[[............]]

I woke up to a faint sound in my head, It was like buzzing but not quite, It made me feel slightly uncomfortable and nauseous, I could feel little bits of pain as my head throbbed where I could feel the buzzing, It was easy to ignore due to the pain I experienced yesterday, this was a warm summer breeze in comparison.

I lay on my bed looking at the ceiling relaying what happened the day before in my mind, everything that happened didn’t seem real, maybe it was a dream? I look at my left hand and see a small silver ring on my little finger, definitely not a dream then..

I go and grab my mana board from my chest and call home, I decided and made up my mind that I’d tell them everything that happened, I trust them but can’t help but feel nervous, the possibilities of questions like ‘what if they won’t love me anymore?’, ‘what if they think i’m an abomination?’, floated through my mind, however my mind was made up, even if the Master said not to tell anyone, I will tell them, afterall they are the people I love the most.

[Call Mother luu, correct?]

My mana board asks me for confirmation, I don’t hesitate,

“Yes, Call.”

after 10 seconds a window popped up which shows the caller in real time, this is another function of mana boards, they can be used to talk to people like you would face to face from a long distance, they are also sold on the market, I, however, got mine from the academy, good thing I told Mother luu to buy one.

“Ah! Little Zepp!, I thought you’d never call us! Me and the twins have been worried about you, quick, Sena, Sina, Zepp’s called us!”

I saw Mother luu’s beautiful face pop up on the window and her smile was giving me warm from even so far away, after she called Sena & Sina, I heard little feet piterpatering across the floor in the background,

““Ze!””

Two beautiful faces joined Mother luu’s in the window, I smiled brightly at them and said

“I missed you guys”

We then talked about all kinds of things and miscellaneous topics, after a while they realised my face grew serious, they asked me what was wrong and I explained everything that happened to me.

After I told them there was silence for a minute or so, I looked down and was nervous, all of sudden Mother luu’s voice broke the silence,

“I can’t believe that the horrible Master hurt you so much! my baby!, HOW DARE HE!?”

Sina and Sena nodded along with Mother luu’s comment,

“”HOW DARE HE HURT OUR ZE!?””

all three of them looked like they would rip the head off the Master if they saw him,

“I’m confused, why would that be the first thing you say after you find out I’m some strange race with weird magic to boot?”

They also now looked confused when I asked this question, Sena decided to speak for all three of them,

“Ze, it seems you don’t trust us very much, we love you unconditionally and even if the whole continent was against you we’d stick by your side”

Sina nodded again energetically,

“Yeah that’s right sis! we’re going to follow Ze forever!”

They both looked really energetic, trust those fellows to throw out lines like this in a serious conversation, I turned my eyes to look back at Mother luu, she just smiled,

“Zepp, You're my son no matter what, I’m agreeing with the girls on this!”

I almost teared up a bit hearing them all saying this, with a big smile on my face I nodded, We then talked about other things such as how the school is, what it’s like at home and so on, after talking to them for a good while I realised If i didn’t go now I’d be late for class,

“Mother, Sina, Sena, I have to go now, I won’t be able to call you for a while, Bye, I love you guys!”

“””Bye! we love you too!”””

I ended the call and renewed my resolution, I’m going to get stronger for all of them, at any cost.

-

I put on my uniform and headed outside the dormitories and into the castle through the main entrance, there were a lot of students out and about, I guessed they were all walking to class like me, the hallways looked brighter due to the amount of people walking through them in the day and I was surprised it was this busy, the other years must of resumed classes I thought to myself.

After walking around for a while I found my way to my classroom, everyone was already there and I seemed to be the last one to arrive, I sat down in my seat and Teacher Runru called me to the front of the class,

“Mr Alkery, I heard the Master fixed the fault in the orb, come and show me your status to me and the class.”

I got up and went to the front,

[[Show status]]

“There we go, very good, now I can teach you properly”

Teacher Runru was looked disappointed, he must of thought for something unusual, but being a totally normal status window he now looked bored.

When I showed my window to everyone I heard a few laughs and giggles, I even heard someone whisper to their friend “So weak”.

“Go back to your seat.”

I did as I was told and went back to my seat, on the way there I walked past the desk of Kuff Mol, he whispered to me whilst I walked past,

“Weakling, you don’t even deserve to be in this school, fucking scrub”

I ignored his taunts and just walked to my desk, Yamu, who sits behind me tried to console me,

“It’s alright Zeppy, don’t listen to them, they’re jealous that we’re friends, after all, I’m quite the looker”

“Yamu, I’m not sure if that was meant to make me feel better but i’m thanks anyway, I’ll just ignore them”

“Don’t worry about it, Bosses always take care of their underlings”

When saying that I didn’t miss her usual Gangster grin, this girl...

“Yamu… I’m not your underling..”

“Hmmmm okay Zeppy, you’ll come around eventually!”

-

“Okay class, today we’re going to be doing practical training, we will be training your magic and you’ll be learning how to control it, meet me in the training grounds with your training gear on in 20 minutes, Dismissed.”

Teacher Runru explained to the class what we’re to be doing today.

I go back to my room and grab my training gear, the training gear is the standard gear that the school gave us for training in, they are tight black trousers and top, they are designed for flexible movement and made of a material that gives elasticity and semi-resistance to low grade magic, the shoes and gloves they gave us are also made out of this material, they offer us protection and freedom of movement.

