After all the drama in the capital, the class were relieved to be back at the Academy. Gunter himself had been given a clean bill of health and had been admonished for stopping his own body’s natural resistances. Even Alex was exasperated.

The most significant change was the class’s attitude toward Alex. While they had been mostly accepting, they had always been on guard due to his more tricksy nature. But now they had far deeper trust in him, having witnessed first-hand how far he would go in retaliation for one of them getting hurt.

Despite this change in opinion, they hadn’t seen him since they returned to the Academy, and the spring break was in its final few days. The class themselves had even found themselves hanging out with one another more and more.

Mostly in part due to the rest of the school being worried they come under attack just by being around them. They had even heard whispers that put them in a similar vein to how they heard rumours about Alex at the adventurers guild.

Regardless they had taken to spending more time together and were walking around the school grounds enjoying the spring breeze when they spotted Alex sitting at the edge of the cliff face that marked the end of the great plateaus that Academy city sat upon.

Approaching their teacher, they could see he seemed to be lost in thought, looking out over the horizon. Daisy was the first one to break the ice and start the conversation.

“Hello, sir… How have you been?” Alex, though, didn’t respond. He just kept his gaze out onto the horizon.

“Sir?” Maxwell said, approaching Alex and waving a hand in front of his eyes, only to not have him blink.

“Doesn’t look like the chief is breathing,” Gunter said, pointing at Alex, who was more still than a statue. Stiller than even when he cast the freeze person spell on himself.

“You Ok?” Bea asked, walking up and tapping his shoulder. At the touch, Alex jolted in his spot, startling the class.

“Ah!! Oh, hello, Bea,” Alex said with a calm tone as he shifted his shoulders.

“You ok, sir? It’s just we called out to you a few times,” Daisy asked, concern colouring her voice.

“Oh that; I was meditating,” Alex replied with a weak grin. “The best way to get all the wild thoughts in line.”

“You meditate?” Tasha asked, surprised.

“Oh yeah, Elissa taught me how and it can help make things so much clearer.”

“I also use an extra helper to make things run far smoother,” Alex added, gesturing to a pack next to him.

“Sir, you take drugs?!” Daisy asked, shocked.

“Well, more potions, but I guess that's a tomato, tomato situation. I take a potion that Sloth developed when he was my age when he needed more time to think things over.”

“What’s it do?” Bea asked as she began poking the pack, only to have Alex snatch it away.

“I would not recommend it,” Alex said with a shake of his head as he cradled the pack. “It accelerates your mind to an unfathomable degree.”

“Oh, like fast, think?” Maxwell asked.

“Kind of but by a substantial multiple. Fast Think can only speed up your thought, so every second seems like a minute, and even then, your body can’t fully respond due to the limitations of the physical processes. This potion, though,” Alex reached into the pack and took out a vial with only a few drops remaining.

“This one can make each second seem like a month, you still won’t be able to move like with fast think, but it’ll let you go further into thought than ever before,” Alex explained.

“A month?!” Kline repeated in surprise. “But you would suffer horrendously with such a potion.”

“You can, and people do. I understand it is also known as the traitor's tears, as they give it to traitors about to be executed, so their death lasts ages for them,” Alex explained. “Sloth has a recipe for a truly insane one that makes a second over thirty-two years.”

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“But that’s,” Kline closed his eyes in quick thought as he calculated it. “Close to a billion times acceleration!! Why would he need that?!”

“To perform thought experiments, to read an entire book over and over till it’s memorised, all manner of things even I would consider insane,” Alex explained, listing off the reasons on his finger.

“So you took this to help you meditate?”

“I mainly use it after a chaotic time like recently. I usually find a calm, secluded place with a nice view, do the initial breaths of meditation and then take the potion. I continue like this till it starts, and then…”

“And then what, sir?” Maxwell pressed.

“I centre myself. I may appear calm and collected…” Alex could see the incredulous looks on his students faces at this statement. “I may appear calm and collected,” Alex reiterated harder this time. “But there is a maelstrom of thoughts and energy roiling within me. If I let it loose, hell may break free.”

