Hizashi No Kage

  Chapter - 12

  Disappointment had completely engulfed Akash these days. The reason: failure coming at him from every direction. He was putting in the effort, yet success continued to elude him.

  In wielding weapons and understanding spells, he still lagged far behind everyone else.

  Bob was so busy with his own work that the two of them could meet only occasionally.

  Let me also mention here that Akash was undoubtedly stronger than most of the students — there was no doubt about that — but he had chosen Manjula and Zavier as his rivals, and he wasn’t even close to their level.

  In class, Max Sir and the other children continued to treat him coldly and distantly. He himself never approached anyone to talk first, except Manjula. And Manjula relentlessly ignored and avoided him.

  Thoughts of home kept coming to his mind constantly.

  One night, Akash returned to his room around 11 p.m. after practice and his eyes fell on the flute kept there.

  “Hey, I haven’t even touched this thing lately!” — Akash himself was surprised. He immediately picked up the flute and assumed the posture to play, but then remembered that playing it in the hostel might disturb someone. After thinking for a moment, he went out to the academy grounds. The field was so vast that no one would complain if he played there.

  Akash climbed a kadamb tree that stood somewhere near the edge, settled on a branch, and began playing the flute.

  Manjula was in her room, concentrating on some spell. Suddenly, the sound of a flute reached her ears. She listened for a little while, but then grew restless to find out who was playing such a melodious flute. She opened her window and looked outside.

  Even in the darkness, Manjula could see and hear things quite far away.

  Despite the considerable distance, using her night vision, Manjula saw that Akash was sitting on the tree branch, completely lost in playing the flute.

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  She was astonished to witness this skill of his, but what surprised her even more was when she noticed tears streaming from Akash’s eyes as he played.

  He was playing with his eyes closed, and tears were dripping steadily from beneath his closed eyelids. Manjula watched all of this from afar.

  At that moment, for the first time, Manjula realized that Akash was in pain. And it didn’t take her long to understand the circumstances he was facing — a poor boy who had never received proper education, who had never lived in a big city, who had never experienced this kind of life. Such a boy was struggling in this huge place, surrounded by such important and powerful people, and yet he refused to give up.

  For the first time, Manjula’s heart melted for Akash.

  The next day, as Akash was heading to his first class, Manjula approached him on the way, accompanied by Hira.

  At first he got a little nervous because this had never happened before, but Manjula quickly said what she had come to say and left —

  “As the Class Representative, it’s my duty to help weaker students. Take this book. You don’t need to return it; keep it with you.”

  Manjula handed him a book titled *Magic Basics* and immediately walked away.

  Akash didn’t even get a chance to play with Hira.

  At first, Akash felt a bit embarrassed — as if Manjula considered him so pathetic that she had given him a book meant for little kids. But then he realized that Manjula had actually given him a gift. He should be happy about it.

  (Even if Manjula had given him a pebble, he would have been happy.)

  But Manjula hadn’t given it thinking he was worthless; rather, after seeing his shortcomings, she had given exactly the book that addressed his gaps. She had understood what was missing in Akash’s studies and which book contained the solution.

  Akash read that book with complete dedication — again and again. He went through it 74 times. And one day, while lying on his bed, an idea suddenly struck him: *Mana Leakage*.

  (Mana Leakage means the uncontrolled outflow or wastage of mana.)

  And from that moment, many paths to improve himself opened up before Akash on their own. He began to realize that he had been wasting far too much mana unconsciously. What if, instead, he directed that mana into his spells?

  Mana concentration, mana hiding, mana breathing. For the first time, he paid attention to these concepts. Earlier, while doing yoga, he used to sense the mana flowing around him, but now he started focusing on the mana flowing inside his own body. With every breath, mana flowed — and he began controlling it through those very breaths.

  This didn’t take him any time at all, because he had been practicing focused attention for years. He only needed to direct that attention in the right way.

  In his heart, Akash thanked Manjula again and again. He became even more impressed by her intelligence than before.

  The next day, when Manjula entered the classroom, Akash immediately went to her and first of all said, “Thank you.” He wanted to say so much more, but Manjula simply acknowledged his thanks and walked ahead.

  Only a few days remained until the end of the session. Each session lasted five months, followed by one month of holidays. The academy didn’t have formal exams, but to assess the students, a major competition was held at the end of each session.

  All the students were preparing for this competition, but one important class was still pending — *Monster Taming*.

  This class took place one day before the session-end competition.

  (Monster Taming — Making a monster your pet using special mana spell or a talisman.

  The method is: Place a talisman on the monster you want to tame, drip a little of your own blood onto the talisman, and recite the taming spell.

  After that, the monster is compelled to obey you. Such tamed monsters are called Tamed Beasts, Familiars, etc.

  Having such a companion is considered extremely beneficial for a knight.

  A person can keep multiple familiars depending on their capacity.)