Chapter 23: School days

This first month of school was exactly what Theresa had imagined. She was acing all of her courses and she was pretty sure to be able to at least reach the fifth rank of control by the first test. That would be an even higher achievement than the principal himself!

Every morning she would first spend three hours studying various aspects of light magic. That was done in the secret underground class and training rooms. They could only be reached through a teleport circle that was located in a chapel designated to the light goddess next to the academy.

Most of the other students thought that they got trained in that chapel but obviously the light mages who were the clergy as well would not share their secrets so easily. So the only way to reach the inner sanctuary of the light goddess religion was through that teleport circle which again could only be activated using light magic. After the magic lessons another hour was designated to learn the ways of the light religion.

Light mages were the top of human society. The light clergy had even more power than the emperor himself. After all an emperor could die, their goddess would always protect them. Afterwards she would have another two hours of magic lessons for her other two elements. In the afternoon she would of course continue to cultivate. One could not reach the pinnacle of magic without the proper effort.

In the evening she had then time to spend with friends. Especially her best friend Maya. Maya was a very pretty fire and earth witch. Well it was kind of very rude to call someone a witch. Witch was quiet a rude way to address a female mage. Witch basically meant that you had a lot of mana and a good cultivation but very poor control. And that was certainly true for Maya.

She had an incredible amount of mana rivaling herself and her cultivation was absolutely not lacking. But she had a lot of problems when it came to control. The best way to describe her would be a bomb. She could throw fireballs that had an insane amount of power. But that was all there is to her magic: Throw out everything you have!

So even though it was rude the word witch kind of fit her perfectly. Maya didn’t really mind though. She often even referred to herself as a witch. That was one of the things Theresa really liked about her friend: She could take most things with a laugh. She was quiet the carefree character. She hardly ever sweated the details. But she hardly had any friends because she was honest to a fault and she always spoke her mind. But again that was something Theresa really appreciated.

There were not many people who were honest to her due to her position and talent. Maya looked a little bit childlike as well. Only 150 centimeters and a face that could belong to a twelve year old with short red hair and cute blue eyes one could think she was too young to be at this academy when in fact she would soon be sixteen years old. While thinking about her friend Theresa could not help but feel irritated. Ever since the opening ceremony she had been on the lookout for that young man that ignored her at the first day.

But even in the wind classes she could not find him anywhere and because she didn’t know his name it was hard to find out anything about him. Even her wind teacher Larius who definitely should know something seeing just how outrageous that guys talent was. But no matter how often or how she asked her teacher would always avoid the subject.

Something was just not right and that bothered her. Just as she thought that, two students both possessing green stripes passed by and what she heard stopped her in her tracks.

“Did you hear about that rumor?” “You mean the one that some kind of monster has taken up the top of the wind tower?” “Not a monster. Listen closely this is something that the students are not supposed to know about yet…”

The voices grew distant but before they were out of hearing range she turned around: “Excuse me Seniors?” She walked after those two students. With her most dazzling smile she asked when she reached them: “That conversation sounded really interesting, would you mind sharing that story with your junior sister?”

Both of their faces immediately became red as an apple. “Well, we are really not supposed to talk about this yet.” She put her hands together in a pleading manner: “Pretty please?” The younger one seemed to struggle with himself and then said:

“You would keep it to yourself right?” She smiled even brighter: “Of course this junior sister would never do anything do harm her seniors. It is just that i think i might know who you are talking about and i would like to return a favor to that person.”

The two seemed to relax a bit at that. “Fine. Listen up both of you. When i enrolled earlier this month, we all witnessed something no one could believe. But we saw it with our own eyes! On the first day in the first lesson one of the new students… I still can’t comprehend really what happened but he used levitation. Without any spell! Meaning that he claimed rank ten control on his first day. Something that no one has ever managed to do. Our Sensei had forbid us to talk about it for now. As you might know our wind department had never any good results within the annual tournament. So i think Sensei wants to keep him a secret until then. The highest room in the elemental tower is always reserved for the most powerful mage of the element right? So of course he now lives on the top floor of the wind tower.”

