So I finished another chapter, and therefore, I am publishing this one. Enjoy.
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Three knocks on the door resounded in my room. I ignored them, and tried to keep sleeping. Three knocks repeated, this time followed by voice.
"Young master, wake up, please." said the voice.
I opened my eyes and was shocked for second, as this was not room I recognised. After few seconds, I however remembered where I was. Young maid entered room and brought me new clothes, telling me that breakfast would be ready soon. It was raining outside, so she lead me to dining room, after I changed my clothes.
Lady Sable was already present and so was teacher Alaric, but I was first out of children to arrive.
"Good morning." I said to both of them. As I looked at them I noticed that there was cold atmosphere between them. It seemed like they argued lot yesterday.
"Good morning Aiken." said teacher.
"Good morning, my nephew." said lady Sable.
I blinked. Not only she wanted me to call her aunt, but now she was calling me nephew? I was really surprised, but I really did not mind. Seeing my reaction, she laughed, revealing she was joking around.
Children of lady Sable soon arrived, joining breakfast, and cold atmosphere between two adults disappeared. They joked around with children same way as during dinner, but I was now aware that something happened between them.
As the breakfast ended, lady Sable excused herself, because she needed to go to some big auction organized by Sable family.
I therefore went back to guestroom I slept in. There I took out book Introduction to Spellcrafting and started reading it. To be honest, there was one more reason I wanted to read this book other than learning [Wind Blade] spell that I believed teacher Alaric created for me. If I was able to create spells, I could sell them for some gold that I could then use to help my family and pay my debt to lady Sable and teacher Alaric.
Currently, I had no other ideas how should I earn money. If I were in branch of commons I would know that in small chunks of forest around Alsante city, there were many magic mushrooms and every Sunday, organized groups of students would be raiding these forests to collect them, or fight with other groups for territories. While ordinary students would earn only few copper pieces each week, it would be enough to buy book or two after few months. After all, even group leaders would only be able to earn about one gold coin every year.
If they knew I would receive two silver pieces every week or that I have already been given eight iridium coins, they would explode with jealousy. But I did not see this money as my money, rather, I have only seen them as debt I would have to pay sooner or later. That was why I was desperate to find way to earn money.
Whole book was divided into ten chapters. I did not manage to finish reading first chapter, before I heard knocks on door.
'Will I not have any time to study for myself today?' I thought as I said allowed whoever was behind doors to enter.
"I am sorry if we are interrupting." said Saffron as she entered. Behind her were her brother Neri and her sister Flore and they also entered.
"It is alright." I said, as my heart started thumping fast because of presence of beautiful silver-white haired Flore.
'I already have teacher Kalani.' I thought, without realising that it was just my own delusion.
"Your name is Aiken, right?" said Neri. "I am Neri and this is my sister Flore. You already know my other sister Saffron."
Reason why he introduced himself and Flore was because it was first time we were actually speaking together. During both dinner and breakfast, I was uncomfortable and tried my best to avoid looking at Flore and did not try to speak to them.
"Yes, my name is Aiken. Why are you here?" I asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.
"Saffron was making up things, trying to convince us you can use tier seven magic." interjected Flore.
I could feel blood rushing to my face. I felt extremely thankful to Saffron now for giving me possibility to show off.
"Yes, I can cast tier seven magic. So what?" I asked.
"I told you both he can." Saffron said pouting angrily. They were thinking she was making up things and making fun of her, and she could not tolerate that.
"Really?" asked Neri with surprise.
"Of course not. He is just making it up, trying to sound important." responded Flore coldly.
"I am not, I can even show it to you." I puffed proudly, feeling angry.
So after bit of arguing we went outside. If I felt attraction to Flore before, it was gone now, as I was angry that she thought I was just making things up.
Raining was already close to stopping, so we could go outside.
"There. I will aim at that tree." I said, as I prepared to cast [Freezing Wind]. Even though I would probably be able to cast stable [Wind Blade] now, I was also sure that my insufficient understanding of spell would make it weaker than any tier six spell I knew. So I casted Freezing Wind instead.
Spell hit the tree, freezing all rain water that was on its trunk. I proudly turned around.
"Is that it?" asked Flore as she started casting [Fireball].
I have already learned how much soul power can affect power of spell. Or at least I thought so.
Fireball that appeared was twice as big as one summoned by Landon in our fight. It was even fairly larger than one old man Keiran or uncle Jannon could create. When it had hit the tree, it had evaporated all ice and water and even set bark of tree on fire for few seconds, before it doused on its own.
My mouth opened wide, as I was stunned with surprise.
"Was that tier seven spell as well?" I asked.
"No, I cannot use tier seven magic yet. But my soul power is three thousands and four hundred." Flore explained.
"Your spell was tier six spell, right?" she asked, but was not sure. She already learned most of tier six spells within magic school library and my spell was not among them.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"No. It was really tier seven spell." I said, disappointed with myself. "It is just that my soulpower is only fourteen."
