[Subduing people with physical force]

The magic academy Lynn attended was also named after Central City and stood opposite the Central City Swordsman Academy. The two academies were located in the eastern and western districts of the city respectively, separated by nearly half its breadth and the towering cathedral of the Holy See—facing each other from afar like distant rivals.  

Central City wasn’t home to only these two academies, but the academies named after the city belonged to the government. The Central City Magic Academy and the Central City Swordsman Academy were essentially public schools. On this continent, where most educational resources were monopolized by the nobility, the only way for commoners with magical talent to get an education was to either get incredibly lucky and be taken in as an apprentice by a traveling mage or to participate in the talent detection ceremony jointly held by the royal family and the Holy See. If their talent was sufficient, they could be selected to attend one of the academies.

This was how Lynn had been selected for the magic academy.

Because the requirements of the talent detection were so strict, the students who were selected were all extremely gifted. The academy offered a good deal of preferential treatment to these students, such as a reduction in tuition, fees, and room and board. This was how Lynn was able to attend school without a single copper coin in his pocket.

However, this was still a world where the royal family, nobility, and religion had privileges. Students of noble birth didn’t have to meet the talent detection standards to enroll. In fact, if a noble student wanted to keep their talent level a secret, they could also bypass the talent detection and enroll by paying a high tuition fee. However, the number of students with such a need was very small; the vast majority were “transfer students” who simply couldn’t meet the detection standards.

Regardless of the reason, the number of noble children who paid “transfer fees” to attend school was very high, making up almost half of the academy’s student body.

Lynn’s roommate was one of them.

“You’re back much earlier than I expected.”

As soon as Lynn stepped into the dorm, a lazy-sounding voice came down from the second floor.

“Normally you don’t come back until the grace of the goddess of the night is hanging high. Today you’ve surprised me. Hmm? What are you holding? Did the gardener finally prune that thorny bush?”

The dorms at the Central City Magic Academy were very nice. Two students were assigned to a small villa. If a noble child with enough gold coins didn’t want to live with anyone else, they could pay extra to have a villa all to themselves. Many students did this, but Lynn’s roommate was not one of them.

“It’s not a thorny bush. It’s my magic staff.”

Lynn took off his cloak’s hood, revealing his slightly long but not yet shoulder-length black hair. When he heard his roommate’s description, he first thought it made sense, but then he felt he should justify this practical and wieldy magic staff. He explained:

“It’s a cheaper, inferior product. The staff body hasn’t been polished, so it might look a little ‘unconventional’… but don’t call it a branch from a thorny bush, Isaac.”

Isaac, Lynn’s roommate, had the typical Western features of blond hair and blue eyes. He was the second son of the Ventus family in Central City, with a casual personality. He was a rare “anomaly” who treated both commoner and noble classmates equally.

On his first day, Isaac told Lynn nonchalantly that his family didn’t value him and was focusing their resources on his older brother, who was receiving an elite education at a noble magic academy. So, his life goal was to graduate from the magic academy, get his mage’s license, and then go back to his family to live off his brother, a lay-about in the most respectable way. This made Lynn secretly marvel at how advanced his roommate’s mindset was, allowing him to skip decades of detours.

“Trust me, Lynn. My description is not at all exaggerated. Its ‘unconventionality’ is a bit much.”

The blond young man named “Isaac” shrugged, leaning on the railing on the second floor. He was clearly sticking to his opinion, but he didn’t say any more and changed the subject:

“Next week will be our first practical magic training session. Bolton and those other fools have always had it out for commoners. They couldn’t do much when you disappeared after class every day, but during practical training, we can use offensive magic. You’d better be careful not to be targeted by them.”

Bolton’s family ran a fabric business and was a moderately wealthy noble family in Central City. While they couldn’t compare to the powerful Ventus family, they were more than capable of bullying the commoner students at the academy. After all, commoners had no backing, and no one would stand up for them. That fool from the Bolton family was especially jealous of those with superior talent, so he was particularly hostile toward commoner students who had rightfully passed the talent test to enroll.

Lynn happened to be one of the commoners who had enrolled after passing the talent test in their year.

It was easy to distinguish between commoners and nobles. Having a lot of money was only one factor, since there were a fair number of penniless minor nobles. It was much easier to tell by their last name. Nobles always had a last name; some commoners did too, but anyone without a last name was definitely a commoner.

Last names in the magical world weren’t something you could just pick out of thin air. Every last name carried a magical fluctuation, and only a name that was recognized by magic was a valid last name. Therefore, no one could give themselves a fake last name that would be easily exposed.

Lynn had no last name, so he was a complete and utter commoner.

Nobles could pay their way into the academy, but commoner students’ talent was genuine. After graduation, they would be at least an advanced mage, and many would even become archmages. Instead of trying to win over such promising talents, a person who targeted them was, in Isaac’s opinion, intellectually challenged. He always referred to people who did this as “fools.”

