"I-I'm sorry!"
"Hmm? Now, what would you ever feel sorry for? Didn't you try your very best? If so, there's no need for you to feel guilty. Right, Hugo?"
Currently sitting in front of his homeroom teacher who was smiling eerily, Hugo knew that no matter what he did, there would have to be some kind of consequences for his actions.
Despite sitting in the very spacious office that had been provided for Mr. Ainsworth to fulfill his duties as a teacher of Augustus, it was doubtful whether or not this kind of interaction honored his position.
"I-I.... I don't...'
It was impossible for the young man to explain his loss in a manner that didn't highlight the fact that he had lost due to the simple reason that he had been careless, ignorant even.
Seeing the white-haired youth that had acted so haughtily the first day crawling on the ground, Hugo hadn't been able to stop himself from wanting more, wanting to exert the dominance of the strong.
Since coming to Augustus, a lot of things had changed for Hugo. From being the absolute strongest in his last school, albeit a very small school, to now being the weakest in his class, it had been hard to accept reality. So, how could he possibly have denied the chance of tasting the sweetness of being superior to someone?
And yet, even despite Mr. Ainsworth having prepared such a gift for him, he had thrown it away, simply because he had underestimated his opponent, despite the fact that he should have known that even a rat would bite when cornered.
Standing up and turning around, looking out of the window to the courtyard, Mr. Ainsworth just continued to speak in a gentle tone, a gentle tone that did nothing to hide the anger inside him.
"Please do get out. Oh, also, please forget about everything about that recommendation to the Phoenix that we spoke about earlier. It turns out that I don't think they will have any vacancies when you graduate. Or rather, I don't think they would allow someone who can't even crush someone a whole rank lower than them to join the guild."
"But, Mr. Ainsworth...!"
"Get out!"
Having no choice but to bite his tongue, Hugo walked out of the office, his fists clenched in a raging fury. At the same time, the teacher couldn't help but carry similar feelings, but for entirely different reasons.
Because he had lost his chance of getting to be the homeroom teacher of the A-class, and, by default, he had lost a huge chance of increasing his authority in the future. Because he had lost the position of being the homeroom teacher of the A-class, and as a result, lost the opportunity to make deeper connections with the esteemed households and guilds.
And all because of Hugo's stupidity and the white-haired runt that didn't understand that he should have lost the match so he could continue hiding under the skirt of Ms. Zito.
'But there will be more chances...'
The one saving grace for him was the fact that there was still time. Time to make sure he could attain the position he sought, as well as time to get rid of the ones standing in his way.
****
[Levi's Pov]
Walking out of the academy grounds, I was always met by my personal chauffeur, politely standing outside of the limousine that would once again bring me home.
"I welcome the young lady of the Leviathan."
"Please stop. I have already told you that I wanted you to stop calling me that."
"I'm aware. But if I did, I would be going against the words of the guild master."
"Haa... Just bring me home."
Entering the back of the limousine, I couldn't be bothered to argue with the black-suited man that had driven me around wherever I needed to go since I was little. Even if it was frustrating that he listened to my father's orders rather than my sincere request, I still knew that Mr. Black only wanted the best for me.
Today, I had even less energy than normal to care about it, as there was still something very weird imprinted in my mind, something that had happened during the mana manipulation class.
It was no secret that I and Will were quite a lot more proficient in the art of manipulating mana than our classmates, as we had been trained by our families for the sole reason of making sure we wouldn't waste our potential.
So even with some other students also showing that they were quite adept at using their mana, there had still been nothing out of my expectations. Until something very weird happened. Way back in the classroom, there had been a certain person who has somehow skipped all the steps that one would take when learning mana manipulation and somehow managed to just conglomerate it inside his body, without circulating it.
Although most people didn't seem to notice it, it was impossible for me to miss it due to my very sensitive ability to feel mana, so even though I couldn't believe it, it was the truth.
'Aarick...'
It wasn't hard to figure out that he had changed, and even though it wasn't all too rare for people to change a bit when they awakened, his change was just too out of the norm for me to ignore. Adding on the unsettling aura he gave off when he defeated Hugo, and he was about to...
'No! Aarick wouldn't do that! There's no way he would ever think of doing something like that!'
Desperately trying to shake the dark thoughts in my mind, I still couldn't stop myself from knowing that there was something he was hiding. And whatever it was, I knew that he wouldn't tell me. Worse yet was that I knew that I wasn't allowed to ask him either.
****
[Aarick's Pov]
Dashing forward, with my claws already out and ready to go, I knew that I had to try and expand my sights, to see the possible actions I could take.
Because Dona's arm was already moving toward me, ready to intercept my advance and once again overpower me. Even though she was holding back immensely, it was still so fast that I knew I couldn't hesitate if I didn't want to taste another bout of pain.
With that in mind, I activated my ability and jumped, successfully avoiding her attack while at the same time putting my body over hers. Then, canceling the zero gravity mode, I dove downwards, stretching out my claws in an attempt to reach her neck.
"Naive."
*Bam!*
"Ouch!"
In the end, all she had done was take a step back, making me end up crashing into the wooden floor. Sadly, I already knew that she just like Mr. Faer seemed to believe that learning was best done through pain, I could only look up at her approaching me with a purple glow in her eyes and a smile on her face.
*BAM!*
"Gah!"
As my back collided with the wall that I by now had interacted with enough to call one of my best friends, Ms. Zito's voice rang out.
"Don't use your powers carelessly. Even if they are a great tool for repositioning yourself, you must still make sure that you don't commit yourself to an attack that isn't confirmed to land. That said, the speed of your activation has become a lot better already."
"Thank...you..."
Sliding down to the floor, I was already at a point of complete exhaustion, complemented by my mana reserves being emptied. And at this point, a very particular question was raised in my mind, which I promptly relayed to the teacher who might have an answer.
"Say, teacher, why is it so easy to use mana for abilities when it's so hard to use it manually? Shouldn't I have to connect to my core before using my abilities as well?"
"Oh, that's because the abilities of a blessing are more or less ingrained into your soul. So, because they are such an inherent part of your being, the core will automatically respond to your intention and eject mana to support the activation of the blessing."
Seeing that I wasn't in a state to keep training, she started packing up a bit while continuing her little presentation about mana and abilities.
"That being said, as you have already noticed, abilities that are related to your blessings are also dependent on your own usage of mana. So even if the activations could be said to be more or less automatic, there's still a need to make sure you empower it by using mana. This also relates to making sure you're wasting as little mana as possible."
"I see."
"If you understand, then go grab a shower before we can start."
"Hmm? Start? What are we going to start?"
"As if you don't already know. I saw how much you struggled today during class, so we are doing another marathon session of studying!"