"... -in."

"... -ain."

"... -gain."

"... again."

Mathias groaned as he felt his blankets grow soaked. He may have felt the water and ice coiling around his back, but there was no way he would make such a novice mistake. Even he would get uncomfortable. Blankets were intended to be warm and dry.

It could even damage his fur.

He cast out the water that invaded his sanctuary as he curled up around his pillow.

The brace on his back split soundlessly.

"... Again."

There was a lull in the air as a disc of water finally formed. It started spinning rapidly, wobbling, and water spewed out from the edge that split.

And soaked his bed.

"S-sorry...!"

"It's okay. We just need to work on it a little more, alright?"

Mathias kept his head under the drying blankets. His body felt better, but he was certain that the scars were firmly etched into his skin now. It was a pain to deal with them - and he had no such plans to do anything so wasteful in the morning.

'... Are my books safe...?' He thought tiredly.

They were just brought from home. To have them destroyed before he could re-read them would be a waste. He (and his mother) spent too much on them, anyways.

There was so much water scattered around that he did not even have to open his eyes to get a clear outline of the room. The sensation he got was akin to a mental image, with several dozen points of contact that he could reach for at will. Of course, distance played a role in the effectiveness of mana expended on the task, but just sensing it was effortless.

There was a notable lack of water-logged book-shaped objects. There was, however, a dripping screen in front of the bookshelf... it was the room divider. At least, there wasn't anything wet in its original spot.

"S-sorry...!"

It seemed like she failed again. Mathias was more methodical this time. The water paused in the air just before his bed and then abruptly began falling away.

Jennifer was facing him so she noticed the strange result around Mathias' bed.

"A-ah, I said we should've just done it outside...!"

"Huh? It's easier this way. Plus, when he wakes up, he can help."

"B-but...!"

"Just try again, okay?"

"B-but-"

"It's fine, isn't it?"

Jennifer pointed at the water that was he sent away from Mathias' bed. Then she pointed at Lisanna's chest. They took off their outer clothes since it got wet - and it wasn't worth redrying it constantly.

Lisanna froze - body shaking as her face burned scarlet. "Mathias! Stay asleep!"

"... I would if I could..." he grumbled.

The sheets were still securely over his head as the rustle of clothes was heard. It took a moment, and Lisanna ran over to the patio to set the rest to hang, but she returned and tapped his shoulder.

"Okay, you can get up now!"

"... It's too early."

"But you're awake so it's fine, isn't it?"

"... Because you two woke me up." She pulled the blanket off of him. "Hey!"

"See? You're fine."

Mathias begrudgingly looked around - if only to glare at the invader of his sanctuary. He finally dried it all, as well.

"... Uh... h-hello..."

Jennifer looked away with guilt in her eyes. She was wearing one of Lisanna's tops so it appeared a little loose around her chest, but otherwise, there was no problem. He did not give her much attention, however. His concentration was on shielding himself from the sun as he rolled the fragmented ice from his back to his arms. It was just easier.

He sat cross-legged with a speckled white fur over his head like a cloak. He bundled himself up as he yawned and said, "why the hell are you in the room? Just do it outside."

"I was waiting for you. And we've already been doing this for an hour so it isn't like we weren't making noise before. That means you woke up on your own."

"... I woke up because my bed was wet."

"You always have water on your body! What's a little water when you lay in it!"

"I don't make it wet... And scratchy... And itchy... It's annoying..."

"Well, either way, you're up so help."

"No 'please' or 'I'd appreciate it if-' or anything like that?"

"We just spent the last hour doing the first exercises for practice. We just started doing the ones that were a little harder." Lisanna updated him despite his complaints.

"... So you're saying that you only did the ones she perfected. Which means that it is because of her exploding water that I had to get up?"

"S-sorry... I-I said we should do it outside...!"

"She messed up a few times in the beginning too, but we got it down! Now we just need to perfect the disc, right?"

"..."

Mathias rolled his eyes and suppressed the yawn trying to escape. He had no retreat, it seemed. Consequently, he had to work with them.

"Fine, just go to the dining hall and I'll meet up after I dress."

To justify going back to bed.

"You'll just sleep again!"

"... Tch."

"Don't click your tongue at me. Jennifer, it's fine to be pushy with him in the mornings so come help."

"..."

Jennifer did not move. She looked at the scene for once a split second before turning away. Lisanna was pulling at the white fur, to which Mathias defended with sluggish muscles; he lost after a few seconds and was sent to the floor.

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Into the puddles he pushed away before.

"... Ugh. Now I'm wet too..."

"See? That's what you get for being so difficult. Shall we?"

Mathias dusted himself off, dried the wet spots, and went sit on the bed, rubbing his forehead. He really had no escape. "Jennifer."

"Y-yes!" She stood at attention.

"... Have you tried siphoning the mana off as you compress? Water is trickier to handle so you either have to do more with force or less and just allow it to expand. It'll reduce some of the water tension. I don't think you can force it yet."

"... Uhm, I-I can try now..."

"Not now."

He turned to glare at Lisanna who seemed to be gloating for some reason. "You realize even if you changed into your uniform, you'll still need to dry it off later, right?"

"That's why you're here," she said confidently.

"I'm not helping." He outright denied her. "Let's go. You might be able to dry off your training clothes, but you need to learn how to do normal ones - so they're staying wet."

"H-hey...! That's not fair!"

"... Neither is waking up someone who was injured the day before."

"'Was'?"

"... Better, but not one-hundred percent." He walked to the door, grabbing his wet key from his desk. "Let's go."

"Y-yes!" Jennifer accepted the help easily, but Lisanna was annoyed at the tone.

She felt guilty, to a lesser extent, but she assumed he'd be fine considering he slept for more than eight hours. Even now he was walking without an odd gait characteristic of the infirm. Since he was her first friend here, she felt she could be a little more selfish with him. Her concept of reciprocity was stifled after years of isolation.

Nevertheless, she felt obliged to follow all the same. It was a task Ayla gave to her so she wanted to do it without fail, even if it meant conscripting help.

"... You've never struggled with your mana control, have you?" Mathias asked as they walked out of the dorms.

"Me? No. It seemed easy so I figured most people could do it."

"Most can't, actually. Even forming their elements like those basic orbs takes years for a lot of people. That's why people use spells, even if it isn't very effective without adequate levels of control. Jennifer's level could be considered 'good' to a lot of people. It is just she faces different issues. Ah... I'm tired," Mathias said as he fell on the soft grass in the shade. He curled up to the side and mumbled, "Jennifer, do the thing..."

"O-okay... just reduce the mana... and then compress, right?"

There was no response.

She still tried it. The fist-sized orb wobbled at first, but she managed to flatten it. It started picking up speed, but not nearly as much as before. Forcing the last bit of the water, it cut rapidly. There was a blur of its edge as it bobbed up and down, but after ten seconds it still didn't break.

"Isn't that...?" Lisanna saw the familiar spell.

"... Congrats. You learned how to do Fara's thing... just keep practising reducing it consistently and it'll stay stationary. If nothing else... it's... a... start... Lisanna...?"

He trailed off. Lisanna tried to mimic the method. Since she would just force it into shape, she never really thought to try to add variations to the basic method.

The congealed flames began spinning rapidly - and then it spewed fire a foot away.

Jennifer jumped back and even Lisanna blinked curiously at the sight. She felt that there was a weak point she neglected when she forced herself to do it consciously.

She amended it quickly. The second try was perfect, but she looked at Mathias curiously.

"Why don't you use these kinds of things if you know about them?"

"... Did Fara used it against you in your fight?"

"No, if they're this strong... and it seems like it takes less effort to do it this way than forcing it to spin, right?"

"... Provided you set up the axis properly, yes. And it's because there are a lot of techniques that are capable of dealing too much damage. They're lethal... and I don't care about fighting that much..."

He drifted off.

"Jennifer, your turn! Try it again!"

These variations were available to all the elements, but since they were too difficult for an average person - who had normal jobs, especially. Jennifer could be seen from a normal perspective to be quite good; even if the others around her were so talented that they could get away with just sheer instinct half the time.

Consequently, it was likely that most students here did not know that typical steps most normal mages went through to gain control over their elements. Mathias was decidedly not normal, coming from a talented bloodline, but it was written in a book he read and practised when he was young - since he did not want to chant silly spells. He was an early bloomer to using magic, but to skip chanting, one had to practise like an adult, unfortunately.

Jennifer managed to have a stationary disc after a few attempts.

"Okay..." He said, sensing the water with closed eyes. "Try it one more time and remember the rate at which you pull. You'll be doing the opposite, adding force this time, to try to compress it."

"I-I understand!"

She had to repeat the first exercise again, but got it on the second try. She did it again to be sure. And then she started to add mana slowly. It burst quite a few times before staying stationary.

"... Again."

She did it properly.

"... Again."

It burst.

He waited until she got it five times in a row before giving her the go-ahead.

"Okay... come here..." he said, unmoving from his spot in the shade, and not even facing his prone body towards her. Even not looking to see the watery disc she held in her hands still. "Toss it over here."

"Uh? A-are you sure...?"

"Yeah, whenever."

He did not move.

Jennifer figured he would get up. He did not. After a minute of waiting, she warned, "uhm... I-I'm throwing it now... is that okay?"

"Yeah."

She tossed it. It stopped a foot from Mathias' chest and gently flew back to her. She did not seem to be expecting it and dropped the slippery disc.

It collapsed into a pool of water.

"Again."

"Y-yes!"

Lisanna stood at the scene mutely. Since there was a conflict of the elements, she did not have the ability to catch the disc of water. It could conceivably be done by a more practised mage, but since she was liable to break the water-disc if she clutched it with her bare hand, it was better to leave it to another. Even if the 'another' was not giving Jennifer the time of day.

She thought his action to be quite rude and felt others would consider it to be as well - and she would be right. If he wasn't feeling slighted for being woke up in the way he was. Jennifer seemed to accept the subpar treatment out of guilt, but Lisanna felt it was a bit too much.

"I-I did it!"

"... Mathias, are you really going to keep doing that?" She finally asked as Jennifer caught the disc cheerfully.

He finally got up and stretched, shielding his eyes as he looked at the sun.

"... Perfect timing. If you want breakfast, you have about thirty minutes before we have to head to class. "

"O-okay! But is... is this enough?"

"Dunno. It's an improvement, if nothing else."

"I'm going to get changed."

He was still wearing his third outfit from yesterday - and knew he would be chastized if he changed in front of them. So he left it to the end. The long-sleeves were getting warm the heat of the rising sun, however.

"Ah, L-Lisanna... is it okay if we go back? My uniform is back there..."

"Yeah, it's fine."

Lisanna and Jennifer took the lead as Mathias hung in the back. Since he was walking firmly, she did not think it to be much of an issue. She even commanded, "wait here! We're going to get changed first, okay?"

"... Fine, but hurry up," Mathias said as he ran his hand across the back of his neck. The sun was not pleasant on the wounds from yesterday.

They went inside. It took them five or so minutes, but they finally came out.

"Okay, we're done. You can use it now."

It seemed since Lisanna had a guest, she was being more particular than usual.

"... Okay."

He went inside, not bothering to shut the door as he went inside.

Jennifer stood to the side quickly, head down; yet, she instinctively turned as she heard a grunt. And stared.

"What?"

"...!"

"Oh. Yeah, he had those, didn't he?"

Since she saw it before, she did was not all that concerned. The bruising on his back shifted to black from blue, and yellow to blue, so it was an improvement. It still covered a solid third of his back, but Jennifer was gawking at him.

"... Do you mind?" He said as he turned around. He was more annoyed at the talking than the looking.

"W-wha-what happened?!"

Mathias pointedly glared at the two and said, "I'm not dealing with the undine again! I'd rather take the hit from the gorilla again."

He rubbed the bite marks on his neck with shaking arms.

"B-but t-the r-rest?!"

"... Just cuts. It's fine. Now I'm going to take my pants off, unless you want to watch that, too?"

"S-sorry!"

Jennifer took the initiative to shut the door for him.

Jennifer stared at the nonplused Lisanna and whispered, "did you know?!"

"... Yeah? It's fine, isn't it?"

"If he had rest, maybe, but we're going out there again, aren't we!?"

"Ayla already mentioned something or another about switching whose doing what yesterday... and why weren't you concerned when you saw the cuts on my back!"

"... It's about five out the fifteen on his. Plus, they barely show on your skin! And isn't that so you all can deal with something else!?"

Lisanna was quite tan and the cauterized wounds were still just red enough to blend in without issue.

"Maybe? As long as I don't have to fight that stupid bird - I'd even take the sand monster any day!"

The grass was always greener, so they say.

"... And if it's in a sandstorm this time?"

"... Maybe the bird will be fine?"

"... If I can just deal with the water one that would be great... she didn't even do anything to us..."

Unless specified by Jenna, the formations would act according to their (un)natural rhythm. Of course, it meant that she could also change it within the specifications of the formations. Within certain respects.

"Oi?! What'd you say?!" Mathias shouted as soon as he left the room. "I'm the only one who got targetted by that thing?!"

"It's over now," Lisanna said easily. "Are you okay with your injuries."

"... It'd be better if I didn't have nightmares because of that thing, but yeah. I'll be fine."

Jennifer was unconvinced, but Lisanna accepted it. "See? It's fine. Let's get going or we'll be late."

She awoke early enough to have breakfast by herself and the other two did not seem to bothered by missing out on it.

Even Lisanna was forced to admit she gained a little weight from yesterday and she saw that Jennifer had too. Of course, it would be impolite to point it out so she refrained.

The three grabbed their bags and headed to class. It was going to be a long day for them all.