Theresa was dumbfounded. She had expected a lot but that was beyond her imagination. No wonder that youth seemed to be so sure of himself. The legendary rank ten. If this was real than he would outshine even her. There was no way that was possible. It had to be a trick of some sort. She absolutely would not accept this. She would find out what’s going on here that was for sure! With that thought she regained her composure. “Thank you seniors. Do you think there might be a possibility to meet that person?” They both looked at each other uncomfortably. “He hasn’t left the tower since and Sensei is not letting anyone approach. I guess asking Sensei would be your best bet. Maybe explain the situation?” One suggested weakly.

She gave both of them another bright smile and said: “Thank you so much seniors. I will no longer hold you off your business. Thank you for your time.” She gave a slight bow and left. He should appear at the monthly ranking. Otherwise he wouldn’t be approved in his rank. She would get her chance there.

The way things worked out were quiet favorably for me. I had my peace and quiet and that teacher I first thought was quiet incompetent actually turned out to be quiet useful. He would gather all the books I required and I had full access to the library. On top of that i got to live on the top floor of the wind tower.

This actually wasn’t too bad. Everyday I would have Tempest teach me wind magic during forenoon and in the afternoon i would research various types of magic. Of course with a focus on magic seals and constructions. But knowing about how humans use magic was quiet the advantage as well. I could now see a few ways to get rid of that hateful principal and even that magic formation wasn’t that big of a deal anymore. I found out from Tempest that if he was fused with me that he could not be banished. But the big problem was:

The humans actually had quiet a few capable mages. If the teachers would back him up… I don’t think that i can win yet. So either I had to become strong enough to take them all on or I had to somehow lure him away. Because outside of that formation even if he had all the backup in the world,i could send out Kam’ya to deal with them while Tempest and me would handle him. Well all i had to do was to bide my time and in the meantime work during nights on my shadow cultivation and during the day on my magic and research.

It wasn’t until the second week that i had lived here that Larius would come and invite me to the principal’s office. Well it had to happen sooner or later. I was mentally prepared or at least i hoped i was. It was not easy for me to meet the man who had killed someone equivalent to a parent but for my master’s sake as well as for my own, i had to keep my temper in check.

“We both knew he would want to see you at some point.” said Larius when he told me that the principal would like to see me. I answered outwardly calm: “Of course and i have been looking forward to it. To meet such an outstanding man is quiet the honor.” Arrogance or attitude wouldn’t help me here. Larius seemed relieved.

“Good that you see it that way. I really thought you would get irritated that someone interrupts your research.” I was by now on a first name basis with that quiet young teacher. He was quiet nice. For a human. I told him that i was researching how i could reproduce the barrier that surrounded the academy on a grander scale to protect the entire empire.

As if.

“It’s fine. He is the principal after all and the academy is providing me with everything i need, so i can’t be too ungrateful.” I say that with a dry smile. We both knew that the at least the wind department was getting way more out of me than the other way round. “Ah Asura, i can understand why you are so obsessed. But seriously i really do think you should get out some more. This can’t be healthy being bottled up in here all this time.”

I had told him a story of a young boy who’s merchant parents had been slain by beastkin and how that young boy escaped and lived for years in the beast territory before finally returning. I had to tell this kind of story because anything else was too easy for the academy to ascertain. Incidentally I actually knew about a caravan that had been attacked and wiped out by my father years ago. Argh always gives me a bad taste thinking of that as my father. Oh well. “It’s fine, i have everything i need. Now then shall we go?” So let’s meet that murderer again.

My sister has poofread, edited and corrected all the chapters. I will update all chapters tomorrow with an improved version. As already mentioned the first two arcs are gonna get revised at some point. Story will stay the same but i will most likely go into more detail, improve the writing style etc. cause i really think that i got better over the course of the chapters until now. Anyway enjoy the last chapter for today ;) Actually got 4 out! Not sure i can keep that pace tomorrow though. Good night folks