In the term 'cake-meeting', cake obviously came first. Naturally, this would include all of its variants, he felt an implanted thought as he opened his eyes. He was tired, but since someone was exclaiming something like that loudly behind him, Mathias awoke to see a mad dash by many students. Friends became foes instantly as they got rowdy.

A small boy tried to placate the crowd by shouting, "More! La'er!"

And Hunter let go of the scalding hot tray he stole away from Hana. Both were wearing dreadful expressions as the normally soft-spoken Hunter was gnashing his teeth as he protected the guys' share of the cookies. More specifically, what remained of the guys' shares. There were many that would be destined to be left without at its current stock.

"No! You wouldn't even appreciate them! Give it over!"

"No, it's ours!"

"More! La'er!" A tiny voice shouted again from between - and beneath - the two.

The middle-aged couple looked at the scene worriedly. After whispering to her husband, he checked on the other pastries.

They would benefit from another minute in the over, but they were good enough. He put on an oven mitt and grabbed it.

The boy jumped and shouted, saying, "told! More! La'er! See?!"

Hana backed off from Hunter and she and Ayla were the first to the counter.

Erik tried to bring order to the room. "You can only grab one! No grabbing anything for anyone else!"

"Hmph! You're just saying that because you're back there! Synthy! Mina! Lina! Kira! Jasmine! I got them!"

Hana brought the six pastries onto a single heaping plate and ran off towards the patio. Ayla grabbed six herself and raced off to the table, hiding behind their glares by surrounding herself with Wendi, Mathias, Fara, and Jennifer.

The little girl was scared at the sudden noise and hiding under the counter.

"... What the hell is going on?"

"Ah! You're awake!" Ayla said, passing out the pastries as the boys once again fought over the last few in the batch.

"Ali!"

Wendi grabbed hers and immediately ran to the counter. She split the piping hot pastry in two and crouched down to offer it to the scared girl - after, of course, blowing on it to cool it down.

The little girl hesitantly took a bit. Both children were being spoiled by the table - and the class, at that. Hunter even gave broke one of the cookies he was safe-guarding in half to give it to the child who acted as a peacekeeper.

Few saw it as anything else but a bribe.

However, as they saw the girls doing the same, it was of no consequence to mimic the morally questionable actions they started, they thought. It didn't hurt to teach children the harsher realities of the world sooner rather than later.

"... I... ugh... why am I here...?"

His head hurt from all the noise.

Lisanna bit her lip and sighed. "They wouldn't have let you stay back in the room. So I brought you over. Are you feeling okay now?"

"... Better? But still. What has gotten into those people."

"They're fighting over the food," Fara said. She turned to the boy who was in the middle of the room. "Pastry."

He shoved the cookie in his mouth and nodded rapidly.

"Gah! Cheater!" A boy cried out.

The resident peace-keeper crawled past Ali and Wendi, went behind the counter, and talked to his mother. She gave him a worried smile, but still gave him the extra that they made - and hid - as a taste tester.

He loyally returned to Fara and they split the pastry. Ayla was finishing her second.

Mathias watched the chaos from his spot on the bench. There were another two trays of different baked goods produced - made smaller but more numerous than before. After that, there were fewer issues with in-fighting, and even the last few slices of cake disappeared.

"Eat! Done!" The boy declared after receiving word from his mother.

"Ah..."

"I'm getting a little full, but..."

"Hah..."

"Well, I had my fill - though I would've liked to try the first two pastries..."

There were some satisfied sighs, but they all realized they ate their money's worth.

Ayla was the most disappointed. Though she threatened class unity a little due to her greed, no one faulted her. The food was extremely good. And it seemed to get better and better with each passing dish, as if the couple's skills were slowly being refined - or that they were being permitted more and more freedom in making things they truly wanted to make and not typical menu items.

Of course, they did not have too much of an opportunity to keep producing baked goods as they had to be cognizant of it not being sold. They had too many slow days.

"Well... I guess we can start our meeting..." Ayla said.

"Let's just get this over with..."

Erik sighed as he saw the groups start to separate. The boys felt affronted so they were reformed to a complete unit, despite the chances they had before. Of course, they still had about two hours of pleasant interactions, but he just did not want it to be all for naught.

"... Okay, Lisanna and Jennifer will practise at that table; Synthy and Hana will help Mina, Lina, Jasmine and Kira; Me and Fara will help the rest of the girls; as for the rest... Erik can handle it!"

"What?! Are you still angry about dropping it? That's on you!"

"Hmph, just deal with it!"

