Chapter 103.

PART 1.

After that strange dream two months ago, Hatori felt better for some reason. the feeling of peace did not last when he woke up, but it still lingered, and it made his recovery process very pleasant. It also helped that Nirmala apologized for her mistakes.

“I don’t know, whether I’m qualified to become a healer or not if I keep making mistakes like that.” she confided in him.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Hatori to her. “Everyone has those days.” What else could he say to someone who is openly admitting their mistakes to him?

Today is the first day of the festival, and healer Slaughter has deemed him fit enough to live outside of the hospital now. He is cheerily making his way to the breakfast, planning to slowly get back into his routine, since the only magic he has done for the past two months is theory which he wrote for his homework. He was only allowed to do that after Slaughter observed his stir-craziness, where he repeatedly drew one rune for hours on end. He let him do his homework after that, or even read an entertaining book to pass the time.

Of course, there is another reason to feel good. the council has been gutted effectively, judging from the gossip shared by Raven and Shin, their control is nonexistent at this point. ‘Now, the only problem is that useless professor who is a thorn in my side. Once I get rid of him, my stay in the Academy should become much more pleasant.’ He thinks.

James has also come to visit him in the hospital, and though he seems to be getting on just fine, Hatori gets the feeling that he needs help, something which he is not getting here for some reason. Josh has returned to his former self and has thrown himself into training, trying to catch up with his friends. He goes to the forest to meet with that puppy who is growing into a large dog over time.

So of course, there are many reasons for Hatori to be happy. When he enters the mess hall and senses around for his friends, a voice boomed in the hall. Hatori is glad that his defenses are still working. While everyone is hearing a loud voice, he is hearing this loud voice on a normal volume. He does not have long to celebrate about his success though, as the words of the announcement finally penetrate his brain.

“Today is the first day of the festival. And therefore, the council has created this documentary for you.” said the student responsible for this announcement. “This documentary is concerning a certain blind kid who was summoned here, who is also among us as of this moment. This documentary should explain to you why does he not belong with us.”

The students are not impressed by the council’s performance recently, so they do not have much hope in this documentary to convince them of anything. But still, the mess hall goes quiet all the same, as a voice starts to narrate this documentary. The students who are responsible for creating this documentary are sitting with Krishna Menon, their names roll first as the credit, and someone cast some spell which focused a spotlight on them as their name came onto the screen.

“This boy was born to a normal family in the mundane dimension, a world that mage kind left when they got tired of their demands. His father is a lawyer, and his mother is a housewife. Everything was going well, but one day, they realized something. Their child was running into things. Of course, having no education in the manners, children born outside of noble families do that quite often, nothing new there. But the eyes of the child were also changing.” A close-up of Hatori’s eyes is shown, where his eye appears to be reflecting light, like a cat’s eye. “At first, this cancer started in one eye, but then it also developed in the other eye.” Said the voice, as Hatori as a baby is shown, with squinty eyes.

On a side note, most of the girls squealed at how cute he looked as a baby.

“An operation is performed by the inferior healers of this mundane world, and both of the eyes are removed. If this were to happen in our world, we would have cured this problem with magic, saving the child’s eye in the process.” the narrator fails to notice that most people have forgotten about magic in the mundane dimension, and mages are not exactly offering their services.

As a result, in the opinion of this professional narrator, this guy should be fired, and should not receive any salary at all for the poor job.

“After this, the problem of educating the child comes up, where various people suggested specialized schools for the child, which do cater the need of teaching the disabled children, as they are called in the mundane dimension.” Hatori is shown at the age of five, when he is left at a boarding school, despite his cries of protest.

Scenes of arguments between the parents are also shown, where the father is skeptical of these schools, but the mother is insisting on putting him in a boarding school. Though the father is concerned about his child’s safety, he has no other choice but to listen to his wife. “One thing is universal, that is the care of their children by parents. We are glad to observe this even in the barbaric mundane dimension.”

This story is stopped for a second to point out that hypocrisy has its limits. We will now return you to your regularly scheduled story.

“Once the child was enrolled in this specialized school, we can see that he does not have a good time. the staff is bad, the food is bad, and other children are not any better either.” Said the narrator of this documentary.

