When his ability first manifested, he was confused, how could he not be? He was a little boy at the time.
As time went by, it manifested more and more, always coming to him in dreams.
It was so hard to keep up with it that it would be almost impossible for him to maintain a proper conversation.
But now he came to terms with it, he found a way to guide it without overreacting or causing chaos.
So he started to orchestrate a plan, not to ascend or gain power, but to keep people safe.
The plan was made, and now it is in execution.
He would make everyone safe and happy.
***
"So this is the place?"
Melissa did not let Kaen take the kids on a trip instead of taking classes, but she decided to accompany her knowledge seeking friend into the Bronze Empire commercial district and look for the shop his new students talked about.
He came to her after all his classes were finished, so she had to give him some credit, so instead of taking the class, she let him come and bring the Bakugan with him.
She might help him in his activities, but she wouldn't break the Academy's rules: No student can leave the Academy's grounds if it's not vacation periods, weekends or an emergency.
"Its seems so" He said to her
They were now in front of [New Vestroia], the infamous shop, it wasn't as stupidly big as the shops around it, but wasn't too small either.
Kaen entered, not an ounce of hesitation as a bell rang with the action.
"Welcome!"
They were greeted by a young man with a fox grin and gaze.
She wasn't so surprised, Kaen told her that the bakugans had warned him about the owner, who might look like a scammer, but it's actually his normal face.
"May we look around?" Kaen asked.
"Of course"
And so they walked around the store, looking at the terrariums and curiously watching the bakugan.
She had to admit, they were as interesting as they were curious.
They looked just like a childish toy, so how did this little things got Kaen's attention?
"How much does everything cost?" Kaen asked.
The young man seemed a bit surprised by the question, hesitating a bit before pointing to each item.
"All bakugan cost ten low-grade cores" He said "The Gauntlets are for the same value, each card and Bakumeter cost twenty five credits"
Melissa wasn't surprised as Kaen had warned her about the price, but it's still impressive.
One card cost twenty five credits?
"What would you recommend for me?" Kaen asked "I'm a mage and can I use all elements"
Melissa was quite curious to see the young man's response.
It was hard to buy anything magic related to Kaen as everything would be or hard to use or unstable thanks to his mana.
Being able to use all elements was wonderful in battle, but terrible for daily life.
Kaen used many custom made wands made with rare materials for years, changing them because of his siblings or because the wand wasn't able to keep up, until he threw a tantrum and learned how to use magic without a wand just to stop the waste of money.
But all the young man did was think for a moment.
"That's tricky" He said "I would recommend one of each"
They watched as the young man left the counter and started to walk from terrarium to terrarium, picking a bakugan from each one of them.
"Since you can control all elements" He said "The bakugan can help you gain a neutral ground among them, here, let me show you"
He guided them to the counter after the young man got what he wanted from the terrariums, then put a card with weird colorful symbols on the glass superficie and then put the bakugan on the counter, forming a circle with each bakugan in the direction of its color.
"This card symbolize Vestroia" He explained "The place bakugan came, and each symbol represent a part of Vestroia, each part had an specific element and in the center we have the Silent Core, full negative energy, and the Infinite Core, full of positive energy"
He then pointed to the center of the card.
"The elements rotate around these to cores, and the the cores maintain the balance of Vestroia, a person capable of using multiple elements without a core is equal to Vestroia when it lost it's two cores, the person will eventually collapse no matter how much they try, just like Vestroia collapsed and ceased exiting"
Melissa froze at the explanation.
Many know how unstable a multi elemental mage could be, especially if they use all elements, there were occurrences where they self-destruct because of instability, many didn't even live long enough to reach the age of 18.
That was one of the reasons Kaen was so cobissed.
An SS rank multi elemental mage at the age of 30 capable of using magic even without a wand was something many would think to be a sailor's tale.
It was a common belief that Kaen was the man that surpassed his imminent death.
And now the man was saying it's just a temporary achievement? That he would die no matter what he did?
She looked at Kaen, his expression was grave, but sollen.
But the man didn't seem to notice.
"That's why I recommend you take these guys!"
All the bakugan opened, revealing to be exactly the same, just with different colors.
