During the first week of resumption, new students are required to take an exam to determine their academic ranking. Your ranking in each test taken at the school determines whether you graduate. These exams are divided into two categories: practical and written. In total, twenty exams will be taken throughout my time in school, ten for practical and ten for written assessments. Graduating in the top ten brings honor to the students and their families, so naturally, everyone aims for the top.
Today is the last day of the week, I thought to myself as I reached my room. I needed to freshen up before heading to the hall to take the exam. Scoring among the top ten would place an even bigger target on my back, but it couldn't be helped. I either graduated or faced being slightly less disliked.
I returned to my room and took a bath to refresh myself before going to take the exam. After completing the exam, I exited the hall and could feel everyone's eyes on me as I made my way back to my dorm. Even the teacher who handed me the exam papers looked nervous. This is so exhausting. If I'm to understand what's happening, I need someone to fill me in.
Lost in thought, I bumped into someone. Looking up, I saw a blonde guy with blue eyes, one shade away from my own. He seemed to come from a powerful family; his eyes didn’t belong to a peasant, but still, having blue eyes could cause trouble for any noble. Nobles usually change their eye color if born with any shade of blue, sacrificing their powers in the process. The powers associated with eye color are limited to a select few: green, the eyes of royalty, and blue, the eyes of commoners. Even blue, which is associated with commoners, is rare—just like green.
This situation began during the Great War when nearly all commoners with blue eyes were sent to the front lines. They were considered too powerful, even more so than those with the royal green eyes. Green eyes are rare and only occur among nobility. The first person to manifest magical ability had green eyes and became the empress. Her power allowed her to control others with mere words, like a god. However, a decade later, a commoner with blue eyes was born. Immune to the empress's power, he possessed the ability to manipulate the four elements, which alarmed her, leading to his execution.
As time passed, more commoners with blue eyes were born. To secure her position, the empress waged war after war, continually sending blue-eyed commoners into battle. She had male commoners castrated and instigated the Great War to eliminate them. She married a man and had two children, both of whom had green eyes. Eventually, she died by poisoning after a commoner—whose child she had killed—decided to take revenge.
History books portrayed those with blue eyes, referred to as 'blue demons,' as monsters who killed an innocent empress while she was expanding the empire with their aid. Utter nonsense. People aren’t smart enough to question the legitimacy of those accounts, or they are too afraid to do so. Other eye colors may possess powers as well, since blue and green-eyed individuals often reproduce with others, leading some offspring to inherit a small fraction of their powers—at most, ten percent.
So, seeing a noble with blue eyes, fully aware of their significance, baffled me. I stared at him, speechless. A noble retaining any shade of blue from a prominent house was tantamount to publicly defying the throne and insulting the royal family. I couldn't help but feel curious. Who is this guy?
