Chapter 008

Promises and Lies

“Wh-hat,” a student fell on his butt, his eyes affixed at the hundred or so mana shields. The small noise was enough to start a chain reaction.

“Aaaaaah!” someone screamed and the shouts of terror echoed across the arena.

Jarkiso was a veteran battlemage, a small stimulus was enough for him to snap back to his senses. He looked around to find students running around, all terrified. It was alright when Alevier had conjured a powerful mana shield, but this? It didn’t take an intelligent mind to know how dangerous a person with this level of skill and mana capacity could be. To also realize the fact that the person responsible was still standing with not a hint of mana weakness on his face was all the more terrifying.

Suddenly a student cast an ember bullet spell which shot forth like a fiery bolt and slammed on a shield with a loud bang. The ember bullet dissipated while the shield was left mostly unscathed: a few fine cracks had appeared on it. So those were not illusions? More confusion and chaos sound out.

“SILENCE!” roared Jarkiso with a magically amplified voice. Everyone stopped in their tracks and were stunned for a moment. Jarkiso used this small interval to quickly cast an illusion spell out of his wand and directed it towards Alevier. Damn that boy! He had to summon so many shields!

This particular illusion spell - invisible to the normal eye - snaked across the arena and reached Alevier.

Alevier, who was lost in his own world suddenly found himself holding a large glowing blue orb. And the orb was terribly light as if it were made of air. Behind him, in a pile, there were more than three dozens of those. He looked at that pile of mana orbs in surprise. So it was a dream?

“Mister Tuwymir!” bellowed Jarkiso, his face red in anger. He marched towards Alevier, dispelling any shield that came in his wake. “May I know who had permitted you to use so many mana orbs?”

“Eh?” Alevier looked at Jarkiso in surprise. So he had been using mana orbs? But as he remembered, mana orbs were very dense and this one seemed to be made up of air. “P-Professor I-”

“I want to hear no excuses!” snapped Jarkiso. “Come with me to my office now!”

He waved his wand and a small spatial portal opened up, swallowing the pile of mana orbs behind Alevier. He snatched away the orb in his hand and pocketed it. Then he yelled, “I am confiscating all those orbs.”

“Bu-” Alevier fumbled. He did not know what was happening. He looked at Jarkiso’s mad face which… was smiling? Jarkiso smiled at him before holding him fast by his arm and dragging him away.

“I will be taking mister Tuwymir to administer his punishment since he thought that wasting precious mana orbs for a visual display - without my permission - was a good idea. The class is dismissed for now!” announced Jarkiso as he marched out of the arena while dragging Alevier behind him.

As soon as they left, sighs of relief sounded in the arena.

“So perdant was using mana orbs all along?” said a student.

“Where the hell did he get that many mana orbs!? Did he hit a jackpot in a dungeon?”

“How pathetic.”

The students readily believed what they saw: Alevier using Mana orbs to achieve the shown results. Most of them cast aside all thoughts of Alevier being a stupidly powerful mage. After all, people would rather hear a sweet lie than the harsh truth. Soon they packed up and dispersed, talking less about the beauty of what they had seen but more about how much of a sore loser and a cheat perdant was.

Jarkiso held him fast and quickly walked through the hallway. Alevier struggled behind in silence. A moment later they reached his office, Jarkiso opened the door and shoved Alevier inside. He entered the room and shut the door with a slam. Then he cast a few anti-eavesdropping and anti-divination spells along with a few sentry spells. Then he turned and looked at a slightly annoyed Alevier with a stern gaze.

“Mister Tuwymir,” he said. “Would you mind telling me how in the damn world were you able to pull such a thing off?”

Alevier was unsure how to reply. For a moment he debated whether he should lie or not, however, he chose to speak whatever he knew about it, ”I don’t know.”

“Alevier, do you trust me?” he asked, not affected by his reply.

“...” He did trust Jarkiso, not because of the fact that he was rather kind to him most of the time, but because he had spent a lot of time with him in the private training sessions he had organized for his weaker students. After spending much time with the man last year, he had unconsciously added him to the list of people he can trust.

“I do professor,” said Alevier while staring him in the eye.

Well, he did show off too much in a very short interval. No wonder Jarkiso is suspicious of him: someone who was a below average student until his recent class. He chided himself internally for being carried away.

“Okay,” Jarkiso nodded. “I understand, I believe you have a similar explanation for your cold skin?”

“Uh, no,” replied Alevier. “It is an ailment I got after the Armi incident.”

“Interesting,” Jarkiso rubbed his chin.

“So you are not going to doubt me?” asked Alevier. He was a former battlemage so he would be vigilant and untrusty of anyone, right?

