“Did you know that there was a war about 10,000 years ago between Fornia and the Fire Phoenix Empire?” Sell asked.

She was leaning against Adion’s shoulder, reading some book about Quemer. The two were in one of the private fighting pits belonging to the Scrolls. After practicing together, the two sat down to read together. It was another hot day, but they could sit in the shadow of the walls surrounding the fighting pit. It would have been nicer if they could go out and sit under a tree somewhere, but they both preferred privacy over comfort.

“Really, why?” Adion looked up from his own book and asked Sell.

“Long ago, countless small kingdoms and city-states all over Quemer fought against each other. With time, Empires rose, and an equilibrium of power settled the current borders. But Fornia was different. It was not connected to any other state, so no one knew its strength. The Fire Phoenix Empire was closest to it, and they wanted to keep conquering territory. Conquering the Outskirts is a slow process, but taking over another kingdom wouldn’t take much effort if the ones in power were weak.”

“So what happened?” Adion asked, curiously.

“At first, the Fire Phoenix Empire completely dominated. The average faelin was a lot weaker than the average human. But then, the Wise faelin joined the battle, and suddenly the tables were turned. The mages of the Empire had never seen the power of Words of Truth before, and didn’t stand a chance against that kind of of magic.”

“That makes sense,” Adion nodded, “Even if the most powerful mages of the faelin are slightly weaker, as they have a poorer mana control, Words of Truth more than makes up for it.”

“It’s a shame that they are so secretive about their Words of Truth,” Sell said with a sigh.

“The book doesn’t say anything?” Adion asked.

“No,” Sell said, shaking her head slightly, “You don’t need to speak Words of Truth out loud in order to use its power, so it would be impossible to know without a Wise faelin wanting to share.”

“It’s all supposed to be recorded in that tower, though, right?” Adion asked, “I think Lomin said it’s called the Spire. Maybe we can go there and take a look.”

“Definitely,” Sell said, tilting her head up to smile at Adion, “But do you think they’ll accept humans and elves to enter?”

“I have no idea,” Adion said, “Probably not without a good reason. But maybe it will be possible with Lomin’s help. Or if you reveal your own Words of Truth, they might be more than happy to have you.”

“It depends on how strong we are when we go there,” Sell said, “I don’t want to reveal anything without some assurance. I can ask for Lomin’s opinion, I guess.”

“You would be willing to tell him?” Adion asked.

“I think so,” Sell nodded, “I don’t think he would say anything if I asked him not to.”

“I don’t think so either,” Adion agreed, “I’ll try to get in contact with them before we leave for Quemer. We’ll probably have to stay put for a while after the competition, but after that, we can travel around Quemer to explore.”

“Sounds fun,” Sell said with a bright smile.

Adion smiled back at her. He was glad Sell was enjoying the book as it was something he had bought her. He knew she was interested in learning everything about Quemer. And it was one of the few things he could think of to buy for her.

Ever since the auction two weeks ago, Adion had tried to think of things to buy for her. He was incredibly rich now, after all, and he wanted to spend money on his girlfriend. The problem was that Sell was a princess. Anything he bought for her just for money’s sake was completely meaningless to her.

Oh well. My money is not going anywhere. I’ll figure out something eventually.

“Have you found a place we could go to practice your fire Authority?” Adion asked. Sell’s Authority gave her the ability to control fire to a frightening scale. If she wanted to test her limit, and try to break past it, she would need a place far from anyone’s eyes.

“No,” Sell sighed, “Too many people live around Cyalis. It will be extremely difficult to find a place anywhere close. Besides, now that we have a plan on how to leave, I don’t want to risk anything. Who knows what kind of ideas the Hesfym family would get if they knew I left Cyalis? But it’s fine. I can still practice my Authority here. I just can’t do it to my limit.”

“Hmm,” Adion thought about the problem, “I think I heard somewhere that the Academy will set up a few excursions to the Outskirts once in a while. Maybe that could be a good opportunity.”

“That’s true,” Sell nodded, “My sister went to the Alago Forrest with her class last year. I’m sure something similar will be arranged for us too, eventually. We might be able to sneak away from everyone and fight beasts to our limits.”

“That sounds fun,” Adion said with a smile, “It’s been a long time since I fought with my full abilities too. I want to know just how powerful I am now that I’m middle Silver.”

“You should ask the Headmaster about it,” Sell suggested, “I’m sure he knows if anything has been planned.”

“I will,” Adion nodded.

Even if I have been fighting here at the Academy, I could only ever use my space core to freeze space. And there is not enough pressure in these types of fights. In the Outskirts, it was life and death, my strength improved at a lot quicker pace than it does now.

Even if studying shadow magic with Quahim and learning all types of knowledge here at the Academy have been incredibly valuable opportunities, I can’t help but feel that it would be good for me to fight in the Outskirts again.

But I guess I can’t have everything. It’s far too impractical to travel back and forth to the Outskirts from Cyalis, and if I had to choose between spending five years here or five years in the Outskirts, I believe staying here will have countless times better effects in the long run.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

But if it’s just once, and something the Academy organizes, fighting in the Outskirts again will surely do me good. I’ll ask the Headmaster about it.

Adion shook his head and continued reading his book. It was the one he had received from the Headmaster about the ruins of Shiora. Adion found it pretty interesting so far. Even if there wasn’t any shocking information, the book contained a lot of things he didn’t know.

