Chapter 76.

PART 1.

It has been two weeks since Hatori’s banishment, and Raven is making his weekly deliveries of things to him. The first week, he delivered clothes, and the second week, he is delivering the lightning spells. His friend is looking more and more like a barbarian, with tattered clothes, and unkempt hair, not to mention acquiring scars from the fights with the shadows and spirits. He doesn’t seem to have suffered any serious injuries so far, aside from bruises and scrapes.

“Wow. Looks like you haven’t bathed in months.” He said, taking a seat outside of the now-completed camp.

The entire thing looks like it will fall apart at any moment, but Hatori is not exactly known for his woodwork. Currently, he is roasting some fish on the fire outside. The location is marked with a recent battle; no doubt the spirits and shadows attacked him before his arrival.

“I don’t have easy access to the shower now.” Said Hatori.

‘Even his voice sounds warned out.’ Said Raven. Apart from exhaustion, his voice has not seen much use these past two weeks. There’s no one to talk to in this forest, apart from a few visits from his friends.

“Anyway, I brought the spells you wanted. The library didn’t allow me to take the books out, so I copied them using a spell,” said Raven, handing the small books to Hatori.

These books contain basic lightning spells and their inner details. None of them are more than fifty pages long, and most of the pages are taken up by images. Raven is amazed, though, that even in his bad condition, Hatori wishes to improve himself.

‘Looks like I've got another reason to push myself hard.’ Thinks Raven. After all, if Hatori can think of improving himself out here in the wilderness, then he doesn’t have an excuse.

“How’s everyone doing?” asked Hatori.

“Oh, you know. The usual.” Said Raven. “Josh is pissed. Yesterday, he nearly busted the head of this other boy from a different group, the same year as us, by the way.”

“Want the fish?” asked Hatori. “I’m still learning to cook.”

“I’ll try your cooking in a proper kitchen, thanks.” Said Raven.

“Fair enough.” Said Hatori, taking a bite from the fish. “Hmm. This one seems to have cooked nicely. I think I should find some local plants to spice things up. What do you say?”

“Just be careful of poison.” Sighed Raven.

Since he doesn’t have anyone to talk to, Hatori turns chatty when someone visits him. They don’t mind, since he doesn’t talk about annoying topics, like homework, for example. Instead, he mostly asks about how things are going in their lives, and how he is adjusting to this murderous place.

“I’ll bring you books about eatable plants in this area. Next time.” Said Raven. “And yes, I won’t forget the rune books you’ve asked for.”

“Thanks, man,” said Hatori, not sure what else he could say.

“Don’t mention it.” Raven then walks away, leaving Hatori alone to face the forest. Each time he comes here, it gets harder to leave.

Hatori takes a look at the spells. Raven wouldn’t be able to copy these books if they were not in the public domain. How amusing that mages have copyright. ‘I wonder how they enforce it?’

Getting rid of the distracting thought with a shake of his head, Hatori focuses on his plan. Improve his magic, learn lightning element spells, learn runes, find a way into the academy, invade it, and take revenge.

Though how will he exactly invade the Academy and take revenge while being outnumbered, he has not thought about it yet.

PART 2.

Hatori is sneaking in the night to the Academy. the one advantage of magic sense is that he can sense things around him without moving his head, which means no one would look at him suspiciously for swiveling his head this or that way.

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Sneaking into the Academy can be dangerous. For all he knows, there might be some wards to keep out banished students like him, the only one in the last twenty years. But he must test it all the same; after all, it is also possible that there are no such wards. Putting himself directly in harm's way is the only way to test it.

So he continues to move and finally reaches the grounds. When he steps on the ground, nothing happens. He tries moving forward, ready to run should something attack him or if someone sees him, but nothing happens.

Hatori wanted to test it further by actually going inside, but he decides not to risk it. Besides, if something was supposed to happen to him, it would have happened to him already. So he goes back to his camp, where he will get some uneasy sleep. As long as the module in the forest is active, he won’t get an easy sleep.

He did not know that Corvus was observing him from his office. It is true, there are wards to keep the banished students out. But they come under his authority. No amount of democratic process can force him. The only way to do that is to fight him to death. But the Academy won’t survive that anyway.

Democracy does not exist in the mage world. Only a strong rule here, and he is the strongest of them all.

PART 3.

Suraj comes to visit Hatori. “I see you’re getting brave.” Praised Hatori.

“You can’t call it brave when everything runs from you.” Said Suraj. “The spirits observe everyone who comes here, but only attack you.”

“Just my luck.” Said Hatori, biting the apple which Suraj brought him.

He also brought him some other things to eat besides fruits. “You know, I haven’t eaten something this good in a while. thanks for that.”

“No problem.” With a loud explosion, several spirits came into the camp.

“I think you should leave now.” Said Hatori.

Thankfully, Suraj listens, and leaves without arguing. After he cleaned the spirits, Hatori leaves for a walk.

During his wandering, he comes across a bee hive. Some wasps came there, and Hatori expected them to attack the bee hive. But instead, they just exchanged a few things between them and then left.

This baffles Hatori. Shouldn’t they be trying to kill each other? “Normally, yes.” Said a voice in his head.

Hatori looks around, looks like living alone is getting to him. “But we have evolved, a side effect of the experiments done on us.”

Not a hallucination then. “Who are you?” asked Hatori. “Why can’t I sense you?”

“Because I’m hidden deep within my hive.” Said the voice. “I’m the queen of this hive.”

“Interesting.” Said Hatori. Though he does not dare go any closer.

“You seem like someone new. If you need some help, feel free to ask. We will try to perform that task for you, for a price.” Said the queen.

“Well, I do have some ideas.” Said Hatori. He shares the said ideas.

“Hmm. It can be done, not a problem. But you must bring me juices from the flowers around here. You are bigger than us. I suspect you can speed up the process of collection for us.” Said the queen.

“Deal!” said Hatori.

“I believe this is the start of a beautiful business relationship, as you humans like to say.” Hatori laughs after hearing that.

Now, he must know how exactly this queen is speaking in his head directly, without even coming out. He is sure that the entire conversation was between her and him, and no one else heard a thing.

The plan he has concocted is a test run. If everything turns out well, he might have a chance of pulling off the invasion of the Academy, and forcing them to reverse his banishment, despite the numbers advantage.

(End.)