Levi Ayim

[Levi's Pov]

"Excellent, Ms. Ayim! Now, let's see if you can start moving away from the boundaries of the blessed skills and manipulate your element more freely."

The last class of the week had begun and with the privilege of having the highest possible potential, I was currently having a privately taught elemental class as my last course of the week.

With Mrs. Park, a tanned and dark-haired woman who happened to be an [A]-rank mage, as my teacher, I was as always making sure I produced results that reached up to the expectations that were put on me

So, while sitting on the floor, I started to manually move my mana, followed by doing a manual conversation of it into my water element. Unfortunately, even though this was not my first interaction with the concept, it was still incredibly hard to do.

Most of the time, hunters just used the abilities they got from the blessing just as they were, and although one still needed to practice a lot, they would sooner or later become quite natural to use.

Manual interaction with one's mana, however, was a lot more difficult, and then adding on converting it to an element could only be likened to solving a Rubik's cube while at the same time solving complicated equations.

'Move my mana first, then while making sure to keep the circulation going, pour out some at the time as to finish by converting it to water... Then...'

As I kept track of the process in my head, it didn't take long for a small bubble of water to emerge from my hands, now hovering with a slight shiver over them. Sitting down cross-legged, as that was the most stable positioning for mana manipulation, I then started to slowly move the bubble, trying to change its form, elongate it...

*Pop!*

In the end, I just ended up with my pants getting wet from losing control over my element, making the orb of water burst and following the absolute rules of gravity. Luckily, it was still enough for my teacher to be more than content with my work.

"Nicely done, Levi! It's hard to believe that you are only a freshman when you have come this far. Impressive as always! Sadly, I don't think we have time for anything else today so we will have to continue next week instead."

"Thank you, teacher."

"Ah, no need for that. To get the opportunity to teach someone with an [S]-rank potential is more than enough for me."

Standing up, I took a bow of gratitude towards the teacher that allowed me their exclusive time, only for Mrs. Park to dismiss me by waving her hand. Then, while I was making myself ready to leave, she started some light small talk.

"So, Levi, are you going out to the freshmen's welcome party this weekend?"

"No. I still have a lot of training to do, so I don't think I can afford to go."

"Loosen up, Levi! You're still young, shouldn't you make sure to enjoy your youth a bit before it's too late? Who knows, you might even end up meeting some cute boy or something! Maybe even ending up at his place in the dark of night, and then..."

"Mrs. Park!"

It wasn't all too rare for Mrs. Park to talk with me like this, she had after all been my teacher since childhood, only coming to the academy to teach because of me. In a lot of ways, she was the adult that I felt the most comfortable with, as she was also the one person that I didn't believe was just interacting with me for her own gain.

However, there was no way I wouldn't get flustered when she started saying stuff like this.

"Hahaha! I was just kidding, don't take it so seriously. Though I was serious about you possibly meeting someone, there are a lot of cute boys out there, after all. Oh! I suppose you already have Will, so maybe.."

"I'm going. See you next week."

Half walking and half running, I escaped the classroom, very much not wanting to hear another word come out of her mouth as she spouted nonsense. Coming out to the hallways, with the practice room that we had been in being located in the combat halls, I took a second to stabilize my breathing and mind.

Of course, I also wanted to meet a cute boy that would make me fall head over heels, what kind of girl didn't? But first of all, I still didn't have time for something like that, and also, was there ever a chance of someone like to just who up out of now...

*Click*

Suddenly, one of the many doors to the practice rooms opened up, and out of it, a very familiar, yet so very unfamiliar, figure stepped out. Though his dark hair had been replaced by a lustrous white, and his brown eyes now shone like rubies, I felt myself breathing in when seeing my old crush.

Turning his head, time froze for a bit, as we both looked at each for what could only have been a second, but what felt like an eternity. Then, he just walked away, leaving me alone in the hall, unable to know what I was supposed to feel or do.

Even worse was that another person then exited the room, the woman that I was now sure was doing more than just keeping an extra eye on Aarick. Infused with more than an abundance of womanly charms and maturity, Ms. Zito quickly noticed my presence.

"Ah, Ms. Ayim. Have you finished up your classes for the week?"

"I have. But why are you...?"

"Hmm? Oh, you mean Aarick? As you might or might not know, he is kind of starting off late in learning about his new abilities, so I have been assigned to help him out a bit extra."

"I see..."

There was no way that was the truth. If there was one thing I knew deeply about this world, it was that the weak didn't get these kinds of privileges. Even on the off chance that he had a relatively high potential, he would still have been left behind.

With most people having an average potential of [D]-rank, one could be said to be slightly talented with a [C]-rank potential. So anything above that would just put one further above the rest, but just having a [C]-rank potential wasn't enough for anyone to care unless you came from a good household.

So, as I kind of knew what kind of circumstances Aarick had lived in, being an orphan, there was no way the principal would care enough to put aside someone like Ms. Zito to instruct him just like that.

"It seems like you are not too happy with my explanation. I'm sorry, but I think it would be quite disrespectful toward Aarick to tell you about his situation, so you unfortunately have no choice but to trust me."

Putting her hands on her hips, our teacher also seemed to have noticed my hesitation to believe her words, now talking about something that I very, very much already knew about.

The reason behind Aarick's weakness, and the reason why he was starting off late learning about his blessing.

Because I had been there so many times, seeing his small body lying in the hospital bed, unmoving and unchanging. For years I had visited him, always hoping that he would someday just wake up, telling me everything was alright.

Instead, just when I had resolved myself into moving on, almost as if god was pulling a prank on me, I got to see him just randomly walk into class, looking as if he was a completely different person.

Adding on to that, though I had also not planned on getting close to him again, he had made it painfully obvious that he had no such intentions either.

"Oh, sorry Ms. Ayim, but I'll have to get going. Be careful on your way back home."

Walking passed me, she moved in the same direction that Aarick had moved, and although I realized that they were both going to the exit, there was still something about it that made my stomach sink.

"Hey, Ayim! What are you doing?"

From behind, Will suddenly appeared, talking as freely as always, even though I knew that he was just like me a caged being.

"Nothing."

"Hmm? Alright... So, what are your plans for the weekend? Do you still not want to come to the freshmen's party?"

The freshmen's party. The same party that Mrs. Park talked about. In reality, it was just Augustus renting a club and allowing the freshmen to bond over drinks and good food. Now, that was the original intent, but it was no secret that it had very much become an event where the hierarchy was constructed, where everyone got to see who was the big fish and who were the small fries.

Though it would be a good event to make connections through, I still hadn't planned on going as I wasn't interested in that kind of stuff.

However, somehow and for some reason, I...

"Actually, I'll go."