That feeling.
They both knew it.
The prodigy of magic, the one who inherited the great sage's left eye, Hellen Goldenlaw stood there, motionless, as she watched me achieve a second circle.
Meanwhile, Kafka Crowbell knows this feeling, he watched me achieve a fourth circle and skip steps every mage goes through.
But not everything was alright, because of the excess of mana inside me at this moment, an amount my body isn't used to, I got extremely dizzy, feeling headaches and a nosebleed starting to flow down my face.
At first I thought this could be like that incident where I lost consciousness, that my advancements would end up being temporary. But I feel like this isn't the case, this second circle, this ring, is here to stay.
"I... I achieved it... so now..." I can Varela keep my focus, and even though my visions getting blurry, I can keep being awake for a bit more time "on top of teaching me second year stuff... I get... special classes"
"Second year!?" While Hellen Goldenlaw knew about the fourth circle incident, she didn't know about te bet that both teacher and students agreed to.
"Nothing of importance right now Goldenlaw" While the dark haired teacher wanted to keep a calm demeanor and try to change he subject away from his bet, his sudden nervousness didn't go unnoticed by the director.
"But..." he sounded more serious now "I need to make sure that this is a permanent evolution"
"Then... give me a spell right now teach... I can now learn tier two spells... and I plan to..."
"Silence! You can barely talk right now!" He scolded me with a harsh tone "You shouldn't be acting this cocky when your seconds away from losing consciousness"
He's right... I only win this if I can maintain a second circle.
"Sit on the ground and begin meditating student Alen"
I forgot that she's on my team, at least for now.
I sit on the ground and cross my legs, adopting a lotus position to meditate.
"I can finally talk normal again" I don't know how long I've been meditating for.
Thanks to the meditation, I can alowly open my eyes and stand up. The nosebleeds I have from absorbing mana that's technically not mine is scary.
"It seems you've succeeded student Alen, congratulations" she just slowly clapped and looked at Kafka with an eerie smile.
"Starting on next class, you'll start havin classes with both of us"
"Next class?"
"This whole thing was your training. Besides, you spent three hours in total trying to achieve it" he gave one final look at the blonde woman and me before turning away "I want to go home and have some time for myself"
He left, muttering what I can only assume are curses against me and Goldenlaw for appearing on his secret place and taking over it.
"I guess that I also have things to take care off"
Am I that uncomfortable to be with?
"See you later student Alen" she turned around and started walking away "make sure to learn more tier one spells, you probably can't even cast tier two yet"
Haaaa... at least I got exactly what I wanted... even if both of them are starting to pass me off.
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Leaving arena 6 I found something interesting.
"Kaida?" A pink hair that's unmistakable, a head that's lowered and looking at the ground "what are you doing here alone?"
"Eeek! A-Alen!" She turned around and looked at me... well... no, she avoided my eyes as if I could kill her with a simple look at her face "I-I'm n-not really alone... I j-just wanted to w-walk around"
Look around? On the second week?
"I see..." What are you doing? The next even you have should be on next week. And it's not even a full event, it's just the start, the full event happens on the fourth week.
"N-now that y-you're here Alen..." she lowered her upper body a lot, making a perfect ninety degrees bowing "Th-thanks a lot"
"No problem Kaida, I'm glad I could be of help" thinking that I can help you become stronger does make me happy and makes me think that a bad ending could be avoided.
She just gasped and jumped put of her bowing position "I-I'm not talking about the other night..."
Huh? Then what is she talking about? And why is her face so red? I knew she's really shy at the start of the game, but this is more shyness than I thought she'd have.
"I-I mean... I'm also grateful for that, don't get me wrong" I have to say, her stutters and stammering is rather cute "I wanted to thank you for that day..."
That day? Aside from [The Crossed] I don't remember ever interacting with her.
No, there were those times when she saw me briefly... after I woke up from being unconscious, and after my fight with... what's his name? Well... him.
"A-after you stood up for me against princess Von Themys... Yani approached me and we managed to become friends" just like in the story I know.
"A-and... other students stopped saying meaner stuff to me..." so they still say things to you, only now it's less horrible stuff.
"I... hope you forgive Fran for that... she's not a bad girl..." normally, any bully would be considered bad. Actually, she's originally a villainess "I mean..."
"N-no I... I understand..." her face changed the nervous and shy expression to a sadder one "I don't blame anyone for calling me a sinner"
Kaida Thican, once a low ranking noble on the Raychmen kingdom, now a disgraced noble after an incident which caused the defamation of her family and death of his father.
"I've long since accepted that name on me" this is how she is in the early game, the shy and scared noble lady that allows people to step all over her because she thinks she deserves it.
"Still, I hope you know that... everything will change in the future" it has to, you'll become a stronger and more serious leader, and even if some comments on the internet called your development boring, I always found you interesting.
Maybe when you remember how important you mother is, how her %$*#*#,,#,#
!!!!!!
"A-Alen" with a concerned tone in her voice, she helped me before I fell to the ground "Wh-what happened?"
Why can't I recall those specific story beats... I have the memories right inside my head... I know them... but once I start recalling them, my head hurts and I hear this loud beeping noise.
Once I feel a bit better and I can stand up by myself, Kaida blushes hard and jumps away from me "I-I just... had a long class..." I have to lie to her.
"Mmmhh... okay..." I can feel how she clearly doesn't buy my lie "M-make sure you go and take a rest..."
"Yea, I guess a nice rest is what I need right now"
"B-bye Alen" she shyly said in a low voice tone that I barely managed to hear.
"Kaida! Before you go, I need to tell you that... to me you're not a sinner" those words, coupled with a smile, is the most I can do for you right now.
She finally looks at me straight into my eyes. Her yellow eyes flickering as she begins to tear up.
"..."
"Hhmm? What did you say?" I couldn't understand what she just said.
"N-nothing" her reddened face and teary eyes contrasted a lot with her embarrassed smile and messy short pink hair.
She began running away, quickly disappearing from my view.
"At least she looked happy" I truly cannot understand people sometimes.
But I thought I'd end up having more impact that I'm actually having. Kaida' story seems to be following the same beats as the one I know. Maybe I overestimated my presence on the S class?
I guess my effect on the story'll be stronger the more time passes? But I already changed the story a lot by simply existing...
And what's with that block on my abilities to recall future events?
What if I? No, I'd rather not try this outside where anyone could do whatever they want with my unconscious body. And I'm not thinking too hard about it when I get to my bed, I'm honestly tired of falling unconscious.
"Now that I think about it... that was my first talk with Kaida that didn't get interrupted by anyone else" specifically Fran.
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"Thank God math is really easy this year"
Now, in the safety of my own room, and doing my homework.
I expected a magical school life to be more different than a regular school, but I guess that besides the weird classes and... equally as weird teachers, it's a fairly normal place.
My daggers are starting to become dull... I should go and buy a pair...
But always paying when Fran and me go out to eat really made my earnings take a hit.
A year of straight dungeon exploration... gone in just two weeks...
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