After the free period break, in one of the classrooms…

The students are mostly quiet, having had ran out of even trivial things to discuss. Damian peels his bored eyes away from the window to glance at Cycelia and the rest of the girls. All three look back at him with slightly concerned, confused gazes. Everyone in the classroom is getting bored, and the professor is still absent, despite it being well beyond the possibility of being simply late. Some have even left the classroom to ask the Academy workers about whether or not the schedule has changed, but if it did, it was not listed as such.

「…Is he coming, or not?」

Tisha idly asks with her cheek smushed on her hand while propping her head up. Cycelia and Neela look at her, but they have no answer.

「…Maybe something has happened?」

Neela says, glancing at the two beside her.

「Like what?」

Cycelia tilts her head.

「He's old, Lia. Neela has a point… Ahhhhhh…」

Tisha replies for her, and props herself up on her elbows instead as she lets out a large, frustrated throaty groan of boredom.

「…Couldn't he have announced that he's gonna drop dead first, and then cancel the classes?…」

She adds, glaring at the classroom door below with her ice-blue eyes.

「Tisha…」

Cycelia furrows her brows at Tisha, pressing her lips together to distance herself from her statement.

「Tisha, that's not nice. Don't kill off the professor in your head.」

Neela chides her, matching Cycelia's expression although her brows are furrowed rather angrily compared to Cycelia's.

「Tsk… You said it yourself, Neela. He might have just died. And now we're waiting here for him, like we're stupid.」

「I did not say that. I only said that something may have happened. He might have tripped and injured himself…」

Tisha argues with Neela, and Neela shakes her head in disapproval.

「Or, more realistically, he's dead. At least that's one less subject to worry about passing…」

Tisha sighs out as she rolls her eyes, once again propping her cheek up on her palm.

「Tisha! That may be so, but it's no reason to wish someone ill!」

Neela continues chiding her, but Tisha remains undaunted.

「That's right. We should be wishing him well. He's sharing his knowledge with us, after all.」

Cycelia nods along, concurring with Neela as she peeks past her to speak directly to Tisha.

「I'm not wishin' him ill… I'm just being realistic about it, that's all…」

She replies, and lets out another bored sigh. A few moment of silence pass, and Tisha turns her blue eyes to Cycelia.

「Hey, Lia, maybe you should try your luck?」

The northern princess suggests, with a sly grin.

「Try my luck?… At what?…」

Cycelia blinks back at her with confused emerald eyes, while Neela seems to pick up on the meaning as soon as she glances at Tisha.

「…Straf, Lia. We know there's the evil queen, and all, but… Maybe you could get away with it?」

Neela replies for Tisha, weakly shrugging her shoulders.

「Yeah, have you actually asked Straf about his marriage?」

「Yes, is he actually happy, or does he just look like he is?」

Tisha and Neela ask, tilting their heads. Cycelia's eyes dart away, unable to maintain eye contact without making nervous grimaces while talking about the subject.

「I- I… Um…」

She stammers, looking at the tall windows across the room.

「…I think you should tell him how you feel, Lia. Even the things you haven't told us.」

Neela adds, and shrugs her shoulders again before glancing at Tisha.

「I can't… I like the way things are right now, I-」

「You don't, you're just afraid of breaking things.」

Neela cuts Cycelia off, and her wide-open green eyes snap to her.

「Yeah, we're not asking you to be a homewrecker, but why not at least tell him? It's sad watching you be like this, Lia. Maybe he'd be more considerate of you, if he knew how you feel…」

Tisha nods, spreading her hands. She quickly places her cheek back down on her fist, and returns her eyes towards the door.

「…But what if he doesn't? I've been giving him room. I don't want to look desperate.」

Cycelia replies, and her sullen emerald eyes drift down to their desk. Her shoulders slump, and her lips turn into a light frown.

「Then don't be desperate. Men are stupid, Lia. You need to tell them exactly what you want out of them, or they won't get it.」

「Yeah, but if you want to get frisky with him, your words better wear a nice dress, Lia.」

Neela and Tisha advise, looking intently at her gloomy face. She briefly turns her eyes to them, before returning her gaze back to the desk, appearing deep in thought.

「Lia… You're setting yourself up for failure in your mind, but what if he feels the same? What if he feels trapped in his marriage? You don't have to be a homewrecker, or do anything indecent…」

Neela places her hand on Cycelia's, and tilts her head while staring deep into her eyes.

