The class was over, with Instructor Campbell nowhere to be found in the classroom anymore. Footsteps surrounded the room. One by one the students raised up from their seats and Arthur was no exception. He walked towards the exit while reading his map of the academy.
"Magic Theories...Magic Theories.." Unknowingly he said his thought out loud.
"You're looking for Magic Theories room?" One of the students approached him.
Arthur was startled and turned his head towards the student. He saw a young man with a book in his hand. His hair was straight and long with black in color and covers half of his face. Arthur was puzzled and asked, "How do you know?"
"Haha. You let your thoughts out loud, of course I would know, and lucky for you I'm heading there too, so I think a little company would be nice." The young man laughed.
Arthur was embarrassed and wanted to hide his face. But he was interested in the young man offer and replied, "Oh! Yes, thank you, and I'm Arthur, Arthur Godfrey, and you are?" He extends his hand to offer a handshake.
The young man takes the handshake and said "So your name is Arthur. I only watched parts of your fight so this is the first time I heard your name. And my name is Leonard Ramirez just call me Leo."
He heard what Leo said and can't help being uncomfortable by his suddenly famous status. He just let out an empty laugh and sighed, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Leo." He said after.
"Let's just drop the pleasantries, Arthur. You're a friend now! And friend doesn't have to use honorifics with each other haha!" Leo laughed while letting go of the handshake and proceeds to wrapped his arm towards Arthur's shoulder.
Arthur felt a little awkward by Leo sudden actions. He just smiled wryly and said, "Ah...Y-Yes, s-shall we moved on to the next class then. Hehe..." Even his laugh is awkward.
Leo was surprised and finally remembers his initial purpose. He pulled back his arm and laughed, "Yes! I almost forgot! To the next class shall we!" He said cheerfully.
'What a weird man...But, he's nice, and his cheerful vibe makes him approachable I guess.' Arthur analyzed Leo behavior. This was the first time he met a man with this personality, and he just didn't know how to react. So instead, he just talked when necessary and kept his silence to observe him more. As if Leo was a brand new species in his eyes.
The two walked side by side, going through one of the academy hallways. Arthur saw the lively activity in the academy. One student passed him while running, a group of students gossiping with one another, and he also saw students kissing each other. It was quite different compared to the lives in the village, much more different in fact.
----
"Alright, we've finally arrived!" Leo said in a cheerful manner
A big double door was standing in front of him. On the side of it, a sign can be seen hanging that read, "Magic Theories". Arthur saw Leo opened one of the doors and a big classroom greeted him. The classroom was quite similar to the classroom from before, with the only exception of the inclusions of a magic circle in the front of the classroom replacing the big blackboard.
Arthur examined the classroom, while suddenly someone grabbed his arm and dragged him. He turned his head and found out that it was Leo.
'WHAT! I CAN'T RESIST AT ALL! AM I THIS WEAK!!' Arthur yelled in his mind, he was left hopeless by Leo strength. His foot stumbled again and again, he tried to move his arm but it just won't budge. Left with no choice Arthur just accepted his fate. He just felt empty and want to cry it out loud.
Arthur ended up sitting beside Leo on the middle row of the class. Still feeling dejected he just put his head on the desk, agonized by his weakness. His pride as a man was crumbled by that single scene. 'JUST YOU WAIT!!! I WILL GET STRONGER!!! FUCK YOU AKASHIC RECORDS!!!' He cursed in his head while gritting his teeth. To be fair, the Akashic Records did nothing wrong to Arthur body, it was his natural constitution and Akashic Records like the name was just a compiled records.
Click
Sounds of finger snapping reverberated across the room. Arthur raised his head and looked towards the front of the classroom where the sounds come from. Vice Headmistress Morgan was standing there without his notice. There were no footsteps or even slight sounds that indicates her arrival.
The class then suddenly becomes quiet. The students were sitting upright afraid of catching her attention, their eyes were focused towards the Vice Headmistress, and Arthur was no exception. She smiled, and all of the students felt cold in their back as if that smile would lead to their demise.
Morgan scanned his environment and said "Aye. Let's ave the class start then! Oh! And in ere call me Professor and not Vice Headmistress. As ye can see I'm teaching ere not because I wanted to but because under certain circumstances we ave fewer professor in ere. Enough of the small talk, I'm ere to teach ye about Magic Theories, and while we're at it let's ave a little game" Grin can be seen plastered on his face.
Arthur shuddered at the part where Morgan said a little game, same with the rest of the students. He also noticed that the cheerful Leo from before was nowhere to be found, and instead what he sees was Leo, shaking from his head to toe.
Ignoring the student's reaction Morgan continued, "The game is simple, I ask ye a question, ye answered right ye stay ere, ye can't answer I will send ye to the monster's pit. Simple right." She smiled.
Gulp
All of the students in the class was drenched in cold sweat. Arthur, on the other hand, was quite relaxed, because he was confident in his knowledge of Magic. While the same can't be said with Leo, he shivered and looked like someone that had a panic attack. Arthur pitied him but alas he can't do anything about it.
Morgan nodded, "Aye! We start with the three laws of magic. Ye! Boy on the back row, answer it!" She said with her slender hand pointed to the male students in the back row.
