Partners and Enemies

"No, don't. No matter how much you study, you'll still be the same."

"Big Idiot left, and Second Idiot was promoted to Big Idiot. You can change your name to Second Idiot now."

"Hahahaha..."

Several students in splendid robes gleefully mocked Suye.

Suye ignored them, but thought, You brats had better rein it in. Don't make me angry.

Suye could not be bothered to argue with them and continued burying his head in his book.

Several of them craned their necks to look at Suye's book. When they saw that he was using stealth mode, they curled their lips and continued laughing and fooling around.

However, their gazes occasionally swept toward the girl reading with her head lowered on Suye's right.

Horton was on Suye's left. Even when people called him Big Idiot or Second Idiot, he did not get angry and continued grinning cheerfully.

The main reason those people did not dare mock Horton too much was that all the upperclassmen at the school had once been Horton's classmates.

When a male student saw that Suye was ignoring them, he reached out and forcefully flicked Suye on the head.

Suye frowned and raised his head. He recognized the grinning male student. His name was Horton, and he had often mocked Suye in the past.

Horton shook his head of pale-gold hair, his smile harmless and innocent.

That boy who had dropped out of school had been relentlessly humiliated by Horton.

Suye remembered that when he had arrived late to class that morning, Horton had been the first to call him "Third Idiot."

"Quit pretending. Everyone's having fun. What are you reading?" Horton looked at Suye with a smile.

Suye said calmly, "My grades used to be poor, but now I want to study. We're all classmates. There's no need to act like this."

After saying that, Suye lowered his head and continued browsing the new semester's courses.

Horton and the others immediately lost interest. They stopped provoking Suye openly, but secretly interfered in various ways and talked about Suye's embarrassing incidents from the previous year.

Because of the interference, Suye's emotions fluctuated somewhat. It was not until the second class began and the teacher appeared that he could quietly continue reading.

During this class, he kept sorting the other courses into categories.

The foreign languages were all far too difficult. Suye did not plan to touch them for the time being and directly put them under "Difficult but Boring."

Magic Mathematics and Magic Geometry seemed related to mathematics and geometry, but they actually required a great deal of magical knowledge. They were both comprehensive subjects. After flipping through them, Suye directly placed them under "Difficult but Interesting."

When his gaze fell on the table of contents for the Meditation class, Suye's eyes lit up slightly.

Meditation was a core subject! Meditation was the common path through which mages and warriors increased their power. However, because mages had not refined divine-power bloodlines, they needed to meditate for longer.

Suye already had extensive experience with meditation. He believed that after learning the Plato Academy's meditation methods, his progress would far surpass that of his classmates.

Suye quickly browsed the contents of the Meditation class, and the disappointment on his face grew heavier and heavier.

It turned out that, excluding witchcraft, the predecessor of magic, humans had possessed magic for less than three hundred years.

One hundred and twenty-six years ago, Thales, known as the Father of Magic, had discovered the secret of meditation. Meditation had been passed down ever since, but compared with other systems, it was still somewhat rudimentary.

Most magic had inherent principles that could be discovered. When used by different people, only its power and details would differ; there was no qualitative difference.

Meditation was different. No one had been able to find a meditation method suitable for everyone.

Therefore, the contents of the Meditation class were especially unsystematic, consisting mostly of vague statements.

Suye was deeply disappointed.

When Suye had learned meditation back then, the first thing he had studied was the psychological concept of "mindfulness." Although mindfulness could not be called highly scientific, it was undoubtedly the most scientific approach within the meditation system.

Using mindfulness as his foundation, Suye had continued studying other forms of meditation, and his meditation ability had grown increasingly solid.

After his disappointment passed, Suye felt that it was understandable. After all, this world's history of meditation was too short, only a little over a hundred years. On Blue Star, the meditation system had undergone at least two thousand years of development and had even benefited from technological research. Even so, Blue Star's understanding of mindfulness meditation was still incomplete and continued to deepen.

Although the Meditation class was mediocre, Suye still placed it under "Easy and Interesting."

Finally, Suye assigned all the new courses to the four quadrants. The result was immediately apparent, exceptionally clear and distinct.

The courses that belonged under "Easy and Interesting" were Basic Magic Study, Talent Study, Magic History, Sacrifice Study, and Meditation.

Basic Magic Study and Magic History were the foundation of everything. They mostly consisted of knowledge that needed to be memorized and could provide a comprehensive understanding of magic. Suye was very interested in them.

Talent Study and Sacrifice Study were closely connected to Ruined Space. Sacrifice Study also involved the gods, which fell within Suye's range of interests.

As for the other courses, Suye was extremely interested in some of them, but unfortunately, they were too difficult and would require focused study later.

Magical Beast Study, for example, seemed simple on the surface but was actually an extremely complicated system. The masses of specialized terms gave Suye a headache.

In the end, Suye decided to focus on mathematics, Geometry, and Greek in the near future. At the same time, he would set aside time to study Basic Magic Study, Talent Study, Magic History, and Sacrifice Study, at least ensuring that he could keep up with the teachers' lessons, while continuing to practice meditation.

After making his decision, Suye began considering whether he should add another burden to himself. After all, he could no longer be called behind; it was as though he had never studied at all.

"I can't be greedy and try to master everything at once. I need to make small, incremental improvements. If I find these things easy, I can slowly add more courses. If I study too much right from the start, then if I encounter difficulties or develop a psychological burden, even if I don't give up on myself, I'll still waste a considerable amount of time and energy."

At that moment, the class bell rang.

The classroom immediately grew lively.

Suye made one final check and confirmed that his choices were quite good. He would find time later to draw up a detailed study plan.

Suye felt somewhat tired. He stood up, stretched lazily at length, and smiled from ear to ear.

Smack...

Suye felt a slight pain in the back of his head, and stars burst before his eyes.

Suye had already been sitting for a long time, leaving his blood circulation sluggish. Even standing up normally might make him see stars. After suddenly being attacked and startled, the effect was even worse.

"Haha, Third Idiot, you finally got up?" Horton's voice carried across half the classroom.

Suye took a deep breath, slowly turned around, and looked at Horton, who was half a head taller than him.

Horton grinned with his arms crossed over his chest. Two equally sturdy male students stood behind him.

When Suye saw the three of them standing together, he suddenly understood. After that student had dropped out, he had become their new bullying target.

A picture of a crying boy suddenly flashed through his mind.

One day last semester, that boy named Pelius had been cornered against a wall and was crying, while Suye had merely glanced at him before hurrying away.

Suye could not forget the fallen leaf Pelius had been clutching tightly in his hand. He also understood why Pelius had dropped out.

Suye did his best to remain calm and said, "Horton, we're all classmates. I haven't offended you in my daily life. If you joke around once in a while, it really doesn't matter. People are like that. At most, they laugh at others and occasionally get laughed at themselves."

The nearby students heard this and looked at Suye in surprise.

Even the blue-eyed girl raised her head and glanced over from the side.

Suye looked Horton straight in the eye and said, "But you chase after me and mock me every time class ends. You even lay hands on me. There's really no need for that. We're classmates at Plato Academy. The teacher said that the reason we're made to sit several people at one table is so that we can become partners, advance hand in hand in the days to come, and fight our external enemies together. We're partners, not enemies."