For a brief amount of time the dining roomed seemed to be frozen in time as everyone couldn’t believe what they had just seen, the smell of delicious food wafted in the air paired with all kinds of side dishes but no one was eating other then David who had stopped eating after he noticed how odd everyone was behaving.

David didn’t think the reason they were so shocked was because he had used his mana to move those dishes to the table, he had no idea what he had just done as he merely thought of his actions as child blade in wizards eyes as the only thing he learned was the book about basic mana control which he thought of as elementary.

In fact David was right to think that the book was on the elementary level, but because something is basic doesn’t mean you could look down on it, simple things maybe simple, but they are hard to master, no one knew this concept better then wizards which is why they were so shocked.

The level of skill David had demonstrated was something even the teachers were hard pressed to replicate as what David did was not only raise objects with his mana but also raise multiple of them at the same time in different directions and intervals, Cassandra the entire time tried to count everything David had raised with his mana and as she counted she realized that David was able to raise over 50 objects with his mana which was ridiculous as that required a unimaginable amount of skill in multitasking and division of mind, even Cassandra could at most raise only 25 objects at the same time which was commendable for a melee fighter like her while Vanessa could at best raise 40 if she really concentrated still nowhere near the amount David had just shown.

And in regards to Valentia and Syndra who were already second years who each were individually already rank 1 wizards, even they could only raise 3 to 5 objects at the same time and they were considered gifted for that.

Though saying they were gifted in front of someone like David was like comparing a star to a sun, meaning nowhere near the same level.

Everyone understood this, the only one who didn’t was David, everyone had loads of questions too but couldn’t sort them all even if they tried making them simply blankly look at David making him feel uncomfortable.

Of course the silence had to be broken at some point, the wooden golem who came in to deliver the food had no thoughts about the dishes flying to the table and placing themselves as it wasn’t a living being to begin but a mere robot, which is why as soon as all the dishes were on the table the golem pulled the cart and exited the room, the golem was fast and efficient but even it could not stop the door from making a sound as it exited waking everyone from their stupor as they started asking questions in a machine gun manner.

-How did you do that?!

-You were actually a rank 4 wizard the entire time right?!

-You can’t be a commoner! Tell us the truth you are the imperial prince of some powerful empire right?!

-I only ever heardz of zis level of mana control in legendz…do you zave connectionz to zose legendz?!

-I knew you were given a scholarship for how gifted you were, but no one told me you were the child of god.

-Makes sense though, they say god only sees the good in everyone and doesn’t see their faces, if he is the child of god he sure possesses the mindset.

Comments and questions like these came flying at him non-stop, David didn’t know what to do to them or how to answer them, he didn’t even understand where all this was coming from in the first place which is why David couldn’t say anything, and quickly enough David’s prolonged silence seemed to calm them as their questions weren’t yielding any answers, for a moment they thought that they were scaring or overwhelming David with their constant questioning which was scary and a bit rude, luckily they realized that fast enough and tried to give David some space, but amongst them observing his expression only Vanessa seemed to understand what was going on as she suddenly asked.

-David…could it be that you actually aren’t aware of why we are so excited and amazed by you right now?

Hearing Vanessa’s question everyone else seemed to momentarily come to a certain realization, again they were reminded that David was a commoner meaning he wouldn’t have access to magical knowledge through normal means, and even he himself admitted to Cassandra that he had no knowledge about magic other than knowing how to control his mana, but no matter how you look at it this statement was weird, it was as if a person explained to you that he knew how to run but not how to walk, what kind of logic was that? And it isn’t even accounting to the fact that David somehow learned how to control mana even though he had just turned 15, obviously David must have practiced how to control his mana before he was 15 but how did he accomplish that without damaging his soul?

All kinds of illogical things were happening in regards to David, his entire being was illogical and for the first time the girls thought that out of all of them he was the real oddball.

Again David knew none of that, and upon hearing Vanessa he quickly tried to explain himself, telling everyone what he did when the person who gave him the scholarship and a book about mana control, which is assumed to be the headmistress, and how he practiced every day for the past decade.

Having only a single book about mana control David quickly went through the entire book to the point he could remember it by memory alone, since he didn’t have any other book and neither could procure one his studies ended at this point, trying to find a way to continue improving his magical abilities forced David to instead make his own conclusions about magic and practice by himself, using the beginner book as a base he simply started again from the beginning and increased the difficulty of the exercises by increasing the quantity instead.

What David hoped for was for quantity to induce some kind of qualitative change in him.

If previously he only made a single pen levitated then next time he levitated 2 if 2 was too easy he again increased it to 3 or 4, so on and so forth with every single exercise until he was able to do it.

He didn’t do it to levitation either, he also did other things like creating bigger or more detailed images to the point he could make illusions of himself, of others and objects too, create extremely big and bright lights like stars, summon forth flames that stretched 5 meters and or influence his surroundings.

Levitating 50 objects was by no means David’s limit at all, he could do much more than that, but looking at their expression David wasn’t sure if he really should tell them the truth and kept that to himself instead.

He did demonstrate his other abilities thought like creating a life like illusion of himself that he could control inducing another round of gasps from everyone, Syndra in particular seemed to be thinking about something as she couldn’t help but say.

-David…why didn’t use your abilities back then to fight off those scum? With that level of control you could have easily dispatched them with just a move of your finger like making a rock fly at them at high speeds or touching them with your flames, you could have even escaped with your illusion or even just scared them by creating a big monster…why didn’t you do any of that?