Erik grumbled irritably. It meant that the groups would be completely split up.

Mathias stared at him and mouthed "no" before Erik could volunteer him again. Even though he was forced into attending, it did not mean he wanted to be there.

"You! Hur'?"

"No, I'm fine," he told the boy who sat on Fara's side.

"'Kay... uh... wait!" The boy ran off to his mother. She thought for a moment and nodded. They were already busy in the back, with the husband doing the dishes and her working on something else. The boy circled around the corner, grabbed a small cloth bag and ran over to Mathias as everyone began to move into their groups.

Even Fara left without a word.

"Thanks? But what's this?"

"Sec'et!"

Mathias accepted the bag. He looked inside, thanked the boy, and then saw Lisanna trying to goad Jennifer alert. He just stuck the bag into her own.

"Uh, it won't be that bad, but we'll have to start, is that okay?"

"O-okay..."

Jennifer muttered an incantation and a stationary water orb the size of a human head appeared. While it was perfectly circular, it almost seemed to be that way because of the explosive mana inside that pressed the walls to the limit.

"Now try to change its shape."

"Shift..."

It burst apart. Everyone at the table got drenched.

Rather than being scared, the boy stared with unwavering attention. He looked at the spear on one side of him and the orb on the other. He did not have words to describe his curiosity in either Common or his mother tongue.

"S-sorry! Th-this always happens...! Th-that or it d-doesn't move at all..."

"At, at least something is changing inside, right? Right?"

"Uhm, y-yeah, b-but..."

"Just try to lower the amount of mana you use to channel it, maybe then?"

"O-okay..."

Water appeared, but it was a bead the size of one's thumb. And it wavered and collapsed. It splashed on the table.

"Again, maybe?"

It started off as the size of her thumb again, but when she tried to correct it, it burst.

Mathias collected the scattered water on the table and used it to massage his back. There were probably different techniques to use, but he did not know of any other than just forcing his will on the element as he thought of how he was doing it. The amount of will determined the amount of mana. He would need to tailor each spell's effects himself, but since he was used to it by now, it was second-nature.

"Let's try it again. Don't try to correct it. Just start small and keep slowly adding mana until it's stable, okay?"

Jennifer tearfully nodded. She did not want to do this, but if she was the only one who failed the test later, it would be even more humiliating.

She kept going. The water orbs either burst when she panicked or just fell apart. Even so, she kept going.

And then it finally grew stable.

It was just the size of her head.

"... Uh, well, let's try again. Try to evenly siphon off some of the-"

"Wait."

"Mathias? What is it?"

Mathias shrugged, playing with the massive ball of ice he created from the spillage. He had no more room left on his back, after all. "It'll dissipate. Spells can't last forever. When it starts to wobble, try to hold it in the same place."

"But... wouldn't that defeat the p-purpose...?"

"Just try it. Lisanna, do mind showing her?"

"Umm, okay? Fire Orb."

Lisanna called out the spell again and demonstrated holding it after it started to collapse. After a couple of seconds, she let it disappear.

Due to the sheer quantity of mana she injected in her spell, Jennifer was waiting a full minute before the orb's artificial lift and surface tension started to give out.

Jennifer was aware of the theory, but to actually control her mana was beyond her, she thought. However, seeing as Lisanna did not really know what else to do besides offering her practise and examples, it was worth a shot.

It stopped wobbling for three seconds.

And it burst.

Mathias collected the water again. "Remember the feeling. Again."

She repeated it, just casting the spell normally. It took another full minute before she could act.

It lasted five seconds this time.

They repeated until she was at ten-seconds.

And then Mathias suggested, "now do the small one."

"Uh... o-okay...? But... hah... fine."

Jennifer shook her head, sending water left-and-right, and tried to repeat it.

It took a few more tries to get an aquatic marble floating in the air. However, it stayed in place for five seconds before collapsing.

"You're getting better," Lisanna commented with a growing smile.

Mathias had long since pulled Lisanna's bag behind him, but she was okay with it since she did not need her books, it seemed.

"A-am I?"

"Yeah. Again."

It took another ten more tries to have the small orb become stable - for as long as Jennifer concentrated. Once the attention was broken, it was collapse. It no longer exploded as frequently, however.

"Now keep the big one up for five minutes."

"Uh... but... okay."

Jennifer nodded and it took her about an hour to get the large orb to remain for five minutes.

"I-I did it!"

It exploded.

While the water was swept into an ever-growing boulder of ice behind Mathias, he gave her a new challenge. "Now make one between the two sizes. Have it hold for ten seconds. Then a minute."

