“Oh, Miss Loreh - how are you feeling?” Caleb Tulver had a sincere gaze that harmonized with his soft and boyish voice. Where Levi had the smooth voice of a man comfortable in his toned body, a body belonging to someone who had the resources to carefully sculpt his physique, Caleb spoke with the hesitancy of a boy recently introduced to manhood, and had the build of a genetically gifted young man who also happened to do a lot of manual labor. He had broad shoulders and a bicep that still managed to make itself known underneath the blazer’s structured sleeve as he closed the door he stepped out of. His waist, though not as narrow as Levi’s, was proportionally narrow to his own shoulders, giving the impression of a very solid young man. Aida idly wondered if Caleb would even sway if she were to jump on his back.
“I’m fine, thank you. Healer Luk says I should perform some Mana Cycling exercises to help speed up my healing,” Aida said offhandedly. “What are you doing here…Mister Tulver?” Since he addressed Aida seriously as “Miss Loreh,” Aida assumed they weren’t as close as she was with Levi.
Caleb glanced into the room he just exited, which Aida saw had a sign hanging over it declaring it to be the instructors’ lounge. His soft voice got softer. “I was having a…career discussion with Professor Gemma.” Caleb shrugged one very developed shoulder half-heartedly. “It’s all right though, I still have the year to try to ‘find my dreams.’”
Aida nodded sympathetically. “It is a bit ridiculous to expect us to know what we want to do at our age.”
Caleb smiled, causing the entire corridor to light up. Aida struggled not to flinch. This world she was in was definitely manifesting all the tropes. “I don’t disagree, but I thought you already knew what you wanted to do with your life?”
Crap. “Well, you know, I’ve been doing some thinking, and it seems a bit foolish to commit to something when you haven’t seen the world yet,” Aida responded airily. She gestured in a random direction, waving off any further conversation. “Should we head to class?”
Caleb inclined his head, thick hair falling into his eyes. He led the way, allowing Aida to follow him quietly. Out of curiosity, Aida activated his character profile. The transparent box hovered over the middle of Caleb’s back, declaring him to have an Earth affinity, a class ranking of fourth, and showing a pentagon that skewed noticeably towards the STR, VIT, and DEX attributes, with FOC and INT at a more modest range. Modest compared to his physical attributes, but still higher than Aida’s own attributes.
Aida consoled herself with the knowledge that since Caleb was a main character, he should have more impressive stats.
“Whose homeroom are you in?”
Aida blinked away Caleb’s attribute chart, taking in his side profile as he turned towards her. “Um…Havi. Professor Havi.” Aida was graced with a curve of his lips. “Same. We’re here.”
Caleb slid open the classroom door and stepped through, bowing to the instructor at the front of the smallest classroom she had ever seen - there couldn’t have been more than a dozen students in the room. Aida followed, also giving a bow to the gray-haired man.
“Ah, glad you two were able to join us,” Professor Havi said disapprovingly. He lifted his beard towards the back of the classroom. “Mister Tulver, you’re at the desk next to Miss Heslia.” Havi squinted at Aida through his spectacles and sighed. “Miss Loreh, you’re right here.” he pointed with his eyes at the desk closest to the door. Dammit. Glancing at Caleb, who was making his way towards the empty desk in the back of the classroom—right next to Sue, in her stereotypical last-window seat, who met Aida’s eyes and clenched her fist in a small “you got this!” cheer—Aida quickly blinked, activating character attributes for everyone in the class.
What the hell! Even from a quick glance, Aida could tell that everyone in the classroom had higher attributes than her—their pentagons were much more filled in than Aida’s own measly distribution. Aghast, Aida struggled to keep the tears from welling in her eyes.
“Miss Loreh,” Professor Havi said sharply. “Is something wrong?”
Aida took a deep breath, swallowing her emotions. Despite the body she was in, she was a full-grown adult at heart, and had experienced adult responsibilities and struggles. She knew how to be professional. “No, sir.”
Back ramrod straight, Aida strode firmly to her desk, avoiding everybody’s eyes (and their attribute charts) and tucking her chair underneath her with a loud scrape. Breathing deeply, Aida snapped open her school bag and dragged out the first notebook she got her hands on, opening it to the nearest blank page. Fumbling out her dip pen and ink bottle, Aida glared at Professor Havi, who apprehensively turned to the rest of the class, clearly trying to pretend Aida didn’t exist.
Even in this world, Annie couldn’t catch a break. She had made peace nearly a decade ago with the fact that she was unlucky, born into a family that was one minor accident away from spiraling into the relentless cycle of poverty—especially unlucky since her father did end up in an accident that permanently stunted his earning potential, eliminating any possibility of entering the middle class. She frequently wished she was born into a family with some amount of financial security, so that she was set up for at least some modicum of success if she even remotely applied herself. Instead, she worked harder than her peers (her parents somehow lucked into settling in a middle-class school district early on), only to end up falling off from the path everybody else casually queued up for.
