Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 8 | Day 14

One and a half months after the first trip

I block the other cadet’s pulse of wind by raising a shield of flames in front of my hand as I charge straight towards them.

“Shit!” the cadet grunts as he begins to step backwards slightly in the plain battlefield we’re on.

After getting enough of the distance between us closed, I drop my shield and activate another spell, causing a burst of flames to explode out from behind me. This gives me a major speed boost as I narrowly dodge the remainder of the cadet’s wind pulse and bring my sword about towards his neck, just for the battlefield simulator’s safety function to activate at the last minute.

I pull my sword back as I watch the cadet teleport out of the BFS with a grimace on his face before hearing the announcer declaring, “And the winner is cadet Nathan Fox, making his win loss ratio for the semester a clean forty wins and three losses!”

Hmm. Not bad.

I make my way over to the platform as the walls of the BFS around me begin to turn transparent, showing me the cheering faces of the many cadets in the room.

My eye twitches at the sight, but I soon find myself lowering down into the preparatory area beneath the BFS.

At some point, the other cadets stopped showing me animosity and instead started sucking up to me in the hopes that I’d give them the spell. And it’s been really annoying.

I quickly grab my stuff from the room before leaving out the back door to avoid the crowd. Just to immediately run into Aidan and Amelia, who are both waiting on the other side.

“Howdy,” Aidan says with a salute and a grin on his face. Meanwhile, Amelia just gives me a faint smile and a nod.

“With today’s win, I should be in the top ten cadets competing in the arena for our grade,” I declare while adjusting my grip on my rifle’s case.

“That’s good,” Amelia says as we begin to walk over towards the talent level 3-4 dorms, “now you just have to make sure you keep that position all the way through the last couple weeks of this semester, and the entirety of next semester.”

I groan at the thought of how many duels I’ll have to fight in during that time.

The two next to me chuckle at my expense, but I pay it no mind as we continue walking.

Eventually, we make it to our dormitory – or to be more accurate, my and Aidan’s dormitory – before going inside.

I glance at Amelia, who is still walking with us towards the stairs of the dorm.

As it turns out, she is allowed to go anywhere on the entire campus grounds with no restrictions.

Talk about favoritism.

But from what I’ve heard, she visited the academy several times before even getting into middle school. So…

My thoughts are interrupted as I hear Sophia and Cyria’s voices coming once we reach the second floor and begin making our way towards mine and Aidan’s room.

“And then we-” Sophia cuts off the moment she and Cyria turn the corner of the hallway leading to our rooms and sees us. “Hey!”

Cyria looks at me and nods before glancing at Amelia and frowning slightly.

I nod back without saying anything. Meanwhile, Aidan just leaves me and Amelia to go hug his girlfriend.

They really do make a good couple. Even if their lovey-dovey stuff gets annoying sometimes.

Especially when she comes to stay for the night.

I’m just glad we have soundproof walls.

I proceed to walk past the lovebirds in the direction of my room with Amelia still walking next to me.

“It’s good to see that he’s found someone,” Amelia says after we get far enough away that neither of them can hear us.

Without saying anything back, I nod my head in agreement.

Ever since Aidan’s mother passed away, he’s been lonely. Even if he doesn’t openly show it.

But thanks to Sophia, he seems to be getting back on track again.

A couple more minutes pass by in silence as we walk through the hall before Amelia eventually asks the same question she’s been asking for a while now, “Have you figured out what you’re gonna do about my aunt?”

And just like with the last few times she’s asked, I answer, “No. For now I’m just going to have to deal with her.”

Until I leave the school at least.

I keep my eyes off of her as the thought runs through my head.

It’s just too bad that I don’t know how exactly I’m going to be leaving the school. Just that the doctor said that I would be leaving at some point around the end of the academic year.

“You know you’re not going to be able to keep that attitude up for your entire time in the academy, right?” she says with just as much exasperation as usual. “Not unless you want to be dragged along by her. And I don’t want that for you.”

“Don’t worry,” I tell her with a light wave of my hand as we finally reach my and Aidan’s suite. “I won’t be dragged along by her.”

Not when I’m already being unwillingly dragged along by that damned doctor, who I’ve recently realized was the fucking Class S space magician. It only took the sight of the man appearing through a purple portal for me to realize it.

Why a Class S magician is working as a doctor in a children’s clinic is beyond me, but just the thought that I’d been meeting with him on a regular basis for so long…

A shiver runs down my spine at the thought while I open the door to my and Aidan’s suite of rooms, revealing the living room area.

Also, I’m not sure why the doctor stopped trying to hide his identity from me.

Maybe something happened that I’m not aware of?

I shake my head at the thought before turning to glance at Amelia, who is closing the door behind her, and then walking up to the tv.

Might as well check the news.