“Cadmus! Wake up, it’s almost twelve!”

Alice’s stern voice woke Cadmus from his blissful rest, but the drowsiness within him refused to disperse. Stubbornly keeping his eyes closed, he groaned to indicate his protest.

“Cadmus, don’t be like that! We have to go!” Alice scolded.

Thankfully, judging by the energetic tone of her voice, it seemed that her worries and doubts from yesterday had been completely banished. Now if she would just let him go back to sleep…

“When did you become so lazy, Cadmus?” She complained, “Come on and hurry up, or we’ll be late!”

It was true, Cadmus usually woke up on time without much complaint. However, his exhausted body was still recovering from the events of two days ago, and now that the mental pressure of Alice’s question had been lifted after the talk they had yesterday, his mind felt squishy and tired.

Cadmus groaned again. “Alice, please let me just go to sleep…”

Alice pulled on his hair with all her might, which, unfortunately for her, barely made him feel a slight tugging.

“No!” She said, “You’ll stop going to classes if I give you any leeway!”

“I won’t...” Cadmus muttered as he yawned, “Trust me. I won’t become lazy just because I skip this once. I promise.”

He cracked an eye open to find Alice looking down at him suspiciously,

“…Really?”

Cadmus closed his eye and nodded, “Yes.” He tried to lift his arm, and sure enough, he felt his sore body ache in protest, “Besides, I’m in no condition to be going anywhere.”

He winced to accentuate his point.

Alice took a moment to think it over, and even that small moment of quiet was enough to drag Cadmus back half into the realm of peaceful sleep again.

“Alright, fine.” Alice said, “But just this once!”

Cadmus sighed in contentment.

Cadmus ended up waking up a few hours later, much better rested, at approximately 3:00 PM. Alice kept shooting him disapproving looks as he dragged his aching body to the bathroom and freshened up.

A little while later, someone knocked on the door.

Cadmus opened it to reveal Oliver.

“Yo,” He greeted as he let himself in and took a seat on his desk chair (all his guests always seemed to go for that for some reason), “I didn’t see you in the main hall today, so I got a bit worried.”

Cadmus closed the door, “I was just a bit tired—”

Someone knocked on his door again, interrupting him. He opened the door curiously, and to his surprise, found that it was Candice.

“U-um, hello. Are you busy?” She asked meekly, spotting Oliver inside.

Cadmus stepped aside to invite her in, “Not at all, come on in.”

She hesitated for a second, before doing so. Finally, a guest who waited for his invitation before entering.

She took a seat on the bed, and, after closing the door, he took a seat beside her.

“Hello, Candice,” Alice greeted with a smile.

Candice returned it, “Hello.”

Oliver and Candice both looked at each other awkwardly, and it took Cadmus a second to understand why. They were near-strangers after all, and hadn’t come here with the expectation of meeting the other.

"We meet again, Candice," Oliver said politely.

"Y-yes..." Candice nodded back.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence, neither having anything else to say to the other. Seeing that this was going no where, Cadmus cut straight to the chase and asked,

“So, why’re you here, Candice?”

“I… I wanted to thank you,” Candice said shyly, “For helping me in the forest. I wouldn’t have made it without you. And you as well, Alice.”

Cadmus tilted his head curiously, “Have you already forgotten what happened in the forest? If you had simply left me when you saw me fall, you would have most likely safely reached Professor Mackenzie’s camp without any problems. It is because you decided to help me that you were forced to confront so many problems. Even then, for most of the journey, you were the one who protected me. In fact, it is I who should be thanking you.”

Candice blushed at his words, “N-no… it is I who must thank you. If it wasn’t for you… I…” She looked down at her knees and took a deep breath. And then she looked Cadmus straight in the eyes, “It’s… hard to explain, but if it wasn’t for you, I would have been stuck in the same place, never moving forward! So… thank you!”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow, “You’re… welcome?’

