The class were making their way towards the open battle practice field where Alex had told them the fireworks show would take place—weaving through the small crowds of students who had seen the posters and were already making their way to the stands. As they neared the back of the crowd Daisy paused in her step.

“Wait a minute, guys, I left something in the classroom,” Daisy said, gesturing back to the lecture hall that had become their hangout to avoid the stares of their fellow students.

“You want us to wait?” Bea asked.

“No, you guys go ahead; I’ll catch up,” Daisy reassured them as she spun on her heel and began to jog back to the classroom.

Taking all the twists and turns through the hallways, Daisy made her way to Alex’s classroom only to slow when she neared it, seeing the door slightly ajar. Knowing the defensive wards had been heavily reinforced since the raid, she was surprised and worried about who might’ve gotten in.

Slowing her pace, she crept up to the doorway and could hear a muttering voice chanting a spell. Peeking through the crack, she could see Alex kneeling on the floor next to the chalk lines they had drawn on their first day.

“SHIMMER, STALATI, GOSTIS,” Holding his hand over the chalk line, his chant made the line and writing light up and slowly lift off the floor; Alex then moved his hand slowly further away from the door and pressed it back down about an inch further away.

“Ok, last one sorted,” Alex said, cracking his neck as he rolled his shoulders.

“Sir?”

“Ah! Oh, Daisy, you startled me,” Alex said, holding a hand to his chest.

“What were you doing with the lines?”

“What lines?” Alex replied unconvincingly.

“I saw you moving our soul exercise lines,” Daisy replied, pointing to the line he had just moved.

“Well…well shit,” Alex muttered as he fell back into a seated position. “Knew one of you would find out soon enough.”

“What were you doing, though?”

“Moving the lines a little.”

“Why, though?” Daisy pressed.

“To keep you kids from getting a big head. You progressed terrifyingly fast in the exercises. I kinda started to worry. I have been ramping up the pressure, and you pressed on at the same pace. It’s why I started moving the lines,” Alex explained, gesturing to the lines themselves.

“If you saw little progress, you would keep pressing onwards and wouldn’t become complacent. It’s partly why I didn’t want you to draw fresh lines with subsequent practice.”

“So we’ve moved further than we think?”

“Massively, so if I kept the pressure the same as when we first did it, you kids would be able to reach me by now,” Alex replied. “Though I will keep ramping up the pressure steadily till you can withstand Crozonia’s pressure.”

“But sir, we did withstand it?”

“Oh, she was just toying with you. Her real pressure would’ve shattered the windows in the throne room and crushed the bones of some of her servants. Trust me when I say this; when she shows her real pressure, you will know it.”

“She’s that strong?”

“Let me put it this way, Daisy. There are beings in this world even the most powerful monsters consider are monsters.”

“And she’s one of them?”

“No, she is who those beings consider a monster.”

“Gods…” Daisy had always known the ruler on the ebony throne had to be powerful but to think it would be that powerful was beyond her. She couldn’t even imagine what that would be like.

“So, where do you fall on that scale?”

“Obviously, the monster’s, monster. Sloth, though, is on the same scale as Crozonia. The man could take the Ebony Throne with ease if he ever bothered. But I know he wouldn’t. He finds ruling to be such a bother he got Crozonia to make me and Yuu co-regents.” The school bell rang at this point to indicate it was now evening.

“Shall we go to the fireworks show then?” Daisy just nodded to his offer. As they made their way through the hallways, Alex turned to Daisy.

“Daisy, please don’t tell them I’ve been moving the lines. I need them to keep growing while not realising how big they are growing.”

“But, sir, isn’t that going to lead to an issue later on?”

“Only if I never reveal it. At the end of the year, I will show them how far they’ve progressed. But if they find out now, they risk losing the momentum they are maintaining.”

“Isn’t the reverse possible, though? They see how little progress they are making and lose heart?”

“It is a balancing act; I sometimes let you kids press further forwards than the line only to move the line a bit and cut the progress off. Then they know they can go that extra step, will keep trying to regain the lost gain without realising they have already met it once more.”

“Sir… are you sure you aren’t Loki?”

“Heh, no Daisy I am not Loki… Oh, dammit,” Alex muttered at the sight of the increasing wall of people blocking their path to the field.

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

“How are we going to make it?” Daisy asked.

“Simple, wrap your arm around my shoulder and hold on,” Alex said, crouching down so she could do so. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, Alex stood up, and it looked like a brother carrying his younger sister.

“Up we go!” Alex said as he muttered the light spell and started walking up an invisible set of stairs created by the air walk spell. Slowly but surely, Alex began to rise up over the crowd of students, some of which started to look up at the pair in shock.

With long strides, Alex began air-walking over the crowd towards the field, ignoring the gazes as if they were the sort he got when he goose-stepped around town. Daisy didn’t care though she could feel her heart aflutter as she hung from Alex as he walked through the air.

Eventually, they cleared the crowd and came to a large opening in the field where they could see a small group of people milling around. “Ok ready?” Alex asked to which Daisy gave an unsure nod.

“Here we go!” with that shout, they dropped down and landed with a thud. “Oof, will never get used to that?”

“Why didn’t you air walk down?” Daisy asked with a groan after being jarring dropped while hanging onto Alex.

“Airwalk’s upward trajectory and directional movements are easy enough, but the downwards one is tricky to handle; I haven’t got the hang of it. I’m not really meant to use it as the last time I did, I broke my leg.”

