February 28th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

"...so the phrase '℘ Ξς ∋ ' means 'Set aflame' in the runic language. To engrave this kind of rune onto an equipment, you need to thoroughly understand the phonetic structure of it as well as have at least low affinity for fire"

"Now, let's move onto the next one. For Water-related equipment, you simply need to put the '∂' symbol before..."

A 4th year senior, whose name was Arnold, was teaching us about the runic language and how to make use of it. Every girls in the elective were staring at him with dreamy eyes, not really paying attention to what he was teaching.

Studying was never my strong point, so I was getting bored very quickly. Fortunately, I managed to hold in my yawn. Who knows what would happen if those crazy fan girls started attacking me for interrupting their idol's speech.

Luckily for me, I had someone to help me.

"Senior Fovoth, you copied all that down, right?", I asked the dwarf sitting besides me.

"Yes! I complied all the phonetic and grammatical structures of Time, Space, Lightning and Wind runes into this notebook"

"Thanks a lot"

"No problem, just remember to give me more of your ideas later"

I smiled and took the notebook out of his hand. I then reached into my pocket and gave him a piece of paper.

"By the way, I've been wondering this for a while. How did you come up with such unique designs?", he asked with intrigue.

"Oh that? It was all thanks to the God of the Storms Vihar for imparting his divine knowledge onto me"

"...Is that so?", the senior was clearly not expecting to be preached when he asked that question, but I was sure that he would convert eventually.

'After all, that bastard Arthur used this exact method to preach about the Goddess Lumaria in the Eastern Anix continent'

Looking at the dwarf who was staring at the paper I gave him with sparkling eyes, I smiled wryly.

Fovoth was a 2nd year student who was also a Lightning mage. He attended the Artificing and Blacksmithing electives.

Well, I met him on the first day of the elective. As it turned out, the elective was extremely boring, so I ended up sketching the weapons and armors design from Marcos' memories just to quench my boredom.

Senior Fovoth saw my sketches by chance and immediately asked me for permission to use them for his projects.

I agreed on the condition that he would copy down the notes for me and give me a small part of the revenue he got from selling his products. It was a win-win for us. Well, maybe it was only a win for me, but I didn't need to tell Fovoth that.

Some might say that what I was doing was the thing Marcos did, stealing ideas from 'Earth' while taking credits for them.

That might be true, b- but it's not the same when I'm the one doing it, okay?

I didn't need to pay much attention in the elective either since Alicia was tutoring me on runes back in my dorm room. Apparently one of the battle arts she was learning relied heavily on the use of runes mid-battle. I wanted to find out more about my pocket watch anyways so I swallowed my pride and asked her for help.

Thus, I only attended this elective for formalities.

As to why I didn't just ask a runemaster to inspect the watch for me? For one, I wasn't acquainted with any runemasters. And more importantly, the runes engraved on the watch was somehow only visible to me.

CLAP—!

Waking me up from my thoughts was senior Arnold clapping his hands.

"Alright, now that we have covered almost everything in the last 2 months, let's move on to practical training. I'll need you to get a weapon of your choice and draw a temporary rune on it. It can be any kinds of runes, as long as it's functional"

"Now, come up to the podium and receive magic ink to start. And remember, if you can't even make a rune-enhanced weapon in 2 hours, I'm afraid I'll have to kick you out of the elective"

There are 2 types of runes. There's the permanent kind that requires specialized equipment to create. And there's the one-use type, which only requires basic runic knowledge and a medium, typically liquid infused with mana, to make.

I wasn't too worried about failing. After all, I had someone under the headmaster's direct tutelage teach me almost everything there is to know about temporary runes.

'Cheapskates', I frowned as I looked at the pitiful amount of ink Arnold gave everyone. It was barely enough for a lowest rank rune.

'At least it's free though. I can make do with th—'

THUD—!

I widened my eyes in disbelief. I tripped

'How could I trip on nothing?'

"Are you alright? How could someone that defeated the first-ranker like you fall just like that?", a girl standing next to me said in a worried tone.

In contrast to her concerned tone, however, was her smirking face that she didn't even try to hide.

'So it was you'

I was starting to get really angry. 'A mere insect dare to trip me?'

But, I quickly calmed down. This time, not because of the skill, but due to my pocket watch.

I've found out during these past few weeks that my mind seemed to calm down a lot whenever I look at the shiny pocket watch.

'At least that's one good thing about that damn instinct'

Sighing, I ignored her and went back to my seat. I didn't want to cause a ruckus in the elective.

