Today was the first day of classes, Mary would have three of them. The first two together with Taimanu, the first manacontrol, a mandatory class for every student. The second was not magical at all, and simply called physical fitness, only required for those who wanted to join the adventurers guild.

The last class was for the new sorcerers, they would be taught how to properly use their magic.

On the way to breakfast, something very unpleasant happened.

“OUT OF THE WAY!” Someone behind them yelled. All of the older students around them immediately did so, obviously cowed by the shouter. Mary just ignored him and continued on. Suddenly she was thrown out of the way by someone way bigger than her.

After regaining her balance, she looked at the people that threw her out of the way. The group in question was consisted of older students, probably two years older than her. Just as she was about to yell them what she thought of them, a dwarf spoke to her.

“Are you ok?”

“Sure.”

“I know that look on your face, you shouldn't even think about it, the seventh son of the emperor is someone you shouldn't try to piss off!”’

“You’re right about that, thanks for the warning. I’m Mary Falconbridge by the way.” His eyes widened after hearing her name.

“I'm Agnem Amberforged, nice to meet you, my lady.” He looked at Taimanu, who managed to jump out of the way in time, a lifetime of living in the forest coming in handy.

“I didn't even know we had a beastkin in the academy?”

“That's Taimanu, she is a Lynxkin and the daughter of her tribe’s chieftain! And leave the stupid my lady! It's hard enough when my maid does it. How did you know I'm a noble?” The dwarf turned to Taimanu.

“Nice to meet you, it's been a long time since I met a young beastkin, I'm Agnem Amberforged!” Turning back to her he spoke up again.

“My family is from the north. Your father was well liked in his domain. I was too young when he fell to remember, but my parents and all others alway tell me of the great time the north was united behind him. Your family will always be known in the north!”

“You are a noble, why didn't you tell me?” Taimanu chimed in.

“Yes, because it didn't come up. It's not really important for me, I grew up in an orphanage and was adopted with four.” The explanation, which woulndt suffice for a human seemed to satisfy the girl, the culture she came from was different from human culture after all.

Pointing at the prince's back, Mary turned to the dwarf once again.

“How do you know him?”

“I had some runins with him in my first year too, he joined two years ago I came last year. He is completely unsuitable for the academy, but because of who he is even the Academy had to accept him, they are only so powerful after all.”

“What does he even want to do with that attitude?” Taimanu asked.

“He is the seventh son of the emperor, his youngest, while the empire doesn't have the same stupid customs of inheritance like most, he is still at a disadvantage to his older brothers. He is sure he is the only true ruler of the empire.” Mary started explaining.

“To quell that disadvantage he joined the academy so he could become famous and prove his father he is ready.” Agnem continued.

“That won't happen in at least a century though, seeing our emperor inherited the imperial throne only ten years prior.”

Mary smiled at Agnem, he was quite knowledgeable for a nonhuman.

“How did you get to know all this stuff?”

“Learned most of it in the academy, deducted the rest myself!” He grinned at her.

“The simpleton isn't that hard to understand, I’m honestly surprised he is as good a mage as he is.”

“Well that runs in the family, they cultivate their magical prowess from very early on. They don't want to die early like emperor Aulus.” Mary recited what she learnt in the past years. “Thanks for the explanation!” Taimanu thanked them.

“By the way, what magic do you practice?”

“I'm going the same route my dad did! I aim to be a Smith-Enchanter! What do the two of you practice?”

“I’m an ice mage and Mary is a greater lightning sorceress!” Taimanu answered.

“That's quite impressive, see you around, I have to climb several flights of stairs to arrive in time. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

Mary and Taimanu hurried to their first lesson, the prince already forgotten. They were expected by twenty others, with another eight coming after that. The teacher arrived a minute before the lesson started, the doors opening the moment he approached them.

After they all were seated, the teacher, an older man of perhaps sixty years of age, a long beard and a pointy hat, wearing simple robes, surveyed the classroom, as if to assess each of them personally. He didn't even have a faint hint of his mana leave his body. Quite reassuring, the man obviously knew what he taught!

After finishing his inspection, he went to the front and his name appeared on the blackboard.

“Welcome to advanced manacontrol! I am Menateos Sabinus and will be teaching you in manacontrol. You have been lucky! As your manacontrol exceeds that of your peers, you thiry have the privilege to improve your control under me. All other classes have forty five students per class.

I will control if all of you are here. Afterwards we will start with the lesson.”

Manacontrol proved to be very interesting, though it would mostly be proactive later on, there was only so much one could learn about mana. To pass the class, they would have to cast an ancient rune Mary didn't know so far. She was pretty sure she would manage in a month if she really tried though.

