Classroom of the Elite: Liquid Inspiration

Vol 0. Chapter 1 - Baby Steps

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka

When I asked my father about allowing me to integrate into society, I expected a resounding no. That's why I was stunned when he actually agreed to what I proposed.

Was the world perhaps changing?

Has hell frozen over?

Probably not.

But Ayanokouji Atsuomi was never one to do things on a whim. There is an agenda behind his every move... it's how he became a threat so dangerous that powerful figures had to bond together just to suppress his influence.

This led me to the question...

How would humoring the request of his 'masterpiece' prove to be beneficial to him?

I did not believe that our small talk about human relationships moved him. All I did was present observable facts that he had known even before I was born. There was nothing groundbreaking in our discussion.

Did he perhaps develop some semblance of positive affection toward me?

I shook my head at the absurdity of the thought.  

He was a man incapable of caring for another person—much like myself, perhaps. His driving force was an unwavering determination to achieve his lofty ambitions.

But maybe my early graduation from the White Room curriculum convinced him it was time for my gradual integration into human society.

If so, that was simply unfortunate because that meant that I would be the only one who would be able to experience something like this.

It would have been what those books call fun if I had someone else with me.

Aristotle once said in Nicomachean Ethics: "Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all the other goods."

Perhaps finding people who would be able to understand me would give me reasons to live beyond the life that I am leading.

To live listlessly, simply waiting for another person's command...was a way of life that I have grown to dislike.

I wanted to be able to make decisions on my own.

I did not know when these thoughts began plaguing my mind, but now, especially when a carrot has been offered to me, this desire throbbed harder by the moment.

This desire... was freedom.

It was only natural, considering the environment that shaped me. Humans, without exception, yearn for the unattainable.

For a caged bird like myself, freedom was that elusive prize.

But that would have to wait.

Acting in haste would simply lead to me losing the privileges that I earned last night. For now, I will play by my father's rules, to be his instrument in the vision he wishes to actualize.

And when the time came...

KNOCK KNOCK

Getting off my bed, I walked toward the door and twisted the handle. As the door was opened, I was once again met with the figure of Hamada.

"It's time for breakfast, Kiyotaka-sama," he said.

"Thank you, Hamada. I will head downstairs in a few moments," I replied before returning to the room to arrange my luggage and the books I wished to bring outside.

With that done, I immediately exited my room, with Hamada following not that far behind.

***