Ashen idly scanned the cafeteria until his eyes landed on a couple in the corner, practically devouring each other.
He was just about to look away when another guy strolled up, pulled the woman off her partner, and slipped right in like it was musical chairs.
Ashen's brow twitched. "This is insane…"
This kind of thing wasn't a one-off. Theft, brawls, and every flavor of chaos had started piling up in reports at the administration's desks.
The detention wing, nearly empty on day one, was already close to capacity.
"It's only day three… Christ."
Clearly, Wiseman's warnings had gone in one ear and out the other.
'Good thing I chose Sloth.'
Unlike the others, he didn't have to burn with resentment, drown in envy, or strut around like an arrogant prick. And most importantly, he didn't have to go around robbing people or… whatever that was.
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, another followed.
What if he were put in a position of responsibility, where lives depended on him? What if, in a moment of crisis, he was too lazy to act?
'That'd be kind of catastrophic, wouldn't it?'
He thought back to Wiseman again… the man complained about everything under the sun, especially if it required him to move a muscle. But no matter how much he groaned, he still got things done.
'I'll bet my left kidney his path is Sloth.'
As his thoughts meandered, something soft grabbed his cheeks and forcefully turned his head. Ashen blinked, now face-to-face with a pouting Seraphine.
"...What exactly are you staring at?" Her low voice snapped him out of his trance.
"Uh?" It took him a second to realize he'd forgotten to avert his gaze from the ongoing spectacle; the woman was now on her fourth man.
Ashen coughed, quickly raising his hands in surrender. "I wasn't paying attention to that! I was totally thinking about something else!"
"...Really?" Seraphine narrowed her eyes, her tone still laced with suspicion.
"Really, really," he affirmed, forcing a bitter smile.
She studied him for a moment longer before finally letting go… but not before flashing a sly smirk, as if she had him right where she wanted.
"Well, even if you didn't mean to, you still looked," she huffed. "So as punishment, you're going to explain Wiseman's last class to me."
Now it all made sense.
Ashen gave her a flat look. "You didn't listen to a single word, did you?"
"Of course, I listened! I just didn't listen to all of it... and it's your fault!" She crossed her arms and nodded as if she had just won the argument.
Ashen stared at her. 'How is that my fault…?'
He knew better than to argue. Instead, he sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Alright, since it's apparently my fault, I'll summarize it for you. But pay attention this time, got it?"
Seraphine beamed, giving him a playful salute. "Yesh, teacher~"
Since she called him teacher, he naturally slipped into the role. Raising a single finger, he adopted a lazy drawl, no doubt mimicking Wiseman.
"You at least remember what the lecture was about, right?"
"Yep. How to increase mana quality," she said confidently.
"That's right. There are a lot of conditions and steps, but it all boils down to one thing: mana control."
She tilted her head. "That again?"
Ashen shrugged. "Yeah, apparently mana control is the foundation for a lot of things. So we can't afford to overlook it."
He paused for a second, then continued, "As for how to actually improve mana quality, it's done through refining. Mana passes through the heart over and over again, and each time it does, it gets a little purer, making it in turn a little stronger."
Seraphine nodded, seemingly processing his words.
Ashen took a sip from his juice, finishing his thought.
"...But what if we kept mana in our hearts constantly? Wouldn't that mean it gets refined every passing moment?"
Seraphine tapped a finger against her lips, humming in thought. "But the heart can only handle so much mana, right? How do we solve that?"
"Simple." Ashen made a loose fist, then clenched it tightly. "We compress it. That way, we create more space."
"Oh." Seraphine blinked, her gaze lingering on the veins along his forearm.
Ashen snapped his fingers, bringing her back to reality. "Focus."
She coughed, averting her eyes.
"This is where mana control comes in," he continued. "Placing and moving every strand of mana to form a compressed ball at the center of your heart—not to mention keeping it stable—now that's the real challenge."
Letting out a slight exhale, he leaned back and smirked. "Got it now? Feel free to ask questions, my dear student."
Seraphine shot him an incredulous look. "Hey, I'm not that dumb, right?"
He glanced at her blonde hair, then casually shrugged. "Hey, I was just asking…"
She narrowed her eyes before quickly moving on. "Anyway, this seems super hard. And if we mess up even a little, our hearts could go poof, right?"
"Yeah… Nothing in this damn place comes easy. We should know this by now."
"...True." She nodded along, accepting her fate.
"On the bright side, Wiseman said he'd give us a basic technique to guide us through the process. Otherwise, we'd be hearing heart explosions on the daily." Ashen remarked, recalling their professor's last words.
"Ugh… not another one. How many techniques does that make now, anyway?" Seraphine groaned, flopping onto the table as if the weight of academia had physically crushed her.
Ashen, taking her question seriously, started counting on his fingers. "One for circulation, one for breathing, and another for compression… Three, if we're only talking about mana techniques."
"Yeah… too much." She sprawled out further, looking utterly defeated.
Shaking his head at her dramatics, Ashen suddenly had a thought. He poked her head. "Hey, don't all these techniques feel more connected than they seem?"
Seraphine peeked at him from under her arms, stating the obvious. "Well, yeah. They're all about mana."
"No, I mean, they feel like they came from the same source. What if they were originally one technique, but someone split them into chunks?"
Her eyes widened slightly as she processed his words. "Oh! That does make sense… But why would they do that?"
Ashen shrugged. "How would I know? If I had to guess, probably to make things easier for us. Mastering smaller pieces is easier than tackling the whole thing at once."
"Yeah…" She slowly nodded, accepting his guess as truth before losing interest in the subject.
"Anyway, isn't it about time? Let's head to the training grounds. We've got Coach's lesson today." Ashen got up and gestured for Seraphine to follow.
"Oka~y." She stretched before trailing after him, only to be met with two men brutally beating each other, fists cracking against flesh with vicious force.
The woman they had been entangled with earlier sat with her legs crossed, not far away, watching them with a lazy smile, as if she were enjoying a private show.
On the horizon, armored soldiers were already marching toward the scene. That's when Seraphine understood why Ashen had suddenly decided to leave.
"Let's go." Without hesitation, she took his hand, letting him guide her away from the impending chaos.
As they left, bestial screams echoed behind them, delivering a haunting backdrop to Ashen's final thought—
'Embodying a Sin is like a dance with the Devil. Let him lead, and you won't even have bones left.'