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Chapter 66
🕑 Added 2025-09-03 12:45:28 +0000 UTCEven in the classroom, there was a marked distance between myself and the temporary students that attended Lord El-Melloi II's lectures, the lord the New Agers idolised and placed all their hopes on.
There were different faces there each and every day, some appeared again twice a week. All of them wore the same distant expression. They left the centremost chairs empty, even the ones behind them, because that was where I usually sat... As Henry, I failed to understand the sentiment.
Should we not have been friends... or at least, gotten along? I was one of them. A new entrant to the world of magecraft, like all of them, the only difference was that I'd carved my way to a position where I refused to listen to anyone.
Seeing their faces turn as I walked, I only shrugged and took my vacant seat. No one sat near me, as was routine now. The seats to either side were empty too. As were the seats behind and directly in front.
Really... for magi, this was disappointing.
They were all supposed to be tweakers just like myself. The caution and distance made no sense.
With a sigh, I rested my chin on my palm and awaited the Professor.
Lately, his lessons that explored and touched on Chaos Magic were becoming redundant. A newly-made Thaumaturgy with less than two hundred years of history behind it. One that spliced the convenient bits from all other systems and discarded what was unnecessary with no respect for came before.
A good malleable system with a wide range of applications touching on all that came before it. That was what I saw it as, that was what my 'peers' saw it as.
My thoughts were interrupted when Gray entered the room. Making herself as small as possible, she trudged over to the corner seat she usually sat on before raising her head. For a moment, our gazes met. I winked mischievously. Hers became troubled.
Then, much to my surprise, the ashen-haired girl gathered her books and with fists clenched in some unknowable resolve, she made her way up the steps to me. She stared at me hard for a long moment.
I almost thought maybe she was about to drop some cryptic message again. No. She was my adopted introvert. She wouldn't do that.
"You need something?" I watched her from the corner of my eye. "I don't have any sweets on me."
With not a word, she sat down next to me.
Ohhh. I saw it now.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Thank you, appreciate it."
She ducked her head and hid her face under her hood.
"...I'm not bothered, you know? I'm the honored on-"
She cut me off, her words slow and barely a whisper. "We are friends. Friends don't... leave each other alone."
Huh. That was adorable.
The chance to tease her about it never came. The very next second, Flat blew into the classroom. He rolled along the floor until his back hit the podium with a nasty squelch that made him let out a high-pitched screech. Then, he just jumped up unbothered and launched himself off the podium.
This time, his head hit the ceiling before he unceremoniously collapsed onto the seat next to me like wet paper.
"Owwww."
"You don't get to say that when you behave like a monkey." I snorted, "The hell was the plan there?"
"Glad you asked, mein freund!" He propped himself up. "I was trying to make a spell that lets me build momentum through ricochets, kind of like how a basketball does! But... eh, I forgot to account for the durability I'd need to handle it. Almost snapped my neck there, hahahahaha... I'm fine now though! See?"
He tried to jump again but stopped midway, face frozen.
"Okay... maybe I broke a bone or two."
"You think?"
"Anyway! Heya Hal! Heya Gray!"
Flat's sheer stupidity was infamous. That was why most people tended to avoid him... Also because he kept weaving new spells as easy as he breathed. Something that took even established magi a good degree of preparation to do at a higher-level.
"Why the hell do you have to be so damn loud in the morning?! I'm trying to finish up the paper the Professor asked us for!"
At some point, Svin had also wandered into the classroom and taken up the seat behind us. As usual, Flat's eccentricity meant he went unnoticed until he finally blew his top.
"What paper you talking about, candy floss?" I asked curiously.
"You... Curses. An overlooked application of Curses."
My eyes widened, "...Did we have that?"
Gray coughed, slowly sliding half a dozen pages my way on our shared table. Flat just laughed at me before pulling out a single crumpled piece of paper that looked like someone had wiped their ass with it. He slapped it down on the desk.
"Oh what's this? You forgot?! My my Henry! How naughty!"
"Flat, shush. Or I'll write an essay about why your name perfectly depicts the depth of your intelligence." I narrowed my eyes.
"Meanie."
Eventually, Waver stumbled in too. Somehow, the dark holes under his eyes had grown significantly since yesterday. He still maintained a dignified front for his students though even as he almost slipped on the way to his podium.
"Let us begin immediately. Today's lesson will be a bit short since I intend to grade your papers in front of you."
My face dropped. He noticed immediately.
"...What happened, Henry? If you're not feeling well, you can just give me your paper and go home for the day."
I slowly averted my gaze. "I... I'm fine."
With a sigh, the Professor began writing on his board and the lesson began. As per his words, it was a rather short lecture on the decline of traditional witchcraft and curses to maintain secrecy following the witch hunts of the late 15th century.
