Chapter 54
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"Good, you are progressing well. I think it is fine for you to progress to the next level. You have done well to learn this far." The writing teacher told us.
After a month of studying, we are in Swordsmanship's third year, Mathematics in the third year, reading in the second year, writing in the second year, and Magic second year curriculum. If we passed year one curricula for etiquette and year 4 for others, the academy would send us to Hoeth to continue with the lord's curriculum.
Lily received an exception among everyone in the academy. She was permitted to attend the next course immediately after she passed the previous one. Others usually went home or searched for a job and practical experience upon finishing that year's curriculum. Apparently, the school received a personal letter from Lord Edelweiss, and thus the special privilege for Lily was announced.
Lina has become our best friend. Together with her, several other tailfolk started to soften up when they saw the retainer of Rhander talk to us favorably.
"Sana! How are you?" Lily came up to her. Sana is a swordswoman, and she is under Joseph.
The world of socialite was utterly foreign to me. It was incomprehensible to me that to make friends with someone, you also need to know who he was under or who he was friends with. I made a mental note that I needed to do a background check for all tailfolk with which Lily wanted to be friends.
"Ah, Alith! How are you?" Lily smiled as he returned back the smiled and greeted us.
"Hmm… Let's see, he is also friends with Joseph, so he is fine." I muttered, trying to remember who was with who. Alith was fine, but his cousin, Anar, was not. He is the under another elf named Khile, that apparently did not take Lily very well. What a crazy society. We haven't even met this Khile.
" Lord Lily, may we practice swordsmanship?" Alith asked us.
"Me next!" Sana also shouted. Their shout was unthinkable for elven manners, but since we are both tailfolk, nobody was there to rebuke them. We arrived at the academy training dojos at once and reserved a spot in the corner. The teacher, Mercenary tailfolk Gabel, will act as a referee.
"Sure! You may come at me all at once!" Lily said smugly. Her sword mastery was at level 9. her skill was above any of the students here. While we could pass this course immediately, I advised Lily to hold back on year 3 and 4 to gain a retainer.
"Alright! Don't get cocky because you got a blessing. I will defeat you someday!" Alith and Sana came to us. I watched Lily sidestep his attack and slash at him, but Sana came at her from her blind spot. I purposely stayed silent, and as a result, she got hit by a sneak attack from behind.
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"YES! This cocky girl finally learned her lesson!" Sana shouted while pumping her fist. Lily was in shock while she looked at me.
"Shiro?"
"Don't get cocky next time." I waved my tail. "It might be a good lesson if I stay silent. This is just training, anyway. You should not rely on me all the time. Even I have some attention gap sometimes."
"You didn't win! It's one score on one!" Lily shouted, but they shrugged it off while smiling.
"Well, the scoring is certainly one point for both of you, but Lord Lily, while these two might be promising swordmasters, their life still worth less than a lord with a blessing such as you. In this case, I think the opposing team should be given the win." Gabel smirked at her carelessness. "I applaud your wise judgment not to pass year 3 swordsmanship as early as possible. Even if you are talented with blessings, these moments of carelessness could prove fatal!"
Lily didn't oppose Gabel's ruling. She only lowered her ears dejectedly while grabbing her training sword. She put them back on the rack.
"I will be careful in the future! Don't expect me to fall for that trick again! I just had a weird gap, that's all!" Lily, the sore loser, shouted. But no tailfolk actually reprimanded her. If elves were to see this training matches, she would be mocked for not losing honorably, but fellow tailfolk only laughed at her antics.
"Ugh! So vexed!!" Lily was fuming at her losses that she could not properly focus on reading and writing class which earned her another scolding.
"Now, let us begin our lesson. Prim and proper dress etiquette and behavior are expected of elven citizens. And then the history behind it…."
Unlike other lessons, both of us are new to etiquette lessons; thus, I could not help her. The class was basically primary grade behavior with some fundamental law and common sense of the elves. It was not as complicated and tiring as I expected it to be. The lesson was about enforcing politeness and taking notes about the other's feelings into account. No rude comments or slanders.
"It is odd. If the etiquette lesson were like this, why are there elves who disdained and mocked us?" Lily tilted her head.
"Just because the lesson is good doesn't mean the people are good. There are always evil people, no matter the race. Take a look at Mattheus and Silvester, for example. Maybe the elves were just enforcing the outside surface while learning this lesson." I commented while listening. I remembered religion's preaches when I was on earth in my previous life. Just because there were lessons about religion, and even if religion were pushed as a state obligation, it didn't mean the people would take it to heart.
Our magic lesson has moved on from the boring lecture to more boring practical mana charging. Our teacher states that this lesson is the hardest of them all. While he granted Lily a pass immediately, she refused and decided to learn this for a week. She whispered that she wanted to help me just a little, and since this would be our primary job in the future, she ought to learn it from scratch.
"After you recharge the feystones, you will use the ring to ignite a spell with the said feystones. A mage who can't even charge a feystone would not last long on the battlefield." The teacher said
"Hmm… I can't feel the mana…." Lily said as I swirled my mana from my tail to her palm. When I increased the density of the mana, she sensed a tingle, but when I lowered the density, she felt nothing. Lily was not the only one who had difficulty learning. More than 300 people were in this class in contrast to only 50-ish people in the year after. This is the year when most students drop out of the magic curricula.
Lily didn't give up and then passed the lesson a week after. I had to applaud her determination.