He still didn’t quite understand why she was thanking him. Back then, in the forest, he had only told her what needed to be done, Candice had been the one to muster up her courage to take the step forward. She had only herself to thank.

Still, she seemed determined to give him her gratitude, so he decided to just accept it without complaint. He really didn’t care all that much anyway.

“Wait, you protected him, Candice?” Oliver asked, sounding confused “What exactly happened to you guys in that forest?”

Cadmus really didn’t feel like repeating the story again after having explained it to Professor Mackenzie yesterday, so he foisted the job onto Alice. Alice proceeded to diligently recount everything that had happened down to the smallest detail.

Cadmus noticed Candice’s red eyes darkening as she was reminded of all that she had been forced to do back then. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she swallowed thickly.

Once Alice finished, Oliver gave Candice an impressed look,

“Wow… you’re pretty amazing, aren’t you?”

Candice blushed again as she rubbed the back of her neck embarrassedly,

“I… simply did what needed to be done.”

“Yeah, but still, not everyone can do that,” Oliver said, “Cadmus and Alice are probably only still alive because of you.”

Cadmus nodded in agreement. While Everett’s troops hadn’t been aiming to kill, that man that Cadmus had woken up to had undoubtedly been ready to disregard that rule. Had Candice not been there to distract him, Alice would never have had enough time to draw a magic circle with the [enhancement] modifier to strengthen it enough to fend that man off. Not to mention, even if Alice did manage to do something, Cadmus would have probably still been captured by Everett’s other troops, weakened and immobilized as he was.

Candice blushed further and seemed to fold into herself.

“Anyway, why were the first years told to gather in the main hall today? What did I miss?” Cadmus asked.

“It was an announcement,” Oliver said, “The headmaster got up in front of all the students and bowed in apology.”

Cadmus remembered the one time he had seen this Academy’s headmaster. It had been during orientation, and back then, Cadmus had gotten the impression that he was a jolly old man with more pride in his Academy than himself. Bowing in apology didn’t really seem like an unusual thing for him to do.

“Then, he gave a huge speech basically saying that the Academy was going to make sure that an incident like this never happened again,” Oliver continued, “That and the fact that the teachers are free to talk to anyone who’re having trouble processing the stuff that happened in Lorem forest. You know, nightmares and stuff like that.”

Candice flinched slightly. Cadmus guessed that she must have been having nightmares as well about the people she had been forced to kill. Before he could do anything, Alice gripped Candice’s hand in support, and Candice smiled gratefully down at her in response.

Cadmus left them to it, and asked Oliver,

“Anything else?”

Oliver chuckled in amusement, “There was one other thing. You and Ardea were called up to the podium to receive an award for ‘distinguished services rendered to the wellbeing of the school.’ Professor Mackenzie looked pissed when she realized that you weren’t there.”

Cadmus winced. She would probably scold him later.

Then, he noticed something,

“Not Candice and Auxil as well?”

Oliver shook his head as Candice blushed again, “Nah, only you two. But in the headmaster’s speech, his message was more like, ‘good job, but don’t do something stupid like that again.’ I guess they didn’t want to encourage more students to try what you guys did, and kept the award distribution to a minimum.

He handed Cadmus a gold medallion with the school’s logo (a book with a magic circle consisting of only a triangle hovering above it) engraved upon it.

“This is the other reason I came by today,” he said.

Cadmus gazed at the medallion in his hands. An award, huh…? That was all well and good, but…

“Did I receive any points?”

“You and a bunch of others,” Oliver said, “You, Candice, Elise, Ardea, Arthur, and a bunch more that I can’t remember right now—you guys were all given two-hundred points for ‘defending your fellow students’. You and Ardea were given a hundred more points because of that medal you guys got.”

Cadmus smiled slightly. Three-hundred points in total… not bad.

Oliver grinned, “Congrats, you’re now in twenty-second place!”

