However, contrary to his hopeful thinking, he already felt annoyed during the first day of school.
"For this new term, you have to take Magic class as your core subject and I'm your magic instructor, Jered Johnson, graduated from Soraz Magic Tower."
It was now 3:30 in the afternoon and the time for Monday's second class. It was the first day of class after the two months summer break.
50 students of the first-year Class A were gathered in a lecture room inside the Magic Library Building.
For the new semester, we would have different core subjects to learn and this semester, all of us have to learn the Basic Magic subject.
The Magic Instructor in charge of the class was waiting in an empty lecture room, which only had desks and chairs in case of a magic accident.
"Every Friday, from 3:30 to 6, I will be teaching you practical magic and magic power control. But of course, today's class will only be 30 minutes."
The magic instructor introduced himself with a seemingly gentle smile. However, I couldn't help but furrowed my brows.
Jered Johnson was a prick.
He led a successful life as the child of a noble family that specialized in magic like the Soraz. But his talent wasn't good enough to land him any position in Soraz Magic Tower or any government post.
Although he ended up becoming one of HGA instructors thanks to his family's lobbying, that was the limit of his career.
In the end, he acknowledged his limits and tried his best in the education sector. He also published a few trash books on how to use magic for amateur and beginners etc.
But his poor character – arrogance, jealousy, and perverseness – would cause problems in the future. Eventually, he would even fearlessly touch Selina Senju while pretending to teach her.
The only good thing about him was that he didn't form a contract with a demon
[Jered Johnson – Currently considering a contract with a high-ranking demon.]
…But he might soon.
"You might be thinking, 'why should I learn magic when I'm not a mage?' That's a valid question, but as I'm sure some of you know, qi reinforcement and sword qi are an extension of magic."
"Not everyone can use aura but each of you has at least a speck of mana inside your body thus you can use qi reinforcement as a substitute for aura."
Jered Johnson released his magic power into the air as a demonstration. The soft and jellylike magic power he emitted instantly hardened when he concentrated.
"Now, if you simply use your 'physical power' to reinforce your magic power, that becomes qi reinforcement or sword qi. But if you refine your magic power with some calculations…"
Immediately, a pink flame rose up from his magic power.
Students instantly exclaimed in awe.
"It becomes magic."
Jered Johnson smiled.
"Even if you can't wield magic of this level, you will learn to use more practical magic, or learn to wield things like qi reinforcement and sword qi more naturally. Since today is the first class, we will only go over what we will learn in the future."
Suddenly, a light blue sphere the size of a ping-pong ball shot up from his palm.
"This is necessary magic to learn before entering a real Dungeon. It's called Light Sphere. It will be your light source in many dark areas. It may look simple at first glance, but to wield it skillfully…"
Jered Johnson gave a complicated explanation. He either purposely complicate his explanation or he also had no talent to be a good teacher.
Based on what I've learned from Uncle Zenin and the high-quality magic books I've read before, I was barely able to digest what he was saying let alone other students in this class.
To simplify things a bit, we had to compress magic power and air into a spherical shape that lights up.
"Now, before I teach you where to begin, try doing it yourself."
Students began to emit their magic power.
Since most of the students had learned mana control before, it wasn't a hard task for them but they couldn't maintain the Light Sphere or were just barely able to form it except for one person.
Many students also realized about it when they saw Cedric's Light Sphere which looked similar to Jered's Light Sphere just now despite being a bit dim.
Jered who managed to maintain a calm expression on his face after observing the students, frowned after he saw Cedric.
He must have thought the students would struggle since none of them specialized in magic. However, there was even one that was able to conjure an almost perfect Light Sphere.
"Student Cedric, do you not understand my explanation? If you do it like that, it will strain your mana."
He started to pick up on Cedric even though the Light Sphere looked fine to everyone else here and only an idiot would fall with the reason such as 'it would strain your mana' when forming a Light Sphere.
"But Sir, I think my mana feels fine."
Cedric looked genuinely curious and as someone who really respected educators and teachers, he wouldn't think that Jered was purposely picking up on him.
"No no...sigh. This is why it's hard to teach commoners."
Since Class A only have very few commoners, everyone just kept quiet while listening to that statement.
"There are 50 of you in this class made up of the elites who started on the same starting line to be a high-level Guardian in the future but your bloodline and social class also play crucial roles. Nobles and commoners will always be different. Don't try too hard since you will fall harder later."