“Surely that isn’t true, sir?” Daisy said comfortingly.

“No, Daisy, while in my term as Gluttony, I achieved apocalypse class as a mage. If I truly lost all control, my magic could affect the entire world. You saw what I could do when I condensed and focused it on a tiny plot of land. Imagine If I threw all restraint to the ends of the earth. Imagine if I didn’t use so many spells to keep my magic from going out of control. The end of days would be upon us, and only one being unalive could stop me.”

“Who? The Dark Lady Crozonia?”

“No, Lord Sloth. The Norns spoke to us long ago, in fact, right after I first began my apprenticeship. They said that if I should ever lose myself, only Sloth or one other unknown being shrouded from their vision would be able to stop me and if it was Sloth who tried, four of the continents would be gone by the end of the clash.” Alex looked at his hands as he said this with a severe expression.

“Kids, the most important lesson I will repeat is that control is needed. The greater the power, the more restraints should be on it. I am grateful I have my friends and family because if I lost them… well… you saw how I reacted when one of you got hurt; imagine if they had actually killed Gunter.” The class mulled on this thought, unsure how to continue before Tasha spoke up.

“So why did you choose this spot then?” Tasha asked. Alex smiled at the change in subject.

“On a clear day, you can see the land where I was born,” Alex gestured to the fog rolling over the ocean far below where the faint silhouette of land could be made out.

“On the Secondian land bridge, a little backwater village without a name. Me and Mimi are from there,” Alex explained.

“I’m sure they’re proud of how high you two have reached,” Daisy said as she sat next to Alex, looking out to the land.

“I’m sure they would be,” Alex replied.

“Would?” Bea repeated, sitting on Alex’s other side.

“Yeah, all dead when I was young. Kids, there is a reason I’m so protective, afterall. But you don’t want to hear that tragic story,” Alex said, putting on a grin to change the subject.

“Must’ve been hard, though,” Maxwell said, sitting next to Daisy. “Being so young and human from a land loyal to the holy continent, making your way to the land of your enemies.”

“You have no idea,” Alex said with a nostalgic smile. “It’s how I started learning every skill under the sun. I never wanted to be left wanting a job. Me and Mimi spent those early years living in forests eating plants,” Alex said, picking a few blades of grass up and letting the wind carry them away.

“Still, as tragic a start as it was, I met my soul mate, made a lifelong friend and became a teacher for great students.” Alex got a big goofy grin as he said this.

“Oh, sir,” Tasha said with a blush.

“Oh, and you kids as well,” Alex added teasingly.

“But yeah, kids, keep your head on straight. Introspection is a skill that I can’t recommend higher.”

“A thought has just occurred to me, chief?” Gunter said as he plopped down next to Bea. “Big Chief said when she was teaching me runic engraving that you can’t cast higher than grade five spells? Yet you are the highest class achievable?”

“Ah, that… folly of youth. I learnt magic when I was six and cast magic so often I went mana out. Which in itself is an achievement given my manastores,” Alex explained this admission though the class had horrified expressions.

“Whoever taught you should go to jail, sir. Teaching a child so young to the point of mana-out obviously would cause the mana channels to fuse and lock!!” Daisy said, clenching her fists in indignant rage.

“Oh, he did; he got out rather easily, though,” Alex explained, resting a calming hand on her shoulder.

“Where is he, sir? We will go and beat the crap out of him!” Tasha declared.

“Sat right here talking to you. I taught myself; I had no idea about damaging mana channels before they finished growing. It’s why I’m such a tricksy mage. I had to find ways to win tactically with weak spells edited to become powerful.”

“Wow… So…” Maxwell mumbled as he looked at Alex and then at his hands.

“Still, the sun is getting ready to set; you guys should head back to the dorm,” Alex said, trying to usher the kids away.

“Don’t forget we got a firework show this coming Friday for the kindergarten class; we got a big announcement to make during the party,” Alex said as he watched the class walk away. With one final glance at the class, Alex drank the last of the potion and looked back at the land of his birth, feeling comforted that he was where he was meant to be.