It was time.

We met up with Sera after tiptoeing our way by the terrifying stone statue without making a sound or at least trying to. I sneezed. Johannes shot me a glare, but the statue didn't seem to notice, or at least, bother to stand up again. So we just continued on our way. We headed out of the academy grounds and what awaited us was quite honestly mystifying.

The streets were still full of people despite the time and filled with illuminating lanterns constructed with magic, which I could tell from the runes instilled in them. 'I wonder what exactly they did?' Street vendors were trying to out-scream each other and held a broad variety of delicious delicacies into our faces as they called out to us. Of course, we did the responsible thing when faced with the probably overpriced items and bought a bunch of them. The street vendors knew that recruits would be arriving, and used the opportunity to lynch them of all their pocket change. "Quite an effective strategy~" chomp. One might almost mistake this for a festival! Or well, at least those few streets that we just passed through. Turns out some other people actually want to sleep, and if you keep walking for a bit, you reach an area that isn't as, well, loud. We did just that and walked by the array of big and small houses, even a couple of taverns, but I disliked alcohol and didn't pay much attention to them. What interested me more was the path that we had been walking on, it wasn't a path constructed of many stones like I had been used to, it felt more like, for a lack of better terminology, one big stone that stretches across the floor. But that couldn't be true, it was probably something man-made, or rather magic-made. Although I am unsure how exactly, I assume it's the work of a powerful Elementalist, 'I'll have to look into that.'

We eventually reached a beautiful fountain, the water of which reflected the lights from the lanterns, creating a wonderful effect that we would have loved to stare at for an indefinite amount of time. However, we had been walking for quite a while by now and really had to sit down, which is what we did. "This was awesome!" Sera exclaimed "We should do this whenever we have time, exploring the city I mean. It's so beautiful!" I wholeheartedly agreed with Sera, making it even more painstaking to somewhat dimmer her ambitions, "I doubt we'll get many chances akin to today, according to what I have heard, the first year especially leaves students with very little free time," I paused for a brief moment "that is if you plan on graduating." "And we 'commoners' don't get many chances like this, so we don't get to play around like some nobles." Johannes jumped it "I know I know" and Seraphina couldn't help but sigh at the thought "We won't get many chances to explore the city, and I shouldn't sacrifice my study time to try.. We gotta do our best," luckily, she quickly regained the light in her eyes "For our families!" We nodded in agreement, and I wanted to bask at the moment for a while, sadly, I was not allowed to do so. Our beautiful bonding moment was interrupted by a sudden scream for help, judging by the way it sounded, I guessed it to come from a four-year-old girl, but a turn of my head proved my assumptions mighty wrong.

Not too far off from us, we could see two boys and one girl surrounding a single guy who was on the floor, all of which were around our age. They were wearing a uniform that seemed strangely familiar, and a look at Johannes revealed why. "That's the same uniform as us..." I looked Johannes straight in the eyes, we both knew what this look meant, and were grabbing our things as we prepared to dip. 'Now just gotta drag Sera over and... Fuck' "HEY! What do you think you are doing to that guy?" 'WhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhyWHYYY?!' Sera seemed to think it was the best idea in the world to scream at them and walk straight at them, causing several surprised, as well as, annoyed looks to pierce her as she approached. "None of your business, bitch." The opposing girl exclaimed, and I very much agreed with her, none of our business. Sera, however, appeared to politely disagree, continuing her stride. "I hate when she does this." "Same." Johannes agreed.

And it seemed as if we weren't the only ones who disliked Sera's approach. One of the guys stepped forward, and the moment she had been close enough, began throwing a punch towards Sera. I, as someone who lived through Trif's rigorous training of hell, of course already knew the outcome from a glance, or rather, even before a glance. Sera was pretty terrified all things considered. Sera grabbed his hand and pulled, using his own force as she threw him flat on his back, "Ouch" "3 points" "Out of 5?" "Out of 10." Mine and Johannes' conversation was quickly interrupted, the remaining boy was planning something bad. Very bad. Luckily I could somewhat feel it since I had a Shadow Sigil as well, it was, however, very faint and I barely noticed it in this mana-rich region. He was converting pure mana into shadow mana, he wanted to cast a spell, and we had little time to prepare "Johannes, we are in deep shit!" I told him, luckily, he caught on fairly quickly and began sprinting towards the other boy who I had pointed towards. While Johannes was closing the gap, I took one of the oddities that we had won at a stand, it would be very useful for what's about to happen.

