This is my draft of my novel, any opinion!?
WATCHER
Chapter 1: ARTHAL : the kingdom
"The Vortes Incident changed everything."
The teacher's voice carried across the classroom.
The room was unusually quiet.
Pages turned softly as students followed the lesson in their history books. A few were writing notes, while others simply listened. Sunlight came through the tall windows, falling across rows of wooden desks.
"Before the Incident, humanity had spread across almost every part of the world. We had built enormous cities, developed advanced technology, and created civilizations larger than anything our ancestors could have imagined."
He paused.
"Then, in a matter of years, everything began to collapse."
The teacher turned toward the blackboard.
He wrote:
THE VORTES INCIDENT
"The land became barren. Crops failed. Food became scarce. Governments collapsed. Conflicts spread between the remaining populations."
The room remained silent.
"And then came the Vortes Curse."
Several students stopped writing.
"The Curse changed living organisms. Human beings exposed to it began to mutate. Some changes were minor. Others were devastating."
He looked across the classroom.
"Humanity was running out of time."
A page turned somewhere in the room.
"But when it seemed that our species had nowhere left to go..."
The teacher smiled.
"Someone gave us a future."
He changed the image on the classroom screen.
A vast island appeared.
Green fields stretched across its surface. Rivers crossed the land, flowing toward a bright blue coastline. Farther inland stood a growing city.
"This was Arthal."
The teacher's voice carried a quiet pride.
"The island discovered by the Messiah."
He let the students look at the image.
"Large enough to support nearly a million people, Arthal became the last great refuge of humanity."
Another image appeared.
The city had grown.
Roads.
Schools.
Hospitals.
Markets.
Harbors.
Homes.
"Generation after generation, our people rebuilt what had been lost."
A few students smiled.
"Today, Arthal is not simply a refuge."
The teacher looked around the room.
"It is our home."
The classroom remained attentive.
"For more than a century, our people have lived in peace. We have food. Education. Medicine. Trade. We are free to travel across the island, choose our professions, build our families, and live our lives."
He placed both hands on the desk.
"Everything we have exists because our ancestors refused to let humanity disappear."
A few students nodded.
The teacher continued.
"But the mainland was not so fortunate."
The image changed.
The classroom fell silent.
Ruined buildings stood beneath a grey sky.
"The Vortes Curse made large portions of the old world uninhabitable. The surviving records suggest that almost no organized civilization remained."
The teacher's voice softened.
"That is why the founders of Arthal made a difficult decision."
He looked toward the windows.
"They chose to protect the people they had saved."
A student raised his hand.
The teacher nodded.
"Yes?"
"Sir... are we ever going to the mainland?"
The teacher smiled.
"Not as ordinary citizens."
A few students exchanged looks.
"The waters surrounding Arthal are dangerous, and the mainland remains unpredictable."
He paused.
"That's why we have the Watchers."
At the back of the classroom, a boy who had barely looked up during the entire lesson finally raised his eyes.
The teacher noticed.
He walked slowly between the rows of desks.
"Aarav."
The boy looked up.
"Yes, sir?"
"You seem more interested in the window than the history of your own kingdom."
A few students laughed.
Aarav glanced toward the window.
Beyond the school grounds, the ocean stretched endlessly beneath the afternoon sun.
"I was listening."
The teacher stopped beside his desk.
"Were you?"
Aarav nodded.
"You said the mainland is dangerous."
"That's correct."
Aarav looked back toward the ocean.
"Then what's actually out there?"
The teacher followed his gaze.
"The mainland."
"I know."
A few students laughed again.
Aarav didn't.
"I mean beyond the water."
The teacher studied him for a moment.
"That's what the Watchers observe."
Aarav finally looked at him.
"The Watchers?"
The teacher nodded.
"They travel beyond our usual waters and monitor the conditions around Arthal."
Aarav leaned back in his chair.
"How far do they go?"
The teacher smiled.
"Far enough."
Aarav frowned.
That answer clearly wasn't going to satisfy him.
The teacher returned to the front of the classroom.
"And that's enough curiosity for one lesson."
The bell rang.
The classroom immediately came alive.
Chairs scraped against the floor. Books closed. Students began talking as they gathered their things.
Aarav remained seated for a moment.
His eyes returned to the ocean.
For everyone else, it was simply the boundary of their world.
For him...
It had just become a question.