I put my gear on and looked into the mirror, I saw that it fit perfectly, me being 180cm tall, shoulder length black hair and yellow eyes, it fit my appearance perfectly, I was happy with how it looked and headed to the training grounds, once outside my room I saw my neighbour for the first time, he walked out of his room the same time as me and also had his training gear on.

“H-Hi Zepp, are you going to the training grounds?”

He was in the same class as me but I didn’t know we were neighbours till now,

“Hey.. uh, sorry what's your name, It must of slipped my mind?”

I tried to ask his name without sounding rude, he probably knew my name because Teach Runru called me out in front of the class today.

“I apologise for being so rude, not introducing myself first, my names Omil Eqil, nice to meet you, although i’ve seen you in class this is the first time we’ve spoke in person”

“Nice to meet you Omil, glad to have you as my neighbour, we better get going to the training grounds or Teacher Runru will kill us”

“Yes, of course, I think he really would kill us if we’re late”

We both decided to walk with each other to the training grounds, Omil is an elf, he has pointy ears and is around 160cm tall, green eyes, short fluffy blonde hair and an appearance that would be best described as androgynous, his face would be called cute, the only reason I knew he wasn’t a girl was because this is the male dorms.

-

Once we arrived teacher Runru called us all over,

“First, we’ll look at the magic you can do with your affinity magic , up first, Kuff Mol”

Kuff smiled with his arrogant attitude and walked forward next to Teacher, he then looked at me with disdain and activated his magic with his right hand, a small ball of wind appeared in his hand, it was a wind ball around 2 cm in diameter and width, it was small but it floated above his palm, Teacher Runru nodded and told him to try and throw it at one of the training dummies, he flicked his hand and it travelled towards the training dummy at around 20mph, it was slow but effective, the dummy which was shaped as a person was blown backwards from the impact.

“Excellent, that will be a good range attack if you develop it, there will also be more uses in the future, your magic uses will also expand if you develop in rank, okay next, Omil Eqil”

Kuff went back in the crowd of students and Omil came out, he looked slightly nervous being in front of so many people, he was obviously a shy person and speaking to me when I came out my room was probably him trying to make friends.

“Okay Mr Eqil, gather your mana and show us the magic of your most comfortable magic.”

Omil nodded and closed his eyes, after 5 seconds a white mist appeared around his body, it looked like a cloud appeared around him,

“very good, okay stop.”

Omil deactivated his magic and walked back into the crowd and next to me, I whispered to him,

“What’s your affinity and rank?”

“My affinity is light and my rank is E”

“Wow, that’s cool, I think you're the only person with the light affinity in our class”

“Yeah, it’s probably because I’m an elf, it’s not uncommon for elves to have an affinity to light”

“Ah that explains it, still, your magic was pretty cool”

“T-Thanks Zepp”

Omil looked embarrassed by my praise and even blushed a little and smiled, looks like he isn’t used to people praising him I thought to myself.

Yamu, who was next to us was also impressed and said

“That magic looked pretty cool Omil, and it must be, If I, Yamu Nith, is complimenting you”

“Ignore her Omil, shes a strange one”

“HEY! Don’t tell him strange things Zeppy, I’m the coolest”

“Hahaha by the way you guys are acting it’s like you guys are lovers”

Omil threw out that bombshell, he isn’t one for subtlety I see.

“No we’re just friends Omil”

I turn and look at Yamu to see what she’s got to say about this but I notice a red flush on her face, w-was she blushing?!

“w-w-were not lovers, just friends, yes just friends, no wait, he’s my underling! yes that’s what he is!”

“Yamu I told you I’m not your underling!”

Omil starts chuckling at our overly erratic conversation, then I hear my name being called by Teacher Runru,

“Mr Alkery, Your turn”

I walk out of the crowd and next to where teacher is standing.

I feel rather nervous about this because I don’t know any spells for my affinity magic, and I can’t even use it because the Master told me not to show anyone, luckily I know the lowest ranked spell of water magic ‘droplet ball’.

I close my eyes and gather the water element into my hand, after 20 seconds I can feel that I have gathered enough, I focus and try and bring physical presence to the water element mana, I focus really hard and after 10 seconds I get results, a little water droplet appears into my palm.

“Uh.. try throwing it to the training dummy”

Teacher Runru looks totally underwhelmed and bored, I try and keep it in physical form long enough and throw it towards the training dummy, It hits and disappears on impact leaving a tiny wet patch on the dummy.

I hear giggling coming from the crowd due to my weak performance and walk back into the crowd slightly embarrassed.

“Uhh, Next, Miss Nith”

Yamu energetically leaves the crowd and smiles when she reaches next to Teacher Runru, her smile would of been cute if not for the crookedness of it making her look like a gangster.

“Miss Nith, whenever you’re ready”

Yamu without even closing her eyes stretches her hand out towards the training dummy, from her hand a flame which I could feel from here shot out, It took the shape of a ball and flew to the training dummy and set it on flames and burnt it to ashes.

“Amazing! Miss Nith that was the best performance all day, you're a natural”

Yamu smiled and walked back next to me and whispered in my ear,

“Are you sure you don’t want to be my underling Zeppy, because I must admit I was pretty darn cool out there.”

Chapter 5

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Thanks for reading ;)