BINGED: Reincarnated as an OP-Chapter 23: Within These Walls
Studentship took longer than Ren expected. The sun had already gone down on the west side of the hall when the registrars at the counter began calling names, while assistants moved back and forth with tablets and stacks of thin plastic cards. When students were called out, they were given those small tablets and the plastic cards.
The female registrar finally called Ren’s name. An assistant gave him the small device and the card before he stood before the woman at the edge of the counter.
She scanned his wrist tag, tapped a few things into her device.
"Give that to me," she gestured at his card. She scanned his identification card.
"Ace Renora," she said. " You’re officially a Purist University student. Don’t lose that," she slid it back to him.
Ren picked it up carefully, as though it might burn him. The card felt heavier than it looked.
How did I feel that?’
On the card, his name stared back at him in clean lettering.
’Never in my life have I ever thought of being so formal. Irks me a bit.’
Once everyone had been processed, the new students were guided into a wide waiting hall. Rows of benches lined the room, and the air buzzed with voices that grew louder the longer they were left alone.
Ren sat at the edge of one bench, holding his bag between his feet.
Around him, he heard overlapping conversations.
"I swear the path almost swallowed me," one young man was saying. "I thought that was it."
"What was it like?"
"I was deep down in the sea the entire time but I could talk, scream and even eat! But I felt like I was drowning to the bottom the longer I stayed, trying to be alive. I only left after I got sucked into a dark crater in the bottom," the man said almost with no breaks, gesturing like an excited kid.
"I was a powerful king in mine. Felt easy, but I hate all the work I did."
"I got my powers in the path but it didn’t work there," another replied. "It just vanished. Like it was never mine."
"That’s not possible. They said our abilities define us."
Ren’s grip tightened on the strap of his bag. He sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Everything in the path stays in the path." The golden woman’s voice came back to him without warning.
At the time, he had not understood what she meant. Sitting there now, listening to strangers casually describe things they should not have been able to remember, he felt a slow unease crawl up his spine. Humans never listened. He shook his head and looked around again.
Across the hall, the girl who had been staring at him sat alone near one of the pillars. She was not speaking to anyone, not even pretending to listen. She now wore mufflers over her ears and had her eyes fixed on the platform in front of the hall.
Her posture was composed, almost distant, as if she were waiting for something specific rather than simply passing time like the rest. Ren found his eyes drifting back to her more than once.
An announcement echoed through the hall.
"Welcome students. Or should I call you Purists?" A man with curly hair and a broad smile strode into the room, a line of suited guards and some other men and women in fancy outfits trailing behind him as he mounted the podium.
The groups of students stirred, their conversations breaking off mid-sentence as they looked up to the man on the podium.
"I am so glad to have you all here. Really, I am the happiest man in this hall, I tell you," he laughed at his own speech and the others behind him chuckled along when he looked back at them with his grin.
"Purist University, as you all know, was made for everyone to become a true hero for everyone," he grinned again.
He continued, "Before now, purity was a thing made for the holy priests and a select few," he grimaced when he said the last two words.
"Selfishness, I call it!" His expression hardened, and then softened after a split second, "But when humanity was plagued by a demonic curse, those select few realized their centuries of arrogance and saw that they couldn’t handle that alone and started praying to the Divine for help."
He took in a deep breath, "The Divine answered, in so many ways, I believe. The awakening was first of them, and Purist University was the second."
"I am Chancellor Lance Ogremoth, the honored man who has been vested the divine mandate to oversee the affairs of this great institution. For ten years, I have grown this institution. Now I welcome you to what comes next."
He finally stepped back and a woman went up the podium.
"I’m the Vice Chancellor, Alena Bolivera. And I welcome you too. I can’t wait to see what you lovely eggs would be shaped into," she smiled, her eyes moving from one corner of the hall to the other.
Ren made a cringing squint.
’Why are they all sounding so weird?’
He heard whispers of students teasing themselves as eggs. Ren sighed, unable to see the "delicious" humor they were cooking from her speech.
His eyes darted to the girl at the corner of the hall. She was focused on the speaker, yet her facial expression was still the same as it was before.
Another man stepped up the podium.
"I’m the Purists’ Dean, Ronald Tong..."
The crowd erupted in laughter. Students made the worst jokes they could with his obviously controversial name.
