MURDERER IN THE ACADEMY

Just yesterday Lynne’s life was filled to brim with bliss, joy and smiles. One never expects his fortune to flip over within a single night, but Lynne experienced exactly that. From dawn until way late into the night, he visited all of his current acquaintances in hopes of living with them for a little while. He spat tales of his woe with the most sorrowful face, but it was all for naught, as they all flatly rejected him. To them, Lynne was pretty worthless without a sack of gold hanging from his waist; he was obnoxious, loud, spoiled, commanding, lazy, and overall practically worthless to keep around. As he felt his stomach growling, feet filling with blisters, back hunched over from tiredness and general desire to leap off the bridge, Lynne finally – perhaps more so than ever before – learned the true value of coin: beyond buying just stuff to eat, drink and touch, it also bought friendships!

“...ah, I should have known; coin buys flattery. Need coins!”

Although reluctant, he had saved two copper coins the arrogant Noble lad had thrown at him. After all, it was all he had left. Were he to eat rotten bread and drink water from puddles, he might live on it for about a week, but this was Lynne after all – a man (child) who once spent two hundred gold coins on simple fried shrimp!

Night solemnly arose above Edgemaw, crescent moon hanging in-between the clouds. As it was mid April, the weather had slowly grown warmer, which was the only silver lining he could find in his current predicament. The word quickly spread through the streets and he had learned of why he was cast out onto the streets, without a single penny (in Lynne’s book, to have a single penny meant you had to have at least a hundred gold coins!)

“Count Linden!!” Lynne growled underneath his breath as he sat in-between two demolished houses in the Lower Ring. “You are to blame for my misfortune!”

However, concepts of revenge were mostly lost on Lynne. He could, at most, curse the man under his breath, but as for acting out his pent up frustration… well, courage was far from the only thing he was lacking. After all, Count Linden was rumored to be next Skyfire Magus, the most honorable title one can achieve within the Highlind Kingdom. While he may not be the most powerful Magus of the Kingdom, being a supreme Magus wasn’t only connected with having the greatest arsenal of spells – there was archaic knowledge, multilingualism, runic inscriptions, craftsmanship… a whole myriad of things were taken into account when assessing one’s ability as a Magus. Lynne easily assented to the fact that it was pointless to harbor any negative emotions towards the Count. Perhaps, like Lynne, he didn’t have enough wealth as a Count to live the life he desired so he wanted to become a King.

“… can’t blame a man for living the dream!” he firmly exclaimed, trying to make a fist. However, due to extreme exhaustion and hunger, he satisfied himself with the mental fist pump.

Even though he wished to fall asleep, he was too wary; he was in Lower Ring, where thievery was at an all time high. Beyond that, though, he could also be murdered, or worse. However, eventually, exhaustion won over and his eyelids closed as he drifted away into the dreamland, where his pockets were lined up with gold and he swam in the river of gold and his hat was made of gold and even his wife and children were made of gold. The World of Gold. Coins rained everywhere from sky, filling lands with yellow shine. He slept with a strange smile on his face, far creepier than any thief or murderer or worse could ever procure on their faces. It was certain that if any one of those three or four were to encounter Lynne right now, they’d scurry away with expressions of terror.

Dawn, though, came all too soon and Lynne woke up, groaning out in pain. For someone who was accustomed to soft beds and pillows, sleeping on hardened stone against and splintered wood provided not a comfort of bed but hellish torture. His back hurt, his ass even more so, and he could barely get up. His stomach still growled, but Lynne did his best to ignore it. He quickly began spinning ideas on how to get out of his current predicament. Living impoverished wasn’t in the books for him, and he needed rivers of gold to sate his desires. He could become a thief and murderer and worse himself, but those acts required certain skillset which Lynne lacked at the moment. Those acts weren’t beneath him, as he had already partook in thievery many-a-times before, and was certain he could murder a fool as well. As for the worse part, he could simply close his eyes and pretend he was dreaming. But, he lacked skillset. Even if he could produce a rather large fireball, it didn’t mean that the person he was mugging couldn’t produce even larger one. After all, Magus’ strength didn’t lie solely with how many abilities he could cast, but also with how much Mana he had and how well he could manipulate it. Because he never trained, Lynne barely had enough to procure a single fireball of rather average power.