Twenty-second place…

Cadmus wondered how much laurite he would be granted now. Going from fifty-second place to twenty-second place was a large jump after all.

“What is laurite?”

A week passed by quickly, and by the next Monday morning, the first years were already in class as usual, listening to Professor Mackenzie speak as though they hadn’t all just been attacked recently.

“I’m sure, you’ve all heard the term somewhere, but today we’re going to learn what exactly laurite is, and what we use it for,” Professor Mackenzie continued.

She held out her hand to reveal a small crystal that fit snugly in her palm. It was smooth, blue, and glowing slightly.

“This is what a single unit of laurite looks like,” She said. Everyone craned their heads to take a closer look. Cadmus, having once possessed ten-thousand units, didn’t feel nearly as excited about this. “It’s found underground, and it’s a sort of condensation from the mana in the air all around us.”

Professor Mackenzie gave the students some time to inspect the single unit of laurite in her hand before she set it down on her desk.

“Now, in general, laurite can be used in one of two ways,” Professor Mackenzie said, holding up two fingers, “To understand the first way, we have to first understand how drawing with mana works. Has anyone here ever drawn a magic circle in the air, and then just left it there without running mana through it or erasing it away?”

A few people raised their hands—Cadmus among them.

Professor Mackenzie picked on one of those people—a girl,

“Ms. Jane, tell me. What happened to your circle?”

“It… faded after about fifteen minutes?” Jane answered hesitantly.

“Correct!” Professor Mackenzie said, motioning for people to put their hands down, “If you draw a magic circle—hell, if you draw anything with your mana—and just leave it there without disturbing it, then the ambient mana in the environment will wash it away. Now, who can tell me what problem that implies?”

No one raised their hand. It seemed that the people who already knew the answer were too bored to be paying attention, and the people who didn’t were too afraid to give the wrong answer.

“Come on! Anyone?” Professor Mackenzie asked.

Gelida Olvo took this as her cue to answer,

“It means that our magic circles aren’t permanent, Professor!”

“Correct!” Professor Mackenzie said, “True, running even a little bit of mana through the circle will stop it from fading for another fifteen minutes, but it’s unfeasible to expect someone to constantly run mana through a magic circle that we need permanently. That’s where the art of enchanting comes in!” She picked up the single unit of laurite and displayed it to the class again, “The laurite is crushed into dust, and then it’s built into whatever surface you want in the shape of the magic circle you want. Thus, you have a magic circle that will never disappear on its own.”

She pointed at the window, where the light of the sun was streaming in from, “We have a few examples of this in our campus as well. For example, the [sound enhancement] magic circles built on the surface of all our duelling grounds.” She paused for a second, “Be careful though. Magic circles have to be carefully tailored to the material they’re being built into, or else things can get messy in a lot of different ways. In return, however, we can design magic circles that can gradually purify and use the surrounding mana in the environments by themselves. Permanent self-sustaining magic circles!”

A few of the students nodded, but it seemed that, while they understood, they didn’t really comprehend the idea behind it. The mana in the air was infinite, and laurite took centuries to degrade. So magic circles could be built out of laurite, and they would be powered by an infinite source of energy. This sort of thing was immensely useful.

For example, all the lanterns in the city of Anguis had a small magic circle for [fire] built into them with laurite. And since they were designed to purify and use the mana from the environment, they were constantly activated without anyone having to power them 24/7. It saved the entire city a tremendous amount of time and effort.

However, this was not how Cadmus used Laurite.

“Alright, so we’ve learned that the first way to use laurite is to enchant something with it,” Professor Mackenzie said, “Now we’ll be talking about the second method. Every person has a set limit of mana that their bodies can hold, and when they run out, it takes time for them to purify the mana in the air to refill their reserves. However, what if your magic circle requires more mana to use than you currently have?”

She paused for a second for the sake of building suspense before holding up her single unit of laurite again, “That’s right! The answer is laurite! A single unit of laurite contains about the same amount of purified mana as the entire reserves of an average mage. Can you believe it? This small thing holds such a large amount of mana!”

