The room is silent. All of these shocked faces give me satisfaction. That’s right. The kid you thought was talentless turned out to be quite the opposite. No one will dare belittle me again.

“He cheated! He must’ve cheated!” one of the five who made the bets exclaim.

“Teacher Moria, you must’ve helped him, right?” another asks.

“Yeah!”

The room grows progressively noisy.

“Settle down, settle down!” Moria exclaims. The room quickly grows quiet. “I understand that many of you have doubts, but I did not help him in any way. Kai, would you please show them your Rich Mana?”

I release and immediately activate Rich Mana out of my palm, just as Moria did on my first day. I hold it for only a few seconds.

“Excellent control, just as I suspected. That should clear everyone’s doubts about Kai’s legitimacy. Since this is a bit of a rare circumstance, I will explain what happened,” Moria says and walks to the walls he created. “He directed inactive Rich Mana to move out of his body along a non-linear path to the magic items within these walls. It was only when the Mana reached their destinations, he had set them to activate.”

This is the basis of Intermediate Evocation magic. Know that it is more difficult to successfully activate your Mana outside the body. You will learn more about it in the future. As I mentioned before, the devices produce a more potent effect with higher quality Mana. This is the result of a crystal called a Glim. New instructions are assigned to the Mana as it passes through it. The Mana moves along, bonds with the Affinity from the Water Crystal and Wind Crystal, and then releases the magic as it was told.”

The same general instructions are applied to Mana of other types, but they are usually made so that higher quality Mana produces an augmented effect. In this case, the speed and size of the resulting balls of water and volume from the Wind magic were increased while the Glim's goal stayed the same. I understand this is a great deal of information, and you will learn more in your fourth year.”

Wait… Did I accidentally spill the beans?! I know my Mana is a higher grade than Rich Mana, so that giant burst of water should’ve been something more powerful than what Moria would expect. How come he hasn’t said anything about that? I made a stupid mistake. I didn’t think this through.

The walls surrounding the magic devices disappear. “Is there anything else someone would like to ask before we move on to the next group?”

“How can he use Rich Mana already? He has an E rank in all grades of Mana, and you said he had no talent. I can barely muster controlling Scrap Mana with a C rank.”

“I was mistaken. Your rank in each Mana type does not mean you will have an easy time controlling it. It only determines your Mana capacity and grants you additional opportunities to hone your skills. Kai has mastered manipulating Rich Mana, despite having a small pool of Mana in his body. That makes it all the more impressive. He is truly a monster to have accomplished this in a single year from the start of Scrap Mana Manipulation.”

I grin. Well, Moria’s actually wrong about one crucial thing. I’ve been practicing Mana Manipulation for way longer than that. I’ll just enjoy the glory.

“It truly is a shame at the same time. If he had better ranks in Mana capacity, he could have grown to be one of the strongest magicians who has ever lived,” Moria says and then turns to me. “Kai, please do not be discouraged by this. Your potential in the future is limited by your innate Mana capacity. Eventually, your Adventurer peers will surpass you once they have mastered Rich Mana Manipulation, but I am confident that you will find your way to success. In the meantime, there is no student at this Academy who can be your equal.”

There’s a brief pause, so he’s probably waiting for my response. I feel a little bad for being a bit insincere, but it can’t be avoided. I made a promise to Emdos. “Okay, I got it.”

I’m glad that he didn’t find those overlapping water balls odd. He must’ve been too much in awe to notice.

“Great. Now, let us draw the lot for the next group,” Moria says and walks back to his seat.

I sigh. We have to sit through an entire class worth of test-taking? That’s like at least a hundred more!

“Darn it,” Moria says after picking up the jar. “Water got into the jar, and all the paper has become soggy. I will have to go back to my office and create new lots. I apologize.”

“Kai, your group may leave since you completed the test. Come back tomorrow for the results,” Moria says while jogging up the steps, leaving the room shortly afterward.

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Convenient. We don’t have to stay, after all. My group who has been oddly quiet stands up to leave.

“Hold on a second,” I say and turn to the crowd. I haven’t forgotten about those bets I made. My win is already sealed. I point at the relevant kids in the crowd and say, “You, you, you, you, and you. Don’t forget that you owe me an apology. I want it first thing tomorrow. Don’t forget about the other thing either.”

“Wait, I’m really sorry. You’re a lot better than me, so can you please forgive me? I was just joking around, you know? I’ve apologized, so can you let me off the hook?”

“Huh? You agreed to the bet, so why’re you trying to back out now that you know you’re gonna lose? I know you wouldn’t have let me go if I had scored as low as you expected. And I said I wanted a deep-felt apology. Take a day to come up with something. If you don’t deliver your end of the bargain everyone here will know who the real scaredy-cats are.”

