The sun rose on the horizon, bringing with it the advent of yet another day.
Lucian awoke in the morning, still feeling a little groggy. Training was hard work, especially when he had to spend 16 hours each day on it. So much time spent training left only so little time for him to go about the rest of his day, and he couldn't even get a full 8 hours sleep because of it. But it was something he had resolved himself to doing, and he wasn't the type of person to falter under such minor pressure.
Clop! Clop!
However, something was different on this morning. Usually, Lucian would just awaken normally and quickly wash his face before assuming a meditative position on his bed. But this time, he was distracted by a sudden loud banging noise outside of his windows, despite the sun barely even shining its rays over the academy.
"Everybody up! All students are to gather at the assembly hall! I repeat…"
A loud voice began to accompany the banging outside his window, and Lucian couldn't help but frown when he heard it.
'What is going on?' Lucian mused to himself before getting out of bed and entering his bathroom — intent on washing his face and teeth despite the constant annoyance outside.
'If I recall correctly there is nothing special planned for today, so what is with all this racket?'
He had been lying in bed a bit after his training last night, going over his plans and his changes in stats. It was only yesterday that he had first checked them after a week of constant, nonstop training. Yet he couldn't even start this new week before something had to break the monotony.
All he wanted to do was train in peace until the Mage selection came, but the universe clearly had other plans for him. Lucian couldn't help but click his tongue at how powerless he was to do anything about his situation.
Being controlled was something he loathed the most in life; unfortunately, this world he found himself in was not one where one could be in control of their own fate. Being a weak student, still thought to not even be an Apprentice Knight, he could only go along with the system and follow the rules like a good child.
He stepped outside of his dorm after getting changed and found his eyes wandering about, looking for the source of all that noise. When they did, they found one of the night watchmen, holding some sort of wooden clappers in each hand, swinging them together to create that incessant banging noise.
'I'm lucky to have woken up early, saving myself from being awoken by this annoying sound.'
He followed the night watchman's words without much haste, though, finding the signs for the assembly hall and starting to make his way over. Considering he didn't want to make too much of a fuss or rouse any suspicion around his recent actions, this was the best course of action. He quickly found that he was not the first student to start making his way over, as many of them had not even bothered to get changed out of their pajamas before exiting their dorm and following the signs.
It only took Lucian a few seconds to notice they were just as clueless about this situation as he was. He wouldn't have to wait long before he received an answer to his questions, though, as the assembly hall was only a 2 minute walk from where his dorm was located.
He, along with the other students from his dorm, soon arrived at the entrance to the assembly hall. Lucian took a quick peek inside before he was allowed to enter and noticed that there were only two people on the stage at the front. Only one of them he recognised as Professor Kaldor. The other was completely unknown to him, even including his inherited memories.
However, he knew that in situations like this the answer would usually come to him, so he simply waited in silence, not bothering to converse with the other students like most of them were already doing. He already had a reputation as a loner in this place thanks to his weak strength and the age gap between him and the others, so it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Lucian simply directed his gaze onto the stage, keeping his eyes trained on Professor Kaldor and the unknown man who stood next to him. Speaking of the unknown man, he was rather tall and very well built. He wore the same sort of armor Grand Knights wore, so that at least gave away one part of his identity to Lucian.
[Scanning… Scanning…]
[Unable to scan target's body.]
He tried to inspect the man with his AI immediately upon realising he was most likely a Grand Knight but met failure for the first time. Lucian wasn't actually too surprised by this, as the AI clearly pinned the reason down to insufficient data. It had the same information and starting point Lucian had to rely on when he found himself in this place, so just like him, it had to start from scratch and relearn most things about this world.
Out of curiosity, he tried the same thing with Professor Kaldor.
[Scanning… Scanning…]
[Unable to scan target's body.]
'As expected, he must be a Grand Knight too.' Lucian thought to himself.
In time, he was sure his AI could not only scan Grand Knights with no problem, but also maybe even stronger targets, like Mages! But that was an issue for him to figure out in the future — right now he kept his gaze trained on the stage, putting on a bored front, as he waited for either one of the two men on stage to speak.