"Now, now, children, let's not get too hasty." Professor Veronica warned.
However, Lars remained adamant, refusing to look away from Alphonse.
"With all due respects, professor, this scum has insulted the honor of the House of Halstien, and I will not allow him to get away with it!" Lars spat defiantly.
"Professor, please understand that under normal circumstances, we would not be so agitated, but for this student to challenge our authority-" Otto began.
"Well then, it would appear as if I have also insulted the honor of the House of Halstien by challenging your authority, have I not?" Professor Veronica interrupted, "Are you going to challenge me to a duel as well? I am the one who asked him to help you, who, might I remind, still hasn't been able to produce your mana core."
Otto bit his lip, unable to come up with a response. Lars was also silent. Although Professor Veronica was predominantly a healer, she was not incapable of combat magic. In order to even qualify as a professor, one would need to at least be at a military level mage.
Even if they were fine with ganging up and bullying the frail kid, they knew they would stand no chance against a full-fledged mage.
Alphonse broke the silence, "Well, I don't quite mind it, Professor."
It took a moment for those words to be processed by all those who heard them.
"HUH? Excuse me, Student Alphonse sweety, you're telling me you consent to a duel with them?" She asked incredulously.
"That's right," Alphonse responded, his voice brimming with confidence.
"That first beating wasn't enough, eh? Wait till we f-" Lars started, but was interrupted by Otto.
Otto felt something was off. Would someone who was beaten to near-death simply walk right back into their aggressors? Of course not! In all their years of bullying others, the most common response to their current aggression would be for their victims to back down and cower behind a figure of authority. They would then hunt for that student when the adults were gone and pummel them until they wouldn't dream of standing up to the House of Halstien ever again.
"Sigh…" Professor Veronica let out an exasperated sigh, "Well, whatever you children choose to do, do it on your own time. Absolutely do not interrupt MY class for your own personal nonsense."
"Yes, Professor…" The three replied in unison.
"And don't go troubling any of your other professors either. If you absolutely need to settle this, do so after school in the presence of Professor Caebo. He's your Intro to Combat Magic professor. In fact, I'll alert him ahead of time about your shenanigans!" Professor Veronica continued, "Very well then, class, please carry on with the development of your mana cores! And student Alphonse, no need to continue working with these two, it'll only breed more animosity. Please assist student Baldr and student Freyja over here."
The rest of the class proceeded without incident. Unfortunately for Lars, he was unable to complete his first mana core before the class ended. Otto, on the other hand, had already filled his locket with a small mana core. Albeit not as dense or complex as the one created by Alphonse.
---
"Al! What are you thinking!" Jessica asked in a hushed and worried tone, "Didn't you get beaten to the point of hospitalization just yesterday?"
Sasha, who shared the same Mana Theory class as Alphonse, had relayed what had happened in the class to Jessica after they had run into each other during the passing period.
"I tried to tell him not to go too…" Sasha whined, "But he wouldn't listen!"
"I'll be fine, don't you worry!"
"Oh, you just wait until I tell Ethan about this. He'll talk some sense into you!" Jessica's anxiety was very apparent in her voice.
"Tell me about what?" Ethan chimed in. He had just found them during their passing period.
"Ethan, you scared me!" Sasha exclaimed.
"Oh great, you're here. Please, talk some sense into this idiot!" Jessica pleaded with Ethan.
"Well, what seems to be the problem?" he asked.
Jessica and Sasha quickly filled him in on what was going to happen.
"Al! This is extremely dangerous! You were sent to the infirmary last time!" Ethan warned, "When is your Intro to Combat Magic class?"
"I have it last today." Alphonse tried to reassure him, "Don't worry, I'll be fine by my-"
"Nuh-uh. Don't you worry about it pal, I'll be right there with you." Ethan grinned, "Give 'em the 'ol one-two! I've got your back!"
"Wha-? ETHAN! You're sup-" Jessica started.
"Ah, nope, c'mon, let's go. Class is starting soon!" Ethan said as he pulled Jessica along with him to their next class together.
"Hey, Alphonse, are you really sure about this?" Sasha asked timidly.
"Yeah, not a problem. I'll be fine!" Alphonse replied with confidence.
---
"Ethan! Why didn't you stop him?"
"Isn't this the first time that Al isn't running away from danger and is choosing to be brave?"
"Well, yeah, but this is really dangerous! He could end up hurt, or worse, dead!"
"This is the first time our childhood friend is standing up for himself to someone who's trying to bully him. Why on earth would I stop him?"
"You're letting him walk into such a predicament over such a reason?"
"Yeah. If I don't show confidence in him, would you?"
"Wha-"
"If you and Al never believed in me when we were kids, would I have made it here to this school?"
"Well, that's-"
"I think it's time you start trusting in Al's judgment a little more, Jess," Ethan smiled, "Something tells me that he has something up his sleeves."
---
Alphonse's next class, Arithmetic, passes without a hitch. For Alphonse, who originally passed Calculus back on earth with flying colors, something as simple as basic algebra would be a cakewalk for him. The Arithmetic being taught at the Aaro Academy of Mages was even simpler than that. It was just the simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
For Alphonse, he could answer any and all of the problems presented here without even taking a second to think about it.
The following class was just as easy for him.
Since the history of the Kingdom of Aaro was etched in his mind from the previous owner of his body, he had no problem relearning the material. The old Alphonse deeply enjoyed reading his father's collection of literature regarding the kingdom, and would often sneak into his father's study to do so.
To do well in this class, the only thing he would need to do was to recall his former memories and listen to the lectures in order to accurately remember the information.
The next class, the class on Elemental Magic, was one of the classes that intrigued him the most. According to the Professor of that class, Headmaster Flicker, every single human had at least one element that they were compatible with and that every single student would endeavor to find that element on that day before moving forwards.
He had passed a stone around for each of the students to inject mana into. One of the 7 gems embedded within stone would show a reaction by glowing brightly depending on what the student was compatible with.
Alphonse was compatible with 5 out of the 7 elements, which was above average. In the order of most compatible to least, Alphonse was compatible with Darkness, Electricity, Light, Water, and Fire. Although the fire gem barely responded to his mana, the Darkness gem glowed brightly enough to light up an entire room.
However, what Alphonse was looking forward to the most was the next class: Incantations and Magic Circles.
Although he proved that what he had written as sort of a pseudo-code for the magic circle worked last night, he was curious as to what else he would be able to learn in that class, especially the incantations.
As much as he would prefer to not admit it, Alphonse while back on earth had gone through a chuunibyou phase where he would copy the cartoons he watched as a kid. Although he had grown out of that phase before he had even reached middle school, he was still tormented by the memories of him shouting out the names of special attacks from his favorite shows.
But the reason that he was most excited about the Incantations and Magic Circles class was that this was his chance to perfect his incantations before he had Intro to Combat Magic with Lars in the following class.
Alphonse was confident that he could at least subdue Lars with just his physical capability, but he wanted to ensure that he would win.
Of course, he didn't want to waste his chance at redemption!