The teacher arrived soon after Ana left her group. Unlike with the alchemy class, he gave no additional test. Instead, each student received a bunch of papers for them to read and sign. Included were their rights, such as access to the library, as well as their responsibilities.

“Why can’t we share what we learn here? Can’t I at least tell my brother?” asked a young girl with freckles and a pointy nose. The teacher snorted and spoke with disdain.

“Then, he will show his friends and they’ll all practice unsupervised. Do you want your brother to get hurt, young miss? What if the techniques we learn here leak out to the public? Are you willing to take responsibility for bandits and rebels using them on our citizens?”

The girl shrunk back and didn’t say another word.

‘There’s a double standard.’ noticed Ana. Even if a commoner’s parents were both mages, there was no guarantee the child would develop mana pools naturally. Yet, most nobles were mages, so it was clear as day they were passing down their methods.

“Listen carefully.” continued the teacher. “Those who are discovered spreading the Academy’s teachings will be punished, imprisoned, maybe even executed. The law of secrecy is nonnegotiable. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Good.” Satisfied with the students’ response, the teacher carried on to other topics. The more he spoke, the more questions appeared in Ana’s mind.

Did Ethan break the rules when he taught her? If he didn’t learn magic from one of the Academy’s mages, then where did his knowledge come from?

The lecture began with an explanation on magic nodes and mana paths, and it seemed awfully similar to Ethan’s teachings. In fact, it was almost identical.

“Mr. Dominic, in what order should we open our nodes?” she asked trying to confirm something.

“Good question, Miss….”

“Taylor.”

“Miss Taylor, if you’re looking for a cultivation technique, you can find one in the library. There are numerous approaches to creating magic nodes inside the body. You should pick whichever you feel fits you.”

‘That’s not what Ethan said.’

Some of the noble kids chuckled and started whispering amongst themselves.

The further the lesson went, the more perplexed Ana became. There were 9 known levels to a mage’s progression, and each one had 3 sublevels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Ana had just entered the intermediate stage of rank 0. It took her 2 months to get here, but according to Mr. Dominic, it should have taken a year.

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“Now, those of you who’ve already built your mana circuits can take a step back. The rest listen closely.” Only the nobles retreated plus one blonde girl.

“Teacher, this one’s a bit confused.” The teens in the back row started laughing while those in the front seemed confused.

“Young Lady, have you already built your mana circuit?”

“Of course.” answered Ana. She then made a fist sized stone appear out of nothing. Manipulating mana was impossible without a circuit. Sure, the pools would gradually strengthen the body, but without the channels needed to guide mana out of them, spells wouldn’t work.

“Who taught you how to do that?” asked the teacher with inquisitive eyes. Some of the students seemed interested as well.

“No one. I wanted to make a spell but couldn’t, so I figured I needed more mana. When I tried to take it out of multiple nodes, they linked together somehow. I’ve been expanding the channels ever since.”

It was a lie worthy of an award, and everyone bought it hook, line, and sinker. Though surprised, the teacher carried on with his lesson. ‘A pity she’s a commoner.’ He thought to himself. ‘Such talent.’

While he was somewhat praising her, for some reason, the noble teens among the students were rapidly getting angry.

“Lucky peasant.” One of them grumbled loud enough to be heard.

“Look at her feeling all important.” added another.

“Maybe a mage did her a favor for, you know, another favor.”

“At least he got some.” The group snickered while Charles was getting red in the face. Though the jokes were getting increasingly ugly, Ana did her best to ignore them and focus on the class.

On a positive note, her knowledge was surprisingly on par with the nobles. This made her proud, but unfortunately, it also made her a target. And, despite the numerous insults thrown her way, the teacher didn’t intervene once. Like his colleague from the Alchemy department, Mr. Dominic left as soon as the lecture was done.

“That little b***h, who does she think she is?”

“Charles, you should really put a leash on your pet.”

There was no reason for the nobles to hold back anymore. They began cursing her out loudly while chiding Charles at the same time. The boy was already fuming during class, and after this, his lid had finally flown off.

After one last push from colleague, he turned towards Ana and called her over.

“No, thank you.” She tried to leave.

“Get over here, now!!”

The girl froze. During all her years of working odd jobs, she was berated, scolded, and called all kinds of names. But, not once had someone screamed at her quite like this. The entire yard grinded to a halt, and all eyes were on them.

While Ana's legs started taking her towards Charles, Ethan’s face had suddenly appeared inside her mind. In the past 2 months, he did his best to train and make her strong.

The boy would often return from the forest with gruesome wounds and covered in blood. He rarely slept for more than 3 hours, sometimes not even that. All of this just so she could become a mage, just so she could keep her head up and not have to take abuse anymore.

Ana’s steps stopped. How could she disappoint her friend?

“No!” she screamed more to herself than to Charles, and then dashed towards the gate. But, before she could escape, Charles’ other girl cut her off.

“Where do you think you’re going, peasant?" The way she spoke seemed odd, as if she was playing a role. "I, Autumn Hayes, challenge you to a duel!”