3-7: Hope

Leonard’s Point of View

My duties at the academy were varied. Currently, I was improving an advanced barrier spell used at the academy to protect various objects, and one that allowed a barrier to be placed around the entire academy, thus preventing monsters from entering.

“And…ready.”

“Thanks for the help Leonard.”

“Doing this kind of barrier is something easy for me, and helping it’s my job in this academy.”

“It's hard to believe that I'm your math teacher.”

“I appreciate your efforts.”

“Do you want something as a pay?”

“I’m gonna skip today's class with Maria, I hope that is not a problem.”

“Don’t worry, I owe you this.”

With that settled down, I went to an empty classroom that is usually locked and unlocked the door. It was like an office for me.

“...Again, zero progress…”

I went to the desk assigned to the teacher and picked a lot of papers from below. Those papers contained information about every single student from the academy.

“None of them are at the required level…”

“Excuse me.”

“Hmm? Oh, it’s just you…”

The person who entered was the only one I totally trust, it’s called Maria, but I call her Mary. She took a chair and sat in front of me, also looking at the papers.

“Still anything?”

“Yeah, there’s no student with the qualities I am looking for.”

“You could try to analyze a teacher.”

“We need young people…”

“What is the age of our youngest teacher?”

“Thirty…”

I shuffled the papers just to try literally anything, but of course, that didn’t help. Trying to cheer me up, Mary gave me some bread she probably brought for herself.

“You know? Maybe you could try searching for people with less power.”

“That would be pointless, I already give the chance to weak people, why do you think I created the challenge rule and the status system?”

“True..”

At first I thought it would be a great idea showing to everyone that they can face me and even try to defeat me by developing their own potential. But everyone who fights against me never tries for a second time, the opposite of what I wanted.

“You could try to develop even more of your magic. Your illusions are amazing.”

“I can’t reach the level you need…”

“...”

That way of seeing things was precisely what I upsetted me. When I met her, she was a lot more shiny. She was with me in the advanced class and our grades were almost the same. But when we approached more, she slowly started to try less. Her grades went down now being the number five in your class. She even put herself in a low place of our hierarchy instead of being at my side. I can still remember the face she had in those days…

“We still have time, the year is long.”

“And what will happen once I leave here? They'll lose their best student...No, they'll lose their best magician...”

I had two principal worries, and one was that this place depends too much on me. They always refer to me as the future of magic, but they settled down in that idea too much. If everyone had the same talent, this place wouldn’t need me. But, the world is unfair.

“What about…”

“Who?”

“You know, that guy you defeated…The kid of the strings.”

“Him? I admit it, he could be a prodigy like me, but I’m not looking for people like him.”

“What is wrong with choosing him?”

“From the start I noticed that his body is different. I don’t want special people, I want normal people that can reach me with their own efforts, not prodigies that can do amazing things just because they were born that way.”

“I can’t think of anything else…”

“You’re doing your best too. If it wasn’t for you, all this information wouldn’t be here…”

The time never stopped, and the teachers always remembered that to me, asking me what I’m going to do after graduation or if I’m gonna stay in the kingdom next year. I have my own plans, but I can’t start them knowing that the people from future years will be mediocre or just good.

“We need something…Just a tiny miracle…”

“We will find it.”

“Maybe…Huh…”

“What happened?”

“Something touched me.”

“Yeah, I totally touched you.”

Slowly, a girl with black hair appeared at our left. She was Amelie, the daughter of the greatest doctor in the kingdom. Her speciality is the intangibility magic, a series of spells that make her invisible and able to trespass any object. A magic created to study human biology without dissections, but is also good for spying, that’s why she was with me even when she’s usually busy.

“If you are here then it must be because you found something interesting.”

“You’re right. Thanks to my magic I was able to see a fight between students.”

“That’s the work of the teachers.”

“Is not for scolding them. Look at it by yourself.”

She handed me an extensive report that described every single part of the fight. Mary was confused, so she talked while I was reading the whole report.

“What kind of fight would be worth that report?”

“It’s not just the fight, the antecedents are also important.”

She was right, in the bottom I found a report about what was known about the students Thomas Creiter and Cloe Sallow.

“Hmm…”

The information about Thomas was too vague, probably no one cared enough of him for doing a register of his life. On the other hand, the information about Cloe was extensive.

“...Wait.”

When I read the report and then the antecedents of both I knew something: I just found something amazing.

“...Leonard?”

“Where is it?!”

I looked inside the desk until I found a whole report I did one year ago. I thought I should forget about it, but now, it could be what we needed.

“Mary, Amelie, we founded it.”

Right now, I have an objective: Give a future to magic. And I can do it with her help.

“I want to talk with Thomas tomorrow, I want to show him something.”

While I said that, I opened the report, exposing the title of what could be, the path we were looking for.

The theory of magic and emotions, the path to a just world I wanted to reach.