"These bakugan are called Robotallion" He explained "I picked the same species to be easier to adapt to the techniques since they are similar, they'll help you stabilize the main elements first, any element in between these six will stabilize by itself afterwards, them you can focus in making the positive and negative cores, and, if you're confident enough, you can make a perfect core by fusing the two cores, it will make mana control more smooth, but that is more complicated, so it's better to no think too much about it right now"
Kaen was listening intently to the explanation, and so was Melissa.
It was a good thing to know, and she might as well learn about it to later introduce to students that might need it.
"Can this technique be used by dual element mages?" She asked.
"Depend of the elements" The man said "For example, a father bought an Aquos Juggernoid for his daughter, she can control water and ice, but ice is water so it won't be treated as a different element and, by mastering the water technique, it will only make it easier to use ice, but if the person use fire and water, it would be good to make a core"
This girl must be Rockfield, it matches with the story she gave Kaen.
Kaen and Melissa made a few more questions about the bakugan, the cards, Bakumeters and Gauntlets.
Kaen bought all the Robotallion, many cards after he learned how to use them, a Gauntlet and got an orange Bakugameter as a freebie.
Melissa ended up buying a Haos Serpenoid and Hynoid for herself, along with a few more cards, a Gauntlet and also got a white Bakumeter as freebie.
Kaen seemed happy with his purchase, but Melissa was quite curious about something.
"Why do you sell the bakugans and Gauntlets for Beast Cores but sell the cards and Bakumeters for credits.
The man shrugged at her question.
"I need cores to keep the barriers and arrays on the store running" He said "And it's not like I can eat bakugan, can I?"
She nodded in understanding as Kaen holded a chuckle and the bakugan around the store made jokes.
At some point they started talking, and it made the atmosphere really pleasant.
After that the bid farewells, ready to return to the Academy.
"Good doing business with you" The man said "'till next time"
***
"I'm so excited!"
Koda watched as the infamous Ice Princess jumped with joy as she walked.
Well, he couldn't blame her, he was controlling himself not to do the same.
And, just by their interaction the day before , he could tell she needed to let emotions go a bit wild.
After the demonstration to the teacher, he took them both to his study after class and they gave all the details of the mana manipulation technique.
The gleam in his eyes when he saw it in action was hilarious.
But the moved after that, he dismissed them and let them return for their classes.
Unfortunately their next to classes were with diferente teachers, so they parted ways, but met again on the last three classes of the day.
And dear God, if looks could kill.
On that day he learned that Lady Rockfield's expressions were more then a happy smile and a cold face.
Her cold face had many meanings, one of them was annoyance.
That was the look she had when she came back from her face with Amélia Grace attached to her arm.
She also looked this close to making a decision that he doubted she would regret, but would most definitely bring trouble to her.
So he approached them with a few lies about how Lady Rockfield was taking a commision from him and how he needed to ask some questions about the product.
Well, that ended up with her really taking a commision from him and them exchanging numbers.
("If I give you the materials" She said with a serious expression "Would you make a door lock that only reacts to my mana? No keys required?"
"Sure, but why?"
"Grace have found a way of making copies of my keys"
He paused.
"... Excuse?" Was all he managed to say.
"She has my keys Ferri" She was dead serious "She. Has. My. Keys"
"... Send them to my room by delivery, I'll try making it in one week")
But now, at the beginning of another day, they received a notification from the Academy saying that some of their classes have changed, and the teacher was Kaen.
They would now be part of Kaen's personal class, a thing they didn't even know existed.
So yeah, they were excited.
"What is so special about this Kaen guy?"
Topaz sounded annoyed.
They were in an empty corridor since other classes started earlier than theirs, so the bakugan were out in the open.
It was refreshing to hold a normal conversation with everyone like that, they couldn't really sit somewhere alone because it would be the start of many rumors.
So walking to their new classroom without the need to worry about praying eyes and ears was a great experience.
"Kaen used to be one of the princes on the line of the throne" Koda explained "Many said he would be the next emperor of the Bronze Empire, but he throwed his status as a prince out of the window, abandoned his family name and not only became a civilian, but also the only SS rank multi elemental mage of the whole empire"
"He's also the only multi elemental mage capable of using all elements to reach the age of thirty alive" Rockfield added "He's so famous that even nobles and lower powerhouses like guilds and famous merchants from other empires would request him to tutor their children, even though he made it clear in a public statement that he wouldn't be tutoring anyone"
"So he's the real deal" Topaz said.
