Oliver decided to head back to his dorm approximately an hour after their encounter with Randall Crawford, and Cadmus ended up wasting the whole day in the library, perusing its contents for all they were worth. Night had already fallen by the time he was politely yet sternly asked to leave.

It was only after he had been separated from the books did he notice that his stomach had been growling incessantly for a while now. A wave of worry descended upon him when he realized that Alice had probably been starving for longer.

“Nope, I brought snacks,” Alice said as soon as he looked down at her and opened his mouth to apologize. Somehow, she almost always knew what he was thinking.

“Oh.” He paused for a second, “Where?”

“In your side pocket,” Alice said, “I saved some for you if you’re hungry. The canteen is probably closed by now.”

Surprised, Cadmus dug into his pocket and pulled out a bag of dried nuts. He hadn’t even noticed that he had this.

Even if the canteen was probably closed, it wasn’t a sure thing, so Cadmus still tried going there anyway (there was a map right outside the library). But when he tried to open the doors to the main campus building, he realized they were locked shut.

“No way the canteen is open then,” Alice remarked.

Cadmus suppressed a sigh. At least he had dried nuts for dinner.

“Alice, you’re a lifesaver.”

“You’re welcome.”

The next day, Cadmus noticed that a piece of parchment with his class schedule on it had been slipped under the door during the night.

Cadmus picked it up, “Did everyone receive these? This Academy must have a lot of money if they can just give away parchment so easily.”

Alice took a look, “You have ‘Magic Fundamentals’ in about twenty minutes.”

“Classroom MF101,” Cadmus read out loud. He looked down at Alice, “Do you know where it is?”

Alice shook her head, “No, but that shouldn’t be a problem. There’s a map on the back.”

Cadmus turned the parchment, “Very detailed…”

He located MF101 on the map, and made his way there. The classroom resembled a mini indoor amphitheatre, and many students had already arrived, including Ardea and Arthur. Those two in particular were being crowded around by many other students. Arthur fluidly engaged with his peers, while Ardea gave brief yet polite responses to any conversation directed her way.

Not wanting to get involved, Cadmus found a seat far away from them. As the clock ticked away, approaching the time the class was supposed to start, students began getting back to their own seats.

Cadmus wondered, where was Oliver? Wasn’t every first year in this class?

As though summoned by his thoughts, Oliver, with his tell-tale short brown hair came hobbling in. He seemed to find pain in every step he took, and he winced harshly as he lowered himself onto the seat beside Cadmus.

It was Alice who asked, sounding exceedingly worried, “Are you okay? What happened?”

Oliver tried to give his usual, easy-going smile, but it came across as more of a grimace,

“Some of Crawford’s guys got me,” Oliver explained with a pained whisper, “Looks like he really wants us to join his guild. I’m flattered.”

“They just blatantly attacked you?” Cadmus asked disbelievingly, “Why didn’t you go to one of the teachers?”

“I don’t have any proof that they did anything,” Oliver said, his pain visibly easing as time passed, “Teachers need to see the problem physically happen before they can do anything.”

Cadmus’s eyebrows furrowed, “That doesn’t sound right…”

Oliver shrugged feebly, “There’re a lot of nobles in this Academy, and sometimes they fabricate fights out of political motives, so the staff has to be very careful when to intervene. You be careful too, they’re probably after you as well.”

“Sure…”

“Alright, it’s time to be quiet, kiddos!” A familiar voice rang throughout the room. Cadmus would recognize that neat black hair bun anywhere, “My name is Adelyn Mackenzie; from now on you will refer to me as Professor Mackenzie. Welcome to Magical Fundamentals!”

She proceeded to do a roll call. When she got to Cadmus, she shot him a brief grin, and Cadmus couldn’t help but grin back.

She did the same when she got to another student named Gelida Olvo. Gelida Olvo, a sturdily-built woman with tan skin and short blonde hair, proceeded to cheerfully wave back.

Once Professor Mackenzie finished roll call, she brought her hands together with a loud clap.

“Alright everyone, pay attention because we’re not like the schools that spend the first few classes easing into things. Here, we begin teaching right away.”

Cadmus felt excitement stir within him at that. It seemed there would be no annoying time wasting here. They would be diving straight into the magic!

Professor Mackenzie smoothly wrote the word ‘MAGIC’ in large letters in the air. She seemed to be in her element here.

“So, who can tell me what magic is?”

No… no, no, no, no!

All of Cadmus’ excitement dropped away like a heavy boulder.

They weren’t going to start from here, were they? Cadmus knew they were going to be learning the fundamentals first, but this far back?

It was silent for a while before student raised their hand. Professor Mackenzie pointed at her.

“Magic is the spells we use?”

Professor Mackenzie brought up her hand in a middling gesture, “You’re not wrong, but that’s just a part of it. Anyone else?”

Once again, everyone simply sat in silence and waited for someone else to raise their hand.

Ardea, presumably having grown tired of no one answering, spoke without even raising her hand, “Magic is the ability to subvert science with the use of mana.”

Professor Mackenzie nodded, “Correct! Or as someone I recently met put it, ‘Magic is miracle given form’.”

Professor Mackenzie shot him another grin.

“Of course, some people say that magic is just another branch of science. It’s a long and complicated discussion, so we’ll be shelving it for now. Just know that both answers are considered correct.”

She wrote the word ‘MANA’ in just as large letters under ‘MAGIC’.

“Next, can anybody tell me what mana is?”

