“... And with all that said, I’ll see you all in the next class.”

The Runecrafting Instructor’s voice echoed in the classroom as he began to wave farewell to the class as he walked out. “Remember to do your assignment before the next class.”

And with that, he was out of the classroom.

After he left, the large hall was quiet. The two students—Lyla and Dan—simply remained glued to their seats, each having their respective thoughts on the lecture they had just experienced.

While Dan was still recoiling from his annoyance, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, his counterpart was still writing down a few things even after classes were over.

She hadn’t written down everything she heard, plus there were a few thoughts that had to be outlined as her personal notes regarding the overall content in her rather large notebook. As she scribbled them down, her thoughts were finally allowed to flow in her mind.

‘All of these are so complex! As expected of the Imperial Magus Academy, this is nothing like what I was taught back home.’ Lyla wrote down even more, feeling a bead of sweat trickle down her face.

Her pitch-black hair danced behind her as her ruby eyes fell on the pages of her book. She had an overall slender figure, slightly pale skin, and a delicate face that didn’t match the intensely serious expression she was giving off.

‘Where do I even begin?’ She wondered to herself.

Just like most students in the Academy, Lyla had received some basic education regarding Mage Arts before enrolling in the Magus Academy. However, unlike most others, her education was far more sophisticated and in-depth.

… Especially in Runecrafting.

‘And yet, I couldn’t understand over ninety percent of what he was saying. I picked up on a few things, since I was able to learn some of the topics we would be taking in our First Year, but it seems there’s still so much I don’t know.’

She felt conflicted at that moment.

On one hand, she was happy that the Imperial Magus Academy lived up to the hype, but on the other hand… she could feel fear—or rather, a sense of overwhelming danger that caused fear to creep in.

‘How long will it take me to decipher all of these? I don’t even know how to begin with the assignment we were given.’ Lyla was considered a fast learner by most, but this was only due to her studious nature.

She didn’t consider herself a genius by any standard, but she was a hard worker.

‘I guess I’ll have to spend all night in the Library today. Big sister told me I wouldn’t need to do that until my second year, but it seems like she underestimated how difficult the curriculum has become.’

Lyla didn’t mind spending time learning things that she didn’t understand, as long as she would be able to understand it in the end. Nothing worthwhile came without effort: that was her philosophy, so she didn’t dread the process of learning.

But… she didn’t like the feeling that came with being overwhelmed.

‘It would have been different if there was more time allocated to studying, or if Runecrafting is the only course I’m taking here, but considering the fact that I have two other Minors, it seems I might not have nearly as much time as I imagined.’

After all, if this was how complex her first class was, it was very likely that things would get much more complex.

‘We have Major Courses every week day and Minors at least two times a week. One of my Minors is three times, though, which means I have at least two classes per day. That’s three hours of Lectures, which gives me a lot of time to study… or so I thought.’

However, the study Mage Arts was very time-consuming—particularly individual research—and Runecrafting was particularly very slow and tedious.

‘Attending two hours of lectures like this every day, and spending the rest of my day researching more on what is being taught already seems overwhelming, but I have to add my Minor Courses to the mix as well.’

Just thinking about it was maddening.

‘But… I can’t complain, considering how that guy over there has it worse.’ Lyla glanced at the boy beside her, who was slowly getting up from his seat. ‘I bet he’s regretting his choice of selecting both Runecrafting and Spellcasting.’

Lyla didn’t make it her business to judge other students for their choices, especially since she was already too busy with her studies, but she couldn’t help but feel like he made a terrible mistake in his decision.

‘I wonder how much of the class he was able to understand…’ She wondered to herself.

Since she was so focused on the words of the Instructor, she didn’t have enough time to properly study his expressions when the lecture was ongoing, but she had a few glances and noticed he wasn’t even writing much.

‘He probably didn’t grasp a lot.’ She sighed to herself. ‘Or… could it be that he did?’

