The golden sphere floated between Elisha's hands, rotating slowly.
"Should you not be up and moving if you want to be paid? This is also your duty as instructors."
The sphere shot upward and detonated.
The shockwave spread outward from the point of impact, golden aura rolling across the sky in a wide pulse. The sound carried to every corner of the academy.
It did not take long. Professors came converging from every direction.
"Did something happen?"
"I am not sure, but that aura was not small."
"I woke up from the sound—" A professor with rolled-up sleeves glanced at Ard, who was in the middle of a yawn. He stepped closer.
"I had a feeling it was you. You are Ard, right?"
Ard turned to face him. He looked the man over from bottom to top, trying to place the face.
'I do not remember this person.'
"Ah, you forgot. It is me. Tristan."
"What?!" Ard stepped back. "You... Tristan? You look completely different from a year ago."
"A lot happened. But I never expected you to end up as a professor here!" Tristan closed the distance and slapped Ard on the back hard enough to feel it, laughing.
Tristan had been one of Ard's companions back when they were both students. They had run missions together more times than Ard could count. Back then, Tristan had been hard to miss, a close-range specialist with a way of drawing attention to himself. He could use magic, but he had always been more fist than spell.
The Tristan standing in front of him now looked nothing like that. He had changed everything about his appearance into something that actually resembled a professor. But what stuck in Ard's mind most clearly was something else entirely.
'He looks like a human now.'
"A lot happened on my end too." Ard exhaled through his nose.
"I can imagine it was all inconvenient for you. You never liked moving unless you had to. Even on missions you complained constantly."
"Whose fault was that? I had to clean up his messes every single time."
Tristan flinched slightly, then scratched the back of his head.
"I was just taking the alternative route. That is all."
"Without thinking about what the alternative route would cause."
"What was I supposed to do," Tristan said, sweat appearing at his temple. "We were in a bad position."
Ard exhaled. He decided not to continue.
"I am glad you two are reunited, but we should move." Rachel had appeared nearby, spear already in hand.
"Huh? What is happening?"
"There is an attack."
Tristan's expression flattened.
"What kind of idiot attacks the Academy?"
"That is what we will find out after we deal with them." Elisha's voice was composed. Then she continued.
"Listen. Prioritize student safety. Evacuate anyone who cannot fight. Those who can, let them assist. The attackers are numerous and several of them can use high-circle magic, so be careful."
"Yes!" The professors, Claire, and Lutra answered in unison.
"Remember." Elisha raised her right hand in front of her face, then closed it into a fist. A ripple of compressed air and aura radiated outward from her grip.
"Signal if things become critical. Do not kill unless you must. How dare they attack my Academy."
Her expression and the aura coming off her were not the same thing. Her face was calm. The aura was not. The professors nearest her had sweat at their temples, holding their composure by will alone.
Claire, standing nearby, felt nothing. The protection Ard had placed on her earlier was still active.
"Go."
In an instant, everyone moved. Some ran. Some leaped to the rooftops. Some took to the air on equipment. They spread through the academy in every direction.
"Ard! After this, we are getting drinks!" Tristan called out as he launched himself upward.
Ard answered with a short exhale and half a smile.
"Claire. Go to the alchemy room. You can get protection and treatment there."
"I can help. I am better than I was earlier."
Ard held his chin for a moment. He looked at her breathing, her posture. Reasonable. And she would not be throwing herself at attackers directly.
"Fine. Be careful." Claire nodded and ran toward the dormitory.
Ard watched her back until it disappeared. Then, quietly, he ordered Lutra to follow.
"If she engages an enemy, do not appear yet. If she is losing ground, step in."
"Yes." Lutra vanished. No sound, no displaced air. Nothing.
"Have you two made up?" Elisha appeared at his side, head tilted.
"You heard and saw all of it."
"I just wanted to pretend I did not~" She glanced at his hand.
Blue-white light had gathered at his palm.
"Then I will not bother pretending along with you." The light rose into the air above them. "Fourth-circle magic. Aegis." He snapped his fingers. "Mega."
A barrier expanded outward, broad and steady, stretching to cover the entire academy. The boundary settled like a held breath, sealing everything within from the outside.
"That was impressive. Could you do something like that for me sometime?"
"Certainly."
"Really?! Thank you!" She wrapped both arms around his and pulled. His arm disappeared into the process.
Rachel, who had been studying the barrier with a focused expression, turned toward Ard. "A barrier that wide... surely that consumed a significant amount of mana?"
