First day of school [1]

Sitting in the rightmost corner, at the end of the classroom by a window, I had my head lying on the wood of the tall desk in front of me. This modern space of learning had all the essentials of a classroom. Spread out in two rows were long tables, accompanied by sets of chairs in threes. Looking up towards the other end of the room there was a podium, designed for the teacher to stand at, in front of a modern, digital whiteboard. The name of this classroom was 1-A, my homeroom.

All students were divided into either the A-class or the B-class, depending on the prospects of the students. The ones who were regarded as great talents, even in Kirkegaard where everyone could be regarded as an elite, were put in the A-class, and the seemingly less impressive students were put into B-class. I was put in the A-class as a statement, as the principal had promised the other teachers and professors that I was a great talent.

The good thing about this was that I was going to get to compete with individuals of great potential would inevitably put me in a spot where I had to improve quickly. The less good thing was that I did not belong here. After overhearing all kinds of talk during my first two weeks at the academy, before the students went on a break, it was very rare that someone without a well-developed mana grade II would be in this class. I had assumed I would be put in the B-class where, even if my mana was a bit underdeveloped, I would at least be able to get by. All the fun I had while improving the quality of my mana, and pride when being able to control it had been replaced by stress.

I had come to my homeroom early to avoid the other students for as long as possible. Sitting here, with my legs dangling below my chair and the upper part of my chest barely reaching the desk, I was thinking about the incident in the cafeteria the day before.

***

"Ah sorry boy, didn't see you there! Are you alright?"

Looking up at the hero reaching down to help me up from the floor, my heart sank. The extremely handsome guy with a perfect jawline and dirty blonde short hair presented a warm smile towards me. A physique that could only be said to be perfect. Tall, broad shoulders and filled with dense muscles. Unlike Mike, the gorilla-man, this man had what seemed to be the perfect dimensions with defined muscles without looking like a bodybuilder. Looking around one could see the girls looking at him with enchanted eyes.

*Fu*

Letting out a small sigh, I forced a slight smile on my face and took the hand. As he easily, too easily, lifted me from the floor I answered.

"I'm fine. Sorry for yelling, I've just had a long day."

"Seems rough for a kid. Are you the child of a teacher of something? Even though I'm a freshman it seems to be rare for a child to be running around here."

...

'It's okay, this is the hero who will save us all. I need to get along with him even if he is an ignorant bastard...'

"I'm also a freshman..."

"WOAH! Are you some kind of child prodigy or something? That's amazing! To be able to attend Kirkegaard at your age, you must have some insane talents!"

'Holy shit, I might actually kill the hero at this point! Actually... I guess at most I would just give him a bit more than a rough massage until my strength increases...'

Clenching my fists in an attempt to contain my surging anger and keeping a warm, but incredibly forced, smile I tried to explain the situation.

"Actually, I'm also 16. I'm an ordinary student just like everyone else here. I just still haven't had my growth spurt!"

....

As if frozen by time, the hero stopped all his actions. Slowly his warm smile turned into something more akin to an expression of pity. As I kept my polite smile I could see the gears turn in his head. Seemingly having collected himself he started talking, obviously trying to save me from the embarrassment of the situation.

"Oh... right... of course you are! How silly of me! My doctor did tell me my eyesight had been on the decline lately. Although you might be short, now that I look closer it's clear from your incredibly mature face"

As he spouted obvious lies with a smile his eyes still looked down at me with pity. As it got continually harder to keep a smile on my face I decided to end the conversation and get on with my night.

"Well, I have to get going. I have an important meeting to attend before classes start tomorrow."

'Why am I so bad at lying?! There's no way someone would have an important meeting the day after New Year, right before the semester starts...'

As I spoke his eyes started to smile a bit, looking like he felt relieved that I at least seemed to be someone of importance as if it was obvious that I otherwise played the game called life on hard mode.

'He believed me didn't he...'

"Alright, I don't want to be the reason you are late for an important meeting. My name is James Lum... eee... Lumari! Yes, my name is James Lumari! I just arrived at the academy. Unfortunately, I had circumstances which made me unable to be here even after I celebrated my 16th birthday."

