by Weiqi Wang
‘As a tradition, it is my duty and pleasure to introduce the history of Stanfaul College, as a core part of the Institute of Libral, to the new students.’ Romboton’s voice sounded out over the hall. ‘I believe that everyone has heard of it before, but we still do this every year, why? For our honour and for the responsibility we have as wizards!’ Romboton was becoming effusive. ‘We are the glory of mankind; we are the future of the world; we are the guards of the peace on the six continents!’
Cheering, whistles, and applause peaked, one wave after another, and the Dean seemed satisfied by the atmosphere.
‘Now, let’s go over what has happened in our history — the history that gave birth to wizards, the most outstanding group in all of mankind, and to the Institute of Libral!’
The Dean briefly stated the history of mankind; it was similar to what Scankeen told Filton years ago, but from a different perspective. Nearly a hundred centuries ago, dragon clans tyrannised and enslaved all other clans, including the humans, who were very weak during that time. This treatment lasted until human beings began to realise the power of magic through coincidences; a number of wizards, whose names were never written down in books, started the liberation war against the dragons for the first time. Unfortunately, their power was too weak, so they lost, after most of them fought gloriously to their deaths. Several surrendered, only to become puppets for the dragons to govern human beings.
Was it true that those who surrendered really offered their services to dragons? Of course not! The captured wizards, burdened with all kinds of humiliations and responsibilities, kept practicing their magic furtively and passing it down to the next generation; this lengthy process went on for hundreds of years. During this time, the magic of human beings continued to advance, and the wizards grew more and more powerful. About three thousand years ago, a talented individual named Stanfaul Libral arose miraculously, leading a group of wizards to slaughter the dragons. The dragons were caught off guard and gathered all their forces to fight Stanfaul and his followers. The war lasted for nearly a century, during which almost all human wizards were killed; but Stanfaul survived and made tremendous efforts in turning the situation around through fighting alone. The war, hence, became a bloody stalemate.
Mysteriously enough, for some reason, the dragons were not able to do anything about Stanfaul. However, Stanfaul had the power to kill dragons, exhausting the dragon clans bit by bit. The King of dragons therefore had to yield eventually and sign a marvellous magical pact with Stanfaul — all members of dragon clans had to migrate to one continent, known as ‘Finaland Continent’ back then, though it was later renamed ‘Holiness Continent’ by the dragons.
So the darkness in human history was finally terminated by the famous Grant Migration, and the new history started thereafter. Stanfaul Libral was crowned the title ‘Starter of History’ because of this, and he founded the Sunrise Alliance to unite wizards to maintain the peace. He also created the Institute of Libral to pass on magic for the future.
This morale enhancement from Romboton was very successful. Even though Soarame had heard all of it from his master, with even more details, when he heard it again here and saw the fanatical students around him, the sense of glory in his heart was aroused like wildfire.
The event ended quite late; the students, old and new, had enough time to make friends with each other. Getting to know the students in Stanfaul College, Soarame was impressed again and again that everyone was highly talented, including all of his roommates. Kardiac has high gifts in both Fire and Wind; Omifo mainly practiced Light with a superior gift, but could also practice Earth; Halgon was similar to Kardiac, with high gifts in Earth and Darkness. With all that said, they were just normal students in Stanfaul College, like everyone else. The top talents, such as Rodka, were even more gifted. Soarame was now vividly convinced that Stanfaul College was the most powerful one in the school; his own magic gifts did not really stand out compared to others here.
From that day on, Soarame settled down and became a formal student of the school. The Water department did not keep the freshmen idle; a couple of days later, Soarame walked towards the classroom, full of joy, because this day he was going to have his first Water lesson.
‘Chelonad, please guide me to the Water Department,’ Soarame was walking on his way.
‘The tour for freshmen was just held days ago and you already forgot the way?’ Chelonad’s voice sounded right away. ‘No wonder Aertiuno likes you.’
‘Thanks… wait, what?’
