“Raelle,” a voice called out.

“Raelle,” they again called out.

“Raelle!”

He looked up from his desk spotting the fuming professor at the front of the room. Professor Evan Loksworth—who looked unfathomably young to be a professor—possessed a face as red as a tomato. If they furrowed their brows any harder, they would fall right off their head and land straight onto the floor.

“What question did I just ask you, Raelle Eisel? Or were you simply daydreaming yet again? I think I know the answer, but I’d like to hear it from your own lips.”

He pulled his arms back to his side which had just a second ago kept his head propped up. No matter how hard he tried not to draw attention to himself, attention always found its way to him.

Everyone looked at him with the most annoyed faces imaginable. He simply grinned and leaned back in his chair. “Your question had something to do with the town of Redwater and who its founder was. Its founder was as you said earlier Henry Joloch who discovered the immensely mineral-rich land and turned it into a thriving place for trade and commerce.”

Evan didn’t appear pleased that he correctly answered the question. They gave him a sideways glance. “So you were listening after all and even knew the answer. Despite that, I had to force it out of you.” Their frown disappeared as they had to accept defeat once again in trying to trip Raelle up. “Anyways…let us continue with our lesson.”

Somehow answering the question correctly only made things worse for him judging by a lot of the looks on his peer’s faces. They whispered in each other’s ears about Raelle as the professor’s back was turned for a moment.

Since he joined the academy, he hadn’t been well-liked. Apparently, it had to do with him getting in so easily. Although he wouldn’t claim that it was easy. He had to study for half a year just to prepare for all the entry exams and deal with the somewhat invasive procedures to see whether he was a suitable person to be provided all of the academy’s resources to turn him into what they deemed to be an elite sorcerer. Still, he earned the ire of his peers immediately and since then, had not yet earned a positive reputation. To make matters worse, discrimination did not exist with just the students. It also lived amongst the faculty.

Despite coming from a noble family, they had not yet sustained a positive or renowned enough reputation to not merely be considered outsiders. As a result of this, the more notable noble families within society looked down upon him and his family still.

His blood wasn’t the only source of the discrimination, however. By being allowed to join the academy after successfully breaking through every barrier of entry, he in some ways made things worse for him in the eyes of others. ‘You have no right to have passed the entry exams your first time. You are being given preferential treatment! You do not deserve this!’ He could think of so many other boring one-liners the students had said to him at different points during his time here. It almost made him want to yawn just to think back to them all.

Despite the antagonistic feelings towards himself, he pushed through it like he had no choice but to trudge through a muddy swamp without boots. One way or another, he was going to make it to the other side.

Near the end of the period, the professor lifted their arm signaling for their class to be done for the day. “Read through the next three chapters and be prepared to take a quiz tomorrow. Some of you are close to failing so don’t laze about!”

As he prepared to leave with everyone else, the professor rushed over towards him pressing one hand onto his desk. “We need to have a word before you are to leave.”

“What is it?”

“It’s about your attitude.” He looked down upon him with eyes filled with disdain. “I’ve already reported you once before, I suggest not making me have to report you twice now.”

So we’re making threats yet again, huh? He really didn’t like being talked down to by some short stubby fellow who looked like they hadn’t aged past the age of sixteen. This person was at least a decade older than his current eighteen-year-old self, but he felt like he was being talked down to by someone younger than him.

Despite his irritation, he stayed calm. He kept his hands in his lap while everyone else left the classroom and just the two of them remained inside.

“You’re making things unnecessarily hard for yourself Mister Eisel. All I ask is for you to show a little more attentiveness during my lessons. Is that so much to ask for?”

“Here’s the thing. You say I should be more attentive. How exactly am I to do that? I always answer every question you throw at me and get them right every time. There’s plenty of other students you ask questions towards and they get them wrong and as far as I can see, you never get onto them.”

“What matters,” he went on to say, “is perception. It doesn’t matter that you can answer every question correctly. What matters is that your perception and demeanor are causing problems. You’re making a mockery about everything and it’s causing the students to not do as well as they might otherwise do. All I’m asking is for you to be better. Try to smile more. Try to not look like you couldn’t give a single care about being here. It would do you well I promise you.”

Raelle stood up and brushed his collars with his hand. He looked down at the tiny professor and realized if he wanted to, he could toss them across the classroom without any difficulty. “I’ll take your words under advisement. Farewell.”