As both Mary and Taimanu wanted to be adventurers, they both had to visit physical fitness. All of the people that would join the guild were present, together with several teachers. First, they were seperated into groups, depending on what role they would play in their party. Mary and all the other ranged mages made up the majority, while the lizardfolk and a few humans would train with enhancing magic.

The teachers split up evenly between the students and proceeded to test their limits.

Afterwards they were once agan split in groups and given a new time for the lessons. Mary’s would start tomorrow morning, just before her other lessons, and in three days again.

After lunch, she visited the last lesson for today. Among the two hundred and ten students of her year, only eleven were sorcerers, her already included. The teacher was a young looking man, and once again the doors to the classroom only opened after he arrived.

“Welcome to Sorcery! I'm Menateos Steborius!” He surveyed the room.

“As I see, we are quite the big class this year. Sorcerers like us are quite rare indeed. And a useful affinity like the ones you all have are even more scarce. Sorcery doesn't involve much learning, mostly experimentation! You all have more potential than the other students of this year, but you will have to work harder i you really want to unravel your full potential.

The path a magician of any other kind takes is predetermined! He will most likely focus on one specific school of magic and then learn a few spells supplementing him. We Sorcerers have to go a different route altogether. Sorcerers get even more powerful by evolutions than normal mages. Apart from the obvious increase in mana capacity and control every mage gets, a sorcerer’s affinity evolves with him, improving the sorcerer’s strength.

Unlike normal magic, which requires repetition, sorcery requires experimentation. There are certain similarities between the affinities, but every affinity is unique. So your goal, after we finish the first few lessons on theory, will be the exploration of these limits.

There is an enchanted room for each of you in the academy, where you can safely do so without the interference of others. I will join one or two of you per lesson, just to give you some pointers.”

“What theory does Sorcery have, we are superior in every way, just willing our mana do do everything for us!” Someone stated.

“That's a very short sighted approach my boy, true, there is way less theory to learn, but that doesn't excuse that attitude!”

“So what do we need to learn?”

“There are several things. First of all, I will teach you the runes of several important spells that every magician should know. Secondly, we will look at the differences of magical professions. Just because you are a sorcerer doesn't mean you have to pursue that.

As a matter of fact, I would very much think if the life of an adventurer is what you desire.

Sadly, for every magical craftsmen, there are three that throw their life away like that.”

They didn't do much more in that lesson, the teacher trying his best to convince them to pursue a more safe approach in their life. While his argumentation was sound, she knew her path lay in exploring the world.

With a content sigh, Branston Falconbridge leant back in his chair. It took more than three years, but everything was ready to be put in motion.

Ever since Viscount Snaketon had tried to ruin his birthday and traumatize his daughter, he took a few hours a week to prepare for this moment.

Back then, he had been sure he would only need a few months to find enough evidence to destroy the Viscounts social standing, but his rival proved to be really skilled at concealing his actions.

Things picked up only six months ago, when one of his informants finally found something he could use. As it turned out, the high fatality count on the adventurers participating in their bet was the doing of the scheming noble. Apparently, he hired several groups of bandits that had the sole goal of making sure the Viscounts team won.

After that, everything started to fall in place, as his people found more and more very useful information.

If he used even half of the effort he put into manipulating every competition he took part in in useful endeavours, he would have had a good chance to govern his own land by now.

As it stood, with his exceeding unpleasant personality and all his schemes, he destroyed the emperor's opinion reliably.

Somehow everything was falling apart. Everything he worked for over the last decade seemed to destroy itself. Every single ally he had acquired started to turn their backs towards him. Even though none of his more nefarious activities were found out, every single one that would decrease his standing with other nobles was revealed in quick succession, so practically overnight, he transformed from a really powerful into one of the weakest nobles in capital.

One of his servants timidly knocked at the door to his office.

“Sir, we just received a letter for you.”

“Give it to me!” He yelled at him. The servant quickly retreated afterwards.

Viscount Snaketon,

As you may have noticed, you appear to lose some standing among the nobility, something I am happy to tell you is my doing.

My condolences Baron Falconbridge.

“WHO DOES HE EVEN THINK HE IS! I WILL KILL HIM ONLY TO REVIVE HIM AND KILL HIM AGAIN!”

After screaming and insulting the other noble for another hour, his throat hurt but he regained some of his cool. As it stood, none of his serious crimes had been found out, so he would only get some severe fines. That would be problematic, but he could work around it. His reputation was dead, nothing he could do about it, but he would get his revenge regardless.

Without losing more time he set to work. He had found out the brat his enemy had acquired three years prior, went to a school of magic that taught both commerers and nobles. Why any noble would want to visit it was beyond him, they were in the middle of nowhere, and had to live in close proximity to lesser beings as well.

That helped him tremendously though, as it would be way easier to get rid of her there. Sadly there was no way for him to get to the former grad duke in any other way, he would straight up lose anything else he tried.