Even though he smelled his own stench, he had quickly came to a very simple realization whilst ignoring it: he had to graduate from the Academy and become a Magus! It would be a shame not to, especially as all his fees were already paid by his father (who he believed to be dead, maybe). With rather solid (not really) determination he headed towards the Academy’s grounds. As he walked through the crowds people made circles around him as his stench was rather unbearable. Lynne didn’t mind it, though, as it only meant getting there faster.

Academy grounds, as with the first and so far only day he came here, were brimming with students of all kinds of origin. He headed directly for the building for the worst of the newcomers and took a seat up top, in the corner. As more students poured in, they had realized Lynne’s current state – and stale air around him – so they, quite comically, decided to sit as far away from him as possible. Eventually they began crowding over one another, leaving two rows in front of Lynne completely empty. Lynne, though, hadn’t even noticed, as he was involved too much with his own thoughts on the matter of becoming a Magus.

In theory, every single person could become a Magus, as everyone was born with at least miniscule affinity for Magic, due to a necessity to live. That is, if they were born without any affinity for Magic, they were born dead to begin with. However, the accomplishments varied excessively on the base affinity one had. That is why the number of ordinary Warriors and Knights far outstripped the number of Magus across not only Highlind Kingdom, but the entire Alloy continent. Even though his generation had one hundred students enrolled, at best three or four would make something of themselves throughout their lives.

Most people attended Academies solely to learn Basic and Advanced spell forms. They didn’t require any imagination or creativity and simply needed one to pick up books, read about spells and then cast them as much as possible until they are comfortable. Even renowned Warriors and Knights did the same, as during war it was practically required to have basic resistances to these two schools. However, everything beyond Advanced School required one to not only have immense amount of creativity, but also substantial affinity for Magic. That is one of the reasons his father was never able to advance past the rank of a Master; anyone could make up a spell in their mind, but it was far from enough.

Lynne did his best to remember everything his father ever taught him about Magic, but unfortunately it was not much. He remembered his father telling him that, besides one’s affinity, there are also some people with strange endowments in regards to Magic. They ranged from better Mana manipulation to casting stronger spells, and people like that were given an additional stars during their assessments. Stars – or sub ranks – were an easy way to distinguish Magus in the same general Rank, as One Star Initiate wasn’t the same was Five Star Initiate.

Lynne was startled awake from his thoughts by a rather pervasive scent of lavender; as he cast his gaze downwards, he spotted a girl that wasn’t here – or at least he doesn’t remember her being here – on the first day. She had unusually white hair and a red ribbon atop of it, wearing a plain looking but still well-made one-piece dress and translucent gloves. She had a fair, oval-shaped face with rather large, blue eyes and small lose and mouth and slightly freckled cheeks.

“Ah, our savior!!” the rest of the class suddenly exclaimed in unison, startling Lynne even further. “Yve, please sit here!”

“No, please sit here!”

“No, no, stay away from filthy boys, come here and sit with us!”

Lynne might have been a very lazy person, but he was far from stupid – as the matter of fact, if some somehow managed to get to know him better, they might even classify him as ‘cunning’. As such, he quickly understood that Yve’s beautiful scent practically vaporized his stench into oblivion, which is why practically the entire class hailed her to sit next to them. The girl bathed slightly in confusion, but eventually sat next to some girls in the first row. Although Lynne liked pretty girls as much as the next guy, he also liked them to be older and much more… developed, so his interest in the newcomer waned quickly.

Shortly after Yve, the bell rang three times and a teacher – this time a young lad, perhaps in his mid to late twenties – waltzed in graciously. Lynne couldn’t figure out why teachers acted like they were attending a ball and not a lecture, but, then again, he scarcely had energy to think about something so useless. The teacher had short, black hair and wore fashionable glasses. He was rather tall and lean, and wore simple, but still adorned clothes from neck down. As he cast a glance over the classroom, his face expressed confusion for but a moment, but he paid it no more heed as he saw Lynne isolated up top. He was, after all, instructed to pay as little attention as possible to the child of (former) Fifth Lord, and if he were to act out in any way, to either kick him our or flat out kill him. He preferred not to bloody his hands, so he hoped the boy would act pensively.

