Surprisingly, the one who came through the door was the teacher who was responsible for Ariel’s exam. Walking up to the center while giving a glare, to those who were ogling her, she spoke. “My name is Mithra Werental and also your teacher in magic theory. I just want to say that, I dislike rude and disobedient people, so I suggest you don’t overstep your bound, or you will, be punished.” She said as she was giving a death glare to all of the students together releasing a terrifying pressure.

Silence reigned through the classroom and nobody tried to speak up. They might be immature, but they aren’t stupid and didn’t want to mess with a powerful expert, when whey just started attending The Academy.

Nodding to herself, teacher Mithra spoke again with a tone of authority. “It is good that you understand your place, no matter what rank noble you are on outside, in The Academy only personal power counts, and nothing else.”

While continuing to look around the quiet classroom, she seemed to have seen something which pleased her a great deal, as she let out a small smile and continued speaking. “I see that there are people here, that I myself was responsible for during the exam, this makes me a bit happy." Looking the familiar people over, only on Ariel her gaze lingered for some time before she retracted it.” After finishing evaluating the class, she walked towards her work desk, to take something out.

Finding what she was looking for, she turned back to face the classroom, in her hands there seemed to be a simple book and a pen. Teacher Mithra turned her eyes towards the students and spoke. “Most of you probably barely know each other and it is the same for me, so we will start by introducing ourselves. As you have already heard, I am your teacher Mithra Werental and I’m responsible for teaching you in magic theory. Now we will be starting from the front row.”

Like this people started introducing each other one by one, usually stating only their name, title and ambition. Most of them didn’t reveal important information like their affinity or rank, since it could become a disadvantage for them.

Although none of them, actually caught Ariel’s interest, and as it carried on, soon it was finally Brendon’s time to speak. “Greeting everyone, my name is Brendon Gleevoria and this is my sister, Sarah Gleevoria, it is a pleasure to work with you all.”

While introducing himself, he unexpectedly also introduced his sister, which made it easy to see how well they got along. Tough through the whole ordeal, he exuded an aura of charisma, making everyone listen attentively and obediently, showing his aptitude to be the future king. However, soon after he finished speaking, many discussions rang out around the whole classroom.

“It’s the prince I can’t believe I’m studying with him.”

“No wonder she was so beautiful, she was actually princess Sarah.”

“Both of them are so refined and perfect.”

A lot of such kind of conversations spread through the class. Almost all of them steamed from admiration and infatuation. However because it got a bit out of hand, the teacher lashed out at them with an angry voice. “Quite, you can talk after the lesson is over, so shut up!”

Getting the class under control, teacher Mithra motioned to continue with the introductions. The next in line was actually Ariel, but unexpectedly, the one to stand up and speak out was Erna. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all today, my name is Erna Alasia, the one besides me is my fiancé Ariel Whitestone.”

Ariel didn’t expect Erna to introduce him. If she did it out of consideration because she noticed that he didn’t like to speak, it would be fine. However, even if it is common to say a person is ones fiancé or fiancée when introducing them if its so, he though it would have been much better if she kept silent about that, as the class has, already started walking again, in matter of seconds.

“She is the Alasia family miss! I didn’t think I would meet the two rumoured, “potentially” most beautiful women of the kingdom, on the same day and at the same place as well.”

“So he is the “Frozen Prince”, no wonder he was said to be so handsome, but if the information about him is true, then he most likely came here to be an official, since he is completely incapable of getting stronger, but why did he choose the magic theory class?”

Many talks were starting to boil, about the two, and even the conversations about the twins were resuming, once more. The crown prince, the two most beautiful women, of the kingdom to be and also the renowned, most handsome man, this is an extremely rare line up. What’s more, they are sitting together and it was obvious they were good friends. This would naturally attract a lot of attention.

Fortunately, teacher Mithra was very strict and instantly started getting everyone, back in line by threatening them. When she was done with that, she resumed her speech ignoring the previous disturbances. “Since everyone now, at least knows everyone’s names, let’s start learning something light. That is in correlation to the subject you will be studying this year.”

Her words rang out as she walked towards the board, to write something. After she put down her chalk, they have already recognized the familiar definitions written by her.

Teacher Mithra spoke while looking towards the students. “As you see on the board, today we will start by learning about ranks and if all of you think you already know everything that there is to know. Then you are wrong.”