“However, this child also displays some barbaric characteristics, as these two incidents show.” Hatori is trying to resist an older man among the staff, who is trying to remove his clothes. Later, he told about this to his father, when he got home because the school does not let children talk with their families once they are there.

Karan is furious after hearing this. When he talks to Rita about this, she is initially shocked, but she still wants to keep him there. “This’ll make him tough and independent.”

“Yes, what a wonderful way to toughen our child, letting other people assault him. I see these cases daily in the court. And I’ll be damned if my kid goes through this, you hear me? I’m taking him out.” Rita could not argue against this decision.

Josh watches along with hundreds of students with their clenched fists, how Hatori is surrounded by the older boys who are in their teenage years, who are trying to do the same thing that the man did. Though this five-year-old child is trying to resist as best as he could, he is outmuscled and outnumbered. “You think you’re so great just because you come from a rich family, huh? now strip!”

this statement is punctuated with a loud slap, as Karan arrives at this moment to pick him up. the principal tries to convince him to not file a case, but he does not budge. “I don’t care how much money I have to spend. I will destroy you for selling us a false dream.” He said to the principal before leaving.

The students are getting increasingly furious at the narration. It does not match the reality of the situation that they were seeing on their screen. “So even at that small age, he continue to resist, fight, and even bite people like an animal. No wonder he has rampaged throughout our school.”

“After this, they home-school the boy and put him in a normal school next year. Where he proves to be quite advanced in certain subjects for his age.” Hatori is shown with older students in the computer programming class.

“This doesn’t last long, however. For during the April of year 4018, or 2018 as they like to call it, this child was summoned into our world, right before his eighth birthday.” Concludes the documentary.

As the documentary ends, the students erupt in a tsunami of outrage, however, one student is not interested in just yelling or showing his displeasure with his words alone. that student being Hatori, the subject of the documentary. He launches a bolt of lightning at the student seated near him who appeared in the credit, but the bolt is stopped by Krishna Menon with a shield that sounds like the gong of a bell.

Looking at his furious expression, they all bale out of there quickly, leaving Krishna to deal with a furious Hatori. But they do not get to run away so easily. Josh, Raven, Shin, and James pursue them to the outside of the hall, and all the while James laughs like an unhinged lunatic. He finally has an excuse to show his anger and beat some people to a bloody pulp.

“Tom, come with me. we’re leaving.” Said Avinash.

“To pursue the people who made that film?” he asked.

“Yes.” Said Avinash.

“We’re coming with you. I do think you will need numbers to box them in,” said Patel.

The Singh twins also move to help them out, going after Hatori’s group.

Krishna Menon sits unmoving for a moment, shocked by the sheer power of just one bolt of lightning. It is a good thing that he brought this nonconductive shield to save himself and the members of the council responsible for the documentary, they would have been fried certainly, even with their protections. Speaking of them, they did a wonderful job with this documentary.

“Do you see this beast?” he gets up, and his words echo with an amplifying spell. “Look at his barbaric anger. He does not belong with us, we should throw this cursed child away!”

Krishna Menon prides himself on reading the situation of a room. that is how he has survived and built up his power up to this point. but this time, he fails to judge the situation properly, as the students are not happy with his declaration, and they are letting him know loudly.

“You think he is a beast? The poor guy needs our help more than anything!” said several students.

“Maybe we should throw you out, you don’t even teach here. You got the post of a professor just because you’re a noble!” said the students from lower-class families.

“Krishna Menon, I challenge you to a chain duel,” said Hatori, silencing everyone. In response, a chain appears around his waist, and the other end of that chain clatters in front of Krishna.

Corvus watches all of this happening. ‘I wonder whether he will take the bate or not.’ He thinks.

The professor smiled. The boy has given himself to him on a silver platter. Duels are dangerous, and if he kills him, there won’t be any questions because he challenged him in the open. He is completely confident of his victory. The boy might become a strong mage in the future, but just because he hits hard now does not mean he will manage to beat him.

“I accept.” He said, and the chain snaked around his waist, binding both combatants with each other.

“Dhiraj, what is the boy doing?” asked Krodhatma, worried.

“Indeed. Does he know what he has done?” asked Professor Mantar.