Lyla Raeven came from a prestigious Runecrafting family, so it was no surprise that she got as high as eighty-five percent in the Runecrafting Exam. However, there was one student who scored higher than her in that category… and it was this student in particular.

‘Is it possible that he grasped more than me in the lecture? If that’s the case, should I ask him for assistance… at least in the assignment?’ Lyla wondered to herself. ‘If I can pick his brains, it could save me some time and offer me direction on what to research.’

Despite having these thoughts, she hesitated.

Why?

‘Am I not getting ahead of myself? I’m operating on too many assumptions, and besides… doesn’t it seem like he’s leaving already?’

The scowl that she saw on his face already showed that he wasn’t in the best of moods, so now wasn’t the best time to request for his help. Besides, wouldn’t it be too presumptuous of her to ask him to spend valuable time aiding her when he also had a lot on his plate?

In fact, compared to her… wasn’t he even in more trouble?

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‘Yeah… I probably shouldn’t bother.’ She told herself. ‘Big sister told me not to hesitate in asking fellow students for help when I can, but I shouldn’t act on that so impatiently.’

Based on what their Supervising Officer said during Orientation, and what she had observed from her fellow students, it was clear that most people here didn’t put much stock in cooperation and camaraderie.

She understood the reason why.

After all, they were ultimately competitors in the Academy and would be the same once they got to the larger Magus world after graduation.

‘As a Raeven myself, I should understand this well.’ She clenched her fist around her pen, sighing softly. ‘It seems I can only rely on myself after all…

Lyla proceeded to close her book, but before she could, a hand suddenly landed on it.

‘Eh?’

“Excuse me for a moment, Lyla Raeven… but I couldn’t help but wonder if you were able to grasp what our Runecrafting Instructor taught just now.” The voice of her only Major coursemate echoed in the air, forcing her to raise her head.

At that moment, her crimson eyes met his dark ones.

“W-what?” She stuttered, much to her embarrassment, but it only went to show how surprised she was by the question that was thrown at her.

“I was just wondering if you understood what Instructor Levantis taught.” He repeated himself, his voice calm. “You wrote down a lot, but from the little I just saw in your notes, as well as my general observation on the class just now, I felt compelled to ask.”

“You… looked at my notes?” She asked, raising her brows slightly.

“I apologize for my impudence. It was unintentional, but I did manage to have a few glances.”

Lyla felt a mix of emotions. Her handwriting was difficult to read by most people, especially when she scribbled quickly. Plus, she wrote in the Imperial Shorthand, a difficult thing to decipher unless one was taught in it specifically.

For this boy to have merely glanced at her writing and spoken rather confidently about it… didn’t that mean he knew the Imperial Shorthand?

‘But only Nobles learn the Imperial Shorthand as a part of their basic education, and not many even pay much attention to it… so how?’ Lyla wondered to herself. ‘Is he bluffing right now? I don’t think so, since that would be a foolish thing to do.’

If he was faking his knowledge on the writing method, she could easily figure that out.

“From what I observed, you wrote a lot of what he said word-for-word… even when he spoke about the Classical Grafting methods. Right… there, right?” He pointed at the specific location where she had written exactly that.

That alone cleared him of any suspicion of lies.

‘But… how was he able to tell that I wrote his teachings word-for-word? He wasn’t taking a lot of notes in class, right? Does he really remember everything he said word for word? That’s insane, though.’ She told herself.

If the lecture was overly simple, then perhaps such a thing would be believable. But their Instructor bombarded them with a lot of big words and went through a lot of complex explanations throughout the lecture.

Most students would be too confused to remember anything substantial from the lecture, not to mention actually recollecting everything word-for-word.

‘Is he some kind of genius or something?’ Lyla wondered, but quickly brought herself back to reality. ‘There’s no way, considering how badly he scored in the written exams.’

Dan Nilrem was the lowest scorer in the whole class—unable to cast a single Spell, and scoring just barely average in the written test.

It was only because of his perfect score in Runecrafting that he managed to meet the cut-off mark and get into the Academy.