“Wait, I’m not done with y—”

He left and headed down one of the academy buildings long halls wanting nothing more to do with that professor.

By the time he reached his dormitory, it was quite dark outside allowing for the aura-infused lamps outside to turn on and light up the academy in mystical light.

When he opened the door leading into his dorm room, he saw a long black-haired lady seated on his bed. She gave him a devilish smile while he came in and closed the door. He dropped off a big book near his desk facing a tall slender window overlooking a grassy lawn right outside the dormitory.

Rather than engaging with the woman so desperate for his attention, he sat at the desk and cracked the book open.

“You’re not even going to say hello to me?” Nelena said.

“Hello.”

“Now you say it.” She got up from the bed and came to stand right behind him. She began moving her fingers on his shoulders. “You’re so tense. You really should ease up a little.”

“I’ll be fine.” He flicked it to chapter seventeen in the history book. He had to get his reading done and take some notes so he could ace the quiz tomorrow.

“That’s what you always say,” she said. “You know there’s more to this academy than simply studying all the time. Getting out every now and then is quite normal. It might do you some good too you know. Everyone seems to think you’re a freak but if you came out and got to know other people, I doubt they’d think the same way.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Somehow I doubt that. Besides, they’re free to think of me in whatever ways they like.”

“You really don’t care?”

“It’s not that I don’t care. I just simply have different goals in mind. I won’t be around any of these people years from now so I couldn’t care less if they don’t like me in the meantime.”

She let out a long drawn-out sigh. “How did I end up with you I wonder.”

“I wonder sometimes myself.”

While he sat there at the desk, he felt a playful punch hit up against his back. “So, uh, anyways, have you decided about coming with me to the ball that’s coming up soon?”

“I couldn’t think of a more boring affair to attend.”

Another sigh escaped from her lips. “I think you’d enjoy it. Just come with me and give it a try. A lot of important people will be there too so it’s a good chance to meet and chat with people that you otherwise might not get a chance to in the future.”

“If you say so.”

“I look forward to you attending it with me then.” Nelena chose to leave allowing him to focus more on his studies. He heard the door open and then close.

At last. Finally, I can read and get this all done. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Nelena being around. He in fact liked her quite a lot. But sometimes he just wanted to come to his own personal dorm room, get some work done, and rest up to be ready for the next day.

He didn’t maintain near-perfect scores by lazing about. He spent most of his hours studying and working on everything he could to ensure his success. And success wasn’t merely passing his classes. He needed to be at the top, otherwise, it’d be used against him.

The academy wasn’t his ideal place to be. In fact, he wanted to live out in the countryside away from it all. Just live out in the middle of nowhere and not be in the middle of a giant capital city full of people. It was a wonderful thought.

He missed living out at their family’s estate. Until it had burned down, it was a marvelous place to be. It was always so quiet and far enough away that all of that land could be used by him and his family to their utmost desires.

I will forever miss those quiet days. Those days of yonder when I could be with my sister. Nowadays he had to confront a far busier and noisier environment that demanded so much of him. To fall behind, was to die. Society had expectations for him but beyond that, expectations from his own father. He was to inherit all of the Eisel family’s worth or at least his father’s part of it. If he was to hold that, he had no choice but to be groomed to inherit the fruits of his ancestors and bear children who would inherit it themselves.

Some days he wondered whether his efforts were worth the trouble. Yet still, regardless of his thoughts on the matter, he sat there at his desk as to be expected of himself to ensure he wouldn’t fall behind and keep up with the many expectations that rested upon himself. He had no choice but to be the best of the best.

He flicked through page, after page, after page, until eventually he read through three chapters and filled several other pages full of worthwhile notes.

When done with his history-related material, he began studying materials relating to sacred geometry. For whatever reason, this particular subject matter always made his head spin a bit. Everything about the subject matter demanded a level of precision that truly went to the point of insanity. These symbols were said to hold immense power. To use the symbols for a variety of magical-related abilities, they had to be done as perfectly as possible. If sloppily done, the power wouldn’t be as great. He practiced writing different magical glyphs onto paper and complex geometrical shapes that usually dealt with numerous lines, circles, and squares that overlapped each other at different junctures.

