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Rise of the Ice Mage

MatriarchMage
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Chapter 1 - Chapter 1

I stifled the yawn that threatened to escape my mouth as I stared at the front where the teacher was droning on about history. I wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake if the nodding heads of my nearby classmates were any indication. The only person who seemed to be paying attention was perfect Elijah.

He showed no signs of being affected by dull voice of the teacher. I don't know how he managed not to be put to sleep by how boring our teacher sounded. They could have at least picked a teacher who actually seemed interested in the class.

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand as discretely as possible.

"Isadore, pay attention." The teacher's voice reverberated throughout the classroom.

I should have known I'd be caught considering I was siting right in the front row. Now everyone was wide awake to stare at me get called out. Lucky me. At least he didn't ask me to participate.

"Since my class seems to be so boring, why don't you come up to the front and explain what I was talking about in your own words?" he asked as he indicated towards the board.

I inwardly scowled at his actions as I shook my head. There was no way I was going to walk up to the front of class and do his job for him. If he had wanted students to pay attention, he should have done something about his voice.

His eyes scanned the now attentive class before returning to the same monotone voice as he continued where he left off. The class instantly lost interest, and the drowsiness from earlier returned.

Still salty about being called out, I glanced around my surroundings. Not a single person was looking my way anymore. Not even the students next to me seemed to care what I was doing now that I was no longer the center of the history teacher's attention. All their eyes were either glued to the front or wandering around the classroom.

With his back turned, I dared to stick my tongue out at him.

Feeling a little proud of myself for my petty revenge, I turned my gaze away from him and was startled to find that I had apparently missed one person.

Elijah was staring at me with a blank expression on his face. I instantly realized he must have seen what I did. The heat of humiliation rushed towards my face as I glared back. His only reaction was to slightly raise one eyebrow before his eyes shifted back to the teacher as if nothing had happened.

That only made me angrier.

He was undoubtedly looking down on me, the number two in the school, just because he was number one. The only reason he was number one was because he was a prince, not because he was smart.

After all, it wouldn't do to have the prince do poorly compared to a commoner, especially one that was the child of slaves and criminals.

Oh no, it would be a complete disgrace and insult to both the nobility and royalty.

My teeth ground together in frustration as my mana swirled and rippled in my core. Gripping the wrist of my left hand with my right one, I concentrated on the flow of my mana to prevent it from going completely out of control.

I need to stay calm. I couldn't afford to lose control in the middle of class because of a silly little thing.

No one knew about my origin. To everyone else, I was an ordinary orphan who was lucky to be enrolled into the academy. If they had, there was no way I would have been able to escape with my life much less step foot in this place.

Honestly, the smart thing to do would have been to lay low and not stand out at all, but that was unfortunately not a luxury I could afford. With that option completely unavailable, my only choice was to be the very best and make sure no one would be able to make the connection between me and Isabella.

At least, not until I was ready.

Feeling my mana calm down, I released my grip on my wrist and returned my focus back to the teacher as he wrapped up the lesson.

"That's all."

Without another word, he took off as if he couldn't stand being there for another second. Considering how some of the teachers including said teacher who had skedaddled had reacted like this before simply because I breathed in their direction, that probably was the case.

Not that it mattered to me.

If they wanted to resort to petty tricks since they couldn't get rid of me that easily, let them. I'll be the one to get the last laugh.

As soon as the teacher left the classroom, the room erupted into noise. Everyone was either chatting with their friends or leaving the classroom to go to their next class.

I, on the other hand, was busy going through my notes, making sure everything was in mint condition. It wouldn't do to have a rip or tear since the teacher had mentioned we would be turning in our notebooks for a grade for the midterm that was in a couple of weeks.

Apparently, it was to see if we had the potential to be a 'historian'. I didn't believe it in the slightest. Since he was teaching the most boring class, he probably deduced this was the best way to catch who was actually following his lectures instead of borrowing off of others to study from for the tests or outright cheating.

It was also the easiest way for him to harass students he didn't like with me being one of them.

He would probably use it as an excuse to deduct a large chunk of points for being 'untidy' and 'inelegant' if I wasn't careful. While none of this has happened to me, I've heard and seen of cases for other commoners where their work was top-notch but because it was messy, they were given a failing grade.

"Did you see his face?"

My ears twitched as I remained nonchalant and put away my things slowly.

"Yeah, it was hilarious to see him get caught by Mr. Kim for not paying attention in class."

"I thought for sure he would make him stand up in front of the class."

"If only. I wanted to see him make a fool of himself in front of everyone."

"He needs to be taken down a notch. He thinks he's all that just because he's a lower Circle 7."

I nearly snorted.

They must have lost a bunch of braincells if they could take a lower Circle 7 lightly. At that level, anyone would be considered the cream of the crop. With the majority of mages being Circle 2 to 5, most people salivated at the idea of having a mage of my stature on their side.

Well, it couldn't be helped considering the misconception about how ranking worked among mages.

The academy, just like all the other schools in other nations, tested all children starting from ten to see what their potential was so when someone is told they're a medium Circle 4, they didn't actually mean the kid was at that level yet, hence the confusion.

Of course, it wasn't that simple.

Ten was the earliest for people to get an idea of how strong they would become in the future. The test would simply indicate if the person would remain a Circle 1 or not. The chances of the results changing later in life are minimal, but there were some exceptions.

This helped keep people from chasing an impossible dream and focus on things they could actually accomplish.

The best time to get an idea of a mage's true limit would when they hit late puberty so around fourteen and given some time to prepare for the academy which started at sixteen. In my case, I didn't get the test until I was fifteen which was considered unusual, but permissible especially when taking into account who administered the test.

"I can't believe he's ranked that high. It has to be a dirty trick."

"It's already been several months. Do you really think the school wouldn't have caught him by now if he was somehow faking it?"

"What a joke. Are you telling me he was able to fool the Conrad Bates, a medium Circle 8, to get himself enrolled into the school? You have to be crazy to believe that."

Conrad Bates, a high ranking mage who was at medium Circle 8 and subsequently the strongest mage in the kingdom and maybe a good chunk of the world, was the only reason I was allowed into the school despite my dubious history.

I couldn't say for sure whether or not this was a good thing or not.

"Yeah, there's no way he could have pulled off something like that. If he did, he would have to be some kind of monster."

Monster?

I chuckled.

They weren't wrong.