When I woke up, I tried sending her a few messages, but I didn’t get a response. I decided the best option would be to talk to her in person in class, so I hurried to get there early.

After having a hearty breakfast, I chose not to train as usual and went straight to the classroom.

I arrived around 7:30 and, finding the room empty, decided to take the time to refine my mana core. I focused on circulating the flow of elementals in and out of my mana core, a laborious and slow process. I stayed in that state until the door opened.

“Good morning, Takeshi! What a surprise to see you here so early.” I immediately recognized the voice, it was King Suzuki. I opened my eyes to confirm his presence.

“I didn’t know you were here so early, Rei.” In fact, I hadn’t had many interactions with her until then.

“It’s not that early, it’s already 8:30. The other students usually arrive in about 15 minutes.” She replied as she sat down in her usual spot, a little away.

“I was trying to refine my core and ended up losing track of time. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do much good.” After that silence fell in the room, when I was getting ready to go back to meditating she started walking towards me and when she was next to me she spoke.

“Ryuji, as group leader, I would like to ask for your advice.”

“Sure, if I can help.” I was a little curious to know what it was about.

“How did you manage to unite your group? It seems like you guys get along really well.”

I was a little confused by the question, I don’t usually pay much attention to the dynamics of other groups, but I think she was referring to the way we interact. “Could you explain better?”

“Your group is the only one different, Lee Min-Jae looks like a dictator, Haruki’s group barely spends time together, and mine isn’t on good terms either. Ever since the teacher scolded us on the first day of school and I chickened out , I feel like they have a back seat to me as a leader.” I saw his face tighten when he mentioned the first day of school, it was clearly a difficult memory.

She seemed to be in a difficult situation, her hesitant voice and worried expression made me realize that I needed to take this seriously.

“To be honest, the dynamic in my group was happening little by little. It wasn’t something I planned. But it’s clear that their lack of trust in you is the weak point. You need to show yourself strong. It’s the beginning of the year, You can still change their perception of you.”

“I already tried to convey confidence, I told them it was just a slip because I had never been pressured like that before.” His gaze turned to the ground, his clenched fists showed his frustration “It won’t happen again, I need...” taking this pause I could see his look full of determination. “I’m going to excel. I’m going to show them I can lead.”

“I understand your objective, but your colleagues don’t seem convinced, perhaps because everyone here says the same thing. You’ll have to win them over with actions, I think that’s why my colleagues trusted me.” A hopeful look appeared on his face.

“And how do I do that?”

“That’s something you need to figure out.” To be honest, I don’t have a clear answer myself.

She remained silent, placing her hand on her chin, her eyes fixed on the floor as if she were searching for a solution. His eyes, once filled with doubt, now shone with a new determination. He shook my hand firmly, a genuine smile forming on his lips. “Thank you, Ryuji. You’ve given me a new perspective. I’ll be rooting for you to win your duel. I think we need to help each other.” She turned and went to her seat, leaving me with a feeling of complicity and camaraderie.

A few minutes passed, and students began to arrive, but none of my classmates were in sight. When the clock struck 9 o’clock, I saw them entering with Professor Takeda. Quickly, they headed towards where I was. Aiko looked at me with an expression of dissatisfaction, while Hana avoided my gaze. The two sat at the back table. I saw Kenji sitting at the other end of my table, and only Daisuke sat next to me.

“You have to adapt, boss,” he said, but before I could say anything Takeda started his class.

“Today will be an important day. Since classes started, you have rapidly improved your mana control. From talking to the other teachers, I know you are doing well in your other subjects as well. Therefore, a new concept will be taught today.” Several murmurs echoed around the room. I was curious myself, if it was something combat-oriented, there would be one more thing to weigh me down.

“However, we cannot start this class if all the students are not here.” A slight confusion ensued, and the others began to look for the lost student, but all 19 were present in the room.

“Who would it be, professor?” asked King.

“You can come in.” The teacher said, looking at the door.

After a few seconds it opened, a boy started walking towards the teacher. Dressed in the institute’s uniform, I noticed that he was relatively short, with striking, spiky gray hair. When he finally reached the teacher and looked around the room, I was doubtful, thinking I knew him. Professor Takeda waves, asking him to introduce himself.

“I am Katsu Yamamoto, the man who will become a spear.” An unforgettable smile appeared on his face.

My eyes widened. Katsu Yamamoto? It couldn’t be. The boy who had been in tears during the exam was now there, smiling as if nothing had happened.

“Do you know him, Ryu?” Daisuke asked, noticing my surprise, I don’t think he can hide it.

“Yes, he took the exam with me...” My voice trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

“Silence.” After waiting for everyone to be quiet, Takeda spoke again. “You must be wondering, why is he entering so late? The answer is that until 3 days ago he was not a wizard, what happened to him was a late awakening.” I felt confusion turn to anger, my blood boiled. Like this? Why didn’t anyone tell us this before? I raised my hand, decided to confront the teacher.

