Chapter 2: Legacy
"Remember, no matter what you gotta be happy. Please promise me that."
"I do mom, of course, I'll do my best to always be happy in life."
Although the malnourished and pale hand which reached out and touched Tom's cheek was ghastly cold, it nevertheless spread a comfortable warmth throughout his face and head, seething heat all the way into Tom's otherwise cold and still heart. Even on her deathbed, Tom's mother wore a constant smile that radiated a certain calming warmth to anyone who witnessed it, a stark contrast as the fearsome reputation she had earned as a mage before her lifelong illness confined her to bed.
A week after that conversation, Tom's mother passed away in her sleep. Although he had prepared for such an eventuality for a long time, Tom found himself paralyzed due to grief, as far as he knew, Tom had just lost what remained of his already tiny family, he was now alone in the world, so he unconsciously found himself starting to cling to her legacy.
Or at least that's what he thought. Not even a full day after Tom's neighbours had helped him put his mother in the ground, a butler wearing a way too spotless and expensive suit arrived to inform him that Tom's father wanted to see him, apparently, Tom still had some family left.
Just not the kind he would come to appreciate.
Tom's father turned out to be some big short noble, he had taken a fancy to Tom's mother back in the day and had an affair with her in spite of already having 3 wives and the subsequent result of that affair was Tom. Although he didn't care to remember his father's exact words, it was something like 'go and make a name for yourself, even if you don't have a magic aptitude I can still arrange a marriage for you, you better be grateful for this'.
For what exactly Tom was supposed to be grateful for, he never really did find out, but Tom did find the none magic-related classes at the mage academy entertaining.
"You better be grateful for this."
Those words continued ringing out in Tom's head as he remembered his first time meeting his father inside a somewhat cramped office filled with important-looking books and documents.
Tom's balding and overweight 'father' didn't even look at him a single time doing their first meeting, he just continued to write on some important looking paper all the while demanding Tom's gratitude.
"Remember, no matter what you gotta be happy. Please promise me that."
Offended at meeting his sorry excuse for a father, Tom found his mother's words ringing out in his head, calming him down enough to see the positives in the current situation. Even if he had no talent for magic, Tom could learn other important skills like etiquette that he could use at a future job, in addition to world history which he found mildly interesting.
(If I endure the magic classes and just focus on the others I can cut ties with my family after that, with the kind of education they offer at the mage academy I should be able to find a somewhat well paying job… After all, I promised mom that I would be happy)
Waking up at first light by the first bell, Tom immediately headed towards morning classes. This wasn't because Tom was some sort of extremely diligent student, but rather that he would avoid the more violent students by going to class early.
"Oh my, how lovely of you to arrive here so early Tom, I was hoping to have another chat with you soon."
But as Tom entered the large lecture room along with the morning rays, he suddenly found himself face to face with an even more problematic opponent than the numerous bullies he had avoided.
"Miss Elizabeth, if it's about that earlier offer my answer is still the same."
"Don't worry Tom, I just want to talk, that's all."
With a smile shining even brighter than the morning sun, Miss Elizabeth Warren greeted Tom with a slight bow, her long golden hair fluttering slightly as she did. For some unknown reason, the young Warren family heiress had taken a liking to Tom on the very first day he started at the mage academy and even went so far as to publicly ask for his hand in marriage, this incident became one of a mounting number of reasons why Tom was so disliked by the other boys in his class. The reason behind Miss Elizabeth's proposal still remained unknown to Tom, as every time he asked, Miss Elizabeth flawlessly deflected the question before redirecting the conversation, but Tom figured there was a 50-50 chance she had either fallen in love with him at first sight or simply wanted him as a partner in order to produce a strong heir and cement her own position within her family, either way Tom wasn't that pleased about the situation.
"So this other day I found this cafe in town which serves this really lovely tea. You have to try Tom, let's go try it together sometime next weekend."
