Two hours after Anyael woke up, a lot had happened. Any was mad at Dio for getting along so well with Kael in just two days, and maybe he was feeling a little jealous.
Dio, for his part, knew the way to the nearest village, three weeks away. Kaiser also joined, who linked with Any in spirit form, saying it was "to recover energy." But Any was suspicious of this version.
—Jajsjsjsajaj, this is boring, don't you think, Reader? Why don't we just head to Terra?
After addressing you, Kaiser tore through the Nothing, affecting you.
༻Partial Omniscience has been affected by rupture of Nothing, POV adjusted༺
In Terra, everything looked normal. Birds sang, flowers bloomed, and kids played and studied.
In an alley, Rhys and Elara were killing a convergent beast. It was only animal rank, trash among the Aural Beasts. The guys couldn't do anything; that was their punishment for letting the only two sinners in the eighth department die.
Coincidentally, in the same school Anyael attended, in the primary wing, some kids were having a geography class.
—Okay, class, eyes on me…
—Voices to zero! —shouted the class of around thirty-two kids.
—Today we'll talk about our geoide, the planet Terra. It has four continents and thirty nations…
A little hand went up. Let's say it was the "smart kid."
—Yes, Carlitos?
—Teacher, the four continents are: our continent Draconia in the west, Umbraxia in the east, Azyr in the north, and Chronomia in the south.
—Very good, Carlitos —said the teacher, her voice sweet—. Today we'll learn which nations are in each continent.
The whole class went quiet, and the teacher began the explanation.
—The first continent is Azyr, in the north. It has five very cool nations, the first is Ircel…
—Teacher —interrupted Carlitos—. I heard from a cousin that Ircel is a district.
—Well, Carlitos, if you'd let me finish, you'd have heard that "district" and "nation" are basically synonyms when talking about these human settlements —after saying this, the teacher gave him a smile.
—Alright, kids, Ircel is a somewhat wild district. Life there isn't easy, you have to earn it. It's a frozen land with abundant permafrost. Incredible natural phenomena like northern lights and snowstorms happen there, and it has beautiful snowy hills…
—Oohhh —the kids said, intrigued.
—The houses and settlements are a mix of modern architecture adapted to the cold and medieval architecture.
The kids looked at her with admiration, almost stars in their eyes, which reminded her why she loved being a teacher. That feeling of teaching, shaping the future, and seeing admiration in her students meant everything. Being admired was rare due to her past…
She had never been the smartest girl in her home or school. She came from a big, humble, close family, and from a young age she felt insecure, feeling less than the others. But seeing how her teachers taught at school made her want someone to listen to her the way she listened to them.
That's why she worked four times harder than anyone else. She always knew she wasn't the best, but that gave her even more determination. She firmly believed effort beats talent, but sooner or later, reality hit.
In a competition to win a scholarship, she faced a wall she couldn't move: a boy who made her realize effort only beats talent until talent decides to put in effort.