"Uh, uhm... f-fine."

He roughly guessed that there was a two-second delay between a stable formation or amendment before it needed to be refreshed with water spells. Ice did not suffer from that weakness, at least regarding this exercise. Of course, it could be maintained with certain spells that affected the surface tension of the water, but to do it on one's own required a careful application of mana.

From the examples Lisanna showed, he imagined that both fire and wind had an even smaller delay, less than half a second in the case of Lisanna's examples.

His sensitivity to mana was not all that high so he could not be certain, but he did have plenty of time to muse about these things as he waited for Jennifer to finish her task. He even saw the middle-aged woman go around with drinks. She avoided their table, but since there was a high likelihood of the water exploding in her face, and with her messenger lost in the sights of the water orb, she just let them be.

Yet, given that she did not complain about that training, it seemed they picked a good spot.

It took her a half-hour.

And so far they have been here for four hours.

They only had about an hour before the store would close.

"Okay. Now try to flatten the orb into a disc. Lisanna?"

"Uh, okay?" She created a fireball much more effectively than when she first started, not even using a chant after this much practise. It flattened into a disc of pure, scarlet energy. Its colours changed erratically, but it stayed solid.

And then dispersed.

Jennifer bit her lip and summoned the orb again. It was the size of her fist and she tried to flatten as she saw Lisanna do.

It caved inwards too much and popped.

"Do a small one, a medium one, and a big one. Hold them for ten seconds."

Jennifer complied. She succeeded on the first try.

Mathias looked at her said, "if nothing else, you've got the hang of having static control. More fluid, dynamic control will come with practice. Let's take a break."

"But, but she was so close!" Lisanna said.

"Get up early and practise before class with her or something," Mathias said. "Just don't wake up me that early again."

"Uh, fine. But I'm waking you up for breakfast! So you've have another hour or two of sleep - and then you can help us!"

"Wasn't I already? You're the one who was supposed to be in charge. At the very least, it isn't my job."

"Jennifer?"

"I-I'm fine with it..."

Mathias looked at the strange water mage who looked down, still red-faced from her excessive tears of frustration. He knew her control was bad but to just so easily accept the punishment of waking up early? She was definitely a strange breed.

"Don't expect me to do anything," he said gruffly, knowing Lisanna held all the cards when it came to when he was woken up. They shared a room, after all. "It'll be up to you and Lisanna."

Since they were quite close to the counter, the window was quite far away. He pushed open the battered shutters and reached for the ice's mana. He grabbed it from ten feet away, dragging thin veins of it as a time as it slowly siphoned out of the icy boulder, shifted it into water, and sprayed out onto the grass.

He made sure to evenly disperse it, however much of a pain it was. It was just because there was enough to cause compliant if he just suddenly soaked one area enough to promote fairy rings or uneven grass.

If he was aware of how the outside looked, he probably would not have tried so hard.

A figure was looking at him doing the monotonous task reverently. Of course, he also was enraptured by Jennifer's showy skills but seeing the larger scale used of magic by Mathias also intrigued him.

Since the child did not speak, he ignored the boy.

However, he would later be one of the most skilled water mages of his generation due to the constant exposure to the Academy's students frequenting his parents' shop, but that would be many years in the future.

The other students also began cleaning up. Dirt, dust, and stone were swept out to the road, water tidied, and it seemed that the fire mages practised responsibly outside. There was no major issue with their work areas. And the wind mages were even less of a concern.

"Okay! It's getting dark so we have to be getting back!" Ayla shouted.

"We'll be going to the dining hall for a bit if anyone wants to come. We have to get some more food today!"

"Good idea!"

"Yeah, let's go!"

Ayla patted her bulging belly before shrugging. "Yeah, count me in! Thanks again for everything!" She shouted towards the middle-aged couple and the two children. "We'll be back if that's okay with you?"

The husband nodded, the mother spoke to the boy who interpreted, "Ma say good! Come again!"

Wendi ran from the patio, finishing a quick check, and ran towards Ali. She wrapped the toddler in her arms and nuzzled the girl. After several long minutes, she finally said, "bye Ali! I'll come to see you soon!"

The little girl nodded timidly, hid behind her mother's leg as others looked at the separated pair, and waved shyly.

"Awe! Too cute! Ali! I'll come back, I swear!"

The boy hugged Fara, head coming up to about her belly button, and the group finally departed after their first official cake-meeting.

The couple that ran the place finally were given enough money to start the repairs after weeks of constantly digging into their savings after being unsuccessful in marketing due to the language barrier.