Project: Socialize

In the lobby, as explained by Loyd, our school separated into three groups with each group having a class from each grade. Coincidentally, the group that my class was in was also the group that Zaksus's and Luna's class was in. Therefore, we'll be together for the entirety of the mandatory trip and during bathing hour.

Our group boarded the buses that the school had arranged for us and then drove off into the city of Saroff. Saroff isn't a mega-city that was of the same scale as Palisia, but it was still a decent sized city with plenty of attractions in the form of the numerous cultural buildings mixed within the modern. Growing up, I was taught that Saroff housed some of the richest aspects of Vilheimean culture, but I'm not so naive as to believe everyone in Saroff lived life as if it was five hundred years ago. Therefore, I wasn't surprised at how modern everything was and how similar life for the residents here was to life in Palisia.

Looking out the bus, my eyes were greeted with a casual city scene. There were pedestrians walking with some biking on the spacious sidewalk as the automobiles rolled by on the road. There were numerous stores catering towards a large audience with its welcoming design and furnishing. In addition, there were also plenty of familiar brands such as WcBonalds and Pizza House littered about in the city. All in all, everything appeared pretty normal.

Our buses pulled into a pretty large parking lot near a historical site. From the looks of it, this place appeared to be an old temple of worship. Anyhow, everyone exited the buses and gathered as we were to split ourselves into groups so that a tour guide could show us around.

"Zaksus," Loyd called over to the tall boy in the group of first year students. "Let's go together."

Zaksus smiled and then waved at the people he was talking to before jogging over towards us. "Sure," he said.

"What about the rest of you?" Loyd then looked over at the remaining members of our club that was in the same class as him.

I couldn't help but marvel at how well he handed this leadership role. He took initiative immediately after Mura had explained how we will be doing things and quickly assembled a crowd around him. In fact, there were other students gathering around, trying their best to act casually while sneaking the occasional glances his way. They probably want to be invited into his group. Therefore, without him having to do anything, Loyd gained the initiative and put into a position of power all because of his charismatic nature.

"Alevian," Noah smiled and looked over at me. "Come with us. Of course, Muria and Irina also."

"Sure," Irina smiled and agreed.

Her addition to our group made the situation even worse. The atmosphere became extremely tense that I felt as if it was difficult to breathe as all the eyes were focused in our direction. Before I realized, it would appear that we're surrounded by the other students as they all stared longingly at a spot in the middle of the circle by the sides of the most popular students at our school: Loyd, Noah, and Irina. Come to think of it, I think Zaksus also belongs in that group due to his popularity as a athlete and star of the basketball team. So I'm the only oddball here...

I could feel many hateful glares thrown my way as people probably couldn't understand why I was standing where they yearned to stand without doing anything. They probably think I do not have the right to stand here with these other popular students, and I might think that as well if I was in their position. However, I do not have much of a choice because if not here, then I wouldn't have anywhere else to be. If I recall correctly, last year I was the last one to find a group for the school trip. I didn't talk to anybody for the entirety of the mandatory trips other than the occasional chat with Muria. However, those were simply talks that involved only a word or two. There never was a full scale conversation.

Usually, I wouldn't mind being in such state of loneliness. Not now. I realized that Loyd and Noah also had invited Luna to be in our group, and it was because of this girl that I can't stand being alone anymore. Being alone with nothing occupying my mind, I will be consumed by the moodiness and melancholy that the thought of her inevitable death will bring. That idea was a cancer, starting only as a single thought in my mind but eventually multiplying until it controlled the entirety of my mind, rendering me unable to do anything else and slip into a state of weakness. It's only when there's a constant stream of outside stimulus creating new ideas in my mind that I will not succumb to this cancer of a thought.

"Emilia and I'll go with your group," Mura said to Loyd after she judged that the situation had gotten out of control and that the other students needed to form their groups quickly.

"That's great!" Irina exclaimed as she clasped her hands together before her with a happy expression on her face. "Right, Muria?"

"R-right," Muria blushed somewhat as she looked over at her sister. She must be the happiest of everyone to be able to spend time with her older sister on this trip.

