Reasons

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Tommy and Asva left together, trudging behind their classmates. Aldy had rushed ahead, and Dalda had been pulled away by another acquaintance. The two were left alone at the back, trusting the crowd ahead to find the way for them.

"Whats practicum?"

"Hmm?"

Asva pointed at her arm, no, her sigil. "Message."

"I can't check. No mana. Manaless." Tommy said pointing to himself. 'Lame joke, dumbass.'

That was an issue. The previous afternoon, after Rohodan's class, they had an introduction to manipulating mana. Tommy had absolutely failed to feel his internal energy, and it was supposed to be the easy task.

Technically a sigil should work regardless. But there were special restriction for the first years. They had to push more mana into the thing to work. The resistance was equivalent to training weights, and made sure their shaping form was correct. Even the passive functions like receiving and visualizing messages that ideally pulled the mana automatically from one's body were currently set to manual activation. In short, he couldn't use any functionality of his sigil, except the life-saving kind. No timetable for him, and no map.

So, he followed the others through one gate, into another, then into a Gate. Amidst all the activity, something occurred to Tommy, something that he had somehow ignored so far. He said to Asva, [You know, I have never met anyone from the Shattered Isles before.]

[Son of carp! You can speak proper! Why didn't you tell me?], her eyes narrowed, [Were you making fun of me?]

[Indeed, my ladyship.]

"Ouch!" [I meant I can speak Gillish, not that I was mocking you. I've never met anyone from the Shattered Isles, and I had no indication you used the Old Tongue.]

She still didn't seem appeased. [Why are you hanging out with me anyway? I mean, we are a group and all. And you are funny for a Verm, so I guess it's okay.]

[Did you just call me a worm?]

[No, no. A Verm. That's what we call your people. People from this kingdom all stick to each other so close, even abroad. ALways, our culture, our king, our god, blah blah.]

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[Well, to answer your first question, you are hilarious. And approachable, I guess. I don't know if anyone else would talk to me even if I tried. These are noble heirs of the most proud lineages. I am just as much an outsider as you are. Maybe more so, since you are a princess and all.]

Her eyes widened, [How?]

[How what?]

[How do you know I am a princess? No one knows!]

[Umm, your brooch. My family trades with them so I know a bit. And you announced it the first time we met, did you forget, princess?]

[Shhh! It is my big reveal.]

[Heh. I'm curious why you came here, to the Kingdom? If you don't mind.]

[It's messed up. I was to be married so I got away. It was going to be Sukei, then I got invited here, so why not. How about you? What are you running from, merchant?]

Tommy pondered over the question for a while.

He had never thought of becoming a mage. Sure, he had the acumen. He underwent the tests as a child, his talent could even be called extraordinary. But training a mage cost a fortune, prone to accidents, and took decades before any returns.

And mages were strategic assets, property of the crown who could summon them when required - be it war, Wilds suppression, or the whims of court politics. His family was quite affluent, even having bought a last name for themselves, but they had slim margins to afford such a speculative investment.

The Academies were never even an option. Technically, the Big 5 were open to any citizen of the kingdom. However, these elite places required connections, clout, favors, and vested interests that a commoner like Tommy didn't have. And any other place was just expensive and worse, even ineffective.

Knowing this, he had personally declined. He had been young, not stupid. Instead, he would loudly proclaim his goal of becoming the next family patriarch until all talks of his training died.

[Ugh.. it's complicated.]

[Whatever, you are now this princess's second-in-command. Ho ho. Let's go, minion.]

'Heh.'