Cain pov
As I stood in the classroom awkwardly, the teacher finally entered the room.
"Everybody, take your seats," he said with a calm face. Everyone sat down, but I still stood there. Then, my eyes met his.
He immediately bowed, and his tone changed, "My apologies, Your Highness. Please let me direct you to your seat," he said. A boy with red short hair raised his hand, "Here is an empty seat," he pointed toward his right side.
"Oh, thanks," I said. I also told them not to call me Highness or Majesty. I wanted to be different in this school.
Everyone was saying no, but somehow I managed to make them say yes at last. Then I introduced myself, and others followed my introduction. That class was newly formed, so nobody knew each other yet.
The red-haired boy's name was Eryo, and he was from the Freinger family, a commoner lineage. In the imperial school, mostly only nobles studied and some exceptionally talented people.
The boy that sat behind me, with light blue hair and dark purple eyes, was Aerl, from the noble family of Celyon. They were the only two people I immediately got along with. Friendship with 8-year-olds did feel weird, but I was technically 8 too, based on my body.
The first lesson finally started, and Gregor, our teacher, first asked us to state our attributes. Most of us didn't even know, so he brought an orb and told us to check our attributes one by one. I decided to go last.
Eryo walked first. He was a talented commoner, so he would've already known his attribute since he wouldn't have gotten a scholarship in this school.
He had wind for some reason; I thought he would have fire based on his looks. After some students checked their attributes, now it was Aerl's turn. My expectations were correct; he got water.
I wanted to go last, but the teacher forced me to check my attribute. I walked near the orb, closed my eyes, and touched it. I focused my mana toward the orb and opened my eyes. The orb glowed green, meaning I had a wind attribute, just like my mother, Claire.
After everyone finished checking their attributes, we went back to our seats, and he started speaking. "A lot of time has been spent today since checking attributes took too long," he said, taking a deep breath, "and also because it's the first day, I'll let you all have some free time. But tomorrow, we will start training your magical capabilities."
After the teacher left the room, I and Eryo started talking about plans for our lives. I had none, but managed to make up some garbage story. Soon enough, Aerl joined us. From speaking together, I noticed that they were way more mature than I had initially expected. In fact, they talked like adults.
Suddenly, the door of the classroom opened, and a man with short brown hair, dark green eyes, a newly shaved beard, and dressed in formal uniform with our school's mark entered the room. Soon enough, he introduced himself.
He was the principal of this school. He obviously regarded me as "Your Highness," but there was no way that I would make him stop calling me that.
He was holding a briefcase in his right arm. When he saw we were looking at it, he finally decided to tell us why he visited us. Without a word, he opened the briefcase, and golden cards unfolded, each with different numbers on it. He told us to get into the line and go to him, one by one.
The cards turned out to be the keys to our dorm rooms. Each one of us had been assigned a room. Thankfully, we had private dorms. Mine, Eryo's, and Aerl's dorms were rather close as well.
When I walked into my room, it looked like some king's room. It was made with the highest quality materials; even the glass had some gold details on it. As I jumped onto the bed, I felt my whole body get swallowed into its sheets. I had a child's body, so I slept in seconds.
In the morning, loud knocks woke me up. "Wake up, Cain!"
Angrily, I got up and put on my uniform. When I opened the door, Eryo and Aerl stood there, both panting. "What's wrong?" I asked curiously.
"We are late for the class," Aerl said, "Let's go, quick!"
Without a choice, I ran after them. Gregor met us on our way to the class and took us with him. Today he took us outside of the building, where wood dummies were placed in line.
"As I said, today we will be training your magic," He said, while his eyes were fixed on me. He definitely wanted to see what the crown prince could do.
"Cain, come forward," he said, obviously wanting to give an example to others.
"But, teacher, I have never used mana in my life. Won't it be smarter if an experienced one does it first and gives us an example?" Gregor just nodded in agreement.
Only people experienced in mana usage were Gregor and Eryo, so he decided to shove that responsibility to Eryo.
Eryo walked forward and stood about 6 feet apart from a dummy. He held his hand out, and suddenly wind swirled around his arm. Soon enough, with a quick attack, the dummy got a big cut on the chest.
"Just do the same as you did when testing for attributes, but imagine an attack after sending mana to your hand," Eryo said, mostly looking at me and Aerl.
I walked in front and took a 6 feet distance, just like how Eryo did. I forced myself to channel mana to my hand. I imagined the same slash as Eryo, but sadly, mine could barely scratch the dummy.
I was disappointed in myself, but Gregor seemed proud.
I went back, and Eryo whispered in my ears, "Dude, landing a magic attack on the first try is exceptional." And overconfidence swallowed me.
Gregor called others, and I noticed how most of them couldn't even hit the target, let alone conjure a spell. Wait, suddenly thoughts filled my mind.
Gregor looked at me and asked, "What's disturbing you?"
I looked at him and decided to just ask him the question, "If we have never used mana yet, how did you know all of us were casters?" Everyone looked at me blankly, but Gregor seemed to have an answer for it, based on his gaze, and yes, he indeed had the answer.
"Casters and Enhancers are old times now," he said and continued, "After the Conquest for the continent was over, Lord Ashen enhanced everybody and their bloodlines to make all of us able to cast and enhance at the same time."
After he finished speaking, we went back to the lessons. He explained how we would try to make the dummy appear as a magnet, and that magnet would suck our spell into it.
It was a decent strategy; in fact, it worked for everybody. Well, almost everybody. Some managed to miss it, but missed by less distance than trying without that mind trick.
We trained and trained some more. We attacked dummies until our mana reserves were blank. Everyone stood there, panting.
Gregor, seeming satisfied, told us that the lesson was over for today. All of us happily tried to run toward our dorms, but weariness hit us. Somehow, we still managed to get to our dorms.
As soon as I got into the room, I immediately jumped on the bed and finally let out a sigh of relief. But my muscles were cramping as if I had been constantly hit, and I could do nothing about it.
Mostly abdominal muscles, since that was where our mana reserves were positioned.
I changed sides, tried everything, but couldn't shake off the feeling of that pain. Thankfully, healers came knocking on every room, as they couldn't afford to overwork 8-year-old bodies.
When the healer put his hands on my stomach, I felt the light envelop around them, and my pain drained like a broken bottle. As soon as that excruciating pain left my body, I immediately fell asleep.
The next day, I woke up earlier than the others, and without a word, I woke Aerl and Eryo. They seemed to be angry at me, but I didn't care.
"Why did you wake us up?" Aerl said, looking pissed.
I looked at the clock, and luckily, it was 10 minutes before the class started. I immediately looked back at Aerl, "It's ten minutes left before the class starts, you idiot."
Both of them calmed down, and we went to the classroom.