Chapter 40.

PART 1.

Ishwar cursed at the missed opportunities, each time they failed to get Hatori alone. The boy never leaves his friends, is often in classes, or in his dormitories. They avoid approaching him in the open, because they don’t want their competition to realize that the attempts are already being made to recruit him.

Ishwar is patient though. He is sure that he will get his chance. When that happens, he will pounce on it.

PART 2.

When classes are over, and he took an hour-long nap after changing his school-dress, Hatori goes to the library, and sees the books available there. For now, he decides to get the first book from the list of books recommended to him by Zeko.

He would have loved to get some more books out of here, but currently, there’s a limit of one book on him. He learned of it when he tried to take out the second book after the first one. The second book is about magical sensing. Hatori feels that could be useful in the future.

“Physical Side of Magic: How to Maintain Your Body for Maximum Growth. This book is to help young mages develop their physical condition to improve their magic.”

PART 3.

Avinash waits for the arrival of his guests, reclining on his throne-like chair. Akshat and Sagar have outdone themselves in finding this room, and arranging it with the staff to reserve it for their use today, along with seating arrangements for everyone. And of course, the special chair for him. Though the credit for finding it goes to Tom.

Today is the day of the Sun, meaning they all get a day off today. They also had a day off yesterday, but they all just slept like a log, judging from how many students were missing from the first year during breakfast. Of course, he and that crazy Hatori did end up waking up early. At least the guy is driven, despite his infuriating disrespect towards him.

Slowly but surely, the room starts to fill, as other students arrive. Hatori senses Avinash sitting in a big chair, as he entered along with his own group. “What is up with him?” He pointed to Avinash, while whispering to Raven.

“Looks like a throne to me.” He whispered in return. “He’s too small for it.”

The room is filled with the students of their group. Hatori feels the weakness in his legs for a moment. But he then gathers his confidence, and asks Josh. “Will you be with me? I'd rather not meet anyone alone.” He is sure that the social nature of Josh will help him.

“Sure.” Nodded Josh.

Avinash is happy to see other students mingling with each other. His own friends are distributing the refreshments to everyone. He sees Hatori’s group as splitting up. That boy with bells in his hair and Raven go the other way, while Josh and Hatori go the other way. Whereas that quiet boy just sits in the corner, sipping his drink.

Aside from greeting Daphne and Ravina, Josh and Hatori meet three girls. First are twin sisters Chaya and Maya. “Wow. Even your voices are the same.” Said Hatori, after all, the greetings and pleasantries are done.

“Yeah, we get that a lot.” Said one of them, though Hatori isn’t sure which one was it. Maybe magical sensing can help him differentiating between them?

The other girl they meet while Hatori is bragging about his killer chess skills to Chaya and Maya. “And just through my fingers, I can observe the board, and calculate my next moves, and form new strategies.”

“Like a squid playing through his tentacles.” They all laughed.

“Is that so, huh?” The third girl they met said to them. “I bet you’re not that great at it.”

“First, who’re you?” asked Josh.

“Second, how can you say it so confidently?” asked Hatori.

“I’m Maria Asato. And I say it, because I’m unbeaten in chess.” She said. “If you’re so confident, then why don’t you play against me?”

“Hmm. We’ll see what we can do. My days are quite busy. Though we can play on weekends.” Said Hatori.

“Yeah, he isn’t lying. He wakes up at six in the morning every day, and practices dueling before breakfast.” Josh lamented his loss of sleep. After the first day, Raven has started to drag him with them as well, and no amount of protesting has returned his sleep.

“Fine. We’ll play next weekend. Don’t run away.” She threatens Hatori with a finger on his face, and then walks away.

“Ignore her,” said Daphne. “We’ve learned that she’s hyper-competitive. Even worse than Ravina.”

“Hey. I resent that!”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Moving on, and ignoring other people because we don’t have enough space on our computer for such a large document filled with vivid descriptions of people mingling with each other. Hatori and his friends meet wait for it, another set of twins, this time male ones.

