Chapter 79: Class Begins

Caelus sat cross-legged on the floor several hours later, shirtless and working through another strip of beef jerky while the training hall around him looked as though someone had declared war on the furniture.

Several wooden swords had been reduced to splinters. A pair of training dummies had lost limbs. Another had been knocked completely off its base and lay against the wall. The stone floor was still damp in several places from his repeated mist tests, while a few empty healing potion containers had been abandoned beside the recovery stations.

A knock sounded at the door.

"Get in."

The door opened.

Mira stepped inside, then stopped.

Her eyes traveled slowly across the room before finding Caelus in the middle of the wreckage.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Caelus raised an eyebrow.

Mira looked at the broken training equipment.

Her gaze returned to him.

The difference between his appearance now and the one he’d shown at the ball was subtle, but it was there. His skin had lost some of its color, and the shadows beneath his eyes were darker. He carried himself normally, yet the stiffness in his shoulders and the way he favored one side when he stood betrayed how much strain his body was still carrying.

Mira pouted.

"You should sleep, young master."

"I know."

"That was not what I meant."

Caelus finished the last of the jerky and rose.

His muscles complained immediately.

He ignored them.

"Is there something you came here for?"

She folded her hands in front of herself.

"Classes begin today."

Caelus looked toward the high windows.

Morning light had begun spilling across the glass.

"You forgot?"

"No."

He reached for his clothes.

"I decided that remembering it didn’t make it any less annoying."

That earned the smallest change in her expression.

He could almost see the disapproval forming.

"Prepare me a bath."

"It is already prepared."

Caelus glanced at her, then stepped past her, opening the door.

Mira followed.

The walk back to the residence was quieter than usual. It didn’t take long until they were inside his room.

He stopped beside the window while Mira unfolded what looked like his schedule.

"What do I have?"

"You’re registered for Basic Spellcraft."

She glanced down the list.

"Attendance is mandatory because you’re officially following the Mage path. You also have Knight Fundamentals. The Academy listed you as a special case after the examination, so they’ve kept your martial training requirements alongside the Mage curriculum."

Caelus nodded.

That was inconvenient, but hardly unexpected.

"The remaining mandatory courses are World Language, Corrupt Creature Studies, Awakened Studies, and Physical Conditioning. I did not register you for the optional courses, as instructed."

"Good."

Caelus looked at the paper.

He knew which professors tended to overcomplicate simple subjects, which lessons actually mattered, which examinations were based on practical understanding, and which ones could be passed by remembering the material long enough to survive the test.

The written portions would be easy.

That wasn’t the problem.

Sitting through introductory lessons he’d once designed himself was going to feel like being dragged through a conversation he’d already had.

Still, he needed the marks.

Rank One brought privileges, but it also created expectations.

If he wanted to remain there, he couldn’t start behaving as though the title excused negligence.

He folded the schedule back toward her.

"What comes first?"

"Awakened Studies."

Mira glanced at the next page.

"The Academy divided the entrance-exam survivors into three sections. Section I has thirty-nine students. Sections II and III have thirty-eight each."

Caelus paused.

"Who is in Section I?"

Mira began listing the names.

His gaze sharpened slightly when she reached the important ones.

Lucian.

Elysia.

Several other students whose names he remembered from the original story.

So that was where they had put them.

A faint smile touched his lips.

Mira closed the schedule.

"You should at least sleep properly tonight."

"I will."

She looked at him for a second longer.

"You said that many times before."

"I was technically correct."

She sighed.

Caelus took it as permission to leave.

The bath helped more than he expected.

Warm water loosened the stiffness that had settled into his muscles, and for the first time since the examination, his body began to feel less like something he’d borrowed from a stranger.

He stayed there just long enough to relax before returning to his room.

Mira was waiting with his uniform.

She helped him into it, straightened the collar, and stepped back.

Caelus checked himself in the mirror.

The Academy uniform fit differently now that he wore the black Apex trim. It wasn’t particularly dramatic, but it was enough to make the change in his status visible to anyone who understood what they were looking at.

Mira remained behind him.

"Young Master?"

He met her eyes through the mirror.

"Yes?"

"May I come with you?"

Caelus turned.

The pitiful expression on her face made the request suspicious before she’d even explained it.

"You want to attend my class?"

"Yes."

"You know you’re not a student."

"I know."

"And they probably won’t allow attendants into lecture rooms."

"But you’re the Apex."

The answer came with complete confidence.

Caelus stared at her.

Mira stared back.

It was remarkably difficult to argue with someone who had already decided that the title of Apex solved every legal problem in existence.

His shoulders dropped.

"Fine."

Her face brightened.

"I knew you would agree."

"You’re becoming very good at manipulating me."

"I would never."

"You just did."

Mira smiled innocently.

Caelus decided the conversation wasn’t worth continuing.

They left the residence together.

The Academy was already awake by then.

The central walkways were crowded with students heading toward their departments, while instructors moved between buildings carrying stacks of books, diagrams, and whatever else professors apparently needed in order to survive a morning lecture.

The atmosphere was nothing like the examination.

Thousands of students beginning a semester they believed would unfold according to something as predictable as a schedule.

Students he had once treated as background figures were walking past him. Professors he had barely bothered naming would now influence the people around him. Events he’d only sketched into existence had acquired lives beyond the pages he’d written.

The world had become larger than the manuscript.

Veyra had already taught him the practical answer to that problem.

Observe.

So he did.

A group of first-years kept glancing toward Caelus before whispering among themselves.

Mira glanced at them.

Caelus kept walking.

Another student looked toward the sword at his side.

"Isn’t he supposed to be following the Mage path?"

"Apparently."

"Then why is he still carrying that?"

Caelus almost smiled.

At the end of the corridor, Mira pointed toward the lecture hall.

"Awakened Studies."

Caelus looked at the doorway.

Several students were already entering.

For once, he wasn’t late.

That alone felt like an achievement.

He stepped toward the room, then he paused.

The thought that came to him was almost embarrassingly simple.

This was his first actual class at the Academy.

A class.

He pushed the thought aside.

There would be time to be irritated by the irony later.

Caelus entered the lecture hall.

Mira followed close behind.

The semester had finally begun.