Having finished classes for the day, Lynn returned from the academy to his room in Allfrid. Inside his room he opened up a newspaper that he had picked up from the lobby.
Let’s see here then, what’s the news for today?
He poured his eyes over the newspaper purposefully, every so often turning the page.
What he was looking for was any news related to what had occurred on the hundredth floor, which was also known as ‘The Baby Bird’s Nest’. More precisely, what he was looking for was any news pertaining to Teedro in particular.
The newspapers in print in Allfrid ran all sorts of stories, which weren’t limited to the goings on of just the academy, but also of problems on floor 100 and above.
You couldn’t get hold of this particular newspaper in Renryll. He only realized this after he had begun reading it, but considering that most of Renryll’s residents couldn’t read magic very well at all, he supposed it was only natural that this was the case.
Now, he thought to himself, he understood what Shadiff had been talking about when he had said it was important for him to be in Allfrid, in order to get information from the upper floors.
Lynn had only started reading the paper after Elios’s recent graduation.
Much like Elios, Lynn too had one eye fixed on the upper stratum of the tower, and so he had figured that it would be wise to start reading the newspaper, in order to become familiar with current events as well as learning about the upper floors. It was only very recently that he had realized the value in doing such a thing.
Ignoring all the stories from floors 200 and above, Lynn scanned each page for any news from the 100’s.
He already had his index finger curled under the current page, teasing its corner upward, ready to flip it over, but he paused. He had found the article about Elios.
Yes, here we go.
The heading read ‘A Prodigy that Stands out in the History of the Academy, Arrives at Floor 100’.
He cast his eyes down the page and read the contents of the piece.
In it was written a detailed account of Elios’s journey through the academy, the record speed at which he graduated, and numerous mentions of his sharp mind and talent.
The speed at which he climbed through the academy, and graduated, was without doubt an exceptional feat even in the context of the academy’s long history, and even quite possibly comparable to the famed scholarship wizard student Zeurus.
It was a watershed moment for the common class. There would be many eyes and ears trained on Elios from now on, waiting and expecting, tracking the young wizard’s progress.
Lynn looked up from the newspaper. He was always surprised at how frequently his respect for Elios often became even deeper. To have a feature written about you, in the newspaper, what a thing!
If I want to become like him, I’ll have to really give it my all.
As he reflected on his respect for Elios, and how he inspired him to study even harder, he closed the paper and gestured to his room mate to take it off him. They were sharing a single subscription, so after one was finished with it they would hand it off to someone else.
Both of his new room mates had apparently already read it, so he called over to Theo next.
“Theo, would you like to read the paper?”
“Nah, I’m good”, he replied, bluntly.
Without even turning around, he continued the task at which he at that moment so feverishly committed himself to. The pencil, gripped tightly in his hand, made scratching noises as he made busy work of sketching various diagrams, and wrote detailed notes, on numerous pieces of paper.
This had become a common scene as of late.
To engage in this latest obsession, he had developed the habit of occasionally skipping work. In class, if he had the slightest opportunity to do so, you could bet he would again be lost in this pursuit- of which no one knew what it was about- within seconds.
At first, Lynn thought it must have been something academy related, but other than Metal Magic Class, there was almost definitely no other classes to speak of that required such detailed sketch work, which he was engaging in far too often.
Besides, he had already achieved his credit in Metal Magic.
Theo kept quiet about his little project, and whenever Lynn would ask him about it, all he would get in response was ‘I’ll tell you about it eventually’.
Come on, just let it out already! What the hell is he up to?
Lynn pondered Theo’s strange behaviour as he watched him from across the room. At a loss, it was all he could do to give a shrug of the shoulders, and return the newspaper to its designated place.
Although Lynn was looking forward to receiving some kind of correspondence from Magulheim, nothing ever came.
On a brighter note, the items he brought back with him from Hedin forest seemed they would fetch a good price on the market, just as Illia had told him they would.
The loot he had gathered from the expedition was, other than the items he had gathered from the Chimera he had slain, limited to some bits and bobs from a few magical beasts that could be found in the blue zone, as well as various samples of flora and even some ore.
