Having lunch with so many students was a new and unfamiliar experience for Almark; he cleared his plate so quickly Morgan and the others ended up laughing at him. I should learn to relish the taste of my food, Almark noted.
Everything in his afternoon classes was similarly new to him. Instead of focusing on following along with the class, he was desperately trying to keep track of what he was supposed to be doing and paying attention to.
Having somehow finished the school day, Almark said goodbye to his classmates and returned to the magic training area alone. He pushed the doors open and entered to find the skinny teacher from his morning class already waiting.
“Professor Illmis?”
“You’ve arrived,” Illmis said, nodding. “But it’s too soon for you to train here. Let’s go somewhere else.”
Almark followed Illmis outside. Even under the setting sun, Illmis’s face looked terribly pallid. They crossed the outside corridor back into the schoolhouse and entered a small, unoccupied classroom.
The moment Almark settled into a seat, Illmis said, “Now, Almark, let me ask you something.”
“Sure.”
“Are staves necessary for using magic?” Illmis directed a probing look at Almark’s face. “What do you think?”
Almark paused for a moment. “All mages use staves, so I imagine they must be necessary, right?”
“I see.” Illmis nodded, and without addressing Almark’s answer, moved on to the next question. “Do you think wearing a robe is necessary for using magic, then?”
“…Well, all mages wear robes. Both you professors and us students. That’s probably because we need to, right?”
“Hm.” Illmis nodded one more time. “You’ve seen mages before, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Almark nearly said “on the battlefield” but stopped himself at the last second.
“On my way to the institute.”
“Then you know what mages are.”
“Yes.” Almark nodded, and Illmis did the same.
“I understand perfectly, Almark,” he said gravely. “In which case, I want you to take today, and this lesson, as a chance to forget everything you know about mages.”
“H-huh?” Almark stammered, surprised.
“The things you’ve seen and come to believe have to do with a mage’s outward appearance; they’re all surface level embellishments. Do you know what other name mages answer to?”
“…Those who wield unseen power.”
“Correct.” Illmis nodded. “The essence of a mage isn’t in how they look. A staff, a robe—those don’t make a mage. A mage’s essence, much like the power we wield, lies somewhere invisible to the naked eye.”
“Somewhere invisible…”
“I would guess that not many mages have realized that fact. But since you’re a student here, you must at least grasp the concept. That’s where your studies start. The magic I will teach you here will cover a great deal of ground. But once you acquire it, you won’t need staves or robes anymore.”
“Then, why—?”
Almark tried to ask why everyone used robes and staves, but Illmis calmly stopped him.
“You’re a smart boy. You’ve learned much from what you saw and heard. Explaining the answer to your question would be easy. But you’re too intelligent for that; answering would get in the way of you truly understanding the reason.”
Illmis then instructed Almark to close his eyes.
“All magic begins with meditation. You must start by firmly sensing the mana inhabiting your body. The elementary students have spent every day at the institute meditating to properly harness their mana. It takes time. But you’re a third-year—you haven’t much time left as an elementary student. The headmaster spoke of your great talent and potential, and I expect much of you. Now, let’s begin…”
That day, Illmis stayed at Almark’s side and watched over his meditation until the sun set.
By the time Almark said goodbye to Illmis and left the schoolhouse, it was already dark out. It was only his second time going back from the schoolhouse to the dorm, but thankfully it was a single straight path. There were some branches in the road, but overall, there was no getting lost.
As Almark walked back, he spotted someone running toward him.
“Oh, there he is. Almark!”
It was Morgan and Nelson.
“Hey. Is something wrong?” Almark asked.
“Oh, you hadn’t come back to the dorm yet, and Wendy was worried you might have gotten lost, so we were waiting for you,” Morgan said. “She and the others were here, too, but Lilty gets scared when it’s dark, so Wendy took her back to the girls’ dorm. Everyone wanted to give you their regards.”
“Really? Thanks, guys. I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”
“We like to hang out after class and do stuff like practice or go into the forest. Whenever we get the chance, I mean,” Nelson said, his tone a bit curt, but friendly.
“Let’s head back. I’m starving,” Morgan urged.