The male student flustered, "U-um, It's-a-It's-a—" He stuttered trying to remember it.
"What? Cat's got yer tongue? Hahahaha" Her vile laugh filled the classroom, and continued, "Aye! Yer all a greenhorn after all, so let's ave it ends the game ere."
All of the students sighed a relief not excluding the male students on the back row seat. He felt like a big nail on his heart was being lifted. But, not for long.
Click
Morgan snapped her finger and the students were nowhere to be found. He was transported to the monster's pit, and all of the students shivered once more.
She let out a wicked smile and said, "I never said about ending his punishments, only the game. Now, let's continue, Arthur! The same question explains it."
Arthur was startled by the sudden question, he cleared his throat and said, "The three laws was the source, the caster, and the spell."
"Good answer!" Morgan clapped and continued, "As stated the three laws were the source which means the Aether. The caster that has the ability to control or mutate it into Mana. And the spell, that would mean the magic circle, rune, oral commands, or even the way I snapped earlier, it just a matter of preferences and the only thing matters was yer knowledge of the spell and its structure. Besides the laws, there are conditions too. The conditions serve the purpose to either strengthened the spell or set instructions to the spell. I would assume ye all ave seen Arthur battles, this was the perfect examples of conditions. He set the fields with rune traps filled with conditions. The conditions are simple, if someone other than himself walked near the traps, it will trigger the trap releasing the spell inside. Isn't that right boy?" She smiled towards Arthur.
Arthur was amazed by her deductions on how his magic works and nodded at the response. Arthur also noticed Leo stared at him with his glittering eyes, that says you're amazing.
Satisfied with Arthur reaction, she continued, "It sounded so simple right, but it's not. Arthur ere can manage to add two conditions on his spell and because of his status as a genius, his limit is three conditions with the downside of it slowing his casting speed, and five conditions were the upper limit for a classless caster. And, if he acquired his class as a caster then it would be four conditions and five if he mastered his class, past that, his brain would ave a meltdown by the amount of information he must process."
The classes were filled with murmurs, they were mainly discussing the limits of conditions. Arthur stayed calm because he already knew it from his aunt Phiria that tutors him about magic. Do mind that Phiria was a master, stated by the fact that the village of Remy only accepts masters as it's residence.
Click
The sound of snapped fingers brings the class to its silenced state. Morgan crossed his arm under her chest area and making her personalities seems, bigger, and said while pacing back and forth, "Now let's talk about the difference between a classless caster and caster class. First, ye already knew the difference in conditions limit. But there's more to it, the ability to absorb aether, and the ability to learn the advanced and class-specific spell.— The biggest advantage of being a caster class would be the abilities to absorb aether and automatically process it into mana. With that, it would eliminate the process of the caster to control or mutate the aether into mana, and in return would add a big advantage to the caster casting speed. Any question?"
The class was filled with murmurs once again. Arthur scanned the classroom and he sees one brave girl in the front row seat lifted his hand.
"Um...Professor, what's the difference between controlling and mutating the aether?" The girl asked with a meek voice.
Morgan looked at the girl and smiled, she answered, "The difference between the one that controls the aether and the one that mutates it. Controlling the aether would mean a more stable spell would be created, with a low percentage for the spell to be backlashed back to the caster with the downside of it consumes more time to be casted. Mutating it, on the other hand, were more like a high-risk high-reward type of situation."
Arthur was also wanted to ask a question, but he didn't know if Vice Headmistress Morgan would answer it or not. His curiosity is slowly biting at his mind, he thought, 'I want to ask about the Akashic Records but I didn't know if it's related to magic or not...mhmhm...Whatever I'll ask anyway!' Arthur found the resolution he needed and lifted his hand up.
"Aye! Didn't know you had a question there boy. What is it?" Morgan was curious by what Arthur question might be.
Arthur cleared his throat and said, "Professor, I didn't know if this is related to magic or not, but I want to ask about the Akashic Records."
Her eyes glinted with surprise, and said, "Akashic Records? Hmm...Well, there's no harm telling ye all about it. The Akashic Records were a collection of records of all things in the universe. And was deeply related to the black obelisks in the seven seas. Akashic Records also the one that would grants you, your class and bless you with class traits after you obtained that. Other than that, there's not much we knew about. Maybe, it's created by higher beings than us, or It's just the will of the universe. Don't dwell too much on that, because even the brightest scholars and scientist of our time were stuck at a dead end by its mysteries."
Ding
Ding
Ding
Ding
Everyone in the classroom heard the academy bell. It was indicating the lunch periods. Morgan then wrapped up his class, and said, "Aye, that's it for today! Class dismissed!" And snapped her finger after, teleporting her away from the class.
Arthur was still dazed by the explanations, it's not like he didn't know about the Akashic Records, he already knew it from her aunt, Phiria. But, hearing the same explanations were given by Vice Headmistress Morgan made him realize that this universe were filled with countless mysteries just waiting to be explored.
'What's next? Specialized Weapon Training?' Arthur lost in his thought. While suddenly Leo tugged his arm with his glittering eyes.
"What?" Arthur asked.
"You didn't tell me you're a genius at magic!"
"Well, I didn't consider myself a genius."
"And you're a bad liar. Teach me! Teach me! Teach me!"