A disciple.
Jamie heard something absurd.
It wasn’t like he didn’t have such a thought. Raising a disciple is the same as taking one to his side.
However, the deprivation, anger and sadness that he felt when the disciples turned their backs on him was unbearable.
Of course, it wasn’t just the disciple who betrayed him. There were a whole lot others who left him.
The child which comes to his mind when he looked at Ann, Sia Another was such a person. She was a good child who always took care of what her teacher wanted and followed what was told.
But the 12 Gods took everything from Diablo Volfir as if they didn’t want him to be happy.
They mobilized all sorts of frivolous measures, stimulated greed and dug traps and even took hostages.
As a result, Diablo was left alone.
What happened after that was the 4th War and Diablo, who was defeated, met Venus the King of the Dark World and created black mana in the Shadow World.
Even now, he vividly remembers that time he made the black mana.
‘For me alone. To kill the 12 Gods with my own power.’
He didn’t want a disciple or a companion. He moved with determination.
It didn’t turn out well, but Jamie was sure he would make the same choice if he went back.
He was deeply hurt during that time. And Siegfried asked Jamie to make Ann his disciple.
It must have been a joke, but it was a sincere offer too.
“Disciple…”
Ann’s situation was indeed unfortunate, but after a while she too will decide what to do. He didn’t have to think much.
After all, he was only going to stay here for a month. After that, he wouldn’t even hear about this academy.
He walked to his house as he thought so.
A week had passed since the start of a new school year. The day for practice class arrived.
Ann glanced at Lennon, who was sitting at the far end.
A week ago, on the way back from asking Jamie to clear her doubts, Lennon asked her.
‘How did you do it?’
Thinking it was a pure question, Ann showed the magic circle and Lennon screamed as he saw it.
After that, he didn’t even talk to her. He continued to ignore her even when she spoke to him.
“Looking at him again?”
The person next to her, Finn, asked as he sat down.
Ann nodded her head.
“Don’t worry~ he is going to the high school level next month. He has a talent different from ours. You will feel deprived if you care too much.”
Finn’s advice didn’t help her, yet Ann smiled knowing that he was speaking this for her.
“But, my condition has improved a lot these days. Even when I wake up in the morning, I feel full of energy and concentrate better than usual and I think I can do better in practice today.”
“You will do fine.”
“I should be in middle school by now.”
Finn was too old to be here. He was probably the oldest student in this class.
In fact, Finn did receive other offers and they said that magic doesn’t have to be his career.
“Slowly, my form is improving. I’ll show the adults who ignored me that they were wrong.”
“Yes. You can do it!”
“You too, take it up. You are such a smart kid, you need to do better than me.”
“… anyone who sees us will know that you are a lot older than me.”
“That is true.”
The two looked at each other and smiled. And then the teacher in charge of the class appeared.
“Did everyone have a good time off?”
“Yes!”
In response to the lively students, the teacher walked in with a smile. Today’s practice was going to be the amount of mana evaluation.
It was to check the mana level through ‘Magic Arrow’, which was 1st class magic.
This was a once-a-year assessment held at the beginning of each semester.
“Shall we check how much everyone has grown over the year?”
All the students looked nervous. It wasn’t just a matter of confirming their mana level. Based on this, their future classes will be decided.
It was no exaggeration to say that one’s academic life depended on their mana.
“Heon, come out.”
A little girl named Heon walked to the training centre with a nervous expression.
Standing in front of the panel which measures the mana and hitting the targets with the easiest Magic Arrow attack.
However, it seemed like the psychological pressure was too much.
‘Heon has already been in the same class for 2 years…’
Heon was 10 years old, the same as Ann. She was assigned to the Alpha class from the beginning as she was judged to be talented, but 2 years later, she was still here.
It was a disappointing situation considering that those in Alpha were known to have amazing growth.
So today’s results were important.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
Heon nodded with a nervous expression on her face and aimed at the target with the index finger of her right hand.
Supporting it with the left hand, she began to use mana.
The teacher glanced at that with cold eyes and started to write her evaluation. The sound of something being written placed a burden on Heon.
‘I’ll be fine.’
She worked harder than anyone during her vacation.