While his loot was certainly not near as vast, varied or plentiful as that which someone with more experience could acquire, he had one day decided to ask about the prices at the marketplace. He was told, much to his surprise, that he could get about 150,000 Legika for all his spoils, should he ever sell it all.
Oh, If only he could venture into the forest of magical beasts every day, he thought to himself.
Itching to get back into the forest, the lack of any correspondence whatsoever from Magulheim made him anxious and frustrated.
As he checked the balance in his bank account, he sighed heavily. He had about 20,000 legika left.
Looks like this month will be tight, too.
Living in Allfrid was somehow even pricier than he had envisioned, and because Theo had begun skipping shifts at work, Lynn found himself lending him money.
Just to make ends meet he would often go down to Renryll to have his lunch, and of course he kept up two jobs, but nevertheless he was shaving it close each month.
His circumstances were beginning to take a toll on his learning at the academy, too.
However, he wasn’t quite ready to pack up his new life in Allfrid and return to Renryll. For better or for worse, he had become attached to the various conveniences and air of exuberance that living in Allfrid afforded, and which Renryll simply couldn’t provide.
So this is how so many people never make it past here, they get so caught up in just paying their way to live here in the first place, that they fail and repeat academy years over and over again.
As the days rolled on, he felt himself slowly falling into an insidious depression. At this rate he would end up like Shadiff.
He was quite aware of this, too, but he felt he had no control over his life. Bit by bit he sunk lower and lower, into what felt like quick sand.
That Lynn still hadn’t received a letter from Magulheim, of course, put him in an awkward spot with his peers.
“You still haven’t heard anything about their next activity?”
A lot of the kids only talked to him because of his involvement in the summer expedition, and they of course wanted news about Magulheim. Each time they would come up to him their questions would invariably be about whether or not he had heard anything.
Lynn, too, was puzzled, and was at a loss at how to answer such questions.
“I’m not sure. I don’t have any way of contacting them from my end, you see. I have no choice but to wait for them to contact me”.
Although such ambiguous responses only made his peers look at him with increasing suspicion, it was the best he could do to answer and quickly slip away from the topic.
Weeks had gone by, without a single word, when one day news about Magulheim’s second expedition of the year finally made it to the social circles of the beginner students.
Lynn hadn’t been summoned.
At last he had to face the harsh reality that he had been shut out.
His classmates began to look at him differently, with doubt and misgiving in their eyes.
Rather predictably, Yuven wasted no time in capitalizing on the situation to spread falsehoods about him.
“It’s just as I thought. I knew it was strange! Why would such an average, unremarkable boy like him be selected? There’s no doubt he cheated somehow, as well, in that Ring Magic class. Although I suppose there’s no doubt he was struggling for money, and that had no choice but to do what he did, the poor thing…”
Just like that, she skillfully made him out to be a fraud, while at the same time feigning sympathy for him, for the poor slave boy.
Lynn had no choice but to grimace under the burning gaze of sympathy from his classmates. For a while he had to endure an uncomfortable period at the academy, but fairly soon the next big thing came along, and the hot gossip shifted to another topic.
That topic was the Wizard Tournament.
Yuven soon stopped talking about him as she lost interest.
Of course he wasn’t such a big deal, of course he wasn’t. Why on earth did I even give him the time of day?
Yuven’s treatment of him returned to how it once was. She ignored his very existence, talked whenever she could to Terim, and occasionally bickered with Theo.
While he felt a twinge of loneliness, he found comfort in his newfound tranquility.
His bad financial situation, however, remained entirely, depressingly, unchanged.
Lynn and Theo were in Fairy Magic class.
Lynn copied the contents of the blackboard into his notebook diligently. Theo on the other hand, who was sitting beside him, may as well have been somewhere else entirely, for he paid no attention whatsoever.
Lately, in class, Theo had been in what you might call energy conservation mode. He would sit at a desk and, paying no mind to the lecture, lose himself in reading books, the contents of which Lynn didn’t really understand. Always he would have with him a pencil and paper for doing all manner of detailed sketches.
