brother's retry (the beginning after the end)

Start of the first full day

Waking up to Curtis staring at me weirdly I noticed my neck was turned in a crooked position. Shifting my head slightly I realized Curtis wasn't the only one who was looking at me. Claire and Arthur were also looking at me. "What are you guys staring at?"

"You fell asleep on my shoulder."

I've never jumped across a couch faster in this life or the first. I slammed into the arm of the coach hearing an audible creek and the laughter of my brother. "Sorry, about that kathyln..."

She stood up and headed toward the door "it's fine I didn't mind, but we should be heading to our classes now."

"Um, right." I got up and quickly smacked Arthur's arm lightly. Before heading to Gideon's class.

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Nothing exciting took place as Gideon boasted about his accomplishments mainly with minimal teaching actually occurring. Shirou had fallen asleep about a quarter the way through, so not much to worry about.

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Seeing as I still had a few minutes left on my late excuse I quickly shadow stepped to goodsky's office. Without even letting me knock I heard a soft "come in."

Pushing open the door  I stuck my head in "Is Tess here?"

Goodsky looked up from her paperwork on her desk "no, she just left for her room."

"Thanks, bye!" quickly bolting off not bothering to give an explanation.

'Jen, weres-'

'The building that looks like your dorm but it isn't.' wow she's really picking up after me.

Running at max the speed that I could manage I eventually saw her walking through the courtyard. "Tess!"

When she turned around at first she had a sadder look on her face but it quickly shifted into a forced smile. "Hello Ash, shouldn't you be heading to class?"

"Nah, I still got a minute or two. So, I decided to come check on you since you weren't in TFM." I said as I came to a stop in front of her

She scrunched her face in a confused manner "TFM?"

"Oh! Sorry I mean team fighting mechanics."

"Oh um well Art and I had a disagreement and I didn't feel up to going afterward." Her smile faltered and she seemed quite saddened even just recalling it.

Arthur, I'm gonna kick your ass. "It was about you kissing him right?"

Her eyes snapped to me "Wait how?!"

"I was in the room when it happened. Anyway, don't give me any details, just yes or no."

She looked away "y-yeah..."

"Alright then I'll handle it." I gave her a smile and jumped into the closest tree, god I must look like an idiot, and shadow stepped just outside of Art's classroom, as my new schedule wouldn't be finalized till I'm healed.

Opening the door I saw Arthur had already started class and was shooting down feyfey.

"No." he hopped off the stage and walked toward the shocked Feyrith.

"It certainly is an easy way to gauge the mage's power but it's far from accurate. Princess Kathyln, if you see an ordinary fighter that stood at two meters and weighed almost three hundred pounds full of muscle, what is your assessment on that fighter?" I turned my gaze toward the princess that was sitting next to the embarrassed elf.

"I can expect the fighter to have robust strength," she finally said after pondering the simple question.

"Correct! All we can tell is that the oaf is probably freakishly strong. Does that say anything else about his combat ability? Yes, he's strong, but in order to be a great combatant, there are other factors such as agility, technique, mental fortitude, experience, etc. The stage a mage's mana core is only determines how much 'muscle' he or she has, but it doesn't explain much else in regards to the other factors. Refining your mana core to higher stages is still important, of course, but if that's the only factor you use in gauging your opponent's level, you're setting yourself up for defeat." I saw some students start jotting down notes so I caught my breath.