[Eon's POV: ]
"Hmmm. Quite a peculiar answer you have young man. It was deep and mysterious for some reason. Alright, let us do the introduction young Alpha."
There was a smile on his face this time too and different from how everyone reacted after Uriel's answer, there was an accepting, cheerful, and impressed expression on everyone's face in the class.
And it almost felt like the class was rejuvenated after his answer as everyone seemed to have a high opinion of whatever he had said. And, this strange positive atmosphere took a new hike when he put his hand on the crystal ball and the artifact started shining with not one or two but a total of five bright colors, that indicated his affinity with water, fire, wind, earth, and darkness, as well as with six light colors that showed his affinity with ice, mist, lightning, sound, sand, and a familiar shade of purple that was generally used for indicating only one thing…
"No way…"
"Really? Is this the house captain of the [True dragon]?"
"H-how can someone have so many elemental affinities?!"
"T-that's impossible!"
"Aether! He has an affinity for Aether!"
"I-is he secretly a wizard or something?"
"Hmm? Why is everyone-"
"Aether!"
"Hmmm? No. It's not right. It's not, right?"
He had an affinity for using Aether. Something so rare that mostly only wizards and witches or some special individual had. And he had it, like everyone was seeing right now, so it was evident that he was special and the rumors were bound to spread about this.
Aether was one of the fundamental energies after all and though it was considered the toughest thing to master by any being, just having the affinity to use that strange power that was present in nature as much as the Mana.
And it was a denser particle than Mana so it was obviously more powerful than any energy particle weaker than Mana.
Everyone's surprise was obvious and though many of them didn't know why they were so surprised like that, when they roughly grasped what was happening, they were also surprised.
Many of them had already understood that this crystal ball was showing them if someone had an affinity for not just the basic and secondary elements but also the special energies different from Mana, Aether was an energy that we were able to check if anyone had an affinity for just like the Arcana, spirit Mana, or internal energy.
Until now, there was only one person in our class that had an affinity for Aether and many people already knew that fact as he was a crown prince from a famous kingdom so there was not as much fuss as right now when an unknown person that they had only thought was some unknown person from an unknown place and was only chosen as the house captain of the best house by luck, was also revealed to have an affinity with not just the aether but also with five main elements as well as five other higher elements.
"I'm Alpha, a <B> rank adventurer, a (tier-4) mage, a [Rank-4] knight, an advanced alchemist, an intermediate rank blacksmith, and a beginner stage enchanter.
I like trying new things so I can do many things pretty well and even though I might look young, I'm much older.
But age is just a number that's irrelevant among us students.
There are many in our batch that are far older than me, probably even hundreds of years old, and still, they are here to study, just like all of us.
You all are students and I'm your fellow classmate so I would like it if you just treat me as a fellow acquaintance that you can talk to at any time.
And sorry if I seem unapproachable, that's just an innate thing. But please do not hesitate to approach me.
I'm here to find strong companions for the future after we graduate and I know there are many strong people even in this class, so feel free to come and talk to me."
He sat down after that and the teacher, as well as everyone else, looked at him with a unique look.
Sir Jez had a smile similar to the one that he gave her when she answered and there was also great interest in his smile as he looked at him, as well as when he stealthily glanced back up at the two of us.
[[ "I still don't like him but at least, he has charisma to attract others. Well, he isn't coming to the team anyway so he isn't that much important." ]]
[[ "Yes but, he is still good enough to be useful outside the team." ]]
[[ "Bad bastard." ]]
There was a smile on her pretty face while there was shock on everyone else's faces.
And their shock was obvious after he revealed his mage and knight levels. They were as great as the twelve prodigies so this was genuinely the most shocking reveal of our class today.
"You are also an interesting fellow, Alpha. Alright, then. Let's continue and finish quickly for today as we only have a little time and few people left."
We had a total of twelve classes every year and six of them were of our choice and the other six are compulsory ones.
