The sunset illuminated the concrete city before my eyes. If I concentrated, I could hear the faint whispers of the crowds below me, even though they no longer existed. I’d gazed on this city a thousand times and I would do it a thousand more. It had been the city I’d grown up in and the one I had died in.

I had left this city behind when I’d died, but it hadn’t left me behind.

The buildings were identical to the ones in my previous life. My body was also my adult form in this world. I would walk down the streets and explore the world as I used to know it.

I floated up into the sky and the buildings disappeared below me. The blank space of my mental construct replaced them, the stones shifting and vanishing into the void.

Trauma and anguish weren’t simple issues that got fixed with time. My death had more of an impact on me than anything else I’d experienced.

Remembering my time on Earth helped me process everything that happened.

Every week I would focus my efforts on recreating my former city and my mental form would walk through it. It was painful at first, but I was recovering, and each visit peeled off a layer of pain.

My reaction to Amanda’s elbow to my ribs had reminded me how much work I still had to do, but also how much I had improved.

My eyes opened as I heard footsteps coming from within the house. The sun hadn’t risen yet and dad was pacing nervously. He was making a ruckus in the main room, and I smiled.

He didn’t talk about Grandma often, but he thought a lot about her.

My thoughts about Earth retreated to the back of my mind. The past was the past, and I wouldn’t forget it, but I didn’t let it drag me down.

I got up and walked towards the main room. Gold was already there with my dad. The puffer looked at me and squawked.

“You’re right. There is no need for my dad to be so nervous.” I said the words out loud.

My dad turned towards me with a sheepish grin on his face.

“Hey Champ, you couldn't sleep?”

“I think I should be asking you that question. You haven’t been up all night, have you?” I slid into a stone chair.

With my abilities it was more comfortable than a regular one.

My dad twiddled his thumbs together. His pacing had stopped, but his knees hadn’t. They shook slightly, and I could see bags under his eyes.

“I’ve been thinking about what you should wear.” My dad avoided the question. “Your uniform is nice, but what about something proper for a first meeting?”

I rubbed my hands against my cheeks to massage away the drowsiness. Dad’s worrying wasn’t new. He was feeling guilty.

My grandma had sent me a few letters over past few weeks, and he avoided each one like the plague. She had never once been anything less than kind and loving in them.

“I’ll go buy some new clothes in Koshima.” I spoke softly.

My mum was still asle-

“Worrying about this again?”

-right behind me. I turned around to look at her and saw she had bags under her eyes. Unlike dad, the reason wasn’t in another city. It was right in front of her.

She stomped over to my dad and then sighed.

“Looks like I have to save the day again.” She turned to me. “I was always expecting you to visit your grandma. So, I bought these.”

She raised her hand and I saw a shirt and pants draped over a thin stone clothes hanger. I had made a few handy utensils with my powers for the family. The shape of the clothes hangers I’d seen in the city stores were incredibly similar to the ones on Earth.

“When did you buy those?’ My dad looked at my mum and saw her crossing her arms.

“Hug first. Questions later.“ My mum’s words were met with a hug from my dad. “That’s better. I bought it last Crijik when I went out to buy food.”

She meant ‘Crijik’ the day of the week. One of the rare few when she would go shopping.

“Where did you hide it?” My dad held the hanger.

He showed it to me, and I examined the clothes. They were nice. At least I thought they were. I had a terrible sense of fashion. There were some things that didn’t change after reincarnation.

“I put it on my side of the closet. I didn’t even bother to hide it. It was just sitting there.” My mum smiled. “You’ve been tossing and turning so fiercely that I thought you would miss a few of the finer details. And you-”

She saw me examining the clothes and walked up to me.

“These are to be put into your inventory immediately. They aren’t wrinkled and I intend for them to stay that way.”

I nodded and walked back into my room to grab my inventory. The next half an hour was spent figuring out how to put these new clothes in without it overlapping with my food or my dirt.

When I was done my dad and mum were deep in conversation. My mum was the happier one of the two. Ever since she had heard that my grandma wanted to meet with me, she had been fully supportive.

We talked about it once and she said it was better for me to get to know my only grandparent while I could.

The plan for today was simple. Attend class, and then visit my grandma. I would sleep over at her house and come back home the next day.

Thankfully, the classes today were all ones I had already attended.

Except for language studies.

Compared to normal, tomorrow was more important.

I would have my first C-class tomorrow. That was a class that focused on system ‘classes’.

I would have my abilities measured at the end of the week. If everything went well that meant I met the qualifications to obtain a class. A system class, not a regular school class.

It was confusing to learn about system classes in a school when the word for the lessons was also classes.

I refused to call it a ‘class’ class. Or a class on classes.

That was why I’d started abbreviating it as C-class.

C-class would teach me and all the students the basics on unlocking classes once our measuring was completed. For most, they had completed their first measuring years ago.

However, that didn’t mean that they had immediately gained their classes. There were many things to prepare for, and Koshima academy offered knowledge that other organisations simply couldn’t.

It was one of the major draws of the academy.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Gold perched on my shoulder as we waited for the portal to arrive.

“Yes, champ.” My dad gave my back a pat. “Your grandma and I will catch up soon. Just not today.“

The journey through the nexus went as usual, the same corridor appearing and leading into a hallway.

Amanda caught up with me in the homeroom and I saw that the class had finally settled down and stopped chasing her. It was clear that Alexis was the person that needed to be targeted for friendship. Amanda was like a closed book.

“All I’m saying is that they didn’t have to schedule all of our math classes so early in the day.” Amanda whined.

The second period was already over before we knew it, science and math going hand-in-hand.

“That’s alright, you enjoyed science, didn’t you?”

