Chapter 101: A wild teacher appears!

"Let's hurry up. We don't have much time."

Pushing against the doors of the wardrobe, Fen attempted to close it despite all the clothes and stuff in it pushing doing everything that it could to prevent him from doing so. Across the room, Arla was carefully stacking the rest of their luggage in another piece of furniture, clearly hoping that their new home wouldn't bear the marks of the quick moving-in that they performed.

"It's okay, it's okay. Your lessons start later, and given how pitiful my talent is, it doesn't matter if I'm late for mine."

As annoying as it was, Fen couldn't help but agree with how the problem of their lessons was solved. No matter how nice it would be to have the lessons together, the difference in their innate skill was obvious. Given how being an arcanist was the most beneficial and opportuneful part of Fen's entire self, as boring as could be, going to the special class for the token holders was a must for him.

"It's not okay. No matter how little you think about your potential, just by being an arcanist your position in the society is already way higher than it would normally be. Don't act as if wasting this chance would be okay."

Even with all sorts of problems that Alra might have had in her life, giving up on the lessons just because she wouldn't get as much from them as Fen could was simply stupid! While it held true that Fen would gladly help her around as much as he could, living a life of dependency wasn't something that the young man wished for his current partner.

"Okay, okay, I got it. I was just joking, okay?"

Smiling nicely to the young man, Arla finally closed the doors of the small night-stand, turning around and looking at Fen who was just about to finish his own task as well. Sadly, as if ignoring the fact that he had a bright future ahead of him, or rather, in spite of this, just when the wardrobe seemed like it would finally allow the young man to close it, the doors suddenly sprung open, burying the young man under the avalanche of clothes, equipment and sundries!

"Eh, let's just leave it be."

After taking a moment to unbury himself from the pile of clothes, Fen took a quick peek at the small mountain made out of them right in the middle of the room, before swinging his hand in the sign of giving up. Between being right at the time for the lessons and finishing this side-task of cleaning the mess, it was obvious what had the bigger priority!

"Sure. Are we ready to go then?"

Contrary to her initial anxious attitude about the lessons, once Arla accepted the fact that she would have to participate in them, small lights of excitement started to burn in her eyes. 

"Let's stop wasting time and go!"

Shaking all the useless thoughts away from his head, Fen grabbed Arla's soft hand and pulled her out of the room. Compared to their bedroom, the rest of the house was already taken care off during the last days that they had for the acclimatising in the city. After walking through the small corridor filled with all sorts of plants decorating its sides, the two of them finally moved past the main door of the building and after closing the doors behind them, their perilous journey to the academy begun.

Soon, the reason why the prices in the Ratheath were so low when compared to the other districts of the city turned clean. With no bridge connecting the two sides of the town anywhere closer than the one that they used to get here in the first place, the entire student and teaching body that lived in the same district would commute through the exact same route, quickly proving how smart it was of the two of them to depart way earlier than they thought to be necessary.

As it turned out, instead of enjoying their leisure stroll through the city, something that they didn't really have the time to do in advance, the young duo had to patiently move one step at a time, trying not to stumble into any of the people that surrounded them as tightly as guards would surround their person of importance during some kind of sneak attack.

Thankfully, once the two of them passed the bridge, the huge river of people started to split into several smaller streams, indicating that the main academy campus wasn't the only possible destination for them. Given how the academy was the focal point of the entire Gauna, even to the point of bearing the city's name in its own calling, it wasn't that surprising to learn about this fact, but to see it with one's own eyes was an entirely different matter.

"Okay, I guess we split up here."

Once the two of them finally reached the gate of the main campus of the academy, Fen had no other choice but to stop in a small alcove beside and place his hand on Arla's delicate shoulder.

"I hope that you will be alright without me for a few hours."

Instead of letting Fen say those words, Arla actually threw her hands around his neck before uttering those words directly into his ear. What some might mistake for a sign of affection, was in reality just a rational way of communicating with all the commotion around them. After gracing Fen's lips, Arla quickly distanced herself from him before allowing the constantly moving stream of people to pull her inside the academy.

"I guess now it's my time to wait…"

According to the small map of the campus that Dean thoughtfully included in the paper that he gave to the young man, once he would reach the northmost point of the huge open space between the buildings of the campus, just by following the route to the right, he would soon reach a huge plaza designed for students' leisure. 

Without a surprise, after just a few moments of walking along with the crowd, the huge open area opened up before Fen's eyes. In the middle of the enormous courtyard a bit smaller, a circular park was located. With trees reaching as far as several meters into the skies, the scorching sun of the republic wasn't as harsh to endure as it was right in the open.

"I wonder what…"

Just as Fen attempted to mutter something to himself, he felt someone tugging on his clothes.

