14 Chapter - 5: A Wish Granted, A Day Yearned For. (2/4)

"Go and help, quickly! A fall from that height, he's bound to break some bones. Honestly, it'll be amazing if he's not muddy paste by now."

"But teach, the tree would have broken his fall, wouldn't it? They have vines so maybe the would've helped?"

"I only hope so."

The sound of chatter greeted my ears. They should probably come from the people who were previously learning in the field.

As for me, I was hanging on... How many vines? I couldn't even tell at the moment. Just about to enough to break my fall, and at the same time, entangle me so tight I could hardly even move.

But then if it weren't for these vines, I might have been paste by now. As for why I'm currently in this state, blame it on Cat. Where was it currently?

"Meow!"

It, for some strange reason, could crawl out from the vines, up to my head which wasn't constricted for some reason and a final leap up to freedom. It's violet eyes staring at me had a hint of mockery.

Its days would not go so easily either.

"Teacher, over here!"

"By the beard of... Is that a human intertwined by vines or a cocoon? My vision must be failing me. Quickly, cut the vines and help your fellow student."

"But teacher, how are we supposed to cut the vines, there are no wind mages here."

".... Okay then, I'll do it myself."

From the way he spoke, the teacher seemed old, and also spoke with a western accent. He made a gesture and made a *thud* sound on the ground. That couldn't have been him stomping his feet, was he wielding a cane.

Then the next moment, thin spikes, or maybe strips, rushed out from the ground and cut all the vines. To be able to manipulate the ground with ease, the teacher surely wasn't a pushover. Then again, this was Alkmard after all, the old hag obviously wouldn't have such weak slaves take such positions.

I was still in my cocoon when I fell to the ground. Obviously, I needed help getting out.

"Check his body for injuries and if there's nothing else quickly return. It's not every day that you get to have my class, and the guilt's already enough to drag me here in the middle of my experiments."

"Alright teacher."

"Kid's these days get crazier and crazier each year. Just what has the world turned into?" The old man went away mumbling some words that I could barely make out. I could see his figure as he walked back. He wasn't that tall, and had white hair, like any other elderly guy. With his worn-out brown clothes, he practically fit the normal description.

"How are we going to remove the vines now? We can't exactly pry them open with brute strength. Say, Caleb, why don't you try to help out?" A girl's voice. Not the voice of an innocent child's, but one in her adolescent years. Maybe 13-16 years?

"Of course we can't, so why bother? We can roll him on the way back with our magic. That should slowly unwind the vines." Another voice. This time a boy. Same as the girl's, I could guess that he fairly the same age as the girl's.

Was I stupid? This was an academy and of course, they were going to be mostly the same age as I, and it wouldn't be strange for the age range to be from 14-16. Most people would start to use more advanced forms of magic. Before that, the norm was mostly mana circulation, increasing mana capacity, mana detection, etc. With all the slacking off, the only thing people usually did was increasing their mana capacity and Megaforce levels before learning advanced magic. Thus they skipped the important elementary foundations.

"Actually I can get out myself."

"Hm?"

The way they both gazed at the 'vine ball', don't tell me they actually forgot there was a person in it.?

I did my best to crawl in so that I could move my arms. Then a black blade of mana extended from my arms and cut the vines.

With my vision now clear, I could finally see the two people who were here.

The girl had light blue hair the length of her shoulders. Wearing the academy's uniform for girls, which was the same other than the skirt. She had that 'nice person' look on her face, which was pleasant and lovely. Her smile was kind and her eyes were big. Her pupils were also the same colour as her hair, but her thick arched eyebrows were black. It matched with her oval face.

As for the boy, he had long hair covering the side of his face. Straight brows and a rather mean look in his eyes. His black pupils matched with his black hair. As for his looks... A guy would only accept that another guy was handsome if he accepted defeat. He was quite tall too, maybe like a few inches shorter than me now that I was standing up. The girl too was just a few inches off of the boy's height.

"Thanks for the help, uh.."

"I'm Cecille. And this is Caleb. What were you doing falling from such a height? We thought you were a meteor and ran straight over."

"Correction, 'She', rushed straight over. I was dragged along for the ride."

"Now don't be such a spoilsport Caleb. Didn't the thought of it being a meteor interest you?"

"No. Actually, you were the only one who thought of it was a meteor and the rest of us were busy with practice."

"But Teacher Grillmart came too!"

"That was because he knew what the falling thing was and his position as a teacher made it so that he had to protect the life of his students."

"But then you came too!"

