Learning to walk

"He's doing what!?- NO, Absolutely not! That you have already shared classified information with that student is enough of an outrage in and of itself, but if we break a kid off from the Laplace family there will roll heads!"

While Lizzy had decided to teach Tom about magic on her own terms without issue, updating the headmaster of the Laurence mage academy of his progress and asking for assistance with Tom's mastery of the strengthening [skill] immediately ran into a roadblock.

"Come on headmaster, it isn't so bad, is it? Besides, I beli-"

"No! I'm not having this shit with you again Lizzy! You're hired to do a single job, and this isn't it! I'm sending a message to Laplace's head and you are going to go back to your job!"

Slamming his fist into the sturdy wooden table which he spent far too much time behind, the headmaster made his stance clear before wiping sweat off of his brows with a handkerchief. Seeing that the headmaster had made his stance on the matter clear, Lizzy was forced to use a different strategy.

"If you do that, the kid will most likely take his own life. That will not look good for the academy."

Dropping her lax smile and attitude altogether, Lizzy's smile disappeared as she told the headmaster what Tom had told her.

"..."

Not responding to Lizzy's words, the headmaster's silence was a response in of itself which made Lizzy continue her argument.

"This kid is by far the most talented one I've seen in a while, what's more, he has an unknown [magic aptitude]. Letting a kid of that calibre become nothing more than a simple bargaining chip for the Laplace family would be a colossal waste."

"It's only a waste if he's actually able to use that aptitude."

"You know he can."

While no one had bothered to tell Tom about it yet (as it was a closely guarded secret), being born without a [magic aptitude] was simply impossible, therefore Tom's [magic aptitude] showing up as blank would mean that there was currently no word in his language to describe the gift the gods had bestowed him with. A person who could use their unknown [magic aptitude] would be a great boom for the country, losing a bearer of an unknown aptitude to something as pathetic as suicide would be undesirable, to say the least.

"It took him only a few days to reach level 2 on his mana control, moreover being born with a ridiculously high amount of mana which continues to grow at an impressive rate every time he even attempts to use something resembling magic. It would be a gigantic waste for the country to lose him."

"... Fine. So you want him to learn how to use strengthening by constantly having it active? In that case, I'll be assigning a [healer] to be at his side, but you'll also need to give something."

Resigned by the fact that Lizzy would continue on her current path no matter what he did, the headmaster gave in to her argument, although Lizzy would need to do something herself.

"Sure, I'll go back to my normal job for a-"

"Two weeks, with no breaks or pay."

"... Fine. But you better assign the best [healer] you have on payroll to look after the kid while I'm gone."

-

Waking up at the sound of the first bell, Tom started his day like any other he had for the last few weeks, but after getting dressed and opening up the front door to his dorm room, Tom almost knocked over a person which stood right on the other side, seemingly waiting for him.

Standing no higher than Tom's chest with bob cut blond hair and clear blue eyes, the petite girl with a small mouth and nose wore a large white cloak with golden engravings, covering the rest of her body.

"... Good morning."

(What's a female student doing here?...)

With the girl just silently staring at him, it took a couple of seconds for Tom to remember his manners before he started wondering what exactly that girl was doing right outside his room.

"..."

Answering Tom's greeting with yet more silence, the girl just stared blankly at Tom for a short while before she stepped aside and allowed Tom to pass her.

(Well, that was strange… Perhaps she was a new student that got lost?)

Continuing on with his morning, Tom soon stopped thinking about that strange girl. But as Tom made his way towards the cafeteria, strange looks from his fellow students eventually made Tom check behind him, only to find that the girl from before was silently following him.

(... She's also going to the cafeteria? Yeah, that must be it.)

Attempting to explain the girl's strange behaviour with his own logic, Tom quickened his steps, eventually reaching the cafeteria under even more strange stares by his fellow students.

"... I'm sorry, but can I help you with something?"

Not able to enjoy his morning meal with the strange girl staring daggers in his back, Tom finally decided to address the issue which had so far been souring his morning as he addressed the girl who had been following him all morning.

"... Are you not going to use it?"

Opening her mouth for the first time, the girl's voice was so quiet it almost disappeared in the cafeteria, like the fleeting sound of a small bell in the middle of a battlefield.

"Use what exactly?"

"... [Strengthening]. Lizzy told me that I should stick with you all day and heal you when you needed it."

"Ah."

As things finally started to make a little more sense, Tom realized that the small girl he was talking to was an instructor, not a student. But as to why she believed he would use strengthening all day only confused Tom more.

"I'm supposed to meet with Lizzy like normal just in a bit."

"No, Lizzy is currently away from the academy and will be for two weeks, in that time you'll be taking normal classes while learning how to use strengthening at the same time, headmaster's orders. That's why I'm here."

