Rai couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Lina.

At the top of the charts.

Sin pointed at the piece of paper she was holding.

“LOOK! Lina’s at the top!”

Lina seemed to cower away slightly as attention had just now been forced unto her.

Then she was suddenly no longer on her chair.

Maya grabbed her and squeezed her in a bear hug.

“You’re so smart Lina! You have to teach me proper alchemy some time!”

“Our little superstar alchemist in training is going to be the best alchemist in all of Zenith!” Amy said as she patted Lina on the head.

Lina got plopped back down onto her seat by Maya. She was completely overwhelmed. Still... there was a certain pride that she felt for herself.

“This is cool as fuck Lina, well done!” Rai said.

Lina looked at him. Had this happened a month ago, Lina would’ve shied away from the attention and praise completely. But she wasn’t as reserved as she once was. Lina smiled wide and nodded happily.

Tullian stared at the paper. Confusion set in as he scanned the limited amount of names on the list.

“Where’s Amy and Sindyl? You three are in the alchemy class, so shouldn’t all three of you be on the charts?”

Rai facepalmed.

Sin scrunched her hand into a frustrated fist.

“I’m... average in alchemy.” Her hand relaxed as she sighed, “They only show the top ten students in the class.”

Amy also looked somewhat annoyed with herself.

“Oh, so Lina’s really good then. Nice! Good job Lina!”

Rai doubly facepalmed.

Lina giggled.

Maya took a bite of her wrap. She gulped it down in seconds, which was quite a feat for a girl her size.

“How do they know who should be on top? Is it based on the exams?”

Amy nodded, causing her curly hair to bounce.

“It’s like an aggregate...? Is that the right word? I think it’s the right word. It’s an applegate of all the big exams in the class.”

“... Applegate?” Tullian raised an eyebrow at Amy.

“Huh?”

“You mean aggregate?”

“That’s what I said.”

Tullian was incredibly confused. He needed a moment.

Sin tapped Amy’s arm as she whispered in her ear.

“You said applegate.”

Amy was dumbfounded. She truly believed that she said aggregate. Beyond that, there was something that deserved a bit more attention than whether she said applegate or aggregate. There was something new on Sin’s wrists.

“Sindyl, did you get tattoos?!”

Everyone looked at Sin’s wrists.

To their surprise, there were indeed tattoos on Sin’s wrists. Though, it’s unclear as to why they would have doubted such a thing.

“No shit! They look so cool! I love the vines; they really encapsulate your prickly personality Princess!” Maya teased.

“I... Yeah. Haha. I got some new tattoos.”

Tullian patted her back. “In my family, tattoos are very powerful. They tell a story about a person. Do you have a story behind those tattoos?”

“Yeah... But... I can’t talk about it right now. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Your story is yours to tell. Whether you want to talk about it now or later or never, it’s up to you.”

Sin nodded and smiled. Then she winced in pain. Sin instinctively grabbed Rai’s hand as the pain hit.

Rai let her squeeze his hand as much as she needed. “You alright?”

Sin slowly nodded as she seemed to gradually gain some reprieve from the headache. “The... stuff from last night. Remember what I said this morning?”

Rai remembered quickly as it was still fresh in his mind. Sin’s Domain still overwhelms her sometimes. I’ll keep an eye on her and help her out if she needs it.

Rai abruptly moved on, since he didn’t want to make Sin feel more uncomfortable.

“Are you guys ready for the technique evaluation tomorrow?”

Sin’s ears perked up as she became more and more relieved from the sensory overload. She was interested in what the others had to say.

They all had... contemplative looks on their faces.

Rai tilted his head as he looked at them. That’s... not the response I expected.

“... I need just a bit more time so I can perfect this technique I’ve been working on. It won’t be ready for tomorrow’s evaluation.” Tullian said.

Amy agreed with Tullian’s sentiment. She had her own reservations about the evaluation.

“I want to wow them, show them that I’m awesome! But... I don’t know. It feels weird. I can’t really explain it, but I don’t feel all that optimistic about tomorrow.”

Maya finished her wrap completely.