Syndra’s question pulled the attention of everyone the moment she mentioned scum, they didn’t know what she was talking about as Syndra hadn’t told anyone about the incident yet wanting to keep that between herself and David, but at this moment she really wanted to know which why she asked.

-Scum?…Now that you say that, you mentioned yesterday that you saved David from trouble which is why he wanted to thank you ending up with you two spending a lot of time together…I didn’t know that public safety in Ravennest got so bad that some random street rats would have the gall to mess with a student from Ravenwing…

-They…they weren’t street thugs or anything…in fact from what I saw I think they were fairly new to the city, I assume they are mercenaries or adventurers who came to city by a request or something…the leader of that group in fact looked to be someone from the Iron blood empire.

-?!

The moment Syndra that last part Hyura’s expression clearly crunched down as her eyes narrowed into a dangerous slit, she didn’t look angry or anything, but rather concerned and sort of offended.

-Senior Syndra…are you sure about what you just said?

Syndra sighed at that aggressive sounding question by Hyura, this being another reason why she didn’t want to make this incident public as she had someone like Hyura living with her who had a fairly problematic personality and background, mentioning anything about the Iron Blood empire was usually enough to incite a lot of emotion out of Hyura depending on what you said, her reputation in fact was built on this quirk of hers as she treated the people who praised the empire very nicely while those who didn’t hold a high opinion of the empire were treated not that nicely seeing that half of them were usually send to the infirmary for insulting the empire in front of Hyura.

This adamant sense of patriotism by Hyura was at first very strange to the people living in this dorm as they were all usually treated coldly by everyone their entire lives no matter if it was their countrymen or other people causing everyone to not have a strong connection to their country.

How Hyura had such a strong connection was a bit weird for them, but soon enough they realized that Hyura actually didn’t have any kind of patriotism towards her country at all, they realized this after Hyura was once insulted by another student who mocked the red hair and eyes of the people of the Iron Blood empire comparing them to blood sucking vampires, at that time everyone was sure that Hyura would sock that student, but instead surprisingly she did nothing as she didn’t seem to care at all, she only reacted after that very student started insulting the empire in general also sending that person into the infirmary which was the main reason why Hyura ended up staying in this dorm.

For what reason Hyura socks people over their heads is unknown, but everyone knew that it wasn’t because she loved her country, in fact sometimes it seemed like she really despised the empire as she wasn’t easy to her own countrymen either looking at them with disdain and general dislike as they did towards her, she had already frequently send them into the infirmary as well making it so that there was simply no good blood to be had between them.

Hyura herself never stated what was up with her, and no one asked either as they all respected each other’s privacy and generally liked one another as well, though because of this sometimes it was difficult for a person to talk to Hyura about the empire without knowing what exactly triggered her, there were a few incidents were a student tried to make a obvious light hearted joke at the empires expense only to be brutally bashed by Hyura at the next second, nobody wanted to be in the receiving end of such hit which is why nobody mentions the empire in front of Hyura just to be safe.

Syndra like everyone else knew this and tried to be as far away as possible from talking about the empire to Hyura while talking about everything else.

She wasn’t scared of Hyura in particular as Syndra was confident she could take on Hyura who couldn’t use magic, but even then Hyura was still a scary opponent as she had unnatural amount of strength that rivaled Valentia’s she also frequently sparred with the former knight/professor Cassandra who praised Hyura’s close-combat ability.

In the end Syndra was successfully able to explain everything without triggering Hyura, in turn Hyura took this news in a very ponderous manner while everyone else just stayed out of this minefield choosing to not comment on anything while trying to go back to David who was much more interesting.

Going back to David and Syndra’s original question, it was true that David could have dealt with the rogues using his mana control, but the thing was some things were easier said than done and in this case it was truly all David’s fault as it was his inadequate ability to calm himself and think rationally that made him a easy target.

-I…I am not much of a fighter, and I admit I got scared when they suddenly pulled me in, my confusion caused me to momentarily forget what I could do which is why I froze…

His hesitant and slightly shameful explanation seemed to make a lot of sense as everyone sympathized with David, Cassandra in fact tried to David by saying that having power and having the ability to use it are completely different things and that David shouldn’t be ashamed of not being able to use it.

Syndra also started to think that maybe she shouldn’t have said what she did and made David feel uncomfortable about himself, she worried that maybe David now liked her less, while in reality David didn’t really think about it like that and instead was a bit thankful for Syndra to point it out and let him realize his flaws like that.

He couldn’t stay like this forever after all, he came to become a wizard in this school, he couldn’t imagine that a weak minded wizard ever existed, his image of a wizard was powerful and dauntless he wanted to be just like that even if he didn’t like to pursue combat.

At this point having made everything clear, the group was once again down on their high of excitement, they still had a lot to think about in regards to David after listening to him, in the meantime Vanessa decided that as a teacher it was her duty to enlighten David about wizards and magic in general, how normal people used it and what the rules were.

David listened intently for the first time gaining some real practical concrete knowledge he yearned for some many years, but as soon as he finished listening to everything and digested the newly acquired knowledge he couldn’t help but think.

-(I really am a oddball huh?…)

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If you want to read more, over 10 chapters of this series is on my site https://kakemonoko.wordpress.com/ please check it out if you like.