"No." He was still trying to extract his arm from Elisha.
"Your mana capacity must be extraordinary. You do not look tired at all. How much did you use?"
"Zero." The effort at his temples was from the arm situation, not the spell.
"I see, zero..." Rachel nodded slowly. Then her eyes went wide. "Wait, What? Zero? You mean none at all?!" Her voice came out louder than it had in living memory.
"I have never seen Rachel shout." Elisha blinked, clearly surprised.
Ard cleaned his ear with one finger. It was still ringing.
"Yes. The magic I used consumed no mana. Not reduced. None."
"That is impossible! Mana-free magic exists, but only at low tiers! What you just cast was nowhere near low tier!" Rachel's voice had climbed again. Mana-free casting at that scale was considered nearly extinct in the current era. Ard was well aware.
He did not have a good answer. He stood with sweat at his forehead.
"I understand if you do not want to explain it. But may I research it at some point? Magic without mana."
Ard was genuinely grateful for that.
"Of course." He smiled with effort.
"See? I told you Ard was extraordinary." Elisha's grip on his arm tightened. It was now buried somewhere he did not want to think about.
Rachel ignored Elisha entirely and leaped to the dormitory roof in a single motion. Elisha's expression turned briefly wounded at being dismissed.
Ard, meanwhile, was focused on more immediate matters.
'I need to figure out how to adapt to this type of situation.'
---
Inside the academy, everything had broken into noise.
Students in the corridors, frightened, some crying, some furious that the academy had failed to anticipate the attack. Professors moved through the chaos with calm faces and cold sweat, guiding people toward safety.
What they were not showing: they did not know where the attackers were coming from, how many there were, or whether they could prevent casualties.
They kept moving.
Celi was directing an evacuation route, face set and composed, forehead anything but.
"Professor!"
She turned. Claire was running toward her.
"Claire. What are you doing here? Get to the alchemy room now!"
"I am here to help with the evacuation."
"It is too dangerous. You are a student!"
"I know I am not the strongest. But I am not so weak that I cannot fight while protecting a group. And two is better than one."
Celi hesitated. She knew Claire's ability. Having her here would genuinely increase the odds for the students between them. But she was a student. Celi did not want a student in danger.
"It is alright, Professor. Professor Ard gave his permission."
"Professor Ard did...?" Celi exhaled. "Fine. We move fast."
Claire nodded. Celi took the front. Claire fell in at the rear. Between them, the students moved in a line.
Claire suggested they run. Too slow otherwise, and there were more students still waiting. Celi agreed. The group broke into a jog toward the alchemy room.
They were nearly there when Claire saw it. Fire, inside the dormitory belonging to her class. She stepped out of line and ran toward it.
"Claire! What are you doing?!"
"Take them to the alchemy room! I will check the class dormitory!"
"Wait! Claire!" The door had already closed behind her.
"That girl—!" Celi stood with sweat on her cheek, the decision already making itself. She pushed her group the remaining distance to the alchemy room at a run. Then she turned back.
'Claire. Hold on. I am coming.'
---
Celi arrived at the alchemy room breathless, handed off the students to Tristan at the door, and turned to leave before he could stop her.
"Hey! Where are you going?"
"Claire went into the class dormitory alone. She saw fire inside—"
The building exploded.
Not a small sound. The kind that cracks something in the chest. The impact reached outward from the dormitory walls, throwing heat and debris and the smell of burning across the courtyard.
In the middle of that sound, Celi felt something. A trace. Faint and fraying at the edges.
Claire's aura.
"NO!" She was already running.
"Hey!" Tristan went after her.
'Claire. Hold on!'
---
Inside the dormitory, heat and cold fought each other across the air.
Fire along the walls. Sections of the corridor collapsed inward. The marks of a fight that had not gone one way.
Between the broken walls and the burning, blood dripped downward and froze before it reached the floor.
Claire's blood.
She was still standing.
Head wound, right arm, both legs. Several broken bones. Internal damage. Her face had gone the color of paper and her breathing was wrong. But she had not fallen.
Her eyes were fixed forward.
The man across from her wore a red robe and held a dagger still wet with her blood. He walked toward her without hurry. She had nothing left to answer him with.
"Damn. I was not ready to meet the ferryman yet."
"I will offer your death to the Supreme One." He raised the dagger. A few words in something like a chant. "All of this for the Supreme One."
He drove it forward.
* * *