Theo had always had a laid back attitude to lectures to begin with, but this new change in his behaviour was startling.
There he sat, in the middle of Fairy Magic class, with a big book spread open on the table before him, which had nothing at all to do with the class. He was utterly engrossed in what he was drawing.
Lynn tried to make out the titles of some of the books he had on his desk. ‘Application of Mass Magic’, ‘Basics of Elevator Operations’, ‘Slate Manufacturing’.
What the hell is he up to?
Just then Keilon Sensei called out Lynn’s name, making him jump.
“Lynn!”
“Y- Yes?”
“Can you face towards the front of the classroom, please. Pay attention”.
“Yes, sorry”.
Because of Theo, for the past several weeks Lynn had found himself under increasing scrutiny from Keiron Sensei.
Before, he would scold Theo directly, but each time he would usually suffer some kind of clever witted retort, which made him lose face in front of the class.
As a result, he had switched to the strategy of directing his authority at Lynn, in order to indirectly keep Theo in check.
Why do I have to be the one who gets in trouble…
He stole another quick glance at his friend sitting next to him. His eyebrows were knitted, and his arms folded, as he stared down at the complicated esoteric sketch he had done, seemingly deep in thought.
Lynn smiled bitterly to himself.
While he couldn’t deny that Theo was the source of many of his problems as of late, whenever he caught sight of his friend like this, so passionately engrossed in whatever project it was that was occupying his time, he found that he couldn’t stay mad for very long.
He didn’t quite know why, but he trusted Theo.
What the hell, it’ll be fine. He’ll talk when he’s ready, and then all of this bizarre, suspicious behaviour of his will make sense at last.
In fact, at that very moment, Lynn recognized a significance in his friend’s posture. Between his focused expression, which was at once both distant yet perfectly present, and his folded arms, Lynn knew that his friend was moments away from some kind of conceptual breakthrough.
Electrical weather patterns were breaking and forming, firing, blasting, and coalescing as Theo’s mind churned over the last obstacle in his way, and at that moment, in the middle of class, he had his epiphany.
Lynn had just put pen to paper in an effort to resume note taking, when suddenly Theo yelled out in exultation, startling everyone in the room
“Of course! Of course! That’s it!”
He leapt up from his desk, swept the contents of his desk into his bag quickly, half stumbled over the leg of the desk, and ran towards the door.
Keiron Sensei shouted after him.
“Theo, where do you think you’re going!”
“Sorry, gotta leave early today!”
Apparently he only half registered Keiron Sensei’s warning, because he didn’t bother to offer an explanation for his sudden departure, and without glancing back once, he broke into a run and swung open the door, stumbled into the corridor, and was gone.
Keiron Sensei glared at Lynn, accusingly.
Lynn smiled weakly.
Why me…
After having an ear full from Keiron Sensei in the staff room after class, Lynn went home.
“Home” he said, in a drawn out drawl.
“Oh, hey”.
Theo was already home, and he was uncharacteristically cheerful. Lynn felt a surge of irritation rise within him.
“What happened, you’re late home”, Theo said inquiringly.
“For some reason, I was called to the staff room, instead of you. And I had to bear the brunt of Keiron’s anger. What the hell Theo!”
“You should have ignored him, he called you there under such vague pretences. But anyway! I’m sorry, it was my fault…”
Seeing Lynn stare at him with such reproachful eyes, Theo couldn’t help but laugh as he apologized profusely.
“This has gone on long enough, cut it out and tell me what you’ve been up to. I can’t handle it anymore”.
“Okay. I guess it’s time. Besides, I’ve got it all figured out now”.
“You have all of what figured out?”
“I realised something. A way to escape that stupid, unreasonable tax on the elevators. With my method, we can transport as many goods as we want by elevator, without being taxed!”.
This guy. He still hasn’t gotten over that incident.
Theo carried on excitedly.
“Listen, we won’t have to work in the factory anymore! It’s not just that, though. I have a plan, and if we do it right, we can make some serious money. We won’t have to worry about our scholarships anymore, Lynn, or the cost of living here in Allfrid”.
Next time… Chapter 44, ‘Theo starts a new Business’.