"Like I said I was dragged over. Finish up soon, we need to head back quickly, before the class ends."

'Caleb' turned around and headed for the other 'students'. Though, he was walking at a slow pace. Was he waiting for the girl to catch up? I guess they were quite close.

"Alright then! You come along now, we'll talk on the way."

With that, the seemingly 'nice' girl dragged me by grabbing my sleeve. Now, her figure was just the ideal adolescent figure with no excess flab, but the strength of her grip...

Suddenly it seemed like we were flying over, 'I' was flying over. If I didn't run fast enough then I guess she really would drag me on the ground.

I could now understand what Caleb meant by being 'dragged' along.

And before I knew it we had already caught up to Caleb.

"We're 1st years here. What about you?" She asked, with no apparent change in her voice.

Gasping for breath, I answered. "I'm a first year too."

"Really?" Why did she seem really suspicious for no apparent reason?

"Don't mind her, it's just that she went and greeted all the other first years on the entrance day... Yeah, even now it still has a bitter aftertaste. The embarrassment..." Now Caleb had his face in his palms.

"Now why are you getting embarrassed? It's not like you were the one who greeted them. There were people who were really nice and people who didn't want to speak at all. It was really fun greeting them all."

"But the point is," She continued,"I don't remember greeting you at all. And by the way,"

"?"

"Aren't you being awfully quiet. Seriously, don't be such a drag like Caleb. You haven't even introduced yourself," Isn't it just you being too fast and not giving me time to say anything?

"I'm Ashwaal. And I'm really a first year. I arrived only at Alkmard yesterday."

"Really?" Was she a dog who was sniffing out suspicious people?

"Then Ashwaal, nice to meet you." She returned back to pleasantly dragging me along and before I knew it even Caleb stopped struggling and let her do as she pleased.

"Don't worry, it doesn't last long." What I wanted to ask him right now was how much experience he had in this field. As though knowing what I was thinking he gave a scary answer,

"We've known each other since we were kids, and she's always been this strong."

Always been this strong.....

I could only distract myself, thinking about what he must have experienced. But seeing Caleb as he was and what I could feel from him and Cecille.

Their lives were much better than mine.

-----------------------------------------------

"Seriously you don't even know what class you're in?"

"Aren't we supposed to go to whatever classes we like as long as it's for 1st years?"

To my answer, Cecille could only give a defeated sigh and push the burden over to Caleb.

"What you thought wasn't wrong but the real thing is way more complex. I'll explain from the start.

Here at Alkmard student's are treated as a whole group. The only separation being years. If there's class then it would be for a specific year or for all students. Because of such a lax system, basically, you can just go to any class you like as long as it's not a private one. As for when and where that's for you to find out. But don't get your hopes too high, normally the teachers 'request' other students to teach in their place. It's a rare thing for teacher's like Grillmart to take classes. He does it like, once a month. But at least, he's one of the teachers who actually feel bad that they don't have time to take classes. As for the others... Well, you get what I mean."

Yes, I did. We were but people. Obviously, people would want to slack off.

"If classes are so rare then what are we doing right now?"

"Shhhhh! Don't badmouth the teacher, the other students might hear you." This time the remark came from Cecille who was wobbling around trying to keep her balance.

'But seriously, this is for kids, for kids!' I could only inwardly say this in my mind. If I pointed this out then it would obviously attract a multitude of unwanted gazes. If I really said that aloud, then it was obvious how the crowd would react. Most would think that I'm just showing off. Some would think that I'm mocking them. A few would try to show me wrong while the rest would either not care or accept their inferiority.

Right now we were standing or trying to, on a wooden block that was just large enough to fit our two feet with one foot, the other knee raised up to our hip. Then with arms extended to the sides, straight, we were to keep our balance.

This would have been fairly easy if the wooden block wasn't on top of a round metal ball that was as big as a humans head, significantly bigger than the block.

After being dragged to the rest of the crowd. The two of them started doing what the rest of them were. And I complied too.

The training wasn't without failure, it was full of it.

Students were falling on the ground. Some on their behinds, some flat, some planting their faces on the grass. It was amusing to watch them. Especially when they got up again only to fall but the same process again and again was too monotonous, it wasn't even funny anymore.

"Ashwaal, how come you haven't even lost your balance for a minute? I really haven't seen you move about even for a second. Don't tell me you're a sage? Have you done this before?"

Have I done this before? I wonder if I should answer that question. Would the girl turn tail and run if she heard that I learned that I trained without the plant and a spiked metal ball instead of a normal one?