Professor Bali, Amelia, Amrita, and Amarjit also raise similar concerns. “He will be fine.” Replied the potions master. “Just you see.”

The duel starts, and Krishna Menon starts first. “I do not have much chance to teach boy, but I believe I could be a great dueling instructor than that brute Bali.” He said while opening with non-elemental spells.

These spells have unknown properties, and Hatori prefers to dodge them rather than face them ahead. He observes how the floor and wall behind him are sizzling after these spells land on them. “Vitriol boy, acidic spells. if one of these lands on you, your body will melt inside out,” said Krishna, while casting more such spells at his opponent.

He might be able to dodge a few of them, but he can’t avoid all of them since they are both bound with chains. Noticeably, Hatori has done all the movement so far, while Krishna has not moved beyond a few steps here and there.

Hatori finally returns the attack with fireballs, but despite hitting Krishna Menon in his face, they do nothing. “Foolish boy. I have built elemental protections right in my body. You’ve modified yourself didn’t you?” he said, utilizing his magical pressure. “You should have known this!” he slams his staff to the ground, and Hatori falls to the ground as a result.

As Krishna starts to walk closer to him, Hatori attacks him with earth magic, slamming his staff on the ground. Cracks start to snake across the distance, and soon reach the position of Krishna, stopping him on his track for a moment. But he walked right over those cracks, and they did nothing. “Did you know that you can enchant your footwear to save yourself from earth magic?” he asked, after coming close to him. “Of course, you didn’t know that. your master Zeko taught you in a hurry it seems.”

Hatori smiled. The cracks exploded when flames escaped his fingers, though everyone thought they came from his staff. The cracks were full of gunpowder, which he actually learned to transmute, and then conjure right under the nose of Slaughter. What could he say? He was bored. This was a massive explosion, and Krishna Menon was sent flying. The chain around his waist heated up, burning his skin, and it also stopped him from going too far from Hatori. The students watching this duel have to find some quick cover from the heat, while Corvus laments about his damaged mess hall.

“Don’t they know how expensive it is to repair the school?” he raged.

“Completely agree with you, sir.” Said Dhiraj, given how he was the one who directly overlooked the repairing of the grand hall when Hatori damaged it in his rampage last year. Luckily, he didn’t have to pay the contractors out of his pocket.

“You… you wretched child!” he roared, attacking with wild abandon, not even caring that some of his spells hit the students nearby. But Hatori went out of his way to shield them.

He did not know why he did that. Maybe something inside of him didn’t enjoy someone else suffering in his battle, or maybe this was the result of that strange dream. He would have let them die if he was like that control freak from his dream.

“What is it boy?” asked Krishna. “Have you suddenly awakened your empathy for these miserable Children?”

“This is bullshit.” Said Bali. “Blood Freezing spell, Acid spell, they are easily countered, and any shield can block them. no self-respecting mage would ever use such easily countered spells in a battle.”

“The only reason why he is getting away with those spells is that Hatori himself has never faced them, and likely doesn’t know how easily they are countered.” Said Amarjit, agreeing with Bali.

Hatori whips his staff, and the rubble from the explosion earlier is transformed into shards of crystal, with a gust of wind, he sends them to his opponent. But this attack is also easily neutralized. “What is up boy? looks like you’re getting tired.” Said Krishna Menon. He makes some motions with his staff, and Hatori’s staff flies out of his hand, and Krishna catches it.

“Do you know that it is an ultimate insult for a mage to lose their foci like this?” said Krishna Menon.

“No it is not,” said Professor Amrita. “It was never an insult historically, nor in current times.”

“Shut up, you whore!” he yelled at her. “You should open your mouth for one thing only.” He chided her, before burning Hatori’s foci.

“What’re you gonna do now boy?” asked Krishna, once more walking closer to him. “The chain hasn’t gone yet. Looks like this is your final day on this planet.”

“Ooohhhh. I lost my staff, Ooohhh, That insult cut me deep. Whatever shall I do?” Hatori finally spoke in this battle, halting Krishna on his track by his words alone.

“What?” said Krishna Menon. This confidence does not compute. The boy should be a nervous wreck by now, begging for his life. And yet here he is, taunting him.

