Chp.40: The Academy of Magic

There was an extraordinary power in the world, and that was mana. And this power could be harnessed and used in two main ways: that of warriors, who used it to fortify their bodies and their weapons, and that of mages, who instead used it to create spells and spells. There were many types of warriors and many types of mages, but in any case they all fell into these two main categories.

However, these categories weren't balanced against each other. About 75% of mana users were warriors. As a result, only a quarter of them belonged to the mage category. Why such an imbalance?

The reason was very simple. The warriors' technique was very easy to use: it was enough to learn to maneuver the mana inside one's body, and then it was sufficient to train to improve. While there were types of warriors who used mana in more complicated ways, this was essentially the basis of the technique. As a result, creating a warrior was very easy: it was enough just to teach the basics, and the rest he could do himself.

Mages, by contrast, needed a proper education. To use magic it wasn't enough to know how mana controlled: it was necessary to study an infinite number of spells, understand how they worked, do infinite workouts, and so on. Consequently, while a warrior could become a strong fighter on his own, a mage absolutely needed at least a master. And since education was expensive, not everyone could afford it. This had caused the imbalance between warriors and mages.

In ancient times, only wealthy and powerful people could hope to learn magic, because they were the only ones who could pay a master. But over the last few centuries, things had changed in many countries. In fact, kings and emperors knew that mages could be used in many ways, both to strengthen the army and to improve people's lives. As a result, several nations had begun their own plans to enable more people to get the necessary education. The Jurao Kingdom was no exception, and thus the Academy of Magic was born. It was under the direct control of the king and he financed it directly, and consequently enrollment did not cost too much, also allowing ordinary citizens to be educated. Of course, that was only for the first three years, where basic magic was taught; to access more complex classes you had to pay. But it had nonetheless been a huge leap forward in the magical power of the realm. The Academy of Magic had taken in new students every year, growing more and more, and had even opened affiliated schools in other cities where it was possible to study basic magic (for that which was taught after the first year, one had to enroll in the academy proper).

This huge increase in students had led to a rather peculiar situation: whereas once there were too many teachers and too few pupils, now there were too many pupils and too few teachers. Following the increase of mages in the Jurao Kingdom, in fact, the king had created both a new department in the army for them, and other jobs suited to their profession, and they were all very profitable jobs. As a result, many students after the Academy decided to join them. Others preferred to join the adventurers guild, while still others traveled to other nations. Rarely did anyone decide to stay and teach. As a result, the number of teachers had failed to keep up with the number of students, and now almost all teachers had to run several classes together. This was clearly a stressful task, and as a result they gladly welcomed anyone who offered to teach there, provided of course they possessed the requisite qualifications.

"Forgive the wait, Miss Hakister. It took us a while to verify your documents, but now we know for sure that they are in order"

In the Academy's vice principal's office, three people were sitting across from each other. One of them was a man of about forty with long raven hair and a very thin build, wearing a fine blue robe; he sat behind a desk and had numerous papers on it. The other two people instead sat on two chairs in front of the desk. One was a beautiful woman of about thirty with reddish hair, who had a very healthy rosy complexion and wore a very long black dress; the other was a woman who looked slightly younger than she was, was a little shorter, had black hair pulled back in a ponytail, and wore a maid's uniform. "You don't have to apologize, vice principal Bump. I know you're only doing your duty" the redheaded woman said.

The man seemed pleased with that answer. "Thank you for your understanding" he replied with a smile, then opened a file. "So, Miss Maldor Hakister, daughter of Neytiri and Namles Hakister, wealthy, graduate at the School of Magic of the Orobic Kingdom, recently migrated to the Jurao Kingdom, level mithril. Your credentials look pretty good, and as I told you we've already verified that the documents you provided us are authentic. However, I still need to verify if your strength level is indeed the one reported. Please put a finger on the detector"

"No problem" Maldor replied, and tapped the detector the vice principal had on his desk. It became crystalline white.

"Good, and with that we checked your level" Bump said. "Tell me, do you have experience as a teacher?"

"I taught for a couple of years as a substitute teacher at the School of Magic of the Orobic Kingdom, so I can't say I have experience as an official teacher, but I can assure you that I know how to make students understand complicated concepts" Maldor replied.