‘Aertiuno, remember? He’s as good as you are at getting himself lost.’
‘Oh, there’s no way I can compare to him.’
‘Then why was he supporting you in the interview?’
‘You know about the interview too? The Principal said it was a private one, but everyone seems to know about it.’
‘Hold on — I’m not everyone, boy. I know because I’m Chelonad.’
‘Rodka knew about it too, so I guess it’s because he’s Rodka?’
‘Bah, that kid is Romboton and Akex’s favourite student, so he’s an exception.’
‘Well, are there any more exceptions?’
‘No, there are not. You don’t believe me, humph?’
Listening to Chelonad’s voice, Soarame was picturing his anxious face and snickering inside. For a second, Soarame really wanted to provoke Chelonad so that he perhaps would show himself, but Soarame decided to try that later; after all, he needed to go to class and he definitely did not want to be late.
‘Of course I do. Chelonad, please show me the directions,’ Soarame urged.
‘Tell you what, there’s no secret to me on this campus,’ Chelonad was not done yet. ‘Everything is under my surveillance, so I’m not an “everyone”!’
‘Sure, of course not, and I’m sorry, Chelonad!’ Soarame was a little anxious. ‘I believe you; please show me the way so that I won’t be late for my very first class.’
‘I already sent the route to your emblem, take a look at it.’ Chelonad was on Soarame’s side, just for once. ‘Other than the maze by the entrance of the school, the rest of campus is on a map in your emblem; if that’s still not enough, call me and I’ll highlight the route for you.’
Soarame took out his emblem and checked it out. The emblem was actually more than just an identifier for students; it was a well-designed magic device that could deliver messages from the school to the students. On one side of the emblem it showed the student’s name and all kinds of basic information, while on the other side it delivered private messages to the owner; the campus map could be shown there too. If one wanted, he could even cast a screen into the air with live scenes and sound from it to share with others. Moreover, by injecting mind power into it, one could establish a mind communication channel to another, allowing them to talk at a distance. However, the consumption of mind power for remote communication, as well as any other function, was not negligible and a student usually could not afford a long conversation thereby. Therefore, the messaging system was always more popular; one could send text messages to another just by injecting mind power, hands-free.
Soarame had already established channels with Dileys and her friends, but he had not used it so far because he wanted to act like a real freshman. So, Mr. Freshman found the classroom that he was supposed to be in and was amazed by the scene in it —
It was truly all girls, as they said.
The young girls were talking, cheering, and laughing before Soarame arrived. Then, when Soarame got there, everyone went quiet abruptly and stared at Soarame. This made Soarame feel shy; in fact he was sweating. His original plan was just to sneak in and find a seat, but after being eye-locked by everyone, he had to freeze by the door, not sure what to do next.
‘Hi there, are you Soarame?’ a girl sitting by the door asked.
‘Hi… Yes, I am. Sorry, you are?’ Soarame scratched his head subconsciously.
‘Sophia, nice to meet you!’ The girl stood up and shook Soar
ame’s hand.
‘Hey, I’m Beatrice, nice to meet you, Soarame!’ Another girl came to Soarame and introduced herself.
‘I’m Elizabeth, nice to finally meet you!’
‘Hey, I’m Adele!’
Soarame was flattered to be receiving such special treatment; this day he probably met more girls than he ever had in the past 12 years, which made him quite nervous. The girls had heard that there was one, and only one, boy in their class this year, and they were curious about him. As a consequence, although it was the first class, Soarame was already known.
The girls whispered back and forth for quite a while, keeping Soarame very busy, and very flushed. Finally, they had to quiet down because the teacher came in. Everyone sat upright and composed themselves, looking at the teacher.
‘Hello sweethearts, look at you all, so beautiful!’ The teacher’s first words came out very naturally, yet all the girls started chuckling and watching Soarame. Soarame realised what was going on and flushed even more; yet there was nothing he could do about it.
