Chapter 6: A Dangerous Reputation

Kael did not sleep well.

He spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, thinking about professors, duels, broken stones, and a notification that still had not explained itself.

By the time the morning bell rang through the academy, he had managed maybe three hours of rest and a headache that felt entirely appropriate for his situation.

He washed up, changed into his uniform, and stepped out into the corridor.

Three students he had never spoken to stopped talking the moment they saw him.

One of them nodded slowly, as if acknowledging someone important, and Kael nodded back out of reflex.

They whispered to each other as he passed, and he kept walking.

By the time he reached the dining hall for a quick breakfast, he had counted seven separate conversations that stopped when he entered a room. Two students moved aside to let him through a doorway first. One girl at a corner table pointed at him and said something to her friend that made the friend turn and stare.

Kael sat alone at the end of a long bench with a bowl of something warm, trying to eat in peace.

It did not work.

Mira appeared beside him with a tray and sat down without asking.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully.

"Is it?" Kael replied.

Mira looked around the dining hall with the satisfied expression of someone watching a story unfold exactly as expected.

"Your reputation has spread faster than I thought," she said. "Everyone in the first year knows about the stone. Word has already reached the second year."

Kael stared at his food. "It was an accident," he said.

"You keep saying that," Mira said.

"Because it keeps being true."

Mira smiled and ate a spoonful of something without responding.

Kael exhaled. "What are they saying exactly?" he asked.

Mira brightened, and she clearly enjoyed being asked this.

"Several theories," she said. "The most popular one is that you are a late bloomer, your power has not fully awakened yet, and breaking the stone was an early sign, and the second theory is that you are deliberately hiding your real ability to avoid attention."

Kael gestured broadly at the dining hall, where at least a third of the students were still glancing in his direction.

"How is that working out for me?" he said.

Mira laughed softly. "There is also a third theory," she added.

"What is that one?" Kael asked.

"That you made a deal with something dangerous before entering the academy and that your power comes from an outside source rather than natural talent," Mira said.

Kael set down his spoon.

"That one is the most dramatic," Mira said, unbothered.

"That one is insane," Kael said.

"Most of the interesting theories are," she replied.

Kael picked his spoon back up and finished eating in silence.

After breakfast, he made his way to Professor Hale's private office on the third floor of the east wing. The door was already open, and Hale was seated behind a wide desk covered in neat stacks of papers and two small measuring stones, both intact.

Kael sat in the chair across from him without being asked, and Hale looked at him for a moment. Then, he slid one of the small stones across the desk.

"Touch it," he said.

Kael reached out and pressed two fingers against the stone. It flickered, and then it cracked straight down the center, just as the core stone had.

Hale looked at the two halves, then he slid the second stone forward.

Kael touched it, and it cracked.

The room was very quiet, and Hale leaned back in his chair and pressed his hands together.

"That is the third stone you have broken," he said.

Kael stared at the two halves in front of him.

"I barely touched it," he said.

"I know," Hale replied. "That is the problem."

He stood and walked to the window. Outside, the academy grounds were busy with morning activity, students crossing paths, training in pairs, and carrying books between buildings.

"Measuring stones absorb and record magical output," Hale said, facing away from Kael. "They withstand normal mana pressure, but they shatter when they come into contact with something outside their designed measurement."

Kael waited.

"Which means," Hale continued, turning back around, "whatever you are producing is not standard mana."

Kael looked at his hand.

[ Luck: SSS ]

He closed the panel immediately.

"I do not know what I produce," he said honestly.

Hale studied him.

"That," the professor said, "I actually believe."

He sat back down.

"I will not report your results to the council yet," he said. "But I will be watching your progress closely. If this continues, we will need answers."

Kael nodded slowly, and he stood to leave.

"One more thing," Hale said.

Kael paused.

"The duel with Darius Vane," the professor said. "It has been officially registered. "Day after tomorrow. Academy grounds." He paused. "I suggest you prepare."

Kael looked at him.

"How am I supposed to prepare when I have F rank everything?"

Hale's expression did not change.

"That," he said, "is an excellent question."

Kael walked out of the office and into the corridor, and he looked at his panel.

[ Strength: F ]

[ Mana: F ]

[ Speed: F ]

[ Stamina: F ]

[ Dexterity: F ]

[ Luck: SSS ]

A duel in two days, a professor who did not trust him, and a reputation built entirely on accidents.

He started walking. Somewhere behind him, he heard two students talking.

"There he is."

"He just came out of Hale's office."

"What do you think they talked about?"

"I heard Hale asked him personally for training advice."

Kael kept walking and did not look back.

His reputation was growing faster than he could control, and the worst part was that it had nothing to do with anything he had actually done.