Chapter 42.

PART 1.

Corvus Black, the headmaster of one of the premier schools for learning magecraft in the world, is currently dozing, while two professors complain in front of him.

“What was the last thing you said?” He asked in a clueless tone. “I’m getting old. My hearing is not as good as it used to be.”

“Headmaster!” Chided Surbha Joshi, the deputy headmistress of the Academy. “You should listen to us when we speak.”

“Is that so, huh? Tell me again. Who is in charge here, hmm?” He asked while looking at her without blinking.

“The boy should be punished.” Snarled Krishna Menon. “We can’t allow some low-class filth to harm the future of our elites!”

“Whatever you say, professor dubious.” Krishna gritted his teeth at that title. Ever since he has gotten posted as a professor, Corvus has kept calling him that. “But it is interesting that you suddenly care so much about students killing each other in this school, while just yesterday, everything was fine.”

Suddenly, both of them have trouble breathing, as if they are hundreds of meters below sea level. “I will not punish the boy.” Declared Corvus with finality. “If he can eliminate the idiots from the gene pool, then maybe I won’t be forced to deal with morons like you. Now, kindly get lost.” With a wave of his hand, both professors were pushed out of his office, and found themselves looking at the staircase to get to his office.

PART 2.

Hatori’s friends realize that they just can’t keep ignoring the warnings given to them by Samudra and the professors. Hatori already knew that the school was going to be dangerous before he came here. Though in his case, he just didn’t realize how dangerous.

After he got over his shock, Hatori told them everything. For a moment, they were all stunned. To kill a mage who had both strength of magic and experience on his side at his age was a remarkable thing to them. But they realize that Hatori has paid a heavy price for that in emotional damage.

Now, they all train without complaining, while Hatori performs his routine nearby, having been training an hour before them already. After done with his physical workout, he moves to his spellcasting, performing his newly learned Summoning spell, alongside the spells he already knows.

PART 3.

During the breakfast, there’s a fairly large buzz about the killing yesterday. The killing the day before yesterday didn’t even generate any comments, but this one seems to be a trending topic among younger students. The older students didn’t give a damn. They’ve got their plates full already. They don’t have time to think about why a younger year student murdered another one.

Though no one knows about Hatori’s involvement in this matter, and the four students who’s leader was killed are strangely silent, some students do remark on how he was chased yesterday.

PART 4.

Daphne and her roommates are discussing the incident during lunchtime. “It must be some sort of deep enmity among them if things escalated so quickly.” She said.

“Yeah, what you said.” Ravina, Chaya and Maya agreed. Sometimes, they need to remind Daphne not to use big words.

“Whatever.” Said Mira, their final roommate, reading a book in the corner. “Ignore the boys and their spat. Focus on your studies.”

Though the advice was sound, none of them appreciated the tone in which it was delivered. No one likes the snooty and superior attitude, no matter the age.

PART 5.

Ishwar is pissed. Those Joshis messed up his plans. He wanted to approach Hatori, and work on him softly, making him join them in the process. If he could bring the Flora and Fernandes boy with him, that would have been a bonus.

But in their haste, they just threatened him. He got spooked, and refused. And they are now here to eat his head. Swaraj, the oldest student in the Academy from Joshi family, also brought his friend (And Ishwar suspects his romantic partner) Lucie Mathis with him. Though his family is under the thumb of Joshi family, Ishwar detests Joshis, and the presence of Mathis is just enough to make his blood boil from his uncontrollable anger.

Still, he manages to keep his temper in check. “You were moving too slowly.” Said Swaraj Joshi. “True, that our methods yielded the same result. But we wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t tried, now, would we?”

“Fead this horseshit to someone who cares.” He retorted. “You can put all the blame on me if you want. But the reality is that you fucked up. And now, the situation is out of our hands.”

“What would you have done then?” asked Lucie in a patronizing tone. “You seem to be just flapping your mouth so far, instead of doing something.”

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

‘Oh, for the love of magic, please eradicate these fools who think someone must be seen doing something to be considered productive.’ Thought Ishwar. “I would have brought him on our side, making him question the king and Zeko in the process. But you just threatened him like a brute.”

“Who says we still can’t use those same methods?” said Swaraj with a smirk.

