He came back to the academy before dawn and climbed a building near the wall. Again, he jumped, and again, he ended up breaking a few bones. But since he had just stocked up on magic by eating good stuff, he was fine. The hardest part was getting back to his room. It's not that it was hard getting to his window, but it was because apparently, his roommate had finally arrived.
So with extreme caution, he silently got through the window. Then, he hid his stuff, including the three meat full tupperwares. Normally, he would have hit the bed right after, but he was bloody all over and wanted to hit the showers before people started waking up. As he was showering, he winced at the amount of blood flowing down the drain. He had to find a less... dangerous way to go hunt at night, or at least get better at jumping and landing.
An obnoxious bell woke him up from his slumber. He immediately put on his sunglasses, which he didn't wear when he slept for obvious reasons.
But, as he was getting up, he froze when seeing his roommate in daylight.
It was the guy who had seen him last night, as his head was dripping in blood.
Quickly, he wiped the stunned expression from his face.
And, avoiding all possible contact, quickly took his stuff and flew to the classroom. His stuff included his books and magic fruits. Luckily, he had already dressed up for the day after taking his shower.
Sadly, he had to leave Scally in his room, after all he couldn't constantly go around with him.
As he arrived to the classroom, he noticed it was closed. Well, he was an hour early.
And so, since he had nothing to do, he went to the garden.
The garden was spacious and warmly lit by sunshine. There was lots of trees providing fresh shadow to the occasional benches along the stone path.
He sat down with an exhausted sigh.
He calmly enjoyed the fresh air. He slowly breathed in the magic, slowly feeling himself getting stronger. He really enjoyed the fact that he was alone in the garden.
Or so he thought. He noticed something laying in the grass further away, partly hidden by a bush.
Looking closer, his heart skipped a beat. Was that a dead body?
He got closer to the corpse, a foreboding feeling deep in his bones.
The corpse was laying face down on the ground.
'Nobody in their right mind actually sleeps like that..'
So it really was a dead body. A chill ran down his spine. He looked closer, and it didn't seem to be breathing either.
'What kind of idiot just leave the corpse in such an obvious place..'
But then, he paled.
Two people had been witness of the fact that he went out at night. And his roommate had seen him with blood on his face... He could be considered a very suspect person, and he could not afford to be investigated.
'I have to hide the body' he concluded.
And so, he tried pushing the body under the bush with his foot, but as he did so, it started twitching.
"Ugh.. Who's waking me up?" the corpse grumbled while waking up.
"Gasp!" he jumped in fright before realizing it wasn't a dead body after all.
The person turned around. It was the second year who had seen him outside the night before.
"You again? Why did you push me with your foot?" he asked in a grumpy tone.
"Uhm... the bell rang, so I figured I should wake you up so you don't miss class." He lied through his teeth.
"Hah! That's nice, except it's useless, since the automatic watering system would have soon woken me up anyway." He said in a somewhat superior tone.
So this guy used the automatic watering system as a waking up system. Ingenious? No... just, yeah, strange.
"Ah, I see. So, I'm uh, going now." He said awkwardly before going away.
A bit sad he couldn't have the garden for himself, he went to the only opened spot, the cafeteria.
There was a lot of students inside, but it was wide enough to accommodate them all.
Not wanting to stand out, he took a bowl of oatmeal and sat down at some random table.
Glancing around making sure nobody paid him attention, he put a part of his magic berries in his bowl. After all, without them it would taste damn awful.
"Did you just add magic berries to your oatmeal?" a girl a seat away from him asked. She was wearing the red uniform and seemed to be a first year too.
He flinched.
"Yeah." He answered as nonchalantly as he could.
"Why? Don't they taste awful?" She said.
"It's an acquired taste." He retorted.
"Huh. Can I taste one?" She said.
Mathis looked at her.
"Yeah..." he said while reluctantly giving her one.
The girl hesitantly ate it. Then she turned pale.
"So bitter! Ack!" She said in disgust.
"Kara, why did you eat it?" another girl seated next to her said.
"Eh? I was just curious." She said, still frowning at the after taste.
"Kara, can't you see? That guy's a creep. He's wearing sunglasses indoors, also he's not part of the magic students." She whispered.
'Ouch.'
Of course, Mathis still heard her. He had very good ears.
"Oh... ehm." Kara felt awkward.
Mathis sighed and resumed to eating his oatmeal.
Without surprise, it tasted fine to him. So, he quickly ate and got up.
"Woah... that freak really ate it all." The girl sitting next to Kara whispered in astonishment.
Mathis, hearing it, sighed.
Was he that weird? Well, of course he was.
But he couldn't help but feel forgotten emotions beginning to wake up inside him.
'No... this is nothing, I can endure it.' he shook his head.
Still, he felt the people stare at him weirdly.
He looked at his watch. At this hour, the library should be opened, so he headed there.
He took a few books about beasts. After all, Hector told him studying them would greatly help him when evolving.
Time passed by without Mathis noticing and soon it was time to go to class.
Mathis felt dread.
Normally, he would do his uttermost to be invisible. But now... he was freakishly tall, was wearing sunglasses nonstop, and other things. Let's say he couldn't exactly be invisible. Though, normally other non magical students wouldn't mess with him considering his muscles.
Still, Mathis hated this.
When he entered the class, he could feel people staring at him. Pretending he didn't care, he took a random seat at the back, sat down and slumped on his desk, clearly signaling not to talk to him. He quietly listened to the people around him.
"What's that idiot doing with sunglasses inside the school?" A guy said.
"Maybe his eyes are really ugly." A girl suggested.
'She's not exactly wrong..' he thought.
Some people talked about him. He quickly earned the reputation of a weirdo. Mathis wasn't surprised.
But all of a sudden, everyone stopped talking. Curious, Mathis raised his head.
The mana analytics teacher had arrived. He was scary. Large scars ran along his face and even his scalp, making him kind of ugly. He was completely disfigured. Not only that, but his aura seemed bloody, too.
At least, no one was talking in his back anymore.
The teacher started one long monologue explaining the program for this year.
Of course, most students already knew everything he was saying, but it was probably mandatory.
Basically, normal classes were Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday and Friday were individual special classes.
Then, he babbled more random stuff. Something about evaluations and such.
Ma this had long since stopped listening to him. His mind had many things to worry about after all. Like his roommate. Hector still being asleep. His school reputation being such a mess since day one.
"You in the back with the sunglasses. Are you listening?" The teacher asked aggressively.
Mathis flinched and looked at the teacher.
"No..." Mathis said in all honesty.
"Well you should. This is important information you are missing." The teacher said before going back to what he was saying.
Mathis tried following what the teacher was saying, but with all his worries, it was hard.