On their way to the practice stadium, Wisteria walked in front to lead the group.

"Wis! Wis!" Valerian and Violet's voices came from behind, "Is there anything that you're afraid of?"

"Something I'm afraid of?" He questioned, "Could you give me an example?"

"Like roaches or heights!" Valerian replied.

Wisteria knew what they were after.

"Hmm..." He gave it a thought, "You mean like those small crawling animals, like mice and rats, right?"

"Hm. Okay~" They shrugged their shoulders and slowed down their pace, putting themselves behind the protagonist trio.

Now, being closest to the Fleur and the two male leads, he could hear Lupin and Admon holding down their bickering as to not disturb those around them... to no avail.

He gave a quick glance behind, and as expected, the two male leads argued shoulder by shoulder, leaving Fleur walking by herself in front of them. She seemed to be spacing out on her own, as if she had grown accustomed to it. In Wisteria's eyes, this wasn't the scenario he had imagined Fleur Alabaster to be in. He had always pictured her being harmoniously surrounded by the male leads and the twins, not like... this.

Wisteria had originally planned to build a wall between the novel's main characters and himself, especially Fleur. That way, he could prevent his personal involvement with their upcoming tension with the Necromancer. However, the sight of the protagonist walking on her own amidst a crowd of people reminded him of himself from his past-life.

He exhaled silently and gave himself a pityingly look.

"Fleur," He finally turned and smiled, "I heard from the professors that you started using magic not that long ago, is that true?"

Having heard her name, she automatically returned a polite smile, "That's true. On my last year at the academy, a classmate was gravely injured and I was able to heal them. But I haven't been able to use that magic since then... I'm not as talented as everyone here..."

"I see." He nodded understandingly, "Although the average magic-user is able to manifest their Mana at the same time they start puberty, it doesn't mean that those who start later are less talented. It's just that they didn't get as much time as the others to practice. Besides, the dean saw potential in your skills, which is why you're in this class! So, don't feel discouraged. It's never too late, and I'm here to guide you all!"

"Thank you." Her eyes brightened up, smiling.

"Mm." He smiled back, feeling inexplicably nostalgic.

The class whispered among themselves as they made their way into the large, empty stadium. Its appearance was that of a regular sports stadium, including a wall of elevated seats for audiences and a track field surrounding a grassed field in the center. The only difference was that right above them was a large translucent dome, in which an activated rune traveled throughout the surface. The practice stadium was the best location for athletes and magic-users to practice without limiting their powers, since it was thoroughly protected by barrier- and self-maintenance-runes.

"Okay," Wisteria clapped his hands once, "So, the assessment will comprise of a one-on-one challenge against me. While I am testing one of you, the rest will have one of my Mana-dummies to practice on the side. So, who wants to go first?"

"We--"

"I'll go." Admon raised his hand, cutting before Violet and Valerian.

"Not fair, we said it first..." Valerian complained.

"Admon raised his hand first, so he'll go first." Wisteria forced a smile, "You two can go second."

"Didn't you say it'd be one-on-one? How come they'll go together?" Lupin asked from the side.

"It's not your business." Violet replied.

"You're not even part of the class." Valerian added.

"Well, that's a good question." Wisteria answered quickly before it turned into another argument, "Violet's and Valerian's magic works best when they work together, so I'll allow them to go as a pair."

------Piiiiii------

"Also, Violet, Valerian," He transmitted his voice through Mana directly to the twins, softening his tone, "Lupin received permission to observe the class, so please give him a break, alright?"

Although he felt bad for speaking to them as if they were children, he didn't expect Violet and Valerian, who were only a year younger than him, to nod like two children themselves, "Okay..."

"??" Lupin raised his eyebrow, confused by the twin's sudden response.

"Okay! So, while Admon duels with me, all of you can move to the other side of the stadium and practice with these---" As he finished his instructions, he stretched his arm out and faced his palm towards the ground. His Mana poured down like a viscous liquid, coagulating onto the floor. Slowly, the blob of Mana divided into four blobs, which then turned into four short, round, and stubby version of Wisteria himself, their eyes drawn as simple dots and a curved line as a mouth.

"They're mini Wis!" Valerian exclaimed.

"So cute! Is one mine?" Violet asked.

"Yes, one each. The dummies should be able to detect what type of magic you use and adapt accordingly."

"Okay!" Violet and Valerian skipped towards the other side of the stadium, holding the Wisteria plushies (?) in their arms.

"Wisteria," Fleur raised her hand, looking troubled, "My magic is not the offensive type, so what will I do instead."

"Right. As for your assessment, it will be a little different from the rest, so for now just focus on emitting Mana into your palm." He pointed his finger to his dummy and--SLASH!-- the dummy received several cut-like openings on it's arms. "And try healing the dummy's injuries. We'll talk more when it's your turn."

"Alright. Thank you, Wisteria." She smiled and took hold of the dummy's hand, walking along the dummy towards the other side of the stadium.