“I don’t know what these guys are talking about. I’m excited! I heard that the students with the best technique scores get onto a ranking board. It helps with future recommendations and getting into guilds and all that future stuff.”

Rai knew that the evaluation was supposed to be helpful, but making it easier to get into guilds like the adventurers’ guild, which was very difficult to gain entry to, was a massive boon.

“I didn’t know that. It sounds like it will be more useful than I thought.”

Sin shared Rai’s surprise.

“I want to do well. I’ll do my best!” Lina nodded to herself and puffed out a triumphant stream of air.

“Do your best, and the rest will follow.”

Lina truly wanted to stand alongside her friends. And she would do so at the evaluation.

Tullian realised that Rai and Sin hadn’t answered yet.

“What about you two? Are you guys excited?”

Rai and Sin looked at each other. Sin turned back to Tullian as she nibbled on her wrap. “I’m excited, but I’m more excited for the tournament.”

Rai followed on from her words. “The tournament with you guys is way more exciting. Techniques are one thing, but being able to use them well is a completely different skill.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say. I hope you’re both ready.”

“Always!”

Sin hardly managed to get through her wrap before bringing up what was lingering on her mind. “Rai... When I was walking to the cafeteria, I heard some rumours that you and Hiron fought?”

“HELL YEAH THEY FOUGHT! Rai bodied Hiron like it was nothing!” Maya excitedly answered for him.

Sin smiled back at them. “Good. Good. That asshole needed to get knocked down a peg.” She then happily returned to no longer nibbling, but devouring her wrap.

Lunch was coming to an end, so Rai gathered everyone’s trays and handed them in for cleaning.

When he came back to his table, everyone was ready for their next lessons.

He asked them all, “Who’s got body strengthening and mobility training next?”

Maya raised her hand, “Me.”

Sin raised her hand, “Me too.”

Feris raised his hand, “Me three, fuckhead.”

Everyone turned to Feris.

He looked back at them all funny. “You all trying to catch flies or something? Close your damn mouths, fishbreaths!”

Sin flipped him off without looking at him. “Fuck you Feris.”

“Fuck you too Princess.” Feris returned her remark with 2 fingers instead of 1.

Rai internally groaned. This was going to be... annoying. “Hey Feris. How are you today?”

Feris was surprised, he wasn’t expecting anything cordial to come from Rai. “Good... I think.” He cleared his throat, “Romeo wants me, you, and miss buttfuck Princess over here to go to his office after this next lesson. He wants all three of us there, but he didn’t even tell me what it was for.” Feris sounded ticked off.

“He wants you there as well?”

“Fuck knows. He said it wouldn’t take long, but that we should all be there together. As if I even want to be seen in the same room as you pissants.”

The bell rang.

Rai sighed. “Alright, we’ll go there after the lesson.”

“Great.”

They said goodbye to the people who had to go to different classes, and left to their classroom.

Rai got hit by major déjà vu. He could’ve sworn that he’d only just been here.

It was the same field in the West Grounds that his last lesson took place in. Well... it’s convenient I guess.

Rai and his friends sat down towards the edge of the seated stands.

Together, they waited for the lesson to start.

Students started to pile in from either side of the field.

Sin looked around as the stands got more and more full. There were far more people than she’d expected. Much more than last week at least.

“Isn’t there a lot of students for this class?” Rai asked.

“I was just thinking that. This same lesson had way less people in the last few weeks. I wonder what’s changed...”

Feris facepalmed. He couldn’t believe that he was in a society with these buffoons.

“Dingbats, the lot of you. They combined classes for this week. It literally shows the titles of two different classes in your schedule.”

Maya stifled a giggle as Rai and Sin took another look at the schedule.

Rai pointed at it. “Oh, he’s right.”

“So he is...” She didn’t like the idea of Feris being right about something. Or... about anything, really.

It took about a minute or two for everyone to settle in. Then all of the students waited for the teacher to show up. Or, perhaps it would be more apt to say that the students chatted and messed about amongst themselves until the teacher was supposed to show up.

Rai and Sin both noticed that Hiron was also in the class. He showed up on the opposite side of the field and sat as far away from them as he could. That’ll be good for the lesson hopefully... but... when is the lesson going to start?

