Mayor's Son

Athar was appalled by the brute's behaviour. His grip tightened subconsciously on his spoon as he watched the scene unfold.

Ryler's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"You seem surprised," he said, a faint smirk playing on his lips.

"That man… you know, he is the city mayor's son."

Athar's eyes widened in surprise.

"The mayor's son?" He echoed, the realization sinking in.

Ryler nodded. "Yeah. His name is Mark. He is a third year student and has a silver grade beast as his companion. Using his status and power, he bullies whoever he pleases. He is a quite a famous bully of the academy."

"But why would the academy allow this kind of behaviour? Why turn a blind eye to incident like this?" Athar asked, genuinely bewildered.

Ryler let out a low chuckle, as if amused by the question. "The academy does not allow it, per se. They just, you can say, turn a blind eye, as long as certain lines are not crossed."

"Why?" Athar's confusion only deepened. "Why turn a blind eye to something so obviously wrong? All that talk of discipline and rules only to turn a blind eye for something this obvious."

Ryler shrugged, his voice calm, almost resigned. "They have their reasons. And though you might not agree, many, at least the people running the academy think, it is reasonable. They have certain considerations in their mind."

He leaned back in his seat as he continued, looking thoughtful. "You see, the world is not really a fair or an ideal place, Athar. The academy might protect you within its walls. But what about when you step outside?"

Athar narrowed his eyes in contemplation. He understood that reality all too well.

"Once you graduate, who is going to protect you?" Ryler continued.

"The academy's philosophy is simple. You either learn to fight people like Mark, learn to live with people like Mark… or become someone like Mark, a bully through and through."

"So, the academy wishes that when we leave this place, we are prepared to face what is out there. They do not want innocent flowers to be thrown into a pit of fire," Ryler added.

Athar sat in silence, the words hitting him harder than he expected. He clenched his spoon tighter, memories of his old life flashing through his mind—the countless times he'd been powerless, forced to endure. He could not refute Ryler. Everything he said made complete sense.

Ryler noticed the change in Athar's demeanour but did not comment on it.

He simple continued giving information. "And just so you know… most of this nonsense happens on day before the holiday."

"The day before the holiday?" Athar echoed, puzzled. "What is its relation with the bullying."

Ryler nodded, "Yes. The day before the holiday."

"You know that tomorrow is holiday… and like students many instructors too leave the academy to deal with their personal business," Ryler said. "But most of the instructors leave in the night itself which include the instructors who are responsible to maintain the discipline in the academy."

"Look around yourself," Ryler said. "Do you see any instructor roaming around as you would usually do?"

"No," he himself answered the question. "It is very convenient for the academy to shut their eyes and let things happen."

"Few even call it sharpening of the students," Ryler added with a chuckle.

Athar was at loss of words for what to say. To think that things could run this deep and complex amazed and shocked him. He absolutely had no words.

He had himself faced such situation but the academy was almost institutionalizing it in name of preparing the students for the future.

Athar, thereafter, quickly completed his dinner. Neither he or Ryler initiated any other conversation in the meantime. Both of them wished good night to each other and Athar returned to his dormitory.

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After Athar returned to his dormitory, he retrieved a cloth sack from the almirah. It was the sack in which he had received his resource quota of the week and it had been untouched since the last few days.

Every teacher had emphasised the word 'patience' and that was what Athar had followed. He did not hastily consume all the resources and tried to gain knowledge about them. And now he was pretty sure that he had good enough knowledge to use them.

He retrieved one of the F Rank Bronze grade cores. Beast Cores were more valuable than the mana crystals. Mana crystals were most useful when they were used to recover mana after a person had his mana depleted, generally after a battle or most useful as a currency.

On the other hand, the beast cores and the two mana he had received were most suitable to increase one's mana capacity.

Athar placed the beast core between his two palms and started to circulated his cultivation technique. Dense amount of mana started to be absorbed in his body and Athar could feel his mana capacity being affected. He remained in that position for an hour after which he opened his eyes.

By now the size of the beast core had reduced by one third and accordingly Athar would take around 3 hours to absorb one of the cores completely.

Athar again shut his eyes and began his cultivation. He was going to absorb that beast core completely.

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