Edin, you like tits but encouraging those sisters seems unhealthy

You take your wooden box and hurry after Edin as any sane person would do in this situation. Catching up to him just outside the Dorm building you wave off his questions about the sisters. Telling him you followed a literal golden road to their Church might not naught but encourage him.

"You could have told you weren't following them." Edin pointed out as you entered the building and hurried to the dining hall.

With less than half an hour to eat he grabs some fruits and a few pieces of meat. The other students share his mind as most have the same food arrangement. The two of you sit you open the wooden box Oriana gave you.

Inside is a mixture of fruits and a pastry of some sort. You wonder if she made the pastry herself or if she grabbed it from the breakfast serving. Probably made herself, if was Auria it would definitely have come from breakfast, but Oriana doesn't seem the sort to scrimp in her attempts to convert you, makes sense for that to extend to food as well as words.

You and Edin start to eat. As you do you look around and notice there aren't as many student's as you'd thought their would be. It looked to be about half of the number you saw this morning. The academy must have half the students on a different class schedule. It would help with the number of people.

You looked around for Lucia, you hadn't seen her today so she was probably on a different schedule. You pick up the pastry and have a bite. It tastes like honey and meat and is surprisingly good, better than the pastries available from the middle class servings.

Edin nudged you with knee. You looked down at him and see him leaning forwards a little. "Slut." You whisper at him reaching down to squeeze his ass in your hand before letting go.

Edin giggles at your word and smiles at you touch. "I had to go without your groping for four hours, its a long time." Edin responds.

You roll your eyes at his antics playing up the movement so he knew you were playing. "Then after Stephanie's lesson I'll be sure to reaffirm that this is mine." You squeeze his ass again then continue, "And after your punishment of course." You take your hand from his ass and finish off the last of your lunch.

"Punishment?" Edin was fundamentally unable to conceal his excitement as he said the word.

You wink at him and stand up. "Come we need to get to class." As you say it Edin bounces up, clearly wanting to things to move as fast a possible. Either he did miss your being close or he is far more masochistic that you thought. Guess the punishment will be a good way to find out. Thinking of you should think of what sort of punishment you'll give him. A spanking is a classic but doesn't seem to fit, you could use some of your clothes to tie him up but you haven't spent much time working on knots so it probably wouldn't be comfortable for him.

As you pondered Edin led you out of the dorms and to the training area. When you arrived you were pulled from the pondering by the feel of magic in the air.

Student's were gathered on the packed dirt and the sitting in the viewing platforms. A few were showing off with fireballs and illusions, all very flashing and all very inefficient so you didn't pay much attention. You looked around for anyone you knew but couldn't see them. Lucia must be a different schedule, Vatarie and Anastasia were probably still at lunch and would be here soon, you were glad Lady Asune wasn't around. As you eyes scanned the faces something clicked. There were only men here.

You checked again and confirmed it. The only students here were men. That was odd. "Hey Edin?" You wanted to ask him about it but before you could a call came from your left.

"Students." The voice came from a tall man standing in the gap between two platforms. The students moved to gather in front of him so you and Edin did the same. "These lessons will be on the practical applications on magic. I will begin by going over the basics."

You internally groaned as he began to do exactly that. Things you learned before you hit puberty were relayed to you. After the last two lesson of the same thing you didn't even try to stop your mind from wondering about the class composition. So far everything had mixed gender, seemed odd for this for to be the exception.

The class proceeded and the teachers asked for everyone to perform a few basic actions that you did without even having to pay attention to what you were doing. Maybe the gender split was because at some point duels would happen and since women had the primacy in this world they would be the one's most commonly dueling and so it was assumed they would have more experience. It didn't really fit but it was the best reason you could think of.

When the class ended you decided to just ask. Walking over to the teacher you said, "Why is the class split by gender?"

He looked at you confused for a moment before recognition seemed to hit him, "You can't train with the women, every year one of you thinks if you train with the women you'll get a marriage proposal."

"What?" That wasn't an answer to your question. "I don't want a proposal. Why don't we take the class with the women."

The teacher looked at you for a moment longer before Edin stepped in. "Christopher, women are better at magic. It's why they're in charge."

"Wait what?" You ask having no idea what he was talking about.

"Women have a natural talent for magic the men do not possess. While you are both learning the basics now they will quickly surpass you, placing you in the same class means it is impossible to effectively for them to reach their potential because men would hold them back." The teacher explained for you.

You blinked a few times as most of you life if replayed in your head. All the women who taught you, all the times they call you adequate. Fuck you weren't even adequate, you were adequate for you gender.

You legs feel week as eighteen years of carefully moderated internal expectations came crashing down. Edin put a hand around you anticipating your needs. "I, ah, I need to sit down." You say as he helped you over to the platforms. You take a few breathes then looked at him. "That-that isn't true is it? Guys aren't always weaker?" You were fishing for some sort of life line. All you life and everyone had just been humouring you because of your gender. You were never going to be more than adequate at magic, but what about everything else? Was your adequacy at non-magical things including women or just men?

"It-its ok Christopher." Edin soothed.

"Listen magic isn't everything, if you can do well in your other subjects you'll be fine, you can manage your duchy while your wife handles everything else." The teacher says in a soothing tone but it was not helping because it meant that was all you could amount to. A husband who can look after the books for your future wife. The teacher sighed, "I'm not sure why you didn't know about this already but you were going to find out sooner or later." He stood and walked away. "Lady Stephanie will be teacher her student here in half an hour, you need to be gone by the time she gets here."

Lady Stephanie. Why had she invited you to her class, did she need someone to clean up the equipment, or had Anastasia made her invite you.

"Christopher? Are you ok?" Edin's concern softened your self worry.

"I-I'll be fine just need to be alone for a moment." You say as your worry finished draining away.

Edin squeezed your hand. "Ok I'll be in our room." He looked around the empty training field and planted a soft peck on your lips. "Whatever you need I'll be there." He let go of your hand and walked away leaving you alone.

You sat there trying to fit this new reality into your previous one. So you were adequate for a man, ok you can work with that. As the teacher said focus on other subjects, you'll study as much as you can, if there is a library you'll spend as much time there as you can.

As you think you relax your grip, your aura seeping out of you roiling in reflection with your mental state. You aren't thinking about it so it keeps expanding, beyond the limit you always held it to.