‘Oh, you’re Soarame, aren’t you?’ The teacher noticed the only boy sitting in the middle of the classroom.
‘Yes Mam, greetings to you!’ Soarame stood up hurriedly.
‘How lovely!’ The teacher was happy. ‘My name is Nicole, sit down please, cutie!’ Seeing Soarame sit down with a ‘cutie’ flush, all the girls were snickering.
‘We are all family, relax, Soarame!’ Nicole could sense Soarame’s shyness, so she was trying to calm him down; although she was also amused. ‘Okay, let’s start our first class — Water, mother of lives!’
‘Water gives rise to all lives, therefore Water magic is best-known for its nourishment and healing nature.’ Nicole was lecturing on the stage. ‘Besides which, Water magic is also strong in defence and Area of Effect spells, or AOE spells, which are mostly of high level…’
This was the very first lesson for the freshmen and everyone was excited, including Soarame. However, after a while, he figured out that Nicole was only going to talk about freshmen stuff because this was indeed a class for real freshmen; therefore, Soarame lost interest sooner than he thought. After all, he was actually an Adept and was educated by Scankeen with a superior view of magic. Nicole’s class was very good for the girls, but really useless for Soarame.
‘Now, who can tell me a bit more on this topic?’ Halfway through the class, Nicole threw a question to the crowd. ‘What are the practical advantages of performing Novice-level water magic, as far as you can go?’
‘I know one.’ A little girl raised her hand and was encouraged by Nicole to speak up. ‘Water magic keeps my skin clean and soft, I really like it!’
‘Good,’ While Soarame almost burst into laughter, he surprisingly found that Nicole actually agreed on this point and was very happy about it. ‘Not only does it keep your skin in good condition, but also it can make you look prettier and prettier if you keep practicing it!’
‘Wow!’ Nicole’s comment raised a pulse of cheering; obviously the girls were all in favour of this benefit. Soarame looked around and found that everyone was actually serious about it, so he could do nothing other than try to fit himself into the wave.
The beauty and skin topic kept on for a little longer than Soarame expected. Just when he got a little impatient about the lecture, Nicole caught him off guard. ‘Soarame, would you be willing to share something with us?’
‘Err…’ Soarame raised his head and stuttered, ‘Yeah… I mean sure. I agree that water is good for the skin …’
‘Oh come on Soarame, you are the only boy in this class, surprise us with something different!’ Nicole interrupted Soarame and teased him with a friendly smile. ‘Your skin is good enough for a boy, so tell us something else!’
‘Ahh…’ Soarame had to scratch his head for this request — really? I was trying to fit in your style! ‘Then… performing water magic can save time to get water when you are thirsty…. how about that?’
‘Poochi…’ A girl couldn’t help laughing, followed by many more.
‘Nah, that was boring.’ Obviously not everyone agreed with Soarame.
‘My sister says boys are always boring…’ Some girls began to hold a sub-session.
‘Hold on, everybody, Soarame has a point,’ Nicole fought back her laughter and smiled at Soarame. ‘But can you give us something of a bigger scope?’
‘A bigger scope?’ Soarame wanted to say ‘I can think of nothing bigger than the scope of beauty’, but he dared not. So, instead he said, ‘Water magic is actually useful in many areas. Let’s say you want to go skating, but it’s summer, then all that you need to do is freeze the lake in front of you.’
‘That’s a good thought,’ Nicole nodded. ‘Yet you have to have enough power to do that.’
‘How about snow?’ A girl followed up. ‘Summon a snowflake when you feel unhappy, or want to enjoy the romance!’
‘That’s also a good point, yet both of you are talking about a higher level of Water magic — controlling temperature. In Novice level we are not there yet,’ Nicole smiled and turned to Soarame again. ‘For now, can we talk a bit more about water itself, before we level up?’
‘Hmm…’ Soarame had to really think about it because he did have problems finding Novice-level Water magic useful. ‘I think the healing nature of water comes from the fact that the body contains a large amount of water.’