Hatori casts the Lightning Bolt spell, which causes the clothes of Krishna Menon to burn. But the professor is not quiet, he retaliates with spells, including the fire spells in his attacks this time.

Hatori runs the lightning through his body and watches the reaction of Krishna Menon in slow motion. He runs circles around him, actually dominating him in the exchange of spells. When Krishna manages to counter his attacks with the Firewall, Hatori transmutes the broken legs of the tables into snakes, which restrain the professor. When he manages to get rid of those snakes, he finds himself drowning even though he is not in water, since Hatori combined the wind and water elements, and created a bubble around his head filled with water. when he pops the bubble and is bent over for breath, Hatori conjures some iron spikes, and launches them at Krishna Menon, and some of them do find their mark, stabbing his shoulder and leg.

“Do you see how he is using the lightning?” asked Krodhatma. “I never thought he would reach this stage so quickly.”

“Me neither. It was just the last year when I instructed him,” said Dhiraj. “I think I should point him in some advanced direction, he seems to be stuck at his current level of elemental magic.”

“I think he is spread thin.” Said Bali. “There is a reason why most mages do not go for multiple elements, it is just too hard to train and develop spells for them.”

By this point, Krishna is unable to keep up with Hatori. He thought he knew combat, but this is madness. The boy is running around, and since he is bound to him, he is dragged with him whether he likes it or not. Gasping on the ground, he flops like a fish out of water, struggling to stay alive. It is just not a matter of the energy of the brat. He seems to be responding with his every attack with a snap, where was this speed in the early battle? Krishna, finding himself on the backfoot, realizes that most of the destructive spells he used to know has been now forgotten, or they do not come to him as easily as they once did. He was never given to direct combat anyway, letting someone else handle that, while he did the political side.

“Pathetic!” thunders Hatori, and streams the electricity through the chain binding them. the lightning shocks his opponent badly but does not harm him in the slightest. “You call yourself a professor, and yet look at you. even the weakest professor would have killed me by now.”

“That’s true!” said several professors from the sidelines.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Hatori saunters up to his prone opponent, and after jabbing his finger through his wounds, draws a rune on his forehead, while he is unable to stop him in the slightest, given how badly out of breath he is even after several minutes of inactivity. The periodic electric shocks are not doing his recovery any favors either.

“This is a lightning rod rune.” Said Hatori. “I’m about to perform a dangerous spell, if it backfires, all the electricity will go to you directly. If the rune is overpowered, then some surrounding people may get shocked, but it wouldn’t be fatal… probably.”

This causes immediate conjuring of rubber protection. Hatori thinks about why doesn’t anyone protect themselves against lightning with rubber, before focusing on the task. He digs deep within himself and tries to emulate the flow of magic that he saw as his free-flowing self in his dream, all the while continuously streaming lightning through his body.

Finding the flow, he then claps, and then separates his hands, finding two kinds of lightning on his hands. He still hasn’t read about this, because Slaughter confiscated lightning manuals which Raven tried to smuggle inside of the hospital. he notices the feeling of lightning on his left hand, which is very different and stronger compared to his right hand. He changed the flow, and his right hand has now the same feeling as his left hand.

Hatori then looks up and claps, and with the sound, the nearby windows shatter, and Krishna Menon howls in pain. This is worse than anything he has ever experienced. Every single nerve of his body came alive with electricity, and he felt as if he had spent thousands of years nonstop in this hell without a break. Once the spell ends, instead of a handsome man in his thirties, there is only a husk left, which looks like has lived for centuries, and is about to croak any time now.

The rune which Hatori drew on his forehead held on for longer than he thought it would, before getting overwhelmed and distorted, and then finally getting erased. Once that happened, the students nearby did suffer some shocks, though nothing crippling. However, this was different than usual lightning, they could tell, and they were glad that they didn’t have to suffer anything like Professor Useless did. Looks like that taunt is true in more ways than one.

The chain disappears, signifying the end of the duel. Professor Mantar recorded this entire duel, for he witnessed a chain duel live, and he even observed the rarer phenomenon of both combatants surviving. Though one of them looks near to his death.

‘That bastard was right. Going with the flow works.’ Said Hatori with a smirk.

PART 2.

