Chapter 117.

PART 1.

Shin is teaching Hatori piano. He has nothing better to do since all the homework is done, and for a change, Hatori has no new project to work on. Besides, Hatori always wanted to learn piano, but he just didn’t because his relatives back home always demanded that he play something for them. he forgot the few lessons he got after years of not touching the instrument, but Shin is proving to be a good teacher. It is all coming back to him.

“Now, just practice playing that repeatedly. Once you are familiar with this portion, we’ll touch on new keys.” Said Shin.

The lesson is taking place outside of the music room, where the instruments are kept when not in use. Hatori has made a deal with Shin that once he is done with the piano, he will teach him other instruments. In particular, the violin. Shin agreed to the deal because teaching someone often means going over the basics, and it’ll help in his own improvement. Besides, Hatori is not a bad student. he just needs directions, and he practices on his own without his prompting.

PART 2.

Mira couldn’t study. The noise of the repetitive piano practice kept bothering her in her dorm. She decides to confront the reason for her distraction in the mess hall the next day.

“You have to distract others, don’t you?” she pounced on Hatori as soon as he entered for breakfast. “Just because you don’t study doesn’t mean we’re wasting our time!” she jabbed a finger at him.

“Everyone is working hard to pass their exams, and yet you are causing distractions. Maybe this is how you passed for all these years!” she accused.

“Those are some heavy accusations.” Said Hatori. “Besides, why you are the only one who is complaining to me? why don’t they say anything to me?” Hatori looks around in the mess hall, turning his face this or that way.

“Nah, you’re not distracting us.” said an older student.

“Of course, they don’t say anything to you. they are too scared of your violent anger, and your friendship with the president.” She screamed.

‘Why can’t this girl talk in a normal volume?’ wonders Hatori. ‘It was a good idea to protect my ears against abuses like this.’ He once more looks around the mess hall.

“No, we’re not scared of you either. We don’t give a damn about your friendship with Josh either.” Said a girl.

“True true. That guy has to be one of the fairest people I know.” Said another student.

“Besides, I don't think you’ll listen to us if we told you that you are distracting us.” said another, younger student.

“Of course, I will listen.” Said Hatori.

Mira screeched in fury and attacked Hatori. “Woe there, stop being a cat will ya?” said Hatori, restraining Mira by easily turning her around, and grabbing her arms. If she continues to behave like this, he can pull at her arms, maybe some pain will make her regain the lost reasoning.

And if not, breaking her arms is always an option. Hatori is not exactly known for his mercy. However, he has gotten good enough to restrain himself after training with Kangana. Besides, Mira is no danger to him. She is so furious that she has forgotten any magic she knows, and she is so weak that she can’t fight with him physically.

When she does not stop moving, Hatori pulls at her arms, making her wince in pain. “Maybe instead of being jealous of my rank, you should improve yourself positively, instead of looking at everyone as your competition.” Hatori’s words prove to be more devastating than any magical spell. she immediately goes limp after hearing those words.

Hatori releases her arms and looks around. ‘Surely she has some friends who will come to take her away from me, and maybe give me some glairs for good measure?’ thinks Hatori.

But no one came. Instead, Daphne shows up with Ravina. “We’ll take her, and drop her to her dorm.” She said and gathered the distraught girl into her arms and walked away.

Hatori was expecting some glairs from Daphne, and some cutting parting words from Ravina, but they just left, without saying anything to him. he puts the matter out of his mind. He has acted far more mercifully than he used to act in the past. Anyone who attacked him like that would be a bloody smear on the ground, and if not, then Hatori won’t rest until they are.

PART 3.

As he leaves the mess hall after breakfast, Hatori congratulates himself for controlling himself so well. Kangana must praise him for his performance. He will hound her until she does. As he plots the ways to get some praise, a conversation attracts his attention.

“Yeah, but does he honestly have any talent?” asked the boy. “Professor Sangita just fawns over him.”

“Maybe she is using him as a you know…” the second boy whistles.

“Damn. With an orphan?” said the first boy, unaware that Hatori had snuck closer to them.

“Of course, that is what they are good for.” The second boy choked as he was suddenly grabbed from behind, and his shirt started to strangle him.

“Maybe you should think, before insulting a talented person!” said Hatori, shocking the first boy, while the second one hung from his grip unconscious.

“Seriously, you can’t go anywhere without fighting?” asked Josh. “What did they do?”

Hatori explains the entire conversation to Josh. “Certainly they are talking about Shin. Please give me a minute.” Said Josh. He goes to the second boy whom Hatori dropped carelessly when Josh arrived, and the president kicks him twice.