「Yeah, he might be unhappy, you know? He might be actually distancing himself from you, because he thinks you can't be together.」

Tisha nods, shrugging her shoulders. Cycelia silently listens to them both while her troubled gaze jumps between the two.

「In the worst case, he'll just tell you it can't happen. Then you can stop beating yourself up over it.」

She adds, and throws her hands up. Tisha lets out another bored sigh when she returns her eyes to the door again.

「…Or, he'll tell you he feels exactly the same about you. Then, perhaps ask him to divorce the evil queen. Surely she's not evil enough to kill her husband for wanting a divorce?」

Neela says with a serious face and a determined look in her eyes, clutching Cycelia's hand tighter.

「Also if you want to just elope, you can come to my father's court. We're going to be big in a few years, I'm sure I could butter up dad to give you a jarldom when we own the north…」

Tisha chimes in, still staring at the door.

「…And y'know, your kids would be in a really good place by that time.」

She adds with a sly grin directed at Cycelia.

「H- Huh!? K- K- Ki-!?」

Cycelia's head perks up, and she stammers with her face rapidly reddening as she blinks rapidly at Tisha's smug face.

「Tisha, isn't that a little too early?」

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Neela lets out a troubled sigh directed at the golden-haired princess, scrunching her mouth to the side a little.

「Hey, I'm all-in on Lia's win. She's cute and pretty. No way some old evil hag is going to keep Straf and their happiness from her.」

Tisha shrugs her arms with a wide, smug grin on her face. Neela lets out another sigh, this time sounding more resigned, and turns her gaze back to Cycelia.

「Well, there you have it. Her gambling sense is pretty good, so I think your chances are good as well. Just remember to be honest, tell him how you feel, and see where you can go from there.」

Neela beams a warm smile at Cycelia, and lets go of her hand. At the same time, the classroom door opens. A student that left to ask about the professor walks in, and directly behind him, the very tiny Professor Reise.

「Tsk…」

The moment she notices the short old man, Tisha clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes away.

《She clicked her tongue!?》《She clicked her tongue!?》

Neela and Cycelia think while staring in wide-eyed shock at Tisha.

「Ahhh, good morning everyone! Sorry for being late, I forgot we have classes today! Ha ha!…」

Professor Reise exclaims, waving his wrinkly hand at the students with an awkward grin missing most of its teeth.

「He forgot!?」

Tisha asks with visible outrage on her face, slapping their desk.

「But professor, it's the afternoon…」

A voice of a student from the front of the class corrects the old professor.

「It is?…」

He stops in his tracks while on the way to the teacher's desk, appearing almost shocked by the quite obvious revelation. He looks left and right at each row of desks to see if the students are joking, furrowing his bushy brows, but all of the faces appear either annoyed, or bored.

「Ah, well… Good afternoon, in that case!」

Professor Reise waves his hand again with a smile, and continues onward. He sets the thick tome under his arm down, and walks up to the blackboard to take the chalk.

「Where were we?… Ah, modern magic tools and their uses-!」

「We did that last week, professor!」

A student quickly interrupts him before he can go on another long rant on magic-augmented technology. The professor turns around, giving the class yet another slack-jawed look of confusion. He scratches his temple with his finger, greatly furrowing his brows.

「We did?… Well then, could anyone give me a hint as to where we stopped?…」

He asks, hopelessly spreading his hands, looking at the mix of annoyed and bored faces.

「…Hey, Neela, Lia… I think our professor broke…」

Tisha says in a hushed voice towards the two girls, looking at the short professor below with her blonde brows lightly furrowed.

「…I don't think he was ever this forgetful. He'd forget a name or two from time to time, but then he'd draw an entire chapter's worth of diagrams from memory.」

Neela remarks with a troubled expression, staring at the professor while he flips through the pages of his tome to reach the red bookmark string.

「Do professors not retire due to old age?」

Cycelia asks, looking at the two.

「They do sometimes. The alchemy professor retired when we were doing the first term here, but most are too proud, and keep their tenure to their grave.」

Shrugging her shoulders, Neela replies while the three watch the professor fumble with the pages, squinting heavily at the text while he leans over the tome.

「Yeah, old Reise here should be reading something by a fireplace in a rocking chair, not pretending to still have his wits about him… He'd spare us the trouble too.」

Tisha grumbles, staring at the old man below. He finally reaches the bookmarked page, and his bushy brows furrow while he reads a line pointed out by his wrinkled finger.

