[Eon's POV: ]
"Doron. What is Mana?" He asked while looking at a certain boy in our column a few seats ahead of us and then the crystal ball he was holding shrunk down a little as the bats he created earlier lifted it and placed it before him.
The boy was wearing common clothing with nothing fancy and this out-of-the-blue question surprised him more than necessary.
He was stunned and even after a moment had passed, we didn't get an answer from him.
"It looks like I robbed young Doron of all his words, hm? Well, it is fine. Just put your hand on the crystal before you so we could see your elemental affinity."
The boy was still stunned even after his question and just kept looking ahead like a frozen statue, and when it looked like he wasn't going to say anything, a girl wearing an attractive dress raised her hand.
"Oh-ho? We have our first hand-raise. Then let's go to the young lady...?"
He looked at her with a curious eye and the girl spoke up with a great confidence behind her voice.
"It's Rashel De Brikanin, sir."
Her voice was confident and from what I can see, she seemed to be a royal from the Brikanin kingdom as well as a (tier-2) mage with Fire and Water attribute affinity.
"Hmm... Rashel. Alright, Rashel. The reason to raise your hand?" He asked with a normal expression as he looked up at her on the very left side of the class.
"To answer the question, and ask a question of my own sir." She answered with still good confidence even though there was no great change on his face at her courageous behavior.
"To answer the question you would have to wait for your turn Rashel, but yeah. Ask the question." He answered with the same expression but again, when looking closely, one could see his interest as if he found the actions of the girl interesting.
And the girl on the other hand, though she was denied the first chance to answer his first question and was humiliated in a way, didn't lose the courage or tried keeping her head calm as the teacher looked at her with his red eyes without blinking and asked truthfully.
"Why do we have to check the elemental affinity of someone that isn't a mage? Like, you are just asking a… someone who isn't a mage to check their elemental affinity.
They can't use Mana without the Mana nucleons so, I was curious as to why you would ask for that."
[[ "Is she-" ]]
[[ "Yes she is." ]]
[[ "Bitch." ]]
She was trying to call the boy a commoner and even though indirectly, she was looking down on him.
And the teacher also knew that very well.
"Well young lady, your question is quite interesting so I will overlook your behavior and your choice of words.
None of you are above or below the other in this place, and I mean it when I say it.
Don't pull something like this again and if you want to look down on someone, bully them, indirectly curse at them, or hurt them, do that outside of my class."
He looked at her with narrow eyes and I knew she must have felt a great seriousness from those red eyes so as she sat down, she knew that she had made a mistake.
"Discussions and debates among each other are allowed but not something like that, alright?
As for the answer to your good question, let me add something to our previous question."
He stopped for a moment and looked at the crystal ball that was glowing with a dull blue color, took a quick glance in his diary, and then looked up at us again.
"Haruto. What is Mana and how are elemental affinities related to it?"
He was looking up at a certain person now and asking the new questions that were actually two independent questions on their own.
And yes, Mana and elemental affinities were related to each other but there was no deeper connection to them with each other.
It was quite a simple question from my perspective and Rein was already bored so her head was on the table as she looked around the class and studied the other students and especially the house captain of the [True dragon] that sat at the very front and who took away her spot in the entrance exam rankings.
And I was now looking at the boy who wore traditional Eastern clothing and was pretty much fine even though he was asked a question.
"I think sir, Mana is an energy in the environment that mages use to cast spells and the elemental affinities are… something that everyone has?"
"Hmm. Good answer. Something that everyone has.
Hmm. Ok. Celicilia. What is Mana and how are the elemental affinities related to it?"
He looked at some other student and asked the exact same question and she answered somewhat the same.
Then he asked someone else, and they answered, then he asked someone else, and then someone else, and then someone else and it continued for a few minutes without any change in the question.
And everyone that answered also either said something like Mana is energy that mages use to cast spells, it is a sacred force that is present everywhere in this nature, or something that is used as a source of energy to charge a spell or to cause some kind of a change.
And there was nothing wrong with these answers so the teacher also complimented everyone on their answers, corrected some who tried saying something unique of their own, and helped those who tried to answer in their own words but couldn't find the right phrases.
And though everything went on pretty much the same for a while like that, things changed when…
"Uriel. What is Mana and how are the elemental affinities related to it?"
He looked at the very back of the left side at us and focused his eyes on Uriel who still had her head placed on the bench.
There was a unique expression on his face as he looked at the two of us and though it was hard to notice, I knew he was expecting something new from the two of us and for now, from my dear half-asleep partner.
[[ "Uriel. Your turn. Answer the question sleepy head." ]]
"Hmm? What?"
And only after I said that did she wake up from her momentary magical slumber.
"The question. Answer it."
I smiled at the pretty girl as she sat straight, looked around as the entire class including the teacher were looking at her, and shook her head to wipe her sleepiness and answered in a confident, calm, and probably the simplest way one could possibly answer those questions.
