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“What the fuck?...” I whisper to myself under my breath as I look at Sageira, then up at the burnt figure that was supposed to be her.

“Did you enjoy the fight?” Sageira said in the same sweet tone Mum uses when she sees me coming home from playing in the woods.

She then snapped her finger, and the burnt figure of her on the pillar evaporated into motes of light, leaving behind a transparent bubble in the shape of a humanoid figure that started to dissipate into nothing. Was I fighting some kind of illusion? An illusion that had enough physical presence to stop the pillar from making contact with the ceiling?

“It has been some time since I have come across one of the civilized races is capable of using Instinctive magic like magic beasts do… but you manage to pull it off without a specialized mana organ, in fact, you can use multiple elements. You may not have demonstrated it yet, but I can assume you are able to manipulate water too, can’t you?” she said as she started walking toward me with that frail old woman walk.

But seeing what she is capable of, I know better, whatever she is, she is anything but a frail old woman. “What are you? And what do you mean Instinctive magic?” I almost growled out as I manifested my aura and reached to my side for my ceremonial dagger, but realized I left it back at the dorm when my hand grasped nothing.

“Oh hoho… you are in no place to be asking questions young one, only answering them.” she said as she advanced toward me, her cane floating at her side “Now be a dear and tell me what I want to know while you still have a tongue to speak. What is an undead like yourself doing in the Academy?”

As I backed up against the wall while trying to look as threatening as possible, I tried to buy time by talking, “I already told you, I am just a student here. And why do you keep calling me an undead?”

After letting out an old lady chuckle, she answered, “It is because your soul is marked by the stigma of death, silly. Only people who died would have the stigma of death, and who else would have the stigma of death and still walking around if not an undead?”

Wait, what? My soul? Stigma of death? Does that mean… when I died and reincarnated in this world…

“Oh? From the look on your face, you have an idea of what I am talking about, so you know you are undead.” Before I could further follow that train of thought, I was shoved against the wall, this time by a very tangible and physical force, the strength of which slightly embedded my aura-empowered body into the classroom’s wall.

Unlike the unknown force that held me still the first time, this felt like what I could only describe as a telekinetic pressure pressing me in place against the wall, and even with my aura, I could not fight against this pressure.

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Resorting to magic, I once again ionized the air in order to zap Sageira, but the moment the mana left my body to do my bidding, she unleashed from her body what felt like a hurricane of mana, shredding any mana that so much as peeked out of my body.

I was now well and truly helpless. In the face of such overwhelming power, I was going to die, I would no longer see the loving faces of my family, the house staff that took care of me… Emma… I will not be able to say goodbye to any of them.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as doom in the form of an old woman floated up to me until we were at eye level, she once again extended her long fingernail to my forehead in order to finish the job, “Last chance to tell me what I want to know, because there is a good chance you become a vegetable after I am done with your brain.”

As I despaired, I did what was most likely not a great idea, but at this point, this was the only way I saw that I had a chance of surviving.

“I am reincarnated into this world after I died in mine!” I shouted as I clenched my eyes closed and waited for Sageira to get on with the craniotomy in case she did not believe me.

As a few seconds passed in silence, I was still held against the wall, and could still feel the mana hurricane still going on around me. After waiting for a few more seconds of nothing happening, I opened an eye to see what was going on, only to see Sageira staring at me with scrutiny.

“You seem to be telling the truth… I have only heard of the concept of reincarnation, never seen one before.” Sageira said as she continued her scrutiny of me.

“S-So does that mean you ain't going to open my skull and poke around in my brain?” I asked sheepishly.

“No… No, I am not.” Sageira replied, but was that a tinge of disappointment in her voice? Better not tempt fate by asking.

“So can you release me?” I asked.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, she answered with a huff, “Fine, but I have some questions for you, understand?” she asked, but it felt more of a command, and realistically, I was in no position to say no. So I nodded.

The mana hurricane died down, and I fell off the wall as the force pushing me against it disappeared.

Now with a free hand, I started wiping the blood out of my eyes, and was about to tear off my sleeve to use as a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding when Sageira spoke up, “Let me take care of that for you.”

She tapped a finger on my forehead and the cut on my head started itching like a motherfucker! But it only lasted for a few seconds before the feeling faded, when I touched where she was cutting my skull open, my skin was undamaged, and there was no mark, nor did I feel any indent on my skull from having a bad head boo boo, like I did in my previous life when I banged my head against the corner of a table hard enough to leave a small gouge on my skull.

As I was inspecting my head, Sageira said, “Sit, I have questions that need answering.”

She then waved her hand, and the very fucked classroom started to unfuck itself as furniture started moving back into place and the damage done to the classroom started to fix itself. At the same time, a table and two chairs set themselves between us, and she gestured for me to sit.