Vega stood looking at his reflection in the mirror while tucking his brown hair behind the ears. Compared to his past while living in the streets, he was too skinny and looked like a skeleton, but now he saw his belly had a little bit of fat accumulated from overeating without doing a lot of sword exercises. With a slightly small nose and light skin, he could pass as a noble.
After straightening his robe that the color had faded, he strapped his book and went outside.
Following the pathway under the shades of the palm trees, he headed toward the place where he would meet the low-level apprentices. After walking for some distance, he looked at the library with a longing face. One more day, after that he could go inside the library again freely. He needed to use figure out how to use three-dimensional spell models and hoped that his points were enough.
Arriving at the clearing, there were already ten students sat down on the sand creating a neat line. He only remembered Charlice, the girl who divided her focus and almost hit him during their first exchange.
"Hello again, everyone. Today we're going to try figuring out how creative you are in attacking the puppet. Unfortunately, I didn't bring any wooden puppet like the one we have in the training hall, but," Vega stretched his hand, controlling the ocean water around him, and created a huge ice puppet. Luckily, we have this. Let's try to line up, and one by one, I want you to use your best ability to attack this."
His men were durable compared to the past. Before, creating three ice spears was his limit. But now, he controlled the puppet while occasionally summoning several balls of water to test their focus.
Most of them had tried to learn how to change their attacks. Instead of a normal blast of fire, one boy combined the attack with his bow and arrows. Sometimes the arrow busted into flame when reaching Vega's ice puppet and took a huge chuck.
He remembered learning about the plant elements from the master during his first free class. Probably, when planting the trees themselves, one could control the destination of the arrows.
The other apprentice tried to use her control over water to take over the puppet, but unfortunately for her, the gap between their souls was too huge. Knowing that she failed, she spun a small ball of water with her control and aimed the hand, making the puppet's hand crack, and even Vega was confused as to how the simple action could work.
Of course, Charlice still used her earth elements, creating a hole in the sand, making the puppet trip and fall. The gravity did the rest, cracking the whole puppet making process, and Vega had to create another one to continue with the other apprentices.
"You did great!" He shouted, but was still doing his best to give them an honest smile. But they cowered when they heard him shout. He didn't think he was that scary, but the apprentice probably felt the same when he first faced a high-level apprentice. Containing the aura spilling outside, he didn't want to scare the apprentices.
"Okay, but I need everyone to say something. This is not our regular class; you are allowed to talk or even ask questions."
Then, of course, one boy raised his hand first: "I'm Marc; can you teach us magic theory too?" The other two nodded their heads.
"Why? I thought you got free classes and they covered magic theory, right?"
"Not really, no." Charlice said it out loud. "We do have that class, but most of the time they only talk about the properties of each element without telling us how to be creative. As you know, our basic spells are mostly the basic way to control the elements around us."
"Yes, yes, and the more advanced spells are some things that we can learn by trying to focus more."
"So why do we need to spend our time and those hours learning different spells but we can actually shape the spells ourselves?"
Vega was quiet, hearing all the statements. He never thought about it before. After he understood how to control the air and sound elements, he was away killing the saplings and learning to shape the spells according to his whims. "I'm not sure myself. I'll get back to you later. But does anyone know the history of our fight with the abominations?"
It wasn't wrong, right? Trying to teach the younger generation to stop hating each other was the best way. Given the opportunity, he would do everything he could to prevent the fight from happening.
"No, my father told me they can fly with swords and are more powerful; is it true?
"No, they are giant-like creatures that steal apprentices to become their mistresses."
"I heard--"
Vega shook his head; any story grew more impossible the more someone retold it. "Stop!"
Realizing his pressure, all the apprentices stopped talking at once.
"I'm sorry, but the story is ridiculous." Vega sighed, "The abominations, let's fall them with their titles, the practitioners are normal humans just like us. Tell me, do you have anyone close to you who died under the hands of the practitioners?"
"No!" Everyone answered together.
"Exactly! All the mentors and mistresses had their friends and relatives die during the great war. You know when the hate grows, even when it's not relatable to you, you will be swayed to take revenge for yourself."
"During the great war, the adepts killed the apprentices, too. That's why the newer generations have the same hatred and have tried killing us back. But the war is over, and why don't we stop hating each other and live in peace?"
"But Mister?" One of them raised his hand, looked at his left and right, and looked confused.
Vega understood and laughed. Oops, my bad, I never introduced myself, right? Just call me Vega."
"Mister Vega?"
No, just Vega," after they insisted on calling him mister, he accepted the title of senior instead.
