The blade traveled in a way Liam had never seen before. Rather than spinning as if it were thrown normally, it simply moved forward linearly. Diving straight for his head.

His right arm shot up. The large knife plunged straight through his forearm, an inch sticking out in front of his face. He didn't even have the time to reinforce it.

He could hear the figure start to move into the room, but Liam moved faster. Adrenaline and the sheer fear of death forced him to. His magic circuits burst open and drained his Od, using it to create Magical Energy in just a single second.

"Collide and Resolve!" The boy shouted his activation spell, willing his energy to his legs. The figure reached the bed, their hand having produced another knife. Murder was coming.

Liam shot off his bed to the right wall directly next to him. He spun upside down, landing feet first against the edge between the wall and the ceiling before leaping again. His reinforced legs sounded like gunfire to himself as he hurtled down towards the doorway, rolling over his shoulder as he tumbled to the floor.

The figure was obviously caught off guard, taking a few seconds to even realize that Liam had jumped behind him.

Liam was already at his feet, sprinting down the hallway to the main room, where Krishna's desk was. He prepared to shout out for help, his mouth open and lungs primed with oxygen, but the lights in the room suddenly turned on.

Krishna, the dorm supervisor, stood in the hallway across from Liam. He was rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up. His clothes were hurriedly thrown on and wrinkled, adding more evidence to that theory.

"What's going on?" He asked, finally looking over at Liam with clear eyes. He was about the same height as Liam and with similar hair, although his was a light brown as opposed to black. Liam looked behind him, still prepared to shout and continue running, but noticed there was no longer any figure behind him. Nor blood, for that matter, which should've leaked from...

Liam looked down at his right arm and saw no knife plunged into it. No wound, no scar, not even blood remained. He stared at it for a long while, and would've continued until Krishna interrupted him.

"Liam, is everything alright?"

Slowly, he looked up from his arm back to the man. His face had such a concerned look, it almost pained Liam to make him worry.

"Y-Yeah. I just tripped going out of my room." He assured the dorm supervisor. He struggled not to look at his arm or behind him, so he just focused on trying to get out of the situation. "I guess I was sleepwalking. I'll go back now." Liam laughed a little and began to walk back, scratching his head.

"Alright. You might want to lock your door then." Krishna called back before turning off the lamp overhead and going back to his own room.

Liam closed his door and locked it. He was certain he wouldn't be getting anymore sleep tonight.

- -

He was right.

He didn't sleep at all that night, and he only managed to sleep the next day out of pure exhaustion. This left him half-asleep on his first day of school.

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Liam walked through the Clock Tower clutching a map, attempting to navigate himself through the large building.

Since he was a new student (and a new magus in general), he would be taking General Fundamentals for at least a few years. The only other class he was able to schedule for was Modern Magecraft, which was solely because Lord El-Melloi II had recommended his admission.

The fact that he would have to focus on two classes about magecraft was already enough to induce a headache in Liam, but finding his way to his first class evolved it into a migraine.

He eventually arrived at the classroom, noting the location and amount of people around the area. Thankfully, the General Fundamentals class was located in the most popular part of the Clock Tower, which resembles the actual clock section, colloquially know as the Big Ben. It was also around the center of all the other classes, so there was typically an influx of students wandering about the area.

Much to his relief, no one really spared him much attention. He swore he had spotted Flat wandering about the stone and wood halls, but he was more focused on getting to his first ever magic class than making idle talk.

The lecture room was, quite frankly, enormous to Liam. It could easily fit over a hundred students, where desks were all connected and made up of a smooth, light wood. They all circled around the center podium where the teacher would, well, teach. A large black board with several slates sat behind the podium.

Liam walked down the rows of connected desks, eventually taking a seat three rows above the lower-most one. For once, his fear and anxiety had been melted and forged into something different: excitement.

The students all trickled in eventually. Most stood around, chatting amongst themselves about their families recent adventures or movement within the Mage's Association, or how their recent research had been going. After half an hour they all managed to get seated-and only then did the teacher walk in.

She walked down the center directly towards the podium. Her hair seemed unnaturally still, black and cut just at the base of her neck in a perfectly straight line. Her blue skirt reached past her knees, and her shirt was of a lighter shade. She wore a thin white coat-and once she reached the podium and turned to her students, Liam could see she had bangs across her forehead. All in all, she looked far too ordinary to be a teacher at a magic school.

"Memory Manipulation." Her voice boomed through the auditorium without much effort, silencing all idle chatter that may have been taking place. The teacher smiled and turned away, picking up a piece of chalk and writing something in large letters.

"Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce myself-" The woman finished writing and slammed the chalk onto the board with a "clack", turning back around to the students.

"-I am Ms. Cantor, and I will be your General Fundamentals teacher."

- -

Liam wrote aggressively, not taking any care for the quality of the writing. All he wanted was to just get the knowledge onto something physical-his notebook.

"This brings us to our first project: Memory Manipulation." Ms. Cantor spoke as she wrote more notes on the black board behind her, somehow managing to write large enough for everyone to read. "Since this is arguably one of the most important skills for a beginner mage, I have decided to start the year off with this. Why is this important?"

Several hands rose, and she picked one without looking.

"For the Concealment of the Mystics." The voice called out. Ms. Cantor approved with a nod of her head, still writing on the board.

"Magecraft relies on us keeping our Mysteries, well, Mysterious. Hence, we must be quite skilled in making sure civilians do not bare witness to them, or handling them if they do." She finished writing the information for the project.

"You will need a partner for this project. Your goal will be to find an effective memory manipulation spell. If you or your family already uses one, you may use that. If not, I will show you examples from different Foundations you can pull from."

Liam continued writing, even bothering to copy down the rubric that she had recorded onto the blackboard behind her. She continued to list off different Thaumaturgical Foundations, and by the time Liam finished writing those down, his hand was cramping badly. Once she answered the few students who had questions, Ms. Cantor dismissed the class and allowed them to go pick their partners.

Liam stayed in his seat, resting his face in his hands in an attempt to let his mind relax. Much to his surprise he felt someone tap his shoulder lightly-which was enough to make him jump.

"Excuse me, but you're Liam Sinclair right?" The boy asked.