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And there are back in marvel
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He gritted his teeth before continuing.
"I wish it worked that way. Until my great-grandmother became a mage, our family was made entirely of commoners. The two things she passed down to her bloodline were her talent for magic and her hatred of nobles."
He raised his hands apologetically toward Friya.
"No offense."
"None taken," Friya replied, though she actually shivered at the thought.
The Headmaster's words were finally becoming clear to her. People like Lith naturally resented nobles who abused their authority, and many magical bloodlines shared the same feelings.
"That's why the King is so determined to change the system," she thought. "Over time, we nobles are isolating ourselves from the common people. If this continues, being a noble might one day be the same as carrying a bounty on your head."
"And her hardworking nature," Yurial continued. "In my family, the less you do, the farther you fall from the line of succession. Some of my wasteful siblings are practically disowned. They have neither money nor authority of their own."
"The reason I'm the heir is because of my talent and effort. I could lose that position at any time if I start slacking off. When I asked my father to teach me the academy's secrets, do you know what he said?"
Yurial straightened his back and put on a stern expression, mimicking Archmage Deirus perfectly.
"Son, your grandfather was merely a noble, not even a mage. My foundations and resources were far inferior to what I have given you. If you cannot achieve as much as I did despite all these advantages, then teaching you is pointless."
He lowered his voice even further.
"For the Kraston family to prosper, you must learn to walk on your own. Unfair advantages make people lazy and dependent on others. There are no shortcuts in life when it comes to achieving what truly matters."
Then he suddenly shouted the last part.
"NOW GO BACK TO WORK!"
The entire table burst into laughter.
Yurial had become so immersed in the role that he had drawn the attention of several nearby students. Realizing his mistake, he immediately turned red.
Even Ash chuckled.
"I can actually picture your father saying that," he said.
"Unfortunately, that's almost word for word what happened," Yurial groaned.
To give him a chance to recover, Lith shifted the conversation.
"What about your tutor, Friya?"
Friya sighed.
"I asked her countless times."
"And?"
"She always gave the same answer. Our money was paying for her services, not her loyalty. She said she had no intention of risking trouble with the Mage Association for what she considered a small sum."
Friya scoffed.
"With the amount we paid her, we could probably have built a fortress."
That earned a few laughs.
"What about you, Quylla?" Ash asked.
Quylla was already halfway through her second serving of lasagna. At the moment, she was staring at Lith's steak with the focus of a predator eyeing its next meal.
The bite she had taken was too large for her to answer immediately, forcing everyone to wait until she swallowed.
"I never had a tutor," she said while trying to wipe tomato sauce from her face.
"The healer of our village was killed by bandits. After that, his books were left behind and made available to everyone. I was an orphan and too weak to work in the fields, so I started studying them."
"Once I understood enough about magic, I became the village's new healer. Later, the Duke overseeing the village's reconstruction heard about me. He built me a house and, when I became old enough, recommended me to the academy."
She shrugged.
"You know the rest."
Then she immediately returned her full attention to the lasagna.
"That's a really impressive story," Yurial said.
"Right now, though, I'm more impressed by the amount of food you're eating."
"I swear she wasn't like this yesterday," Friya said.
"It must be Vastor's tonic." Lith said. "She is shorter then me by a good head, yet she is eating more than me. I guess she needs a lot of food to catch up. Mind if I touch your head?"
Quylla violently blushed, tried to say something, but her mouth was full again, so she just nodded, lowering her head. Lith pretended to cast a spell while actually activating Invigoration.
"Your muscles are severely underdeveloped, and your bone density is terrible. You need to drink more milk for your skeleton."
Ash also reached out and lightly touched Quylla's head before nodding in agreement.
"Lith is right. It seems Professor Vastor was correct about you being severely malnourished. Your body is like a bird's—almost hollow from the inside. You need to fill it up properly."
Quylla nodded while continuing to eat.
"I'll do that."
"It's the first time I've heard something like this," Yurial said, curiosity evident in his eyes.
"Mind explaining it?"
Lith almost sighed.
"Yeah, sure. How am I supposed to explain vitamins, proteins, and calcium when the language doesn't even have words for those concepts?" he thought.
Instead, he gave a much simpler answer.
"It's an old saying from my village. Meat builds muscles, milk strengthens bones. How do you think I got so big at twelve?"
That answer seemed reasonable enough.
Despite being three years older than Lith, Yurial was only a few centimeters taller than him. Friya was actually a few centimeters shorter.
Ash wasn't much help either. Thanks to his own training regimen, he was noticeably more athletic than most students his age.
"Now that I think about it, both of you are unusually well-built," Friya said while looking between Ash and Lith.
"We train a lot," Ash replied with a shrug. "The body is just as important as magic. A stronger body means better stamina, better reflexes, and more mana circulation."
Lith nodded.
"Exactly. Most mages ignore physical training because magic solves most of their problems. That's not always a good idea."
The three nobles exchanged glances.
Then, almost simultaneously, they called for a servant.
A few moments later, each of them had a bottle of milk sitting on the table.
Seeing that, Ash nearly laughed.
"You know, I'm not sure that's how nutrition works."
"What do you mean?" Yurial asked.
"You can't fix years of bad habits with one bottle of milk."
Friya took a sip anyway.
"Maybe not, but it's a start."
Quylla immediately grabbed her own bottle and began drinking as well.
The sight of the four of them suddenly treating milk like some miraculous growth potion was so ridiculous that Ash and Lith had to look away to stop themselves from laughing.
Neither of them had expected a casual comment about nutrition to have such an immediate effect.