The purpose of this training was to achieve balance. A foundational aspect that, as such, was supposed to be taught to children but, what kind of child would want to stand up on a block and fall and stand again all day?

But balance played a crucial role to a mage. It could help with the circulation of mana, precision of mana manipulation. Even to the point of helping to sense the surrounding mana.

"Thinking about it, Ashwaal where did you come from? You said you were a month late right?"

Yes, I did say that. But should I tell them that I lived in the Forest of Death and did not know what was so 'deathly' about it? Maybe before that? If I wanted news about me drinking blood spreading or playing with corpses, then why not? Like hell, I wasn't going to do that!

"I used to live in a small village far west from here. At the border between the western and eastern tributaries."

"So you've never actually been to a city before?"

"Yes. This, in fact, is my first time in one."

"So you've never actually gone to school or something?"

"Uh, yeah. There were some other children in the village who would go to the city from time to time. Though they didn't study there, they would peek through the windows and when they came back they would tell us about it."

"Yeah, that explains a lot."

Hm? What conclusion did she get to?

"What about you Cecille? Caleb said you've known each other since you were children, so where did you live before?"

"We've been living in the outskirts of Alkmard. In other words, Alkmard City. Maybe someday I'll get the chance of seeing what the outside world is like. We could only see forests and all from afar before. But now that we're in Alkmard, it feels like all my dreams can come true. No, maybe they have come true."

"Ah!" With a thud, she landed on the ground again.

Caleb was at the side of my 'stationary' ball sitting on the ground, which was full of patches of grass.

"Say, Cecille, who did you live with when you were on the outskirts?" I was curious about how other's lived. I clearly knew that my 'growing up' was immensely different from other people but it was necessary to know by how much. You just couldn't know the comparison if there was just one of it.

"Uh, about that...."

"We're orphans. We lived in one of the orphanages in the outer city." When Cecille was trying to avoid answering, Caleb answered for her.

I was the only one who was still able to stand still. Not to mention barely, there were many who were unable to achieve balance even for a moment and just sat on the gross like the two. But I still counted around eighty were trying amongst the hundred and more heads.

I glanced down at Caleb to ask him to continue. Understanding my intent, Caleb returned the look and then stared at his front again, continuing to speak.

"We've never met our parents. Heard about them before, but not much. Just that they were friends too. They probably had something important to do, it's a rare case that both of them would put us together at the same orphanage, at the same time. Like they were together in whatever they did. At least, that's what they told us."

*Thud* I didn't know when, but Cecille had started trying again and had landed again.

"So we haven't seen them. Not even their pictures. In fact, it's like the sisters wouldn't tell us, though some of them probably don't know anything. Being gone for this long they're probably.."

"They're not dead, they're alive! They're alive and I know it!" Caleb was cut off by Cecille

No longer the light-hearted and soothing voice. Cecille had said that with a raised voice. Her tears were welling up at the corner of her eyes. What was it she was feeling? Sadness? Anger? Grief?

"I keep telling you not to be wishful!"

"And I said that they're alive! I know it!"

They're raised voices were enough to catch the attention of all the others except for only a few who still had one foot planted on their plank. Even some of them fell because they were surprised by the raised voices.

As the person in between them, even if I was just a bit behind. I naturally was under the gaze of the rest of the students. Grillmart, however, was appreciating the scenery afar while smoking from his pipe.

'Should I just stop these two?' Cecille might forget where she was currently at but Caleb certainly wouldn't. Yet if he was still going with it, then it must be important enough. And I wasn't nice enough to tell the two of them to stop it.

For something like this, a little trick would do.

I made a cutting motion with my fingers without moving my arms. It left a transparent mark in the space. And then used all the mana I had to form a white glow on my fingers to retrace the cut. Then turned my body sideways.

Right now I was nothing but a scarecrow. Yes, I was a scarecrow, scarecrow... A scarecrow that was literally caught between two lover's quarrel.

'Lover's?' Thinking about that word, an evil grin slowly spread on my face.

"To think they were so loud and now they're just staring at each other. Are those two crazy?"

"Not two, but three. Look at the middle guy. He's standing there like he's a tree"

"Look the girl's opening her mouth. Will she be that loud again?"

"She really must be crazy. I'm trying so hard to hear what they're saying but I can't even hear the wind. Is she speaking or flexing her jaws."

The people were conversing, discussing, judging, like any other crowd would.

"Hey, mate, haven't we seen those two before?"

"Yeah, we did. You remember the girl who was greeting everyone back on the entrance day?"

"Oh yeah. I remember her being really pretty. Did she get in a quarrel with her boyfriend?"