Once again, while people seemed to understand, they didn’t quite seem to comprehend what that actually meant. Professor Mackenzie seemed to realize this too, so she drew a magic circle for [fire].

“Ok, everyone, watch carefully,” She said.

She held the single unit of laurite up to the circle, and suddenly, its blue glow increased in intensity. A stream of steady flame shot out of the other end of the circle, and Professor Mackenzie grinned at the class,

“I can do this all day!” She explained, “Mainly because I’m using the mana stored in the laurite to activate the magic circle. In other words, I haven’t used a single drop of mana from my body’s reserves!”

The class stared, impressed. But still, Cadmus could tell that they were missing some sort of crucial understanding.

A boy raised his hand, and Professor Mackenzie pointed at him, still keeping her spell going.

“Professor, what’s the point of using laurite instead of just your own mana?” he asked, “I guess you can save some mana if you use laurite, but there’s really no other reason to use it, is there?”

Professor Mackenzie deactivated her magic circle,

“I’m glad you asked! Unfortunately, we’re still in the beginning stages of learning magic, so we haven’t come across them yet, but there are many magic circles in the world that require more mana to use than a single mage could possibly have.”

She shot Cadmus a conspiratory wink at that. Although, Cadmus couldn’t be sure whether she had done so because of Ember’s perfected [mind control] spell, or because of the spell that Cadmus had used to bring Alice to life.

While Ember’s perfected [mind control] formula took a lot of mana to activate, it was nothing compared to the amount of mana it had taken to bring Alice to life. It had taken approximately ten-thousand units of laurite to do so, after all—meaning, the circle had taken an equivalent of the entire mana reserves of about ten thousand mages. Cadmus doubted that there was any other magic circle in the world that surpassed the mana requirement of that.

“But that’s not the only reason using laurite as a mana source is useful,” Professor Mackenzie said, “The formulas that we’ve learned for our magic circles have all been optimized over time. However, what about when you’re trying to create a completely new formula?”

The class looked confused. Cadmus could understand why. He doubted that any of them understood just how much effort it took to create a brand new magic circle, mainly because they had never tried to do so themselves.

“To create a new formula, first you have to identify what kind of effect you want your magic circle to have,” Professor Mackenzie explained, “And then you create a formula that you think should theoretically work. However, since your new formula is only a prototype, it has a bunch of extraneous steps inside of it that makes it require a lot more mana to utilize than a finished product would. Many times, these prototypes take more mana to test than a single mage possesses, so laurite is a necessary resource in those stages. Once you’re sure that you’re going down the right path, that’s when you can start optimizing the formula to make it more simple to draw, and have it require less mana to use.”

Professor Mackenzie paused to allow everyone to finish noting all this down, and once everyone seemed ready to move on, she said,

“Be careful though. As I said, these units of laurite only have a finite amount of mana in them, and that mana will never regenerate. Once you deplete them, they’ll become brittle and useless. Laurite is also relatively rare, so it’s considered an extremely precious resource. Be sure to keep that in mind if you come across some laurite yourselves.”

Cadmus suppressed a groan as he remembered just how much laurite he had wasted developing his own formulas. Even recently, developing his [dead puppetry] formula had taken the entire five-hundred units of laurite that he had been granted for reaching fiftieth place a few weeks ago.

Professor Mackenzie sighed, “Anyway, now we’ll be focusing on the boring part. Get ready to take notes, because we’ll be talking about how compatible different symbols are with different types of materials when enchanting them with laurite. First, we have wood…”

And Cadmus chose this moment to block her out. He’d hit the limits of his focus, and his mind wandered back to his magical research. He was still trying to optimize the [dead puppetry] formula, but now that he was going to receive more laurite for making it to twenty-second place, it was time to start thinking about what new spell to develop.

What next, I wonder…?