The eight sixth-year council members are running from four fourth-year kids. Looks like running from younger mages is their destiny at this point. the only advantage they have is their numbers, they are sure that these crazy kids won’t be able to capture or kill them.

Despite facing two-on-one odds, Hatori’s friends dominated the battles. These council members have it so easy. Hatori’s friends, aside from training with each other, also go and train at Zeko’s house every summer, and have faced a lot of danger this year. These council members did nothing but sit on their chairs, and hatched plots, and let someone else handle the combat for them.

They barely manage to run away by spreading out, and they run into Avinash’s group, followed by the Singh twins. After the battle gets destructive in the mess hall (they can hear the explosions even outside) the escaping students decide to help them, while the supporters of the council quietly slink away, realizing their numbers disadvantage.

Thus, all these eight students are dragged into the mess hall after getting maimed by James (even numbers lost their legs and odd one their hands) where they get to witness what happened with the professor who supported them so much. James levitated all eight of them by himself, and he dropped them on the feet of a recently victorious Hatori.

“I don’t see a scratch on you,” said Raven.

“How could someone so unfit scratch me? even Josh is better than him,” said Hatori.

“I’m working on it, okay?” said Josh, knowing about his poor cardio.

“What’re you going to do about them?” asked James. “I think we should use them as guinea pigs for our experiments.”

“Tempting. But I want to know, how did you extract my memories? if you answer me, I might decide to be merciful.” Said Hatori. “My friends can attest that unlike you noble bastards, I always follow my word, once I give it.”

“He’s not lying.” Said Raven, remembering how Hatori dragged them to train with him when they all lived in the castle.

“We used a memory-capturing spell.” said one of them, and received seven glairs as a result.

“Be quiet, you fool!” said one of them.

“That spell lets us find specific memories, and then we can capture it on a device.” He continues, not listening to his companions, who are gagged by Shin. “I cannot explain anything further, I’m willing to give you the notes of the spell.”

“Give me the notes.” Said Hatori. “Take the notes from him James, and kill him.”

Right in the middle of handing over the notes after casting the spell, and printing the formula on several pages, the student protested. “You said you will be merciful!”

“I am.” James decapitates him. “As for the rest of you, burn.” Hatori conjures the oil and lights them on fire.

After witnessing all of these events, everyone’s hunger died a cruel death. ‘I should have used the oil conjuring in the battle. Next time.’ thinks Hatori.

While James is unaffected by this execution, Josh, Shin, and Raven are very disturbed by it. though they refrain from saying anything for the moment. The things they have learned about their friend are shocking enough as it is.

“Also, don’t worry James, we will find other guinea pigs.” Said Hatori, looking around at the students leaving the mess hall. “I’m sure some of them will move against us sooner or later. better attack first rather than let them make their move.”

This caused a stampede, suddenly no one wanted to be in the close vicinity of Hatori, even the younger students.

PART 3.

Corvus has called this meeting. “Now that the thorn in my side is out, it is time that I clean the house.” He said to the professors.

“What?” asked some of them, while others kept their mouths shut.

“I’m glad you asked. Menon's family made a deal with me that I must make their useless son a professor here, doesn’t matter whether he teaches or not. And in return, they will not impeach me, or try to take over the operations of this Academy.” said Corvus.

“But that is impossible. Even if they try, the only ones who can impeach you are the mages of the Magecraft and Sorcery Institute.” Said Dhiraj.

“I see you’ve read the regulations.” Said Corvus with a smile. “He is right. They didn’t know that. but as they say, keep your enemies closer and all. I wanted to curtail their moves to try to influence the education of this school, something which again, the Institute protects us from. But remember, it is not a complete protection. He sent reports denouncing me every time, but I changed those reports, telling them that I gave up when he argued with me, though I left all the cursing he did at me.”

“Have you gathered us here to tell this?” asked Krodhatma, surly from being forced to participate in a meeting.

“Yes and no. first, I do want you to know that I did that, and I haven’t lost my grip on this institute of learning. Second, I have to tell you about a fraud.” Said Corvus, getting serious at the end, all the traces of humor vanish from his face.

“A fraud?” asked most professors, while some remained silent, and a few of them did some uncomfortable shifting as if they wanted to be at any other place but this office.