Still maintaining that perfect smile on her face, Miss Elizabeth radiated a strong will as she maintained a casual demeanour. Her clear blue eyes looked directly into Tom's as she drew a bit closer to him.
"I'll have to decline, Miss Elizabeth, my family still has yet to send me any money so I can't afford to use any at the moment."
Declining Miss Elizabeth's invitation as politely as he could, Tom finally noticed she had drawn closer to him and retreated a few steps in response.
"Then it can be my treat this time, or is spending time with me really that much of a bother?"
Putting on her very best expression as she once more took a step towards Tom, Elizabeth clearly saw how his resistance wore down at a rapid phase, she calculated that it wouldn't be more than a few seconds before Tom finally gave in to her.
Unfortunately, this was right when the teacher arrived as Elizabeth's fellow classmates started pouring into the lecture hall.
"I'm sorry Miss Elizabeth, let's talk later."
Using the teacher's arrival as an opportunity to escape, Tom quickly left Elizabeth to go find a seat, in response Elizabeth said nothing, but the perfect young lady's perfect smile slightly twitched as she clenched the hem of her skirt.
After 3 hours of theoretical magic classes (of which Tom understood very little), it was time for practical classes where students would practice using magic under the keen eye of numerous experienced mages acting as instructors.
"That's it, Miss Elizabeth, continue steadily regulating your mana like that. Keep the output steady or your staff won't be able to handle the load."
"Y-yes, sir."
Standing in the open practise field with the noon sun radiating down from above, Miss Elizabeth firmly grasped a wooden staff which was about her own height, the staff was engraved with a set of complicated runes all over its surface, and at the tip of it sat a white crystal the size of a fist which faintly gleamed in response to Elizabeth's mana.
"Using mana was easy, one just needed to let it pour out from one's body. But making something useful from that mana is an entirely different matter, continue to focus on the shape of your spell Miss Elizabeth."
The 'shape' the instructor was referring to was an almost perfectly round ball of water floating in the air in front of Elizabeth. As her slightly laboured breathing moved her chest, the ball of water also shivered in response as Elizabeth was starting to strain her concentration as she continued to maintain her spell.
"That's enough, good job, Miss Elizabeth. Your concentration has improved greatly since last time, have you been blessed with the mana control skill yet?"
"Y-yes, instructor. When I looked at my [status] last night it appeared."
"Good, you've just taken the first step in becoming a mage, be proud of that."
Showing a genuinely happy and honest smile in response to her instructor's praise, Miss Elizabeth's experience in the practical magic class couldn't stand at any stark contrast compared to what Tom was currently experiencing.
The prestigious Laurence mage academy stands heads and shoulders above all other mage academies, not only in the Laurence kingdom itself but also the surrounding countries' academies. One of the many points at which the Laurence mage academy stood heads and shoulders above any other school was the number of available instructors, in fact, the academy boasted they had at least one experienced mage instructor per student.
Knowing that it was such a prestigious school which spared absolutely no expense, it might have been a strange sight that Tom was practising using magic entirely on his own. This wasn't some sort of bullying on behalf of the mage instructors, but rather Tom's own request that he shouldn't waste the instructors time, so he simply went over the basics by himself.
('First, find the warmth within your chest, this warmth is hard to move around by sheer willpower alone, but not impossible. With enough experience, you should be able to move your mana out into your hands Tom, even if you don't have a magic affinity moving mana through your body should strengthen it.'... Let's see here.)
Closing his eyes to focus, Tom started sensing the warmth in the core of his body, in earlier classes he had already found out this was his mana.
(Now to try and move it… Last class, I felt like I was able to soften up the warmth in my core. If I do that I should be able to move it?)
Thinking of the mana in his own body like hard and dehydrated bread dough, Tom gradually started attempting to soften it up and 'kneed' it to enable movement.
