Talking in public is not an easy skill to have, especially for people that have never done so in the past, or simply don’t have the personality to do it. I was one such person once too, since in my childhood, all I ever knew were fields, chickens, a wooden house, and the few people that lived in the small town near where I lived. I never expected that at some point in my life I’d have to stand up in front of common people that wished to see in me peace and salvation; or in front of armies that wished to see power and victory.

“Um…” Victoria said once more. She didn’t have the words to speak, even to such a small crowd of people.

There is something that would always give me strength and confidence to talk to the masses in the past, and that was the knowledge that no matter what happened, the Holy Gods were watching over me, and that my voice was the voice that They chose to speak, so I had to speak and I had to do with the power and grace that They would want me to have.

But right now, there was no point in thinking about Them or Their will, since I knew that They didn’t care, and as such, there was nobody to lean on besides myself.

Victoria also didn’t have anyone to lean on or to give her the confidence and strength to speak, so I reached my hand to her shoulder and she quieted down for a moment before clenching her hands, closing her eyes, and taking a couple of deep breaths. I thought that she would step down and let me talk instead if I reached out to her, but when she opened her eyes again, they carried a calmer look than before.

“Sorry,” she said to the audience, “I’m just so nervous that I didn’t know what to say.”

There were a couple of chuckles from the audience, and when I turned to look at the people who I thought for a moment were making fun of the girl, I noticed that they actually carried soft smiles.

A middle aged man in particular caught my attention when he half-raised a fist. “Go on girl.”

“I don’t really have a lot to say, only that, as the teacher said, I hope we can use what was given to us and turn it into something that can do good,” Victoria said, pausing for a moment to down. “And that we should always believe in ourselves, in that we can do it.” she turned to look at me with a soft smile. “So believe in yourselves, and we’ll achieve anything we want.” Finally, she looked back at the hall of people who were softly smiling. “Thank you.”

The hall clapped for a few seconds once Victoria was done. Brian in particular with quick and loud claps, as if he wanted everyone to know he was doing so, but it seemed like only I and Steven noticed it as Victoria smiled and nodded to the crowd a couple of times before stepping aside and away from the small black stick that she was talking into.

Once people settled and there was some silence in the hall, I moved to the same spot Victoria used without waiting for Doctor Fraga or anyone to tell me to do so. I stood as tall as I usually would when addressing crowds of people. Usually, when the hall was large, or the armies were long, one would need to raise one’s voice so it could be properly heard, but there was no need to do so.

I focused on my mana power and released a pulse of mana through the air. It was thin and weak, not powerful enough for most people to notice, and judging by the expressions of the people in the hall, nobody noticed it—as it should be. I had created a small mana field in the hall that would make it so my voice would be carried all around it, in a way that it would make the people feel as if I was talking directly in front of them.

I looked over them, with my chin up and my eyes just as fierce as I would’ve done when rallying the people of the empire. I could see in the reaction of the people that their eyes were focused on me, nobody seemed to be distracted or looking away as some of them did with victoria.

“You are in a special position right now,” I said, my voice strong, yet not much higher than a whisper.

I paused for a moment, as the people in the hall had reacted strongly to my voice, with some of them looking around confused and others looking surprised at me, with whispering voices that settled down after a moment when they remembered that I was speaking. Victoria and Doctor Fraga also seemed to be somewhat confused, but they just whispered something to themselves.

“The power that you hold in your hands could change the course of your life, another’s, the ones of those around you, a group of people, an empire’s or even…” I looked ahead, at nothing in particular as the images of me destroying Salrak and the Holy Gods descending to our world before stabbing me flooded my mind. “…The fate of a whole world.”

I looked down at the people sitting in the hall, their bodies unmoving and their eyes focused on me. Some of them still carried a look of surprise, while others were at awe about what I was doing, as if they had experienced it before and the words they were hearing were special at all.

“We are all here to hone our magic, to increase that power that was granted to us, and take that potential to its maximum expression,” I continued, lifting my open palm forward towards the crowd.

It was important to entice in the people a sense of power and wonder, and that everything one is saying has real meaning to it. So I summoned a large bird out of pure mana. Mana Beasts were not my forte, but I could do a few tricks with mana, making it seem like one, just like the one that was right now flying over the heads of the people who looked amazed as it gracefully flapped its wings.