Having finished classes for the day, Lynn returned from the academy to his room in Allfrid. Inside his room he opened up a newspaper that he had picked up from the lobby.
Let’s see here then, what’s the news for today?
He poured his eyes over the newspaper purposefully, every so often turning the page.
What he was looking for was any news related to what had occurred on the hundredth floor, which was also known as ‘The Baby Bird’s Nest’. More precisely, what he was looking for was any news pertaining to Teedro in particular.
The newspapers in print in Allfrid ran all sorts of stories, which weren’t limited to the goings on of just the academy, but also of problems on floor 100 and above.
You couldn’t get hold of this particular newspaper in Renryll. He only realized this after he had begun reading it, but considering that most of Renryll’s residents couldn’t read magic very well at all, he supposed it was only natural that this was the case.
Now, he thought to himself, he understood what Shadiff had been talking about when he had said it was important for him to be in Allfrid, in order to get information from the upper floors.
Lynn had only started reading the paper after Elios’s recent graduation.
Much like Elios, Lynn too had one eye fixed on the upper stratum of the tower, and so he had figured that it would be wise to start reading the newspaper, in order to become familiar with current events as well as learning about the upper floors. It was only very recently that he had realized the value in doing such a thing.
Ignoring all the stories from floors 200 and above, Lynn scanned each page for any news from the 100’s.
He already had his index finger curled under the current page, teasing its corner upward, ready to flip it over, but he paused. He had found the article about Elios.
Yes, here we go.
The heading read ‘A Prodigy that Stands out in the History of the Academy, Arrives at Floor 100’.
He cast his eyes down the page and read the contents of the piece.
In it was written a detailed account of Elios’s journey through the academy, the record speed at which he graduated, and numerous mentions of his sharp mind and talent.
The speed at which he climbed through the academy, and graduated, was without doubt an exceptional feat even in the context of the academy’s long history, and even quite possibly comparable to the famed scholarship wizard student Zeurus.
It was a watershed moment for the common class. There would be many eyes and ears trained on Elios from now on, waiting and expecting, tracking the young wizard’s progress.
Lynn looked up from the newspaper. He was always surprised at how frequently his respect for Elios often became even deeper. To have a feature written about you, in the newspaper, what a thing!
If I want to become like him, I’ll have to really give it my all.
As he reflected on his respect for Elios, and how he inspired him to study even harder, he closed the paper and gestured to his room mate to take it off him. They were sharing a single subscription, so after one was finished with it they would hand it off to someone else.
Both of his new room mates had apparently already read it, so he called over to Theo next.
“Theo, would you like to read the paper?”
“Nah, I’m good”, he replied, bluntly.
Without even turning around, he continued the task at which he at that moment so feverishly committed himself to. The pencil, gripped tightly in his hand, made scratching noises as he made busy work of sketching various diagrams, and wrote detailed notes, on numerous pieces of paper.
This had become a common scene as of late.
To engage in this latest obsession, he had developed the habit of occasionally skipping work. In class, if he had the slightest opportunity to do so, you could bet he would again be lost in this pursuit- of which no one knew what it was about- within seconds.
At first, Lynn thought it must have been something academy related, but other than Metal Magic Class, there was almost definitely no other classes to speak of that required such detailed sketch work, which he was engaging in far too often.
Besides, he had already achieved his credit in Metal Magic.
Theo kept quiet about his little project, and whenever Lynn would ask him about it, all he would get in response was ‘I’ll tell you about it eventually’.
Come on, just let it out already! What the hell is he up to?
Lynn pondered Theo’s strange behaviour as he watched him from across the room. At a loss, it was all he could do to give a shrug of the shoulders, and return the newspaper to its designated place.
Although Lynn was looking forward to receiving some kind of correspondence from Magulheim, nothing ever came.
On a brighter note, the items he brought back with him from Hedin forest seemed they would fetch a good price on the market, just as Illia had told him they would.
The loot he had gathered from the expedition was, other than the items he had gathered from the Chimera he had slain, limited to some bits and bobs from a few magical beasts that could be found in the blue zone, as well as various samples of flora and even some ore.