"Wonder if he wears thongs," someone shouted behind Ren. The students laughed even more.
Ren snickered at the thought of it.
Mr Tong waited till the uproar rested.
"One thing I tolerate every year is how you all misinterpret the friendly name. Make sure you keep to every rules and behave yourselves, or I will be the one on that end, horselaughing like a buffoon."
He ended with a wide grin that definitely send a shiver through the crowd.
The session ended after Mr Tong stepped down and all of them walked out of the hall. The students were asked by the registrars to move to their assigned dormitories that was already sent in their tablets.
Ren followed the stream of students through long corridors until they reached the dormitory wing. His assigned room was simple, with three beds, narrow desks, and a single window that looked out onto a courtyard filled with trimmed trees and stone paths.
He placed his bag on the nearest bed and sat for a moment, letting the silence settle around him.
He tried, not for the first time, to understand his own ability. He focused on the space between his fingers and imagined the familiar weight of a card forming there.
"So the cards just appear out of thin air when I’m endangered, flare into flame and detonate on contact." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
That was all he knew. No control beyond instinct, no explanation whatsoever. Compared to the things he had overheard from other students about their abilities, it felt crude and unfinished.
The door opened behind him.
Two boys walked in, both carrying bags and talking over each other.
"Wait, this is our room?"
"Yeah, room C17. That’s us."
They noticed Ren almost at the same time.
"Oh, hey," the taller one said, offering a quick smile. "Guess we’re roommates."
"Coby," he said, stretching his hand to Ren, who wasn’t so interested in the handshake.
His friend shook his hand, "I’m Duff," he said, smiling.
"Get your hand off, you idiot," Coby drew his hand away and stretched it to Ren again.
"Ren," Ren said and they shook hands. Duff shook hands with Ren too.
Coby surprisingly talked more than the Duff, filling the space with easy commentary about the campus, the food rumors, and how unreal it all still felt to him. Ren answered only when spoken to, listening more than he spoke.
"Hey, we’ll be picking departments tomorrow," Coby said cheerfully.
"What’s that?"
"It’s like choosing which cell to spend your sentence in," Duff chipped in while brushing a file over his nails.
"You have to choose a department you feel you would love to function in. There is the Field Survival Division, Combat Arts, Arcane Theory, Hero Acts, and Healing and Shield Division."
"Yeah, whatever you do avoid Survival Division," Duff blew over his nails, "Everyone always avoids it. It doesn’t carry the same admiration as the others."
’That’s exactly what I’m going for.’
The next morning, he found out he was not alone in that choice. Coby was there too, grinning when he saw Ren walk into the room. The girl from the lobby was present as well, seated near the front. She did not look at anyone. The class wasn’t very full, Ren counted at least fifty students in the class.
The instructor arrived moments later.
He was older than Ren expected, with streaks of gray in his hair and a voice that carried without effort.
"I am Professor Henrik Goldahart," he introduced himself, "you’ll be seeing my face for an uncomfortable amount of time."
He drew out a black stick from his jacket. Ren raised a brow.
’Don’t tell me he’s going to cast a spell.’
"Not a new thing but before we begin, you know about Binged," he doodled what looked like a scary demon with horns on the whiteboard behind him with his stick.
"This is what you’ll be fighting for the rest of your lives."
He cleared his throat, and watched the students murmur.
"Most of you think strength or your powers is what keeps you alive," the man said. "It isn’t. Awareness and knowing what you’re fighting, what to do and when to do it is what keeps you alive."
"A lot of you don’t even know what Binged are to start with. You think they are demons..."
As he spoke, a soft chime echoed through the room. Several students glanced down at their devices. The screens flickered to life, displaying a broadcast.
A familiar face filled the display. The Golden Boy.
His face was red with anger as he spoke, his voice carrying clearly through the speakers.
"This university claims to be pure," he said. "Yet it shelters a murderer. Someone who slaughtered officers and walked away protected. How long before that protection costs other students their lives?"
"Ace Renora... isn’t it? I finally know your name now, and I know you don’t belong here."
Ren felt the air in the room change. Heads turned slowly, one by one. Coby’s hand froze mid-air, still holding his device. Even Professor Goldahart had stopped speaking.
On the screen, Golden Boy leaned closer to the camera.
"If Purist University refuses to remove him," Reagan continued, "then I will make sure every student knows exactly who they are protecting."