‘Excellent point!’ Nicole was a little surprised by Soarame’s thought. ‘Please keep going!’
‘Therefore, Water magic can both heal the body and do massive damage to the body.’ Soarame cleared his mind bit by bit. ‘It’s all up to the performer’s will. For example, if an evil wizard chooses to drain water from people’s bodies…’
‘Okay, that was a very incisive thought,’ Nicole instantly cut Soarame off before he scared the girls by offering some horrible hypothesis. ‘However, the water in one’s body is dominated by the person himself, which is a huge difference from water in free form. Therefore, your thought was not practical, at least not at a level under Master; so everyone, please don’t be scared.’ Nicole was trying to calm down the girls, some of whom already had a pale face thanks to Soarame. ‘No one has ever done that, by the way, plus it would be much easier to perform a normal attacking spell, such as icearrow, which does remarkable damage.’
Finishing this in a rush, Nicole was relieved and took a deep breath. She didn't expect Soarame to go this far and was surprised by the abnormal idea. Although a bit scared herself, she was fascinated by Soarame’s talented insight on magic. She wanted Soarame to keep going, but on another topic. ‘Well Soarame, I’m curious about how you feel as the only boy in the class. Does it feel good, as you have a totally different way of thinking from us?’
‘Sure, it feels great,’ Soarame answered with a naughty grimace in his heart. What else do you expect? No, I wish I wasn’t here?
‘Great, we also feel great having you here,’ Nicole smiled. The girls were all watching Soarame with curiosity. ‘What do you think is the reason that we have so many more girls than boys in our department?’
‘Because most boys don’t know how to appreciate Water magic,’ answered Soarame. Obviously this answer was favourable, as more girls began to size Soarame up.
‘Again, some details please,’ Nicole was glad to hear this and pushed the topic.
‘Many people tend to think that Water magic is less strong in attack than other magic lineages, such as Fire, but they don’t realize that this is actually wrong.’ Soarame spoke up, confident now. ‘High-level Water magic is second to none in attack, plus its nature makes it the most comprehensive magic.’
‘Yes it is! Water magic is famous for its balance in all purposes, you got it right!’ Nicole was ecstatic. ‘Then why do you think most boys still choose to go for other linages? You are not the only one that knows the merits of high-level water magic.’
‘Because of the peace,’ Soarame again gave an unexpected answer.
> ‘The peace?’ Nicole was a little confused.
‘We are living in an era of peace; even wizards don’t really have to fight that much, so they are not under pressure.’ Out of nowhere, Soarame felt something swarming in his body. He stood up unconsciously, looking around and said, ‘They care more about looking cool than the actual purposes of magic; they think Fire magic looks powerful, sounds ferocious, so they go for it. Water magic was even unfairly titled ‘girly’ since god-knows-when, and boys try to prove they are manly.’ As everyone else sat in silence, Soarame was the only one to talk. ‘If we are at war, this problem wouldn’t happen because the war would tell us the truth; people are too spoiled nowadays.’
Silence. Everyone was stunned by Soarame’s insight. Soarame, on the other hand, was really excited to finally get a topic that was different from beauty or romance. His response was actually thanks to Scankeen, who had told Soarame many stories of wars in his hundreds-of-years’ experience.
Seeing the shining yet confused eyes from the girls surrounding him, Soarame stopped talking. He was looking at Nicole, waiting for her to comment.
‘Err… hmm…’ Nicole took some time to recover from the shock. ‘Interesting point, now let’s talk about something else.’
‘What…?’
Why do I look like an alien here? After the class, Soarame was walking out of the building, feeling disappointed. Obviously, Nicole was of a very different style from Sandoray; she didn’t want to talk about negative things in front of her young students. Therefore, every time Soarame tried to make a real point, he got bounced back.
‘Soarame!’ Just when Soarame was complaining to himself, a graceful voice came from behind him.