This time she will surely graduate and move up. Just like the other classmates who were with her.
Heon clenched her teeth and focused mana on her index finger.
The blue light flashed once, and the arrow of mana went and hit the target.
Pusk!
The target shook and then came the beeping sound.
Several numbers changed on the display.
[328MP]
MP meant Mana points, the amount of mana contained in the Magic arrow.
“It’s 328MP… compared to last year, you have a 20MP rise. You did go up, but need to work a little harder.”
At those words from the teacher, Heon went back to her seat with a frustrated face.
20MP wasn’t a small number, but when it came to her growth, the 20MP rise was nothing to her.
“Next, Flore.”
One by one, students moved.
Some achieved tremendous results in 1 year and some were like or worse than Heon.
In such a situation, the teacher called out one name.
“Lennon Simon. Come on.”
“Yes.”
Lennon stood which brought everyone’s eyes towards him.
The second son of one of the most famous magicians of the kingdom. And the news that he would move to the high school level had already spread among the class.
Some looked at him with envy and jealousy while the others just stared.
Lennon, who came to the place, turned to the teacher.
“You are the second son of Elder Simon? Nice to meet you.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Should we have a cup of tea after practice?”
Lennon frowned.
Wherever he went, most people who approached him were teachers and students for the sake of his family name.
Lennon frowned and looked at the target. And after focusing mana on the index finger and aiming…
Bang!!
The target exploded.
The teacher looked at the smashed target with absurd eyes.
Brrrr- was how the panel screamed.
[2,199MP]
Lennon’s mana was way above the students here.
“I’ll head back.”
As if it was nothing special, Lennon went back to his seat with an annoyed look on his face and saw Ann.
She was looking at the panel with her mouth covered and eyes wide open.
But Lennon was more annoyed with this.
’Stupid woman.
She didn’t even know that she had the ability to follow stuff right away and was superior to others. Which made her seem like a dog and Lennon was more annoyed about it.
“… that was so insane.”
Finn mumbled, covering his mouth with his hand.
Ann too felt the same way. The mana arrow which was shot destroyed the target. And as if that wasn’t enough, it went over 2,000P.
Of all the students in this place, there was no student who could rise to this level.
Their levels were different. So she had other thoughts.
‘But why is he being like that towards…’
She couldn’t understand it.
Lennon had talent which she didn’t.
And despite her life here, she couldn’t even be of any help to Lennon. Rather, she was in a position where she had to look annoyed at Lennon
She was confused.
“Finn. Come on.”
Finn was called and he gave a thumbs up to her.
“Wish me luck. I feel like I can do well today.”
“Yes. Yes.”
Finn walked with light steps.
Finn had seen the performance of Lennon, and it was burdensome that the talent had such a huge gap. No, actually this psychological pressure tormented him till a few days back.
Right, but disappeared once he took the Apophis X.
‘It’s a good medicine. So I will be able to do well today.’
Finn smiled and aimed for the target.
Swosh, a blue arrow flew.
Bang!!
The target wasn’t smashed like Lennon, but it made a loud enough sound.
The students who were looking at Lennon now looked at Finn. And with a moment’s silence came the score on the panel.
[860MP]
“Woaaah!”
Finn shouted as the results appeared.
It was a far smaller number compared to Lennon, but the students were all shocked as they knew what Finn was previously like.
The teacher too seemed to be in shock as he said.
“… Finn. You put in a lot of effort. You are 700MP up this time.”
It was an unbelievable rise.
Ann looked at Finn more shocked than she was at Lennon’s score.
Finn returned to his seat and asked Ann.
“Saw that? I did it. so you can do it too.”
Finn’s eyes were round and glazed.
Like being addicted to something…
“Ann!”
“Ann! Why do you look blank all of a sudden?”
Ann was awakened by the calls of someone and jumped up.
“Y-yes!”
“Your turn now.”
Ann rushed to the centre.
‘Must be an illusion.’
Finn did work hard. For a better today than yesterday, for a better tomorrow than today.
The growth was incredible but considering it was a result of hard work, this didn’t seem impossible.
‘I worked hard too.’
“Start.”
Ann was all set and fired the magic arrow.
And the number was.
[247P]
Not much different from last year.
