Chapter 1154: Rankings

By the time Lucavion returned to his room, evening had settled over the Academy.

The last light lingered between the distant towers, leaving the room dim enough for the mana lamp beside his desk to awaken on its own. Lucavion loosened his collar and pulled off his outer coat when a soft thump came from the window.

Vitaliara stood on the sill.

Leaves clung to one side of her white fur. A smear of dirt crossed one foreleg, and something suspiciously similar to a burr had lodged beneath her chin.

Lucavion stared at her.

Vitaliara stared back.

Her fur drew inward for an instant. Leaves, dirt, and burr disappeared beneath the shifting white before the coat smoothed itself immaculate again.

Lucavion hung his coat over the chair. "Great timing, you have."

Vitaliara stepped down from the sill with considerably more dignity than someone who had arrived wearing half a shrub deserved. He reached for the buttons of his shirt, and her head turned toward him.

Lucavion paused. "Peeping ca—"

[I am not.]

"Expect me to believe it."

[Whatever you want.]

"Convincing defense."

She jumped onto the desk and settled beside the stack of magical-theory notes Elara had given him, tail curling around her paws.

Lucavion changed anyway.

By the time he pulled on a loose shirt and sat on the edge of the bed, Vitaliara had begun inspecting one of his quills as though deciding whether it had personally offended her.

He watched her for a moment.

"...Were you able to find anything?"

[No.]

That answer came quickly.

Lucavion leaned forward, forearms resting against his thighs. He had expected as much. Whatever traces remained had survived long enough without drawing attention; one afternoon of searching was unlikely to change that.

For now, there was nothing.

Which was also all anyone watching needed to know.

His gaze drifted vaguely upward for a moment before returning to Vitaliara.

She was staring at his mouth.

[In a good mood?]

"..."

[What?]

Lucavion touched the corner of his lips.

He was smiling.

The dining hall came back to him in pieces. Reilan’s flat suspicion. Selphine building her case with the enthusiasm of a prosecutor who had never considered the value of proper procedure. Mireilla making every accusation worse. Toven learning that arguing with Lucavion only created more material for everyone else.

And Elara, sitting through the entire affair while the table debated whether his interruption of Gervase had come from hidden knowledge, romantic interest, or some increasingly unreasonable combination of the two.

The empty teapot had been a good choice.

He still believed that.

"Just remembering some things," he muttered.

Vitaliara’s ears tilted toward him.

[It is not nothing.]

Lucavion looked toward the window.

No. Perhaps it wasn’t.

The conversation itself had accomplished very little. They had eaten, argued over things nobody intended to settle, made accusations without evidence, and remained at the table considerably longer than necessary.

That part felt strangely familiar.

Back on Earth, there had been afternoons after school that ended much the same way. Nobody had anything important left to say. Nobody quite decided to leave either.

Years of traveling in this world had given him far fewer opportunities for that.

Traveling with people invited questions, and Lucavion had spent a long time possessing answers he preferred nobody ask for. Death mana alone made companionship inconvenient. Add what he did with the remains of monsters afterward, and solitude had usually required less explanation.

Eventually, being alone had simply become part of traveling.

His eyes shifted toward the desk.

Elara’s notes sat beneath Vitaliara’s paws. An Academy schedule had been shoved underneath them. A borrowed book from the Western Library remained open near the edge, and a notice from the Martial Arts Block had been folded beneath his spare gloves.

His days had become crowded.

Somewhere along the way, so had the people in them.

Lucavion leaned back on his hands. "This place is getting noisy."

[You dislike noise.]

"Sometimes."

Vitaliara watched him.

[You are still smiling.]

His mouth flattened immediately.

Her tail flicked once.

Lucavion pointed at her. "Do not become Selphine."

[I do not know who that is.]

"Keep it that way."

The room settled around them.

Lucavion let the silence remain until his attention returned to what Vitaliara had failed to find. One unsuccessful search changed very little.

He pushed himself off the bed and crossed toward the desk.

"Tomorrow, try farther north."

Her ears moved.

[Again?]

"Again."

The Academy could keep being noisy.

He still had work to do.

******

Saturday passed quietly enough that the Examination Period already seemed slightly unreal.

Students slept late, occupied the cultivation facilities, drifted through the libraries, or gathered in common rooms to reconstruct examinations from memory. Rankings remained unpublished, which naturally meant everyone had begun calculating their own.

A remarkable number concluded that they had performed exceptionally well.

The mathematics became increasingly difficult to defend.

By Sunday, even the speculation had begun repeating itself. Someone had heard that one residence received its rankings early. Someone else claimed several combat scores were under review. A student in the dining hall explained the Academy’s exact weighting system with great confidence until asked where he had learned it.

His roommate.

Who had heard it over breakfast.

The Academy itself said nothing.

Monday arrived anyway.

The female residences were already awake when Elara stepped outside.

Students had accumulated beneath the covered entrance walkway, some prepared for morning lectures while others still carried unfinished breakfasts. Their attention remained fixed on the broad runic panel built into the outer wall.

Selphine stood near the front. Mireilla had taken possession of a support pillar with a piece of bread in hand, while Elayne waited nearby in silence.

Elara joined them and looked at the blank stone.

"Nothing?"

"Not unless you find gray stone informative."

Mireilla took another bite. "It has been more informative than the Academy all weekend."

A pale pulse crossed the panel.

Conversation faded as runes awakened around its border and spread inward, forming the Academy crest.

Then came the first heading.

EXAMINATION PERIOD — FINAL RECORD CONSOLIDATION

The panel proceeded to explain exactly what had been consolidated: examination results, Block standings, Academy Credits, remedial requirements, and permanent residential assignments.

Mireilla stopped chewing. "Are those the results?"

"Those are the things included in the results," Selphine said.

"That distinction feels unnecessary."

Elara found herself agreeing.

The Academy had spent the weekend turning an entire examination period into permanent student records. Useful work, certainly.

Nobody gathered in the corridor before morning lectures to admire administrative competence.

Another heading appeared.

PRIMARY BLOCK ASSIGNMENT PROCEDURES

A groan traveled through the students.

The panel moved from there into Credit registration and residence confirmation, enough information passing across the projection that people repeatedly leaned forward whenever a number appeared, only to settle back when it belonged to a rule rather than a student.

Mireilla finished her bread somewhere during remedial scheduling.

Then the projection cleared.

Its broad sections narrowed into columns.

Students throughout the corridor moved closer.

Names began forming.

Numbers followed.

Mireilla straightened from the pillar.

At the top of the projection, one final heading appeared.

FINAL RANKING PUBLICATION PROCEDURE ℯℯ𝘭.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Mireilla looked at the wall.

"We waited the entire weekend for this."

"Yes."

"So why did they need such a long list before showing us where we placed?"

Selphine studied the glowing heading. "Perhaps they wanted to make certain we appreciated reaching it."

The first ranking column began to load.