I walked into Class 2-A, a place that felt both familiar and strangely distant after my five-week absence. The ten seats, arranged in their usual 2x5 format, were all occupied by the academy's most exceptional students. As I stepped in, I felt a few gazes turn my way. The air was charged with a mixture of curiosity and surprise - my return clearly hadn't gone unnoticed.
The classroom itself was unchanged - the same reinforced walls designed to withstand errant bursts of mana, the same advanced holo-displays at the front, the same faint scent of energy-infused cleaning agents used to remove the occasional scorch marks or frost patterns. It was comforting in its predictability.
"Arthur," Lucifer greeted me first, his verdant eyes glinting with curiosity. His silver-white hair was slightly longer than when I'd last seen him, falling just above his shoulders now. "I heard you were in a coma. What happened?"