While his loot was certainly not near as vast, varied or plentiful as that which someone with more experience could acquire, he had one day decided to ask about the prices at the marketplace. He was told, much to his surprise, that he could get about 150,000 Legika for all his spoils, should he ever sell it all.
Oh, If only he could venture into the forest of magical beasts every day, he thought to himself.
Itching to get back into the forest, the lack of any correspondence whatsoever from Magulheim made him anxious and frustrated.
As he checked the balance in his bank account, he sighed heavily. He had about 20,000 legika left.
Looks like this month will be tight, too.
Living in Allfrid was somehow even pricier than he had envisioned, and because Theo had begun skipping shifts at work, Lynn found himself lending him money.
Just to make ends meet he would often go down to Renryll to have his lunch, and of course he kept up two jobs, but nevertheless he was shaving it close each month.
His circumstances were beginning to take a toll on his learning at the academy, too.
However, he wasn’t quite ready to pack up his new life in Allfrid and return to Renryll. For better or for worse, he had become attached to the various conveniences and air of exuberance that living in Allfrid afforded, and which Renryll simply couldn’t provide.
So this is how so many people never make it past here, they get so caught up in just paying their way to live here in the first place, that they fail and repeat academy years over and over again.
As the days rolled on, he felt himself slowly falling into an insidious depression. At this rate he would end up like Shadiff.
He was quite aware of this, too, but he felt he had no control over his life. Bit by bit he sunk lower and lower, into what felt like quick sand.
That Lynn still hadn’t received a letter from Magulheim, of course, put him in an awkward spot with his peers.
“You still haven’t heard anything about their next activity?”
A lot of the kids only talked to him because of his involvement in the summer expedition, and they of course wanted news about Magulheim. Each time they would come up to him their questions would invariably be about whether or not he had heard anything.
Lynn, too, was puzzled, and was at a loss at how to answer such questions.
“I’m not sure. I don’t have any way of contacting them from my end, you see. I have no choice but to wait for them to contact me”.
Although such ambiguous responses only made his peers look at him with increasing suspicion, it was the best he could do to answer and quickly slip away from the topic.
Weeks had gone by, without a single word, when one day news about Magulheim’s second expedition of the year finally made it to the social circles of the beginner students.
Lynn hadn’t been summoned.
At last he had to face the harsh reality that he had been shut out.
His classmates began to look at him differently, with doubt and misgiving in their eyes.
Rather predictably, Yuven wasted no time in capitalizing on the situation to spread falsehoods about him.
“It’s just as I thought. I knew it was strange! Why would such an average, unremarkable boy like him be selected? There’s no doubt he cheated somehow, as well, in that Ring Magic class. Although I suppose there’s no doubt he was struggling for money, and that had no choice but to do what he did, the poor thing…”
Just like that, she skillfully made him out to be a fraud, while at the same time feigning sympathy for him, for the poor slave boy.
Lynn had no choice but to grimace under the burning gaze of sympathy from his classmates. For a while he had to endure an uncomfortable period at the academy, but fairly soon the next big thing came along, and the hot gossip shifted to another topic.
That topic was the Wizard Tournament.
Yuven soon stopped talking about him as she lost interest.
Of course he wasn’t such a big deal, of course he wasn’t. Why on earth did I even give him the time of day?
Yuven’s treatment of him returned to how it once was. She ignored his very existence, talked whenever she could to Terim, and occasionally bickered with Theo.
While he felt a twinge of loneliness, he found comfort in his newfound tranquility.
His bad financial situation, however, remained entirely, depressingly, unchanged.
Lynn and Theo were in Fairy Magic class.
Lynn copied the contents of the blackboard into his notebook diligently. Theo on the other hand, who was sitting beside him, may as well have been somewhere else entirely, for he paid no attention whatsoever.
Lately, in class, Theo had been in what you might call energy conservation mode. He would sit at a desk and, paying no mind to the lecture, lose himself in reading books, the contents of which Lynn didn’t really understand. Always he would have with him a pencil and paper for doing all manner of detailed sketches.
