After about a minute of introspection, I say, “I can’t.”

“Damn, you can’t do that?” she asks. “I thought you might’ve been able to accomplish it because you mastered Rich Mana Manipulation within a year.”

I frown. She’s saying I’m not as good as he thought I was. That makes me feel a little bad because I thought I was already the best.

“Karen, that was asking too much when he hasn’t learned how to bond his Mana with any Affinities yet,” Lance says.

“Well, when Moria said he was the most talented student who has ever attended the Academy, I expected more,” Karen says and shrugs.

“Hey, he’s the youngest person to have ever successfully manipulated Rich Mana. That’s already super impressive,” Lance says.

“Moria said that?” I ask, grinning. He didn’t mention either of those things to me.

“Yeah. He wouldn’t shut up about your talent. You should be proud,” Lance says.

“Don’t let it get to your head. You still need to work hard, like the rest of us,” Karen says.

Lance slaps my back. “You’ll be able to bond Rich Mana with Fire Affinity in no time. You have the makings of a master Calculator already.”

“Erm… I’m actually a Dispatcher,” I say.

“That’s such a waste with your talent you should switch to a Calculator I imagine you’d adjust easily,” one of them says quickly. This guy has been talking so fast.

“No no no…don’t listen to him. You can keep your Dispatcher role, but you know, we hope that you’ll split your efforts equally between magic and physical combat,” Lance says and then looks over to the fast talker. “Taihan, try to be more flexible.”

“Okay but it’ll be nice if you change your mind and become a Calculator because it’ll be better for the team because we’re trying to be the best,” Taihan says.

“We don’t have a great deal of time, so why don’t we show you what we can offer if you join us,” Lance says.

They show me where they keep all their books and notes from previous years. Every topic I wanted to learn about should be there in this massive stack of papers. With the remaining time, they show off their individual skills. Indeed, they are way more skilled than my current group, though two years ahead.

Something feels off about this group, but I can’t quite put my tongue on it. Otherwise, it’s a great choice team to choose. I’ll have everything I want and graduate two years faster!

With the two hours up with this group, Moria takes me to the next one. Maybe it was that these last guys were two years older that I felt strange. With a one year difference, it won’t feel off.

The book still lingers in my mind, though. I finally know how to read further. I can’t wait to try it out!

We go down a level and into a small room. Five guys and a girl again. I pull up an extra chair and sit at the table with them.

“So, my name is Leo.”

“You can call me Glenn.”

“Misty.”

“I am Aldo.”

“My name is Harley.”

“Fred.”

They don’t seem very excited that I’m here. Everyone speaks with a monotonic voice. There was almost no difference in sound from one person to another that it’s hard to tell them apart. The silence afterward makes me uncomfortable.

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“I heard you scored 300 points on your Mana Manipulation test.”

“Yeah.”

“Neat.”

I force a smile as we hit another stretch of silence. What’s with these people?

“What role did you pick?”

“Dispatcher,” I answer.

“Neat. I am a Dispatcher too.”

“I am a Warden.”

“Me too.”

“Sentinel.”

“Calculator here.”

I think I’m going to go crazy. It’s like I’m sitting with five Drugos and a Marin. No offense to them, but they aren’t the greatest conversationalists. I never thought I would say this, but I need a Hiro in here to lighten these guys up. The mood was always upbeat with him around. At times, the high energy he infected everyone with was annoying, but this is the opposite, and it’s depressing.

The remaining time with these guys is torture because of the long periods of silence and basic questions they ask. They’re too stiff. Suffice to say, I don’t think I’ll be picking this group. I feel like I wasted my time. I could’ve been reading more of Emdos’s book.

Moria takes me to the last group for today. I keep my fingers crossed for a fun group.

“Welcome!” a group of three girls exclaims. They’re pretty and dressed like it’s summer, but it’s still spring.

“Come on in! Have a seat!” one of them says and grabs my hand. She leads me to a cushioned chair.

