Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 9 | Sunday

When I get back to the dorm, Aidan and Sophia are nowhere to be found, so I just grab my weapons and begin making my way towards the Magical Warfare class.

At this point, it’s around eight A.M., so there are a little bit more people walking around outside than there were earlier, but still not very many. Although, when I look in the direction of the arena, I find quite a bit more people than everywhere else. Which shows just how much the people – both cadets and instructors – care about the duels in the academy.

That aside, it takes me around half an hour or so to get to the tower from our dorm – which is a pretty far walk if you ask me – before I enter it to find a few instructors walking around, with no one stationed at the receptionists' desks.

I guess they aren’t expecting anyone to need any help in the tower on a day off.

Walking past the empty desks, I make my way through the hall until I reach the back of the first floor before touching the door for my Magical Warfare class and feeling it scanning my body like normal. It then lets me open it and I pass through into the room, only to pause as I see the large door at the back of the room open with a large purple portal in the doorframe, with the doorknob of the door itself missing.

“The hell?” I mutter out of confusion before walking further into the room. Once I make it around the empty BFS to get a closer look at the door though, I jerk backwards slightly as someone – who turns out to be Instructor Leo – steps out of it, covered in sweat and dirt, and armed with a sword and a sniper rifle.

Where does that-

My thoughts are interrupted as the instructor – after a brief moment of surprise at seeing me – starts walking over to the magi-tech board and says, “Don’t ever go through that portal without me around.”

“Uh…” I utter, glancing at the portal, only for the instructor to press some sort of button on a tiny remote that I hadn’t noticed at first in his hand. The remote then disappears and the large door shuts, with the doorknob reappearing on the door at the same time.

“Although with your immortality, I guess it wouldn’t be too much of a problem if you ended up on a random battlefield,” he adds while taking his rifle off of his back and storing it into his plane storage. “Assuming you don’t get caught on it by a magician.”

I look between him and the door again before focusing on him as I ask, “A random battlefield?”

That door leads to a random battlefield? Is that really very safe?

“Yes,” he says without elaborating, “So are you here to train? Or just to ask more questions?”

His words snap me out of the stupor I was in, and I answer, “Both.”

This seems to catch his attention as he finally turns around and looks at me with an eyebrow raised.

“I wanted to know why the doctor told you about my disease,” I state as simply as possible, deciding to just go all out with my questioning.

It’s not like I have anything to hide from him anymore.

Surprisingly, a grin stretches across the man’s face as he straightens up slightly and begins walking over to the shooting range while saying, “Because the doctor didn’t think you’d be able to keep your secret without help. And having me – a well-known fire mage – there to assist you in training and as an excuse for your immortality would make it possible to hide it.”

My brows furrow in confusion for a few seconds before I realize what he means.

When the doctor told me to say that my immortality was a regeneration spell that someone gave me, he didn’t mean my family. He meant Instructor Leo.

And since the instructor is from the leading family in regard to fire magic, if people came to question my healing, then saying it was a spell he gave me would clear any questions asked of me by the other instructors or cadets here.

But…

“What about the headmistress?” I ask with a frown on my face. “I doubt she would be fooled by that.”

Instructor Leo simply stops in front of the shooting range and turns around before crossing his arms in front of his chest and shrugging.

“That’s your problem, not mine,” he says, almost making my jaw drop from surprise.

We proceed to stare at each other in the eyes for a few seconds before he turns away and looks at the shooting range while waving at me with his hands.

This just leaves me even more confused, until he says, “You wanted to train, right? Well, get to training.”

Snapping out of my stupor – for the umpteenth time in the past twenty four or so hours – I grab my sniper rifle and maneuver it around to my front while walking over to the shooting range to join him.

So, I guess he won’t be helping me past the bare minimum effort, and… whenever it strikes his fancy?

Yeah, he doesn’t make much sense. But he knows the doctor, so I guess that explains some of it.

Which does make me a little bit curious as to how he knows him, but considering what he said yesterday, I doubt he would share it with me.

With that thought in mind, I reach the shooting range next to him and begin my practice.

We actually end up practicing over the next three hours, with very few breaks. Just shot, criticism, shot, criticism, shot, criticism, and repeat.

However, after so many shots that I’ve lost count, the instructor finally says, “That’s good for today.” He then turns to look directly into my eyes as he adds, “Your so-called disease is actually really good for training your skills. Since you don’t ever tire.”

My brows furrow at the way he worded that before I ask, “So-called disease?”

Instructor Leo just stares at me for a few seconds before turning away with a sigh and saying, “Yes. Most people would kill to have your ‘disease,’ but you’re treating it like it’s something disgusting.”

Right as I’m about to argue, I realize he’s kind of right about that.

Although part of it is-

My thoughts are interrupted as he continues with a wave of his hand, “And yes, I understand that some of it is probably from trauma developed because of the doctor’s… care. But you’re not with him anymore, are you? Although how you got him to let you come here and leave his experiments is beyond me.”

Wait… huh?

I don’t know what to comment on first. That he knows exactly why the dise- immortality is bothering me, or what he meant by ‘got him to let me come here.’

Just who is the doctor to even have a say in whether I come here or not? After all, he would have to be able to excuse me from service to do that.

The instructor already said that he wouldn’t tell me who the doctor is, so I shouldn’t even bother asking about the second part, and I guess he really does know the doctor pretty well.

Because in all honesty, if someone knows how the doctor is, they’d probably be able to guess that he’d be very interested in experimenting on me. And they’d know that he wouldn’t stick to ethical experiments either.

That said, he at least limited himself to only doing stuff during our normal checkups.

And with my options being that or being imprisoned and experimented on forever, it was the obvious choice.

“Anyways, you shouldn’t blame your immortality for things humans do,” the instructor says after watching me think for a few seconds. “It’s just not healthy.”

These words echo through my head for the next several moments as the instructor turns around and begins walking over to the magi-tech board again.

It isn’t until a few minutes later, when I hear the instructor suddenly clap his hands, that I snap out of it and slap myself in the face to wake myself up.

He’s right.

A bright smile lights up my face for the first time in years.

“Now that you’re not moping anymore, how about we take advantage of your immortality to work on your magic circles?” Instructor Leo says, bringing my eyes back towards him, only for a shiver to run down my spine as I see the grin lighting up his face. “Because I know you’ve probably been practicing on your own, despite my warnings.”

Well, shit.