Amanda gave me a dirty look. “One is a method used to uncover the secrets of the universe and the other is useless. Change my mind.”

I retreated. Some battles were won by not entering them at all. Regardless of facts.

Agni and Gold chirped in amusement.

“You know, there is someone I wanted to hang out with today during our break.” I tried to slip the sentence into the conversation casually but failed.

“You’ve been making friends without me?” Amanda smiled. “I approve.”

We made our way to the gardens. I had been given specific instructions for where we were to meet up with my other friend.

I walked towards the tree that Amanda and I hung out under, and he was already there waiting for us.

Amanda stopped as she spotted him.

“Ta-da!” I flourished my hands in front of a surprised William. “It’s the wonder baby.”

“It's a wonder my sword isn’t halfway Inside your body.” William replied dryly.

“You know you love it.” I sat down beside him. “So, this is Amanda. Don’t mind her, I think she’s in shock.”

My words were met with a bump in the cheek. Amanda’s fire bead was pressing against my skin forcefully and then she let out a squeak.

“I see she’s just as good with words as you are.” William said between bites.

He was digging into a pile of blue meat spring rolls.

“How-” She turned to me. “How do you two know each other?”

“I impressed him. He got ignored by me. It was a whole thing and now we’re friends.” I waved my hand in the air. “Are you going to join us?”

It took a minute, but she finally gathered the courage to sit down.

She was from a bloodline household, but that was different from the fame that William had. He was a genius that many expected to push the limits of what was possible in the future.

Not to mention he was already a minor celebrity in the school. There were many people trying to become his friend, and some of them didn’t even care about his connection with Gerial.

He wouldn’t be able to join us all the time, but I didn’t want to lose chances to hang out with him just because I was afraid of having two different friends meet each other.

The only solution was to introduce them to each other.

It went well. William was intrigued by Agni and Gold. He hadn’t gotten a proper chance to speak with Gold at the dome, and the idea of intelligent birds amused him.

After that the day passed quickly. Earth magic studies were tediously stuck in the boring but necessary basics. Linguistics was all about ordinary language and not symbols.

There was one exception, in my metal magic studies class.

[Metal Manipulation has reached level 4.]

Tago of metal had dumped a solid bar of silver on my table. Then another bar of titanium onto Ouros’ table.

“It is important to become accustomed to your elements. Especially the materials you are going to specialise in.” Tago explained. “Metal magicians are rare, and we would be a failure of an academy if we stunted your growth in your formative years without reason.”

The bars were ours. Temporarily. Tago made it clear that if we tried to sell them or lost them then we would pay the price.

The rest of the class was spent with the bar shifting into different forms in my hands. I could feel my connection with the material growing every second, and it brought warmth to my heart.

The end of the day came quickly.

I changed clothes in the school and then met up with Amanda.

She and I made our way to the hills outside the academy building. This time she didn’t wait for her brother before preparing to leave.

“No Alexis?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

She stared up at me. “You forgot?”

Her eyes gazed into mine and I struggled to think of what I had forgotten.

“His big celebration is today.” Amanda rolled her eyes. “My dad let him push it forward because he passed the tests.”

Oh. That. I hadn’t given it any thought since he’d first mentioned it.

“He just invited me to that because I was nearby.” I spoke.

“That’s how he invited everyone.” Amanda smiled. “Relax. He won’t notice you’re not there. He booked out an entire guild hall for it. Trust me, he won’t be back until tomorrow.”

I had seen a few more kids than usual leaving through the entrance gates instead of portals.

Even if I had remembered I would have rejected it. I didn’t mind hanging around Alexis, especially in the school grounds, but until the investigation was over, I was taking the cautious approach.

Not to mention I had plans.

“You’re not going?” I asked Amanda.

“As much as I’d love to be assaulted from all sides by gold diggers, I’ve got plans.” She gestured with her hands and a book appeared in them. “This is the best time of year to go thrift shopping for novels.”

I stared at her and she raised her book defensively. I could see a slight blush crossing her cheeks.

“What?” She asked.

“Nothing. I think it’s cool.” I smiled and she lowered the book. “I didn’t know you were into books.”

“Yeah, I’m a real quiet soul about my life.” She put the book away. “Besides, everybody looks down on the girl with money thrift shopping, but that’s how you keep your money.”

Agni chirped and then flew into the air, Gold following closely behind.

I frowned. It looked like the birds were running away.

I turned back to my friend and then took a step back in surprise. Amanda’s eyes had taken on a manic gleam.

“Plus, the best books aren’t even printed and sent to stores. Did you know you can’t even find a new copy of Pêlat Monster Springs anymore?”

“It's a tragedy.” I had no idea what that was.

“And besides, what’s wrong if I want to find limited edition copies of-”

I looked up and realised why the birds had escaped. I had stepped on a landmine without even knowing it.

Amanda was crazy about books.

Then I relaxed. This was a new side to my friend, and she had shown me trust by exposing it to me. I sat back and listened to what she had to say.

We walked through the gates and out into Koshima city. Amanda had worried she was keeping me away from my grandma, but I explained that I would be joining her for dinner and then staying over at her place. Until then I had been planning on exploring the city.

Amanda sighed in relief.

After a few more minutes we parted ways and I made my way towards the address I’d been given. It took a few more minutes than I expected, but I’d arrived earlier than I told her I would in my return letter.

I stared up at the property I had been directed to.

Was this the right place?

A pair of giant lions greeted me, carved from a red material I had never seen before. They guarded a huge gate and beyond it were fields of cut grass and flowers.

Then there was the mansion. I could see it even from far away.

I stood there with my mouth hanging open, and I could see a couple of gardeners looking at me curiously. Then I walked up to the gate, and it grew bigger with each step.

My grandma’s place was huge.