"The rest of you hurry up and form groups," Mura said in a raised voice to the other students. She also made eye contact with the other teachers, notifying them to take control of the situation in order to progress the day.

My group then followed our tour guide around as she explained to us the history of the temple as well as give us a brief lecture on the scriptures. She showed us into the main temple itself, a building with large white marble pillars and a high ceiling. Inside the opened temple was a large statue situated in the center of the far wall. On each side of the large statue were two smaller ones, so four smaller statues in total.

"So this is the statue of God and his four archangels," the tour guide explained.

The statue of God was of a bearded man dressed in what appeared to be a tunic. The statue was pretty well made, with great attention to detail. Every single crease in the tunic as well as wrinkles on the face was visible. In addition, in the eyes of the statue, I could feel a sense of power.

However, I could say first hand that this depiction of God is incorrect. I've seen God myself and he looks nothing like this statue. Rather, God's appearance was one of a young man in his early twenties and was someone who's devoted to playing video games.

"So on the left side of God, there's Michael and Lucifer. To the right of God is Gabrielle and Raphael," the tour guide continued.

Lucifer... does she mean Ralus? I stared at the statue of Lucifer, taking in the face of a handsome young man. For some reason, his statue depicted a young man wearing nothing but what appeared to be a towel around his waist. As for the body, it was quite muscular, but on the leaner side. Instead, the statue next to it, Michael, was more muscular as it depicted an older man with a stern expression on his face.

Then, there's the statue of the two angel's present next to me. First, there was Gabrielle. The statue was of a feminine looking man in his late teens, dressed in a rose colored tunic. The pose of the statue was weird as well, being one that appeared somewhat unnaturally feminine and appeared extremely weird when the statue was of a young man.

Then, there was Raphael. His statue was of a young child who clung onto Gabrielle's hand. The facial expression of the statue was made to be as if the child was insecure about the world and needed the guidance and protection of the older and more mature figure beside it.

I glanced at Emilia and Noah, curious as to how they would react, and wasn't surprised when I discovered an irritated frown on Emilia's face as well as Noah trying his best to contain his laughter.

"How can they get my gender wrong?" Emilia muttered under her breath as she shook her head in disbelief. On her face was an irritated countenance, one that made me worried that she would bring with her a divine judgement and obliterate the world. However, she didn't do so. Instead, she grabbed Noah by his collar in order to contain him and take out her frustration.

"They made you a guy," Noah whispered as he gasped for breath for laughing so hard.

"Hey," Mura sighed as she looked over at Noah. "That's quite disrespectful to the divines."

"S-sorry," Noah forced out as he continued to laugh.

I mean if it was me, I would probably laugh as well. Like when someone want you to stop because you're being disrespectful to yourself... that just requires you to laugh.

"I'll take care of him," Emilia said. Her face was twitching somewhat as she forced a smile, but I could tell that she was somewhat in an angered mood. She then turned around and dragged Noah out of the temple while Noah continued to laugh as he's being literally dragged on the ground.

That tiny incident basically marked the highlight of the day. Later on, when the tour guide explained the stories in the scriptures, I could always hear sighs of disappointment from Emilia as she muttered under her breath about how they've got everything wrong in the scriptures. Noah would also giggle occasionally, but after being taught a lesson by Emilia, he reigned it in quite a bit so I guess the statues did get the part where he listened to Emilia right.

Throughout the rest of the day, we were shown one other historical site in the city before we returned to our hotel for dinner. During that time, I didn't talk much with Luna as there were constantly distractions between us. And before I realized, we were back at our hotel and finished with the dinner our school had the hotel made for us.

"Alright!" Noah said as he stood on his bed with great excitement. "Who's ready to go take a bath in the hot springs?!"

"Me!" Zaksus raised his hand.

"Why're you in our room?" I muttered.

"Let's go boys! We bout to have some fun!" Noah said. He jumped off his bed and started for the hallway outside.

The remaining three of us then followed him out. As I walked down the hallway with a set of clothes to change into after the hot springs and my towel, I sighed. It's gonna be a long shower.