Just as she said, on the board there were written the already well known ranks, Acolyte, Disciple, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, King, Emperor, which all the students have at least heard about.

Not giving time for the students to voice their disapproval, the teacher continued. “Ranks are essentially, definitions of strength for both mages and warriors, which are separated into ranks and levels. However, the reason they are separated like this instead of just there being levels, is because when you pass the threshold of a rank, there is always some kind of change to your Mana core, in mages case. To mages this is actually has a much bigger impact than to warriors.” Hearing her words, the students had to agree that they haven’t heard anything about this before and continued listening, with frowns on their faces.

While not paying them any attention, teacher Mithra continued to explain. “We will start from the beginning, when you enter the Acolyte rank, it only changes by a small amount, making you Mana core only a little bit more defined. However, when one reaches the Disciple rank, your Mana core will have a larger change and will gain some of your affinity’s properties, for example, if you are a fire mage, your Mana core will become slightly hot. A way to recognize that a person has reached such rank is by seeing how they fight. Disciple rank people when fighting will unknowingly release a sort of aura affecting their surroundings in accordance to their elemental affinity.”

After waiting for the students to soak it in she carried on. “Reaching this rank is still not hard and you only need to spend time cultivating, but the first important change, will occur stepping into the Elite rank. To do this you have to change your Mana core completely into your own element. This will give you an incomparable increase in strength and what’s more, you will gain true immunity to that element.”

As she said this, she ignited a big candle on her desk and put her and over it, in front of the astonished gazes of the students. After a while she retracted her hand, showing that there was not even the slightest injury on it and started lecturing again. “As you have seen, I didn’t get burned at all, but remember that it only works on naturally produced elements and your own magic, different peoples Mana, rejects each other, so unless the rank difference is huge, you will still be injured by it.”

Many students were surprised at this, and also excited, who wouldn’t like to do something other people were incapable of like walking over fire and such.

Seeing the student’s excitement, teacher Mithra let out a smile and spoke again. “The most important transformation you need to know about for now, is the one you will face when breaking through into the Master rank. At this time, your Mana core will change in a major way, and will take some kind of form resembling something. It can be an animal. a weapon or any an item, or anything else. Breaking through into the Master stage is all about understanding what kind of form is best fit for you.”

When she finished her words, one of the students asked a question. “Does your Mana core form represent something?” Hearing this question, teacher Mithra seemed to be in thought for a while before replying. “Many mages tried to determine the reasons for the Mana cores shape. Some say it is the shape of your soul others say that it represents your personality, several also talk bout how it is just something you are closest to, but no one was able to prove anything.”

Many students were dreaming about their own core forms and each of them were imagining something cool, like this making false hope. Teacher Mithra saw this and decided to give out a warning. “What you also have to keep in mind is that the shape also determines the path of your magic should take, if you head down the path that doesn’t correspond with your core then you will be much weaker comparatively to other mages. Remember my words.” After noticing that all of her students understood what she said, she continued lecturing.

This peculiar information she was explaining in this lesson, was extremely interesting to Ariel, as he had experienced “some” of the things she has mentioned, and so it made him excited to find out the shape of his own core.

Later on, the teacher started talking about other things, that weren’t that important to him, since he had already read about them before. Until finally the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson.

Hearing it, the teacher ended the lesson and told everyone to revise everything they learned during the week, before letting them leave.

When Ariel was standing up, Brendon’s voice rang out with a laugh mixed into it. “Let’s go get something to eat and talk a bit, during the break.”

To his words everyone showed their approval by nodding their heads. Like so, they started heading towards the cafeteria, but as they walked. They attracted a lot of attention because of the previous commotion during the lesson, making some students to follow them.

Not even looking at them, the four people hurried and soon reached their destination. Going in, the cafeteria was almost full of people, so they quickly got their food and went looking for a place to sit before they were all gone. Luckily, the place they sat at yesterday hasn’t been taken yet, so they didn’t waste time and sat down.

The one to start talking first was once more Brendon with a cheerful voice. “The lesson wasn’t as boring I had thought it will be, I am now excited to see how my core will transform, in the future.”

Replying to him was his sister, Sarah. “The only thing you most likely like about the lesson was ogling our new teacher. Although the transformations are quite interesting, I really wonder how they are determined.”

