His nails dug into his palm and his anger quickly — very quickly — began to rise.
'That Moonlight Region whore!' his mind raged. 'Smug, dismissive, insulting! They're all like that. Aryanne... Melina. I'll show those two Moonlight bitches!'
He pondered whether he should respond, but before he could say anything, Lady Felda, their teacher, spoke up. "That's enough, Melina." She appeared to be a stern woman, with her slimmer sharp features and even sharper eyes. "You are in the Institution to study the Divinity, not to belittle our far brother."
'Far brother? Is that their way of saying stepbrother?'
Melina rolled her eyes but said nothing further, leaning back in her seat but still having that smirk that played at her lips.
Aeric forced himself to unclench his fist, taking a slow, deep breath.
"You shouldn't listen to her," he heard a voice say to him. Looking to his left, Aeric raised his brow at Linnette, who was still smiling amicably at him. "I'm happy you're here," she said.
Aeric frowned with curiosity. "You are?"
"Yes," she beamed. "And don't worry about your Affinity and Class. It's going to come eventually. Nothing wrong with being a late bloomer. Besides, it's all just overrated anyway."
Not knowing what to say, Aeric only gazed at her curiously, and she just smiled wider then looked ahead.
'Maybe I've been overthinking this,' he thought. 'Maybe not all the Daughters of Eros hate me.'
'But she is right. The Moonlight Daughters are not not worth it,' he reminded himself, even though every instinct screamed at him to say something, anything, in retaliation. Aeric swallowed his anger, locking it away for another time.
Lady Felda cleared her throat and turned to the front of the room, her fingers tracing the symbols drawn on the board behind her. "Today, we will begin our lecture on the sigils of each Region, their meaning, and their history."
"What do you all know about the sigils? What is your understanding of them?"
Felda turned to them and waited for an answer, but none of them seemed certain of anything. Melina just folded her arms indifferently, unbothered about the lecture.
Lady Felda explained that the crescent moon represents mystery, serenity, and the eternal night, while the full moon symbolizes wisdom and silver illumination, which was what the Moonlight Region was known for.
Then she described the Starlight Region's. It was — as Aeric knew — a single brilliant star at the center of a swirling nebula, with smaller stars encircling it in a spiral pattern.
The central star represented guidance and eternal hope, while the nebula symbolizes the vastness and interconnectedness of the cosmos. The smaller stars emphasize the unity of the numerous people in Starlight Region.
Dawn Region's sigil was a golden sun half-risen above the horizon, with rays stretching outward in graceful arcs. Below the horizon, there were waves of light gently ripple, representing the birth of a new day.
For this sigil, the rising sun symbolized new beginnings, rebirth, and the promise of hope and power. The horizon and light waves evoke the eternal cycle of dawn, a land where darkness never came.
For the Twilight Region, it was two interlocking circles, one representing the setting sun and the other the rising moon, with a delicate line of fading light where they met. Silhouetted trees or mountains lined the lower edge of the sigil.
It symbolized the balanced existence of day and night, light and shadow, a grayness embodied by the Twilight Region. The overlapping circles signified the union of opposing forces, while the setting sun and rising moon spoke to the power of their combination.
And finally, for the Elysium Plains, it was a sprawling landscape with a great, lone tree at the center, having branches that stretched toward the heavens, and its roots firmly planted in the earth. Around the tree were vast plains with wildflowers swaying in the wind.
This sigil had a clear representation. The tree represented life, growth, and the connection between heaven and earth, while the wide-open plains symbolized freedom, abundance, and peace. The flowers were a sign of prosperity and the natural beauty of the Elysium Plains — the Region with the strongest presence of Divinity.
When the long lecture on Regions, their geographical settings, history and politics was over, Aeric felt himself relieved. He has barely paid enough attention, but somehow he remembered every single thing that had been thought.
Undeniably, what the Divine Priest said was true. His Divinity overflow had augmented his brain functions, causing him to attain knowledge and information at a faster rate.
Nevertheless, Aeric did find the lecture a bit boring. Having the knowledge was good as he knew he could use it in his goal to take over this entire place in the end, but for now, all he wanted was knowledge on how to get stronger.
Everything to do with the Divinity, Classes, Skills and all the challenges needed to complete in order to get more XP so he can climb the Ranks and get stronger.
But even more important...
'Divinity Block... Seven days.' The words echoed in his mind like a drumbeat. He had not forgotten that he had only a week to come up with a way to escape this predicament, or else, his time in this fantasy world would be short lived.
Next lecture; Cultivation Techniques. And in this lecture room, all the daughters were present.