Meanwhile, he saw Lupin following behind Fleur, leaving his Wisteria-dummy on his lonesome.

"Lupin!" Wisteria shouted at the already far away young man. He ran towards the lonely dummy and with a kick, he sent his dummy flying towards Lupin.

"!!!" Lupin placing his hand on the hilt of his sword, "The hell!?"

"Catch it! Don't attack it yet! If you attack, it'll attack back!"

Following his directions, he withdrew his hands form the hilt and caught the flying Wisteria-dummy with one hand.

As expected of the best swordsman in the kingdom!

"I'm not part of the class, though!" Lupin shouted.

"That's fine! Just have fun!" He waved his hand.

Lupin was speechless, but obediently took his dummy under his arm.

Wisteria nodded and smiled happily. He wanted to give Lupin opportunities to grow as well, because if he's able to avoid fighting the Necromancer, it would be up to Lupin and Admon to fight him off. Besides, Lupin was the male lead he liked the most when he read the novel, hoping the protagonist would end up with him.

But at the end...

After the rest of the class had been dismissed, it was finally time to focus on his first student to assess, Admon.

Wisteria hovered several steps behind, placing a large distance between Admon and himself. At the same time, the moment he stepped on the ground, an opaque wall of Mana formed in the middle of the stadium, blocking the view from both sides.

"Now that we are set, let's get started. The only thing you have to do is try to make me move from this spot."

"Got it." Admon didn't waste any time, and firmly stomped on the ground. The shadows under his feet stretched like rubber, aiming straight at the target.

Wisteria already knew what kind of magic Admon and the rest of the class had since it was constantly mentioned in the novel. His only disadvantage was that he didn't know their exact level.

"Shadow Manipulation!" Wisteria announced, feigning surprise, "That's pretty rare."

Although Admon was very skilled, Wisteria had no difficulty to repel every wiping and slashing coming from all directions. It was easy to repel Shadow Manipulation if one mastered Light Manipulation, which at that moment, only Sage-level sorcerers could use. All Wisteria had to do was make himself a light source, so shadows wouldn't be able to get near.

Seeing no effect, Admon rushed closer to his new instructor. He extended his arms forward, pressing his palms together. Then, as he drew his arms apart, a blanket-like shadow formed between them. He grasped the shadow-blanket in his hands, and prepared to drape the blanket over Wisteria.

Wisteria didn't move, simply complementing Admon's superb skills in his mind. He created an item with his own shadow! Very good!

---Whoosh---

The shadow blanket fell over him, enveloping him within. As a result, as he, the light source, became covered by the light-absorbing blanket, the shadows around him successfully wrapped around him into a dark cocoon.

Admon smiled at the success, and swung his arm to the side, commanding the shadows to pull.

"!!"

To his surprise, the shadows didn't budge and ripped instead. Admon tried once and twice again, but to no avail. He could only watch as rays of light pierced through the shadow cocoon, then bursting with a small explosion.

Wisteria reminded standing on the same spot, the shadows now slowly dissipating.

"..." Admon gritted his teeth.

"Can you keep going, Admon?" Wisteria asked.

"No..."

"That's okay, you did great!" Wisteria commented as he walked closer to him, "I was impressed that you were able to make an item using your shadows! Not only was the blanket able to absorb light, it even had a nice, soft texture! That was amazing!"

Admon forced a smile, "Thank you..."

"Do you mind if I take a look at your Mana?"

"Sure." He extended his arm forward, forming a rotating sphere of Mana over his palm.

Wisteria inspected the Mana, and as he thought, Admon still had enough strength to fight him a few more times.

Wisteria knew that Admon had a complex with his magic from reading the novel. He grew up trying to hide his magic as much as possible, since many associated Shadow Manipulation with the Necromancer, even though the Necromancer's magic had nothing to do with shadows. That's why he built his personality as someone well-tempered and gentle, concealing negative emotions from showing publicly.

"Alright. Thank you." Wisteria said, "And, I'm being honest when I said your magic was impressive. I had to use quite a lot of Mana to counter your magic!"

"Thank you." Admon said, unmoved, "Which areas do I need to improve?"

"From what I saw today, your magic was flawless. Plus, your magic-affinity is well tuned with your body. So, what do you think if we work on leveling up your overall skills, such as trying to build other stuff using shadows?"

"That sounds good."

"Is there anything else you want to work on?" Wisteria asked.

"No."

"Alright." Wisteria forced a smile, "Then, you can go ahead and call Violet and Valerian to come in. In the meantime, you can use their dummies."

"Alright. Thank you."

Wisteria watched Admon walk away dejectedly. In the novel, Admon was shown to envy Wisteria for being skilled with Mana-type magic despite being two years younger. The Wisteria of the novel also didn't do much to improve his relationship with Admon, since he only focused his time with Fleur.

Though, the current Wisteria didn't want to leave things like that. He had to think of a way to helping Admon overcome his complexes so he could reach his full potentials as the first male lead!

Meanwhile, Violet and Valerian entered.