“Yes, a fraud. Have you seen the student named Gulam? A lad full of potential who was enslaved by that terrible brat Santosh?” he asked.

“Yes? What of it?” asked Bali.

“He wasn’t mentally fit to pass his exams after he was tortured, and subjugated. But clearly, he continued to pass his exams up to his sixth year, even though he got middling grades, it was impossible for him since he was nothing but a bloodthirsty beast after his enslavement.”

“But this means someone… oh.” Said Amarjit, realizing why they were all gathered here.

They sense the pull of magic, and four professors are singled out. “How ironic. Looks like you fraudsters believe in equal presentation.” Said Corvus, after seeing two male and two female professors. “Did you honestly think that you would escape from me after doing that under my nose?” he asked with a mild tone.

When they fail to answer, Corvus gets up from his chair, and looms over them, since he is taller than them all. “Do you know the punishment for a fraud like this?” he asked.

“Death.” Said Dhiraj with finality in his tone. “Anyone who compromises our institute of learning like this deserves death.”

“Indeed.” Said Corvus. “You should read the regulations more often, looks like you all have faulty memories. going against me? fine. Academic politics? Fine. Conspiracies against each other? Fine. But when you interfere with the operation of this school, that is where you cross the line, and now you must pay the price.”

“That is outrageous!” said one of the male professors. “That boy would have never passed otherwise, so what if we helped out a bit?”

When Corvus did not do anything to this professor who spoke out against him, the remaining three of them also started to complain. “Besides, he was a low-class boy, he would have never passed the exams anyway.”

“Do you listen to yourselves!” thundered Corvus. “That boy was one of the brightest kids of that batch. Some noble brat destroyed him. if you would have reported that to me, I could have helped him in recovering his mental faculties. But you did no such thing, and allowed the abuse to continue!”

“Whatever. I don’t want to argue with you. the punishment is death, prepare to die!” he said, and several chains came out of the floor to capture the professors. But they spread out and evaded the chains.

“We should have done this a long time ago.” Said one of the female professors.

The entire room is filled with poisonous gas, which is then transmuted into hydrogen. One professor focuses on hydrogen in the standing area of Corvus, and one of them lights that on fire. Corvus is consumed in a searing blaze, but when the smoke clears, he stands there unharmed, not even his hair is singed. Forget his hair, his clothes didn’t suffer any effects either, while the professors who were not attacked directly got their clothes blackened from the fire.

Corvus raises his hand and clenches his fist. “When my students are showing initiative, how can I remain behind?” he said casually as if he wasn’t lit on fire just a few moments ago. The professor who lit the fire is ripped apart by this small gesture. “I used the air present within his body. It was a simple matter of inflating everything quickly and turning it into an internal storm of sorts. This only works when there is a strong disparity between the two mages.” Lectures Corvus, as if teaching a class.

When the professors tried to flee, he breathed, and bolts of lightning came out of his mouth, which homed into the fleeing opponents, while Corvus did not move in the slightest. “As you can see, when you attain the higher level of understanding of magic, your entire body becomes a conduit of it.” he lectured to the professors, who were all rooted on their spot. Some of them snap out of the horror of this moment and start taking notes. Lessons like these cannot be ignored after all, even if your colleagues are dying in front of you.

One of the professors dies from the shock of one of the bolts, and another one is ripped apart by the animated furniture. They will never look at their chairs the same way again. The final professor who is trying to fight off the transmuted table which turned into a crocodile, all the while he is trapped in a swamp (because Corvus is an asshole) pleads with the deputy headmistress.

“Deputy headmistress, help us, please stop this monster. He will destroy everything, he and his student are taking apart our powerful families bit by bit, please stop him!” his pleading stopped when the crocodile caught him in its jaws and started to roll quite fast, ripping the unfortunate man into bloody chunks.

Surbha watches this from her place in the crowd, not moving an inch. She is thinking of retiring to an island and writing poetry for the rest of her life. ‘In fact, what is stopping me from doing that?’ she thought.

“Headmaster, I resign. I will give you the letter shortly.” She said, hoping she wouldn’t die here in this office, which looks so normal now, no sign of blood at all.

