Lewd King's Bucket List-Chapter 78: The Great Awakening

Se’van looked over toward the door.

"Your— ...Ixion, you’ll be joining us today?"

’Should I tell them to call me ’Your Ixion’ at this point?!’

Ixion smiled and threw his arms wide open.

"Naturally!"

He went and sat down at the front right desk, next to where Runa and Lot were already seated.

After his appearance, Zabaniyah stepped out from the shadows, and the Jester dropped from the ceiling and splattered onto the floor.

Ixion cheered.

"My, my! The crew’s all here!"

"Fuck you!"

"My heart!"

Ixion watched as Zabaniyah took the seat behind him, and the jester took the seat behind Runa.

He flashed his teeth, then asked:

"What will this lecture be on, Se’van?"

The emerald-eyed woman, whose quiet day had just been shattered by the promise of chaos, withheld her sigh as she slowly replied:

"History, once again. Kaldora’s History, that is. We’ve long since moved past learning the basic concepts."

"I see. I see."

’History again? How boring.’

Maybe Ixion should leave. Spend the rest of his day monitoring a thrall; however, he also wanted to monitor Se’van, who kept trying to corrupt Runa!

’Stop feeling her out!’

He’d already completed his duels for the day, and the next ones were three days later. He had tomorrow and the day after to watch the thralls.

For now, he decided to see how Se’van would act in his presence.

The jester cried out.

"History? Why can’t we learn about anatomy! I want to learn about anatomy!!!"

Ixion planted his open palm over his heart.

"Preposterous, my jester! Are you saying my lesson wasn’t enough?!"

"Ixion, Ixion. All you taught me was physiology, not anatomy!"

Se’van shivered and looked away in disgust, knowing perfectly well what the two were alluding to.

Before it could devolve any further, Se’van spoke up.

"Alright, let’s begin, shall we?"

Se’van began writing keywords on the slate, showing that Runa’s reading comprehension had been improving.

"Runa, I assume—"

"Hey, hey! Se’van!" The jester stood up and knocked over her desk. "No favorites! We’re here too!"

Se’van stared blankly at the jester and took a deep breath.

"I assume you all know—"

"Se’van, Se’van! How are we supposed to know what ’all’ means! Who were you referring to?!"

"All means all, jester."

"Did you include the spiders and ants crawling in the corner? I think not! You racist! You fiend! You, humanist! You, you—!"

Ixion chuckled.

"Jester, calm down."

"Fine, fine."

The jester sat back down and rested her feet on the fallen desk. She turned her head and mumbled under her breath.

"They silence me because I speak the truth. Hmph."

Ixion couldn’t help but smirk at the whole debacle.

Se’van, on the other hand, looked thoroughly annoyed. She’d probably been getting used to teaching Runa, a cooperative student, and now she had the jester and King Ixion to deal with.

Zabaniyah, too.

She may have been quiet, but her smug looks when they started arguing simply encouraged them to get louder and more obnoxious.

"Ahem," Se’van cleared her throat. "I assume you all know the story of creation. Of the sixteen primordial demons whose bodies were used to form each aspect of the world, so I will skip over that."

The jester waved her hand.

"I don’t know it!"

Se’van stared blankly at the red-haired beauty.

"So we do all know it, great. Moving on."

"Bu—"

Se’van talked over the jester.

"There are three major events above all others in Kaldora’s history: The Great Awakening, The Divide, and The Scourge."

Se’van flipped the slate around, revealing what she’d been writing on it.

"Let’s start with the Great Awakening."

The jester was about to yell something out, but Ixion stopped her with a sharp glare.

"It’s not exactly common knowledge anymore, and it’s often debated whether it’s even true, but Aether wasn’t always known to us."

Se’van paced around as she continued.

"We assume it’s always existed, yes. But one day, about two thousand years ago, humans learned to harness Aether. Awakenings spread like wildfire."

Se’van looked away.

"And so did wars. Humans have a tendency to vie for dominance once they find a power to control, each trying to amplify it. Powerful tribes emerged. Weak ones fell. Cycles of hatred formed and festered, leading to humanity’s destructive evolution."

Se’van stopped pacing.

"We don’t claim to know everything about Aether, but what we do know is that our knowledge is insufficient. Soul Scripture is not nearly enough to tell us all of its intricacies. Hereditary abilities that don’t show up via Soul Scripture are proof of that."

Se’van looked at Runa, studying her tail and ears.

"Over time, the powerful tribes’ bodies mutated from their high Aether concentration, giving rise to demihumans and Aether Constructs. Then there were also the many whose bodies couldn’t handle the path of ascension — they mutated into what we know as beasts."

The jester screeched.

"Beasts are humans?!"

Ixion laughed candidly and shouted back:

"’Were,’ Jester. ’Were!’ Pay attention!"

The jester turned and began muttering something under her breath again which trailed off before she finished.

"Not my fault you..."

Se’van rolled her eyes, then began writing on the slate once again.

"But demihumans soon faced an odd problem. Most who evolved into pure Aether Constructs could no longer reproduce by typical means. Some races could — those which kept mammalian characteristics — but others could not. Which is why powerful tribes like the Crystal Owl tribe and the Succubi are small in number."

The jester stood up.

"Then how do they have sex?! Can they? Oh, the humanity!"

Ixion’s eyes widened.

"My jester... did you just ask whether ’Succubi’ can have sex?"

"Oh. That I did? Well, can they? Can they, can they?!"

The jester’s gaze swept around the classroom.

"Can they, can they, can they?! Someone answer me!"

Then she crumpled to her knees and feigned crying.

Ignoring the fool, Se’van continued:

"It was also what allowed the weak tribes, who remain the humans we know today, to rise. Humans propagated too quickly for demihumans to resist getting outnumbered, out-manned, and out-powered."

Runa said nothing and made no odd expression, but she looked away, showing her disdain for that divide.

Se’van sighed.

"Not much is known about ancient history other than that; however, we do know that the Scourge did not exist back then. Nor did blatant racism. People hated others out of jealousy and pride."

Ixion chuckled.

"Seems not much has changed."

Se’van replied in a solemn tone.

"Indeed."

Se’van flipped the slate again and continued her lesson:

"It was only after agricultural practices were discovered that the Age of Nations began. It was the rise of powerful nations and their societal constructs which kick-started the great separation between human and demihuman. Well, beasts also, but their kind lost their intelligence and developed a taste for human and demihuman flesh, so they became treated more like animals."

Se’van’s smile fell. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"This led to The Divide. Or, as some histories like to call it, ’The Supremacy War.’"