While he diligently worked on his ability to manipulate the mana within his body and move it out in his arms, Tom had forgotten something very important. To strengthen his own body with mana, Tom didn't need the staff he was still holding in his left hand, as the only reason one would need a [catalyst] was if one wanted to cast magic. In that case, it was dangerous for an inexperienced mage to move their mana near a [catalyst] without realizing it.
As the noon bell sounded to end morning classes, one of the mage instructors breathed out a sigh before he looked around.
"Alright, that's the end of class. Please leave your borrowed [catalysts] with an instructor, they'll…-"
Scanning the practice field as he said the words he had done a million times before, the instructor's eyes fell on Tom who was still concentrating so deeply that he hadn't noticed the bell.
"-... HEY! You over there! Stop what you're doing!"
Immediately realizing the danger of what Tom was doing, the instructor started to run towards his student as he shouted at him. This finally broke Tom's concentration and he became aware that class had ended, but as he did, Tom loosened his control over the mana in his arms, leading some of it to slip into the staff he was holding, reaching the [catalyst] at the tip of the staff.
Ping!~
"Eh?"
With the sound of the crystal breaking, Tom felt his mana rush out of his body as he suddenly felt extremely heavy and cold all over his body, like he was suddenly being crushed under the weight of 20 full-grown men sitting on top of his head while standing naked in the middle of a snowstorm. Falling to the ground under that extreme 'weight', Tom smashed his face against the dirt and was immediately knocked out.
-
A bit before the noon bell, a knock sounded out on the door to the headmaster's door. Without even waiting for a response a mage instructor of the school walked into the headmaster's office with a casual air around her.
"I'm back."
"Ah, good work Lizzy. I'll listen to your report in just a second."
While the headmaster continued his paperwork, the instructor named Lizzy ruffled her long curly black hair which reached all the way down her back as she offered a sigh just as tired sounding as her dull blue eyes looked. Although Lizzy wore the same dull brown uniform as the other instructors, it was under a heavy-looking black robe which was stained with what seemed to be dried up bloodstains, a hint at her true function at the academy. In a few seconds, Lizzy's patience with the headmaster seemed to wear out as she reached into one of the pockets on her oversized robe, fetching a pack of cigarettes and a pack of matches which she used to light one whilst she sat down on the corner of the headmaster's large office table.
"Anything interesting happened since I was last here?"
Taking a large huff of her cigarette, Lizzy arched her head and back as she exhaled a large puff of smoke, only this smoke was as cold as frost in the middle of a blizzard, creating small ice crystals which floated around in the air before melting once more.
"I believe I already told you not to smoke inside my office Lizzy."
"But it doesn't smell when I do this, see?"
Craning her head towards the headmaster, Lizzy exhaled another ball of smoke to demonstrate for the headmaster that it indeed didn't carry any smell. Sighing in resignation at Lizzy's unchanging attitude, the headmaster started to wonder if she was the reason for his slowly balding head before Lizzy once more spoke up, impatient as always.
"So, did anything interesting happen? You got a new batch of hatchlings right, are any of those rich little brats creating an issue I need to fix?"
"Nothing more than I can handle, other than getting a student without a magic aptitude there has been nothing of note. Could you please tell me your report now Lizzy? I have a meeting with the lecturers soon."
"Sure, I-"
Right as Lizzy started giving her report to the headmaster, the noon bell sounded, it was followed a few seconds later by a strange burst of mana which came from the practice field the headmaster's officer overlooked. Stopping her report mid-sentence, Lizzy's eyes drew to the window behind the headmaster before a thin smile formed on her face.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Do you mind if I spend a bit of time here at the academy?"
Having also sensed the strange flow of mana from the now collapsed student, the headmaster saw some value in having one of his best mages at home for a while.
"Sure, but what do you plan on doing? I will not pay you just to laze around."
"Ah, don't worry about that, it looks like I've found something interesting to do."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Gamma420
Gamma420 Thanks for reading, starting off easy, but it won't continue like that for poor Tom
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