"Excuse me, are you the new token holder that joined the academy?"

Turning around, Fen had to actually look down to see just who in the god's sake was bothering him. Once his eyes fell low enough, a small figure of a young girl came to his view. With her face filled with freckles and covered in a storm of long, curly red hair, her entirely red face seemed all the cuter.

"Yes, that's me. How can I help you?"

Faced with such a cute child, Fen couldn't be angry at the fact that someone annoyed him right as he was about to finally have some time to himself. This was actually one of the aspects of living together with a girl that he never saw coming. With how attentive and cuddly Arla was whenever they had even a single moment of spare time, the notion of just relaxing by himself with a pint of southern beer or a glass of northern vodka seemed to be long gone from his schedule.

Who could've thought that this small dream of his to just calmly and peacefully enjoy his life without a worry about tomorrow would be completely devastated and destroyed by the appearance of a cuddly girl!

"I was assigned as your senior during your initial course. While the testing should start in an hour, seeing that you are here already, what would you say to push the schedule a bit?"

Just a single look at the cute face of this young, shy girl was enough o destroy all the bits of potential annoyance with the sudden change to his plans. Smiling lightly, Fen had to hold himself back from the urge of patting the kid's head.

"Sure, I don't mind."

Nearly jumping in joy when hearing the young man's response, all the signs of shyness disappeared from the kid's face, replaced by a mischievous smile as she grabbed Fen's hand and pulled him towards the northern building.

According to the map that the dean gave to him, the building that this kid pulled him towards was nothing else but a training hall for learning the practical uses of one's arcana. With how it was outlined on his schedule that his first lessons would take place in that building, Fen didn't really oppose when it turned out to be the destination that this cute kid wanted him to arrive at.

"Okay then!"

After travelling through a set of wide corridors, this small girl opened one of the many doors that infested the entire building, pulling Fen to a huge hall, filled with what looked like some kind of mats.

"Now, let's get this out of our way. You see this box?"

Pointing her hand at a strange structure consisting of a frame of a perfect cube, which sides were all covered with some kind of glass outside of just a single one. In the odd part of the cube, instead of a glass, a thick plaster of some kind of strange material was present. Something that Fen saw for the first time in his entire life.

"Right now, I want you to pour all the fires that you can invoke at once into this cube. It sounds scary for people as talented as the two of us when we first hear about it, but don't worry about anything. As long as you aim at its compressing side, it should easily pull all the flames that you are capable of producing."

Quickly instructing the young man, this small girl finally started to give off the vibes of a proper senior that she claimed herself to be. Slightly startled by the mannerism of the girl, Fen didn't really have anything else to do but to follow her orders.

Taking a deep breath and gathering all his strength on top of his fingers, the young man quickly released as many flames as he was capable of right in the direction of the cube. 

'I wonder how quickly it will break apart…'

No matter what the girl said, Fen would be stupid to forget about how his talent was so special, that even the Draconis himself accompanied him and taught him a bit. No matter what this girl expected to see, the flames of someone like him definitely were outside of the scope of what she could imagine!

Or at least, that's what Fen thought before his flames reached the cube, instantly swallowed by a strange void created by the material that caught his attention before!

'Hmm? I wonder what it is…'

Seeing how all his flames were disappearing as if something was sucking them into the cube, the young man felt a little annoyed. Was that simple object capable of rendering any arcanist completely useless? Even someone as powerful as him?

If that were to be the case, then what was the point of employing arcanists in any armies, if one could defend against them with such a simple item?

"Okay, that will be enough."

Watching the changes happening to the cube with all her attention, the small girl suddenly raised her arm, stopping Fen from infusing it with even more of his flames. While the way in which this cube worked was quite puzzling, Fen still hoped that at least whatever this girl would see in it would spark some fun reaction on her cute face.

Sadly, the disappointment seemed to be the main course for Fen's first day in the academy!

"I see. Your talent is indeed impressive, but all the shit that they taught you back in the empire greatly influenced them. It's good that you are here now, because… Let's say that practising your arcana in the way you did so far for even a tiny bit longer could cause huge, irreversible damage to your future potential!"

Not even bothering to look away from the cube that she was inspecting, the girl said some words that Fen couldn't agree with. Even if this place had a lot of Phoenixian arcanists, how could they know more about the arcana than the Draconis himself?

"Good grief… Teaching you will be a pain in the ass…"

Suddenly revealing that the innocent look on her cute face was nothing more but an act, the small girl turned on her feet, casting a penetrating gaze at the young man.

"From now on, you will refer to me either as a teacher or a senior. Given how I look, I can tell that you are by no means convinced about my ability to do so. How about having a quick spar with me so that I could prove to you that I'm way more than capable to teach you?"