Theo had always had a laid back attitude to lectures to begin with, but this new change in his behaviour was startling.
There he sat, in the middle of Fairy Magic class, with a big book spread open on the table before him, which had nothing at all to do with the class. He was utterly engrossed in what he was drawing.
Lynn tried to make out the titles of some of the books he had on his desk. ‘Application of Mass Magic’, ‘Basics of Elevator Operations’, ‘Slate Manufacturing’.
What the hell is he up to?
Just then Keilon Sensei called out Lynn’s name, making him jump.
“Lynn!”
“Y- Yes?”
“Can you face towards the front of the classroom, please. Pay attention”.
“Yes, sorry”.
Because of Theo, for the past several weeks Lynn had found himself under increasing scrutiny from Keiron Sensei.
Before, he would scold Theo directly, but each time he would usually suffer some kind of clever witted retort, which made him lose face in front of the class.
As a result, he had switched to the strategy of directing his authority at Lynn, in order to indirectly keep Theo in check.
Why do I have to be the one who gets in trouble…
He stole another quick glance at his friend sitting next to him. His eyebrows were knitted, and his arms folded, as he stared down at the complicated esoteric sketch he had done, seemingly deep in thought.
Lynn smiled bitterly to himself.
While he couldn’t deny that Theo was the source of many of his problems as of late, whenever he caught sight of his friend like this, so passionately engrossed in whatever project it was that was occupying his time, he found that he couldn’t stay mad for very long.
He didn’t quite know why, but he trusted Theo.
What the hell, it’ll be fine. He’ll talk when he’s ready, and then all of this bizarre, suspicious behaviour of his will make sense at last.
In fact, at that very moment, Lynn recognized a significance in his friend’s posture. Between his focused expression, which was at once both distant yet perfectly present, and his folded arms, Lynn knew that his friend was moments away from some kind of conceptual breakthrough.
Electrical weather patterns were breaking and forming, firing, blasting, and coalescing as Theo’s mind churned over the last obstacle in his way, and at that moment, in the middle of class, he had his epiphany.
Lynn had just put pen to paper in an effort to resume note taking, when suddenly Theo yelled out in exultation, startling everyone in the room
“Of course! Of course! That’s it!”
He leapt up from his desk, swept the contents of his desk into his bag quickly, half stumbled over the leg of the desk, and ran towards the door.
Keiron Sensei shouted after him.
“Theo, where do you think you’re going!”
“Sorry, gotta leave early today!”
Apparently he only half registered Keiron Sensei’s warning, because he didn’t bother to offer an explanation for his sudden departure, and without glancing back once, he broke into a run and swung open the door, stumbled into the corridor, and was gone.
Keiron Sensei glared at Lynn, accusingly.
Lynn smiled weakly.
Why me…
After having an ear full from Keiron Sensei in the staff room after class, Lynn went home.
“Home” he said, in a drawn out drawl.
“Oh, hey”.
Theo was already home, and he was uncharacteristically cheerful. Lynn felt a surge of irritation rise within him.
“What happened, you’re late home”, Theo said inquiringly.
“For some reason, I was called to the staff room, instead of you. And I had to bear the brunt of Keiron’s anger. What the hell Theo!”
“You should have ignored him, he called you there under such vague pretences. But anyway! I’m sorry, it was my fault…”
Seeing Lynn stare at him with such reproachful eyes, Theo couldn’t help but laugh as he apologized profusely.
“This has gone on long enough, cut it out and tell me what you’ve been up to. I can’t handle it anymore”.
“Okay. I guess it’s time. Besides, I’ve got it all figured out now”.
“You have all of what figured out?”
“I realised something. A way to escape that stupid, unreasonable tax on the elevators. With my method, we can transport as many goods as we want by elevator, without being taxed!”.
This guy. He still hasn’t gotten over that incident.
Theo carried on excitedly.
“Listen, we won’t have to work in the factory anymore! It’s not just that, though. I have a plan, and if we do it right, we can make some serious money. We won’t have to worry about our scholarships anymore, Lynn, or the cost of living here in Allfrid”.
Next time… Chapter 44, ‘Theo starts a new Business’.