"Senior Vega, didn't we have to do something because our friends are being killed and kidnapped by the... practitioners?"
"Are you close with your friend?"
"Not really, but we were in the same bath during the initiation ceremony."
"Alright then, let's say they're close to you, but still, is it worth it to become a murderer ourselves? Yes, this adept world is more unforgiving compared to our regular life, but killing is never the answer. Do you know the growing hatred has also erased a lot of history, including the rare elements?"
He took out his flute and heard gasps from the apprentices. Clearly, they all heard the story of Krimitak.
"Yes, a flute, but you can't do anything without sound magic, especially people using this. Music is actually fun, right?"
"Everyone nodded."
"And it can also be a deadly weapon, of course. But it can support a healing process."
All of them sat straighter, feeling interested.
Vega smiled. "Yes, sound magic can be used to make someone not feel their pain or even forget any traumatic experience. So, any magic, even the worst, can be beneficial if you try thinking outside the box. Personally, I believe your magic is only a tool. And every tool can do good or bad depending on the person welding it. Anyone didn't agree with me?"
Three students raised their hands.
"How about if your family is killed because someone used dark magic, for example?"
More gasps from them
"Yes, necromancy is bad, right?"
Vega was quiet and tried to find the positive side of necromancy. "I don't think so. Controlling a dead corpse and doing it to help you do something is not bad, right? I think controlling a living person is crueler than necromancy. Slavery. Yes, some of them choose to be slaves, but what about the rest?We forcefully take control of their will and let them do anything according to our whims. Do you think it's not cruel?"
After seeing everyone nod, Vega was hopeful that some of the kids here would try putting on someone's shoes before judging.
"See?! Everything is always positive and negative. But even though it's negative, let's say, for example, someone didn't agree with you. As an adept, I thought we had to practice our mind and soul, right? So, knowledge, right? Then why hate someone with a different ideology? As someone who chases knowledge, isn't it best if you can understand WHY the person has a different opinion than you?"
The apprentices murmured to their friends, agreeing with the implications.
"Tell me, did anyone of you actually go to the library to read books instead of asking for spells?"
The students looked at each other blankly; no one ever thought to read more actual knowledge compared to spells.
"See, the more we have, isn't it better? Yes, you can learn from people, but most will insert their beliefs into their explanations. The books are also partial, but most offer both sides of the story. Just see Mernoralin—is he holding a book or is he holding a scale?" Vega shook his head. No wonder the library was always quiet and not full of students compared to the training hall, which needed him to pay points because so many students were using it.
"I think before you judge the abominations, if you understand why they're doing it. You will start to be more open-minded. Imagine if we all did the same; the world would be a better place. I know it's all 'ifs', but we can all start first."
After all the apprentices bid their goodbyes, Vega flopped down on the sand, feeling tired. His only job was to guide the apprentice on how to use their mana, but he had to improvise and talk about politics because he didn't know the answer. If he could just be quiet, no one would blame him for his lack of knowledge, right? He just hoped that his speech would be beneficial for both practitioners and apprentices.
His earlier speech was based on how disappointed he was when he learned that a lot of rare magic or even knowledge disappeared from the world just because of war, which destroyed all the written knowledge or any knowledge passed down orally.
He heard some clapping and looked back. His mentor stood there with three people he was familiar with clapping at him. Embarrassed, he asked, "What are you guys doing here?"
"Of course I'm listening to your speech, silly!" Nora spoke first.
"Hahaha! You make a really good point there!" Vega remembered the guy as Sein. Normally he forgot their names, but he had to remember them because there were only three other inner apprentices.
The burly guy even nodded and smiled, Philip. Vega never heard him talk even the first time they met, but he had a feeling that the burly guy was the most innocent compared to the other two, who were always bickering at each other.
"But this is dangerous." His mentor scolded him. "Luckily, I felt the sound fluctuation from where you lost your control before and had enough time to surround the place with a silent formation."
Vega instantly sharpened his focus and did feel a faint melody coming from the area surrounding him. "Sorry, I didn't realize..."
His mentor waved her hand and said, "No matter. I'm glad I'm back with these apprentices before me, and I appreciate you even defending my late mentor. Yes, I didn't agree with him in some part, but people drew their own conclusions and labeled him as a dark adept."
Vega knew there was more to the stories. But he wouldn't pry.
"Here, I bring those trees to help you for your competition. Remember, you're probably going to go against them, but because all four of you have the same understanding toward this growing conflict, I hoped you can all be friends."