Her hands are so soft… It makes me feel warm inside. This is quite the opposite in the energy level compared to the last team. I sit down and ask, “Where’re the other three?”

“Don’t worry about them,” a girl says and massages my shoulders. I flinch a little from the sudden pressure. “Relax.”

Another girl takes off my shoes and then massages my feet. This is quite nice.

“So, you can manipulate Rich Mana already? Can you show us?”

I release some Rich Mana from my finger again.

“Yowza! You’re so talented!”

“With you on our team, we’re certain to win all the competitions for this year!”

“We have things to offer you too that you won’t get with other teams.”

The last girl walks up to me with a plate and fork in hand. Is that cake?

“Freshly baked and made two hours ago for you,” she says and cuts into the cake. “Say, ahh.”

This is getting a little weird now, but I open my mouth. Then, she lifts the piece of cake into my mouth. Mmm. Tasty.

“We’ll feed you all of your favorite foods and more tasty treats like this,” she says and continues feeding me the cake. “If you had to pick one food, what’s your favorite?”

“Soup.”

“What a coincidence! That’s my favorite food too! You have good taste. You’ll have to try my grandma’s secret recipe. It’s so good.”

“Sounds good,” I answer, smiling. I like this group already. What’s life without quality? Is it better than the first group, though? They were obsessed about eating the bare minimum, but they were willing to change their ways for me.

“Oh, no. You’re hurt. What happened?” the girl with the cake asks.

“I beat someone in a duel.”

“Wow! You’re so strong!”

“The other guys are always trying to peak into our rooms,” a girl says, the tone of her voice suddenly changing. ”Are you curious…about our bodies?”

Huh?

The cake girl sets down the plate and suddenly sits on my lap. She slowly lifts up her shirt. I don’t know why, but my heartbeat speeds up, and my face is getting hot. Is this why we aren’t allowed to read adult books? Something weird is happening to me, but it’s not bad, I think.

“Uhh…” I interject.

She takes it off, leaving only a bra between my eyes and her round hills over her chest. I gulp. My hands sweat while something’s going on inside my pants. A bulge. With a smile, she touches my face and says, “If you join, I’ll show you everything…”

I don’t know what’s going on with this new development. Didn’t Hiro get slapped a bunch of times when he wanted to see the adult books? Why are these girls behaving the opposite way?

The girl massaging my shoulders says, “We’ll let you sleep in any of our rooms too. I’d love to snuggle with you in bed.”

“And bathe together. We’ll scrub your back. Do you want to go now?”

I open my mouth to say something, but only nonsense comes out. I don’t know how to respond.

“You don’t have to worry about any interruptions. We told the guys to stay out the entire afternoon,” the girl says and puts on my shoes.

“Come on,” she pulls me up and starts leading me into one of the bedrooms.

Something’s wrong. This isn’t right. I don’t even know their names, and they want to do these weird things with me. It seemed fine at first with the massages, compliments, and cake, but now it’s too strange. I pull away.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“Nothing, it’s umm… I already showered today,” I say. They only care that I’ll help them win all the competitions. They don’t really care about me. This isn’t what having friends should be like. It’s all fake. How do I get out of this situation? “Actually, I think I’m gonna go with another team.”

“What…why?! Whatever they’re offering you, we can too!”

“No, you can’t. I met with a group that had one of the large rooms. I don’t wanna live in this tiny place,” I say just to find an excuse to leave. There’s no point continuing with this one. The three other team members aren’t here so that these girls could try to bribe me. They’re too transactional. I don’t know if they’re competent other than taking Moria’s word for it. I don’t want to be just a thing they take advantage of merely to help them do well in contests.

“There’s a tournament at the end of this year. With you, we’ll win for sure and get the third large room for you.”

“You can’t guarantee that,” I say and start walking out.

“Wait, umm… Look,” The girl with no shirt says and grabs my hand.