I took out a sword and tried to draw runes on them, but

"Huh, where's my ink?"

I looked around frantically, trying to find the ink. But when I saw that same girl's smirking face, I instantly knew what was going on.

"Hey, give me back my ink"

"What? Why are you accusing me?"

"Shut up and give me back my ink!", I roared in anger. Drawing everyone's attention to our area.

Normally, the attention would have been good since her lies could have been exposed with a simply check but...

"Hic... why... what did I do to you? Why are you bullying me", she sobbed. Tears flowing down her cheeks uncontrollably.

I glared at her in disgust. What kind of person could fake tears on demand? Thus, I decided to just come up to her and take the ink back myself.

However,

"You! Stop right there!". Arnold unleashed his D+ ranked mana to suppress me. Being an F rank myself, I couldn't help but to feel immense pressure weighing down on my shoulders.

My breathing became ragged, almost as if the pressure was choking me to death.

"I'll overlook your actions this time but I'll still have to report it to a professor. Now go back to your seat and finish enhancing your weapon!"

Instantly, the pressure disappeared, and I could breath normally again.

Wiping the sweat off my forehead and sighing, I went back to my seat, ignoring the gaze of disgust and hatred most people in the room gave me.

"You can borrow some of my ink if you lost yours, you know?", senior Fovoth consoled me.

He was... a good person. He even went out of his way to spare some of his ink for me. However,

'As expected, even he thought that I was bullying her'

Sighing for god knows how many times today, I decided to just not care anymore.

'Keep your ink then'

WOOOSH—!

SPURT—!

The distinct sound of blade splitting through the air and blood oozing onto the floor caught everyone by surprise. However, they were even more startled by the screech that followed it.

"KYAAAAA!", the girl who stole my ink screamed on the top of her lungs. Not because she was the one bleeding, but due to the sight of me bleeding nonstop from the palm of my left hand.

"W- what are you doing? Stop! I'm sorry okay! Look, I'm giving your ink back!", she frantically took out the ink bottle she hid in her pockets.

'At least you still have some conscience'.

"Keep your ink", I declared firmly. I could have taken the ink back and be over with it but my goal wasn't to take my ink back. Instead. I did it only to test something out.

She was still shaking uncontrollably, looking at me as if I've gone mad. But she quickly turned back as she saw the hateful glare I gave her.

I stopped caring about her soon after and looked down on my sword, carefully drawing runes on it with my blood.

After 30 minutes of concentrating, I was finally done with drawing the runes. However,

'Why is it not working?'

I then remembered something important.

[F - Mana blood], I activated the skill. The blade glowed red with the '¦ ∏≡ ℵ φ' symbols.

Orangish-red lightning covered the surface of the blade, melting the bad quality steel that it was made of slightly.

"..."

"..."

"W- why did it glow red?", Arnold, who was looking in my direction since before, stared at the blade in intrigue.

I scratched my head in confusion. I too didn't know why it glowed red. Looking at Arnold's sparkling eyes, I was sure that he was about to pounce at me any second now if I didn't give him a satisfactory answer. After all, a rune enchantment glowing red was something unheard of.

"I guess it's because I used my blood to do it?"

"..." Senior Arnold cupped his hands on his chins for quite a while before clapping his hands yet again.

CLAP—!

"I see! Can you give me that sword? I won't report your earlier actions to anyone if you do"

"..."

"So?"

"3 golds"

"What?"

"I'll give you it for 3 golds"

"...Fine"

Thus, my pocket got a bit thicker.

...

I was on my way to the sharpshooting elective, and Lyra was with me for some reasons.

"Why are you here again?"

|Staying in your room is too boring, I'd rather go out|

"Fine, just don't make too much of a ruckus"

|Do you think I'm a child?|, Lyra asked in an annoyed tone.

"Yes", I replied instantly.

|Hmph!|, she pouted.

Shaking my head, I continued walking towards the elective.

The sharpshooting elective in room G-13, while the archery elective was in room G-12. Thus, I checked the number on the door thoroughly before going in. I didn't want to accidently walk into the archery elective in the middle of their meeting again.

CLANK—!

I opened the door after confirming that it was indeed room G-13. I scanned around the room, there was a roundtable in the middle of the room with 18 chairs around it. But it seemed a little bit redundant since the elective only had 9 members, including me.

Asides from the table, the rest of the room was basically a shooting range.

I sat down on a chair and put Lyra on the table, wanting to rest for a few minutes before practicing with [Railgun].

