Rodrick waved the boy down from the desk.

“They’re my mentees. Feris, please get off the table and go to your class.”

Feris leapt off the table, then nimbly rolled on the ground as an added flourish to the manoeuvre. Rodrick silently facepalmed. The boy with piercings looked at Rai and Sin for a long moment.

“Hmph. Nothing special.”

“Feris. Leave, please.” Rodrick said, his voice betraying his impatience.

Feris raised his hands, a gesture adopted by many a warrior as a means to signify their surrender.

“Alright, alright.” He began walking towards the exit, but before he left he whipped his head around to look at Rodrick. “Rodney, you better whip these two into proper shape, they’re not even close to being ready!”

After his exit, the room was left in utter silence.

Rai and Sin were both blown away by the gall of the boy, but they were even more in shock at how he talked to the headmaster.

“Phew. He’s a real handful. Anyway, it’s time to catch you both up.”

Sin stared wide-eyed at Rai that screamed ‘are we really just gonna brush over that’.

Rai shared her sentiment, shooting back a similar expression.

“Sindyl, I’m aware that you’ve spent much of the last few weeks tending to Rai, but even a student with entrance exam scores such as yours needs to work hard. Reaching your goals doesn’t come easy.”

Sin slightly bowed her head after shaking it to remove her thoughts about the previous interaction as best she could.

“I’ll do my best.” She said.

Sin knew more than anyone just how much work she'd put into improving her own skills during the last month, but that wouldn't be immediately apparent to others. A fire ignited within her. She'd prove herself to be just as capable as Rai, if not moreso.

Rodrick scooted his way over to Rai, causing a comedic sound from his shoes squeaking across the floor. Rai wanted to giggle, but held it in since Rodrick was about to be really serious with him, just like with Sin.

Rodrick stared at Rai for a moment. There was no indication of any emotion in his face. Simply put, he was like a gargoyle statue, staring. Endlessly staring. Why’s he staring this long...

“Sir?” Rai asked.

“Just a moment.” Rodrick’s voice sounded like it was layered with raw mana.

Rai turned his head towards Sin, searching for some sort of answer. She simply shrugged with a confused look on her face. How would she know what was going on?

A minute passed, with nary a whisper.

“There. You seem to be recovering well. Good job Rai, you should thank Sindyl here for being by your side the whole time. Alright, about being a mentee...”

AGAIN?!

Rai and Sin were on the same wavelength. They were both stupefied by Rodrick’s nonchalant attitude when things out of the norm were happening right in front of them. Rai raised his hand to ask what he just did.

"Si-"

“... You will both have to take my exam every two weeks. This will be for me to see how much you have progressed throughout the weeks. As my mentees, you both have access to the resources I provide you. You also have the ability to ask me any questions you want.”

Rai’s face was blank, as was Sin’s.

Rai was about to ask the question he’d wanted to ask this whole time.

“Si-”

Rodrick took their blank faces as a sign that the session was over.

“Very good, then I shall see you two next week at the same time, same place. You’ll have some time free from now to your next lesson, so go out and explore nearby the Academy for a little bit. Or go to the library and do some studying. Though... I would prefer the former, to be completely honest.” He chuckled and ushered them out of the room. “Have fun!” Rodrick smiled the entire time.

What... what just happened?

Rai and Sin stared at each other. They held eye contact for a few seconds, before bursting into laughter.

“D-... Didn’t he say that ‘there’s much to be done’?”

“PAHAHAHA! He did say that!”

The two of them giggled with each other in the hallway.

After a few moments, Sin calmed down enough to talk properly.

"He gave me some advice over the last month, so I thought he'd do the same for you, to help you catch up. But I guess there really wasn't much to catch up about."

“QUIET IN THE HALL PLEASE!” A female voice from one of the nearby classrooms shouted out.

Rai and Sin quietened down, but they continued to quietly laugh with each other about the completely absurd day they’d had so far.

The two walked down the hall towards the stairs, then out into the foyer at the front entrance. Rai’d stopped giggling by now.

“What the fuck was even all of that? Pfft.”

I... I... have no fucking clue. Oooohhh my sides... fuck that was so funny.”

Rai stared at Sin this whole time. When Sin looked at him...

They couldn’t hold it. A fit of giggles made its way into their lives once more.

After about a full minute or two of giggling amongst themselves in what was quite possibly the worst place to be doing so, they finally decided to ask each other what they wanted to do until their next lesson.

“What do you...” They said in unison.

“You first.” Sin said.

“What do you want to do for now? We’ve got about an hour until the next class.”

Sin fiddled with her scarlet curls.