“No, you trust me and I trust you,” he said, once again proving to Alevier that the novels he read exaggerated the distrust and paranoia that a war-hardened mage had.

Alevier silently thought about it. “But why?”

“I have had my fair share of adventure and I know that one might come across peculiar… incidents or instances in those dungeons and ruins. Sometimes such things - if one is lucky - bring great benefits to one,” said Jarkiso. “And I do not think that a person like you would be foolish enough to use forbidden arts; not to mention, there are no such signs on your being. However, other people most likely won't believe you and- well, try to exploit you. In short, I do not want one of my students to suffer a difficult fate just because he stumbled upon something lucky. As far as I can remember, your last quest did not end up well...”

There were a few more reasons because of which Jarkiso wanted to help him, but those were best left unsaid.

“I-” bitter feelings welled up in his heart. Yes, his last quest had been downright horrific. He wanted to forget about it, but he had made a promise that he won't. He tore his eyes away from Jarkiso and looked nowhere in particular. He strained his memories to think of that time but all he found was messy memories filled with static like always.

“I hope what I said did not make you feel uneasy,” he noticed the discomfort on the boy’s face, he knew that he was usually stoic: not letting the bitterness of his incompetence surface on his visage even once last year.

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“N-No, I am alright,” Alevier shook his head, he has been spacing out too much lately. “I do think something strange had happened on that quest.”

“Can you tell me what?”

“The thing is-” Alevier debated whether he should tell the truth. “My memories are not clear of that time.”

“It is alright,” said Jarkiso. “However, please do not ever pull a stunt like this ever again in public.”

“...” Well, he knew he should not do that but he still cared to listen to Jarkiso’s lecture.

Jarkiso let out a sigh and folded his arms. “Alevier, do you know that until last year you had a rather mediocre magical talent and that you struggled to reach the standards of a 2nd Star magus?”

Alevier nodded.

“Now what will people think when you, after a short summer break, come back with greatly increased mana reserves which rivals a 3rd rank magus? If you have read enough history, you would be aware of the fact that people who dwell into the forbidden arts can perform such a feat. Since they are ‘forbidden’ you would likely be arrested and sent for interrogation if you are reported by anyone who finds you suspicious of such acts. And let me tell you, you would definitely not like mind mages dwelling into your memories - and this is the best case scenario if they have any mind mages to spare. Most likely they would perform experiments on you and torture you until you spill out the truth. I don't think you would want that, would you?”

He was slightly disturbed by the bluntness but understood its importance.

“I understand,” Alevier said. Honestly, even he was finding such a thing hard to believe, say nothing about how others would react to it. Actually, he had seen how they would react: they would freak out.

“How much mana are you left with?” asked Jarkiso out of the blue.

“I still have some to spare - I don’t know the exact quantity but I have something around a quarter of my current mana capacity left,” said Alevier as he sensed the mana in his body. Mana capacity for a person was always relative: they could not express it in units but as a ratio with respect to their maximum mana capacity.

“What about your spiritual force?” he asked.

“Quite exhausted,” said Alevier. For the first time, he had experienced such a situation where his spiritual force ran out before his mana.

“Hmm...” Jarkiso examined the ceiling for a moment before speaking up. “From what I can tell, either your spiritual force and mana capacity are both of 3rd Star level or your spiritual force is of higher 2nd Star level but you are very well versed in that spell. Most likely the latter since your mana shields were weaker than that of a 3rd Star’s.”

Alevier looked at Jarkiso. Being told so seriously and directly that he had such a prowess was different from being casually told so in public as speculation. He still had doubts but that did not keep his hair from standing due to the excitement.

“That means you are something of a genius,” smiled Jarkiso.

The glee in his heart made its way onto his expressionless face. Guess this year’s Mage Cup would be different, much different.

“So I am going to propose that if you get the time, come to me during weekends and we can hone your skills since they seem to surpass your peer’s by a considerable margin,” said Jarkiso. “However, beware, do not trust people as easily as you trust me, Alevier. You never know when things can go wrong so please exercise constraint. Forgive me for asking this of you, but promise me that you will not show others your true skills until it is necessary, okay?”

It sounded logical, there were only a few teachers who he thought would understand him, but why risk it? He already has a teacher whom he can trust. Considering his options he said, “Okay, I promise.”

Besides, it was just a promise.

“You must be serious about this,” warned Jarkiso.

“I am,” replied Alevier.

Their chat continued on for some minutes as Jarkiso pondered over how to set things right. He also told Alevier that those mana orbs were an illusion and he really was a genius. After another round of convincing Alevier, their conversation came to an end.