"Someone like you would suit this academy, so I don't see why I shouldn't hire you" Bump said. "According to the protocol, I will subject you to a one-month probationary period. During this period you will be a normal teacher, but your lessons will be assessed by a qualified teacher. If you will demonstrate that you are good at this job, I will hire you on a permanent basis"

Maldor nodded. "I understand. Pardon my asking, but I know that the teachers of this academy also do research on magic. Will I be allowed to participate, or will I have to wait?"

"A very legitimate question" Bump replied. "Technically, you won't be able to do it right away. Once you're hired full-time, you'll have to work here for at least two years before you have access to the research labs. Until then, you'll be prohibited from doing private research, since that if one of your experiments goes wrong, you risk damaging something or injuring someone. You will therefore have to be patient and wait two years"

Maldor looked a little disappointed, but that was to be expected: after all, all mages loved experimenting with new ways to use their magic, so knowing you had those restrictions couldn't have been pleasant. "I get it. So, when should I start my probation, and where should I teach?"

Bump took a piece of paper from his desk and studied it carefully, after which he replied: "I'll assign you to class 6 of the first year. As for when, you can start from tomorrow, if there is no problem for you"

"No problem. Are there specific things I have to teach, or can I do as I please?" Maldor asked.

"In this academy, each teacher can decide how to teach. You choose the times and subjects of your class. The only requirement is that students receive basic skills in the following five subjects: mana control, magical philosophy, defense and attack magic, history of magic and potions. You can add other subjects according to your preferences, obviously remembering that the ones you teach will still be first year students, and therefore you cannot choose subjects that are too difficult" Bump explained. "Do you have any other questions?"

Maldor seemed to reflect. "Just one: how many chances will I have of meeting the principal?"

"Oh, I guess you're a fan of hers, mh?" Bump laughed. "Unfortunately, as you well know the headmistress is of legendary level, and as a result she spends a lot of time at the king's side, especially in this stormy time due to the recent war. You won't have many chances to see her, but sooner or later she will show up for some meetings, so you might be able to meet her there"

Despite the answer, Maldor looked satisfied. "Thank you. I won't disappoint you, vice principal"

"I'm sure of it" Bump said, handing her some papers and a small key. "Here are directions to your lodgings. It is in the north tower. In it you will also find your teacher's robe. If you need anything else, you can ask the servants"

"Thanks" Maldor said taking the paper. The conversation seemed over, but Bump suddenly remembered something. "Just a question. Earlier I heard you talking to this young lady..."

"Kotaru" the woman dressed as a maid said. "I'm at the service of Miss Hakister"

That situation wasn't unusual: many new teachers, especially those from wealthy families, brought their servants with them when they came to work at the academy, since they trusted them greatly. "Miss Kotaru, yes. Well, I heard you called her 'sister', but you wrote in your file that you are an only child. If I'm not prying, may I know...?"

Maldor seemed to be on the verge of answering, and she even seemed a bit tense, but Kotaru anticipated her: "We're not really sisters. We just grew up together. My parents worked for Miss Hakister's parents, and I went to her service since I was five years old. Since then Miss Hakister considers me part of her family"

"Oh, I see. Pardon my untimely curiosity" Bump apologized. Even that situation wasn't unusual: often the masters developed a feeling of friendship or even affection towards their servants, especially if they had grown up with them. "You can go, I have no more questions"

Maldor and Kotaru stood up and said goodbye, and then walked out of the vice principal's office. They walked the corridors following Bump's directions, and eventually came to a small door in the north tower, which opened with the key the vice principal had given them. The two women entered and then locked the door; after making sure that no one could enter, they lay down on their beds and closed their eyes.

When they opened them again, they were no longer in a room of the academy, but next to a river and in the sunlight, and their bodies were no longer bipedal and soft, but quadrupedal and scaly. "Thanks for your help, sister. I just didn't know what to say" Maldor said.

"No problem. We have to be more careful from now on. Let's call each other by our names only" Kotaru replied.

Maldor nodded, fully agreeing with his sister. They had been too careless. She was about to answer when a voice called back: "So, how did it go?"

She turned and saw the faces of Sisna, Finiar, Jatara, Glausar, and Malchia staring at her. "All right" she replied. "The false identity you created for me was perfect. They didn't suspect anything and they gave me the job"

The dragons cheered. Finally, another small step of their plan had been accomplished. Now, Maldor was closer than ever to the portable gate.

