Chapter 59: Assistant

Felix Sythias’s POV:

I awoke curled up around Alex. He was resting against my side, his notebook and pencil on the floor next to him, where they’d slipped out. He was snoring ever so slightly. We must have fallen asleep together last evening.

I glanced over at the clock, then nudged him awake. Soon we were eating breakfast while Alex finished his drawing.

“Would you like a spot where you can hang your drawings on the wall?” I asked, remembering my idea from last night.

He shook his head, then hesitated, looking down at his notebook. “Maybe for a few.”

“We can go look for that and some other furniture when we get back from the excursion. We really need to get a table of our own. Jade keeps asking about putting it back. And before you ask, I’m making dad pay for it. He agreed before that anything I bought to spice the place up would be on his dime.”

He chuckled. “Sounds good.”

After breakfast, I took a quick look at our schedules for today and tomorrow. We’d long since hung them on the door so we could both see what the other was doing that day. It made planning a lot easier.

For me, the only class of significance was aerial combat, and maybe the normal combat class. Alex had basic sword magic and unconventional casting media. I shared the latter with him, too, but I wasn’t going to attend this time. It was pointless to me, and I wanted to get some extra practice with the lightning cube. Maybe I could go down to the river for that?

Oh, that gave me an idea. I looked at our classes for tomorrow, but neither of us had anything with homework that still needed to be finished.

I turned to Alex. He was currently getting dressed, which really just meant putting his t-shirt on—he’d fallen asleep still wearing pants. He very understandably didn’t like wearing them, so he still refrained from wearing one while we were in our room, or otherwise alone. He didn’t want to go shirtless in public, however. He felt it was rude. I didn’t mind that, though, as it meant I got those ridges on his back all to myself.

“Hey, Alex?” I called across the room. “Do you want to go swimming this afternoon? We can go to the river again. Maybe practice your mana manipulation, too.”

He pulled the rim of his shirt over his head and looked over. “Sounds good. Do we invite anyone else?”

I shook my head. “I thought it might be fun if it was just you and me.”

His smile widened. “That does sound like fun. Maybe we can do some more cloud watching. Speaking of fun, this isn’t,” he said, gesturing to the back of his shirt, which had gotten stuck on one of his ridges and wouldn’t go all the way down. He tried reaching for it but could only barely touch the bunch of bundled up cloth. “Could you help me?”

“Sure.”

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Combat class went about as I expected, though it got cut short when someone got injured. Then we got a lecture about how to take proper care of our combat suits and how to put it on and active it. It was all very dull, but luckily it only happened towards the end of the session. Even more lucky was that the student had only gotten a cut on their arm. It was a deep cut, but nothing some healing wouldn’t fix. They’d be fine by the end of the morning.

After class, I hung out with Alex and Tiki during the break in the small forest next to the school building. We ate lunch together and discussed our tactics. We also briefly talked about our Skills, but it was clear none of us really had Skills that helped with combat—me especially—except Tiki, who had an archery Skill. She didn’t count it as a combat Skill though, since it was more meant for show and hunting, where you had time to aim and all that, and not for the rapid pace of combat. She said she was working on transforming the Skill, but for now it didn’t help all that much with combat.

After the break, they went off to class. After some consideration, I decided to head to aerial combat a little early. Well, a lot early. I figured I could practice my lightning magic there, too. And that way I didn’t have to rush to be on time later.

When I got to the field, professor Marchie was there already, teaching a class. From the looks of the slightly clumsy, but confident flying, my guess was that it was a second year basic flight class. They would have the Skills, but not the skills.

Marchie herself was looking up at them and occasionally taking notes or screaming some bit of advice at an extra clumsy flyer. She especially yelled a lot of advice at one person who had actual wings. The student was using them so poorly and didn’t seem to want to listen to Marchie’s advice.

Since Marchie looked busy, I walked up to the edge of the field but didn’t come any closer. Besides, this wasn’t my class and it would be rude to invite myself in. I grabbed the cube to practice while occasionally looking up at the class. After a few minutes, Marchie noticed me standing here and waved me over anyway.

“You’re early,” she said once I sat next to her. “And shouldn’t you be in class right now?”

I shrugged. “The class wasn’t working out for me so I have permission to do whatever, and I was bored so I figured I’d come early.”

She opened her mouth to respond, then snapped her head sideways and yelled at one of the students to land immediately. Following her gaze, it was clear the student was running out of mana. His flight was all wonky and shaky, and not in a ‘I’m still new to this’ kind of way, but in the ‘I’m running on wisps’ kind of way.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She then turned back to me. “Well, you’re welcome to watch, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to talk too much. As you can see, these guys are a handful.”

I chuckled. “Everyone has to start somewhere, right? I distinctly remember dad telling me a story about your first flight. You landed on someone's birthday cake, if I remember correctly?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. That cake was so expensive to replace, too. And who holds their birthday party right next to a training field, anyway?” She shook her head. “But you’re correct. And I don’t hold their inexperience against them. I would be a pretty shitty teacher if I did. Your class is way more interesting to teach, though. There, everyone already knows how to fly and I can focus on the fun stuff.”

“I could help sometimes if you want,” I offered. “One of my classes was canceled indefinitely, so I have a free period right where you have a basic flight class for the first-years.”

