Alec reflected on himself as he spent the rest of the lunch hour in the library, expanding the information stored in [Reader].
'I guess I'm more hot-headed than I thought.' He had been in stressful situations before, but he hadn't been exposed to such…bone-deep condescension, such arrogant disdain. It was the first time someone looked at him and treated him like he was less than human.
Mildly put, it had ticked him off. It had made him act a little recklessly and irrationally.
He had been unable to control himself. But even then, he had underestimated the situation.
It was a good thing Sarah had been there and that Sarah was a good person. If she hadn't laid into Alec, he could have put himself in the gallows for treason without knowing what he was doing.
Alec made a mental note to be even more careful in the future.
After that, he looked at the book he was holding in his hands. It was another book on the state of the Vongrad Kingdom and the central nobles. It didn't detail their relationships or anything. It was just a list of how they had changed over the past few decades.
Sarah's words made him think a little more about what it was he was reading, and he soon realized that she was right. All the nobles had lists of achievements and contributions to the Kingdom.
They weren't the useless leeches that he was used to reading about.
However, it wasn't like the nobles were perfect, either. Benjamin was one of the symptoms.
It was a cycle.
Nobles made contributions to the Kingdom. They earned prestige and rewards. They used their rewards to grow stronger, which let them make more contributions to the Kingdom, continuing the cycle.
Eventually, nobles forgot their mission, their noblesse oblige, and degenerated into lesser versions of themselves who merely listened to their base instincts. They had enough wealth and power to last them generations. They didn't need to fight at the frontlines or hunt monsters like madmen anymore.
However, Alec had to scour the records for reports of such incidents. The only thing he found were records of a few noble families' downfall. It happened because they failed to live up to the standards of nobles or because they failed, lost family members, and simply didn't have the manpower to remain in their current positions.
It was a messy situation. Writing about it was only allowed because the failures served as warnings.
Alec realized he had been narrow-minded.
He was not forgiving Benjamin, though. And while Sarah's urging for him to bear with it sounded like a good idea, Alec wasn't the type.
Unfortunately, before he could do that, he had to do something about his food situation. Benjamin had banned him from the cafeteria until he apologized. That wasn't happening, so Alec had to do something else.
He would need money to buy food outside the Academy. He didn't have a single penny on him, much less the Vongrad Kingdom's currency.
'A scholarship should include some money, right?' He thought about what Nicholas had said. Scholarships were a thing.
Alec tilted his head.
'But what for? I didn't hear anything about needing to pay tuition when I was accepted.'
Alec frowned. That didn't make sense. It seemed he had something to ask Reina later on.
But first, he had another lesson. So, he hurried to the classroom. Despite losing track of time in the library, he made it in time.
"Are you alright?" Taryeon asked when Alec sat down.
"I couldn't find you anywhere."
"I'm fine. I was in the library."
"With Sarah?" Taryeon asked teasingly.
Alec raised an eyebrow and shot Taryeon a skeptical look.
"No." He could tell that his attitude had clearly angered Sarah. It wasn't just because she respected the aristocratic system currently in place. It was personal.
He probably wouldn't be spending much time at all with her for the remainder of her time at the Academy.
Before Taryeon could prod deeper, the teacher entered. It was the teacher who had overseen the written exam. He was a gentle-looking man with short brown hair and glasses. He wore the same mage's robes as Reina, but they didn't hug his body the same.
"Hello, students. I am Wilcox Undder, and I will be your magic theory teacher from now on. You will be seeing my face a lot, so you'd better get used to it soon." He chuckled slightly as he put down the stack of notebooks he had just carried into the classroom.
"These are your first notebooks and pencils, so they're on the Academy. If you fill them or run out of pencil, you will have to buy more in the city. But you're all students here at the Academy. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that. Here hand these out to the students behind you." He handed out piles of notebooks and pencils for the students to pass on backward.
"Everyone ready to take notes? Good.
"I am aware that not everyone is on the same page regarding magic knowledge, so I will start from the absolute basics. Those who made the mistake of studying ahead without a proper teacher will simply have to bear with it for today.
"The noble and commoner divisions haven't been split up yet. I heard it was a bureaucratic error, but whatever. Things should be sorted by tomorrow."
'Oh.'
Alec hadn't even thought about that. He had noticed the nobles in the class during Reina's lesson but figured it was standard. Apparently, it wasn't.
The nobles didn't even want to take the starting classes with the commoners. And the commoners would probably have an easier time if they didn't have to worry about the presence of nobles.
Alec sighed in relief.
It meant he wouldn't have to endure Victoria's gaze boring into the back of his head every lesson.
"But then again, it isn't like repetition is bad, especially when it comes to the basics. You can't have them too deeply engraved. So, pay attention, all of you." Wilcox smiled. It was similar to the smile Reina had shown in the morning in that his eyes remained cold as he pressured the students to heed his every word.
It had to have worked since Victoria finally pulled her gaze away from Alec.