“Good morning,” he spoke gently, flashing a dazzling smile that had a good deal of girls in class blush red. “As we agreed yesterday,” he then continued. “Today you’ll show me the results of your training. Cast your self-made spell from any of the basic schools!” Lynne was stunned for a moment; as he skipped the class yesterday, he obviously hadn’t a clue about the homework assigned. Forget self-made spells, it’d be a miracle if he could even cast a fireball without burning himself to ashes in the process.

However, unlike Lynne, most other youths in the class were extremely excited due to the opportunity to show themselves off. First girl that had stood up in front of the class cast a shimmering array of water bolts that had odd glint to them, piercing through the wooden dummies teacher procured. She bowed as others applauded and then cast a glance towards the teacher who nodded gently with a dazzling smile, approving. The girl smiled widely and practically leapt back to her seat, like a rabbit. Lynne continued to watch others perform, in certain confusion; after all, none of these were actual self-made spells. One boy cast a fireball that split in two as it traveled. Other one managed to erect three pillars from the ground and have them convey at the singular point. One girl managed to levitate for a few moments before comically falling onto her butt. These were just shrewd copycats! Miniscule! This is like trying to impress a King with two copper coins!

What Lynne didn’t know, though, was that the reason his father pressed him to learn Magic so much. Early on, his father realized that Lynne’s affinity for magic was far from average, bordering prodigious. As such, even when he was four, Lynne was able to cast fireballs the size of a tree stump if he put enough Mana into it. However, as he rarely saw others use and cast Magic, and as his father never told him about his talents, Lynne firmly believed he was quite average, just like his father, and as such believed that everyone was able to cast a fireball the size of a tree. As for the modifications, they heavily depended on creativity and Mana consumption. Due to extremely low amount of Mana, even the most basic of modifications to base spells – such as splitting fireball in two – were almost impossible for Lynne. Eventually, though, it was his turn.

“Lynne?” teacher called out ever so calmly. “I understand you weren’t with us yesterday, but if you would still like to show us something, feel free to do so.” Lynne hesitated for a moment, but figured he’d give it a shot. Hell, I need to know where I stand if I’m going to improve! Coins! Coins! Just imagine all the Coins I’ll have when I become Magus! It’s not a stretch to say that, because he didn’t have a single gold coin with him, he began appreciating them – and lusting for them – even more so.

He nodded as he got up and slowly descended down the stairs; other students grimaced and tried to back off as far away as possible from him. As Lynne landed just a few meters away from the teacher, the young lad finally understood why others wanted to back away. However, as he was somewhat of an adult, he was able to control his expression a tad bit more, still appearing ever so calm. This, in turn, inspired even more awe in female students – and more jealousy in male ones. The teacher procured two wooden dummies for Lynne, who lowered his head slightly and stroked his chin for a moment, thinking. Eventually, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

A small light flared up within his palm as he extended his arm forward and opened up his hand. The light – white in color with slight yellow tint – danced roundly for a moment, as if to gather energy, before fuming tinted smoke. In the end, a rather thin and short fireball, alongside a water bolt, were released from the palm of his hand, dancing around each other as they headed out for the dummies. However, as they hit the wood, they simply disappeared from the air, leaving dummies completely intact. After a short moment of silence, the classroom burst out in laughter while Lynne scratched his head in confusion. Mana! In order to increase Coins, I need to increase Mana! That, somehow, became his proverb to follow for the years to come.

However, unlike students, the young teacher wasn’t laughing; as the matter of fact, he was doing all he could not to jump over and carry Lynne to the principle immediately. While to students it appeared to just be weak spell with no impact, Lynne mixed two elements. While not unheard of during the Basic and Advanced spells, it was still rare. However, in this case, he mixed two opposing elements of fire and water and managed to cast them in complete harmony. That is something that, even among elite, not a great deal of people could do. This… this could be interesting. Teacher’s lips curled up in a smile as he gazed at the confused – and slightly irritated – Lynne. Amidst the confusion, a scream suddenly erupted. All eyes immediately shifted to the third row, where in the group of boys one suddenly began crying. It wouldn’t have been anything more than just embarrassing, but the boy was crying crimson red… and then his snot was crimson red, and even his drool was crimson red. He was bleeding from every facial hole, profusely so, and just a moment later, boy’s head dropped on the table. He was dead.