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Johannes' Warden Sigil greatly enhanced his physical capabilities passively, so it took him just a few moments to close the gap. The other boy, however, also realized that and panicked, rushing his spellcasting and creating a somewhat inferior product that could do very little harm, especially to Johannes. As it approached, I raised the gadget and activated it, causing a bright stream of light to illuminate the surroundings even further and drawing all attention towards me. Not that I did anything of importance, that is, not yet.

The black mass hit Johannes in the chest as he stormed to protect Sera, pushing both of them back a bit, which actually caused the largest injury that we had gotten so far, a slight bruise. The 'enemies' had run away in the confusion, possibly afraid of the light show that I had produced earlier.

"What was that Zach?" I smiled as I approached, holding up a strange piece of paper, replicating the earlier events and presenting them as a sort of painting. "That, my dear friends, was a one-time use magic item known as 'instant camera'." I triumphantly waved the miniature painting in front of their faces as I continued to explain "Students like us aren't allowed to use magic outside the academy, especially not to attack others. With this little proof of what had happened, we just won the war, my friends." We snickered, imagining what consequences those shitheads would be facing when the professors see this. As we were occupied with that the primary cause of this incident approached us and shyly reminded us of his existence with a simple "Ehm, hello?" We turned our heads, causing the boy to flinch for a moment before remembering what he wanted to do, "I wanted to tha~thank you." "No need for thanks! We just did what was right!" Before I could ask for some kind of compensation, Sera kind of ruined the opportunity with her dumb way of handling things, causing Johannes and me to both stare at her.

I sighed, "Whatever, why did they pick on you anyway?" The boy straightened his back and puffed out his chest whilst also shoving aside a strand of his black hair from his face, fully revealing his somewhat unusual crimson eyes "First of all, my name is Alexander Craven, " I audibly gasped, my mind in overdrive. 'Craven!? That's like, a super noble family! Just HOW did one of those end up getting bullied on the side of the streets?' "I have been attending school with those people for a while, and well..." He was nervously fidgeting around, thinking of how to phrase his next sentence "You have probably heard all the cool stories of the Craven family already, the whole 'firemaster' thing, " Pausing, he gave us a moment to process and gauge our reactions "the crimson eyes that identify that and so on... Truth is, " he gulped, having difficulties to produce a sound for the following revelation "I kind of suck at this whole magic thing" "Wait. Are you telling me that a Craven sucks at magic? That's unheard of!" He nervously chuckled with his gaze at the ground, unable to raise his out of shame. And that was very understandable considering his situation, 'The Craven family was known to produce prodigies that make history, all of their members were incredibly talented in the arts of magic. Some believe that this was caused by the blessing of the Goddess when she still regularly interacted with humans and that somehow, the Cravens of that time won her favor. Others, however, thought it was linked to a strange ritual, a kind that most powerful nobles possess, that greatly boosts their magical abilities one way or another.' This was truly difficult to imagine, pretty much all nobles, especially a house like Craven, were known to excel in the use of magic. A magically illiterate noble was as hard to find as a needle in a pile of hay. Something about their bloodlines and whatnot.

This was indeed a very interesting revelation, the existence of an untalented Craven could mean many things. Either, the whole blessing thing resulted in a powerful bloodline, and our loser here got really unlucky and it skipped a generation. Or, the ritual did exist, but the family didn't want to share it with this particular individual for some reason, I didn't know enough about the internal structure of the Craven household to theorize anymore about it. 'Maybe the "ritual" is the blessing of the Goddess? I'll think about that later' "Anyway, you are saying that you are a failure and that your classmates are picking at you for that?" Johannes's phrasing made Alexander visibly shake for a moment, and he lowered his gaze even more before opening his mouth again "Well, I wouldn't say it li~ y~yes.." 'Pitiful.' "Alright, alright, you can stop staring at the floor." I interrupted the young Craven "You already said your thanks, and are free to go do whatever you want to do" 'I don't want to deal with him right now.' Alexander politely nodded, after which he swiftly turned around and began running.

I was lost in thoughts for a moment, 'An untalented Craven, huh?' but a well-timed groan pulled me out of my own head and reminded me of the boy who was still lying on the floor. Seems like his 'friends' left him to rot. I grinned widely as I picked him up and whispered into his ear: "Don't worry, your friends are gonna have a just as shitty time as you are about to have~" his face was filled with surprise and fear, but a quick blow to his abdomen reminded him of what situation he was in, and he did not retaliate as we carried him towards school grounds. This would be quite fun...