“Hello there!” greets one of them enthusiastically.

“Hello.” The second one sounds much calmer.

“I’m Bhavani, and he is Ranveer. We’re from the Singh family.” Bhavani introduces himself.

“I can’t help but notice you sound the same as well.” said Hatori.

“Yeah, we get that a lot. Though our personality helps in differentiating us.”

Coming back from a decidedly frosty exchange between Avinash and Hatori, they also meet Praduman Rao JR. “How’s it going?” He asked. “You look like a tough man.”

He thumped Josh on his back, making him stumble. Though he failed to do the same with Hatori. “Nah, you’re tougher than him.”

“It’s all Zeko’s training.” For a moment after hearing that name, Praduman’s face goes white from fear. He quickly excuses himself from their company.

“Was it something I said?” Wonders Hatori.

“Nah, he was just scared of Zeko.” Laughed Josh.

Apparently, dinner will be provided here in this very room for their group. Hatori doesn’t know how Avinash managed to do that. But he thinks it would be best for him to find out. What if he needs to hide somewhere? He can arrange food for himself without going to the mess hall. Though prying this info out of Avinash might prove to be hard.

However, he notices that certain students are left out. They are not provided with chairs like others. Shin is among them, and another boy who seems to be part of Avinash’s own group. Hatori couldn’t believe it. He never thought that Avinash would treat someone like that, especially someone who seems to be working for him.

Leaving his plate without even touching his dinner, he goes to Shin. “Come with me.” He grabbed him. “You should come with me as well.” Not seeing whether the other boy is following him or not, they all go to Avinash, still sitting on his throne. Though this time, he is sitting with his legs crossed.

“Looks like you forgot to arrange certain seats.” Said Hatori, once he is standing in front of him.

“Is that so?” said Avinash, looking at Shin, who is dragged by Hatori in front of him, while Tom followed on a sedate pace behind them.

“No we didn’t.” said Akshat. “We arranged proper seats for proper students.”

“Is that so?” asked Hatori. “Then they are not proper students. Is that it?”

“Yes.” Answered Sagar. “The fact that they even get to feed at the same time as us—”

“You want to be a king in the future, don’t you?” Hatori ignored Sagar entirely.

At Avinash’s nod, he continued. “Then start treating everyone equally. There’s no proper or improper, everyone is equal in the true king’s eyes.” Said Hatori.

The whole room is silent. Everyone feels as if they are watching a great confrontation, which is somehow going to have an impact on their future. “You are, of course, correct. Tom, come sit next to me. Sagar, provide Shin with a seat, next to his friend.” Said Avinash.

The entire room exploded. “You can’t do that!”

“You’re breaking the social structure.” Protests like these came from every corner.

“Silence!” said Avinash. “This is my event. A get-together which I organized to find my future supporters as a king. Many people laugh at me when I say that, but you’ll see. One day, I will sit on the throne of Porus, and you can either be with me, or against me; social structure be damned.” He finished his speech. “Also, from the next event onward, we will all sit on the floor, traditional Subcontinent-style.”

Hatori decides to file that word for later use of his own. No one protested after that speech. Tom is seated on the right side of Avinash, while Akshat and Sagar seem to be talking with him in whispered tones. Meanwhile, Shin gets to sit with his friends, ignoring the strange look the two groups were receiving from the rest of the kids.

PART 4.

Hatori reads the book which he took out from the library yesterday in the night, after the party was over. After dinner, everyone left for their dorms.

The book mostly talks about why it is important to keep the physical condition good is important for a mage, something which he already knows from repeated lectures of Zeko. However, there’s some new info here.

Mostly some new exercises which seem to be more difficult than his usual routine of squats and push-ups; hard spell casting practice to refine the control and practice, and some physical fighting techniques. Hatori is interested in the grappling section.

‘I’ll follow the routine from tomorrow.’ He decides, after putting the book down. Tomorrow, he will have a hard day, he suspects.

(End.)