'Seems like he forgot the alias he was going to by. Although it seems like James really is his first name, I already know he is from the Luminary family. Not to mention the alias he chose was way too similar to his real last name.'

Keeping up the facade, I pretended to not know his real name and replied politely, while also intending to close the conversation.

"Nice to meet you James, my name is Miren Porter. Have a good night."

As I restarted my journey away from the cafeteria, I noticed that we seemed to have attracted quite the audience. With almost all of the students in the cafeteria quietly watching our interaction, I couldn't help but frown.

'Seems like I won't be able to go unnoticed even from the start.'

Although this should have been obvious from the fact that my head barely reached the upper chest of the girls around me and the lower chest of the guys, I had naively believed that I would be able to go somewhat incognito while accumulating more power.

Taking another look at the crowd I could see the girls watching us a lot more intensively than the guys. Weirdly enough, it was not just James who was catching the eyes of the girls. A lot of them also seemed to be watching me as well. That being said, the kind of looks we got was quite different. Where they watched James with enchanted eyes, longing for him to be their knight in shining armor, they watched me as they were looking at a small animal who needed protection.

'I hate this so much...'

In a magical world there had to be a way to grow taller, in fact, I had been thinking about if the strength rank could be the key to increasing my height. It seemed to be the biggest contrasting factor between me and other people, disregarding my strength I had some amazing inherent properties. Even if increasing my strength didn't help me I had already convinced myself that there would at least be some kind of magical potion, divine scroll, or even a curse who could help me.

***

With my face once again down on the desk, it felt like an eternity waiting for the other students and the homeroom teacher to arrive.

*Fuuuuuee*

Letting out a long sigh I couldn't help but feel burdened by yesterday's incident. I had already come to terms that I would most likely die an early death before I had managed to gain enough power to defend myself for what is to come. It didn't take a genius to conclude that I would be in the same class as the hero and his party. Being part of the class which would have to go through the most dangerous situations of all the students without even a basic, undeveloped Battle Art like [Basic Dagger Arts], the beginning of most dagger arts around excluding the traditional arts of some ancient families, I had been put on a timer.

As I was thinking about my certain doom the door opened. Walking in with a straight back and impeccable posture James walked in. I had a feeling that the hero of the story would be a good kid, but being the first, excluding me who actively wanted to avoid other people, student to arrive he seemed to be way too much of an upright man.

'Having the light affinity, impossibly good looks, and be diligent in your studies? Give me a break...'

As I watched him walk into the classroom he met my gaze and the holy smile appeared.

"Yo, Miren! Are you already here? I thought I would be the first one here, with the day not starting for another 20 minutes."

Ignoring the annoying toy boy of a man I turned my head toward the window at my side, hoping he would recognize the signs of a person not wanting to interact with him. Alas, my hope was quickly extinguished as he made his to the back of the classroom and once more started talking to me.

"I was so excited that I couldn't sleep at all. Man, thinking I would get to attend Kirkegaard without protection from my... I mean... Without the nagging from my overprotective parents living in the countryside sure makes me feel energized!"

Without having the time to even internally retort his shitty lies the door opened once again. This time a stream of students made their way in, males and females with all sorts of different hair colors and body shapes, with all wearing the academy's uniforms in black and gold.

Once again a weird feeling started to rise from my stomach. I knew a few of these students. Specifically two of the girls and a man with a size similar to Mike. Although, just like the meeting with James I had no idea who they actually were. All I knew were that those were the people who would eventually become the supporting pillar surrounding the hero.

Watching the girls with the long golden respectively shoulder-length silver hair, as well as the large bald, dark-skinned man the door opened for one last time. This time another big man wearing a black suit dragged his feet in. Looking up with a cup of coffee in his hand he started mumbling.

"Why are you all already here..."

Straitening his back, he filled his lungs with air in preparation of creating a better first impression.

"Yo guys! I'm Mike Borr, the handsome head combat instructor as well as a legendary hero who will lead you all to greatness!"

It failed spectacularly.