A Touchy Topic

***Platina's POV***

"Kaius, be serious!" I yelled at the boy who was currently not doing so well with his push-ups. Despite having one month of training already, he still couldn't do more than thirty, what a weakling!

He glared at me, yet his face was red and strained with exertion. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"51!" He groaned out, "52!" "Fifty-"

Well, looked like 52 was his limit… It was laughable, really.

"Five minutes of rest, and then you'll be running with me," I ordered, earning another glare from him.

"You… are… too… cruel!" He heaved before chugging water. Once that was done, he continued, "I asked you to teach me magic, not running around the place!"

Looking at his pouting face, I could tell that he was disappointed. "Are you stupid?! What good would magic do in a fight if you couldn't avoid your enemy's attacks?! This is training your physical strength to the point that you have a chance of surviving long enough to complete your spells! For the record, I have fought under conditions when I have to avoid constant close-ranged attacks while casting spells, and one wrong move could have resulted in my death. If you want to be a strong mage, this is the first step!"

He couldn't say anything back after my speech, and proceeded to sulk and pout. He sure was childish…

"I think that's enough rest. Stand up! We'll do three laps around the school."

I received another glare before Kaius obediently ran with me. By the second lap, he was wheezing and I stopped in case he was about to collapse. Seeing as he was worse for wear, I told him to stop for today, and together, we head back to his room. At this rate, I have a lot of work to do to get him up to par.

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There was some down time until dinner, so we sat down on Kaius's bed and started talking. This had somehow become our daily thing, and I surprisingly enjoyed it. Maybe because both of us couldn't stand small talk, so we always steered the conversation to magic instead. Like me, he loved learning magic, and so he eagerly answered all the questions I had and even did additional research when we came across something he didn't know. For his part, Kaius also asked a lot of questions, most of which I could answer.

"I remembered during the performance assessment, you said mages in your world choose a branch of magic to practice for life, how did they choose?"

I thought for a moment before answering, "I think it's mostly just aptitudes and likes. People who liked more hands-on offensive magic would choose elemental, people who aren't good at doing magic under pressure would choose support, and so on. A lot of the time though, people just follow their family's footstep. If someone's parents are elemental mages, chances are they will choose that out of exposure."

"What was your reason for choosing summoning magic, then?"

I didn't think much of it before answering, "My family only specialize in summoning."

"Oh? Why is that?"

At that moment, I realized that this conversation had taken a turn towards the personal territory. One that I was not willing to share. Instead of talking about the Amagaerius family's long tradition of summoning magic, or about my position as the Supreme Warlock, I gave him a vague answer, "Like I said, out of sheer exposure. I grew up watching my parents summon different kinds of spirits out of thin air and have them do their bidding." It was the truth for the most part anyway, and I never told him that I could also do elemental and support magic as well.

"Huh… do you have siblings then?"

"Yes…?" Was I revealing too much about myself? And why was he talking about this anyway?

"Are they also summoners?"

"Yes, for the same reason." Just drop it already, Kaius!

He was looking at me with a funny expression. Did he finally catch on that I hate talking about myself? I could only hope.

"I'm an orphan, so I don't know if I have siblings or not. I don't even know my parents' face, to be honest. My earliest memory was at the orphanage, and I used to get bullied by the humans because I'm an elf."

"I-I'm sorry… for your loss…" Gosh, I was absolutely terrible with feelings and personal stories and empathy. No wonder people said I was like an ice block. I used to take offense for that, but now I realized it was true.

"Nothing to be sorry for. Thanks to that, I'm not tied down to one place, no family expectations, no attachments. It's freeing," he smiled. It made me think about my situation, which was the opposite. I was burdened with family expectations, with attachments, with responsibilities, and with vengeance. Sometimes, it became too much that I wished I could be free. But at the same time, I wondered what it was like to be like Kaius. Did he ever envy others for having what he didn't?

I didn't say anything back to him, and he gave me a poke in the cheek, which made me flinch in surprise.

"I don't know why it's so hard to get you to talk about yourself," he shook his head, "But I'll stop pressing you. It's none of my business anyway."

I frowned. Did I offend him by refusing to open up? After all, Kaius knew nothing about my world, so it wasn't like telling him about myself would do any harm. But still, old habits die hard and I found it impossible to disclose.

We walked to the cafeteria in awkward silence, until Rilche came to sit at our table uninvited and talked on and on about his day. I heaved a sigh of relief when the awkward atmosphere dispersed and Kaius started to make jabs at Rilche for fun.