Bryan’s office was in disarray. He seemed rather discombobulated, but he kept searching for anything that could’ve been stolen. “You should return, class is starting soon.”

“You sure you alright?” Aiken gathered some papers and binders in order to help him.

Bryan nodded hesitantly. “I’m not sure of anything, man.”

“Well,” Aiken shrugged, “me neither. But you should be careful.” He encroached his friend in order to lower his voice, “Someone made an attempt on my life last night. At least, it seemed that way. So, really, be careful.”

“What? You should tell the headmaster,” Bryan advised.

“Nah, don’t trust her. She’s way too shady, dude.”

Bryan nodded admittedly.

In class, Aiken found that since Lana spoke to him as a friend instead of an enemy, others would come around occasionally. That reminds me, I should read that file on her family.

When break time came around, he asked Instructor Watkins some questions. “Can you tell me about the rank-up test?”

After their discussion, he learnt the test was divided into three categories, depending on what kind of career you wished to pursue. The first and most populated category was developing technology, like orby. I guess it’s thanks to the techs that they have magical printers in the faculty room, huh?

The least popular category was exploration and discovery. These people were focused on finding old relics lost to the ages. As such, they were equipped with much better survivability tactics and magics and were mainly tested on that.

The third and most popular category were battlemages. These guys were focused on big flashy spells of destruction, which seemed popular with kids. Despite being the most paid, the battlemages still had to risk their lives. So, most people went to the technology route because it was the most stable.

Aiken, however, in his desperation to see just what benefits increasing his tier gave, decided to join all three. And as such, he had to skip class for that week. What they taught simply wasn’t useful to him, since he could see magical diagrams of anything he focused on.

Because of his achievement in the Wizzier incident, he was granted full use of a practice room in the school. Headmaster Fendora watched him through the special glass, along with some other members of staff.

Since Aiken wasn’t sure exactly what criteria the tech and exploration categories were judged off, he focused on the battlemage category. He practised wind, fire, and water magic, but didn’t feel much of an improvement to them. He tested the difference between using a staff and simply using his hands. I, don’t get it. Was he not using the staff correctly? He shrugged the thought off. Even if he asked questions about it, the answers probably wouldn’t help him, so he used his hands as an outlet for magic instead of the staff.

Soon came time to test his limit, so he began pushing as hard as he could to get as big a flame as possible. The flames were about the height of a three-story house. He realised then that even though he could probably have a huge collection of magics due to the diagrams he saw, the power behind them didn’t go past a certain point.

“Whatever,” he dismissed it. If those attackers had a field day with the city guards, and he was able to beat the attackers as easily as he did, then perhaps the power of his magic was not the problem.

He sat back for a couple minutes and pondered about letting the members of staff to the school see how easily he could simply imagine a magic he wanted to use, and be able to cast a powerful version of it. He didn’t like knowing that they were watching him, but if the rank-up was in just one week, and Bryan’s girl was due in three months, how could he possibly complain about the unwanted spectators? He hadn’t the leisure of postponing.

I feel like a cheat character, he chuckled. In his head, he imagined granite. Like clockwork, the magical diagram for it lingered in his mind and he traced it. Once he traced it, the diagram for hardy stone was added to his repertoire. He tested it out and created a massive wall in front of him out of thin air. He could adjust the thickness, shape, and anything he so wanted on the fly.

Thanks to Bryan constantly yammering about a granite countertop that he installed, Aiken knew it was a sturdy stone and would outperform ice for situations where he needed to defend himself.

Through this, he realised he could zero-in on particular solids, liquids, and gases. So, Aiken spent the entire day thinking of the best combination of diagrams for as many situations he could possibly conjure.

Around lunch, Lana paid him a visit. Aiken’s shirt and trousers were soaked in sweat, so he submerged himself in water and removed as many impurities as he could before she came close – wouldn’t want her dying from inhalation.

“Hungry?” she sat down next to him. “Wait, what were you doing?”

“Developing spells. And yes, I’m dying. Please feed me,” he threw his sense of shame away.

As they conversed, a lot of the staff who spectated left. Aiken looked Lana directly in her eyes and blanked out. His mind floated around, pondering what he should do with Lana. He knew he was gaining leverage over her because she liked him, but he wondered if he should use that to manipulate her or not.

His time was short, and he felt he might need backing soon. Aiken mused over whether or not he should have accepted adoption from some highborn family. Despite knowing very well that they wanted to use him, he would also use them because they would be afraid to lose him as an asset. “Hey Lana,” he cut her off from whatever she was ranting about, “I want to talk to your father.”

She went silent for a suspiciously long time before asking him his reason.

Aiken laughed, “Do you want the truth or do you want to hear what you want to hear?”

“Hmm,” her face went deadpan, “so is it money or some favour that you want?”

“I love how blunt you are sometimes,” Aiken smiled. “I just want him to owe me. There are things happening right now that I can’t really discuss with anyone. If something unexpected should happen to me, I’d like to know that someone would stick their neck out for me – figuratively of course.”

She grumbled, “I’m only doing this because my father had an interest in you to begin with. You should be wary about asking us highborn for favours as a lowborn. Meet me in the classroom after school.”

After she left, Aiken practised until school was just about dismissed for the day. His orby shook a little, and Bryan’s voice came through. “Dude, get to the central courtyard right now!”

Aiken sprinted away, finding that there was a commotion going on. Battlemages, armoured to the teeth, arrested Headmaster Fendora and escorted her in magical bindings out the school. To say he was confused was an understatement at that point.

First, a city-wide attack on Wizzier, then an assassination attempt on Aiken’s head, followed up by an apparent burglary in the school’s library where Bryan worked. “And now Natalie gets arrested,” Aiken thought out loud. He didn’t know if those events were connected or not.

“We found out what was stolen,” Bryan suddenly appeared next to Aiken. “We got a lot to talk ‘bout, man,” he sighed wearily.

“Yeah, we do, but maybe not today,” Aiken shook his head.

Bryan propped his glasses up, “Hmm? Why not?”

“Because I got–”

An explosion blasted their eardrums and smoke was seen coming from Headmaster Fendora’s office. She used the distraction to escape her bindings somehow. A nova of air spread from her and blew most of the battlemages surrounding her away. Without hesitation, she sprinted toward Bryan and Aiken and covertly dropped a crumpled piece of paper next to them. Bryan stepped on it immediately in order to hide it, and they both just watched her effortlessly escape.

The school went on lockdown, but they never did find her.

What an eventful set of days they had, but life in Harallen wasn’t finished with them just yet.

Aiken sat with Finn Lyons, Lana’s father. The pudgy blonde man had a sickening smile on his face after he sealed a deal with Aiken. As far as Finn saw, the deal favoured the Lyons family heavily, whilst he basically gave nothing in return.

Well, Aiken wasn’t that stupid. Thanks to Lana’s own advice on what highborn families saw as valuable, he was able to make a deal Finn couldn’t possibly refuse. Even though she helped him, she didn’t know exactly what it was that they spoke about, so she simply asked him when he came out Finn’s office.

“Well, he promised he would do me a favour or two just like I wanted,” Aiken told her as they strolled along her walkway.

“And?” she stopped in front of him to get his full attention. “What do you have to give in return?”

“Well, I told him I’d help you get good grades in school, and well…” Aiken scratched his neck.

“Yeah?”

Aiken sighed. Man, I can almost hear the sirens. “Well, it’s not official yet, but, I’m your fiancé now.”