A boisterous female voice echoed throughout the room. It came from behind Rai.

“RAI! YOU’RE OKAY!!” Amy cartoonishly skidded her way through the stands towards Rai.

Rai missed the energetic atmosphere that Amy generated simply by being in the room. He saw Amy’s sister slowly prod along behind her. Lina’s green eyes met his own, and she quickly pulled them away almost an instant after. Rai wondered where Tullian was, but he quickly remembered that Tullian was never a part of this class in the first place.

He didn’t realise it, but Rai was currently staring into space.

Amy waved her hands in front of Rai’s eyes.

“Hello? Are you there Rai?” She asked.

Sin nudged him, which woke him from his daze.

“Whe-wha?” Rai babbled. He shook his head as if he’d just been woken up from a deep dream about the possibilities of infinite meat.

“’Whe-wha’? What’s that? A new type of food or something? Did you hit your head really hard in that fight?” Amy spoke at lightspeed. Or, at least, Rai felt like she did.

“He missed you, Amy! Grab your sister and come sit with us.”

“On it!” Amy said.

She flew over to her sister who was halfway there by now. With inhuman strength and agility, Amy dragged her sister through the stands and sat her next to Rai. Lina rapidly shook her head at her sister, but Amy just grinned and winked back at her. Amy took her seat next to Sin.

Sin looked around to see that only a couple other students arrived as of yet.

“Is everyone else just late?”

“They’re not late.” Lillia said. “You’re early. There’s still 5 minutes left until class starts.” She sounded like she was ticked off. Rai swore that he heard her grumble something under her breath about an ‘annoying kid’, but he couldn’t quite make out the whole sentence.

He also heard Sin and Amy start a conversation about something, but Rai wasn’t all that interested in the topic, so he tuned out.

Lina tapped him on the arm, then whispered something quietly.

Rai looked at her. She was completely red.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that, can you repeat it a bit louder please?” Rai said.

Lina took a deep breath. “Are you feeling better?” Lina asked, still in a relatively quiet voice.

Rai smiled softly at her. He noticed that she avoided eye contact with him, but chalked that up to her nervous nature.

“I’m a lot better now. I still can’t properly use mana for a while, but my body’s recovered well enough! Thank you for asking!”

Lina smiled awkwardly, but Rai could tell it was genuine. It didn’t feel like she was one to put on airs around others. She cleared her throat and took another deep breath.

“Good. I’m glad.” She said. Lina let out a relieving sigh, and had an expression of triumph on her face.

Rai felt like he didn’t really know much about Lina. He knew a lot about her sister, but Lina didn’t really talk much to him. He'd recently decided to take more care in understanding the people around him, so Rai tried to think of ways to get to know Lina better.

A bell rang in his head. Rai thought that some of Lina’s behaviour was similar to how Sin was when she was younger, and was very much the same as whenever Sin got flustered. He didn’t know how to properly ask, so he just said it.

“Lina, do you have anxiety?”

Lina’s expression changed to worry. She looked at Rai with shocked eyes. Her lips started quivering and it looked like she was beginning to panic.

“Wait, no no, it’s not a problem or anything! I just noticed that you and Sin had similar mannerisms at times. I only asked because I don’t know that much about you, and I thought it would be something to start off with. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable by mentioning it.”

Lina’s worry subdued, but a solemn look remained. She looked down at her lap, and scrunched her hands into fists on top of her skirt.

“I can’t... help it. I’m weak. I don’t have... strength like you or Sindyl.”

Thump!

Lina reached for her forehead, which was now stinging. She looked at Rai, whose hand was just next to her head. He'd thumped her forehead.

“Why’d you do that?!” Lina asked. She looked frustrated, hurt, and angry.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“To hear your voice. I don’t like hearing talk like that.” Rai said.

Lina’s face showed nothing more than her confusion now.

“You might not be able to help it right now. You might be too weak right now but... that’s only right now, y’know?” Rai said with a smile. “Push yourself forward, grow as a person, and overcome this hurdle in your life. It might not be fair to do this, but-” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Sin behind him, who was deep in her conversation, “- she’s spent the last 8 years or so working on it, and she’s still not there yet. I don’t mean to compare where you both are today, but you’ll only become more confident in yourself if you try and keep trying.”

Lina stared at him for a second, before averting her gaze again.

“I... don’t know...”

“Look, I believe in you. If you don’t believe in yourself, then look to those that do. Take it in small steps. Start by having a conversation with someone. If that’s too hard, then start smaller, try to compliment someone on something they’re wearing. Sin wasn’t always completely confident in herself either, but she worked hard to get there.” He patted Lina’s head. “You’ve got this. After all, you’ve got great friends who’ll help you!” He goofily grinned at her.

Lina didn’t expect the goofy grin, so she let out a chuckle.

Amy popped her head around Rai and Sin. “You’re laughing? What made you laugh? I wanna be involved!”

Lina just pointed at Rai as she continued giggling.