Brendon was currently sitting there shocked by his sister’s vicious words being unable to respond, while Erna nodded and spoke. ”I hold the opinion that it represents what kind of person you are and also what you believe in.” They both began a heated discussion, but soon came to a dead end.

After thinking a bit, the two turned their faces to Ariel as if asking “what do you think?”, seeing this, Ariel replied nonchalantly. “Maybe it represents your most inner desire to attain or gain something, which is out of your reach.” Ariel’s theory seemed simple, but after some though, the girls were astonished at how profound it was

His theory was quite unique and made them fall into deep though. Fortunately, Brendon has snapped out of his shock and changed the topic not wanting them to dwell on it, for too long. “There is no reason to think about it, it is still far away for us, I am more interested about the situation between Ariel and Erna right now.”

These words made Erna’s bright smile stiffen a little, she herself didn’t know where they stood, but they are already engaged, so she had been thinking about trying to make closer ties between them for quite some time. Because of this she took the initiative to speak. “We have just met for the first time so we don’t really know each other well, but I think there are no enmities between us.”

Through the whole time she was speaking, Ariel didn’t say a word and only slowly ate his food, as if this conversation completely didn’t concern him, showing that it didn’t seem to really bother him.

Hearing her words Brendon and seeing no reaction from Ariel he seemed to be slightly disappointed, as he spoke. “I had expected something more exiting, but I forgot that you haven’t met each other before. You know, because of your training.”

Seeing her brother so disappointed at failing to tease them, Sarah let out a snicker, while inwardly sighing in relief. Trying to steer away from the topic about their relationship, she asked her own question. “Speaking of that, how, was your training?”

Suddenly Erna seemed to be reminiscing after about something as she heard the question and then spoke. “My teacher, named Arnold was an old experienced knight, at the very least on at Master rank, although I don’t know his actual limit. Through the years, he drilled me without mercy with everything he could, from training in simple one on one combat to how to lead an army. However, inside he is a very caring person who is kind to people less fortunate than him and I’m proud being his student.” At the end she let out a charming smile letting them know that she considered him almost as close as family.

Not long after, the bell rang telling them that they had to go to their own, “common” lessons. Everyone said their good byes and headed out in different ways, for now.

Through the day they met several times and talked about all manner of things, until finally the day ended and the four people were walking down the same path as yesterday.

At the intersection, Erna looked towards Ariel, and after some hesitation spoke. “Ariel, or engagement was something we couldn’t have influenced, but I’m glad that my fiancé is much better than I expected, and not one of those, arrogant nobles, so thank you.” Turning around she started heading towards the girl dorm, not even waiting for Ariel’s reply.

Sarah followed after her with a pouty expression on her face. Being stunned for a while by her exclamation, he stared at their retreating backs for a while, before turning around and doing the same.

At that time, Brendon started speaking while laughing. “You are truly amazing, even Erna who is well known to only like strong men, doesn’t seem to think bad about you. Someday you might even make her, actually fall for you. I’m so jealous of how much they love you.”

These words made Ariel stop and let out a sigh. Brendon stopped speaking and could see him look up at the sky with a distant look, that seemed to see much more than a normal person.

After a moment of silence Ariel started speaking. “Love, it is something quite foreign to me, so I don’t know if it is worth being jealous of, but I heard it is something you can’t live without once having a taste of it. What I would not give to experience it? Maybe I could finally feel a bit of happiness?” Ariel knew that he cares about for his mother, but he still feels that there is something that is missing for him. For so long he wanted to understand that single emotion, yet was never capable of it. Neither in this world, or the previous one.

While thinking about it, he let out a small yet elegant smile, which carried unimaginable sorrow. Several second later he again started heading to the dorm, without turning back to look at stunned Brendon.

He on the other hand was still too shocked to move, he had been with Ariel for so long, but this was the first time he had seen him smile, what’s more, it looked so unbearably sad. Ariel’s sentence rang in his ears nonstop and couldn’t understand it, completely. However, he knew that he was feeling pain because of something to do with love and that it seemed to be a taboo topic for him.

Ariel is his best friend, so he snapped out of his daze and after some thought, steeled himself to find out the source of his sadness at a later date. Right then, he saw how far away his friend was already and ran to catch up. Like this, finally ending their first day at The Academy.

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter there