Since herding Mathias to the dining hall was a priority - and taking his bag in addition to her own was unreasonable - they had to return to their room. Lisanna waited impatiently as he packed up his textbook and stationary, but was not forcing him to move faster.

They still had a fair bit of time even when they came into the classroom, seeing it half-full already. There were some studious types, but most were just whispering about the events in the cafeteria. Since Synthy was not here, there did not seem to be an issue. Even the guys, centred around Erik, were applauding his courage.

They did not go into detail; neither did the girls. There was already an unwritten social contract binding them to silence about more sensitive matters.

"Hey, Mathias?"

Suu, suu.

He was exhaling slowly, eyes shut tight even in the oppressive light.

Lisanna was tempted to wake him up but stopped as Jennifer came to her side. She yawned and rubbed her own bleary eyes, but her voice was reasonably steady, all things considered.

"Hey Lisanna, how are you?"

"I'm good. You?

"Tired. Right, I wanted to thank you again for yesterday - you really saved me back in the gauntlet."

"Uhm, it's fine..." Lisanna looked away. "I-I only did what was normal..."

"I appreciate it," Jennifer said, leaning on the empty desk beside her. "I was wondering if you wanted to come shopping with me and Fara tonight? I don't know how long Fara will stick around for, but... yeah, it'll be fun if you're interested?"

Lisanna's eyes widened. While there were people talking to her this morning too when she was brushing her teeth and washing her face, it was more small-talk and pleasantries. Even Ayla, who she thought she had the best relationship between girls, fluttered around so much that she was uncertain if she could call her friendship significant. She couldn't even get to know Stacy and Jill very well since they more concentrated on talking between themselves or with Ayla.

Even if the invite yesterday came from Erik.

She really enjoyed the cakes and the parlour though.

'Maybe my luck is changing...?' She looked to see that Jasmine was nowhere to be seen in the class and nodded quickly. "Y-yes! I'd love to!"

"Great! We'll probably just be heading out just before dinner and get something to eat outside, is that okay?"

"Yeah!"

Lisanna nodded again. She was glad she helped Jennifer in the air and earth formation, even if she had to indirectly save Jasmine in the former. That massive boulder was no joke.

The two talked quietly for a bit until the classroom filled up and a voice said, "to your seats. We're starting."

Mr. Shields looked at Mathias and few other sleeping students. He hurled three pieces of chalk that exploded into a cloud of dust once it smacked into their heads that seemed to say 'these are the guilty parties: as such, they must be tested by a trial of (academic) combat if they wish to redeem themselves' and quickly hammered off questions as they were recovering from the blow to their heads. "Mr. Vandiese: explain Mana Entanglement Theory; Miss Yhir: Kinetic Oscillation in Temperature Differentials. Miss Kanata: Gradient Control Methods in Modified Spell Formations. Go."

There were three collective groans and Mathias, Fara, and another student - all with the blue-embroidered seven-pointed star embroidered on their chests muttered their answers. A cloud of chalk surrounded each one as the fragile words were offered. The first two answers were met with, 'next'; the last was forced to elaborate on a concept they had not covered yet. Rather, all were concepts that they had skimmed over to ensure the proper foundations were in place or not covered. Two succeeded and the last was forced to pay rapt attention lest she fail to adequately answer another - sure to come - question.

She was explicitly told that there would be consequences in failing subsequent questions so she was forced to bring her head up. While water mages were seemingly targetted, it was because of the unaltered internal clocks that really threatened them. The meaning in the pointed questions was clear.

It must be said that others were not let off the hook either. They were targetted with questions - even mid-sentence in a lecture - to restate the concepts if it looked like their attention was drifting.

It was a long two hours that covered much more than the fundamentals, despite Mr. Shields repeated declarations saying otherwise.

"We'll be having a ten-minute break. Just to remind you: Both Mr. Frae and Miss Quinal will be stopping by after lunch in the training portion."

Mr. Shields stepped out of the classroom and the steady sound of pens scratching notes did not stop.

Mathias stretched dramatically, looking at the few notes he took: it referenced the concepts and theories he learned something about that was not in a textbook he read. The additions, clarification, or caveats to them were added on a single sheet of paper.

Conversely, he saw Lisanna deftly write out three pages in the first three minutes of the break and exhaled hoarsely. "This... this is too much," she groaned.

She was better prepared than most, but even she struggled with the previous expectations of learning business, economics, politics, and swordsmanship limiting her ability to delve into this area of study.

"Mathias! How'd you know the answer to the first question?!"

"... I told you this morning."

"Yeah, but why - why! - did you know it!"

He turned to see others were nodding their heads in agreement. Fara looked indifferent, and leaned back on her chair, not bothering to feign interest in the class dynamics.

"I was sparring with my sister and my weapon exploded. It really hurt. Since we made them on the spot - and not very well - it seemed like there was something else going on. So I stole one of my Mom's books."

"But, but it couldn't have been that long ago, right?!"

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"... I was eleven... twelve? I learned a lot. My ice stopped exploding, too."

Since it was the first step to not breaking his weapon in forced sparring matches with his sister and father - after he was usually immediately disarmed - he was quite proud. Of course, not exploding did not mean not breaking.

Lisanna groaned and held her head. Others did the same for some reason that Mathias was not aware of.

His entire family was largely self-taught. His mother was born to an abandoned street-urchin-turned-innovative-tailor and his father, an orphaned-labourer-turned-farming-tycoon. Both accomplished grandparents just used magic as a tool where it was interesting to them, and their habits rubbed off on their children as they slowly progressed from rags-to-riches. It was expected of Erin and Mathias to just learn on their own after being taught basics like how to read, write, and how to conduct themselves. (His grandmother was one of the reasons he needed to feign understanding the need for multiple outfits as an extension of the 'conduct' principle.)

"Okay, if you were to describe-"

He got asked lots of questions. Since he was trying to avoid uninteresting things like repeating what he already knew, he was somewhat annoyed, but he answered Lisanna's questions to the best of his ability.

It did not take long before Mr. Shields turned for part two of the lecture. Where the first half was predominately theory, the other half had practical demonstrations of the theories. Mr. Shields was more than an expert in his field.

He paired the class up for an exercise on shifting spell formations, as seen already in some students' modifications of simple spells like Fire Bullet.

Mathias was forced to stand up as his name was called.

"Mr. Vandiese, Miss Yhir."

"..."

Two sighs.

Both sleepy students looked at one-another tiredly as he called out the next names.

It seemed that like elements were called together. Due to the odd number of students, and a differing number of respective elements, there were a few groups with three.

"Form a mass of your element," he summoned a perfectly spherical stone. "Then shift it to another shape." It turned into a cube. "And give it to the other to change into another. You cannot repeat the same shapes. Go."

A sphere of ice was formed roughly. He turned it into a frosted cube and tossed it to Fara. She caught it and said, "Shift", turned it into a square pyramid and threw it back.

It went back-and-forth, time-and-again, with the later shapes just adding a spike here, a rounded corner there, or otherwise flattening or expanding it. If one just wanted to play around with symmetrizing vertices and faces, it would become exhausting mentally.

Mr. Shields silently nodded at their display as he walked around, moved onto the next group, and continued. He occasionally told them other groups to redo it, but it seemed like the only group he kept returning to was Jennifer and another water mage.

The sphere was either impossible to alter by Jennifer's partner or it burst when it went back into Jennifer's grip. When it burst, water erupted everywhere. Without fail. Stretching from one corner of the room to another.

They had not moved past the first stage. Since they undoubtedly attracted attention, Jennifer began tearing up with each chiding remark by Mr. Shields - even the constructive tips masked by his displeased expression.

"Miss Ghast. Talk to Miss Quinal during training."

"... O-okay..." she sniffled.

It could normally be said that wind would be impossible to tell if one did it right; however, despite the added difficulty of the task, he was merciless on them and saw through every failure, even going so far as to threaten penal classes if they tried to fake their training with either repeated shapes or half-hearted efforts.

Fire was the same. He expected the element that was known to flicker and erupt outwards to be completely contained within consistent borders - even as they passed it from one to the other.

Needless to say, many were struggling. And many were directed to receive specific training by the two aids the school employed; some of the students even academically when the answer to their manifested problems were seemingly clearly explained in the previous lectures.

After half-an-hour, the class was reverted back to a secondary lecture. Mr. Shields reiterated the relevant concepts in use at the time, some factoring more to one element than another. He even intentionally called out the failings of students specifically so as to attract their attention - and the class' - to the answer to their struggles more in-depth than in the walk-around.

Mathias and Fara's names were not called out even as they lowered their heads. Mr. Shields was the type of instructor to ensure his students were aware of their failures and the methods to correct it, no matter how much it might hurt at the moment of hearing it. Ostensibly, they would, even today, be accepted as adults by society so he saw little need to coddle them.

And soon enough, he stopped as he looked at the clock behind them strike down to 12:00.

"It's lunchtime. Remember what I told you today and be sure to be at the training field on time. You're dismissed."

He walked away.

There were many that were dejected upon being released, some even tearing up as they looked to their new friends for validation. The complaints towards Mr. Shields surged by those he targeted for their failures; yet, Mathias saw a face staring at him patiently.

Fara was waiting for him to react to her presence. Then she nodded to the door and left.

'She wants me to follow her?' He thought.

"..." Lisanna was still hurriedly writing down notes and Fara stopped at the door.

He got up to meet up with her.

She just kept walking ahead of him, not bothering to speak until they were at the dorms. "The spear," she said.

"I figured. It's in my room. Let's go."

She followed him and waited by the door. Since he was already there, he changed into his battered training clothes, set down his bag, and grabbed the still-frozen, ghastly spear from the corner.

He left the door open since he expected her to come in, but she just waited patiently at the door - until she extended a hand. He passed the spear off to her. "... I see. Interesting. I'll give you my spare staff."

"Okay."

After locking up, he walked to the opposite side of the building and kept walking behind her until the door slammed on his face. She did not even warn him. While he grumbled loudly, rubbing his sore nose, he, too, waited some ten minutes as the sound of clothing being tossed around, wood scraping shut, and even the sound of a worn mechanical lock clinking was heard.

Only then did she, too, come out.

The spear was gone. In its place, a six-foot long staff that she cut into two pieces before his very eyes. "There," she said after locking the door.

Fara walked away.

"... Weird girl," he commented under his breath, "whatever, this one is much better. And it saves me from trying to explain it to others anymore."

He reached for water - before realizing there was already a band rolling around his arms and neck. He never really activated it much consciously anymore; that is, at least when it was hot outside. He secured the two short-staves on his back and left the dorm.

Once he reached the ground level, he saw Lisanna consoling Jennifer. Ayla was talking with a few girls in front of them, but in a down-trodden mood. Her name was only called out once, compared to the three or four times some students received, but it tightened the smile on her lips and strained her voice all the same.

With about eighty-percent of the class being called out, Mathias did not think it to be that strange. In fact, it was probably abnormal to be left out of the criticism.

"... What's the matter?"

"N-nothing major," Lisanna offered wearily. She was not called out by the teacher. "We're going to get lunch if you want to come...?"

She asked with hopeful eyes, looking at the sniffling, despondent Jennifer. 'Does she want me to try to encourage her? ... It's too early for that.'

"Gah!" Ayla ran forward with a start, bringing the other distressed girls with her. "Lisanna! Jennifer! I know a cafe that is open late - it took some digging to find it out from my sources! It probably isn't nearly as good as the other one, but still! We're going concoct a plan to beat his stupid challenges! And eat cake!"

"C-cake?!" Lisanna looked up with a start, but then noticed Jennifer's watery eyes. "But-"

"It's, it's fine... I w-wouldn't mind it..." She sniffled and rubbed her eyes.

Jennifer seemed especially sensitive to her lack of control with magic, but she was more despondent about the fact that Mr. Shields thought each criticism was so obviously concerning her that he did not mention her name after the first time.

Again, it was abnormal not to be called out.

She wanted to drown her sorrow in sweets, too.

Lisanna looked around nervously, seeing the girls start to scheme about direct ways to get Mr. Shields back while getting better to avoid the social call-outs that made them feel terribly inadequate. It was productive in some sense as long as the latter remained the focus and not the former.

Mathias, seeing the display, opted to walk away. Unlike a certain strange girl, however, his escape was not permitted.

Ayla, a full head shorter than him, grabbed his arm and declared, "you're coming with us! Now! Let's go!" She strutted forward into the dining hall with her prisoner in-tow.