She thought that over for a moment, then nodded. “Sure, you can help. You already have experience teaching, and an assistant would certainly be useful. Especially one that can fly as well as you do. Speaking of, how’s that going? I see your wing is healed now.”

I held my talon out in the so-so gesture. “Yes, and no. It’s healed but I’m not allowed to use it yet. Alena didn’t like how fast it healed and wanted to be sure it was fine. By the time I can help with a class, it should be fine, though.”

“Well, that’s good to hear, at least. Also, I better not hear of you breaking Alena’s orders,” she said, and I nodded in agreement. She then turned away to give the class some instructions and called one student down. “Which class were you talking about, by the way? I’ll need to know so I can mention it on the paperwork.”

“The one Alex is in.”

“Ah, I see why you want to help now. You know you won’t be able to spend all your time with him if you become my assistant, right? You’ll need to help the other students, too.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“Alright, just making sure. I’ve had it happen in the past. Someone wanted to become my assistant and then did nothing but chat with his friends. He didn’t last long.”

“That won’t happen,” I promised. “At least, not enough for it to be a problem.”

She smirked at me. “We’ll see,” she said, then turned to the student she had called down and was waiting beside us.

The student was human, but had a pair of feathery wings on her back that were so drenched in mana I could taste it from a meter away. They were almost certainly Skill-based. They had that ethereal look about them that only Skill-manifested things had. There, but not quite real. It was more instinctual than anything. It was something you just knew.

There was also the possibility she’d had wings grown by a biomancer, but I doubted it was the case this time. Very few people wanted permanent wings—they made things very awkward, from clothing to sitting in chairs—and even fewer of those had the means to actually get them.

“Felix, do you think you could help Emily out? She doesn’t quite trust my instructions because I have no wings. See it as a trial of sorts.”

The student, Emily, protested. “I do trust you, professor!”

Marchie turned to her. “Then why are you still not flapping your wings right?”

“Because this feels right!” Emily said, showing off a motion that was so incredibly inefficient it almost made me wince.

Marchie turned to me. “I’ll come check on you later,” she said, ignoring that I hadn’t yet actually agreed and walked away to give the rest of the class instructions.

I turned back to Emily, feeling like this was going to take a while.

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It did end up taking a while. Emily was stubborn, but in the end, she trusted the opinion of someone who had flown with wings for almost a decade over her own. She had only recently gotten her wings. I was right; they were part of a Path Skill that let her fly. Though I didn’t understand why she didn’t go for something easier. There were plenty of Skills that offered wing-less flight. They were so much easier to control.

After that class was over, Marchie and I hashed out the details of my assistant-ship. There wasn’t much to it, but some paperwork needed to be filled out. I could assist her without filling it all out, but the Academy would compensate me for my time spent helping in class if I did. It wasn’t much, but it was still nice to have.

Soon, though, my classmates started to arrive and Marchie went off to start our class. I couldn’t participate yet anyway, so I continued filling out the paperwork. When I was done with that, I joined Marchie at the sidelines where she once again started explaining every mistake while I took notes.

At this point, the notebook I’d gotten for this class was starting to get full. I had maybe a sixth left to write in. I was planning on condensing it into a small book during one of our breaks. Maybe the Fall break? Summer was coming to an end and it wouldn’t be long. It was a little over a month away now. I’d have time then.

And after I had condensed it, I’d donate a few copies to the library. They probably had books like that about flight already, but maybe someone would find my style of explanation better than one of the others. I liked that idea.

It would also just give me something to do during the break.

The class itself was boring today. People sparred and flew complex parcours while professor Marchie gave them feedback and instructed them on things they needed to improve in.

After the class, I handed the paperwork to Marchie, and she told me she’d get on it and to expect a note in my mailbox when I got back from the excursion. Then I searched for Viggi, who was waiting for me.

“Hi Felix!” he said once I got close. I waved a hello back at him. “I have some good news for you!”

I raised an eye-ridge. “Oh? Do tell.”

I had a pretty good idea what kind of news he had to tell me. He had spent most of yesterday afternoon with Alex, after all. I quelled that bit of hope, though. For all I knew, Viggi was talking about something completely different.

“Alex finally gave me an answer, so you’re free to ask him out now. Thanks for waiting, by the way.”

“It’s alright. I doubt I could’ve mustered up the courage to ask him, anyway. So there’s no time wasted.”

“I’m sure you’ll get a chance soon enough,” he said with a strange tone.

“Yeah. I’ve decided to ask him during the weekend. I actually had an idea for it as well. Can I tell you or would you prefer me not to?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

So I told him my idea. It was something I’d come up with earlier while helping Emily learn to fly properly. I would take him out flying on Sunday and ask him then. It was only right—after all, our relationship began during a flight, so it only made sense for it to become more during a flight, too.

Viggi really liked the idea and thought it was really sweet and thoughtful. I wasn’t sure I agreed with his sentiment, since it only seemed logical to me, not thoughtful, but it was nice to hear, nonetheless. He did have a suggestion, though.

“Go on a picnic or something like that. I’m pretty sure Alex would like it.”

I nodded as ideas started filling my head. For the first time since my realization last weekend, I was feeling confident about this again.