With the instructor finally explaining herself in a rather roundabout manner, it finally became clear to Tom why exactly she was following him and why he hadn't seen Lizzy yet for that matter.

(I guess Lizzy is busy with something else?... In that case, I have a chance to surprise her when she returns! Let's do this!)

Feeling pumped up at the chance to see Lizzy's look of surprise at his success, Tom immediately used strengthening on his entire body with all his available mana, something which instantly proved to have been a mistake.

With a crack that was heard all across the busy cafeteria, Tom watched with horror as all the fingers on his left hand suddenly bent the wrong way as the tendons in his hand snapped. Not immediately understanding what had happened and in a state of shock, Tom reached to his broken left arm with his right one, but that action only broke his right one too, as the mere act of just moving his arm slightly while using strengthening at full power made most of the muscles tear themselves free from the bone as even more of his tendons snapped.

"Aaaa AAAARG!!!!"

Screaming out in pain, Tom quickly got the attention of the entire cafeteria. A few students started laughing at Tom's pain while the vast majority of Tom's fellow students were shocked at the sight of his broken fingers and internal bleeding, a few students with weaker constitution even lost the breakfast they had just paid for.

The only one not freaking out in some way over Tom's sudden injury was the instructor who had been following him all morning, with an unfazed expression she simply reached out and took Tom's injured arm in both her hands, then a small red [catalyst] which she had fastened on her finger via a silver ring started glowing as an almost ethereal looking deeply red flame spread out over Tom's injured arm. To Tom's surprise, this flame didn't immediately start burning his arm, if anything it spread a gentle warmth throughout it as the mind-numbing pain suddenly started lessening. In a few minutes, the instructor was done with Tom's first arm and moved on to the next, as she did Tom and the other students started snapping out of their panic.

"Thanks for healing me."

"... No thanks needed, it's my job after all… I'm Anne."

-

With Tom's education suddenly returning to something which neared normality he was understandably caught off guard and a bit behind in class, but that was nothing compared to his classmate's confusion at the failure suddenly returning to class followed by a strange girl wearing a white cloak. To make matters worse, the teachers had already been briefed on the situation, so it was even stranger for the students that their teacher hardly even reacted to Anne's presence.

After a very long class on magic theory, it was finally time for practical magic education.

(... This is much harder to control than I thought… Just like Lizzy said.)

Doing theory classes, Tom had tried to at least get some sort of control over his strengthening, but it was like trying to tame a raging river. Too much power and he would rip his own body apart as he had done before, but he wasn't just able to choose a lower power output, it was like it was all or nothing.

"I'll try using strengthening again, please help me out when it comes to it Anne."

"... Sure."

Seeing that if he couldn't figure it out by just thinking about it, Tom decided that the best way forward was practice, and although the thought of breaking his own arm again seemed scary, he was still motivated to improve.

(Here we go….)

Sitting down in the dirt, Tom calmed his mind and started focusing on the mass of energy within his body, taking a deep breath he felt it move around slightly, breathing out he felt a tiny bit of that energy leave his body, but as he breathed in again it returned.

(Right now it's like a calm river. If I could just use strengthening like this it wouldn't tear my body apart…)

The issue came as soon as Tom started moving this mass of energy around inside his body, instead of remaining a calm sea it suddenly turned violent, as if the very act of moving this mass of mana around within his body somehow aggravated it and turned it violent. No matter what Tom tried to do, as soon as he started circulating his mana around in his body it would speed up, making it impossible for Tom to control its speed and power.

"ARG!-"

Attempting to use that raging mass of energy to strengthen his body only had the same result as last time, as Tom tried moving his arm it almost snapped apart. Luckily for Tom, he had the academy's best healer right beside him, so the pain of ripping all the tendons in his arm only lasted for a few minutes before disappearing altogether.

"Shit."

Frustrated with his own lack of progress, the more logical side of Tom's brain reminded him that it would be far too optimistic to expect to just master something like strengthening after only using it a few times, but even if he was aware of that, the frustration still remained.

"Are you okay?"

Having misunderstood Tom's frustration for pain, Anne's [catalyst] once more started glowing as she prepared to heal him again.

"I'm fine, you healed it perfectly the first time.

"... That is my job after all."

Looking a tiny bit proud for some reason, Anne's slight smile and happy expression soon returned to normal as she sensed Tom was trying to use strengthening again.

Predictably, this had the same result as the two other times Anne had seen Tom using it, so she was soon healing Tom's torn muscles again. Over the course of the practical magic class, Tom continued breaking his own body as he attempted to use strengthening magic before being healed by Anne, this didn't only draw attention from Tom's classmates, but also scorn which Tom ignored. While scorn or just ridicule was the most common reaction from Tom's classmates, there was one student who felt an irritation like nothing else looking at his pathetic attempt to improve, but she didn't let that rage show on her face.