He then went to the gibbering first boy, who was still not over his shock and kicked him a few times as well. “Now, let’s go to the dorms. I have some important work to do.”

“Sure. I have some sleeping to do.” Said Hatori.

“Lazy!” accused Josh.

“Well, why waste time being awake when you have nothing to do?” asked Hatori.

“You can do some exercises?” he offered.

“Already done with my routine.” Said Hatori.

The two boys are left behind in their terrified state.

“Do you know that your eye sockets are pointing sideways?” asked Josh.

“What? No, they aren’t!” denied Hatori.

PART 4.

James is brewing a shape-shifting potion. While natural shape-shifters like Shin can shift their appearance and shape easily, someone who is not born with that talent needs some extra help every now and then. ‘Granted, Shin is not interested in exploring that talent. Music is his passion after all.’

James does not begrudge him that. human lifespan is not long enough to master all the fields that require deep knowledge. Shape-shifting and music are two such fields. The first one requires a deep knowledge of the human body, and some knowledge of animal bodies as well. whereas the latter requires the understanding of the sound, and sometimes even crosses over with psychology. After all, how else are you going to find out why certain notes have a certain effect on the human mind?

While James is going through his thoughts, as the potion simmers down, Hatori enters the room of frozen time. “Hey James, do you have something interesting? Josh is hounding me for being lazy.” Said Hatori.

It doesn’t take long for James to realize that it was a bad idea to brew the potion so close to the door of the room, as Hatori accidentally kicks the cauldron, and ends up spilling some potion on himself. “Hot, hot, hot, hot!” he danced as the potion landed on him.

It has not cooled down completely yet. Hatori’s shape starts to change. He now resembles Nandan, with wide vacant eyes. “Please stay still.” Said James, and took a sample for it.

‘Looks like the curse is still affecting him.’ he thinks. “You look good. but I suggest you leave before I decide to boil you alive.”

“AH!” Hatori runs out of the room and closes the door after himself.

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‘How thoughtful of him.’ James cleans the floor and finds that he still has enough potion left for his use.

PART 5.

Hatori comes to Josh and claps him on the shoulder. Josh is shocked to see this unknown guy be so friendly with him. “So, you are that famous Hatori’s friend, aren’t you?” he asked. “He sounds like a handsome guy.”

“Handsome? The guy who trains all day long, sweats a lot, spends a lot of time in the darkness developing spells, barely pays any attention to his appearance, and screams and rages a lot sounds handsome to you?” asked Shin, who is with Josh, and is observing this new guy.

The features of this guy shift, and the reality gets exposed. “You bastards, that’s what you think of me?” he starts to chase them, while Raven decides he will not interfere for his own sanity.

“Hmm. looks like he has some talent.” Said James, who arrived at the ground when Hatori regained his original appearance. “He shifted to his natural appearance before the effects of the potion ran out.”

“Whatever. Shouldn’t’ you help them?” asked Raven, while making no move to do the same.

“I have better things to do than help people who can’t keep their real feelings inside.” Said James.

“That does not paint us in the greatest of pictures you know.” Said Raven.

“None of us hate Hatori, but that doesn’t mean we have to praise him all the time,” said James.

After he is done teaching Josh and Shin a lesson (hitting them with a wet handkerchief repeatedly), Hatori hears the same thing from James as he told Raven. “I don’t think I can pursue it though,” he said. “I’m swamped with other fields of magic already.”

PART 6.

Mira watches the ranks. Once more, she is outdone by Hatori. But this time, her rage is missing, which is always there when she sees this result every year.

Daphne is the reason for that. when she dropped her in the dorms, she told him that she was going to destroy herself if she continued to compete with everyone like that.

“And besides,” she continues. “You have a chance of actually doing something better than just compete. You can learn simply from whoever you choose as your master the next year. use this time well, and no specter of Hatori will ever haunt you.”

She then left her alone, to make her decision. ‘After all, I am the only one who can make decisions for myself.’ She thinks. ‘And she is right, I shouldn’t compete with others. I should study for myself, not for someone else’s praise.’

PART 7.

The students have a last party for the fifth year. Most of them will not be coming back to the Academy as regulars for the next two years, and so this is a sort of send-off party held for them by other students after the exams are over.

Hatori is talking with Josh. “So, you will remain in the Academy?” he asked.

“Yeah, I probably help out Professor Amelia with her lessons for younger students.” Said Josh. “It is surprising how much of her lectures were prepared by her intern apprentices.”

