A few days passed after the voice in the garden incident. During the morning, Almark walked along the road from the dorm to the schoolhouse.
“Almark!” someone called out from behind.
Turning around, Almark saw a boy, roughly a head shorter than him, looking up at him.
“Oh, hey, Eldo.” Almark smiled. “Good morning.”
The boy smiled and greeted him back. “Heading to class?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you use some magic now?”
“No, not yet…”
“Still nothing? Are you sure you’re a third-year?”
This lively boy was Eldo, a first-year who had joined the elementary division that spring.
“Oh, it’s Almark!”
A small girl wearing a robe—more like the robe was wearing her—hurried over from behind Eldo and caught up to them.
“Good morning, Cecily,” Almark said.
“A fine day to you,” the girl, Cecily, replied with an elegant noble’s greeting.
“Hey, Cecily, Almark here hasn’t learned a single spell yet,” Eldo said immediately.
Cecily frowned. “Oh, really? You poor thing. A third-year who can’t cast any spells…” She worried over something that bothered Almark quite a bit.
Almark met Eldo and Cecily after getting permission from Fia to sit in on the first-years’ meditation classes. For some reason, the two of them took a liking to Almark and started chatting with him—which meant he ended up making very little progress on his meditation that day. One could very well say he was driven out of that class because of them.
That was when Eldo and Cecily apparently deemed Almark as inferior to them. Ever since, they acted like they were his seniors whenever they saw him in the dorms or the schoolhouse. This never failed to put Nelson and Morgan into hysterics.
“Work hard, Almark,” said Eldo. “I’ll have you know we recently learned how to cast a fog spell.”
“I, for my part, was able to produce some smoke from my hand the other day,” Cecily said proudly.
“I really feel like I’ll be able to fill a whole room with fog soon. I’ll be going to practice in the woods after class today. As for you, Almark, remember that meditation is the basis of all magic. Learn from us and keep working.”
Eldo sounded so much like Illmis, Almark couldn’t help but crack a strained smile. The younger boy must have been at an age where he longed to teach others.
“Yeah, thanks…”
Whenever Almark walked with first-years, he had to slow his pace since his strides were longer than theirs. Because of this, the other students ended up overtaking him. If it was students he didn’t know, that was one thing, but having someone he knew see him getting sermons from first-years felt a bit awkward.
And indeed, Leila walked past him, her face expressionless and icy.
Just as he was about to bid Eldo and Cecily farewell and pick up the pace, he heard an arrogant “ha!” from behind. Almark turned around to see Tohrk sneering, followed as always by Garain and Deg.
“Good morning, Tohrk,” Almark said.
Tohrk simply ignored him. “I feel bad for you two, having to babysit this brat first thing in the morning,” he told Eldo and Cecily.
“We’re not babysitting him,” Eldo replied.
Tohrk then glanced at Almark and lowered his voice. “He’s a real tragic case. Can’t cast a single spell yet. Make sure to teach him well.”
Eldo and Cecily nodded obediently. Tohrk walked past Almark, holding back sneering laughter.
“…Does he make fun of you in class, Almark?” Eldo asked once Tohrk and his cronies were a good distance away.
“No, not really,” Almark answered indifferently.
Eldo exchanged a look with Cecily. “We should try to get along with him better.”
“Yes, those third-years looked quite mean. You must feel terrible being in the same class with them, Almark. Indeed, you’re unlucky every which way…,” Cecily said in a rather patronizing manner.
And while Almark did feel that this was none of their business, he could tell they genuinely liked him, which made him think twice about bluntly remarking on it. They were discreet enough to only speak up when Tohrk was out of earshot, after all.
“If anything happens, let us know!” Eldo told him.
Almark replied with a forced nod and a smile.
“Hey, Almark.”
That day, during a break between classes, Morgan approached Almark, his pudgy form jiggling.
“Hey, Morgan.” Almark looked up from his textbook and smiled. “Something wrong?”
“Hm.” Morgan looked around the room for a second.
Wendy was usually seated next to Almark, but she was currently outside the classroom with the other girls.
Upon confirming she was out of sight, Morgan returned his gaze to Almark. “Remember how I told you the other day I saw this weird shadow on the way to the schoolhouse?”
“That day you overslept, right?”
“Yeah, let’s not go into that…” Morgan’s shoulders twitched. “So, I actually saw another weird shadow.”
“You did?” Almark frowned. “When?”
“The day before yesterday.”
“Two days ago…” Almark’s eyes widened. “Did you tell anyone about it?”
“No.” Morgan shook his head. “You’re the first person I’ve mentioned it to.”
“Then why didn’t you say something until now?”
“I thought people would say I was imagining or seeing things again…” Morgan slumped his shoulders. “But you listened to me last time, so I thought I could tell you.”
“I can tell if someone’s lying by looking at their eyes,” Almark replied. “Besides, I don’t think you were imagining things.”
“Huh?” Morgan blinked. “Why?”
“I mean…”
Almark started to answer, but then Wendy started making her way back to her seat, chatting happily with the other girls.
“Oh, no good!” Morgan shushed Almark. “Keep it a secret!”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?!” Morgan shuddered. “Just the other day, it turned out that the voice in the garden’s maze was actually someone practicing wind magic, right?”
“Oh…”
“And Nelson kept teasing me and saying no way the statue was talking.”
“But Wendy wouldn’t tease you.”