Something about the Holy Church seizing power in Europe and forcing certain magi into hiding for a while. Those branches of magecraft had declined in those times when their practitioners were being actively hunted down, better alternatives were found by the others, and once the hunts concluded, they never quite made a resurgence... at least in this part of the world.
Interesting history lesson, but, not very useful for someone that came to the Clock Tower for what I did.
"Now, I'll be grading your assignments so please, have them out before I come to you."
...
...
...
"Flat! What the hell is this?! I'm not even going to comment on the state of the paper itself, this isn't even the topic I gave you!"
"But that topic was boooooring! You have to admit it! Mechs are way cooler!"
"That doesn't matter!"
...Honestly, I should have expected something like this. I was an idiot not to.
"Svin! Why did you also write a paper on mechs?! And why is yours longer?! You seriously wrote six pages on mechs?! What is wrong with you?!"
Shamelessly, Svin stabbed a finger through the air, pointing at Flat, "I had to be better than him, Professor."
"...You wrote the wrong topic for your rivalry?"
The Professor gripped his temple before sighing. "I'll deal with you two later. Henry. Please have something better."
By then, I was no longer worried about how I would tell him about the missing paper. I had already attained a higher form of enlightenment. Enlightenment I intended to share with all of my fellow students and practitioners of magecraft.
With the supreme serenity of a Buddha, I rose to my feet, hands behind my back.
"Professor."
"...What? Give me your paper already."
"Studies and homework are a chain meant to hold down the minds of the youth. They are meant to stop us from questioning the world. But, as humans, we can only grow by questioning the world. Homework assignments detract the time for this. They stop us from questioning things. Thus, they stop us from growing. In conclusion, such things are counterproductive and meant to keep us as sheep so that the overlords can stay in power by keeping us ignorant and small. So I say, down with the system."
"W...What?"
I inhaled deeply.
"DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM!"
The professor barely held himself from throttling me right there and then.
"GET OUT OF MY CLASSROOM!"
"Gladly, professor! Keep fighting the fight my fellow students!"
"Yay, Hal!"
Even if Flat was an idiot, he was the best hype man ever.
-
I sat on a bench outside Norwich, stuffing my face with cream puffs I'd bought from a nearby bakery as I watched the grey skies of London. They were almost always like this at this time of the year. Either that, or it was raining. I prayed to God it didn't rain.
Winter rain was proper nasty.
Of course, stopping the rain using infinity was always an option but... something told me the Department of Policy wasn't going to be happy if I pulled something like that. Woah. I definitely had to try it now.
Those lot had stopped giving me jobs entirely after I returned from the Iselma Towers. The only reasoning I was given when I asked about it was that their lord had forbidden it unless I joined the department... Yeah, like that was ever gonna happen.
"I asked at your classroom for you and they told me you were kicked out for... trying to incite a riot?"
"They exaggerate. You know me, I'm an angel."
"Lucifer was an angel too."
"Fair."
Luvia sat down next to me. She leaned on my side, pressing herself against my arm like a cat as her golden hair fell against my chest.
At this point, I wasn't even going to ask how she kept finding me. She did this every day. No matter where I was, she'd pop up and just... spend time with me.
Often, it was something like a meal, or a training session in martial arts... just typical stuff. I appreciated that more than I could ever put into words. It was strange... having someone like that. Yet, now, it was hard to imagine a day going by without bothering her over simple stuff, teasing her, hugging her... Aw man, I was getting sappy.
"I missed you."
"We were together last night... Ellie even complained that I came home late."
She hummed softly, nuzzling into my shoulder. Her hands started... wandering.
I mean, I didn't blame her. We both were at that age. And, even if we weren't, I sincerely doubted my passion for her would ever die.
"In public?" I whistled... then my bag of cream puffs was snatched away.
"H...Hm, you wish."
I watched her shamelessly down my food. Then, she held up her face for me to wipe clean. It was... adorable, heart-melting... Enthralling... Especially since she became a tomato when I licked her lip instead of wiping it with my napkin.
"I think I love you."
I repeated words we'd already shared. Words that still got her worked up and embarrassed every time even now.
"M-Me too. Wait... I came here for something else. You made me forget-"
"...Doesn't matter, wasn't more important than you."
She hid her red face and her twitching smile in her hands.
"Lord Inorai has summoned us. Both of us."
Hmm... what could that old bat possibly want now?
-
Hope you enjoyed. Please be sure to comment your thoughts, ideas, suggestion and/or grievances. They always get me hyped up to write more.
Comments
BigBot
He slowly becoming like Gojo.. hope there is no McDonald break up scene
Bleap
I feel youuuu
Nicholas
Personally I just want to watch him fight someone who terrifies everyone. Again.