"Sir, Mana is Mana and elemental affinities are elemental affinities."
…
…
…
"Kek."
"Khahahahahaha!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
And the general audience who couldn't possibly understand the complexity of her simple words could only laugh at her answer that not even a single one of those hundreds of people had even tried to think about.
The ones laughing at her right now were in the hundreds, and even still, she was just calm and was looking straight into the eyes of our teacher who was also calmly and unblinkingly looking back at her.
Some students noticed this strange thing as technically, she should have been embarrassed as the whole class was laughing at her but she was not, and the teacher was also looking at her mysteriously, so, they knew something was strange.
And, they thought back to her answer, and then remembered the question that was asked to them, and when some thought deeply about her answer and contemplated it, their eyes widened as they looked back at her with wide eyes, surprised as if they had just found out the treasure that was always before their eyes.
"Hahaha. Right, Mana is Mana and elemental affinities are elemental affinities. That is correct. There is no great relation to the two of them but, can you tell what they are and how they might be related to each other in a way?"
He asked again, and from the way he had actually laughed or somewhat smiled a moment before her answer, had already made the entire class dead silent.
And everyone was looking up at Uriel again with different reactions, feelings, and emotions in their heart, waiting for what new hilarious thing she would speak that would make even their teacher laugh.
But alas to them, from how much I knew my Rein, I knew she was going to do something crazy now that everyone had laughed at her and tried looking down on her as well as me, the one sitting beside her, her fiancé.
"Yes sir so…"
She smirked and looked around the big classroom and specifically looked at certain people who had previously talked something bad about us or had looked at me with the wrong gaze.
She meant this one was for them, and one of the people that she was smirking at was the blue-haired boy sitting at the very front who though had been quiet since the start of the class, has scored just a little more than rein on their entrance exam.
She knew a good lot about him and she didn't like him, so, this one was for him too.
"Mana is one of the many fundamental energies present in nature that naturally stays in a particle form.
It is present in most places, one could even say it is present everywhere however, that is not true.
Many places show a lack of Mana entirely and those places are on the same dimensional plains as this one so we can't say that Mana is present everywhere.
From Frantik's perspective, Mana is the most common energy that every single being aside from those cursed by Mana possesses. And it is also the power source that continues to gather in a person's body from a young age and manifests in the form of a nucleolus that is similar to an energy beast's nucleus that they use to channel Mana throughout their body and use it to change the atmospheric Mana, mold it, reshape it, or eliminate it with either the use of a mathematical structure called magic circle or by pure means of mental calculations and physical phenomena creation.
From Trimonic's perspective…
…
…
So, the Mana that we simply feel, and channel throughout our body, mind, and heart, or don't do any of that and just live in a Mana-dense place is a natural phenomenon that is closely a part of eternally changing, mixing, and dividing forms of energies.
And when we talk about elemental affinities, we would first have to talk about what magic is and how we understand it in different ways, and how different races use it in different ways.
But simply speaking, we can say that everyone is born with some kind of affinity with some element, and in this case, we aren't just talking about the six major elementals but all the known elements and their affinities.
Everyone possesses some affinity with some element and if we could pinpoint that certain element and work with it, and try to increase our affinity with that element, we can certainly grow to be more proficient in using that element.
When we talk about elemental affinities, they only have three major relations with Mana from my perspective.
The first would be the importance of elements in magic and how Mana is the most common energy source used to channel the power of nature and manifest unique phenomenons.
The second would be the worldly stereotype that Mana is only something used by mages and only they can use the 'Mana' to cast many elemental magic spells that are most commonly related to the six major elements.
And third would be simple unawareness that there are many, many elements aside from the major natural elements that people could have an affinity for, and also that there could be many people who would have an affinity with only a higher or unique form of some common element, which would still be categorized as that major element.
We do not have a proper means to find exactly what element, or what thing, a person has an affinity with. And truthfully, I don't think anything like that should even exist.
The journey that we have to go on to find the thing that we are best at is some of the most amazing ones and yes, some find it early while some take their lifetime, but, if they do find that one thing that they are best at and love at the same time, one could achieve that fictional well-known happiness.
Mana is all around us and it is also a part of us, an elemental affinity isn't something only a mage has or something that is 'used' to cast magical spells.
Mana is an energy and we are made of masses of energy, and this mass of energy has something called 'affinity' for 'elements' that aren't just limited to fire, water, earth, wind, light, and darkness.
Anything, from blood, ice, tools, weapon, hammer, or jewels can be an elemental affinity however, Mana is Mana. An energy that is energy just like countless other energies that are ultimately energy.
So… Mana is Mana and elemental affinities are elemental affinities."
And she finally sighed after that long, really long speech that had already taken away the breath, attention, and gasps of the entire class.
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