"Hey!", someone tapped my shoulders.

"What?", I turned around only to see a wolf-beastkin with silver ears and tails looking at a certain spot on the table with intrigue.

"Can I pet it?", she pointed towards the bird sitting on the table.

I looked at Lyra for confirmation, but I only saw her shaking her head profusely.

Grinning, I decided that Lyra had to suffer for a bit today. "Sure, go ahead"

The wolfkin slowly reached her hands out for Lyra, who looked absolutely mortified.

—Peck

"Ow!", the wolfkin girl winced in pain, massaging her hand that was pecked by Lyra.

"Sorry, she's normally not like this. Here, let me hold her in place so that you can pet her", I said as I lifted Lyra up.

The wolfkin looked satisfied and once again reached for Lyra head.

Lyra tried to fly away, but I have already blocked her escape route. She looked at me with pleading eyes, but I ignored her gaze.

'Heh'

I wasn't a sadist, I swear.

The wolfkin's hand was centimeters away from Lyra but

CLANK—!

The door opened, revealing senior Gwen standing with bloodshot eyes disheveled hair.

Everyone in the room was looking at her weirdly, but she didn't pay them any mind.

"Get back to your seats, we're having a meeting right this instant", she shouted.

The wolfkin girl had a look of disappointment that she couldn't pet the bird, while Lyra heaved a sigh of relieve and hatefully glared at me.

"No one will save you next time", I whispered to Lyra.

Feigning ignorance to Lyra's horrified look, I focused on what senior Gwen had to say.

"That bastard Ethan at the archery elective dared to insult me. So we will have a sharpshooting contest with them a few weeks after the midterms exams"

'Why did you drag the whole club into this?', I wanted to ask but I chose not to. I didn't want to be on the receiving end of senior Gwen's outburst after all.

Immediately after, Gwen rushed out of the room while cursing the poor guy named Ethan.

Everyone just looked at each other in awkward silence, trying to process what the senior just said.

'We can't win', that was probably what everyone thought at that moment. This elective was full of people using odd weapons whose technique didn't have a lot of history. So they didn't even stand a chance against the perfectly refined techniques of the archers.

But, I was in thoughts for another reason. 'I forgot this existed'

The contest was an event in the novel, albeit a minor one. Its purpose was only to show the readers how competent Marie was.

|This is a good chance to spread the name of Vihar!|, Lyra exclaimed brightly. She seemed to have forgotten my threat earlier.

I was going to just quietly lose in the contest but Lyra's suggestion made me think otherwise.

For once, I agreed with her. This was a good chance to show-off the might of God Vihar. Winning or losing the event didn't really matter anyways, since the event didn't affect the flow of the plotline at all.

Thus, I went to practice in the shooting range.

...

bzzzzt—! BANG—!

"That's the 30th one", I wiped my sweat. Lading 30 consecutive [Railgun] hits was not an easy task.

I looked around the club room, only to find that it was completely empty.

'I guess they gave up after all'

Sighing, I decided to exit the room with Lyra on my head.

Walking alongside the hallways, I frowned at the scene that entered my eyes.

There was a girl crossing her arms, looking down at another girl who was cowering in the corner. The girl who was in the corner was the wolfkin girl that asked to pet Lyra earlier.

What's frustrating was that some professors just deliberately ignored that happening.

'Well, it's not my problem anyways'. Although I hated to see that happen, it wasn't my problem.

Of course, things really didn't go the way I wanted them to.

—Peck

"Ow! Which bastard!", a girl turned around while covering her head, only to see a gray bird assaulting her head with a barrage of pecks.

I quickly reached out for Lyra to take her back, but the girl was one step faster than me.

She grabbed Lyra by the body, and squeezed her body. "I'll make you pay!"

"Uh, can you let it go?", I asked in a concerned voice.

The girl turned her gaze towards me in anger. "So you're its owner huh?". She then proceeded to tighten her grip.

"Let it go. It's for your own good"

"What can you do to me?", she smirked while increasing her grip on Lyra.

Lyra, instead of being in pain, was grinning at me. A bird making a grinning face was a much more normal sight that I thought it would be.

'So this is your revenge huh?'

Not wanting to give Lyra the satisfaction of seeing my annoyed expression, I just turned around and left. "Lyra, come to my room when you're done. You can make a ruckus just this once"

bzzzzt—! RUMBLE—!

-KYAAAAA!!!

Thus, I continued to make my way towards the dormitories, ignoring the rumblings of thunders and the screams of pain coming from behind me.