“If this possibility always existed, why didn’t anyone warn those who failed the exam about this? You were in the same room as me and you saw that when Katsu failed, the atmosphere became unbearable.” Even though I wasn’t as close to my colleagues at that time, it was still painful to see their reactions to the failure.

“This is going to be a long conversation. Katsu, you can sit over there.” He pointed to an empty table at the front of the room. I wanted to talk to him as soon as possible, but I knew that what the professor had to say was very important.

With a serious expression on his face, Takeda began to speak. “Before explaining why we didn’t warn you, I’m going to tell you how this exam works around the world.”

He touched the table, and a hologram of the continent appeared, the four nations highlighted by the mighty rivers that divided them in an X shape.

“In all nations the exam is carried out on the first day of February, with the aim of having equality, that is why you all receive vaccines every year that regulate the growth of your nuclei so that you are ready for that day, generally 700 to 800 people awaken, this average has been maintained for almost 100 years, but the majority of them do not make it past the solid blue core and in those same 100 years, only around 300 reached the red.”

“Teacher, isn’t it normal that so few people reach such a high level?” asked King.

“Of course it is, but a wizard who has just reached the red core must be equivalent to between 1000 and 2000 who have the blue core. It is a worldwide consensus that quality is much better than quantity in this case. Now to answer your question, Ryuji, we didn’t warn you because we had to be more difficult”

“So that’s why other years have a lot more students than us.” I was a little perplexed.

“Exactly, based on the information that the mental state of a magician can affect his ability to use his elements, a study was carried out worldwide and found that this also happens at the moment of first awakening, so the question was raised that if people that awakening with this pressure would be better, but no one wanted to lose potentially hundreds of mages to test something that couldn’t be proven, so after 10 years the world finally achieved stability in the war against mana beasts and this proposal came back to the surface.” He paused slightly, perhaps expecting questions, but most of us were still trying to understand.

“Then the exams changed, before the rooms were individual and those who had failed had no contact with those who had not yet taken the exam, in the end the number of new magicians in the entire world, counting those awakened late, was 183, and in the Union Asian there were only 50, with 5 waking up late.”

“So, the others went to the Boreal Arcane Institute , professor?” This was the northernmost school in the Eastern Union.

“About late awakening: This is because the user’s core is not fully formed at the time of the scan. However, when the elementals force their way through the core, it begins to develop rapidly. Within two weeks, all late awakenings will occur. After that, by July, the mana cores of everyone who did not become mages will naturally disappear from the body.” He paused and watched us.

“The expectation is that everyone here will reach at least the green or yellow core. You are an elite group, hand-picked. Let me introduce myself again: I’m General Takeda, and I’m here to make you the best.”

The room fell silent, surprise on everyone’s faces. A general? He held the second highest position in the army. Although I wasn’t as surprised as others, a doubt surrounded me.

“Teacher, if you wanted to train elite students, why didn’t you separate the most talented from those who seemed weaker?” I asked, intrigued. “It doesn’t make sense to end these people’s dreams. Even if they didn’t become the strongest, they could be divided into separate classes.”

“Good question, Ryuji. Theory says that being surrounded by high-level people increases your magical capabilities, as the average comparison will be higher. Furthermore, most of the awakened are children of wizards. Among you, only Katsu and Haruki do not. They have wizard parents.”

“Since the exam, we selected students with not fully developed cores first, knowing that they failed. If this failure affected you, you could not be soldiers. Thank your parents, who guided you to this path, even without saying anything about the magical world .”

I already suspected that some of my colleagues were children or relatives of wizards, but finding out that only two weren’t was a surprise.

“Now that you know this, I hope you don’t disappoint. The world committee decided to do this just once. If the results are not effective, this selection will never happen again.”

A heavy silence fell over the room. The students looked at each other, surprise turning into a mix of shock and apprehension. Some exchanged nervous glances, while others tried to digest the information.

“Since there are no questions, let’s move on to the next topic. Katsu?”

“Yes.” the boy exclaimed, standing up.

“As I explained to you, from today onwards your new leader will be King Suzuki.” While pointing at her, the King stood up smoothly and with a smile on his face said.

“Welcome, Katsu. You can count on me.”

“Lucky me, she’s really pretty.” Before he could finish his sentence, Takeda punched him in the head, knocking him to the ground.

“Have respect, she is your superior.” Takeda quickly took his eyes off Katsu and looked directly at me, then looked past me. He definitely knew about my falling out with Hana. I didn’t want things to have gotten to this point.

After Katsu sat down next to his new leader, Takeda resumed speaking.

“Let’s start the class. As I mentioned before, your manipulation capacity is impressive. Therefore, I think we can now introduce the concept of pure mana.”

Hearing this, my heart skipped a beat. I had given up trying to understand what my grandfather mentioned I had used, but eventually, I would learn about it. This will be the key to winning my fight.