Our current class was one of the compulsory ones and every day, we only had six classes that we needed to attend and of those six, three were the compulsory ones while the other three were personal ones.
And aside from the personal classes and homeroom classes, the compulsory classes were: Basic magic and weapon understanding; Society, culture, and history; Understanding nature; Economy and currency; and language and manners.
And the reason to include boring courses like them in the curriculum was only because of the goal of the academy which was focused on creating aspects that could contribute to the world. And one had to have appropriate knowledge and skills to be a part of this world, so boring courses like history and manners were absolutely necessary from their perspective.
Anyway, the class was about to end, and it was my turn now.
"Lucifer. What is Mana and how are the elemental affinities related to it?"
Now, everyone was again looking back, and this time, they were looking at me, the finance of someone that had probably given the longest and shortest answers today and also the one that warned them.
Her response and the response from Alpha were so great that they strangely had high expectations from me too.
But regardless of their understanding of Mana or even the question, the answer, the unique answer that the teacher was looking for, was surprisingly far more simple than one could actually think.
The question was simple, this was our first class, the teacher was looking at me with a somewhat similar expression as the others, and my partner beside me had a playful smile as I answered in a calm tone and confident manner.
"Mana is number 3 and elemental affinities are all the positive numbers except 1 multiplied by 3."
"What?"
…
"?"
"??"
"???"
Not just Uriel beside me but also the entire class that was looking at me suddenly had question marks above their heads.
But different from all of them, there was a deep smile on our teacher's face that mostly had been stoic all this time.
He was smiling and everyone was looking back at me, so there was almost no one that noticed that reaction of his.
"Why all the numbers?"
But as soon as he asked that, many of them turned around and looked at him, but by that time, that deep smile had been reduced to just the small one that everyone was aware of.
'Sadly for them, they missed a cool and spooky expression from our vampire homeroom teacher.'
"Nature, sir. We have to say all plosive numbers or else it would be considered wrong, no?" I answered his question with a smile and as soon as he heard that answer...
"Hahaha!"
He started laughing, and this time, he was laughing loudly, nothing like that simple smile that has appeared a few times till now and surprised those who were lucky enough to notice it.
This wasn't that small smile or laughing voice. No. He was laughing out loud this time, his two sharp teeth visible to the ones looking at his strange laughter, and as he laughed, the entire class focused back on him, confused as to why he was like that and what was the reason he was even laughing for.
And, well, as the answer to them, there was only one thing that I could say.
'He liked number 3 a little too much.'
And anyone observing him closely could definitely notice how he blinked three times while looking at someone or at the class as a whole. How he tapped the table three times whenever he touched it. Or just by how he summoned exactly three bats at the start. Not one more or less but three.
All this was not some coincidence and if someone studies his past like me, they would definitely know that number three really meant something far more than some of his own questions to him. And, he had made the number three a part of himself so he just loved it unconditionally for some reason.
It was strange and interesting, and I liked that aspect of him even more.
There was a number that I liked a lot too but, I still had a long way to go before I could integrate it with my entire being like him.
So, long story short, the way I answered was peculiar, and it was on point too that answered both his questions, so he was happy.
And the way he was laughing joyfully right now really confused many of the students.
Laughing an adult vampire like him laughing was frightening too in a way, so he stopped quickly, looked at me with a happy gaze, and nodded with full approval.
"You get a class point for that wonderful answer and I can't wait to have the two of you in my class now. You two Alpha. Drop by when you are free and want to learn some wonderful things about true magic.
Hmmm~. Alright! Let's finish your intro and this great first class. I'm pretty happy after that wonderful response."
And he was happy right now, really happy as he looked at me and my partner beside me who had a sulking face.
She was angry at what I did just now and her cheeks were puffed up like some fruit-eating squirrel.
She looked cute, the class was surprised, Alpha was looking at the two of us with calm eyes, and the teacher was smiling… and just after that moment when I placed my hand on the crystal ball, the atmosphere changed again and this time, it was even quieter than the time after Rein's answer.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l