"Most definitely" she said.
"It's surprising that he decided to become a teacher" Koda said "Even more that he decided to personally take students to tutor separately in a special class"
"Something must have happened for him to change opinions then" Solder said.
That made Rockfield frow, and so did Koda, both exchanging a look.
"That's true" She said "But what might have changed his mind? I've hear from my father that he was extremely stubborn once he decided something and would harder betray the empire then to something he don't what to"
"That's why the emperor don't mess with him or force him to to anything" Koda said "He know he can't stop him"
They stayed in silence for a while, but an idea came to him.
"Maybe her majesty the empress asked him for a favor" Rockfield suggested "Everyone on the Bronze Empire know her majesty and Kaen had always been great friends even before she was engaged to the current emperor, Kaen's brother, and, after all, two royal princes are attending the Academy this year, she would have wanted him to teach them"
But Rockfield waved it off as she stopped in front of the class, hand on the handle as the bakugan hid.
"Her majesty wouldn't do that" She said, shaking her head "She doesn't like the idea of showing favor to the emperor's children, even to her own sons, the first prince and the fourth prince"
Oh, he didn't know that.
He noted that for later, as it might be important.
***
Alana was sitting on her chair waiting for the teacher.
It was still surreal to her that someone like her, an imp, could be chosen to study in Kaen's special classes.
But it was even more crazy the fact that the class was so empty, with only four students, including herself.
She was notified that the entrance rate was low, but never thought it would be this low.
In the class a boy with black skin and hair was looking at his tarot cards with bronze eyes, his nails were surprisingly long, looking like claws.
An imperial prince, if the eyes were right.
A girl with fair skin had covered herself with her robes, making it impossible to see any other characteristics, she was trembling on her seat.
And a boy obviously pure blood of the ogre race with copper skin and blond hair was sleeping, snoring loudly, his big body didn't fit the chair, so he took two to sit better.
She had to control her own tail at the moment.
She was so excited about this!
She, as an Imp, was a demi-human naturally capable of using fire magic, she had red skin, blood red hair, mahogany medium size horns and a long red tail with a spade shaped tip.
Even with all the 'everyone is equal inside the Academies' thing, not many people were willing to approach a demi-human of the demonic race like imps, demons or ogres, so to say she was surprised to be there was an understatement.
She was trying to keep it cool when the door opened.
A girl with fair skin, silver hair and beautiful blue eyes entered the class with a boy with tan skin, red hair a bit too long and green eyes following her.
She recognized both, as the pair was pretty famous around the gossip circles.
Lilian Rockfield, the heir of the Rockfield duchy, an outstanding mage with impeccable control over magic and the genius fithteen years old who learned ice magic by herself, she's known for her cold and cruel temperament among the students.
She is also known as the girl who stole and broke many hearts, a girl who's smile should not be seen.
And Koda Ferri, the common folk that ascended to noblehood in the last year. Unlike the people in the Academies, who still are noble children, he was a baron, apart from the imperial family, none of the students could do anything directly to him and many nobles actually liked his works.
He was distant, and rarely talked to anyone, not batting an eye unless it was a commision, passing most of his free time in the workshops of the Academy, but never pushed away the girls that surrounded him.
He was known as an arrogant womanizer.
But now here they were, smiling and chatting innocently like none of these rumors even existed.
"Lily! Ferri!"
Well, that until the girl with fair skin got up from her seat and ran to the pair.
Rockfield stopped for a moment and a flash of horror appeared on her and Ferri's face, but then it was replaced by surprise when she saw the girl, and then by pure happiness.
"Gina!" The two of them said at the same time.
They then proceed to look at each other with confusion and surprise as the girl hugged Rockfield.
'Well' She thought 'Seems like things will get interesting'
***
Autor note!
Sorry for the delay in posting a new chapter, this story started with so much noble drama that it was a bit difficult to write.
I'll try not to take too long to write the next chapter, but I can't guarantee anything, especially because my head went crazy after I read a story called "I sell pokemon in Konoha", I literally started writing something similar (without the harem crap with all the female characters), and lost track of time.
But yeah, sorry for the monologue, and just letting you know that there's a chance I'll introduce another story and I'll add another chapter of 'Slugs in a magic world' soon.