Chapter 2
Sophia wasn't just the love of Sam's life.
No.
She was way more than that. One could even say that she was everything for Sam.
And there was nothing romantic about that statement.
The truth was that if Sophia were to suddenly decide one day that she hated him or that she nolonger needed him, Sam's future would immediately become a fascinating case of study in unemployment, homelessness, and poor life choices.
Possibly in that order.
The truth was simple.
Someone like Sam should never have been anywhere near Royal Magic Academy.
The academy was the most prestigious magical institution in the kingdom. It produced archmages, royal advisors, Great Mages , and occasionally functioning adults. It even housed royalty like Sophia. So it wasn't hard to imagine why Sam a lowly commoner did not fit in such a wealthy institute.
The students of the Academy came from noble families, wealthy merchant houses, and ancient magical bloodlines that had spent centuries collecting titles longer than their family trees.
While Sam came from a village whose greatest achievement was producing unusually large boats.
There was a slight difference in status between him and literally everyone who was in the Academy.
As for magical talent?
That was even worse.
Most students arrived at the academy after displaying extraordinary potential.
Some could summon fire before they learned to write.
Others could communicate with spirits.
And a few rare geniuses could manipulate multiple magical elements.
An rare talent or potential that exited only once or twice in a generation.
Then there was Sam's outstanding achievements.
His was the greatest magical achievement of all time.
And this achievement had been to be classified as manaless.
A feat that even those who failed to unlock magic did not possess.
According to several experts, that should not have been possible.
Yet somehow he had made it possible.
If that wasn't magical then nobody knew what it was.
After all magic was making the impossible, possible. And there had always been the rule that every living things have mana.
Anyways life was unfair for someone like Sam.
There was also the rule that a commoner with average magical talent let alone no talent at all, had absolutely no business working at Griffon Magic Academy.
And yet here he was.
Employed and paid with a decent salary.
And all of this was because he had successfully seduced the academy's royal princess and a great mage's daughter.
Honestly, when phrased like that, it sounded much worse than it actually was.
Not that there was a better way to phrase it.
Perhaps:
Accidentally charmed the academy's most beautiful student.
No.
That sounded even more suspicious.
Developed a mutually affectionate relationship with Sophia Theon through sincere emotional connection.
Yah that sounded right, even though it felt like something a criminal would say during a trial.
The point remained unchanged.
Sophia was the reason he was here.
Not because she had pulled the strings for him..... well she did pull a few strong strings for him to be here, but that was not the main reason.
It also was not because she had demanded special treatment. Although there was a lot to argue with that point, given her constant need for special treatment.
And it was definitely not because Headmaster Theon approved of the relationship.
The old mage's reaction yesterday had made that painfully clear.
No.
The reason was much simpler.
It was because Sophia believed in him.
For reasons Sam himself did not fully understand, she looked at him and saw potential.
Yah potential.
The same word teachers had used describing talented students.
She genuinely believed he could rise up to that potential and become someone very important.
Which was quite terrifying.
Because now he had to live up to all those expectations.
A task that became increasingly difficult every time he did something stupid.
Which happened frequently.
In fact, his current employment was the direct result of one such incident.
A few months ago, Sophia had casually mentioned that the academy was looking for a junior assistant librarian and that she had been given the task of overseeing the issue.
Sam had volunteered to help and during his aiding he had mistakenly destroyed one of the library's greatest instruments which led him to attain the job in order to pay back the damage.
And it had only been after the previous month that he was able to settle the debt.
And after that he had applied for the job formally.
And to everyone's surprise, including his own, he had somehow gotten the position permanently.
But to absolutely nobody's surprise, he had almost lost it during his first week.
The incident involving the self-sorting books had not been his fault.
Well mostly not his fault.
The books had simply misunderstood his instructions.
When he told them to organize themselves by importance, they had developed opinions.
And those opinions were very strong.
Several shelves had eventually declared war on one another.
A history textbook had attempted to strangle a mathematics encyclopedia resulting in the victory of mathematics encyclopedia.
The library was still recovering.
Yet somehow he remained employed.
A miracle, really.
Or perhaps evidence that the academy's hiring standards had recently suffered a catastrophic collapse. And that Sophia's influence held sway in the Academy.
Sam personally preferred the miracle explanation.
It was better for his self-esteem.
As he walked through the academy grounds that morning, students passed him from every direction.
Male students would snicker at him, while the ladies would stare at him with varying emotions.
Some stared in envy, while others judged him and a rare few simply ignored him.
As for the reasons why he gained such treatment from these nobles was because of two things.
One was his commoner status and the other was Sophia.
Apparently the nobles didn't take it well when they heard that he was in relationship with Sophia.
This earned him hate from male students and attention from the female ones.
One would have thought it was a good thing to have all that attention.
And that would have been true if the person you were dating wasn't Sophia.
'That girl is crazy ' Thought Sam with a sunken face, as he remembered what Sophia threatened to do if she were to ever find out that he was engaging with other girls.
As Sam continued to walk down the corridor.
Somewhere in the distance, something exploded and it did not garner any attention from him.
For explosions were simply normal at the Royal Magic Academy.
While walking, Sam's mind refocused back to yesterday's conversation.
More specifically, one particular sentence.
A statistically alarming number.
The words echoed through his thoughts like a curse.
A statistically alarming number.
How many was that?
Ten?
Twenty?
Maybe Fifty?
Surely not fifty.
If it was fifty, then Sophia was apparently conducting military recruitment rather than dating.
Sam frowned.
The more he thought about it, the worse it became.
Eventually he reached a single horrifying conclusion.
There was only one way to find out.
And unfortunately, that required asking Sophia.
A decision he would almost certainly regret.