With his fists on his hips and a broad grin on his face, Straf looks down at Greaves and Will.

「Heard some shouting on the way here. What's up, your power of friendship isn't working? Have you tried turning it off and on again?」

Straf snidely asks, and chuckles a little.

「None of your business-」

Will glares and barks back at Straf, but Alicia cuts in.

「Will had to get some things off his heart, but it's alright now.」「Alicia!」

Alicia explains, smiling softly. Will protests her openness.

「So what were you yelling about? I have you pegged as someone who quietly takes bullying, until he one day shows up with a knife-」

Straf says towards Will as he attempts to sit down on Cycelia's mat, but at the same time, Athea rises up and grabs him by the wrist.

「Can I borrow him for a second?」

Athea asks, looking at Cycelia as she begins dragging Straf away from the group.

「Uh- I suppose?…」

Cycelia hesitantly gives Athea her permission, looking at them both with her brows furrowed in confusion as she sits down on the mat. Lily looks on in suspicion, and waits in the parasol's shade.

「Sorry, the big rocks had a little kraken accident, hope you don't mind the audience-」

Straf says, chuckling as Athea pulls him out of the earshot of everyone else. She lets go, turns around and crosses her arms all at once, looking at Straf with a serious and mildly irate face.

「I have something to tell you, but at the same time, I'm not sure if I should.」

She says, and her mouth goes angrily aslant.

「Yeah? So you dragged me out here… For what? As an excuse to have me look at you? We could have done that at the palace.」

Straf scoffs, grinning at her.

「Tsk…」

She clicks her tongue and turns her back on him, looking at the sea and the descending sun.

「…I think the kraken coming here was my fault.」

Athea says, with her blue eyes gazing at the dark blue waves.

「I believe you.」

Straf replies with a disrespectfully jesting tone while he shrugs, smirking a little.

「Tsk… Shut up. At least I can admit it when something is my fault. And it's only my fault because I am responsible for you being here, and it's actually your fault, but that makes it my fault.」

「You're a blame shifting gold medalist. How do you go from my fault to your fault this quick?」

Straf scoffs as he asks, spreading his arms with an amused grin.

「It's your fault, because you insisted on this power. And instead of being content with what you received, you caused an ecological disaster just so you could grow even stronger. And yes, this is your fault. Nobody told you to do that.」

Athea glares angrily over her shoulder at Straf.

「Hey, I may not remember how many bunnies I've kicked, but I'll remember their sacrifice. If not for them, the demon we ran into might have killed me and Lia. Would you be happy if he ate my soul, or whatever?」

Straf asks with his fists on his hips, lightly tilting his head. Athea sharply inhales as if to verbally bite back, but then sighs the air out.

「You should stop vexing me… I was about to say something that I didn't really mean.」

She responds, just barely veiling her anger, staring at the sea with her mouth aslant.

「Sooo… The kraken is your fault, you wanted to confess your guilty conscience. Let's pretend I forgive you. Are we done?-」

Straf asks with his brow raised, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the rest of the group.

「That's not what I wanted to tell you.」

She bluntly replies.

「…Okay? And what is?」

Straf spreads his hands, tilting his head again.

「…The kraken was likely following orders. It seems like it was ordered to capture, not kill. And the reason it came here is you. It must have sensed your immense magic energy in the water, and came here to capture you.」

She explains, looking at Straf with a serious expression. Her frigid blue eyes glare at his.

「…It came here for me, and then got its tentacles on the women?」

Straf gently shakes his head in confusion, spreading his arms before dropping them limp.

「I will give you a simplified explanation… Mana spreads at a speed similar to the speed of light, but unlike light, it requires a medium. It's more like thermal energy in that way. The denser the medium, the faster it spreads…」

「Okay?」

Straf nods, and shrugs his shoulders.

「…When you entered the water, the kraken sensed it almost right away, despite the distance. It was speeding here the whole time, but when it left the sea, it was almost blind. It likely could just sense an immense amount of mana from your general direction.」

Athea looks away at the sea towards the horizon, where the kraken was loitering.

「So at that point, it was like looking for something on the nightstand in a pitch black darkness?」

Straf asks, rubbing his chin with his thumb and finger.

「Precisely. It had to rely on its poor vision and hope for the best. Make no mistake, it's likely everyone except you and the vampire would have died, if not for its orders.」

Athea looks at Straf again, lightly frowning with a gravely serious face.

「Okay, and why are you telling me this?…」

Straf asks, once again spreading his arms in confusion with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

「Power doesn't come for free and without strings attached. Reconsider whether or not you want to attract the wrong attention, and stop while you still can… If you still can.」

Athea cautions and walks past Straf, heading towards the rest of the group.

「How about you tell me under whose orders it was, then?」

Straf asks with his fists on his hips. Athea stops in her tracks, and appears to be deep in thought for a few seconds.