「Akhakh! Khakh!… Hhhhrakh!」

Professor Reise abruptly begins coughing. The quiet classroom fills with a sickly dry cough while he feebly attempts to cover his mouth with his fist.

「…Akhem!… Khakh!…」

His coughing continues with no end in sight, although slowing in between each cough.

「…Are you alright, professor?」

Damian asks, peeling his eyes away from the window to the old man below. He nods his head in reply, though still keeping his mouth covered.

「…Ahum!… Yes, I am fine, just a scratch in the back of my throat… But thank you for asking… Errr?…」

Professor Reise dismissively waves his hand, recovering from his cough. His squinting eyes look at Damian, and he appears a little troubled when he can't conjure his name from memory.

「…Damian, professor.」

The handsome student reminds him with a little nod of his head, still cautiously watching him.

「Ahhh… Yes, I am fine. Thank you, Damian. Now, where were we?…」

「Magic illumination, magic lamps, and vampire lamps… At least that's what you said the last time, professor.」

Damian replies, chiming in while his eyes return to the landscape outside the window.

「Did I?… Ah, yes… Yes, yes yes yes yes… I seem to have forgotten to move the bookmark! Ha ha ha! The next pages cover exactly that!」

Professor Reise brushes the top of his head with his palm, and lets out a little embarrassed chuckle as he explains himself. He moves the bookmark forward, and turns to the blackboard.

「Now, new lesson!… What was it? Err… Ah yes! Magic illumination, magic lamps, and vampire lamps! Write that down!」

He exclaims, scribbling down the new topic of the lesson. The students let out a collective sigh…

…

Just a few moments later…

「…But unlike resistor crystals, their purity-」

Donnnnggggg… Gonnnnnnnggggg… Donnnnnnnnnggggg…

The heavy bell ringing out from above the Academy interrupts the professor's lecture as he's scribbling esoteric graphics strongly resembling electrical circuit diagrams on the blackboard. He looks up at the ceiling with his hands spread, almost indignant, and very shocked while the students slowly shuffle out of their desks.

「Already!?… But I have just barely started!…」

He exclaims, staring slack-jawed at the departing students.

「Well, it took you quite a while to get here, professor.」

Damian comments as he passes by, politely nodding his head at him. Damian and the three girls leave the class together, while the old man is left standing there with his fists on his hips, upset at some very vague entity surely responsible for this, while blankly staring at the floor ahead of the desks…

…

In the evening, after the sunset, in the Academy's dark hallways…

Straf opens a door, and exits into the halls. He lazily throws it shut behind him, and places his hands in his pockets.

「Welp, that's enough of that for today…」

He shrugs, and turns for the girls' dormitories, walking in a leisurely pace with his mouth aslant and his eyes bored. A runic automata runs past him along the wall, speeding somewhere to its task. The magic lamps levitating cause it to cast long and eerie shadows, but it quickly leaves the light's reach. He turns a corner, and nonchalantly continues onward as his eyes jump to whatever briefly captures his interest at the moment.

「I ought to make a thing that will let me move around this place faster. What a waste of time…」

Straf idly comments while staring down the long hallway, and shakes his head.

「…Behind you…」

A quiet, almost inaudible voice says from right behind Straf's ear. He stops in his tracks, heavily scrunching his mouth to the side while his eyes remain visibly bored. He lets out a large, tired sigh, and partially turns around.

The moment he looks, someone slips past a corner behind him.

《Yeah, very funny. Sneak behind me and-》

He thinks, but then furrows his brows while staring at the dark corner.

「Hm.」

Straf lets out a brief hum, and lightly nods his head with his lips tightly pressed together into a grimace.

《Yeah, that's a little too far for that…》

He thinks, as he notes the significant space between the distant corner and himself. It would be normally impossible to cross this distance in time it took for Straf to turn around, let alone do so in silence.

「Hmm…」

He lets out another, more inquisitive hum while nodding his head stronger. Straf continues staring at the corner for a few seconds longer, before he shrugs and continues towards the dormitories.

「…I wonder if I can trap a ghost in a crystal and use it to power some stuff. That'd be kind of fucked up…」

Straf thinks out loud, rubbing his chin with his brows furrowed while passing beneath the magic lamps.

「…I bet Lily would like that.」

He shrugs, and places his hand back in his pocket…