Chapter 25 Mana Theory [3]

A few minutes passed since Liz asked us to show her our best spells. One by one, cadets stepped forward and displayed their magical abilities.

Since most of them were young lords or young ladies of prestigious families, their spells were impressive, to say the least.

In the web-novel, this wasn't an event that dragged on for too long. It was over in a paragraph.

I remember reading Liz asking cadets to show her their spells and Nero surprising everyone with his mid-grade light elemental spell.

That was it. It was barely a 2-3 lines long scene.

But now, when I was 'experiencing' it, the scene that was supposed to end in 2-3 lines was taking much longer to play out.

Things like these couldn't help but make me wonder, is this life real? Is this world real?

It's not some elaborate, high-end illusion, right?

I have spent over a few weeks in this world but I still couldn't believe that I was inside a novel.

Most of the things that will happen, most of the things that have happened, and most of the things that are happening, I know them all.

I know these characters and their feelings. I know their fate and I know their future. I know them better than they know themselves.

And because I know all this, I know this world is destined for doom.

The irony is, precisely because I know all this, I am the only one who can change the course of the story and correct the mistakes before they can even happen.

…But although I do say that, there are also many things about this world that I don't know.

Like how this story would end, for example.

All I know from reading till volume 7 is that most of the world will be destroyed in the next few years. So I doubt this story was supposed to have a happy ending.

Aside from that, there are still many things that I have no idea about.

Like… why is there a character that the novel didn't mention?

I turned my gaze to the right and glanced at the cadets patiently sitting in their seats.

They were the bunch who had not learned any spells yet. That indicated that they all belonged to common families.

While sweeping my glance across them, my eyes stopped at one particular face.

It was a handsomely chiseled face of a boy with dark hair and pretty scarlet eyes. That boy was peculiar in more ways than one.

Hugh Jass. A character that was not mentioned in the novel, yet he was actively taking part in the class.

He was a huge mystery to me. A big question mark. An unexpected variable.

But at least one thing was clear.

"He's sitting. That means he's from a common family."

In the world of [Chronicles of Legendary Heroes], the world is owned and run by the Central Government.

Even the Union Military has to answer to the Central Government.

There are 12 seats in the Central Government but logically speaking, 12 people alone can not run the whole world, can they?

To deal with that, the Central Government bestowed governmental titles to four families— essentially giving them the authority to rule over certain parts of the world.

These titles are inherited within families and passed down through generations. The families who hold these titles are known as "Ruling Houses."

It is worth noting that new Ruling Houses can only be established if a current ruling house is completely wiped out or removed from power by the Central Government.

The four families with governmental titles are:

The Morningstar house which oversees the Western Continent.

The Wright house that rules the Northern Continent.

The Netyoive house that governs the Southern Continent.

And the Vermër house that supervises the Eastern Continent.

These are the four ruling houses of the world. They all possess authority only secondary to the Central Government.

These Ruling Houses have many 'Vassal Families' that serve under them. Those vassal families are also called noble families.

Aside from these few elite families, all other people are called commoners, and their families are called common families.

It's a chain command system that is very similar to aristocracy, but it doesn't have any major flaws.

Not to mention, this kind of command system is highly efficient in a time of planetary-level war like the one we are in right now.

Of course, it doesn't give people much freedom like democracy, but as someone said: `Freedom and youth are the first victims of war.`

"Lucas Morningstar! Stop daydreaming and step forward at once!"

Shaking me out of my thoughts was an enraged shout. It was Liz. She was yelling at me for some reason.

I looked at her cluelessly and said, "Yes?"

"Can't you hear me calling for you?!" She yelled back at me.

"...You called?"

"...Yes! You're the last one remaining! Come forward and display your spell!"

"Ah…"

Looking around, I found I was indeed the last one remaining. Without much delay, I nodded and stepped forward.

I was a little nervous. I haven't used a single magic spell till now. I had tried moving mana from my body but that was all.

I knew what to do and how to use magic spells from Lucas' memories but I had yet to execute my knowledge into practicality.

Shaking my head, I cleared away my nervousness. I had nothing to worry about. If something goes wrong, then Liz will handle it.

After intently nodding my head once, I closed my eyes.

"Fuuu"

I took several long deep breaths and focused on my abdomen region, precisely around my solar plexus.

Soon I felt a warm feeling surging out, almost as if it was replying to my call.

I guided that feeling to my right hand before raising it up and pointing my open palm at Liz.

In my mind, I imagined a ball of fire forming in front of my open palm. As I did so, mana started pouring out of my hand.

According to my memories, this was the right time to chant and cast the spell.

In a low voice, I quickly muttered, "Ignis Rateom."

And almost as if waiting for that cue, a sphere of blazing red and orange fire quickly lit up before my palm.

I opened my eyes and willed the fireball to shoot at my target, the dark violet-haired instructor in front of me, with all my might.

Swoosh–!

Sure enough, the sphere of fire heed my command and shot at Liz with breakneck speed.

Thwash–!

In response, Liz quickly raised her arm up high and struck it down as if she was doing a karate chop and broke my fireball in half, diminishing the flames that I had created with ease.

"That's it?" She looked at me and asked.

"Huh?" Confused, I cocked my head a little to the side.

Was she mocking me?!

"Nevermind," she shook her head. "Your mana control is good. It's a shame you decided to waste all that talent."

"Th-Thanks?"

So she wasn't mocking me? I'll take that as praise.

"Go back to your seats, all of you."

After an awkward exchange of words, Liz asked us to get back to our seats with a gesture of her hand.

After everyone settled down, she started explaining, "Well, there are two things I would like to address.

"First, starting next week, we'll apply the magic theories we're going to learn in this class to combat training class. So till then, I want all of you to familiarize yourself with magic casting fully. Practice the spells I gave you today.

"Second, after this class, you all will be assigned into groups of five via text messages that you'll receive on your smart bracelets."

Wait…

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

This! This is the thing I was forgetting!

"The group you'll be put into will be your 'Unit,' and you'll perform group drill exercises together. Once assigned, you'll be part of this unit until graduation. You'll be awarded merit points based on your synergy and comradeship with other members of your group, so get to know each other.

"Also, those of you who can use magic spells will have to help the members of your group who can't. Remember, this will affect the merit points you'll get. Don't think you can trick us because our AI will be monitoring you all through your smart bracelets all the time. That's all. Class dismissed."

Arghhh!

Why?

Why does fate love to play such twisted jokes on me?

Why does god hate me so much?! What did I ever do to you, god?!

I knew who the people in my unit were going to be, and I was not a bit happy about it.

I mean, I decided to avoid interacting with the main characters when I came here. How am I supposed to do that now?!

Ding—!

Right when I was in the middle of cursing the universe, the smart bracelet on my wrist rang as a notification popped up on it.

Touching the screen, I opened the text message. As I did so, tears formed around the corner of my eyes.

"I don't know when, but one day I'll kill the author of this story… and I'll enjoy it."