Almark nodded and walked alongside them. On the way there, the two of them told Almark about the institute and themselves. Almark still had trouble matching names to each of their faces, much to his shame. He told himself he needed to remember them faster.
That night, when he was all alone in his room, Almark tried the meditation technique Illmis taught him. Sensing the mana within one’s body—the basis of all magic. At noon, he had imagined it as another stream of blood flowing through him, but now he instinctively imagined it as a clump of water sitting at his core. He couldn’t tell if this image was correct, and Illmis told him he wasn’t at the phase when he should be asking for right or wrong answers.
It reminded him of his lonely journey to the institute, where he learned how to converse with himself under the night sky. It was much the same.
And so, Almark meditated tirelessly.
The next morning, Almark’s busy routine began.
He focused intensely on the difficult, incomprehensible lessons. Whenever he didn’t know something, Wendy kindly filled him in from the seat next to his. He couldn’t rely on her all the time, though, so he started going to the library next to the schoolhouse and studying on his own.
After classes, he meditated under Illmis’s watch. Sometimes Illmis stayed with him the whole time, and others he simply gave a few words of advice and left.
Wendy and his other friends offered to help, but since Almark was still only in the meditating phase, there wasn’t much they could assist him with. Besides, they had their own things to do after class. So, while Almark was grateful for the offer, he turned them down, promising that when the time was right, he’d come to them for help.
The days passed by swiftly under this grueling schedule. In the institute, students were given a day off every ten days or so. However, something happened the day before Almark’s first day off.
He was in practical magic class. The students lined up in the magic training area, awaiting the teacher. Illmis walked in, and class started.
They began with an illumination spell. Everyone lit a flame in their hands, producing a clear, gentle light.
So far, Almark had spent practical magic classes simply watching his peers and meditating while they were busy practicing spells. Illmis had only taught him how to meditate, but Almark narrowed down the professor’s advice to the core of magic: imagery. Through imagery, he was able to convert his mana into other shapes, other forms of power. That was likely what Illmis was trying to impart to him.
In which case, an illumination spell involved taking the mana within him and manifesting it as a small flame atop his hand. As he meditated, Almark held out his right hand and imagined a flame igniting within it.
A flame. A small flame.
He focused on that image, but his hand remained empty.
No good. It’s not working. Almark opened his eyes.
The class had moved to the next spell. They were practicing wind magic by blowing wind around their staffs. Neither an offensive nor destructive spell, this one simply produced a pleasant breeze. The students would then increase the intensity of the wind until it was capable of rattling tree branches.
Almark observed that each student had types of magic they were proficient or weak at. Norish, who’d struggled so much at cleaving a stone, was practically glowing when she produced a pleasant breeze. Tohrk, on the other hand, got a warning from Illmis when he accidentally produced a powerful gust of wind.
Wendy and Leila used both types of magic proficiently. Their personalities seemed to be the opposite of each other, but they were a close match when it came to their talent in magic. Morgan had a hard time with the wind spell, struggling to keep the intensity of his wind stable.
Much like with stone cleaving, each student was wildly different when it came to their use of mana and the strength of their image. That was Almark’s conclusion as he watched his classmates.
Almark wondered how Wollis was faring. He looked around the class, keeping his eyes peeled for a head of blond hair. The class representative had yet to say a word to Almark, let alone introduce himself. Almark had considered taking the initiative himself, but each time he tried, Wollis would walk away somewhere. Almark got the impression the boy was avoiding him.
But it didn’t look like Wollis was typically cold to people. Other classmates seemed to rely on and look up to him. Wendy had even told Almark to “go to Wollis for help if you need something.”
Morgan once told Almark that Wollis was a noble’s son, but Almark never asked for his surname. He was so busy just keeping up with his classes that he couldn’t pay much attention to what the other students were doing. And so, he’d still never spoken to Wollis.
Almark noticed that Wollis was doing something different from what the other students in class were practicing, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
He then went to a corner out of the way of everyone’s wind spells, put his staff on the floor, and closed his eyes.
He tried to do the illumination spell from earlier again. Ever since he had started practicing meditation, his mental images had grown clearer and clearer. He could now tangibly imagine the mana flowing through him.