“I think the next class is practical applications of mana right? Hmm. We could go walk through the democratic district and see what’s there? Pretty sure that neither of us have actually explored much of the city, so it might be fun!”

Rai had to re-tie his hair since the ponytail somehow loosened.

“Yeah, that sounds good. I haven’t been there before, but there’s bound to be something interesting there, right?”

Sin nodded with anticipation, then grabbed Rai’s hand after he was done fixing his ponytail, lightly pulling him along with her as they left the Academy grounds. There were some eyes on them from above, in the windows of the upstairs classrooms, but most of the students just ignored them and focused on their own lessons.

Rai couldn’t have been more wrong.

“How is it possible that there’s literally nothing interesting here whatsoever? The only interesting place is the Forum, and we can’t even go in there! What’s with that?”

“No... There must be something good... There has to be! I refuse to believe that the democratic district has nothing of value to us! It’s not possible!... Right?” Sin said.

She was in denial. Even though they’d seen a variety of people walking throughout the district, there were no interesting organisations or companies that operated within it, other than the Forum. Even the households of the different clans were nothing all that special, and the district was way emptier than they'd expected for some reason.

It was a tragedy.

“Nope. There was nothing. NOTHING! Not a shred of ANYTHING!”

Sin laughed at his hyperbolic reaction, but she resonated with the sentiment more than she had with most of the other things in her life. The democratic district is just far too boring.

“And now we have to go back to the Academy for a boring ass lesson... UGGGHHHH!” Rai said as he hung his head.

“Why, Rai? Why’d you have to remind me about that? I was happy. Happy in my discontent. But now I’m sad, sad in my discontent.”

“Ah... it’s... whatever. Let’s just go back.”

“Fine.”

As much as the democratic district was possibly the most boring thing he’d ever seen, Rai enjoyed the time he spent with Sin today. And there was more yet to come.

The two of them got past their dramatization of the events that had taken place so far, or lack thereof, and made their way back to the Academy.

Rai surprisingly remembered the path to the training hall, even though it’d been a month since he first went to it. He thought back to how he had to use Stormflow to ge-ACH!

Sin caught him. Rai was clutching his chest.

“Rai?! Are you alright?”

Rai’s mana was flowing as it should’ve, but at the thought of Stormflow, his mana transformed into something heavy. Rai focused on calming the mana back into its previous state. To make things easier on himself, he sealed his mana so that only 5% was being released.

He took a few deep breaths before standing back up on his own two feet.

“I think... I should be fine now. Sorry... for worrying you.”

“You have to tell me whenever you don’t feel well, okay?! I’ll take care of you, so trust in me.”

“Wait, no that’s not it. I’ve been fine all day, really. It was just now...” He was about to mention Stormflow but chose not to, and even did his best to avoid thinking of the term so his mana wouldn’t go haywire again. “Actually... alright. I think something’s up with my mana. I could only tell from what happened just now, but I definitely don’t think it’s fine for me to use my mana just yet.”

“I see. Then, for this lesson, we’ll let Miss Lillia know that you can’t use mana yet after your accident. Hopefully that’ll be alright with her.”

“I don’t like it but... I think that’s the best thing to do for now.”

“Of course it is! I’m the one who came up with it. Hu-ha-ha-ha!”

Rai giggled at the goofy girl in front of him.

“Okay, we should go in. The class will be starting in a few minutes. Let’s settle down before the others arrive.”

Rai simply nodded, then followed Sin’s lead.

The door to the 8th training hall glided open at the soft push of Sin’s hand.

Lillia was stood at the front of the stands, silently reading some pieces of parchment. She looked up at the door after hearing it open. A wry smile crept onto her face.

Lillia’s eye twitched.

“How... wonderful it is to see you again, young man.”

Rai looked at Sin with an expression of worry.

“She really isn’t happy to see me, is she?” Rai whispered.

Sin quietly shook her head as she tried to hold her laughter in.

"It's wonderful to be back, Miss Lillia!" Rai shouted.

“Yes... just wonderful... please take a seat.”

Lillia took a deep breath, then acted like Rai wasn't there. She continued reading the parchment in her hands.

The two sat down in the empty row at the front of the stands, and waited for everyone else to join the class. Rai knew that this lesson was likely to be boring, but he actually looked forward to this. It was a simple thing, but he liked being in the Academy.

Rai didn't realise it, but he was grinning.

"Why are you so serious?" Sin asked him.

"I am?"

Sin nodded.

"I think... I'm excited. It's my first actual lesson back."

"Then make the most of it!"

Rai nodded.

It was time for his first lesson back.