Cadmus knew spells that could turn the very ground into a platform of spikes. He knew spells that would allow him to create small balls of fire that exploded when they hit the enemy.

However, none of that meant anything when the enemy was close enough to wipe away your magic circle before you could even finish drawing it. Which was exactly the situation with troll-face right now.

And Cadmus, who had spent the last few years indoors, just focusing on his research, had absolutely no physical abilities whatsoever to create some much-needed distance.

“So, I heard you turned down the boss’ offer,” troll-face said, “Not wise. We could have brought you to great heights. You still have time to change your decision, you know?”

From the outside, troll-face had his arm draped around Cadmus like they were old friends, and he was leaning in close, as though telling him a private joke. Thus, no one noticed troll-face’s fist digging painfully into his stomach.

Cadmus, who hadn’t experienced even the slightest hint of pain for the past few years, felt it hurt worse than it, in all honesty, probably should have.

“Would you please stop that?” Cadmus asked politely.

The request seemed to catch troll-face off-guard for a second, but then he dug his elbow in even harder. Cadmus felt his eyes water a little as the sharp pain in his stomach worsened.

“Come on, just say yes,” troll-face said, his voice oily, “We won’t bother you like this ever again if you do.”

“We don’t—!” Oliver tried to say something, his hands wringing about in panic, but he was silenced with a sharp glare from troll-face.

Of course, Cadmus could simply call for help, which would let the students around them know that something was wrong here. However, Cadmus got the feeling that troll-face was simply a pawn, and that he would rashly get a strike in without any regard for himself if Cadmus did indeed decide to choose this option.

And, well, Cadmus would rather avoid further pain if he could help it.

He could feel Alice writhing about inside his breast pocket, probably trying to create a magic circle with the [enhancement] modifier, so that even her small magic circle would be able to produce a decently sized attack. However, he knew that she probably wouldn’t make it in time.

In the end, it was Ardea Regis who saved him.

“Please refrain from starting an altercation in the hallways,” she said as she walked up to them. It was stated as a request, but as usual, the authority in her voice was absolute, “Sparring and duels are to be conducted in the dueling ring or training rooms, not here.”

Troll-face backed off with a panicked look on his face, “W-we were just—!”

Ardea’s glare sharpened, “I know exactly what you were doing. Leave my sight. Now.”

Troll-face squealed a little and ran off. Once he disappeared down a corner, Ardea turned her glare onto Cadmus.

Cadmus dipped his head, “Thank you—”

“Disappointing.”

With that one word, she turned and walked away.

Cadmus tilted his head curiously as he gingerly massaged his stomach. Ardea Regis did not seem to like him very much for some reason…

“Are you alright?” Oliver asked as he gave Cadmus a lookover.

Alice popped out from his breast pocket.

“You’re not hurt too badly, are you?” She asked worriedly.

“It hurts a little,” Cadmus said with a small wince, “Other than that though, I’m fine.”

Oliver sighed, “These Pride people won’t leave us alone, will they?”

Cadmus didn’t answer, his mind rapidly racing through all the options he currently had available. He couldn’t let this go on for any longer; Pride’s actions would most likely hinder him in earning the points that he so desperately needed.

“Let’s just get to our next class for now,” Oliver said, snapping him out of his thoughts, “We don’t want to be caught out here alone by any more Pride members.”

Cadmus looked around and noticed that the crowd of students in the hallway was thinning. It was almost time for class.

“You’re right,” Cadmus nodded, “Let’s go.”

Their next class was ‘Magical Combat’, and it was taught by a professor named Carmen Pugnae. She was a terribly ditzy person with long, messy blonde hair, a beautiful face, and skin fairer than even Ardea Regis. If it wasn’t for her human-shaped ears, Cadmus would have guessed that she was an elf.

Also, she kept insisting on being called 'Professor Carmen' on account of her last name being too 'ugly-sounding'.

Professor Carmen almost had them spar against each other to judge their respective levels of ability, before she was reminded by Arthur that Professor Mackenzie had told them not to cast any spells until the next Magic Fundamentals class.

Thus, Professor Carmen simply told everyone to pair up, face each other, and draw magic circles as though they were in a spar, but to make sure to not push any mana through those circles.

She went around, assessing everyone, and when she got to Ardea Regis, she exclaimed,

“Oh! I’ve heard about you! You don’t need to draw out your magic circles, do you? You simply bring your hand up, and the magic circle pops out on its own! That’s amazing!”

