In reality, he was leading Chris to a group of around ten people. They were some of the most influential people in the school as well. When Chris arrived, he took a look around. It was an area that little people went to, with an overhang to prevent easy view from the windows above, and it was wedged between two separate buildings, creating an alleyway. Chris also took note of the boys and girls who stood in the crowd. None of them were from his year, and he recognized a few of them based on old pictures of noble families. These were not the type to let up if they win, nor allow you to get away with making them look bad if they lose.

‘What to do, what to do? I could easily show off my power, but that would make me stand out. I was trying to keep myself out of the spotlight, but it seems that didn’t work out too well. I guess the best thing to do is just avoid them for now?’ Chris pondered to himself. He was interrupted by a boy around the age of sixteen with blue eyes and bright white hair, “Hey commoner, what do you think you’re doing stealing jobs from more deserving people, and making a mockery of the school. You’re supposed to be the number one student but you can only use basic elemental magic, and you chose sound magic to study?” The boy stepped closer.

Chris faked a goofy smile, “I’m sorry if I upset anyone, it’s just that I used to hunt when I was younger so sound magic sounded cool, and I don’t come from an influential background so I wasn’t trained in elemental magic all too much,” Chris pressed on with a facade of youthful innocence, “With caring upperclassmen like you around, I hope I can learn to better represent the school!” Chris finished his goofy speech, and the older boy seemed to reel back a bit, realizing he was bullying some little kid.

He was pushed aside by an older girl, “Do you really think that sort of act is gonna work on us. I saw what you did to my younger brother Edwin Herval, and I know you aren’t just some innocent little kid.” The white haired boy snapped out of Chris’ deception, “Yea, and besides that, this just proves more that you sweet talked your way into the assistant position. We will not be letting you go without teaching you a lesson.”

Chris jeered, “A lesson in what, my dear upperclassmen?” Suddenly a storm of wind began filling the alleyway, blowing hard enough to knock any normal person off their feet. Chris was smiling wide as he could mess with them back without any evidence it was him. The wind was so strong that the roofing of the alleyway was beginning to creak and crackle at the pressure, a few of the less prominent students were on the ground, and a few had run away. The only three on their feet were Chris, and his two “deeply caring” schoolmates.

Chris stopped the wind, as he didn’t want to damage school property, “Whew, that was a crazy wind, are you guys alright?” Chris turned his act back on, hoping to catch them off guard.

“You did that didn’t you, you little brat,” the girl roared. Chris faked a pout, “I was already laughed at for asking about wordless casting, are you guys making fun of me or something?” The older boy turned around to check on his friends and the girl pressed her hand on her face, not believing what she was seeing. She knew this was some weird act, and maybe he had a friend as backup possibly, but that was still some very well controlled and high level wind. When she looked up Chris was gone, he had quickly run back to his dorm when they looked away.

Chris dashed down the hallway, and flung open his door. Haven wasn’t entirely dressed, and began to freak out, “What is your problem dude, can you please knock or something?” Chris began to laugh, “Sorry man, I was running away from some of our dear upperclassmen and I didn’t want anyone to catch a look at where I lived.” Haven slipped some of his shorts on as the school day was over, “Why were you running away from them? Did you make em mad?” Chris smiled, “Well you know how I decided on sound magic, and how I’m the teaching assistant for Magical Engineering? And also how I’m basically a commoner in a school full of obnoxious nobles?” Haven began to laugh, “Ahh I see where this is going, they were jealous and tried to intimidate you, you made sure not to piss them off too much, then ran away?”

Chris shook his head, “Why do you know me so well?” Haven looked at him unblinking, “Because I’ve been stuck with you for the past two years?” Chris thought for a moment, “Is the cafeteria still open? I stayed behind to help out some classmates, so I didn’t get dinner yet.” Haven looked out the window, gauging the general time, “Yea, I think it stays open for another hour. I’d go with you, but I’m already in my comfy shorts,” Haven pointed down at his shorts just to emphasize his point.

Chris left his room, and walked to the cafeteria. When he entered there were a few people around, and there wasn’t a ton left over to eat. Chris grabbed a plate and sat down. He was really hungry as he hadn’t eaten in around eight hours. He began to shovel in food as he noticed the group of ten that had confronted him come into the cafeteria, their hair super messy, and generally looking upset. Chris thought of a great idea, ‘This is a public space, they can’t do anything but try to pressure me with words, and I’m sure they wouldn’t be happy to see me.’