「…I already told you things that I probably shouldn't have. That's enough.」

She glances at him over her shoulder, and resumes walking. Straf rolls his eyes while shrugging, and follows her back. She silently sits down right behind Cycelia, with her back turned to the rest of the group.

「…What did you two talk about?」

Cycelia asks, inquisitively tilting her head at Athea.

「I had to throw some grievances out, too.」

Staring at the sand ahead of her, Athea bluntly replies without looking at Cycelia. Straf joins the mat, causing Athea to angrily shuffle away to its edge.

「Hey twerp, I've been thinking…」

Straf calls out, rubbing his chin.

「Wow, you can do that?」

Will asks in a deadpan manner. Lian scoffs with a smirk, and a short giggle slips out of Alicia.

「Yeah, you should try it sometime…」「Tsk…」

In a similar deadpan manner and still rubbing his chin, Straf quips back. Cycelia masks her urge to laugh as a cough, and Lily disdainfully sneers at Will.

「…You said it's immune to magic, right?」

Straf pauses his chin rubbing, and looks straight at Will. He clicks his tongue again, and adjusts his glasses.

「…That's not entirely correct, but it might as well be. For anyone that isn't you, that is.」

Will calmly replies, albeit visibly displeased.

「So how come I killed it with a bunch of mana?」

Straf peels his hand of his chin, and shrugs with it as he asks.

「Its blood is magical, and it can control the flow of mana very well, but that doesn't mean its control is limitless. If you think about it, it works like a resistor crystal, really.」

Will explains, and adjusts his glasses again.

「…Can you stop speaking in this meaningless magic babble? What the fuck is a resistor crystal?」

Straf asks with his mouth scrunched to the side, annoyed by Will's magic terminology.

「What? How do you not know this? Are you not literally a member of the Mages' guild? How can you even join the guild without knowing what it is?」

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Will asks back, completely befuddled, furrowing his brows heavily at Straf.

「How about you stop being a smartass and just tell me?」

Straf angrily points at Will's face. Will clicks his tongue again.

「It's what they test your magical potential with. They check how fast and how much mana you can output-」

「Oh, that fucking magic ball I blew up… Couldn't you say that from the start?」

Rolling his eyes, Straf interrupts Will's answer.

「Are you stupid? You can't blow up a resistor crystal without a ritual lev- You blew up a resistor crystal!?」

Will shouts, abruptly sitting up. After just a second of sitting, he drops back down onto the mat.

「Will, stop doing that!…」「Sorry…」

Alicia says with a pout as she struggles to keep the spell aimed at Will's contusion.

「Ahhh… Why am I even surprised? The kraken was basically a huge resistor crystal, and you broke that, too…」

He says, momentarily peeling his glasses off his eyes to pinch the bridge of his nose, and rub his eyes in frustration.

「This guy doesn't even know what a resistor crystal is, and he's strong enough to break one… Man… Life is unfaaair…」

Will adds, grumbling idly as he stares at the orange sky.

「Look who's talking…」

Greaves scoffs, glancing at Will.

「Shut up, Greaves. Not now…」

Will shoots Greaves an angry glare back.

「So… What you're saying is, I basically hit it with so much mana it couldn't handle it anymore? Despite its magic resistance?」

Straf asks, rubbing his chin a little again.

「…Yeah. That's pretty much what it was. Though you could say that everything and everyone is a little resistant to mana, that's what makes us alive. The problem starts when there is an overflow…」

Will glares angrily at Straf, and silently returns his eyes to the sky. He nods, then adjust his glasses as he speaks.

「…When things receive more mana than they can handle, the excess is very inefficiently converted into heat. That's why the kraken burnt into charcoal. Miscasting works on a similar principle, too, but a little different…」

「Oh yeah, you can miscast, right? How does that work?」

Will slowly sits back up, and adjusts his glasses. Looking at Straf with a serious face and a displeased slant to his mouth, he lifts his hand up in front of himself.

「When you cast anything, mana is drawn from your body. You want this process to be as quick as possible, but as smooth as possible. If you fail, the necessary mana will be ripped from your body.」

He explains, holding his palm pointed upwards.

「I'm curious, Will. What exactly happens if you miscast a spell?」

Lian chimes in, turning her black eyes to him.

「Well… Since mana is forcibly ripped from your body, this means the flesh ruptures too. Very, very rarely, the spell just harmlessly fizzles out with a little painful sting. That's the absolute best case scenario.」

Will turns his eyes and meets her gaze, adjusting his glasses as he explains.

「And the worst?…」

She tilts her head lightly, looking at him with curious eyes.

「The worst… Death, of course. But that's also very, very rare. You're more likely to lose your arm, but that's rare as well.」

Will shrugs, looking straight into Lian's almond-shaped eyes. She gently furrows her brows.

「So you risk death with each spell?… What else can happen?」

Lian asks again, and tilts her head further.