Nobody raised their hand again. Cadmus could already see the impatience bubbling on Ardea’s face, and honestly, Cadmus could sympathize. However, it was obvious that even if he answered every question Professor Mackenzie asked as soon as possible, they still wouldn’t get to anything interesting in this class or the next few.

So, he just let his mind wander back to his research, and reserved maybe ten percent of his attention on the class so that he wouldn’t be caught off guard if his name was called.

“Come on, people!” Professor Mackenzie, “A little more enthusiasm! Let’s go!”

Gelida Olvo raised her hand, and Professor Mackenzie gladly picked on her,

“It’s the energy source that we use to power our magic!” She answered brightly, having shot way past a ‘little more enthusiasm’.

“Correct,” Professor Mackenzie said, “It’s the energy source we use to power our magic. It’s all around us and inside us. However, to be more specific, the mana inside us is a purified version of the mana all around us, as mana in its raw state is poisonous to our bodies. That’s why, when we use our mana, it takes some time to recharge it.”

She proceeded to write ‘SPELLS’ in the air next.

“Now spells… this what all of you are here for: to learn how to cast spells,” and here, Professor Mackenzie’s wide brown eyes seemed to take on a particular shine, “Spells are the ways we use our mana in order to cast magic. To cast a spell, you first need to draw a magic circle.”

She wiped away the words she had written with a few swipes of her hand, and drew a large circle in the air with a triangle contained within. The most basic of all spells and a part of the symbol of the Laurucian Academy of Magic.

“The circle is what changes your drawing into a potential spell, and the symbols contained within are what determine the effect of the spell,” Professor Mackenzie explained, “If the circle is broken then the spell will not activate, and if the symbols inside are tampered with, then the spell can activate in a million different ways—just not the way you want it to.”

She raised her hand and held it behind her magic circle, “However, if everything goes right, and you push in just enough mana into the magic circle—”

The magic circle flashed white, and a stream of brilliant flame shot out of the other end.

“You get a spell,” Professor Mackenzie finished with a grin.

The room broke out into a flurry of clapping and amazed exclamations.

Ardea did not look impressed, and while Arthur smiled at the enthusiasm of his classmates, he too looked underwhelmed. Cadmus could understand why they felt that way, [fire] was one of the simplest spells a mage could cast, so they had probably all seen it cast a long time ago, just like him.

However, Cadmus empathized with the other students even more. When he was young, and witnessed magic for the first time, he had been ten times more excited than they were now. It was a beautiful feeling of wonder that Cadmus held dear to his heart, even today.

Professor Mackenzie waited for the noise to die down before continuing her lesson, “In essence, the magic circle is a converter. It converts your mana into a spell. Cool isn’t it?”

Multiple people nodded.

The shine in Professor Mackenzie’s eyes died down a little, “I know you guys want to try using a spell yourself, however, today we’re only focusing on the theoretical aspect of magic. We’ll do practical spell casting in the next class.”

A round of “aw”s echoed throughout the classroom.

Professor Mackenzie held up a placating hand, “I know, I know. However, you guys need to know all this before you go around casting spells everywhere.” She erased her magic circle and drew a few basic symbols in its place, “Different symbols change what a spell does. To make things even more complicated, a symbol has many aspects you have to consider before putting them in your spell. For example, you have to consider their placement relative to the circle, their orientation, their synchronization with the other symbols in the circle… etcetera, etcetera—it’s a giant mess.”

A lot of the students looked overwhelmed, which is when Professor Mackenzie swooped in with the save, “Thankfully, many mages in the past have already figured out which magic circle formulas work through trial and error. So you all just need to learn how to draw them properly, which is what we’ll be doing next class. Right now, it’s time to learn about some of the fundamental symbols that you absolutely need to know.”

And with that, she began teaching the class about what each basic symbol represented and how they usually impacted a spell. Cadmus, having lost the final vestiges of his focus and interest, tuned her out and simply waited for class to end.

Finally, after what felt like hours to Cadmus, Professor Mackenzie said,

“Alright, it’s almost time for class to end, so I’ll leave it at that.” She scowled sternly, “However I just want to say, every year, after the first day of Magic Fundamentals, almost twenty percent of the first years somehow manage to burn down some part of their dorm. I hope this year won’t follow that trend.”

Her words were benign, but the tone behind them undoubtedly contained a threat. And a few people flinched, having probably also been planning to cast a spell or two tonight.

“Dismissed.” She finally said the golden words.

Cadmus shot to his feet and stretched like his life depended on it. Not counting the three-day carriage ride, it had been a long time since he had sat through something so boring for so long.

“Are you alright now, Oliver?” Alice asked, “Do you need to go to the nurse’s office?”

Oliver stood up with only a minor wince, “Nah, I think I’m fine now. They didn’t hit me too hard anyway.”

As they walked through the halls with the other students, Cadmus asked, “If this is how they recruit people, then how has Pride not collapsed yet? I doubt many people would be happy to stay in a guild they were coerced into.”

Oliver shook his head, “From what I’ve heard, most people actually join willingly. It’s a way for mediocre people to stand up against geniuses after all. There’s recruiting power in that. They only recruit a few people through coercion, and they keep it well hidden from the normal members of the guild. It looks like we’re a part of those few now.”

Cadmus frowned, “I wonder why Randall Crawford is going so far to recruit us… He didn’t even know that I was the Necromancer back in the library—”

A burly arm suddenly draped around his neck, “Hello there!”

Cadmus turned to look at the source of the greeting, and found himself way too close to a person who looked far more troll than man.

He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. This person was probably…

“I’m from the guild Pride,” the ugly man’s face stretched into a wide grin, the maliciousness within barely veiled, “Nice to meet you!”