On the second day of school and the first day of learning, Kyle woke up early and went to exercise. It was his daily training to maintain his body and stamina. However, he wasn't alone when exercising.
{'As expected of the best school in this country,'} Kyle thought while looking at the others who were exercising as well. The students were aware that they couldn't slack off and had to improve and do their best because they would be swept away by the competition by doing so.
But not all students would exercise in the morning. They all had their own schedules, such as Joshua, who trained during the night-time because he didn't like to wake up early. Of course, there were also those who were lazy, but they weren't important enough for Kyle to notice them.
After the exercise, Kyle went on to take a bath and then had breakfast. This time, he sat with Joshua.
"Did you hear that class seven didn't go to the speech yesterday, but instead, they went to train?" Joshua asked him after munching on his food.
"Class seven …." He had heard of it. A special class, which was created just this year with the explicit purpose of gathering those with the best potential. But there was not much information regarding class seven, and the lack of information made people forget about it.
{'The best potential …. If Ninia, Friena, Eric, and those in Joshua's class aren't inside Class Seven, does that mean there are more students with even better potential?'} He couldn't confirm this until they encountered them though.
"Also, they only have fifteen people."
"That's half of us," Kyle replied. "Are they strong?"
"Probably? I don't know more than that though."
"Hmmm .... Joshua, do you remember if there is any classroom with number seven?" Kyle asked.
"Huh? Now come to think of it .... There is none! Then, where are they?"
Indeed, he, correctly, didn't remember there being a classroom number seven in the building where the classrooms were supposed to be. He wondered if class seven was in another building.
{'Seems suspicious,'} Kyle thought. But for now, he would set it aside.
.
In the classroom, Kyle avoided Friena, who was still glaring at him. She still had not gotten over her anger for being unable to catch him.
One by one, the seats were filled, and finally, the teacher came in. The first subject for study was math. It was honestly a lesson that became more necessary as the world advanced. Long ago, people could only do simple math, but currently, people can do complex calculations.
It was the same for other subjects, but their advancement wasn't as fast as the scientific subjects. And it raised the standard for everyone else. In the past, it was easy to be acknowledged just by having some knowledge, but nowadays one needs specific knowledge to be valued.
{'Math isn't something I focus on at the moment though …. Rather, I am paying more attention towards magic theory, science, and technology which are more interesting.'} To keep up with the advancement of this world, it is better to learn what made it progress so fast. While he knew math helped in this progress, he could just study it later since the lesson content wasn't interesting to him at the moment.
Once the math lesson was over, the second lesson was history. It was a subject that Kyle felt the most bored with. He didn't know what to say, except that history was written by the victors, and the losers had to accept it. It was biased, but sometimes it wasn't, and it was frustrating to see false information written in history as if it was the truth.
After the second lesson, there was a short break. Then the third lesson was biology. After that, it would be a lunch break. The fourth lesson was economics, and then it was time to go home.
After school hours was the time for extracurricular activities; training, studying, clubs, and other pursuits. However, during the first week, the first years wouldn't be participating in the extracurricular club activities; they had been told to get used to the feeling of being in school first.
So, the first years could go to train, study, or have fun. As for Kyle, he crossed out the last two options and went for training. To be exact, he and Friena would train together.
"Hey, you are not going to kill me, right?" Kyle asked Friena as they were walking to the training center.
Friena scoffed. "I'm not that stupid. Killing you is not worth my future."
"That's good," Kyle sighed in relief. "You can't waste your future for someone like me. Anyway, what are we going to train on today?"
Friena turned around and stopped in front of him. "I need to expand my fire more and at the same time train using it efficiently for long-range attacks. As for you, you need to enhance your strings to be as strong as the strongest metal."
"Your problem is easy, but mine isn't. I can probably make one or two, but it won't be that useful aside from simple things," Kyle replied.
"But better than nothing. At least you can use your knife without being cut off."
"Fair point, but you did know that it will consume quite a lot of my mana?"
Friena scoffed again. "I did know your mana regeneration is fast, so you can quickly recover yourself."
"Ugh …. Fine, let's do this. So, how to improve your fire? The reason why your fire is mostly concentrated around you is that it is the most comfortable thing for you, and you have been trained for it for years."
"I know that. Get to the point," Friena interrupted. It made Kyle roll his eyes.
"Your only long-range …. I can't even call it long-range, is your fire slash. When you are using it, you feel your mana parting away from you, right?"
"Yes, unlike when using my fire around me, which has the feeling of my mana slowly seeping away, using fire slash makes me feel like my mana is being torn away from me," Friena agreed with him.
"So you are saying, every long-range spell will feel like that?"
"Yes and no, depending on the person. For me, it feels like I am saying goodbye to the person I love," Kyle flaunted dramatically, which received a stink eye from Friena.
"However, this kind of feeling can be sensed by those who have high mana control and are well attuned with their mana. Someone who just fires their magic around without mastery can't sense this."
"I see." To be honest, Friena rarely used long-range magic spells because of this. The discomforting feeling she had when she felt her mana separating from her was something she didn't like.
For this reason, she asked Kyle to train with her. She needed someone to be her training target and overcome her discomfort through her frustration with him. Yes, she was a woman with a grudge, and she knew she was petty, but knowing someone that always made you feel various emotions would make you like that.
"Anyway, get ready!" Friena surrounded herself with fire right away and swung her sword several times. The slashed fire formed arcs, and those were coming at Kyle.
{'Huh, she wasted her mana, her discomfort caused her control to lessen,'} Kyle watched. The slashes were also unrefined and weak. Kyle put his hand forward and cast a shield spell in the form of a wall, then he pushed it forward, which dispersed the fire slashes.
"Friena, put away the discomfort. Those fire slashes are trash," Kyle deliberately told her in a harsh and mocking tone.
A tick mark appeared on her forehead. "Trash, you say! Fine! I'll show you who the real trash is!" She swung her sword, and a bigger fire slash was created. However, this time, the fire slash was less wasteful of mana and it was far stronger than before.
"Not enough! It has improved, but trash is still trash!" Kyle shouted after he cut down the fire slash into two.
"Hoo!" Friena let out a breath. "It seems like I need to shut your mouth!"
{'Good, she is angry.'} It was weird. Friena's focus sharpened when she became angry. She wasn't blinded by her anger, but rather, she made her anger into a motivational focus to become better, to reach her goal.
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Author: Aida Hanabi
Proofreader: Teppo