Miss H had tried to tell me she didn't mean it like that, but I had quickly wiped my cheeks and gotten to my feet. Walking away despite her efforts to follow. Which was how I ended up here, wasting another day of my so-called vacation, laying on the bookshelves in Edward's office as a handful of teachers were arguing below me.
"She's a glass mage!" The fire elite growled at the ridiculous idea.
"That doesn't change the fact! She made a dragon! She made a demon! She is a monster!" My oh-so-favorite teacher snapped back, the glass mage not backing down from the elite that also insulted her by saying it. "She is a different type of mage! She is not bound by the same rules that we are! She can bring magic to life! She can create living mana pools! As if that dragon isn't dangerous enough! She pulls mana from it the moment she's running low! Do you understand how dangerous that is?! A glass mage has enough mana as is! But she has extra mana that could kill a small army!"
Staring at the marble between my fingers, my other arm behind my head, I found a strange numbness pulling at my chest at the words. "It's hardly a real dragon-"
"Really?! Last time I checked when it was no larger than a dog you needed the help of three other elites to simply capture it!" My brows raised at that, the incident in class coming to mind, having never really heard too much about it. Definitely didn't hear about four elites being the ones to catch it. I suppose Adrain must have had more than a few cuts then.
"Shut your mouth you-"
"Enough!" Edward's voice boomed in the small office, cutting off their arguing, "I summoned you all so we could speak about the proper teaching method for this student, not about your personal feelings about her magic." I guess he can be professional.
"... She definitely can take a punch," Glancing over at the voice, finding my hand-to-hand teacher, I rolled my eyes, "She doesn't have a lot of physical strength and while she struggled more at the beginning of the trimester, she has always been able to anticipate her opponent, however, more recently, she has begun being able to move in accordance with that anticipation, she has even begun to land hits on an opponent twice her size. One I put her against with the intention to help bring out that speed,"
"Is that why she's always in my wing?" James snapped, glaring at the woman that sighed.
"I understand that it's harsh on her, but I have not been able to accurately describe what she as a smaller opponent should do. She does take a lot of hits, and she does break a lot of bones, but she has always been able to get back up. She fights despite any hit she takes, when she has reached her limit she has always been the first to say it, sometimes she may not understand her limits, but she has improved much more with an active situation rather than the explaining of what to do. She just learns better when in the situation, her stamina has greatly improved, and with each day she takes fewer blows,"
"I have to agree, while in swordsmanship, she has proven to grow upon the stress of an opponent much stronger than herself, in fact, I had to separate her from the other students because she was picking up habits I didn't want her to develop. She pays too much attention to her opponent, and when paired with those of similar skill she has a tendency to mimic them. I have her working with my support in an attempt to avoid this, she has learned at such a speed that I have to occasionally step in and separate the two because of how competitive my support can be,"
"I have the opposite opinion, while in marksmanship, she is exceptionally well above her peers, while I do agree with separating her from fellow students. She might not compare in actual accuracy to those at the very top in my class but her practical skills have often left me unsure on how to teach her, stress has proven to only make her less likely to participate. I have had her walk out of my class entirely for simply putting her with others of higher accuracy. I have been forced to accommodate her numerous times, making obscure drills for her beyond what has been asked of me,
"For the simple fact that she has a particular skill set in archery. Her distance is mediocre, and her accuracy is certainly good but not the best, but she is fantastic at speed shooting and realistically difficult shots. I've had her perform a 50-meter moving shot from a tree. She had found it a difficult shot and hung upside, holding herself up with her legs, saying it limited her arms less. While she did not hit it to a good degree, she still hit the target. A simple 15-centimeter disk. She had marked the edge but she had hit her target,"
"I've had a similar finding in spearmanship, she does not do well with those of better skill. While I avoid placing her with those of less skill because she has a tendency to begin awkward movements, those of similar or slightly better leave her the opportunity to try moves I personally wouldn't consider while only risking minimal damage. I've only had one severe injury regarding her in my class and that was because she had used her spear as something to swing her weight around, she had unfortunately swung right into the spearhead of her opponent, but after that incident, she has been significantly more careful with her use of such a thing,"
"With magic, I have found that she struggles greatly when only using her true magic while not having a defense shield, I only allow her to use her dragon if she and the dragon are too separate from the rest of the class to spar. Which has become less common as the dragon has grown in size, however, I avoid keeping her with one opponent as she has proven that prolonged exposure to a specific person leaves her to pick up on habits within their way of using magic. Which may be beneficial for them to learn to stop such habits, but it defeats the purpose of her fighting with her magic. She has struggled to keep up since my rotating her opponents however she has begun to use her magic as a legitimate form of fighting rather than attempting to use blood magic or other branch magics,"
"... So, what I'm hearing is, none of you have complaints with the way this student has been improving?" A variety of agreements filled the air. "Well then, Vince, you've heard what they have to say,"
"Unfortunately, I have," Came a sigh, my magic pulling at the orb, changing its shape to a cube, then an icosahedron, then back to a sphere. "She has been being taught by leads, as a lead, certainly, she is as I've heard plenty of times, but I'm also hearing that you are stripping her of her class. She is a rogue. You are treating her as if she was a warrior, knight, barbarian, or anything else. She is not. You said she shows great practical skills in archery, yes? I take it she uses her flexibility to perform acts you yourself are incapable of. She picks up bad habits from her swordsmanship opponents? She's reading them and mimicking them to fill in what she does not know. She's always been able to anticipate her opposite in a physical fight? Of course, she has, she clearly watches her surroundings even when not in a hostile environment,
"Throwing her weight around on a spear? I can only imagine she does it while using her legs as a weapon, trying to do the unexpected. She uses branch magic and works around habits she has learned her opponent has? She's clearly trying to get the jump on them, unconfident in her magic and therefore using something she is much more confident in. She is a rogue. Through and through. Yet you all talk as if her improving in your classes means she is improving in her class. She is not a forward-fighting class. You are forcing her outside what she can do with brute force. One of you, and only one of you, has mentioned the injuries she has sustained in class, come now, tell me, how often does this child get hurt because of boarish training you've forced her to adapt to?"