“Well, it is not easy to prepare the lessons and do research by herself.” Said Raven, as Hatori left to find something to drink.

“Oh… fuck.” Cursed Raven.

“What?” asked Josh, shocked by this sudden bout of cursing.

“The beast within, awakens!” boomed Hatori’s voice.

“Oh.” Said Josh. “Fuck indeed.”

Hatori summons Daphne to himself and catches her in midair. “Wanna dance with me?” he looks down at her shocked face with a smirk.

Getting over her shock, she smiled and nodded. Hatori goes to the center of the hall. He listens to the music, but he doesn’t enjoy what he is listening to. He blasts the stage and sends the music band flying. “Shin, handle the music will ya?” he said and put down Daphne gently.

“Sure!” agrees Shin, and the music which was first slow, is now suddenly energetic and fast-paced.

The next day, Hatori wakes up with a headache. But this time, he is not confused about his state. ‘I need to build an alcohol filter, and probably a sensor.’ He notes. He is in the hall, passed out with other students who got exhausted from dancing and partying all night.

Hatori finds some orange juice, which seems to be good enough to drink according to the yantra around his neck. The poison-detecting yantra which he built with James is distributed to all his friends and a lot of the student population. He likes the yantra in the form of a neckless since it is not immediately noticeable since Hatori keeps it hidden in his clothes. He is about to pick up the glass, but Avinash and Hatori land their hands at the same time.

Avinash was expecting a fight in the morning, but Hatori let go of the glass and took another one. “So, I hear you’re leaving with the necromancer Munshi. Nice choice, by the way, he is truly the best necromancer in this country.” Said Avinash, as Hatori gulped the juice, and refilled the glass.

“What about you?” he asked after drinking his second refill.

“Oh, I’m leaving for farming.” Said Avinash.

Hatori considers himself lucky that he is not drinking anything right now, he would have spat that out in shock. “Farming?” he wheezed.

“Of course.” Said Avinash, like nothing was wrong with his decision. “Besides farming, my master is also good with politics. I’m sure he’ll share his pearls of wisdom with me.”

“Yeah, good luck for the farming.” Said Hatori. “And do me a favor, and don’t talk like that all the time. dumb people like me get confused when you use big words.”

Avinash chuckled. “You mean empty word salad?” he asked. “I heard that when you said after my first speech when I joined the council.”

“Yeah, and I don’t regret saying that,” said Hatori. “Who will take your position by the way?”

“Josh will decide.” Said Avinash. “I have given him some recommendations, but he will pick on his own.”

PART 8: JAMES’S ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, WHAT IS A SORCERER?

The mages who attain legendary status in the magical world are often given the title of sorcerer. However, this is not just a historical given title.

To understand this, let’s go through the ranking of the mages. Untrained mages, such as young kids do not have any ranks. A kid who has gone through the pre-academy level of education is at least D-rank, while a student up to their fifth year can be considered C-rank. Average adult mages are B-rank and mages who are stronger than normal are A-rank. Ruffly speaking, 1 mage out of 10000 has the chance to attain this rank.

Then there are S-rank mages, called archmagi’s. Only 1 out of 100 million have the chance to attain this kind of power. at this time, currently, reigning king Porus, and headmaster of the Academy Corvus Black are archmagi in the Subcontinent, while Zeko, General Sundar, and Necromancer Munshi are said to be archmagi, but they never proved themselves in a battle or performed any feet which are worthy of this rank.

Now, a sorcerer is a very different thing. It is not just a rank. A sorcerer is effectively a god in living flesh for the mages, for they can perform strange and impossible feats, breaking the established understanding of the magic.

It is theorized that, unlike normal mages, a sorcerer is effectively a source of magic for himself, meaning that if you cut off the flow of magic from around them, it still will not affect them. this kind of power is the reason why they can bend and twist the universe to their whims, which is not possible for a normal mage to do. Trying to copy them may result in death.

Sorcerers indicate their potential from a very early age. They are stronger than the children around them and understand and grasp the magic much quicker. However, their personalities are also very different. They mature very quickly, but this isn’t completely true.

While they mature quickly in terms of understanding the magic, their emotional maturity is less than sound. Examining the sorcerers from the past reveals how fragile their egos are, and how easy it is to provoke their temper.

There has been no sorcerer in the last thousand years, ever since Samay the sorcerer disappeared mysteriously. Therefore, we have not studied a sorcerer with our current understanding of magic and society.