, so I accepted. The idea of handling weapons made me greedy.