As for a few people,

"It's such a shame they're just staring at each other. Seriously, I wish they would have a huge fight."

"Huh? Why's that? Isn't that bad?"

"Sheesh! I have to tell you everything! You see, little one, a girl is most weak when she needs someone to comfort her. She while she's sad after the fight with her, you take the chance and easily succeed since her guard would be dropped by then."

"This guy, can I call you big brother?"

"Ho, ho, ho! Follow me and I shall lead you to a patch of conquering the world!"

And as all this was happening,

"Why can't you just listen to me on this!? Haven't I always did what you asked? Why can't you at least do what I'm telling you right now!?"

"If you always did what I asked then why do you keep trying to change my mind!? I'm telling you they're alive!?"

The two people were still arguing. Seriously, they should just make up already. I was already doing quite a favour for them by not letting them get interrupted. Right?

Right now there was a transparent wall of mana that was separating us from 'them'. Not to mention transparent, if it weren't for it blocking the passage of mana and matter then it would be impossible to detect it. As for its purpose, it was currently blocking the sound of its two sides to pass on to the other.

Would it be right to call it a rift? No, it's not exactly space magic, but more like space and mana isolation. Of course, I couldn't just set it any place I wanted to. It too had it's own with, and place where it could be kept. The condition being it had to be kept there one way or another. And right now this was the reason why I was standing sideways.

The 'invisible' wall was currently being plastered in space with the tip of my fingers. It was just enough to separate the two from the rest and have then argued to their heart's content. I only hoped they could heal bridges someplace else.

"Why do you insist that they're alive!? You don't stick to assumptions like glue!"

"I'm telling you it's not a guess! It's a gut feeling! And it's telling me that they're alive!"

"How the hell is that not the same as a guess!?"

"Guess this, guess that, where's the proof that they're dead?"

"Being gone for fifteen years is more than enough proof. What about you where's the proof that they're alive!?"

"Hmph! I won't speak to you again until you show me your stupid proof! Stupid Caleb."

"Hmph! Neither will I."

Caleb remained seated on the ground and stared at the other side while Cecille got up and stomped off. Who knew where she was going. This time she didn't run, but still walked quite fast. Occasionally, she would turn her head but then continue walking with more fervour.

Were these two kids? I know even adults argue but the way the argument ended. I had to hold back my laughter otherwise I'd have to spend more effort to apologise.

"Caleb," I called out to him.

There was no reply but I was sure he could hear me, and also that he was thinking of Cecille, of whether he should go after her.

"Caleb, I know it's not my place to say this since we've only known each other like an hour. But after all that front-seat view of hearing you two, I can tell you that you should go after her. I know you're thinking of that too. The longer you take, the more hurt she'll get."

"I know." Caleb slowly got up and started walking slowly, in the direction 'she' left.

"Hey..... Thanks." With that, he walked, then paced, then ran, till he ran twice as fast as Cecille went away.

Would they make up easily? Maybe, maybe not. But the point was that they would, and soon too. After all, they said it themselves. From birth to this day, they relied on each other. Such a bond was not so easily torn.

And maybe because it was them, they're argument felt different. When people argued, they would get angry, irritated, violent and product all those negative thoughts.

But those two, they might've been angry but it was like they were passing on their hearts to each other.

'I want to show her she still has me and that I'll never leave her side. When I do, I'll tell her.'

'I want him to see his parents again and see him smile. When he does, I'll tell him.'

"If only things would be so pleasant. Now I'm really getting interested in what fate has in store for them." Me meeting them was, after all, another handiwork of fate.

"Now why don't you think about how you're going to deal with this mess instead of them at the moment?" An aged voice rang in my ears.

No, not my ears, it went directly to my mind. It certainly did pull me back from thought and made me look to my right. Then I realised, there were still other's here.

"Come and find me afterwards, after you're done with the aftermath." When I looked at Grillmart he was again sipping and then blowing from his pipe. The only thing that made me believe it was him right now was that he was watching me from the corner of his eye, and the smirk on his face.

'How could I forget where I currently was?' Then again, the feeling was so addictive. Was this the feeling of going to an academy? Or maybe it the blissful feeling of conversing with others after such a long time? Having some fun, I guess? Truly addictive. It almost made me yearn for more.

But with all thoughts put aside, I would go and have a chat with Grillmart after this. I really wanted to talk to him too.

That is.... if I could survive the aftermath.

"Damned Caleb and Cecille, You owe me big time for this!"

With that, my mana ran out, and the barrier collapsed.

___________________________