Chris smiled and waved at them, “Hey guys, if you wanna sit with me, I have a whole table to myself!” They looked over at him, looked away, then looked back over realizing that the person they had just spent twenty minutes looking for was just happily sitting in the cafeteria. They began to whisper to each other, then grabbed some food, and sat down next to him. The white haired boy sat directly next to him, and the fiery woman sat across from him. As the boy sat down, he wrapped his arm around Chris, hoping to exert some physical pressure only to meet a resistance he couldn’t overcome.

Chris smiled, “I’m glad we can get along, I was worried you guys would be mad at me!” Chris decided that the act might work better in a more open and public space, as well as giving him plausible deniability if they accuse him of something, as he did recognize a few faces from his Sound Magic class.

The woman across began to start in, acting as fake polite as she could, “May we ask you where that wind came from, and how you got away so quickly?” Chris looked like he was thinking for a moment, looking up, like he was trying to see in his brain for ideas, “I don’t know where the wind came from, but I do know I just ran away quickly. Sorry I don’t know about the wind though.”

The girl looked a bit stumped, “Wait, you just ran away? I didn’t hear any noise, and as well you can run that quickly?” Chris turned from smiling to cold, “You said you saw my match with your brother didn’t you? Don’t look down on him, he did as well as anyone would have. Yes I can move that fast.” Chris began to smile again, “Ohh, also also, I had cast some sound magic on myself a bit before I came over because someone complained I stomped my feet too loud.”

The constant shift between his ridiculous claims, childish innocence, and brazen confidence and understanding of the situation he was in was quite intimidating. The white haired boy spoke up, “Well I think I go for all of us when I saw, sorry for catching you off guard earlier. We did just want to clear up a few things, but I think our tempers got the best of us.” They didn’t have enough information to go off of. Did he have a strong partner, did he prepare himself or was it just a coincidence, and if he can move that fast, would their magic even work on him? There were a few disagreements from the rest of his group, but he shot a look, and they all quietly ate dinner together.

After that Chris noticed a few people spying on him from time to time, but overall his first few weeks went well. He worked on his sword in the presence of Mrs. Hernyr, and she gave him the materials he needed, as well as the tools and a few bits of advice. She was amazed at his control over fire, water, and wind as he worked on the sword. He removed some of the metal in a clear and concise way, warming the mana crystal enough to mold it, and shaping it to fit in the hole his sword now had within it.

He focused his mana into the crystal, etching the mana saw spell he made before he came here into the crystal. The teacher noticed him filling the crystal with mana, and thought that it was simply just pure unset mana, but in reality it was the complex methodology that was required to create one of his strongest spells with little focus. Before the mana crystal was entirely hardened, he placed it into the sword, filling in all the holes that he created. Then he took the metal filings he shaved out of his sword, and slowly began melting them back onto the sword.

He used magic to construct the correct shape using cool air pressure, and then used heat to seal the sword back together. He then heat treated his entire sword, cooled it down with water, and then resharpened it. There were now a few places where exposed mana crystal allowed for the flow of mana in and out of the sword far easier, including the bottom of the handle.

The process of his crystal technique was far more advanced than any boy outside of manufacturing families, yet here he was, needing minimal help with his first ever crystal design. He was even able to reconstruct his sword in almost perfect condition.

“If you ever have any other designs for how these crystals can be used, feel free to let me know, and I will gladly help you design them. It has been a joy watching you work!” Mrs. Hernyr said excitedly as Chris polished off his work. Chris smiled, “That’s great because I have one more design I wanted to work on.” He pulled out a sheet of parchment from his academy outfit. The design was complex, peculiar, yet could be very useful for mages. The basic design was a piece of cloth that had thin strings of mana crystal woven throughout it, allowing for the use of the crystal to be inconspicuous, and allowing for the clothing to maintain its original look.

“This design is wonderful, but a machine that would be necessary to weave such a thing is not available to us in the lab,” his teacher seemed a bit disheartened. Chris pulled out a simple needle used for sewing, and then he grabbed a mana crystal from the stack. He slowly heated it, to the point where it went from soft to slightly brittle again, and then slowly began to pull a strand off of it.

The process was extremely slow, taking around four hours to turn a small crystal into a wad of semi-usable string. He spent the night in Mrs. Hernyr’s lab, while she watched in awe as he slowly weaved the mana string throughout his school jacket. He made sure to stick to the underside of the jacket, not piercing the above layer, and from a glance it just looked like the seams were a bit darker. In reality Chris now had a jacket that once enchanted could be a national treasure to his country.

After finishing his sewing work, he headed back to his dorm just a few short hours before his first class the next day. He immediately crashed, only to be woken up by Haven and the Sun’s blinding light shining through the window. He grabbed his newly customized jacket, and headed to class.