“You what?!”

“Don’t worry. It was the best dance of my life, so I didn’t care.”

Walking up to the group, Alex and Daisy found the kindergarten class with the rest of Daisy’s classmates, with Yuu Elissa and even Sloth keeping watch.

“Daisy? How did you get here so fast? We only just made it out of the crowd?” Maxwell asked.

“Sir gave me a lift,” Daisy explained, gesturing to Alex.

“Good you are here; we were going to start without you,” Sloth grumbled as he approached Alex and gave him a stern look.

“Hey, old man, I was busy with paperwork managing the crop yields for the region, though if you want them back-”

“Nevermind! Let’s get this show on the road. I have never seen fireworks before and wish to witness them myself.”

“That's because you have never left your lab when the show is put on,” Yuu teased.

“Little girl, you should stay quiet if you know what’s good for you. You do remember who controls your department's budget?”

“Yeah, me, since you delegated the school's budgetary committee to me,” Yuu replied.

“I did? Boy, fix that!”

“Yessir, Elissa, you now control the budgetary committee.”

“Woo, more work!” Elissa said with a cheer. Sloth just grimaced at this cheer.

“Ok, class!” Alex said, clapping his hands to get their attention.

“... Ok, kindergarten class,” Alex said to get his teenager class to not pay such intent attention.

“You got your rockets?” the class all nodded.

“I used webs to stick eight rockets into one,” Zaparis announced, holding up a mangled monstrosity of cardboard stuck together.

“Best we target that one away from the crowd Zappy,” Alex said.

“...” Alison mumbled, holding up her rocket that was a picture-perfect building.

“Mine has flames to make it go faster!!” Cassius declared, holding up his rocket design.

“Mine has my enemy on it,” Lucas added, holding up his showing it has a rough drawing of a person with added stink lined.

“Who’s that, Jacob?” Daisy asked, crouching down.

“You!!” Jacob said, bursting into laughter.

“Mine is clearly the superior one,” Olivia declared, showing off one covered in glitter.

“Certainly is the sparkliest,” Alex agreed.

“Last but not least, Lucas,” Alex said, looking at the boy holding up his rocket with a spiral of lines around it. “Cool, let's hope it rotated like the spirals,” Alex said, giving a big thumbs up.

“Ok, class Yuu also has some of her own rockets for after we launch yours. But you will be our opening act ready?” the kindergarteners all nodded.

“Ok, rockets in the ground,” the class all put them in the prepared pots.

“Rocketeers to safety positions,” everyone stepped behind a white chalk line on the grass, minus Yuu.

“Rocket ignition master, at your convenience, light the rocket!” Yuu just rolled her eyes at the show Alex was putting on and stepped up to Lucas’s rocket first and lit the fuse. Soon enough, the rocket gushed flames and shot into the sky, exploding in a bright flash of white light.

Yuu proceeded down the line, each student having a different colour so they could tell which was theirs and which wasn’t. Finally, Yuu reached Zaparis’ weird rocket and lit the fuse. Like the others, the rocket shot up cleanly, much to everyone’s relief.

Only when it exploded multiple streaks shot out in every direction and then burst into even more streaks which then also exploded. Soon enough, there was a massive light show in the sky of every one of the kindergarten class's colours. The crowd of onlooking students were all awed at the sight of this show.

“Wow… You made that Zappy?” Alex asked to which she nodded. “Ali showed me a book on how to make a multi-spread rocket.”

“Multi… Yuu why does Ali have one of your blueprint books?”

“I dunno how she got it. It should be in Sloth’s….” Both Yuu and Alex turned their gazes to Sloth, who ignored their stares, watching the show above.

“Master?!”

“Huh? Oh, what is now, boy?”

“Why did Alison get one of Yuu’s blueprint books?”

“Oh, while you were away, she ran out of books to read, so I opened up my personal archive. She must’ve gotten it from there.”

“Master, those books are insanely destructive, and you would let a five-year-old read them?”

“Yes, because Young Alison has more responsibility in her little finger than you two have combined.”

“Please just be careful what you give her in future…”

“Yuu can you continue the show? I’ll tell the kids the announcement.” Yuu nodded and continued taking out the next batch of rockets, which were far larger and more well-made than the ones the kindergarten class had made.

“Ok, class, I said I have an announcement.” Both the kindergarteners and teenagers were looking at Alex with rapt attention.

“Because of my new duties, my time is going to become limited, so I’ve organised with the guild and a few scholars I know to help teach guest lectures when I’m not available. I got a hold of some of the best elemental field mages alive, also the oldest being in existence. More because he just wanted to talk to some people than anything.”

“You don’t mean Cameron Bryan?” Bea instantly asked to which Alex nodded. “OH, MY GODS, I LOVE HIM. ALL HIS BOOKS ARE FACINATING!!” Gunter grimaced at the loud voice squealing next to his ear.

“Wow, sir… we understand,” Maxwell said with a nod.

“To be honest, sir, we were half betting you would be announcing Elissa is pregnant,” Tasha added.

“Hah, I wish… You know as well as I do that elves and humans making a twin blood is a very rare occasion... Isn’t that right, Elissa?” Alex asked, turning to Elissa, who was gawking at Tasha. “Hon?”

“Well, I was going to tell you later,” Elissa replied, looking sheepish.

“You don’t mean?” Elissa just nodded. Alex instantly rushed up to Elissa, lifting her into the air in celebration.