After Sisna and the others had taken control of 'The Spider', they hadn't immediately asked them to create a false identity of a qualified mage for Maldor. After all, they had to be sure they could be trusted first. They then gave them small tasks, checking each time that they had been done well. Only once had someone, an old baron, tried to be smart and give them a counterfeit object compared to what they had requested. In response, the next night the dragons had shown up at 'The spider' lair and had thrown a strange mass of broken flesh and bones at his feet; it had taken the man moments before realizing that this was the body of his eldest son, who had been eaten alive. The baron seemed to have been on the verge of leaping at Sisna in anger, but the dragons had kindly reminded him that he had two other sons, and that they would certainly not take their revenge on him but on them. That had been enough to quench his rebellious spirit and that of everyone else. A month after their takeover, Sisna had finally asked for what he really wanted, namely the construction of a false identity, and the bosses of 'The spider' had done an impeccable job. Now, unless they went directly to the School of Magic of the Orobic Kingdom to ask, the humans would never have noticed the deception.

"Rhaegal will be pleased. He was terribly worried" another voice said. Maldor leaned over and saw Darbi playing his game with rocks with Lisah and Martha. By now it had been almost nine months since Haku had been captured and all of them had grown up and become stronger; by now, only one of them could manage to stand up to a level gold. As a result, two level silver like Lisah and Martha were nothing to them, and therefore they had stopped keeping them tied up since there was no chance of them escaping anyway. After all, there were always at least five dragons with them. "If it hadn't been for his duties at the adventurers guild, you would have found him still here, ready to bombard you with questions"

"Well, at least there's you, brother" Kotaru said.

"Yeah, not that I have much else to do" Darbi grumbled.

Sisna shook her head. "We've already talked about it. You have the most important role, and that is to warn Haku when the time comes. But we can't send you to the arena now, because your avatar would almost certainly have to fight someone, maybe Haku himself, and it would end up destroyed. While we could just set up another one, it's going to be tough to maintain that communication channel. It's best to wait until you get it all under control, so you have to be patient"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I like it" Darbi said, then his eyes widened when he saw that one of the twins had thrown one of her stones next to the one to hit. "What!? How did you do it!?"

"Luck, I guess" Lisah replied, amused by the dragon's angry expression.

"Please, guys. We need to focus" Kotaru called back. "According to the vice principal, even if Maldor has been hired, she won't have access to the research laboratories for at least two years. What do we do?"

That news upset the others a little. "Great, another obstacle! We missed it after all!" Malchia exclaimed with a snort.

But suddenly Lisah spoke. "Sorry if I intrude in your conversation, but you just need to find someone who works there and make friends with them. Then show him how good you are with magic, trick him well, and he'll let you in himself"

"I agree. These are the basics, guys" Martha added. In the past she would have scolded her sister for suggesting something to the dragons, but by now she had become so accustomed to their presence that she paid no more attention to them.

The dragons were a little surprised by that proposal. "How am I supposed to trick him?" Maldor asked.

Lisah huffed in exasperation. "Oh, come on! Your avatar is a beautiful woman, isn't it? Find a man who works in the research lab and then make sweet eyes at him. Human males get incredibly stupid when they are next to a beautiful woman"

"Not just human males. The males of all races are like that" Martha said. "It wouldn't surprise me if for dragons worked the same way"

"Hey! Neither my brothers or I have ever acted stupid in front of females!" Darbi exclaimed offended.

But the twins didn't seem to take him seriously at all. "How many female dragons have you met?"

"Fifte..."

"Your sisters don't matter"

"Oh... then one..."

"Not even your mother"

"Uh..."

"See? How can you say you don't act stupid in front of females if you've never met one who had the same blood as you? Let's wait until you cross paths with a magnificent female dragon and then we'll talk about it"

Darbi was speechless, not knowing how to reply. That scene made the other dragons smile a little. "Well, you two try to look around, maybe you'll get an idea. And keep open the possibility of… deceiving a human male" Sisna said. "Now we'd better go, we have to relieve our sisters at the shop. We've already stayed here for half an hour longer than we should". As already explained, Sisna, Malchia, Finiar, Jatara and Glausar periodically took turns with Maleficent, Keita, Kialandì, Tikka and Teramon, so that all of them could rest and the shop would never remain defenseless.

"Yes, we'd better go too" Kotaru said, and Maldor nodded. The two closed their eyes, and in a moment they were back in their false bodies in the academy.