His gaze moved over each of my physical class teachers, slowly, harshly, many looking away at the question. "I hear you lot didn't even inform her family of the number of injuries she collects in your classes? I can't imagine how happy they were upon finding out," The silence was far heavier at that while a smile pulled at my lips, a small dagger in my hand, before it changed into a dragon.
"Exactly, I don't doubt that she has improved in your classes, she is constantly at risk of great bodily harm. She had to learn or she had to suffer. Of course, she has started to adapt. There isn't much of a choice is there? If she continues to defy her class she will be forced into a different one, one unnatural to her, we are not talking about a subclass, you are risking ruining a child because you lot waited five whole months before bringing a rogue to assist with a rogue,"
"... You do not understand, we had thought we had it handled, she is not like those of her age, she is a monster even to us-"
"She is a child," He glared at the woman of the same magic as me, "You have already seen what your treatment of her has done to her, do not say those words to me again. She is a fifteen-year-old girl in a place she barely knows having her bones broken almost daily, being beaten so bad you have James, your supervising healer, on standby in the event that she, with a mana pool none of you can deal with, is to be injured. Has anyone else even bothered to notice that that girl has not worn shoes for the entirety of my being here?" He added the last bit with extra force. "How long has she been doing all of that without shoes?"
"Her choice in breaking the dress code is none of our business!" The others were quiet while the fire elite snapped back at him, his cold gaze going icy at the sentence.
"Choice? Oh yes, because being forced into an hour-long extra difficult class over suffering more throughout the day what a choice she would have gladly made. James, how many times have you healed that child's feet?" He turned his gaze to the healer that shouldn't have come, if it was a meeting about any other student I doubted a healer would be present, let alone him.
"I, uh, I- I don't know," He mumbled staring at the table. The action having the rogue narrow his eyes.
"How many times have you refused treatment to her feet?" James visibly swallowed, the tension in the room growing while he didn't look up.
"I-I don't know." Sighs and shame filling the room at the answer.
"What an answer, when exactly is she allowed the opportunity to be healed? Considering you refuse something so trivial, I can only imagine," He slapped his hands onto James' shoulders, making him jump, the man just leaning in waiting expectingly.
"I, I, uh, sh-she," He fumbled, proving there were limitations to when I was allowed to be healed, Miss H paling at the realization, Edward silently watching the exchange, and the oh-so-cocky fire elite opening his mouth but closing it- flabbergasted at the information.
"Well? Come on, do tell me," He pressed, sliding his hands down his arms before offering a rough slap to each.
"Sh-she can on-only, um, she c-can only-only vi-visit be-between l-lunch and d-dinner." He took the information and ran with it.
"She has a five-hour window in which she is allowed to visit the school healers? With 28 hours in the day, she is only allowed the opportunity to be healed for five? Even with recovery classes being twice as harsh and after the school day? Even if she has a physical class before lunch? Even though she may miss her dinner to get healed instead?"
"I-I don't have enough mana to be available all day! Not for her!" He tried to argue, the man walking around the table pausing at the attempt.
"There are more healing mages in this facility than any other," He stated harshly.
"B-but it takes two to three for a simple laceration if I'm not doing it!"
"A simple laceration?" He asked, crossing his arms, expectingly.
"W-well, maybe not a sim-simple laceration," He looked at the table again.
"But for her, a common one? Due to the severity and frequency of her injuries, from your classes, she has been limited to five hours of the entire 28-hour-day for simple healing- at the risk of being turned down depending on the wound. Tell me again, have none of you any complaints about her progress in your classes?"
"I-I didn't know," Miss H whispered softly, deceivingly, fiddling with her fingers. No one else having anything to say, typical. My progress was a separate topic from my suffering to them.
"Didn't know, or didn't care?" He shot without hesitation. "I've been here three weeks and I've noticed, you see her every day but didn't, it looks as if you didn't care too,"
"Vince," Edward finally spoke, warning him, making the man laugh at what kind of warning it was. Humming silently to myself, wings growing off the black spike, I didn't even bother to look anymore, there wasn't a reason, I already knew that they were done no matter what he was going to say.
"Yes, yes, well then, you lot better hope your so-called monster even wants to come back to school, she'll be the very thing that wins you this year's tournament after all. With the half-bakes with good results running around and all,"
"They are not half-" Edward was quick to snap but the man didn't care for what he had to say.
"They don't understand the reality of it, they are half-baked. Straighten them up, show them a little bit of war, I imagine they'll freeze, die, and you'll be without more soldiers. Fix it in their first year, or you won't have any come the sixth."