Same as me

After lectures were over Deveon stayed in the lecture hall a while. Every student that left the room gave Deveon a glare before leaving. Instructor Gale was still in the room sorting through some papers and taking notes.

During lectures Deveon got a lot of dirty gazes and some murmured some slurs at him but no one attempted to harm him. Instructor Gale didn’t treat him differently from the other students so her class was like a safe zone for Deveon. This brought Deveon some relief. Though students didn’t directly do anything to Deveon during lectures, it was clear they had a strong animosity towards him. Everyone may have left Deveon alone while in instructor Gale’s lecture hall but the same wouldn’t apply for when he left.

After every student left Deveon waited in the room for a few minutes before he decided to leave. When Deveon got out his seat instructor Gale spoke up. “You’re not as dumb as I initially thought.”

Deveon turned to face instructor Gale and bowed. “Thank you for helping me.”

Instructor Gale responded with the same emotionless tone she has whenever speaking to a student. “I didn’t help you with the intent of protecting you. I just don’t tolerate any distractions during my lectures. If you run into any trouble outside don’t expect me to lend you any sort of assistance. I have a neutral stance on all my students.”

Deveon’s face turned glum and blue lines ran down his forehead. “There goes my plan of relying on her outside of class”

“I still appreciate your treatment of me. Are there any other teachers like you in this school?”

Instructor Gale finally looked up at Deveon. Her face was void of emotions. “No. I’m the only teacher who is going to treat you the same as all the other students. Some teachers will actively target you using students with the intent to kill you, while others will use any means necessary to get you to quit, and there are a few like me who wouldn’t care about what happens to you but they will not give you the same treatment as the other students. You’re on your own in this academy so you should relinquish the idea of finding an ally.”

Deveon remained silent for a while. He then bowed and left the lecture hall.

…

After the lecture ended Deveon went straight to his dorm room. Fortunately magic was ineffective on the walls and doors of dorm rooms so Deveon was safe inside his room. That didn’t stop students from dropping by every few minutes to vandalize his door or attempt to break into his room. Deveon ignored everything that happened in his room and sat in his bed treating the bruises he got from students who assaulted him after he left instructor Gale lecture hall earlier. While treating himself Deveon was deep in thought. “I sat through two different lessons today and spent the rest of the day trying to comprehend them, but yet I still don’t understand anything. Instructor Gale sounded like she was speaking a different language. I don’t have the slightest clue as to what any of the terminology she used means. Maybe I should’ve asked her for some more help when she spoke to me after class.”

Deveon put away all the ointments he had in his room and collapsed on his bed.

“If I do that though she’ll probably find out I didn’t take the placements test and my relationship with Saul will be discovered which will lead to Sauls enemies coming after me. That bastard didn’t tell me learning magic will be this difficult. I haven't even started learning yet and I already have numerous problems on my table. Wait, when I talked to Saul that day he mentioned haki. Since I have no idea where to start I’ll start from there.”

Deveon sat upright in his bed and looked out his window.

“It’s finally night. Not many students should be out at this time so it should be safe for me to leave my room. I need a weapon so I’ll head to the armory first.”

Deveon left his room and wandered the campus for a few hours. He avoided every student that he came across. It was much easier to accomplish this since most students were in their dorm room at this hour. The pavements on campus were illuminated by street lamps. Deveon never seen something like this before; he wasn’t used to having such an effective source of light during this hour of the night. Normally the street lamps would pique Deveon’s curiosity and he would try to figure out how they work and why they aren’t used in other places but Devon was too busy trying to find the armory while avoiding other students to even take note of street lamps.

…

Deveon eventually found the school's armory without catching the attention of the other students.

“Saul gave me enough money to survive on my own for a while. I should be able to buy a decent weapon with this amount.”

Deveon took a short from the stands and practiced a few swings with it. Satisfied with the sword he sheetheed it and took it to the front desk.

A burly man sitting there gave Deveon a look.

“Sorry but you can’t afford that”

“What do you mean? I have enough money.”

“This guy is just a servant that takes care of the armory. He should have no reason to cheat me like this.”

“The wrong price is up there. The sword is actually worth one shatter stone now”

Deveon reached into a pouch he had at his side and pulled out a stone that had numerous cracks with a faint green glow running through it. “You mean this?”

“The man who drove me here told me that this was a shatter stone and I shouldn’t carelessly reveal it to anyone. I never got the chance to ask him what a shatter stone is though. And why would Saul add it to the allowance he gave me?”

The burly man’s jaws dropped at the sight of Deveon’s shatter stone. He started to sweat and fumble with his words before he was finally able to get a sentence out. “My sir it's not that I do not wish to sell you the weapon but it’s just that lord Arthur instructed me not to sell you anything. I’m Afraid he’ll cause me trouble if I go against his words; the instructors will surely turn a blind eye to his behavior.”

“Tsk. I thought that bastard was already done with me. What does he gain from hindering me? Should I force him into selling me the sword? No, I’ll probably get punished on the basis of misconduct. I can’t give them a valid reason to go against me.”

Deveon was clearly irritated by the current situation. “Thank you for your time.” He left the sword behind and left the armory.

While Deveon was walking his stomach started growling. “I’m hungry. Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten anything since I got here. My last meal was with that man who dropped me off. I probably can’t get food here cause I’ll be treated the same way I was at the armory. It’s only my second night here and I’m already facing complications after complications. If I want to get something to eat I should probably go to one of the nearby towns.”

Deveon turned around and went back to the armory. He went straight to the burly man at the counter. “How do I get to the nearest town?”

The man looked up at Deveon but did not respond. Deveon was already irked and the man's silence ticked him off more.

“Why, can you not answer my questions either?”

The burly man finally said something. “Ah not it’s not that. Most students have servants that personally take them places if they need to leave the academy but there are carriages that can take students places if they decide not to rely on their family for transportation. These carriages wait at the entrance of the school and there are a limited number of them. Nobody would be there at this time so if you wish to leave you’ll have to wait till tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you for the information.” Deveon turned to leave but was suddenly stopped by the burly man. “Wait, I hear that you're a low class individual like me. I don’t know how you got into this academy but I think it’ll be best for you to not come back. High class despise our kind. I’m sure they all loath the fact you’re attending the same school as them. If you don’t leave of your own will as soon as possible you may not be able to leave safely.” The burly man completely showed his sincerity to Deveon.

“Thank you. I appreciate your kind words but there’s something I have to complete and this school is the only place I know where to start from.” Deveon took his leave.

…

Deveon was lying to his bed. He safely got back to his room without being spotted by other students.

“Tomorrow I have class but there’s no point in me going since I don’t understand the lessons. Instructor Gale said how student’s use their time is up to them so she won’t complain about me skipping her class. I’ll go to town tomorrow and get the equipment I need. From there I'll try to learn about haki since that’s the only clue I have regarding magic. Haki will be the start of my road to mastering magic. Just you wait, Saul, I’ll make you regret what you did.”