Amy looked at Rai, who was staring at her, deadpan. A technique he learned from Kallad and Sin. Sin told him that this was the ultimate comedic technique. There was no way that this wouldn’t result in at least a giggle. Sin mentioned that in order to make it succeed, you must make your expression devoid of any emotion.

Nothing. Amy didn’t react. The normally bouncy and giggly girl just didn’t react. In fact, she looked at him like he was the weird one.

How... How is this possible!? The ultimate technique...

Sin stared at Rai and his deflation, and reaped in her gains. The seeds that she sowed now sprouted into a beautiful, defeated Rai. This was hilarious to her. Sin did all she could to not burst into a hysterical cackle at her long-con of a prank.

She failed.

Sin burst out into laughter, which took everyone in the group by surprise. Even Lillia looked over at them. People were making their way into the training hall by now, and the lesson was about to start, but Sin couldn’t stop giggling and flailing about. She thought herself to be a comedic genius, and she’d proven it by playing the long-con.

The only problem was that literally no one else was in on the joke.

Rai tapped her on the thigh, then whispered in her ear as she giggled with tears in her eyes.

“Sin, you’re the only one laughing.”

She immediately stopped, and blushed in embarrassment. She laughed nervously as she turned to Lillia.

“Sorry Miss Lillia.”

Lillia sighed, paying it no mind. She tapped a long stick on the podium, which drew everyone’s attention in no time.

“I assume you’re all finished with your conversations now then?”

There was no reaction among the students, who’d by now filled out the stands. Lillia did a quick headcount to see that the whole class was there. She noted that the only ones missing were Hiron and his posse.

Lillia breathed a sigh of relief, and continued her mini-lecture.

“Good. I do hope you’re all eager to learn today. Out of everything you’ve done at this Academy, this lesson will be the most difficult one you’ve faced up until now.” She paused to allow for reactions or questions in the group of students, but at most there were some murmurs and mostly looks of disinterest.

“Most of the spells you’ve learned thus far have been for survival. You’ve learned to heat an element, create drinkable water, and create air bubbles underwater that allow you to breathe. But today’s spell will be useful all the time. Not just in terms of survival. In fact, I’m sure that if you're able to learn it, then most of you will use this spell in combat, as well as every-day life.”

The attention came now. The students’ discussions were brewing. They wondered what the spell could possibly be.

“You’re going to learn telekinesis. At its highest level, it's considered a legendary-tier technique.”

An uproar. The students were excited now. Telekinesis was arguably the most well-known spell amongst mage circles. Some mages even based their entire magical identity around it. Some of the students were still apprehensive though. They knew telekinesis to be a trap. Most people couldn’t learn it, no matter how hard they tried. Those who understood it at its highest level talked about how simple of a spell it was, but it required something of an enlightenment to understand.

Lillia raised her hand, silently calling for silence. A moment after, the class was quiet.

“However, the level of telekinesis that you will learn to execute will not be at the same standard as legendary-tier. Conditions must be met for your understanding and execution of the spell to be classed as legendary-tier. That’s why you will learn this spell, and there will be an appraisal by the ranking committee to see how well you can all use the spell. Your execution will be graded, and you will know what tier your version of the spell will be.

It’s not just telekinesis either. There will be a technique evaluation for all of the techniques you wish to be tested! The Academy provides this for you all free of charge, twice a year!”

There was not as large of an uproar this time. The students were clearly still excited, but they were also worried about what they considered to be yet another exam. The students who were apprehensive at first felt justified in their apprehension. These were the slackers that were satisfied by a passing grade. Even if they couldn’t learn telekinesis, they wouldn’t consider anything of value to have been lost.

Even Sin, who was apathetic at best towards most of these classes, was grinning from ear to ear. Telekinesis was a staple spell. Most of the legendary mages knew it to a high level. It was a pity that most typically wouldn’t use the spell in day-to-day situations. But Sin wouldn’t shy away from using her magic as she pleased. She resolved herself to mastering telekinesis. And improving her other techniques for the technique evaluation.

Rai knew a little bit about telekinesis from what his Aunt showed him. She wasn't all that proficient in it herself, but as the Sage of the Life clan, she had no choice but to keep training it until she’d reached a high level. Rai wanted to learn it when he was younger, but for some reason his Aunt kept refusing. She eventually gave him her reason for that decision. Aunt Elly believed that if Rai was to learn telekinesis too early, it would make learning every other spell more difficult. Telekinesis was unique in how one had to think about it. I guess I'm about to find out why Aunt Elly was saying that stuff.

Rai was excited. Oh... but... shit...

“Okay. Let us begin.” Miss Lillia announced.

Rai put his hand up, interrupting the class.

“Miss Lillia, I can’t use mana yet.” He said.

Lillia was even more ticked off than before, but she masked it well.

“Rai. I understand. Please, take what you can from the lesson then and apply it when you can use mana. Make notes, and look back at them later. You know, be a student.”

Rai cocked his head and stared at her with a quizzical look on his face. Make notes? How do I do that?