Jered finished his sentence while giving a meaningful glance at Cedric.
It was not surprising for him to act like this and most noble students knew about it since he was the advisor of the Blood Supremacist Club.
Blood Supremacist was a club made up of nobles and the alumni in that club still interacted with each other even after graduating from HGA.
The club doctrine is basically the same as its name, to showcase the importance of lineage and bloodline. Thus they looked down on commoners and just viewed them as a dispensable workforce.
Jered Johnson was someone that obsessed with lineage and despised talented commoners the most.
"Sir, aren't you being too much?" Shino suddenly asked.
"What do you mean? Is there anything wrong with what I said?"
"You said it like commoners were all not talented meanwhile Cedric was the first ranker in the first year."
Suddenly Jered glanced at me and out of blue called me out.
"Ares, show me your Light Sphere."
I refrained from rolling my eyes despite feeling annoyed with Jered's antic but I was not surprised I got called out since I know I'm also an eyesore for Jered.
Feeling lazy I just made a small Light Sphere before a spark happened and the Light Sphere was gone. It all happened in around 10 seconds.
"...I still didn't manage to do it properly," I said as if that's all I can do.
I knew he also didn't like me not only because I rank below Cedric. The Blood Supremacist spread rumours saying that I was weak because half-bloods like me could not be considered real noble.
"As expected of a halfling. Amanda shows me your Light Sphere."
Amanda seemed annoyed that she suddenly got involved in Jered's ruse of showing the commoners in the class that the nobles would always be better than them in everything.
But for someone competitive like Amanda, she wouldn't do it half-ass like me. She managed to form a Light Sphere and maintained it despite the lights barely showing much as if it would diminish at any second.
"See? This is why I said your lineage is what determines your talent. Having a pure bloodline is also important."
That pure bloodline must be referring to me since he just blatantly called me a halfling just now.
A lot of nobles speculated that one of my parents might be a commoner thus that was why Ares was considered a weak halfling that didn't suitable for bearing Zanuki's last name.
"Sir, I wanted to ask something?"
Prince Theo suddenly raised his hand and said the question after getting permission from Jered.
"Isn't our academy Chief, Shabina Vien also a commoner? But isn't she at a level between a Destructive and Supreme rank? Not many people managed to reach that rank isn't it?"
There were a lot more strong commoners but Shabina Vien was one of the most well-known as she was HGA's Chief Director.
"She is an exception, it's like one in a thousand for something like that to happen."
"Madam Shabina is a great example thus no matter who you are, if you work hard enough you will eventually achieve your dream right, Ares?"
Prince Theo suddenly passed the baton at me and discreetly winked at me.
"...As long as he has enough talent."
Jered's face crumpled when he heard my statement. It must have hurt his ego since he knew that he was considered mediocre at best.
A few students started to giggle mischievously. Most of the nobles knew that Jered was considered not so talented.
If he was born in a commoner family, he might have to work as a low-level mage in a mercenary group with no fixed income or even worst, he might not even be capable to awaken his mana at all.
"A halfling dare to disrespect me? I heard you're even cheating in the last mid-term test to get your current rank but still wasn't able to beat a commoner."
"Cheating? I'm too lazy to do that. Maybe I will try to get the last rank next time even though it's kind of hard for me to do that," Ares who was always kept quiet, answered as if he wanted to anger Jered even more.
"You, you dare disrespect me?!"
"I don't understand," Ares said out of nowhere while tilting his head slightly while still looking at Jered as if to show he truly didn't understand.
"What!?"
"Which part of what I said is disrespectful? Instructor Jered Johnson, aren't you the perfect example for 'bloodline and lineage doesn't determine your talent'. You must felt insecure seeing a talented student especially when he's a commoner that you despised so much. Aren't instructors supposed to be neutral and prioritize talent above all? But I think you're just spouting insecure empty rhetoric here."
Ares continued talking with a tone like a motivational speaker as if to aggravate Jered even more. Prince Theo kept on staring at Ares as if he was seeing someone being possessed in front of him.
'Is this really Ares? Since when this bastard can talk so much?'
"You-you, do you think you can't be expelled from the academy? Is that why you act like this?" Jered had already lost his composure.
"I don't care if you want to file a report about me. I won't use my family to appeal to the academy."
"Huh, cheeky halfling. I will file a report about you. Don't take back what you said," Jered said before stomping out of the lecture room as if he couldn't wait anymore.
"Sure"
-Bam!