This particular academy was made to develop sorcerers—the most talented and resourceful sorcerers in society to be exact. By being a student of this academy, he was afforded its most wonderful professors and materials being kept in what they called, The Sacred Arcane Library; a place of which that had far too many books. They even kept a giant vault in it to keep certain texts locked away. You have to be a professor to get access to those materials and even then, permission needed to be acquired by the academy’s current administrator.

I wonder what knowledge they keep hidden in there. He had heard of one particular occurrence years ago before he gained admittance into the academy, that a pair of students tried to steal some books from within the vault. They had managed to steal some materials and study it. But one of them admitted their acts to another student who told on them. Those students responsible for it weren’t ever seen again if the stories were true.

When it came time to rest, Raelle went to his bed and prepared to sleep.

As he slept, something began to cause him to awaken prematurely. A sound rustled up against the window.

He looked over towards it as his vision appeared a little blurred. He adjusted his eyes noticing several pebbles hitting up against the window.

He got up out of bed. Nothing appeared out the window as he leaned over his desk to look outside. Whoever was throwing the pebbles had scurried away the moment he chose to get up.

What idiot is responsible for this?

Someone was for whatever reason messing with his sleep. And as far as he was concerned, messing with his sleep was not something that could be tolerated so he left his room storming down the dormitory’s hall.

When he exited it and found himself out on the grassy lawn that he could see from his dorm room, something struck the back of his head.

His body hit the ground and several kicks came up against his sides. He put his back to the ground only to feel someone kick him in a place not meant to be kicked.

The pain caused his eyes to bulge out of his skull and he struggled to breathe. He became so blinded by pain, he couldn’t fully make sense of his surroundings. He merely knew that several people hoisted him up and shoved him up against a wall. Two young fellows who appeared similar in age to him kept him pinned to the wall while a white-haired male kept their hands on their hips in front of him.

“I can only imagine what it must feel like to be you right now.” They made a nasty noise with their mouth and a big slimy wad of spit ran down his upper right inflamed eye. He closed it just in time managing to avoid the spit from actually getting into his eye as it slid down his closed eyelid. “You’ve earned this worthless scum. I’ve had it with your nonsense!”

They sent their fist into his abdomen causing him to retch. They lobbed another one only for this one to go towards his face. Their knuckles slammed harshly against his jaw. He spat out blood-tasting iron on his tongue.

The two worthless people assisting the white-haired one who was Artius Numore stood back allowing him to fall to his knees. The wind was still knocked out of him from when they kicked him in the balls earlier. He breathed in while the pain continually flared all over his body. The world was practically spinning around him and all he could do was rest there on his knees unable to do anything.

Artius shoved their scuffed hand into their black trouser pocket. “You’re making things harder for yourself Raelle. It doesn’t have to be this way.” They crouched down with their face right up against his. Raelle thought of attacking him, but at the same time, he knew he’d get in immense trouble if he did so even if in the right. “Know your rightful place. A person like you doesn’t belong here. I would be willing to, perhaps, tolerate you being here if you were to shape up and do what’s been asked of you prior to now however. But so long as you keep up as you have been, expect more of this.”

He got up and the two others walked away leaving him out there on the grass. He wanted to charge after them, but all he could do was lie down onto his back and stare up at the sky with a nice bright moon up above and stars all around it.

He breathed in painfully. What have I done to deserve this?

By allowing himself to remain an outcast, actual hatred had burgeoned forth in certain circles. Artius had never given him a kind look since the first day the academy opened for the semester. He had never spoken directly to his face either, always choosing to whisper or speak to his peers about Raelle behind his back.

Was this how those who came from families such as his were treated in a place like this? He supposed so. He had been warned that such a thing could occur. He hadn’t believed it. Now he did. He thought he’d merely deal with nasty looks and silly rumors floating about. Instead, it had come to this.

Eventually he stood up just managing to not collapse over onto the grass. He went back to his dorm room and closed the door. He looked into the mirror seeing dry crusted blood on his cheek. Thankfully he didn’t have any teeth broken or any other serious injuries.

His face and body would heal, including his nether region that continued to hurt.

I can’t afford to let something like that happen again. I could always use magic, but that’s strictly forbidden.

There was another way he could protect himself if the time came for it. He would have to find someone willing to teach him a few tricks so he could defend himself if he ever ended up in a similar situation.

I think Nelena knows just the right guy.