Lady Sophia, she was all prepared for today's trial class. Aside from regular classes that had a definite number of students and also a definite amount of time in which those have to be held, today's class in comparison, was like an indefinite fair.
It was nothing like the regular classes that were held three or four times a week. But the trial classes were held to find and guide the promising talent for magic among younger generations to the right path.
An event held four times or more like only four days a year.
Sophia sighed, and started to gather her long dark hair into a ponytail. She rehearsed many times about how she should introduce herself to the young student mages and make them feel like a friend more than a teacher.
Today she had many responsibilities to uphold, she had to make sure to attract the attention of every student by her performance. She has to make the young mages feel more connected with magic. Avoiding any harmful aspects, she had to make sure everyone present there felt motivated to join the regular classes also.
It wasn't only for the sake of admitting more student mages into the regular classes but for their sakes as well. The talented youngsters possessed with mana have a great tendency to bloom in this age. If not guided wisely, they could lose their perception of mana or worse, they could lose themselves.
Magic was equally useful and dangerous for the one wielding it. If not used carefully one could hurt himself or others in the process as well.
Sophia, as she walked towards the way to her class the thought she keeps thinking about nowadays. No, more like stressing, it came back suddenly. It was her son. August, he had a condition. A condition, no mage or man should ever encounter in his life.
While the students present in the trial classes could hurt themselves, their condition wasn't as severe as her son. He didn't have a core element till now which made him vulnerable to the echoes. It was the highest risk one could encounter walking on the path of mana and magic.
Her son was a good boy. An obedient son. A child she ever hoped for. To see him suffer such a fate. Sophia had seen many ambivalent mages in her life succumb to the negative effects of strain, the echoes used to put on their minds. She had seen many powerful people go insane without a core element.
It was a state where death seemed mercy in comparison.
The core element in the mana world was like one's identity. It was such a cruel fate for her son to not possess any. She did everything she could do for him, despite his resistance. Her son wanted to learn all the things by himself. By trial and error he wanted to awaken his true core element. But the risk was too high for a mere child like him.
Sophia, taught him to observe and manage his perception of mana. Which the young boy did learn pretty quickly. She taught him the right way to use meditation as a way to stabilize his mind and use word-less magic.
But without a core element her little boy hasn't had the satisfaction to even form his first spell. What's more he could be at a risk to lose his conscience to the negative effects of the echoes.
She was a wife, a teacher, a high class combat mage and the most important fiber of her being, a mother.
For a mother her child is the most important person in the world.
August was an obedient child, well most of the time that is. He never listened when his mother pleaded with him to enroll into the regular mana classes.
It wasn't for him to cast flashy spells. Hell, she herself used to teach that. She would've taught him everything she knew about mana and magic, at home if she wanted to. No, she does want that but her stubborn son kept refusing her tutelage.
'how could he possibly learn all those things by himself?'
Lady Sophia wanted August to attend the classes so that he could make some friends. So that he could grow with his peers. But that stubborn child, it's not like being taught by his mother would kill him. If not, he would remain safe under his own mother's guidance at least which would make him avoid any unnecessary and reckless experiments he tries to perform by reading those goddamn books.
Yes, she does admit books provide limitless knowledge, but that knowledge could never be used properly without any practical experience. And that experience should also be performed under someone's guidance.
All the stress for his well-being but August himself barely even reacted to this vulnerable state of his. It was like he was confident in himself not to succumb to the harmful effects of echoes and so was his father. Lord Valerius was like a walking wave of positivity. All he ever seemed to notice was the progress his son had done with both magic and his sword training.
It maybe a mother's heart that aches for the wellbeing of her child, but she ...she could never have him hurt.
She has requested August to attend the classes various times previously but her stubborn son never agreed to it. Maybe it would be uncomfortable for him to see his own mother as a teacher and act like a student around her.
Which was understandable.
Clearing her mind she walked past beside the portraits of great personalities like always. It was all the same, the divine mage looked as wise as always and the hero Cornelius was the same as fierce.
With that Lady Sophia entered the classroom, walked towards the stage and stood behind the podium. After she introduced herself to the new student mages, she observed all the new faces.
For some reason it all seemed same to her. She used to teach many students at once after all. However, her eyes fell past the crowd and she saw a familiar face. Suddenly all this doesn't seem like same to her.
Her mind was overwhelmed by the excitement she felt after watching her son among the newest batch of aspiring mages. She wanted nothing more than just go around and talk to him. But here she had a duty to uphold.
Here she was a teacher responsible for all of these students. She could possibly not focus on one student who happens to be her son. August himself seemed hesitant to do so, maybe therefore he sneaked into the classroom without telling her.
Suppressing her excitement, Lady Sophia made a student stand and answer who was sitting a bench or two before August.
