Although Ray was wondering where Van went, without realising it he had already been taken by the middle-class students. On top of one of the roofs of a building. Nano and a couple of his friends had beaten Van to the point where he could no longer stand, this was all by the order of Blake.

Blake had informed them that they had a special surprise for Van and his new friend and wanted to show them what it meant by getting in his way.

A bucket of water was then chucked over Van to wake him up as he was nearly passing out.

"Come on freak, we have a show to do and you are the main attraction.

" Nano said,

"I hear the stage has been set.

"

****

Instead of following the middle-class students like the other in their class, Ray and Max decided to go look around to see if they could find Van anywhere. If it was an important lesson then it meant even Van would get in trouble missing it.

"Come on Nes, Let's give up we've looked everywhere, our dorm room, the storage closest, the classes and even other places.

" Max said,

"And now we're late for our next class as well

"

"But where did he go?

" Ray thought, at this point and time Ray truly wished he had his dragon eyes skill. That way he could scout the areas that might have been hidden away or even they couldn't see.

"He's probably just hiding somewhere, come one let's go to that assembly hall before we get int trouble, if we're late they'll deduct points off us and right now, a single point could be the difference between a grade for me,

" Max said holding onto Ray's shoulders as if he was begging.

"Fine fine, we can look for him later,

" Ray said.

As the two started to head to the assembly hall Max had something lingering on his mind.

"Nes, just why are you concerned so much for Van, it's not like you knew him before joining the academy. I just don't understand why you would go through all of this to help him.

"

The main reason why Ray was doing this was because it was a request from the queen. Once this had been sorted, he would go onto his other tasks of finding the divine being and handing the prince the crystal. But, of course, Ray couldn't come out and say this.

"It's because when I was younger, I used to get bullied all the time as well.

" Ray said,

"Instead of being called a freak though, people used to call me a monster. I hated the world for it and I can imagine the exact same thing that Van is going through right now.

"

Tears started to fill up in Max's eyes as he heard Ray's emotional story. While Ray was quite proud of himself. His time as a human wasn't a waste and by the day he was becoming a better actor. Or so he thought. Ray's act of sorrow would only be good enough to fool the truly dumb ones such as Jack and Max.

****

Inside the assembly hall, the lower-class students from Ray's classroom had gathered. It was a large hall with a stage at top. On the stage, Momo and five other middle-class students stood behind him and around the room there were several other middle-class students.

"Hey, just what is going on here?

"

"Didn't they say we were meant to have a class here?

"

"Yeah so why are there no teachers and why are there only middle-class students here.

"

"Is everyone here?

" Nano asked.

"Yes, everyone from Professor Dell's class should be here.

" A middle-class student said.

"Great, since all the pieces are now here, it's time to start the show.

"

****

Back in the classroom, Del had just arrived to start his next class but when he entered, every single one of the chairs was empty.

"huh, where did everyone go?

"

****

Max and Ray had tried to enter the assembly hall through the front door but for some reason, it was locked. They could hear the students talking from inside so Max thought the lesson had already started and urgently wanted to get in.

That's when Max started to lead Ray to another entrance behind a hedge. When he pulled away the vines, a small door appeared.

"What kind of lesson are they having that they needed to lock the door?

" Max complained.

"You know, I feel like you're more suspicious for knowing there's a secret entrance in a place like this,

" Ray said.

However, the door was small and to fit through the two of them would have to crawl.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?

" said Max.

****

Inside the assembly hall, two students had come out from behind the stage carrying carts that were filled with round black beast crystals. Nano then took one of the balls and held it in his hand.

"We all know that the use of a wand is needed if we want to extract even more magical power. This here is a crystal core that had been turned into a crystal ball for practice. It is only of the basic tier class so it isn't that powerful.

" Said Nano.

"Once you become a middle-class student you will learn how to manifest mana into a beast crystal in order to increase your power, that Is the aim for today's lesson.

"

That's when a student had raised his hand to ask a question.

"Sorry to ask, but do any of the teachers know about this.

"

The next second a middle-class student appeared by his side and a spell was cast putting him to sleep. The middle-class students then dragged his body to behind the stage and after that, he didn't come out again.

"Are there any more questions?

" Nano asked.

The students watching the whole thing gulped in fear. They had no clue what had happened to the other student and at the same time, they didn't want to find out. There was no way a lower-class student who barely knew how to use magic would be able to go against the middle-class students.

"I guess it's time for the show then,

" Nano said.

Then from behind the stage, a large stone target was taken out being dragged on wheels. As the students saw this they started to gasp and chatter amongst themselves. For the target wasn't any ordinary stone target. Placed right in the centre of the target was Van who had been chained up.

***

Special thanks to Fenrir2040, Ekwuruke_Samuel, Daku_Doragon, Doodlebug, and alvaro17 for the gifts. Each and every single one really helps me and I hope I can continue writing this story for a long time.