“Good,” said Jarkiso. “At the present moment, I only have a rough estimation of your skill. I think I can arrange for testing instruments by tomorrow, I will inform you if I do. For now, do not contact me - you are dismissed.”

Alevier nodded and walked out of the office. In the silent corridor, two people were waiting for him.

“He did not bully you, did he?” asked Jaysaun, his eyes narrowed and his hands folded. Alevier noticed that his bag was in Jaysaun's hands.

Alevier was slightly amused to see Jaysaun and Sinchiya standing there, waiting for him. In his heart, he was happy that now someone cared for him.

“Uh, no. He has just confiscated my mana orbs for a week and some extra assignments,” Alevier said in a depressed tone. He was a good actor, after all, every one of his damn siblings was.

“How the hell did you get hold of so many,” Sinchiya butted in. “I know that mana orbs are terribly hard to make and very expensive, and I come from a family of nobles.”

“Well,” Alevier’s mind worked at high speeds. Jarkiso had to make that illusion of mana orbs, but thankfully, Alevier had a prodigious sister he could rely on. “My sister had won a few last year in the National Magic Tournament, so I had borrowed some from her.”

“Some?” Sinchiya raised an eyebrow.

“Anyway, you got off easy. Remember I had accidentally severed someone’s arm during the practice session last year - I had got some scolding from Jarkiso then” said Jaysaun trying to change the topic, but the look in his eyes said that he needed an explanation for this later.

“Well, that person was a weakling who got into the school just because he was someone from a noble background. But seriously, how did you get away with it?” asked Sinchiya. “I do not think to be the son of the finance minister can come with such perks.”

“It is a long story sweetheart,” Jaysaun put an arm around her and pulled her close. “I will tell you about on our way to Combat Magic lesson.”

“The arena for combat magic is different from the one for Defence magic if I recall correctly,” said Alevier thoughtfully.

“I don’t think you can forget those lessons in just three months...” chuckled Jaysaun. “We had studied combat magic for one whole damn year.”

“I am joking, but I really did not enjoy them. Alas! They were compulsory for second years so we had to attend them,” Alevier shook his head. “You will be getting late for your lesson if you stay here idling around. I have a free period so I will go to the alchemic labs to study some experiments.”

“You really should learn to chill,” said Jaysaun.

“I specialize in ice magic,” Alevier shrugged his shoulders. “I think I know enough of chilling.”

“That… Nevermind,” Jaysaun sighed.

“So, have you got a soft spot for my bag? You are holding it quite dearly.”

“Oh, yeah. Here is your bag,” Jaysaun tossed Alevier’s bag to him.

“Thanks,” said Alevier.

“No problem,” Jaysaun slid his hands into his pockets. “We will be going now - I need to do a warm up before the class.”

“Someone was talking about chilling,” laughed Alevier.

Jaysaun opened his mouth to reply but Sinchiya grabbed his arm and said, “Someone said we will be going now.”

And then she pulled him away so he could say nothing more than, “See you later.”

“Yeah. Bye,” Alevier waved as the duo walked away. Alevier turned away and looked at the windows: he saw the gardens with its blooming flowers, butterflies and like. It was a great day for Alevier; somewhat unbelievable but, great. Instead of going out and loitering around in the freshness and liveliness of the gardens, Alevier shook his head and made his way towards the laboratories - he was excited to try out some experiments.

* * *

Jaysaun and Sinchiya walked in silence, the corridor was deserted because most people were in their classes. Only class 3Q had been dismissed early.

Sinchiya broke the silence and spoke to Jaysaun, “I hate you.”

“Same. How unfortunate that I am stuck with you, I was really thinking of hitting on-”

Jaysaun’s words were cut short when Sinchiya punched his flank and he yelped in pain.

“What was that for?” he groaned.

“Jaysaun, be serious,” snapped Sinchiya. “You had a Nightstalker assault you and you could not take him on. Moreover, those spells you used? It is a wonder no one asked where you learned them.”

“Chill, I have my father as an excuse. And the only reason I ‘pretended’ to lose was because of Alevier,” Jaysaun said in serious tone. “That Nightstalker changed targets, I wanted to find out why.”

“What did you find out?” asked Sinchiya.

“Alevier was referred to as the ’fourth’,” said Jaysaun in a low voice. “I don’t think he is one of us, but something makes him very important to our enemies.”

“It should not take a genius to figure out that strange things have been happening to him. Those mana orbs were an illusion.”

“Any powerful mage who is worth his mana could see through it,” said Jaysaun.

“I did not know you fell in that category,” said Sinchiya smugly.

Pretending not to hear that, Jaysaun said, “I will stick close to him for the time being to discover his secrets. For now, let this act continue...”