Anything less would have secured him a whopping loss.

‘I may have been overestimating his intelligence, but it’s still impressive that he knows the Imperial Shorthand.’ With that thought in her mind, she discarded any other useless ideas she had about him.

“I see. So you remember what he taught us?” Lyla asked as calmly as she could.

“I wouldn’t really call that teaching, but yes.” He responded. “But remembering something and understanding it are two different things.”

She was silent, but nodded in agreement.

“So, did you understand his lecture?” The question came once again.

At that moment, Lyla had a choice.

She could resort to her pride as a Raeven—one of the only two Runecrafting powerhouses of the Empire—and lie to him. After all, it would severely injure her image, and the image of her family, if she was ignorant of the very first lecture in Runecrafting.

But, she could also be honest and tell him the truth.

“I didn’t understand much of anything he taught.” She sighed in response. “I don’t even know how to go about the assignment.”

For a moment, she closed her eyes and instantly regretted her decision.

The boy before her was not a Noble, and it was a given that most commoners—particularly former Nobles—held grudges or deep-seated envy towards the Noble Families. Revealing her inadequacies to this boy could be a mistake that would come to bite her back in a very damning way.

With that thought rushing in her head, she instinctively tried to retract her confession.

“I’m just ki—”

“Forget about the assignment.” At that moment, Dan’s voice surged, completely silencing the weak response she was about to give.

Lyla Raeven slightly gasped as she heard those daring words from the boy.

“You didn’t understand anything because he didn’t teach anything of value. Rather than waste any time trying to comprehend and piece together everything he said in class, you should visit the Library and read the third chapter of Basics of Runecraft, by Head Instructor Arthur.” He added. “That should help you with what you need to start the course.”

A lot of questions and thoughts assailed Lyla’s mind at that moment, but when she opened her lips, the only question that came out surprised even her.

“Why not chapter one and two?”

“Ah…” The boy smiled knowingly, almost as if he knew more than he was letting on. “You must have already been taught that before coming here.”

Lyla was speechless as she watched the boy speak.

‘I didn’t see him at the Library yesterday, yet it seems like he already has knowledge that I don’t have.’ She pondered deeply.

Since the books published in the Imperial Magus Academy belonged to the school, they couldn’t be reproduced outside the Academy Walls. As a result, other than Academy Tours or Academic Symposiums that took place within the school grounds, the only way any Mage could get access to such educational material was by studying in the Imperial Magus Academy as a student.

‘Big sis also told me to consume as much of Head Instructor Arthur’s materials in the Library, though most of his content would be too complex for me to understand until I reached Year 3 and above.’

The fact that this boy was repeating the same words as her sister meant he had deep insights.

‘I guess I can now understand why he scored the highest in Runecrafting.’ A bead of sweat formed on her face as she looked at him. ‘He’s an incredible student!’

“I understand. Thank you very much for your advice.”

“It’s nothing. We’re coursemates, so we should be able to talk about stuff like these freely.” He remained calm with his words.

Despite clearly having a lot of insight into Runecrafting, he didn’t seem haughty at all.

He remained stoic and had an aura of maturity.

“That’s a relief to hear.” Lyla rose to her feet at that moment, stretching her hand while offering him a friendly smile. “I hope we can get along well in class, Dan Nilrem.”

“Same here.” He grinned too, shaking her hand. “And please… just calm me Dan.”

“Only if you call me Lyla.”

“Of course, Lyla!” He beamed with a calm smile.

Lyla had met all sorts of people in her life, but no commoner had ever shown the audacity and calmness that this boy displayed. He was quick to call her by her first name, and he wasn’t even hesitant to approach her first.

Compared to her, he behaved more like a noble.

“Dan…”

“Well, I’ll see you around.” He waved farewell to her, confirming the fact that he was indeed in a hurry to get somewhere. Even at that, he spared the time to talk to her.

Not only was he intelligent and mature, but he was also very considerate.

“… What a fascinating guy.”