“Isn’t the teacher late?” Rai questioned.

“They’re right on time.” Feris replied.

Rai tilted his head at Feris, “They?”

Right on cue, two puffs of smoke came from the edge of the field closest to the stands.

Out of each puff of smoke, came a person.

The person on the left was a dark skinned bulky bald man. He had hazelnut eyes and an incredibly muscly build. The thing that Rai found strange was this man’s outfit. Most of the teachers at Aether Academy wore robes, or suits, or simple clothes. But this guy... He’s in overalls? Why is he wearing overalls? And that tight shirt... it’s like he’s trying too hard to show off. Rai was very happy with his own build, but seeing someone with muscles like that would make anyone somewhat envious.

The person on the right was a much more athletic, lean looking woman. She had short black hair, cut off just above her shoulder-height. Her eyes were a bright minty green. Sin really liked how she looked. Especially her hair. My hair’s not as curly as that... but if I cut it to the same length... She was optimistic. Sin looked forward to experimenting with new hairstyles sooner or later.

“For those who don’t know, I’m Colt.” The teacher on the left spoke first.

“And I’m Jacky.” The teacher on the right followed up.

Colt led the introduction.

“Some of you might be a little confused with the class arrangements right now. That makes sense. Anyone would be. We’ll explain it to you all now. To start with, body strengthening was my class.”

“And mobility training was my class.” Jacky added.

“But we decided to combine our classes. We thought that it would be more beneficial for you all if you did these classes together as they feed into one another very well.”

Jacky looked around at the students, “Any questions?”

A myriad of hands went up.

She looked at Colt. They smiled as they turned to the class and picked a hand.

The student asked their question, “How will the classes work now?”

Jacky grinned, “Good question. Now, there will be a mixture of the two classes. You’ll take some of the concepts you learn from body strengthening, and apply them in mobility training. The same will apply the other way around. Of course, in actuality, you’ll be doing one or the other in each lesson, but the whole idea is that you’ll be able to think flexibly about how your body’s strength and mobility can benefit each other.”

Colt picked Rai’s hand.

Rai stared at the two of them.

“Won’t it end up being worse for us in the long term?”

Everyone turned and looked at him. Most of the students were aghast that someone would talk about a teacher’s lesson like that. Though, some of them became less confused upon learning who’d actually asked the question.

For once, Sin actually agreed with him. Surprisingly, Feris did too. Maya was also on the same page. To them, the two concepts were inherently opposing to one another.

“What exactly do you mean, young man?” Jacky’s eyebrow twitched as she asked Rai.

Rai introduced himself first. “My name is Rai, nice to meet you.” He paused for a second before explaining what he meant, “Well. With body strengthening for example, you want to have more muscle mass to be stronger, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.” Colt answered.

“And with mobility training, you want to be agile and have the ability to move quickly, right?”

“Yeah. That’s how you’d improve your mobility, by improving your agility and body’s flexibility.” Jacky answered.

“So surely body strengthening would actively make it more difficult to move flexibly. And making your body more agile would mean that you’re making it difficult to strengthen your body. I don’t see why you would combine those two together when they work against each other.” He’d hammered it home.

Hiron listened to Rai’s words intently. Funnily enough, he found himself agreeing with Rai’s sentiment. In fact, most of the class agreed with him. They began questioning the point of trying to combine the two classes.

Jacky’s eyebrow twitched twice.

Colt noticed that she was getting mad and decided to take over before she could say anything further.

“We see your point, and agree with it, Rai. The purpose of combining the classes is more theoretical. You take the theory of mobility and apply it to strength, and you can try to use that to your advantage. In practice, you’ll only be doing one or the other, but you’ll be thinking about the theories of both and using them together.”

Rai wasn’t convinced, but he nodded and didn’t push the topic any further.

“You’re right, you know.” Sin whispered to him.

“Yeah... This is going to be a long lesson.” Rai replied.

His friends agreed.

Rai continued to think about how he could shake things up and get the lesson back on track.

He didn’t want to come to the Academy for nothing, after all.

Why not have some fun with it?

A smirk crept onto Rai’s face as he formulated his plan.