159 End of the Exercise
'No, my lord… I have no recollection of anything other than the stabbing sensation and pain, and the look on my sister's face… Even the background around her was a blur, I couldn't make out anything about it…' Abby explained in a nervous yet firm voice, reconfirming her previous statement.
Abby's words made Moby think hard as his mind started spinning in circles. Was that supposed to happen? Are a person's memories supposed to be wiped after a trial? But if that was the case it should have also happened to him…. Was he a special case?
Then, as he was thinking, the answer hit him like a speeding jet, crashing straight into his brain, making him realize the most probable answer.
The conclusion he came up with was that a memory wipe was only initiated if a person failed a trial in order for them not to be able to take it easier the next time, or, be able to just succeed on simple and consistent trial and error. If a person could just bring their previous experiences with them on a trial, that would just defeat the purpose of it, allowing them to prepare as it would not be the same as going in blind, not knowing what to expect.
So, since Moby passed the test, the memory wipe never happened to him as he would probably never retake the same trial again, making it redundant to wipe his memories. Yet, Moby found this phenomenon fascinating as he had a big theory of his own.
If he failed the test and his memories were wiped, Avilia, who would always be spectating should definitely be able to let him know what happened right after he failed the trial. The only way that he could see this not working would be if the trial master had power over Avilia too, allowing him to wipe her memories of the trial as well, something that he had immense doubts about.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtMoby really wanted to test out his theory but, he had no plans of failing and he was not able to undergo another trial in his current state. if it happens it happens, but, he will not go out of his way to test it out.
'I understand Abby, thank you for sharing, your information has been truly insightful,' Moby said to her with a smile, making her smile back and firmly nod in response before he turned his attention to Professor Leo who had been sitting cross-legged, his bulging thighs really exemplified, as he spectated all of the other students still trying to strengthen their abilities, patiently waiting for everyone to finish and wake up, his arms crossed with a tired look in his eyes like he was about to go to sleep.
"Excuse me, professor! I have a question!" Moby asked in a loud voice to catch Leo's attention.
"Sure. Ask away…" Leo said with a yawn, putting his hands on his mouth with a slightly less boring expression than before.
"If a person takes on a trial to strengthen their ability and fails, does that mean their memories of the trial will also be wiped upon failure?" Moby asked with interest in his eyes, like a model student making Leo, inwardly smile but not show it on his face.
"Yes, that is correct. The person's memories will be wiped but the pain of what they experienced would linger past the trial despite them having no memory of it. That is the reason why people get forever stuck at a certain level as they don't know what to fix and why a lot of those people give up and stay where they are as they are afraid to be hurt once again when they fail. Like I said in class, the way of gaining strength is a very dangerous one and only a few would be qualified to reach the upper echelon of power. But don't worry, my job is to assist all of you with all my strength to become as strong as possible, trained, powerful soldiers and nothing less..." Leo explained, with a yawn and another tired expression when in reality, he was really happy and excited.
Leo was thoroughly impressed with Moby's performance during this exercise. He had fully expected him to fail as he thought that with his power level, he had already completed a few trials on his own so this one would have been his limit until he trained more. However, he was fully proven wrong as he not only passed and increased his power, but he was also the first to finish out of every student, making him like Moby even more than he already did before, something that he wished he could say about Abby as well…
In his opinion, Moby and Abby were the perfect students with a good blend of talent and hard work and he intended to mould them into the best soldiers that he could.
They were the 2 shining lights in another wise weak, dull, uninteresting class of weaklings and arrogant students. It would not be a stretch to say that they were his favourite but he had to keep up the act that he saw everyone as equal so he could not give them any special treatment.
Moby took in the information that Leo gave him, which lined up with his own, before inwardly nodding to himself.
'It seems like Abby has gotten her vigour back, the next time she takes the trial she should be able to pass it. If not then we might have to pay a visit to her sister to get her over her traumas… The only problem is that her sister is a far more experienced second year that is about to enter the S rank… It might take a while until we could take her down…' Moby thought, before being suddenly and abruptly interrupted by a clap that resounded from Leo's direction.
"Perfect! It finally seems like all of you have finished, and it's right before lunch! From what I see from your faces, most of the class failed but that is to be expected for your first time so don't worry! We will be doing this exercise 2 times a month! Don't expect to pass every time! Only through hard work and perseverance would you be able to improve! You can always practice this at your dorms or when you are alone so don't worry about always doing it in class, I am just giving you the tools for now. Does anyone have any questions?" Leo asked, and just as he expected, he was given no response from the class that still feared him like their life depended on it despite all of their months of being together, making him let out a loud, audible sigh.
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
Then suddenly, the sound of the school bell ringing resounded and echoed throughout the entire arena, marking the start of lunch.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Class dismissed! You may go back to the classroom to retrieve anything you may have forgotten, have a great lunch," Leo said in a still tired tone as he had stayed awake doing nothing for the last 2 hours as he stared at his class doing the exercise.
Moby had not checked the time after he had reawoke and had no idea that it was so late, the exercise must have lasted longer than he expected. In his mind, he thought that it was only around 10 minutes in length but he now knew that it was not the case at all as it took upwards of 2 hours to complete for most students.
Moby had assumed that he still had class time to test out his new and improved ice powers on actual human beings other than his servants which turned out to be not possible. However, it was not a big deal as he could always do it the next time.
Moby looked up and noticed his entire class sprinting out of the arena at full speed like they were a crazy mob, probably trying their best to get away from him as they were no longer in class, throwing the normal rules out the window. To strengthen and motivate students, at lunch, anything went as long as there is no killing or excessive violence, the last part not even being enforced by most teachers as they would not care or bat an eye even when seeing it right in front of their eyes as they thought of it as natural behaviour. It was a truly toxic environment to be in.
Moby let out a big sigh of disappointment seeing the sight before him as he knew that he had to change their perspectives eventually… but now was not eventually and he had other, more important things to do.
Seeing that it was now lunch, Moby would usually go onto the school roof to eat with his friends and practice his skills in secrecy, including his now enhanced ice ability that he really wanted to test out.
However, today he had another priority, he wanted to check up on Ray, someone who he was starting to grow more and more worried about. No matter how many times he called or texted him, he would receive no response at all…
There could only be 3 plausible explanations, either he was playing video games with headphones in, not allowing him to hear the notification sound, he had notifications turned off, or there was something deeper at work. And of course, Moby was leaning towards the last part as he had a bad feeling in his heart...