As teacher Alaric told me to do so, I would not reveal that I don't have any soul power to anyone. Not even to children of lady Sable.
I was sad. If I were to compete with her, I would need at least tier eight spell to match just her tier six spell. I have now realised that even after my fight with Landon, I still underestimated difference created by soul power too much.
Teacher Alaric, who was already searching for us for while entered garden and noticed smoke coming out of tree bark.
"What are you children doing?! Are you crazy? Casting magic on tree in garden?! Trees are not magic practice targets!"
I closed myself in guest room. After teacher reprimanded us for making mess in garden, I went back to room and started practicing spirit capacity training technique from teacher Alaric. Learning [Wind Blade] or finishing reading of Introduction to Spellcraft was now secondary. I wanted to reach tier eight as fast as possible.
But I knew it would be really hard. I currently had less than nine hundred spirit capacity and to reach tier eight, I would need to at least raise that to twenty six hundreds according to my understanding from book Magic Theory 2. Moreover, after tier seven, breaking from one tier to other was supposed to become harder.
After two or three hours, for a third time today, someone was knocking on the door.
"Enter." I said, as I interrupted my meditation.
"Aiken. Are you training your spirit capacity?" asked teacher Alaric.
"Yes teacher. I noticed how weak I am after seeing magic of Flore." I said.
"Let me make this clear for you, Aiken. You are not weak. Flore is most talented child currently studying in magic school. She is so talented they accepted her to branch of honor, instead of branch of generous. And even in branch of honor, she has no equals." he said.
"How is it possible? How is it possible for her to have so much soulpower? She is not much older than me, but her soul power is already way above my uncle's." I said, and feeling of self pity overcame me. I felt so weak.
"It is because of her soul color." teacher Alaric explained. "Her soul has legendary silver-moon color. There are only few people in world who have this color of soul, and all of them became extremely powerful magicians. Even my greatest rival, Wizard of North, has silver-moon color of soul. People with this soul color don't have any unique attribute when casting spells, but their soul power and spirit capacity growth is faster than normal." he said.
"It is unfair." I complained.
"World is unfair. But you have no right to complain, Aiken." he said.
"Flore is year and half older than you. Tell me, how powerful will you be next year? I am quite sure you will manage to reach tier eight magic long before this year ends, and by the beginning of next year, you will be at point where your magic could compare to her magic right now. If you consider yourself weak because you can't compare to most talented child in whole school who moreover is year ahead of you, you are spitting on every other child in magic school. It is like if you were crying you can't compare to your uncle, who has been alive for more than twenty years more than you."
As he finished, I realised how foolish it was of me.
"Teacher Alaric, I am sorry."
"It's nothing, brat. You should just focus on studying and not compare yourself with others. I already told you once, that one day, you might become greatest magician to ever walk this world. You are just six years old and you want to compare yourself with those who already studied in school for some time? That is so stupid I want to slap you to wake you up."
"I understand!" I said. And I carved these words in my mind.
"Great. Now pack everything, it is time for you children to return back to your dormitories. Since Neri does not got to school, he is staying here until his personal teacher comes for him tomorrow, but I was tasked by lady Sable to take you three back to school. I will be of course using my masking spell, so no one recognizes me."
Sun was still bit above horizon when we returned back to dorm. I decided to return to Introduction to Spellcrafting, since I was calmed by teacher.
Over next two weeks, I would mostly read this book and make notes to properly understand everything, while also always training my spirit using [Spirit Capacity Meditation] at the same time. At spare time I either spent time with Saffron and Brant, or I continued learning [Wind Blade].
It was weird, but to surprise of our classmates and most of all, to surprise of Brant, neither Randolph or Bantinc made any move against us. Therefore more of them started to talk with Saffron and us.
There was even rumor going around, that young master of Bantinc family wanted to send bullies, but Randolph and his companions stopped them. If it was true, Ryan Randolph had my thanks. I was happy that he would not become my enemy, since he seemed like sympathetic person.
However that rumor was quickly overshadowed by great news. Anonymous person donated lot of money to school, and all three branches would receive new books, as well as library would expand massively.
This anonymous person was most likely my teacher, as I remembered his previous conversation with headmaster.
Since then, going to house of Sable family became something I would do every Sunday, Sable siblings soon became my friends and we would both play and talk as if we were cousins. I have started to see Flore as my rival, since I was sure I wanted to overcome her. It was however one sided rivalry, as she did not see me as any threat at all.
One thing I should mention was that teacher Alaric has completely forgotten to arrange some other branch of generous student to share room in dormitory with me, so I had to be alone. However, over few weeks, I got used to it.
Teacher Kalani borrowed many books from library in order to lend them to me, even getting access to two books specially for students of branch of honor. She also assisted me with testing spells I learned. And before I realized I got completely used to my peaceful school life.