When Lynn heard this, he was silent for a few seconds. Just as Isaac thought his weak and helpless commoner roommate might be a little nervous and was considering helping him out since they lived together, he suddenly heard his roommate’s slightly confused voice.

“…Who is Bolton, again?”

Isaac: “…”

Isaac stared at his roommate’s innocent and bewildered expression. He seemed to have been choked by something, and after a while, his mouth twitched as he slowly let out a breath:

“He’s a classmate, at least. Bolton has been trying to cause you trouble for a long time, and you don’t even remember his name…”

His good roommate was truly arrogant enough. If Bolton knew, he would probably be so angry he’d vomit blood.

However, Lynn didn’t know what Isaac was thinking. After all, his “Earth Online” account was not a European one. Easterners tended to have a bit of face blindness when it came to Western faces. Even though he was now in a Western fantasy world, and his own face had a mixed-race look that blended in, it didn’t mean his perception could instantly adapt. Not only had he never paid attention to Bolton, but it had even taken him a great deal of effort to remember what his good roommate Isaac looked like.

There was nothing he could do. To him, most foreigners looked the same, and he was busy with his substitute work all day. If Isaac hadn’t had superior genes and been handsome, making it easier for a “face-stan” like him to remember, he probably wouldn’t even remember his roommate’s face.

Lynn also felt that he might not have been paying enough attention to his classmates, who would be his peers for several years. So he coughed to cover his embarrassment and awkwardly changed the subject:

“I have a little bit of face blindness… but it’s okay, we’re all classmates, I’ll get to know them the more we spend time together. Speaking of which, we have a magic test tomorrow, right? Then I’d better hurry up and trim and polish my new staff so I can use it tomorrow.”

As for Isaac’s warning about Bolton wanting to cause him trouble…

Lynn thought that he had been a mature adult before he logged off “Earth Online.” He felt not a single bit of nervousness about a classmate trying to pull a school bullying stunt in another world. If that guy “Bol-something” wanted to corner him, he would just yell for the teacher at the top of his lungs.

Regardless of what happens in private, a teacher would definitely get involved if the bullying was out in the open. A mature adult wouldn’t have the childish thought that “it’s embarrassing to tell on someone to the teacher.” If the teacher heard about it, the problem would be solved perfectly. If the teacher didn’t hear about it…

Then it’s even simpler. He’d just beat up the bully and have a friendly chat, subduing him with physical force. The teacher wouldn’t hear about that either, right?

With this thought in mind, as soon as Lynn finished speaking, and without waiting for his twitchy-mouthed roommate to comment on his “face blindness,” he unhesitatingly leaned the ironwood staff in his arms against the corner of the wall. The end of the staff hit the floor with a dull *thud*, making Isaac, who was still leaning on the railing upstairs, flinch. Lynn then rushed out the door, leaving behind a quick “I’m going to borrow some tools from Uncle Gardener to polish the staff” before disappearing from sight.

Isaac: “…”

‘My roommate really doesn’t care about Bolton at all…’

He thought.

‘I feel like in Lynn’s eyes, a noble targeting a commoner isn’t as important as him trimming the messy branches of his staff.’

‘Is there something special about this staff?’

Thinking this, Isaac walked downstairs with a bit of hesitation. He stood beside the water-element staff, which was taller than a person and looked like a withered branch from a thorny bush. He observed it for a long time but couldn’t find anything special about it.

The staff body was unpolished and untrimmed, the magic core was grade two, which was a standard material for a low-level staff, and its overall quality wasn’t even as good as his spare training staff… Lynn had borrowed his staff once before, but his expression seemed a bit disappointed. So what made Lynn so fond of this incredibly ugly staff? Was it because it was particularly ugly?

Isaac pondered for a long time but couldn’t figure out the reason. So he decided to get a closer look at the staff.

As soon as Isaac gripped the staff’s handle, he felt that the wood was incredibly solid. Just touching the outside felt incredibly hard. He muttered to himself, wondering if Lynn had met a shady vendor. A staff made of such hard wood wouldn’t be light, and a mage might not be able to hold it for long.

With this thought, Isaac put strength into his arm, preparing to lift the staff to estimate its weight. However, even with the veins on the back of his hand bulging from the effort, the staff remained on the ground, not showing the slightest tendency to lift off.

Isaac: “?”

Isaac, not believing it, used his other hand. He gritted his teeth and held the staff tightly, pulling upward, but he almost broke his teeth. His blond hair was soaked with sweat and matted in strands, yet the ordinary-looking, gray staff remained completely still.

Isaac: “…”

‘Are you serious? This isn’t what a staff should weigh, is it? Did Lynn cast some kind of gravity magic on this staff before he left?’

Isaac remembered the heavy “thud” the staff made when Lynn set it down, and he felt that something was not quite right.

‘It couldn’t be that this staff… is just naturally this heavy, could it?’