The lecture room's door was smashed to bits by Jered's magic power.
Our class president, Clara Crochell managed to record Jered's deed and she started to take pictures of the destroyed door.
Clara was a member of another magic-specialized family along with the Soraz, Johnson and Luna families. The unique thing about them is their light blue hair which is different from Heizt's blue hair and light blue eyes.
Their family specialized in water and ice magic. They also created healing potions with the help of Soraz Magic Tower.
'I don't know how she became the class president.'
It was so abrupt when one day, we realized that we had never chosen a class president. Thus we just randomly drew lots and that's how Clara was chosen.
However, seeing she always doing her duty as the class president perfectly, no one said anything.
"Ares thank you" Cedric suddenly said to me.
I just raised my eyebrow seemingly confused about why he thanked me.
"You and Prince Theo helped defend Ceddie just now" Shino chimed in.
"We're not. I'm defending him. That bastard Jered called him a halfling" Prince Theo replied.
"I don't care what he call me but he was annoying and I ended up talking too much."
"Hey don't tell me you have a set quota on how many words you talked per day."
"No, I don't."
Shino and Cedric just watched both of us talked to each other. Suddenly Clara came over to our tables.
"Ares, do you want to file a report? I can submit it along with the report on damaging academy facilities" Clara said to me before handing me a blank form.
Clara was the only person in the class other than Prince Theo that would greet me randomly on daily basis.
"Hey, Ares can I borrow your notes?"
"Ares, they have a new menu in the cafeteria. You should try"
"Ares, you cut your hair? It looks good on you"
Those were a few examples of how easygoing Clara was. She treated everyone the same.
"...." I just didn't feel the need to fill out the form.
"Hey let me fill this up. They won't understand your handwriting. Let's see, report on instructor, name, subject..." Prince Theo said grabbing the form.
In the end, a few other commoner students also file the same report as mine and since this also happened in the novel including the extra one report from me, I didn't think anything would change much.
Even though Jered had quite a few complaints from the students, HGA still didn't fire him but just cut his salary for a year and suspended him from work for a few weeks.
"Hey, you don't really cheat during the test right?" Suddenly another voice said to me.
"No why should I?" I replied to Amanda.
"Maybe because your family wanted you to remain in the top rank and live in Rose Quartz residency with other Zanuki."
"Unfortunately they never said that."
"You're so confident with yourself aren't you?"
"I just go with the flow."
I was telling the truth since I never really struggle much in studying. I might be hard during physical training but that was to make sure I survived and remained alive until old age not because I wanted to rank top of my class.
"Tsk brags all over you want," Amanda said before exiting the lecture hall.
'Who's bragging? It's hard to understand girls.'
"Stop bragging you halfling!"
Suddenly out of nowhere, a male voice yelled at me. I turned around and saw a group of four students looking at me with hostility.
"Who?" Ares asked since it was his first time seeing them.
"You dare look down on us?!" One of them started yelling.
Ares became more confused and blurted out, "What the fuck is his problem? I don't even know him. Did I kill his mom or something?"
Prince Theo knew Ares genuinely doesn't remember some of their classmates since they got 50 people in the class so it's logic not to remember some of them such as losers like them.
"Like hell you can kill my mom when your mom doesn't even want you," the male students continue to taunt Ares.
"Hey don't say too much lest he will cry and report it to his grandpa"
"Oh I forgot he don't even have a dad and have to beg his grandpa instead."
"Is it wrong to not have parents? Is it wrong to be an orphan? People like you guys are the ones making the noble look bad when some of them are genuinely kind like Ares," Cedric who couldn't take it anymore started to defend Ares since he felt grateful for Ares defending him from Jered.
Ares felt a slight chilling sensation crawling all over his body when the protagonist said he is kind.
'Me? Kind? I hope he won't take that word back in the future,' Ares thought.
"Shut up filthy commoner. Do you think we don't know what the academy had conspired by using you? What equality? They only did that to placate the commoner since if you guys made a fuss about it too much, the government won't be sitting still"
There's always been a rumour about bribes going around among HGA upper administrators and that's the reason why almost all the top rankers were always nobles.
However HGA always denied such rumours because they always proud of the talents that they have produced since the academy establishment.
Shino and other students started joining the commotion while the main star Ares just watched like he was watching a play.
The class that was supposedly ended after Jered went out of the lecture room but most of the students stayed behind because of the commotion except Amanda who had exited the classroom, not wanting to get involved.