Rhian stood there, surrounded by monsters.
Not just monsters in name or reputation, monsters in form. Monsters in the most literal way.
Stone-like bodies, scaled limbs, snake bodies, insect wings, extended jaws, claws too long to be human.
They weren't cowering from being called cursed.
They were cursed.
And proud of it.
For the first time since awakening, Rhian didn't feel strong standing among them. He didn't feel like he belonged. Not because they rejected him, they didn't even mock him or look down on him..
They looked at him, expecting something.
Waiting for him to join them.
Waiting to see his monster.
And again that… cut deeper than any insult.
He scratched his arm lightly, feeling that glove over his burned skin, the part of him that marked his past. But his body stayed human. Whole. Normal.
'Was I even cursed to begin with?' he thought, dryly.
Sure, the system gave him reptilian regeneration, slow healing, which obviously should belong to a reptilian.
And maybe his weird hand, nothing else would paint him as a cursed.
But aside from that, he could've passed for any other physical-type carrier.
Nothing here screamed monster.
Nothing here made him one of them.
And yet Liane had placed him here.
In this class.
Among these people.
Did she know something he didn't?
Or was she just cruel enough to throw him here to watch him figure it out?
Either way, he wasn't sure which thought unsettled him more.
The other students began pulling their attention away, returning to their little groups or their own world, seeing Rhian still standing there, unchanged.
But a few glances lingered, like they didn't know if he was one of them yet.
Neither did he.
Liane stood in the middle of them all, arms loose at her sides, her white eyes moving slowly across the students who now stood tall in their monstrous forms.
She smiled.
Not a mocking one. Not like before.
A real smile, sharp, a little wild, but genuine.
"This world is unfair to you all," she said calmly. "They look at you and see monsters. Freaks. Mistakes."
Her voice didn't rise. It didn't need to.
"But what they call cursed… I call evolved."
Her words carried weight, not forced like some speech, but spoken like undeniable truth.
"We are not cursed. We are beyond them. Better. Stronger. We can do things they can't even dream of. And that makes them afraid."
Some students straightened without even noticing.
"I've seen many evolved wishing they were 'normal'," she said, making a mocking gesture with her fingers. "Wishing they could blend in. Wishing they could hide. But I have one question for all of you."
Her gaze swept across the room like a line drawn in the sand.
"Do you really want to be mediocre?" she asked plainly. "Do you want to be average? Forgettable? Just another face in the crowd?"
Silence. Heavy. Not uncomfortable, but listening.
"Be prideful of yourself," she continued, "own your blood, your form, your strength. Don't bend just to fit in with people who'll never accept you anyway."
That's when it changed.
The students, who were wild, strange, dangerous, began to smile. Not forced. Not wide. Just small, satisfied smiles of people reminded of who they were.
Some chuckled low. Some nodded to themselves.
Some, like the insectoid student, stretched with a sound that didn't sound human, but somehow sounded content.
Even the quiet ones lifted their heads a little higher.
Rhian stayed still, watching it all.
He couldn't lie, there was something powerful about what she said. These people weren't hiding anymore. They didn't hate what they were.
And for a second… he wondered what that felt like.
Looking at his glove.
Then Liane clapped her hands.
"Alright," she said casually, grin returning, "that's enough of your ugly asses. Change back. You're not exactly winning beauty contests out here."
The students laughed, real laughs, not bitter, but natural.
Rhian couldn't help but glance at her for a second.
'Pretty bold coming from someone who looks like a swamp demon when she transforms,' he thought dryly.
As expected, they began shifting back.
Bodies returned to their smaller, human shapes.
Claws shrank. Wings folded and vanished. Extra limbs dissolved. Stone-like skin softened. Eyes dulled back to human shades.
One by one, they returned to their "normal" selves.
Except… nothing about them felt normal at all.
Not anymore.
Liane clapped her hands once, casually, the sharp sound bouncing off the empty walls.
"Okay, good. Now that you've all stretched your creepy little limbs, let me explain what we actually deal with in this class."
She began pacing slowly, barefoot steps relaxed but steady, like she owned every inch of the room. Every pair of eyes followed her without needing to be told.
"Everything we do here revolves around what you are, Evolved. Cursed. Whatever name they wanna slap on us out there."
Her voice didn't sound like a teacher doing her job. It sounded like someone talking about their own blood.
"First thing we learn," she raised one finger, "is how to transform. Sounds simple, yeah? But not everyone gets lucky and pops out claws or scales the moment their core awakens. Some of you had to struggle for years. Some of you are still stuck in between."
Rhian didn't need to guess, he could feel the weight of eyes slowly drifting toward him.
That unspoken thought they all shared: you can't transform yet, can you?
Liane, of course, didn't care to hide it.
"Second thing," she raised another finger, "is how to fight while transformed. It's not just about raw strength or scary looks. Transformation is a tool, but also a weakness if you don't know how to control it."
She stopped walking, tapping her temple lightly.
"You get faster, but you're bigger. You hit harder, but you're louder. Some of you can regenerate, but that makes you reckless. You need to learn the balance, when to stay human, when to go full monster."
A pause.
"And how to kill both ways."
Nobody flinched at that word.
Killing wasn't shocking in this world. Especially not for carriers born to hunt things worse than themselves.
Liane smirked lightly, raising a third finger.
"And finally… the hardest part."
Her white eyes roamed across the room, lingering on every student before locking onto Rhian a second longer.
"Manifesting the power of your true self."
That got everyone's attention.
"See," she continued, "there's the surface-level transformation, claws, scales, wings, whatever your bloodline gave you. But deeper than that... every cursed has something else. A core ability. Something that defines what you are. Your true power."
Her grin widened slightly.
"Most of you haven't touched it yet. And you won't for a long time."
Rhian's brow furrowed slightly.
True self?
Core ability?
Liane pointed lazily at them all.
"You'll know when it comes. It won't be clean. It won't be pretty."
She shrugged.
"Some of you might never reach it."
She left that hanging like a knife in the air.
"But that's what we work for in this class. Control. Survival. And, eventually... awakening the real monster inside."
Liane finally stopped pacing, resting her hands behind her head again.
"Class won't always be fun. It won't always be fights. Some days it'll be pain. Some days it'll be boring drills until your bodies move without thinking."
Then she smiled again, that same sharp grin from before.
"But every single one of you has something buried deep in there."
Her gaze swept over them all one last time, settling again on Rhian.
"And I plan on dragging it out."
She turned away, walking toward the exit casually like she hadn't just dropped that weight on them.
"Class dismissed for today. Come back tomorrow, ready to actually bleed for it."
"Rhian, stay."