「Well, your hand might explode. Or your palm will be ripped apart…」

Will shrugs with his hands and glances at Straf, who looks back at him with a bored expression on his face.

「That's also very rare, I assume?」

Lian says as her brows rise a little.

「Uh, no… Those are actually the most common reactions…」

Adjusting his glasses again, Will awkwardly dispels Lian's wrong presumption.

「…So even now, Alicia is risking death?」

Her black eyes turn to Alicia and the green light of her healing spell. Alicia awkwardly smiles at Lian, tilting her head a little.

「Well… Theoretically, she is, but… Healers tend to have milder miscast reactions. She didn't even need her wand to begin with, but for a beginner mage, that can be a life-saver.」

Will explains, looking at the silver wand on Alicia's mat.

「The worst I ever had was sore palms, ehehe…」

Alicia lets out a short and soft laugh, anxiously smiling at Lian.

「Right… So as I was saying. Miscasting can kill you. Most mages don't dare to cast without a wand, or preferably a staff, if they don't feel comfortable with the spell. Nobody wants to get badly injured because you got mildly distracted.」

Will adjusts his glasses once more, and a brief silence begins.

「…Sounds like being a mage is really tough.」

Cycelia comments, looking at Will with a polite smile.

「…It can get difficult. Magic is powerful, but it's also indiscriminate. It can kill the caster as easily as it can kill the target, or someone that wasn't meant to be the target.」

Will shrugs, and weakly nods a few times in response.

「Straf, can I ask you something important?…」

Cycelia says, looking down at the sand while fiddling with her medallion.

「Yeah? What?」

Straf turns his bored eyes to Cycelia's chestnut hair.

「Um… It's a little selfish, but since we're on the topic of magic… And I've been thinking about this for a long time now…」

She sneaks a quick glance over her shoulder at Straf, before looking away again.

「What is it? Spit it out, Lia. If you want me to do a magic trick, I can try sawing the exhibitionist in half.」「Tsk. Stop spreading lies already…」

Straf encourages Cycelia, rolling his eyes. He then turns his head and snidely sneers at Athea.

「Well, you see…」

Cycelia turns around to face Straf, tapping her fingers together anxiously, and avoiding eye contact.

「…Would you go to the Academy of Magic with me? I made a promise-」

「Yes. Yes. Yes!」

Straf instantly agrees, shuffling closer to Cycelia and invading her personal space. She falls over on her back in panic, and this only incentives him to crawl over her on all fours with a massive grin on his face.

「Straf!?」

Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump.

She exclaims as her shocked face flushes red as Straf is right on top of her.

「The Academy of Magic!? Fuck yes I'm going! I can't wait to see their stupid fucking admission exam and their arbitrarily segregated dorms! It's going to be a hive of cliched characters! Sign me up! This is what I was waiting for!」

Straf shouts in glee, grinning ear to ear like a madman. Lily glares at Cycelia with her arms crossed, poorly hiding a scowl. Straf crawls back and sits back down. Cycelia takes a few seconds to breath heavily with her emerald eyes wide open, and her hand on her chest.

《Ahhh! I wish he'd do that to me in private!》

She thinks as she sits back up with one hand on her blushed face, and the other toying with her medallion with a giant smile.

「Ahum… Well, I'm glad you're as excited as I am. I'll let you know when I'm ready. They are accepting new students for the term that's coming up soon. I just need to prepare a few things beforehand, and ask a few people about the Academy specifics.」

She showily clears her throat, and smiles broadly at Straf as she speaks.

「Alright, but don't keep me waiting for too long. Though I have a few things to attend to, myself. Do you think a week will be enough?」

Straf asks, looking into Cycelia's shining emerald eyes.

「Maybe even less! We'll see.」

She happily nods, and Straf looks at the sun nearing the horizon.

「The sun is about to set, huh?…」

Straf remarks, and gets up. He walks closer to the water, Lily and Cycelia follow him and join him in watching the sunset.

「…There, that should be enough. How is it, Will?」

Alicia stops her healing spell, and asks.

「…I'll live.」

Will moves and twists his torso a little, and does a little windmill with his arm. He shrugs as he replies, and gets up, approaching Straf's group. Alicia follows, and so does Lian and Greaves.

「I've never seen the sun like this…」

Alicia remarks with a happy smile.

「What, you've never seen the sun set before? What are you, a turboNEET?」

Straf narrows his eyes in disbelief at Alicia, tilting his head a little to get a better view of her.

「No, I've never seen it actually go down below the hori- Turbonito?」

She replies, but an unfamiliar word makes her pause and tilt her head in confusion when she processes it.

「…It's a privileged noble class from Straf's home, Alicia… But I don't know what turbo is.」

Cycelia explains, smiling at Alicia.

「Ah… I see…」

She replies, awkwardly smiling back at Cycelia. The group quietly watches the sun slowly hide itself below the sea…