Chapter 281: Chapter 296: Day Dreaming

Sitting in the middle of the class I leaned forward on my desk and stared across the way to see out the window, focusing my eyes on the far distant coast and zooming in further to see the ocean. ‘My body is still adapting to the dragon's blood… Almost like I’m going through puberty again… I can see more than a couple of miles away now. I almost have the ability to view the region as a tactical map in the third person. That’s probably unrelated though. Hm… It would be great… If I was doing another war simulation like the Guild Wars… Hunting down a demon in command of this entire region though?’ My mind bounced back and forth from one thing to another as I zoned out. ‘Something tells me he won’t be weak…’

“Siya…” The professor groaned. “Are you paying attention?”

I glanced at him without turning my head, slowly sitting back in my chair and rubbing my eyes as they adjusted their distance a little too fast. “No, not really.”

His eyebrow started to twitch.

‘If you just stopped calling on me in class we’d both be a lot happier I think… Should I tell him that? He did say he wanted me to talk more in class… Hm… Probably not…’

“This information is important, especially for the leader to know…” He took a deep breath. “Please try to pay attention…”

‘Wow, he really did stop yelling… If I think about this logically with a level head. It wouldn’t be surprising if our parents did try to set us up. I’m not sure I can think of any other reason why his mother would send him a letter that mentioned me. With my family no longer in debt and me being the second-ranked child and highest-ranked daughter, it would make sense… It’s also possible his mother simply wanted him to marry the highest-ranking student, regardless of my family or position which happens to be me right now… Realistically, even being engaged wouldn’t be much of a problem since nothing would come of it for another what 6 years counting this one.’

I turned my head and focussed on him. ‘By the time 6 years pass, I’ll be king, so I’d easily be able to break off the engagement before then, even if I have to agree to it, although I’m pretty sure even noble parents aren’t technically allowed to force their children into a marriage… Hm… Then there's the issue with Mo and her father. I’m sure he will still try to come for her regardless of class change, even though that hasn’t happened, she was bread to be his perfect duo… No way he’ll let her go so easily… Although I’m sure the class change adding an extra barrier is why she hasn’t gone on any missions since we met, considering she told me she did one at the academy already.’

Leaning back in my chair I began to tap a finger against my desk, making sure not to hit hard enough to make noise. ‘From what I gather, Isy wasn’t even supposed to attend the academy… Her father deemed her medically unable, and because it wasn’t a condition she was born with they didn’t kill her. Her mother snuck her out and sent her off… It’s tragic, but not exactly problematic.’ I glanced over to Bear who almost immediately glanced back, raising an eyebrow, making me quickly look away. ‘He’s so sharp… He really is perfect… Hm… But there's something big he’s hiding from me. He won’t ever tell me where he goes on our days off, and I actually know very little about him… For all I know, he blows his money gambling… Although I doubt it.’

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I let out a heavy breath of air rubbing my eyes. ‘And we have our end of the month practical coming up too… I have no idea what that will be like since it’s the first one… I slowly grabbed a handful of my hair, leaning over on my desk. ‘I want a vacation… Where would I even go? I can’t swim, and I’d probably get sunburned if I spent too much time at the beach anyway… Hmm. The ideal vacation…’

“Siya, do you know what that means?”

‘Why is he picking on me…’ I groaned. “I’m still not paying attention… What what means…”

I thought for sure he’d be angry but he let out an almost disappointed sigh, like an ignored puppy. “You’ve fought dire wolves before right? Do you know the differences between them and normal wolves?”

‘Oh is that what we're talking about now?’ “They don’t make sound, they don’t howl, their claws can shred through metal and they have a bite strong enough to sever limbs. The alphas also don’t leave prints, this is mostly due to their higher control of the magic which they all use to quiet their steps.”

Everyone froze in shock except the teacher who smiled softly. “That’s most of them. Another factor is that they have much stronger necks than normal wolves, making it an impractical weak point in comparison. Instead, when fighting a dire wolf, the weakest spots tend to be its stomach, and for some reason the hind legs. However, if you somehow manage to cut off its tail it will run away. The general recommended course of action is to first dodge to the side as it charges, and then strike at its back legs.”

He looked proud of himself… I didn’t want to ruin the moment so I stayed quiet. It’s true that he did tell me something I didn’t know, but his so-called recommended course of action was absurd… Dire Wolves had more agility than he did… At least the ones I fought… They could almost keep up with Fritz…

‘This is stupid… I should be training my magic, not learning about dire wolves… They aren’t even in this region.’ I slowly leaned back, relaxing in my chair as I tried to circulate my manna, but just attuning to its flow made my whole body spike with pain. I suddenly broke out into a sweat and started breathing heavily, jerking forward and gasping for air. ‘Wh-what…’ my body heated up further as my eyes turned orange. It felt like my life had just been threatened. To make things worse the whole class had stopped because of my sudden violent reaction.

‘Why am I breathing heavily… I don’t even need to breathe!’

“Hey… Hey, Siya are you ok? You said that demon didn’t touch you right?”

I lowered my head into my hands. “Yeah, no… This is something else. I’m fine.” ‘my manna all leaked out instantly… My circuits really are all ruptured from trying to infuse my manna with my soul… In other words… I’m suffering from severe manna exhaustion right now. That makes sense… Explains why the world is spinning. If that’s all then I should recover, since I stayed conscious.’

Isy poked me.

“Don’t… Don’t touch me. It hurts… I’m fine, don’t worry about it…” ‘I can’t exactly tell anyone I used too much manna…’

She slowly looked up and class continued. It wasn’t until near the end I finally started to feel normal again, although I was still incredibly tired. ‘I thought meditation made you need less sleep…’ I groaned as my hand slipped out from under my head, sending it right into the table before I snapped up like a rocket, eyes shut tight. ‘Ow… Without magic reinforcing my body… Everything hurts more… Now I want to cry… I should just go back to my room… But I can’t just walk out can I? Do I ask to leave? Would he even let me? Although, I doubt he’d stop me by force.’