Now was the time for performing some magic to attract the attention of students and also make them understand that magic could be far more helpful than it could do harm.
She had a theme for this performance chosen way before. It was 'the beauty of magic'. Naturally Sophia has to do something eye-catching and worthy of being called beautiful. Therefore she was reminded of the phenomena of scattering of light from different reflecting surfaces.
Ice as her core element, wasn't very difficult to form an irregular crystal of ice and shape it into something beautiful like a diamond with different light reflecting phases.
Thankfully, it happened as she tried to do, the white light from sunlight coming from the window fell on the surface of the gem and scattered into its various components, colours —in other words.
The hall got illuminated in the various forms of colourful light making all the student mages stare at amazement.
Then she tried to do something else. Making the youngsters realise, how far they can go with modifying a particular spell. She couldn't possibly let the things here end like that.
While she had done enough according to the parameters of her trying to make student mages interested in the beautiful side of magic. To make them understand, if taught properly, this magnificent phenomena could be used in the betterment of people.
She was done but not quite yet. Because there was someone very special sitting in the crowd. She couldn't possibly have this chance to show her son that his mother isn't ordinary— go to waste. It may be a mother's wish to show off before her son but Lady Sophia was determined to escalate this session further.
The crystalline diamond made of ice started forming cracks in a regular pattern, after a while with some audible noises, the gem shattered forming various tiny snowflakes.
Standing beside the wooden podium, Lady Sophia looked at the surprised and equally amazed faces of student mages. Her son also seemed a bit moved by the display however the stubborn child never let that show on his face.
'it was all worth it after all'
The class was moving at the right pace till now. The next part of today's session was drawing near. Lady Sophia had divided this trial session into three parts. The first part was completed, where she had to make students feel the beauty of mana manipulation.
The second part was nothing special but held a great significance regarding logical understanding of the spell she performed and its various related things. It was an ordinary question and answer session.
Lucky for her, today the stupid son of her's couldn't sneak his way out of this.
"So? Can anyone explain?" Sophia asked the class, not someone in particular, "the process behind the creation of my spell."
"Yes ma'am" the girl from previous raised her hand once again, "you created that irregular crystal of ice using your core element which is Ice."
"A good explanation Nyra.." lady Sophia replied with a gentle clap, "but there's something missing." The girl named Nyra let out a a frown as though trying to remember the missing part, "could anyone else tell me what's missing in Nyra's explanation."
The hall got filled with barely audible whispers and noises,
"—what? Isn't that all?—"
"—that's the right explanation, what could possibly be missing?—"
"—maybe teacher is trying to test us—"
Sophia, took a sneaky glance at her son as though trying to test his patience. She knew well he couldn't possibly keep his mouth shut when there's something to be answered. However the boy barely reacted.
After a while, a young boy about the same age as her son stood up, with his confident expressions he tried to answer the missing part, "your mana ma'am ...you used your mana to command your core element."
"That's right" she answered, "however young mage, you also seemed to seemed to repeat the same thing as little Nyra here. The most important missing part is still missing."
The whispers started again, the grand hall was about to drown in the barely Audible noises once again, then teacher raised her voice as though challenging every aspiring mage there. Never losing the gentle tone, "isn't there anyone in this large crowd who could answer correctly?" She lingered for a bit then said with a slightly fed up expression in her tone, "well, i guess I have to tell you that myself."
She raised her gaze towards the last benches but there was no reaction from where she had expected it would've come right about now. But to her surprise, August managed to remain calm for much longer.
Sophia thought the thing that would earn her son some friends would be his deep knowledge, which he got from reading books, god knows for how long. But everything she tried to help him—failed up until now.
She sighed with a smirk under her breath.
It was time for a direct challenge.
"You!? Do you know?" Sophia pointed out to several other students before pointing towards August trying not to make her moves obvious, "you there young mage?"
As she thought all of the aspiring mages seemed oblivious towards answer to her question. Well it wasn't like the answer was that hard to guess. It was just a case of thinking differently.
By changing one's perspective, any student could've given the answer she was looking for. The answer also wasn't a word that was unheard of. In fact she herself gave the proper explanation about the spell at the start of her lecture.
The answer wasn't a calculative or a logical one. It was more inclined to philosophy.
At the last of her pointing out activity she called out for him, "last bench! Do you seem to know the answer?"
Sophia was pretty sure August would've probably guessed the right answer by now. It was just a matter of make him say that aloud. And by challenging him like this there was a much greater probability.
However the results never seemed to be in her favour when the voice of the boy with raven black hair, dark eyes with a hint of red, dressed in simple casual clothing resounded in the grand hall of the class,
"No ma'am, i don't know"
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