“Of course. You have 24 hours to hand over that letter. If you change your mind then, you are free to come to me then.” Said Corvus. “Know this though, that I know why you were sent here as well. the only reason I’m sparing you is that you did not compromise this institute in any way.”

She nodded in understanding. She may have schemed against him, but she never manipulated the exams to pass a student. she dodged a bullet there. If she had listened to her more ambitious former colleagues, she wouldn’t be standing here alive right now.

PART 4.

The festival is still going on, but it is under the terror of Hatori. He used crows to spy on the students and marked the council supporters. There are a few of them still left, and just as he predicted, they do plan to move against him in a misguided hope that if they take him out, the council will return to their glory days.

In reality, that is very unlikely. The professor who backed them is now gone, and they don’t have the support of the majority of the students or a stable leadership. Hatori considers them to be a very near check.

The council has a problem while there are very few of them remaining, no new members are applying. The noble faction is mostly hiding in their dorms, talking about their glory days when they used to control the students, while the students who did not support anything of the sort, even if they come from noble families, walk freely outside, enjoying the festival as much as they could.

Hatori notices how Liang and Maria have not approached him this year even a little. ‘Looks like they faced harsh discipline back home for providing me support openly.’ He thought.

But one thing is bothering him. “Josh, tell me why there are so many students in the school, given how many I have killed in the past, and how they do kill each other as well?”

Josh stops his running on the secret ground to answer this question. “Because the Academy brings every student they can to learn the magic here. After some of the sorcerers came from poor backgrounds, they decided that the potential chance of another sorcerer appearing from non-noble families, or among the orphans cannot be ignored. Couple that with students from the countries around us also coming here, that makes it a pretty big number.”

“There’s a reason why we haven’t met with everyone here.” Said Raven, who was meditating nearby with the fire element, as Josh went back to his running. “It is impossible to know everyone, or meet everyone. There are what, ten or so sections in our year?” he said, trailing off at the end.

“Yeah, but they only reached that number recently. When our batch started, the number of sections was higher.” Said Shin.

“A lot of them didn’t make it then.” Said James.

“Looks like that,” said Hatori. “I probably didn’t help it either.”

PART 5.

Hatori gives the students he has managed to capture so far to James. He has kept them in the room of frozen time. “That is perfect.” He immediately starts to draw some runes on one of them, using the same runic system as Hatori does, after he learned it from Zeko.

“How do you know this dialect?” he asked.

“This dialect is often discovered, then lost, and rediscovered in the magekind’s history. It is very powerful and very personalizable, probably that’s why. most recently it was discovered by Corvus.” Said James.

Hatori smiled. Though Zeko told him not to share the knowledge of this runic system with anyone, since James has already discovered it, Hatori thinks that point is moot. Besides, they can do a lot of things by pooling their knowledge and experience together.

James is most interested in understanding the human vision and the functions of an eye, and how to copy that in the symbolic form. Lucky that he has such a highly expressive language, and the test subjects to observe.

Not much happened in the remainder of this year. They did exams, got their results, and are now ready to leave.

But the remaining three boys are pretty horrified by the human experimentation of Hatori and James. “Don’t you have a single kind bone in your bodies?” asked Josh.

“No,” said Hatori flatly. “Besides, you do have to do human experimentation sooner or later. and they offered themselves.”

“How?” asked Raven.

“By conspiring against us,” said James.

“I can’t argue with that,” said Raven with a sigh.

“I just want you to know that I do not like this.” Said Josh, poking Hatori’s chest.

“Your dislike has been noted and ignored.” He responded with a smirk.

“Ug!” Josh turns away in a huff. Why is he surrounded by crazies?

“You’ll thank me when you have to modify yourself next year.” Said Hatori. “Chances of any of you dying because of this are very low, since you got me and my experience in your corner.”

“Not to mention, test subjects.” Said James.

“About that, what’re you going to do about them for the vacation time?” asked Shin.

“Simple. They are in a half-dead state, stuck in a room of frozen time. there’s a yantra with ample supply of that potion to keep them like that, it will administer the dose regularly.” Said Hatori.

“It was so tough to program the time in it since the outside measures do not work in that room,” said James.

“Don’t remind me.” lamented Hatori.

Time sucks. Programming time sucks even more.

(End.)