“Come on, man. Please. Anything but this.”

“Let’s go,” I say, leading my team up the steps.

The class giggles quietly.

“How shameless,” someone says.

“He’s the one who started the bets and claimed Kai cheated.”

“All bark no bite.”

How’s it feel to have the entire class against you? I hope he and the other four suffer the same humiliation I felt over the past year.

My team still hasn’t said anything, even though we left the room. Are they still shocked about my test results and real talent?

“Kai… I think you have some explaining to do,” Sitos says.

“Yeh!” Hiro exclaims and wraps his arms around me. “What kinda secret trainin’ have ya been doin’? How come ya never showed us?”

“Well—“

“Is it not obvious? He wanted to keep all the methods to himself and mislead us into believing he is not capable. He hustled us into accepting bets with him as he did with the class.”

“I’m sure that wasn’t his intention, Sitoster. With the treatment he received in the past year, we can’t blame him for hiding his abilities. It’s our fault too. We all assumed he had no talent.”

“I agree, Drugo. Besides… Sitos, Weren’t you extra mean to Kai on our first day?”

“I—“

“We agreed the bets were a way for us to have a little fun. You didn’t seem against the idea of accepting the bet when you thought you were gonna win. You can’t hold it against him now. We lost fair and square to him like you lost to me. Or do you have a problem with that result too?”

“No, Luna. I do not have any problems. You are both right. For that, I am sorry, Kai.”

“It’s alright. It’s not that big of a deal,” I say and force a smile. Things are getting slightly awkward now.

“So…ya gonna tell us your secret trainin’ method?”

I sigh and then answer, “I don’t really have a secret training method. Besides, does Hiro the Great need any advice from me, whom you defeated with only a carrot?”

Hiro laughs nervously and then says, “C’mon…don’t be like that, Kai. Ya know that was a joke.”

What can I really say to everyone? I can reveal neither the book nor my Mana. “Well… Emdos trained me since I was six years old up until I came to the Academy.”

“What?! So ya have five years of experience ahead of us?! That’s not fair! So ya didn’t master Rich Mana in a year… I wish someone taught me too when I was six.”

“I would not say that, Hiro. There is a reason why the Academy starts when you are eleven years old.”

“Why’s that?” Hiro asks.

I want to know too. Emdos said it was the minimum age requirement but nothing else.

“Prior to age eleven, manipulating Mana can be deadly to the user,” Sitos explains. “I heard many kids have thrown away their potential by trying to test their capabilities too soon.”

I widen my eyes. Emdos never told me anything like that when I started training. If it was such an important detail, he would’ve told me.

“Oh,” Hiro interjects. “But what ‘bout Kai?”

“I am wondering about that too. Who is this Emdos person? Why did he risk training you at that age? You could have died.”

“Emdos took care of me, so I guess he’s like my dad. We aren’t related, though. I think you’re over-exaggerating this whole thing,” I say. This isn’t going to blow over, so I should make up something to ease their concerns. “He didn’t make a big deal out of it, but he said there was a small chance something bad could happen. He had a countermeasure to make me better just in case.”

“Oh, I have heard something about that too. That there was a way to avoid the negative effects of training Mana Manipulation before age eleven,” Sitos says.

Seriously? That’s a thing too? I just made it up. I ask, “What’re these negative effects you’re talking about?”

“I do not know exactly. I have only heard things.”

“Who’d you hear these things from?” Drugo asks.

“My trainer. He is the one who taught me how to fight. I had asked him if he could teach me magic too. He advised against it for the reasons I mentioned. He said you should only do it if you know about the means that gives you better chances of survival.”

“So, it’s not a hundred percent?” Drugo asks.

“No.”

“I take it back. I’m glad no one tried ta teach me.”

“I’m happy nothing happened to you, Kai!” Luna exclaims.

“Yes, but there is one thing that is still bothering me,” Sitos says.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“All those who took the risk and succeeded were very gifted, according to my teacher. They always turned out to be the top of their classes with high ranks in Mana capacity potential and have compatibility with several magic categories. That is why people take the risk. He says that people believe training before age eleven can increase your latent talent. That is why you are strange, Kai. You trained for many years, but you showed no promise on those assessments.”

I don’t know how much merit the information he has is, but he’s right to be suspicious. I’m hiding the truth regarding my Mana, after all. “I guess all my expertise went into Mana Manipulation. Moria said I was the greatest talent who ever lived.”

“It appears so. Why did you choose to hide your power? You knew how to manipulate Rich Mana the day you arrived, right?”

“Yeh, I remember that too. Ya said ya were gonna show us your true power! Why didn’tcha do it?”

“Yes, why did you suddenly stop? You were going to show us Rich Mana, but then backed out.”

So many questions… I don’t know how to answer them without revealing the truth.