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When she first woke up in this body, in this world with real magic, she had considered it a second chance—even if she had to wake up from this dream eventually, at least she could enjoy herself for a little bit. She could attend a fancy school, learn things she never would have had the chance to, and experience life without responsibilities. But even in this dream, her starting point was still the same as her real life. This was a reskinned reality.
Not reskinned—hard mode, because I have no idea how to even use whatever magic I’m supposed to have. My starting point is even further back. Aida pressed too hard on her dip pen, crumpling the tines of her nib and leaving a thick smear of ink on the last word she had mindlessly scribbled.
The bell’s toll sounded through the windows, unleashing a flurry of activity in the classroom. Aida crammed her writing implements and notebook back into her bag, and was the first out the door.
Aida pushed against the flow of chattering students, ignoring Sue’s calls for her to slow down. All she wanted was to get away from the horde of optimistic youths—what’s the point of attending class if she didn’t have the ability to start with?
“Aida! What are you doing?”
Speeding up to outrun Sue’s increasingly shrill queries, Aida darted around the corner. She hadn’t been paying too much attention when Levi lead her to the healer’s room, but her general sense of direction (which was quite good, honed from not having a smartphone with a GPS until she was firmly established as a college dropout) told her that this was the direction to return to the cafeteria, where she had seen a large door that lead to the courtyard she saw from her room when she first woke up.
Indeed, Aida found the cafeteria. A quick glance told her no one was manning the counter where she had picked up breakfast with Sue earlier, although the clattering and shouts in the kitchen told Aida the staff was still cleaning up after breakfast.
Aida strode purposefully towards the large glass door that separated the cafeteria - if you walk like you know where you’re going, no one will stop you, she coached herself - and slammed through the door. It was only when she finally rounded the massive willow tree (its trunk had to be a diameter of at least six feet) in the center of the courtyard where no one could see her through the glass wall that Aida finally stopped, releasing the breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
Aida slumped against the willow tree, rubbing her shins. Her fast walk, coupled with the bruising that had turned darker over the hour, reminded Aida that she was in a weak body.
Aida scoffed, lowering her head until her forehead pressed against her knees before the first tear fell. What’s the point? Her peers—and supposed mentors—already didn’t respect her as a mage, so it wasn’t like she was ruining whatever trajectory the true Aida had. If Aida failed out of school, nobody would bat an eye.
But if you really don’t try, what if you end up in a worse position than in the real world? Not Annie’s problem. This wasn’t her life, anyway. Why should she expend effort to try to improve someone else’s lot?
“Hey…” a low voice rolled over Aida. She gasped and whipped her head around, scanning the courtyard. She had been positive she was alone before she let her guard down. “Up here.” Aida looked up.
Propped casually in one of the many forks the ancient willow had was a pale-haired young man. Aida’s heart stopped.
The wind gently combed through his soft strands, strands long enough to poke his eyes, yet somehow only serving to frame the rest of his sculpted features. The serene green of the willow’s leaves seemed to reflect off of his form. He gazed down at her with hooded gray eyes, contemplating her before parting his lips.
“Why are you crying?” Ezra Riolt’s smooth voice jolted Aida’s heart back into beating.
“Just felt like it.”
“...I see. Do you have to do it here?”
“To be honest, I don’t know where else to go.”
“You couldn’t go to your room?”
“This place was a lot closer when I felt like crying.” Aida could tell Ezra was trying to insinuate that she should leave, but she really didn’t care about other people’s comfort at this point. In a moment of masochism, she activated Ezra’s character profile.
Character Profile: Ezra Riolt
Elemental Affinity: Metal
Class Rank: 1/30
Below that was Ezra’s attributes, which showed him to have the highest DEX, FOC, INT attributes Aida had seen so far, with slight dips in VIT and STR—and it went without saying that his VIT and STR were still higher than Aida’s strongest attribute. Aida closed out his profile with a scoff. “Why aren’t you in your room then?”
Ezra leaned back against the tree trunk, seeming to accept that Aida had no intentions of leaving him to his peace. “I have the whole rest of the day to spend in my room.”
“And you don’t think you should attend classes?”
Ezra lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “The important classes don’t start until next cycle, so there’s no real point to attending the review lessons.” He blinked, his eyes seeming to sharpen. “Shouldn’t you be attending review lessons?” Of course—Aida’s a weak student. Thinking back to the character bio given for Ezra, the faculty probably had no concerns that Ezra would fall behind if he skipped classes.
Aida threw her hands in the air, her frustration causing her to vocalize her entire life’s debate. “What’s the point of attending lessons when everyone expects me to fail anyway?”
Ezra scrutinized her thoughtfully, tilting his head so that dappled sunlight landed on his well-defined clavicle. Aida couldn’t help tracing his unbuttoned shirt with her eye, to the blue boys’ necktie loosely draped on his chest. His Adam’s apple moved. “I was meditating, to purify and strengthen my mana control. Would you like to join me?”