“The most important thing that you should know is that you shouldn’t allow yourself to become a tool—a weapon—for others. You should find for yourself the meaning of the power you’re wielding; to understand why you’re using it, and most importantly,” I said, my tone of voice getting stronger and the bird shifting into an actual Mana Beast, a dragon, “To not be deceived by the appearances of what you see in front of you.”

The dragon dived into the crowd, with a few people gasping and holding on to their chairs as the open maw of the pale blue dragon got closer to them. The summon, of course, wouldn’t do anything to them, as before it hit anyone, I commanded it to fly back up into the air, and up to the ceiling of the hall where it exploded into several particles of blue mana that slowly started drifting down like snow.

“In the middle of the darkness…” I paused for a moment as the horrifying visage of Bo’guth’s smiling face appeared in my mind. “… You will find good. And in the middle of the light…” I paused this time to think of the beautiful glowing golden figures of the Gods that betrayed me. “You will find evil.”

The motes of mana were by now disappearing into the open hands of the few young people that were reaching to them. That mana carried no power, so it wouldn’t do anything to try to grab it, but I could still see that there was some desire to become stronger as some of them clutched onto the few that were close to them.

“And should you use that power to aid evil, then…” this time I thought about how under the words of the Holy Gods I had destroyed my world, “You should use that power to fix your mistakes,” I said, almost like a whisper before I looked forward again with a sharp look at an imaginary horizon. I would’ve pulled my sword out and pointed at the battlefields, but without one, I simply pointed with my finger instead. “So go out there! And do what must be done!”

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Having finished this short speech, I turned and stepped aside from the spot that we were given to speak. A couple of seconds later people started clapping. Some of them were enthusiastically clapping with a sparkle in the eyes as they looked at me, like Steven. Others were clapping with an expression that was not too different from the one that they had for Victoria. And others didn’t seem to want to clap at all as they carried a confused expression on their faces.

It appeared like the usual speeches that I used on the masses of my world wouldn’t work the same as on the people of this world; seeing how their reactions were all different. Regardless, I was asked to speak and I did so.

“Quite impressive there, Miss Althea,” Doctor Fraga said, and I turned to look at him as he clapped like the second group of people. “I can tell that you’ve put your talents to good use.”

“Yeah!” Victoria followed up with a nod and a soft clap.

“You girls may go back to your seats now,” Doctor Fraga said as he gestured for us to leave the stage. “And,” he continued while looking at Victoria with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like that. I didn’t think it would be like that.”

“E-eh, it’s okay… I’ll learn from this experience,” she replied with a forced smile.

“Yes! That’s good! Although, I think it would be better to clear these things beforehand the next time I do it,” Doctor Fraga replied with a chuckle. “Go on then, there’s still other things to do.”

We didn’t linger and made our way back down, while some of the people in the crowd kept their eyes focused on us. Victoria didn’t seem to be paying any attention to them as she heavily sighed on the way back.

“I think that what you did was great. I’m sure people have already forgotten about my embarrassing speech…” she said with a soft smile, which I couldn’t tell if it was sad or relieved.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, since I wasn’t sure.

“Oh?! No, no, there’s nothing to be sorry about,” she said while quickly waving her hand in denial. “I’m actually happy, since I would rather people forget about it.”

“I see, then I guess it was for the best,” I replied and sat at the same place as before, Victoria following shortly after.

Steven and Brian both quickly turned to look at us, with Steven looking with bright eyes at me. “How did you do that?!”

“Hm?” I replied, titling slightly in my head, but quickly realized what they meant. “Ah, talking in public just takes a bit of practice and—”

“No! No, he meant the shit with the bird and the dragon,” Brian interrupted and Steven quickly nodded.

“Yeah, I just had a quick look into the stores to see what kind of skill would let me do that as well, but there wasn’t one with a blue dragon like that,” Steven said while scrolling his finger on his phone’s screen.

“I was also thinking about that for a while. Even when I was given a few skills to pick from, I don’t remember seeing one like that,” Victoria followed up with a thoughtful expression while looking up.

“Oh. That was just a simple mana manipulation spell. Generally it doesn’t really have a purpose, but my magic master liked to use it constantly to train my magic, since I’d be tasked with keeping its shape without giving it will,” I replied and summoned a small mana orb to my hand.

