Alex instinctively lowered his head slightly as Camille's muscular body almost felt the polar opposite of what a bunny girl would be like.
Her slightly bent bunny ear made it look extremely cute, but it was just too hard to ignore her body as a mage rather than some sort of fighter.
"Ahem, let's start eating now." Sophia pointed out as the food they selected finally arrived at their table.
The four girls, along with Sophia and Mary, started eating the food slowly. They chatted with each other while Alex solely focused on eating the food.
With the food out of the way, Alex took out his textbook and continued where he left off in class.
"Hey Sophia, your brother really likes to read that much?" Evelyn quietly asked after staring at him for a bit.
"Yeah, he's a little bit of a bookworm. He's the type that's willing to sit all day reading rather than going outside."
"He's the perfect match for Chloe, no? She likes to read, too," Luna suddenly suggested.
"W-What? I don't read the textbook in my spare time. That book is too boring." Chloe nervously clarified, her face blushing a little.
"What do you think, Mary? Do you think your brother is a good pair with Chloe?" Camille asked.
"I don't know. But I can see it happening."
"Okay, enough of my brother... Evelyn, how did you grow your chest to be so big?"
Sophia quickly changed the topic after noticing Alex's face blushing a little as well.
"Oh, I just drank and ate a lot of a special fruit that my mom gave me. I can show you guys later..."
As the girls went back to chit-chatting, Alex turned his attention back to his textbook, reading it until lunchtime ended.
---
When the seven of them headed back to their classrooms, the six of them went to the back of the classroom while Alex sat in the front.
He didn't waste any time taking out his textbook again and getting ready to read it.
Once again, Justin was his seatmate, still writing in his notebook with no regard for the outside world.
After Alex glanced at Justin's work, he was once again intrigued by the design but couldn't understand what each part did.
"Ahem, good afternoon, everyone. Let's start our class now. Please take out your textbook and flip to page 110."
As Amelia began to explain the different spells and chants for different elements of basic magic, Alex started paying attention to her lecture.
The whole class was silent as Amelia started giving her personal insight on magic casting, with things not even mentioned in the textbook.
Alex turned his head a little to check his surroundings. To his surprise, everyone was writing down what Amelia said as notes.
Soon, Alex himself had written almost several pages of notes nonstop as Amelia continued explaining the fundamentals to everyone in the class.
Even though they were just fundamentals, Amelia's experiences were a completely different perspective, not just for Alex but for the entire class.
Just as the clock hit four, Amelia finally stopped, giving everyone a short break to allow her to prepare for the next segment.
After the three-minute break ended, Amelia didn't start writing on the blackboard right away this time.
Instead, she pulled out a crystal ball from her bag before sitting down at the teacher's desk.
"I want everyone to start meditating right now and try to increase your mana."
All of the students listened as they closed their eyes and started meditating in their heads.
Even Justin, who hadn't taken any notes earlier, was meditating alongside Alex.
"Deep breathe, relax, and let your mind delve into your body..." Amelia gently whispered as she closed her eyes as well.
As Alex followed Amelia's instructions, he could feel his mind start to lose control over his body.
It was almost as if he was half-asleep, unable to move any parts of his body.
Yet, his mind wasn't in complete darkness.
A small light appeared right on top, and then more and more light appeared right below it, making a figure similar to his body.
He could feel that his mind was located on the top star, and the other stars were connected, sending mana all the way to the top.
Thinking back to Amelia's lecture and the textbook, Alex began reversing the mana flow, causing it to flow from his head down to his body.
A burning sensation started tingling in his mind, but it was still bearable compared to the first time he got mana.
After who knows how long, he could feel the stars around his body no longer able to take any more mana.
Any further attempt to push in more mana was starting to worsen the burning sensation, almost waking him up from the meditation.
With no progress made, Alex eventually was forced to give up and regain control of his body again.
As he opened his eyes, a body was blocking his view completely, causing him to move back a little to see what it was.
To his surprise, Amelia was right before him, sitting on his desk, curiously looking down at his face.
"How was your first meditation?" Amelia asked as her voice appeared in his head.
"It was okay. I felt the stars in my body, but I couldn't really put much mana into it... Wait, why is my mouth not making any sound?"
Alex was a little shocked as he somehow managed to reply with his voice sent over to Amelia's head.
"Shush. Don't wake other people up yet. It's extremely dangerous to wake someone up when they are still meditating."
Alex nodded in agreement, closing his mouth as he realized it was Amelia's magic that made them able to talk to each other in their heads.
"Your meditation is a little short, only ten minutes... Usually, people meditate for at least an hour to increase their mana even a little."
"I felt that burning sensation again... I couldn't put any more into it."
Seeing Alex looking a little down, Amelia didn't really have a way to comfort him.
"Everyone feels that... It's a long and slow process. It takes at least an entire year or longer just going from level one to level two."
"I understand."
As the two fell into silence, Alex's eye couldn't help but notice Amelia's leg was slightly spread apart.
Her knee skirt was also just slightly too short, allowing him to see her panties a little.
"It's black...S-Sorry." Alex accidentally murmured his voice over to Amelia, not realizing his thought was still connected to her.
"What black?"
Amelia looked a little confused until she finally noticed Alex kept staring down at her thighs.
Her face immediately started to blush a little as she got off his desk and went back to her seat.
"Alex... Who taught you to look at other people like that?" Amelia questioned, her voice sounding extremely angry.
"I-I just couldn't control myself. I don't know why I was looking at that. I'm sorry, Auntie."
A short silence appeared between the two until Amelia eventually accepted Alex's apology.
"You better not look at other girls like this. If you weren't my nephew, I would have thrown your dead body in a dark alley."
Alex nodded several times in repeat, not doubting Amelia's threat. He had seen her violent side before when he and Sophia got on her nerves.
At the same time, his mind was a little confused.
The way Amelia answered him sounded as if she wanted him to only look at her panties rather than not look at girls' panties in general.
Amelia's face soon started to blush as she realized that what she had just said was too misleading.
Still, she doesn't bother fixing it, hiding her embarrassment by looking inside the crystal ball to check on other students.
Meanwhile, Alex started looking at the people around him.
To the back, his two sisters were still meditating, showing no signs of opening their eyes at all.
Sophia's four friends showed no signs of opening their eyes either, with the entire class still having their eyes closed.
Even Justin, who had been stuck as a level one mage for years, was still meditating with his eyes closed.
"I really am just that bad..." Alex murmured in his head, realizing he was the outlier of the class.
With not much to do, Alex resumed back to reading his textbook, absorbing as much knowledge as possible.
After almost half an hour passed, people finally began opening their eyes.
But nobody spoke up, sitting in silence as they waited for their classmate to finish meditation first.
Soon, another half an hour passed, and this time, almost the entire class was awake.
Except Sophia, Mary, and Justin, who are still meditating with their eyes closed.
As everyone started to get a little impatient, one student in the back decided to attempt to wake one of them up.
However, within seconds, his body was completely frozen, unable to move a single part of his body.
"Do not wake someone who's still meditating in class until I say so." Amelia's voice appeared in everyone's head.
The student who stood up bowed down in apology before running back into his seat, waiting in silence along with everyone.