Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 7

It doesn’t take long to reach our next class, which is Meditation, but when we do, we find a strange scene inside of the classroom.

Okay, what’s going on…?

In the front of the classroom, a man in a military uniform – likely our instructor – is… arm wrestling with a cadet…?

What the hell?

The man I’m assuming is the instructor is tall, with quite a bit of muscle on him that’s rather poorly hidden by his uniform as he laughs and utterly annihilates the cadet in the arm wrestle before stepping back and calling out, “Who’s next! C’mon!” with a pretty strong accent; one marking him as likely from the Kingdom of the Fallen.

As I’m taking in the man’s appearance that is the stark opposite of what you’d expect of a Meditation class instructor, Muscles walks up to him with a grin on his face. It isn’t until they’ve already clasped hands that I notice the lack of any groupies surrounding the kid.

First it was Rebecca, and now it’s him? Do groupies like that just not last long in the academy or something?

My thoughts go back to when Instructor Leo mentioned something about us not being suck-ups.

Does that happen at the beginning of every new year or something?

Maybe having a high status isn’t as important as I had thought here…

Because that would be wonderful, considering the people I’m teamed up with.

I glance at Rebecca before making a mental note to ask her about it later as I focus on the two muscle-heads again.

The instructor has a surprisingly long beard for someone in his… late twenties? Early thirties?

Not sure, but still young.

Although I’m not really one to call him young considering that I’m only eighteen.

My face begins to slip into a frown as I remember my current appearance before I shake my head.

At least the disease seemed to skip straight past the rest of puberty and didn’t just lock me into that. Because it would have sucked to live for forever in puberty.

Anyways, my eternally youthful appearance aside, Muscles actually puts up a decent fight against the instructor before getting beaten.

The instructor begins laughing rather boisterously, only to stop as he notices me and the others behind me.

“You!” he says while pointing at Aidan with a large grin, “Come over here an face me!”

Aidan – just as expected – gets a grin of his own before rolling up his sleeves, revealing the muscles that were hidden pretty well underneath as he rushes over shouting, “Hell yeah!”

I just silently shake my head at his actions before going to my usual seat in the back; the same one I’ve taken in all of my classes so far. That have had this seating arrangement that is. Considering how my Magical Warfare class didn’t have seats at all.

Anyways, as I’m sitting down, I look down at the instructor and Aidan as they begin their arm wrestling match.

Aidan’s always been pretty big on working out. In fact, he’s even the one who got me into doing it as well back around the beginning of our eighth grade year.

I glance at my arms before rolling up the sleeves and looking at the muscle on it for a few seconds, only to roll it back down again as I lean my head on my arms while focusing on their arm wrestling match.

That’s something I really am thankful for. Considering that it made me stuck like this, with a well-fit body.

I’m by no means as bulky as a body-builder, but I do have plenty of muscle. Even if I’d be rather skinny without it.

If I hadn’t been working out for years before getting the disease, then I would never have been fit enough to actually fight, much less hold a sword or a gun in combat. Not when I can’t gain or lose any muscle.

Although, technically, I can lift more if I want to feel a lot of pain in the process of doing it. After all, I can force myself to lift way too much without any regard to my muscles safety, ripping them completely in the process just for them to repair themselves again.

But that hurts like hell, and I would rather avoid doing that.

My thoughts are interrupted as the instructor begins speaking again, “Aight, class’s should be startin now, so get to yer seats!”

All of the cadets begin to climb the stairs to find their seats, meanwhile Aidan comes and sits next to Sophia instead of me this time.

“Man, that guy’s strong!” Aidan says with a hint of envy in his eyes as he looks at the man.

Yeah, you’re plenty strong yourself.

“Now, some of you may be wondrin why it is a man,” he pauses here to place his fingers spread out against his chest, “as wondrful as meself,” he then points towards us and finishes, “would be teachin you all a class like Meditation!”

He pauses here as the cadets all look between each other and him, only to spread his arms out wide and exclaim, “It’s because of a wondrful order given ta me on high by a lovely lady known as Alexis!”

Okay, so someone has a flare for-

“And ya know what she’n said?” the instructor asks, pulling his arms in to rub his beard before nodding his head as if what he is about to say is some sort of sage advice. “She’n said that – because I was late to pickin ma classes – this was the only class left for me ta teach this semester!”

-the dramatics…

Seriously?

The man then just shrugs and adds, “Aside from ma other two courses that is.”

Wait, what?

I hear chuckling coming from several corners of the classroom as various students fail to hold in their laughter – Aidan and Sophia included.

This instructor… is probably the strangest one I’ve seen yet at the academy.

“Aight, now that you’re all with me up here,” the instructor says while pointing at his head, “we can get down to the introductions!”

He then bows low to the ground and says, “Ma name is Vilgeirr Thorn, I’m a Class D magician makin ma way up to Class C soon enough,” he raises his head again and finishes with a large grin, “Is nice meetin you all!”

Wait, he’s getting close to becoming a Class C magician? That’s actually pretty impressive.

Although then again, he’d have to be something for the Republic to take in a refugee from the disaster-stricken Kingdom of the Fallen.

That aside, the guy is kind of funny. And he seems like a pretty nice guy, which is a rarity in the upper echelons of the Republic’s military.

“Now,” he begins, his face taking on a slightly more serious look, “this class’ll be teachin you all how to meditate properly to relax yer heart, yer mind, and yer mana arcs. Doin this will help you regenerate yer mana at a faster pace, which, as you all should know, can save yer life in the right situation.”

Once he finishes speaking, he practically stomps his foot on the ground, causing a large, tree-green spell circle to appear in front of him, followed by a portal just like the other instructor’s portals. Except with this one only having a single portal, with vines making up the edges of it as a couple dozen more vines leave the portal with books that are each placed in front of a cadet.

“Buuut,” the instructor says, drawing out the word before stomping his foot again to make all of the vines and the portal vanish, “yer gonna have to read through this first.”

I alternate between staring at the large book in front of me and the instructor before changing my opinion of the man a little.

This might take a while.