Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 8

“You’re free to go now,” the instructor says with a wave of his hand after placing the box onto the floor in front of me and turning around towards his bag.

I stare at him as he walks for a few seconds before stuttering, “W-wait a second! Why aren’t you…”

Instructor Leo turns around and looks at me with a confused look on his face, only for it to clear up as he says, “Well, the bastard might be crazy, but I’d never go against him. Not if I value my own life.”

He then turns around and continues walking whilst adding, “And besides. You’ve caught my interest, and I want to teach you.”

I blink a few times in shock before his first reason clicks in my mind.

Why would he be afraid of the doctor…?

Deciding to voice my question out loud, I ask, “But why would you be afraid of that psychopath?”

The instructor actually chuckles at that before saying, “If he hasn’t said anything, then I sure as hell am not.”

This answer only confuses me even further, but before I can ask anything else, he asks, “Aren’t your friends waiting in the tower?”

I open my mouth for a few seconds, but nothing comes out, so I close it again, grab the box, and begin making my way out of the room, still in a stupor.

However, right as I’m about to open the door to the classroom, I remember two things and turn around again.

“Wait, you said that you were going to go to more extreme measures to test me…” I begin before looking around the room and asking, “What did you mean by that? And what if this room is being recorded?”

“Don’t worry about a recording, the classrooms are all personal spaces of the instructors who teach in them, so the academy doesn’t have rule in here,” he says without taking his focus off of the paper he must have gotten from either his bag or his plane storage when I wasn’t looking, “oh, and I was originally planning on shooting you in the lung to test your immortality. It would have been easy enough to explain if you weren’t immortal, and I could’ve just had someone come in and heal you. Although if it wouldn’t have killed you had you been mortal, then I would’ve just shot you in the brain.”

A cold sweat emerges on the back of my neck as I immediately turn around and walk through the portal.

It isn’t until after I’ve already left that the thought to ask him why the doctor told him about me comes to mind.

The others notice me as soon as I come out of the door, but I turn to look at it again whilst debating with myself about whether or not I should go back in, only to turn back towards the others again.

I can ask him that on Monday.

“So what did he want to talk about?” Cyria asks with a curious look on her face.

I answer by raising the box that the instructor had given me, “He gave me a case for my sniper rifle.”

The four of them – with Rebecca apparently just having permanently joined what used to be our group of four – all look at the box with curiosity before we begin walking towards our next class.

As we walk, a chaotic wave of what-ifs pass through my head until I shake my head to snap myself out of it.

The doctor wouldn’t sacrifice his ‘perfect test subject’ by telling someone he thinks would blab about the secret. And even if the instructor didn’t have his trust – whether through fear or other reasons – it’s not like I can do anything to him.

Not only is the man a Class C magician, but he’s also the one who taught me how to use the only weapons I have any training to use. Although that isn’t much training as of yet.

And there’s no way I would ever be a threat to a magician who’s strong enough to wipe out an entire battlefield with just a spell or two. Not as I am now, and probably not for several years to come. Even if I could get close enough to hurt him, I doubt I’d even be able to get past his magical membrane. Not with how powerful and saturated it must be from his mana arcs and understanding of fire.

And besides. Having an instructor in my corner, hopefully helping me keep my secret should help a lot. Especially a fire Class C magician from the top fire family.

Which might actually be why the doctor told him in the first place, now that I think about it.

My thoughts are interrupted as I hear Aidan ask, “Nathan? Did you hear me?”

I turn to look at him before tilting my head and asking, “Hmm? No, what did you say?”

An exasperated look crosses his face as he shakes his head and says, “Seriously? Ya know, Nathan, it really makes me wonder where you go all of these times you lose yourself in your own head…”

Cyria giggles slightly from the side as we near the Meditation class’s door before Aidan continues, “Anyways, we were wondering if the instructor for Meditation would begin having us meditate today or not.”

I glance at Cyria for a second before focusing on where I’m walking as I say, “I doubt it. He said that we would get into some meditation techniques today. Not that we would be using any.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a distasteful look cross Aidan’s face, only for it to vanish again when Sophia looks at him.

Yeah, I’ll eat a bullet from my rifle if those two don’t end up together eventually.

In the end, the instructor just goes over the theories behind which meditation techniques are the best while also describing each of them. In detail.

And the class after that one wasn’t much better. All we did there was go over the strategy used in the most recent battle at the barren pass. Which ended just like every other battle has there. With our victory at the cost of a few magicians.

It does make me wonder why we bother to station men there anyways, but then I remember how much every other nation hates our guts. And if the White Kingdom and Entaria were to be able to converse through the pass, then the constant wars would be even more… troublesome.

My thoughts trail off as I see Amelia standing right outside of the high course tower as the doors open in front of me.

“Hello,” I say to her while walking through the door. “What’s up?”

She looks behind me for a second before focusing on me as she says, “I told the others that I’d wait here for you while they checked out the dueling arena.”

I tilt my head slightly in confusion and ask, “Dueling arena? They’re watching duels right now?”

“Yep,” she says with a nod of her head, “Do you wanna come check it out?”

After turning my head to look at the arena for a few seconds, I nod while beginning to walk towards it. “Sure.”

Amelia quickly catches up to me and walks next to me in a comfortable silence through the empty courtyard and in between the occasional shops.

Interestingly enough, this silence has always relaxed me. Not really sure what it is about it, but we’ve always had a strange relationship.

Not anything romantic, but more like she’s the sister I never had.

Neither of us talk all that much, and despite that, it’s never really made things awkward between us.

Although, Aidan’s always been the one to fill the air with his chatter. So that might explain some of it.