May 6, 2025

It was one of those spring days when one would like to do nothing but stare through the enormous windows of the Academy lecture hall—at the sunlit lawn of the training stadium, fluffy clouds, and the rustling leaves which seemed to be speaking with each other. But Takeshi Izumi’s professorial charisma was even more magnifying. The students—females especially—were listening to his convoluted talk without missing a single word. The topic of his final lecture in the History course was written on the slide: “Magic in Modern Society.”

“Nowadays, arcane users tend to not only keep the traditions, but also promote extensive contributions to society,” Izumi was speechifying from his stand. “Today we are fully acknowledged as rightful members of the community, but we should not forget that this was not always the case. For many centuries we had been exterminated and forced to fall into oblivion, and—as you should already know from the previous material—only the militaristic demands of the eighteenth century had made Western and Eastern monarchies officially re-evaluate the potential of the Academy of Mages, which then transformed into a full-fledged international institution at the beginning of the last century. Our gradual integration in different spheres of life had been rather successful, yet in order to reduce conflicts with non-magical people, we were forced to make concessions, and these agreements are still vital to both sides...”

Dust was floating slowly in the rays of spring light. As if acknowledging its presence, Izumi sneezed and pulled out a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his black and white PRISM uniform. Niji flinched on her seat; this sudden sound made her realize that each minute she had an impulse to roll up her jacket sleeve again and examine the magical symbols inscribed on her right forearm. As this tattoo was an illegal acquisition, Niji should have disguised it as long as possible. The mage girl took a look around: fortunately, no one noticed her manifestation of excessive nervousness. Students of two years, the second and fourth, were surrounding her in the enormous lecture hall, too absorbed into Izumi’s speech. Although the course itself was far from entertaining, Izumi’s charisma made the attendance rate next to one hundred percent. Sensei, the youngest in the Academy staff, was able to grasp the attention of students not only by his good looks but also with his authority as a PRISM official. Once, Niji had adored his lectures, but on that day she was impatiently fidgeting in her place, trying not to look at her hand. Her arcane cell tests of the day before had greatly knocked her out of focus.

People with residual magical abilities were also admitted to Izumi’s lectures, so Rem had his chance to beat the entire girl population with the highest score in “lecture commitment” chart: the enthusiasm with which the Lackluster was absorbing knowledge was at a level unattainable even for a mostly straight A student like Murasaki. But even if Rem had noticed the unusual behavior of his best friend, it would have been fine as he’d learned the truth already. Shiningreel, the third member of their inseparable company, was left in the dark, but it still looked safe as she didn’t take her eyes off the professor and was unable to detect anything other than the object of her unrequited affection.

“...which consisted of a number of preventive and emergency measures to maintain order, such as registering owners of the arcane cells, compulsory training, assisting the military in special operations, researching the phenomenon from a scientific point of view, and organizing a strike force to deal with uncontrollable mages...”

Uncontrollable. Niji jerked in fright, but Izumi wasn’t even looking at her direction. Then she muttered: “In other words, we are selling our freedom to support some abstract peace.”

“I don’t believe my ears,” Shiny looked at her, baffled. “You’ve always been okay with it.”

“That’s right, Niji,” Rem supported the curly girl. “These are reasonable sacrifices.”

“Like you’ve ever sacrificed anything at all,” Shiningreel chuckled, and Rem stuck his tongue out at her.