“Yeah, I wash my hands off from this. Go do it yourselves.” He told them off.

“Be careful now, Chandravanshi. Your family—” Ishwar interrupts Swaraj.

“Is nothing of consequence. I have nothing to lose. Whereas your families are already reeling after suffering the king’s wrath.” He reminded them. “Now, please leave kindly.”

Ishwar’s friends suddenly get up, and loom over both of them. “Fine. But remember this, you will regret it.” said Lucie before leaving.

“What should we do now?” asked Bhanu.

“Just help out the kid.” Said Ishwar. “Nothing else we can do.”

‘He must be one hell of a mage at his age.’ Thinks Ishwar. ‘If I could keep these idiots off his back, he might develop into something wonderful. And I’ll do it, family be damned.’

PART 6.

Hatori decides that he can’t rely on Zeko to train him all the time, and rely on the professors to teach him useful magic in the meantime. During his entire stay here, he has only learned just one useful spell, aside from that attempt of transmutation, with which he still has trouble with, and potions, most classes have proved to be, dare he say it, useless.

As a result, he settles on taking matters into his own hands.

Starting with skipping the classes which don’t teach anything useful, and the work which he can accomplish in just a few days of a week. He also decides to train daily according to the physical magic book. So far, he has only followed its routine half-way. But with his free time, he will be able to follow it fully.

But before he can do that, or learn even more powerful magic to defend himself, he needs a way to defend himself which he can use temporarily. So he goes to the library, and makes a list of basic offensive potions.

Next day, as everyone is leaving for lunch, Hatori stops before Sultan. “Can I help you?” He asked.

For all his antagonistic relations with his master, Sultan always treats the students kindly. “Yes. I need a place to brew these potions.” Hatori hands him the list.

“Why do you want to brew these?” He asked. The potions weren’t any special. There was one to cause a bright light, which would cause blindness. Another one to make a loud sound, to stun people, and similar basic effects.

“Until I can learn powerful magic to defend myself, this is the only way I have to defend myself.” Explained Hatori.

“Makes sense.” Nodded Sultan. “Fine, you can use my lab, kid. Just help me out with cleaning and upkeep every once in a while. The ingredients won’t be a problem. These potions don’t need any exotic ones to brew them.”

Hatori smiled. “Thanks.”

“No worries.” Nodded the teen, and left the classroom. He himself is getting hungry, so Hatori follows him.

Eating his lunch, he leaves to explore the school some more, despite the risk it presents. ‘I’ll apologize to them later.’ He thinks. thinking his friends must be upset at him for his recent cold behavior.

In his search to find a secluded spot to train, he finds a room full of yantras which look to be abandoned. He also finds an entrance to somewhere from where he can smell the food being cooked. Deciding that he will explore them later, Hatori finds a gate in the ground. The spot is beyond the oak tree near the stream, where they practice every morning.

Heaving to open the rusty gate, Hatori manages to open it. He considers himself lucky that it wasn’t locked, or that there’s nothing dangerous on the other side, as far as he can tell.

Here, he finds another ground, almost identical to the one from which he came in here just now. Though this place seems to be lonely and abandoned. Apart from that, it is smaller than the Academy ground.

‘Whatever. Seems good enough.’ He thinks. ‘This’ll be a great place to train by myself.’

Returning from his recently found training spot, Hatori returns the book he borrowed from the library. As soon as he did that, a voice called out. “Attention!” His response is to nearly slice the said voice in two.

“Nice reflexes. Though it seems you’re not following the routine properly!” Rumbles the voice.

“Who are you?” asked Hatori.

“I’m Sargent Book. And I will see that you follow the teachings of this book, whether you like it or not!”

“Whoever named you deserved to be kicked.” Said Hatori.

Sargent started to weep. “I wish I could do that.”

Skipping his classes after lunch, Hatori spends the day with Sargent Book. It appraises his physical techniques. “You should get a yantra to spar with you.”

“Why can’t you spar with me?” asked Hatori, running along the ground.

“Because I’m just a knowledge-spirit. I can only be heard and talked to. I can’t be touched or damaged.”

After his routine is done, Hatori goes to the library once more. At this point, someone might decide to ambush him there. “The book of magical sensing.” Announced the robotic voice when he picked up this new book. No more information was provided.

(End.)