The young people focused their eyes on that orb, and I started manipulating it to give it different shapes, from a small bird, flapping its wings, to a horse running in the air. Their eyes seemed to glow while looking at it, especially Steven, but after a few seconds, the horse dispersed in small mana particles that disappeared almost as fast as they were created.

“Wait, so what you did on stage wasn’t a summon?” Brian asked, and Steven looked up to me with a sharp look.

“The dragon was, but the bird was just a small amount of mana given shape,” I replied, not really thinking much about what I had said.

However, after a few seconds I noticed that they were looking at me with awed expressions. I wanted to dispel the looks that they were giving me, but there was no time to do so as Steven spoke before I could.

“Say… what rank are you at the moment?” he asked, his eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re the same rank as you were when you did the tests,” Brian followed and Victoria quietly looked at me.

I seemed to remember that I was a D+ from what the bracelet displayed when it was given to me, but I hadn’t bothered to look at it since then. There was no reason to delay it as at the moment Doctor Fraga seemed to be following up on what I said, mostly saying that the goal of the academy was to improve the magic power of the people for the good of the country.

“And yeah, you too, Victoria. I feel like if they called you first to speak at the stage, then you must be somewhere close to Althea,” Brian said while I was pressing the screen on the Watch.

I was curious about that as well, since she got called before me—in fact it seemed as if Doctor Fraga wasn’t going to call me at all, which meant that there’s a possibility that Victoria is even higher ranked than me. I turned to look at her as well, and she looked somewhat embarrassed, but all three of us waited to see her answer.

“Okay…” she finally yielded, pulling her Watch out and displaying it for us to see.

“What?!” Steven and Brian exclaimed simultaneously, with Steven even going as far as grabbing Victoria’s wrist to look closer at the Watch.

“This can’t be real,” Steven continued, and Victoria pulled her arm back, quickly hiding the Watch.

“I-it is,” she replied with a flush.

“C+ rank?! Are you serious? How did you even get from D to almost B in a week!?” Steven continued.

I wasn’t really sure if that was high or not, but judging from their expressions, it appeared like Victoria might be more special than she appears. To confirm with my own rank, I finally managed to activate this Watch again, and the information was displayed just as it had been before.

[Welcome back, Althea!]

[Status]

Name: Althea Sanctus Stultus

Rank: C

Strength: C

Body: C+

Magic Power: C-

Mana Levels: D+

Skills: Master Mana Manipulation (S), Mana Sense (S), Body Empowering (A), Sacred Cut (B), Mana Barrier (C), Lightning Shot (C), Weapon Recall (C), Small Detection Ward (C), Healing Aura (C), Painkiller (C) , Mana Blade (D), Wind Blade (D), Small Mana Dragon (D), Rock Boulder (E), Rock Needle (F), Weak Fire Shot (F), Light Orb (F), Water Orb (F).

It had indeed changed, although, I can’t really tell why, since I didn’t do anything special besides just going into the Tainted Land, and even there all I did was kill Dark Beasts and one Unholy Dark Beast that… was absorbed into me… Could that be it? Although…

I turned to look at the flushed Victoria and the excited young men that were now waiting for me to answer.

“I’m Rank C, according to this artifact,” I said, showing them the screen of the Watch.

“No way…” Steven replied, and looked at the Watch with wide eyes, just as he had done with Victoria. “Well, at least you don’t have as many skills as Victoria; but still, how did you both become so strong?”

“Yeah, I want to know on what kind of shi—stuff, you’re on,” Brian followed up, his eyes shifting from Victoria to her Watch.

“I’m also curious about what you did Victoria,” I said, an eyebrow raised at the now calmer girl.

“Ehe… well… I’m not sure if I can—”

“And that concludes the introduction!” Doctor Fraga proclaimed and we turned to look at him. “Now we’ll assign you to your mandatory courses depending on the ranks that you have, before giving you your new uniforms and letting you choose what other electives you’re going to take—if any.”

“Oh well,” Steven said. “I guess you’ll let us know later.”

“Yeah, let's get going,” Brian said, standing up from his chair and following the other groups that Doctor Fraga and other people were calling.

Victoria sighed and stood up, following after the young men, and I followed soon after.