Cadmus’ ears twitched at that.

What? What?

Drawing magic circles was absolutely necessary to cast a spell. There was no way for a human to subvert that.

However, contrary to his expectations, Ardea raised her hand, and a magic circle for [fire] simply shined into existence.

“You’re wrong, Professor Carmen,” Ardea said without even the slightest hint of pride, “While it’s true that I don’t have to fully draw my magic circles, they don’t simply ‘pop out’ either. I first have to perfectly envision the magic circle in my mind before I can bring it into existence. And the larger the magic circle I envision, the longer it takes for me to create it.”

“However, it’s still faster than manually drawing it out, right?” Professor Carmen asked.

Ardea nodded, “Correct.”

“And I’ve also heard that you have an almost inexhaustible supply of mana inside your body,” Professor Carmen said, clapping excitedly, “Taking all of this into account, you have the potential to become the strongest mage in the history of humanity!”

The class broke out into a flurry of whispers as everyone eyed Ardea with wonder.

However, Ardea ignored them and simply gave Professor Carmen a nod,

“Thank you. I will try my best.”

An almost inexhaustible supply of magic… not having to manually draw out magic circles… these traits—they all resembled the abilities of a dragon...

However, Ardea possessing the blood of dragons was out of the question. It was completely impossible for a human and dragon to procreate. A far likelier explanation was that Ardea Regis possessed the blood of the ancient elves, and the concentration of that blood surpassed that of any other human.

After all, many records stated that the ancient elves had incredibly high mana reserves, and the ability to create magic circles without manually drawing them out as well.

Professor Carmen talked some more with Ardea before moving on to the next person. After a while, she reached Cadmus and Oliver.

Cadmus drew the magic circle for [fire], as usual, and waited for Professor Carmen’s feedback.

“You’ve… never engaged in magical combat, have you?” Professor Pugnae asked after a small pause, her eyes narrowing.

“How did you know?” Cadmus asked curiously.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Ardea had a vindicated look on her face for some reason.

Professor Pugnae pointed at his magic circle, “Your drawing speed is incredibly fast and sure—you must have drawn a tremendous amount of magic circles before coming to this Academy—however, the way you draw them isn’t suited for combat at all.”

“How so?”

“You draw the symbols inside first before drawing the circle around it,” she explained, “The most basic step in magical combat is to draw the circle first before drawing the symbols inside.”

She drew a magic circle for [fire], having drawn the circle before the symbols, “This is because in magical combat, people can see what their opponents are drawing, so mages have to be careful about what they reveal. If you draw the symbols first, then you will reveal the type of spell you’re about to use instead of the size of your spell. If you draw the circle first, then you will reveal the opposite.”

She drew another spell for [fire], this time having drawn the symbols before the circle, “Thus if we both fought each other, and began drawing our spells at the same time, by the time you discover the size of my spell, I would know what type of spell you’re going to use, and draw a spell to counter that. To make matters worse, it would be too late for you to change your spell, as I already have my circle drawn, while you would have to erase all of your symbols.”

Cadmus stared at the two magic circles for [fire] before him, “I see… I never thought of it that way. Thank you for informing me of that.”

Professor Pugnae laughed as she clapped him on the back, “That’s just the basic of basics! There’s a lot more to come!”

She moved on to Oliver.

Cadmus, however, kept his gaze fixed on the two magic circles in front of him. He had expected classes to be a waste of time, but it seemed he was wrong. This knowledge would prove useful…

The rest of the class proceeded without any significant disruptions. There was an incident where a student accidentally activated his magic circle, however, as [fire] was weak and never designed for combat, the resulting stream of flame didn’t even reach his partner.

After the class, Cadmus and Oliver made their way to the canteen. The canteen resembled the main hall, in that there were rows upon rows of tables here as well. However, the canteen was far larger than the main hall, and there were four serving stations on the sides where the students had to wait in line to receive their food from the lunch staff.

Unsurprisingly, the food was far better than anything Cadmus had ever eaten in Benig. Honestly, they really pulled out all the stops for the nobles here.

“Why do we have classes for math and history? I thought this was a school for magic,” Cadmus asked as he, Oliver, and Alice ate their food.

“It’s one of the Academy’s selling points,” Oliver said, scarfing down a well-grilled sausage, “They not only teach magic, but general knowledge as well so that their students will grow up into knowledgeable adults. The non-magic education here is apparently so good that some people just want their kids to be able to use magic so that they can learn other stuff from the teachers here.”

