Ria and I stood in our places not knowing what was going on.
"Ria, did you bully that girl?"
"What!? of course not! what kind of person do you think I am!!!?"
"Then what was that?"
"I don't know, but that girl is going to our class, whatever, let's go or we'll be late!"
Deciding to end the matter we walked back to our class, when we arrived I saw the Dryad girl sitting at the back of the room, as I walked through the door I felt her gaze but when I turned she looked away instantly.
"Good morning Noah."
"Hi Silf."
When I sit down next to Silfy the spirits hugged me and started to wrap around me as usual, I still don't understand why they are so attracted to me but I don't mind.
Then Miss Cintia came in and the class started, everything was normal, except for one small detail, the dryad girl didn't stop looking at me during the whole class, not a normal look, but a very intense and creepy one.
"Did I do something to piss her off?"
That's not possible, I didn't have any interaction with her until yesterday and dryads are not a species that gets angry for just anything, besides my instincts are not alarmed so she has no hostile intentions towards me
"Maybe she'll get tired at some point."
Continuing with that mentality, I paid attention to the class pretending not to notice her withering look, when the bell rang I left with Ria and Silfy to go to lunch, but I didn't expect her to follow us from afar without taking her eyes off me.
"She'll get tired."
When we were eating she sat about 2 tables behind and kept watching me, when I was walking around the academy she also followed me, at the training with teacher Nobu she also kept watching me and when I walked with Ria to the dorm, she followed us from behind.
"That girl has been following you all day what did you do to her?"
"I don't know either."
"You should talk to her."
"If I go near her she'll probably run away."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Sigh~ I don't know, I'll just go train and figure out what to do tomorrow."
After that I said goodbye to Ria and headed to the mana room, but when I was about to enter a voice called out to me.
"H-hey!"
When I turned around, there was the dryad girl playing with her fingers while looking at the floor and her face was red.
"Um...what's wrong."
"Well, um, you see, I was wondering if you wanted you and I to..."
As he spoke his voice trailed off and his face grew redder and redder, the flower on his head also looked like it was about to wilt then he took a breath of air and shouted.
"W-would you like to train together!?"
After saying that she looked at me with expectation and fear in her eyes."
"Sure, I have no problem with that."
"Really!?"
When I answered positively her eyes lit up and the flower on her head bloomed with more color than before.
"M-my name is Leiby Velproce nice to meet you!"
He said as he bowed and extended his hand enthusiastically.
"I'm Noah, nice to meet you"
I took his hand and when I did his body trembled a little and the flower on his head seemed to be wiggling.
"He's like a dog."
Introductions over we entered the mana room and I sat in meditation position and Leiby began to conjure her spells, everything was normal for about 20 minutes until Leiby came up to speak to me
" E-em...what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to get better control over my mana."
"But aren't you a warrior, even though mana management is important why come to the mana room?"
"Well, I thought of developing a technique that will allow me to cover my weaknesses in combat, but in order to perform it I need great control over my mana, and there's no better place to practice that than in the mana room"
"I-I see...well in that case..."
Leiby seemed to hesitate a bit before saying.
"I can give you some tips for that...if it's not too much trouble of course!"
"Sure, you know more about what mana control is all about than I do, it would be helpful to hear your advice."
Leiby put a big smile on his face and sat down across from me.
"If you want to improve your mana control to the max there are a series of exercises that I'm sure will be super helpful."
"Tell me more"
"Ok, first of all, you should instead of moving it through your body the expel it out, in this room the concentration of mana is much greater than outside and if you don't send a constant slack your spell will disappear, this will help you to better distribute the mana through your body and also greatly improve your control"
"I see, I'll give it a try."
Putting my hands on top of each other leaving a space I started to concentrate my mana, a small ball of electricity appeared but disappeared after a few seconds.
"Fuu~ it's complicated."
Expelling mana and keeping it steadily is much harder than just moving it inside the body.
"You did well, try again please."
Leiby walked behind me and put her hand on my back.
"Excuse me please."
He then started to guide my mana and I made a small ball of electricity again but with Leiby's guidance, when he removed his hand from my back I followed the path he traced and the ball lasted about 3 more seconds before disappearing.
"Very good! Now you just have to keep trying and eventually it will last longer!"
"Thank you very much for the guidance"
"Hehehehehe, it's nothing!"
Leiby seemed very happy that I thanked her and her flower started wiggling again.
Then I continued training with the help Leiby gave me, after 1 hour I ran out of mana and lay down tired on the ground.
"Well done Noah! I lasted 10 seconds this time!"
"Thank you."
Before I could only hold it for at most 5 seconds, although only 5 more seconds may not seem like much it is a great achievement for me.
"By the way Leiby I have a question."
"What?"
"Why have you been following me around all day, was it just to ask me to train with you?"
"Huh?! Did you notice?!?"
"I have good senses."
Leiby looked super sorry to know that I noticed he was following me around all day.
"S-sorry if that made you feel uncomfortable, I actually did plan on asking to come in together, but I also wanted to tell you something else."
"What other thing?"
"Well, um, I, you..."
After thinking about it for a while Leiby said shouting.
"Would you like to be my friend!?"
This surprised me, I had an idea of what she wanted but I didn't think she would because.....
"I have no problem with being your friend."
"Really!?"
Leiby Velproce
"But are you really okay with me?"
"Huh? Why do you ask that?"
"Well because I..."
In the novel he was a character who
"I'm a boy."
"...Eh?"
I was very afraid of men.