He was currently reading a part that speculated on the power structure of Shiora during the Age of Wonder. It was obviously impossible to know for sure, but through the ruins found so far, theories could be made. The author thought that Cyalis had surely been a hub with a large population and powerful influences. That was because the remains found in Cyalis were so significant. Even if the author didn’t know exactly what secrets were kept in the Academy, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was something spectacular. The Sages of Pollonti had decided to set up a city and academy here, after all.

Through a few old records found, it was also believed to have existed a powerful Empire in the Saba desert long ago. It was hard to be sure, because even if the Sabamin were descendants of the Shiorin who had lived on the continent long ago, too much time had passed for anyone to remember anything about where they came from. The Sabamin could very well have been survivors from the other side of Shiora who had walked across the continent during the Age of Darkness until they ended up in the Saba desert.

But the different ruins that had been found spoke of a powerful civilization that had been located there long ago. It was no secret that the Alago Empire had spent tremendous effort on the area around Kerrick Hold in the far northeast of the Empire. And no matter how much they tried, they couldn’t keep the information sealed that they had found a lot of ruins there.

I wonder what those ruins are like…It’s too bad that the author doesn’t seem to have a lot of insider information.

But no matter what, I’m sure it doesn’t come close to the secrets that Cyalis Academy is hiding. And I’m sure I’ll be able to find out about that eventually. Unfortunately, the Headmaster doesn’t want me to focus on those things right now. But I’m sure that when I’m more powerful and apt in runes, he’ll bring me to take a look at a few old artifacts they have hidden. He wanted my help with something like that, after all.

Adion and Sell continued to read for a few hours before they decided to put away their books and head for the House of the Scrolls.

“It really won’t be too long before you’re able to join the Scrolls council,” Sell commented as they looked at the leaderboard of credits contributed.

“I’m not far from reaching the top of even the 2nd years,” Adion nodded, “But so are you. I’m guessing both of us will easily be able to join the Scrolls council before it’s time for us to head to Quemer. The difficult part will be to get the Scrolls to go from rank 4 to rank 1 in just a few years. It would also be good if I could become Head of the House before our fourth year.”

“With your strength and contribution, I’m sure it won’t be too difficult,” Sell said with a smile, “But maybe wait a little longer to open up about your ambition. If you can perform well in this year’s House Clash, I’m sure you’ll gain a lot of popularity.”

“I’m not very worried about the fighting part, but it would be nice if I could get good enough in runes to be able to contribute in something else,” Adion said.

“Maybe in our 2nd year,” Sell said with a teasing smile.

“You don’t think I can improve fast enough to make a difference this year?” Adion challenged with a smile.

“I have no knowledge of runes…but from the way Prago has been evaluating your abilities…” Sell said hesitantly.

“What? What’s Prago been saying?” Adion asked.

“Haha,” Sell laughed, “Well, let’s not focus on that. I’m sure Prago will be able to take home a lot of points for our runesmiths. You brought him into the House, so it can be seen as your contribution.”

That Prago. I’ll have to have a talk with him. I never actually wrote that letter to his grandfather, but maybe I should.

“Oh, Adion, Sellitha, it’s been a while,” Dorsia’s voice sounded from Adion’s left.

“Head Dorsia,” Adion nodded in greeting.

“Dorsia, have you looked into the books I’ve requested?” Sellitha immediately asked.

“Haaah,” Dorsia sighed, “They should be on their way. You two just spend credits like crazy, don’t you? Well, it’s good news for the Scrolls, so I won’t complain. As for the books, I couldn’t get my hands on all of them. Even with sufficient credits, the Academy won’t hand over everything just like that.”

“It’s fine, as long as some of them arrive before I’m finished with the one I’m reading,” Sell said.

“Why have you two started reading so much lately? Are you researching something? About Quemer?” Dorsia asked.

Adion and Sell shared a look. No one else knew about the Headmaster’s plan to have the Academy participate in the competition on Quemer. But the reason for Sell and Adion reading so much lately was mostly just because it was a nice thing to do together. They couldn’t train all hours of the day, and even studying the subjects they had in class had a limit. So reading had become somewhat of a habit lately, and they didn’t want to waste their credits in the Academy library when they could go through the Scrolls and contribute the credits to the House.

“Something like that,” Adion said carefully.

“Whatever,” Dorsia shook her head, “I was just going to let you know that it’s been decided to raise the cost of renting the fighting pits from now on.”

“Why?” Adion asked.

“Well, with the nice weather, people naturally spend more time practicing their fighting skills outside, but more than anything…you two have taken it too far,” Dorsia said in a somewhat exasperated voice.

“What are you talking about?” Sell asked.

“You do know that the two of you have rented out one of our three private fighting pits for an entire day basically every day since you joined us? Most people only do it a few hours at a time, and at most once or twice a week. With you two showing up, the demand has gone up, so we have to increase the price,” Dorsia said with a complicated look.

Adion and Sell shared an awkward smile.

“Isn’t it good that we are spending our credits?” Adion asked.

“It is,” Dorisa nodded, “But isn’t there a limit? Whatever. It’s good. I just thought I’d let you know so you can be prepared. Hopefully, this will calm down demand somewhat.”

I guess no one can really match mine and Sell’s credits. We are first and second rank in the diamond class, after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if we earn the most credits in the entire Scrolls.

Dorsia left them while continuing to mutter to herself about how crazy the two were.

“Should we…maybe ease it on renting the fighting pits?” Sell asked.

“No need,” Adion shook his head, “It’s a good thing that they raised the credits to rent it in a way. It will let us spend credits more easily.”

Sell laughed, and Adion couldn’t help but look around, hoping no one had heard his boastful words.