“Is there any way to opt out?” Cadmus asked, “I just want to focus on magic.”

Oliver shook his head, “No, but you don’t need to worry. Most of the classes here are geared toward magic anyway. There’re only a few mandatory classes that focus on general knowledge. If you change your mind though, you can decide to pick more non-magic classes as your electives in the later years.”

Cadmus couldn’t help but laugh, “‘If I change my mind’ huh? I sincerely doubt that’ll happen.”

Oliver shrugged, “You never know.”

“Well, well, what do we have here? My two new friends,” a familiar, unpleasant voice called out to them. Randall Crawford, along with his lackey, troll-face, took a seat on their table, “Been enjoying the Academy so far?”

Oliver nervously avoided eye contact with him, while Alice did the opposite and glared at him with as much force as she could muster. In Cadmus' opinion, this only made her look cuter.

“It would have been far more enjoyable if you had just left us alone!” She said angrily.

Randall merely laughed off her words, “And here is the rumoured homunculus…” He turned to Cadmus, “You know, after our meeting in the library, I found Vinari’s words to be a bit suspicious, so I did some digging. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I had just met the famed Necromancer!”

Cadmus merely tilted his head, curious as to where this was going.

“I’ve got to admit, I was a bit hesitant to pick a fight with you after learning that,” Randall said breezily, “However, I forgot to tell my friend Blunt here that in time, so he went after you this morning. I was a little worried about what would happen, but then, to my great joy, I learned that you have literally zero combat experience. What a stroke of luck!”

“How do you even know that?” Oliver asked, the fright in his voice obvious.

“You stated that a large part of the student body is a part of Pride, did you not, Oliver?” Cadmus asked rhetorically, “It isn’t hard to imagine that some of our classmates are a part of his guild as well. One of them most likely overheard Professor Carmen and me, and told their guild leader about what they learned.”

Randall grinned, “Correct!”

“If you didn’t even know that Cadmus was the Necromancer, then why were you at the library yesterday? And why did you go so far to try and recruit them?” Alice asked.

Randall shrugged, “Nerds tend to go for the library first, don’t they? And nerds earn a decent amount of points from the end-of-term exams. I need those nerds in my guild.”

“What shallow reasoning…” Alice muttered.

“Either way,” Randall said, turning back to Cadmus, “I don’t think the offer I proposed to you is bad at all. I know how guys like you function. You proved one of magic’s most basic rules wrong; that requires drive. And people with drive like yours will never be satisfied with anything but first place.” Randall put a hand on Cadmus’ shoulder, and Alice hissed like a threatened cat. He ignored her, “Pride can help you reach that first place. And if it’s resources that you’re after, then getting first place guarantees that you receive an almost unlimited amount of resources from the government. We’ll have enough resources for everyone in the guild, and there will be no need for me to withhold any from you.”

“Do you really think we'd join you after your people attacked us?” Alice exclaimed.

“Do you really think you have a choice?” Randall asked with a smug smirk, “Most opportunities to earn points in the Academy have something to do with magical combat, and someone like you, who has no experience in it, will take at least three years to get good enough to even achieve a place among the top fifty. By then, your more talented classmates will probably become far too powerful for you to topple. Joining us is the only choice you have.”

Cadmus stayed silent. How could he have been so stupid? The answer had been here, all along. A method to fend off Pride, and earn the points he needed at the same time.

“Crawford, I challenge you to a duel.”

The whole table fell silent at that. Randall, in particular, looked dumbfounded.

“…What?”

“I challenge you to a duel,” Cadmus repeated, “If I win, I want all the points Pride currently has.”

Randall stared at him with a stunned look on his face for a few more seconds, before he erupted into a bout of laughter.

“You’re serious?” He asked once his laughter died away into mirthful chuckles.

Cadmus silently nodded.

“I was trying to offer you a deal where you still have some autonomy, but this is way better! Thank you; you just made my day!” he said, his face stretched into a wide grin, “If I win, you have to give me half of all the points that you earn throughout your four years in this Academy. Agreed?”

Cadmus looked questioningly towards Oliver, "Are gambles like that allowed?”

Oliver nodded shakily, “Y-yeah, but—”

Cadmus turned back to Randall,

“Agreed.”

They shook on it.