Chapter 33: Two Students With Restricted Classes

Ethan woke up to the feeling of fingers moving through his hair...

For a second he kept his eyes closed, still halfway inside the light nap he had fallen into near the back of the lecture hall.

The fingers were slow and absentminded, combing from the front of his head to the back. When he opened one eye, Lila was leaning over from the set next to him, her eyes focused on what her hand was doing with a small smile on her face.

"I can’t help it," she said quietly when she noticed he was awake. "Your hair’s soft."

Ethan’s gaze fell back onto the table. He had fallen asleep, no mistake there.

Lila’s hand moved through his hair one last time before she pull back properly and Ethan moved his eyes towards the front of the auditorium but there was no sign of Professor Crane.

"The Professor isn’t here yet?" he asked.

Lila shook her head. "Nope."

That was unusual. Crane was strict about punctuality and even stricter about communication. If she was going to miss a session, there was normally an email waiting before anyone was awake.

Ethan sighed and buried his face in his hands. They were already several minutes past the start of the period.

Before he could think about it further, a shadow fell over them, prompting him to look up.

Marcus stood there with his usual half smile, hands in his pockets as his eyes moved between Ethan and Lila, lingering for a moment before speaking.

"You two have gotten... close," he said. "A week ago she was avoiding you— anyone with a brain would notice. Now she’s back sitting next to you like nothing happened."

Lila looked at him with a flat expression on her face as she asked. "Do you need something, Marcus?"

"Just making an observation." His gaze shifted fully to Ethan. "Is there something going on between you two?"

"No," Lila replied. "It’s more of a one-sided thing..."

The reply came and Marcus’ smile widened as if that was the answer he had expected.

"Figures." He looked at Ethan with an expression that looked like a scowl. "You should give up early Necromancer. She’s out of your league. You’re only roommates because the academy assigned it that way. Coincidence isn’t the same thing as a chance. Get that into your thick skull..."

Ethan met his eyes and said nothing. Not because he didn’t have something to say, but simply because he didn’t care enough to want to reply.

He wondered how Marcus would look when he realised that the "one-sided" thing Lila mentioned was actually because of her and ultimately decided not to reply.

Marcus held his gaze for a moment longer, then gave a dismissive shrug and walked back toward his seat.

"Ignore him," Lila muttered as she turned back to him.

Ethan didn’t answer. He was still thinking about the empty podium and the missing email when the classroom door opened.

The man who entered was in his mid-forties, had broad-shoulders with his hair going grey at the temples. His posture was straight and he wore a plain coat over practical clothes and carried no tablet.

Ethan straightened as he walked in, his presence alone killing the remaining conversations.

He stopped at the front of the room and looked across the seats with a flat look in his eyes.

"Professor Crane is on a dungeon assignment," he said. He said in a rough voice. "I’ll be covering this session. My name is Professor Grant, former field hunter. Today’s topic is restricted classes."

The room went dead silent.

Grant set his hands on the podium and spoke again. "Before we start, I want every student with a restricted-class ability to stand."

The silence that followed was thick, and Ethan’s eyes narrowed before he slowly pushed his chair back and stood. A moment later Nora rose as well from her seat closer to the front.

The two of them were the only ones on their feet...

Grant’s gaze moved between them, and said:

"Two," he said. "Better than some years, worse than others." A pause. "What are your abilities?"

Nora was the first to answer. "Blood Craft. Rank A"

Grant’s gaze shifted to Ethan and he spoke. "Necromancer," he paused, thinking whether he should say he was at Rank E. As far as he knew, the academy didn’t know about his new rank.

So he chose the most reasonable answer.

"Rank F," he said.

Professor Grant gestured carelessly. "Remain standing."

Ethan kept his expression neutral, Marcus looked openly pleased and Aria watched with cold interest.

Professor Grant soon began.

"Restricted classes are abilities the academy and the MCA have determined to carry heavy risk relative to their baseline use. Necromancy, Blood Craft, anything that interacts with corpses, vital force, or large scale involuntary control. Restricted classes are called ’’highly monitored classifications’ in fancy talk. In the field we called them problems waiting for a body count."

He took a breath... "You will hear softer explanations in other lectures. Compatibility, potential, blah blah blah. Don’t get attached to those. The reality is far simpler: Restricted users are harder to predict, harder to counter, and harder to clean up after when something goes wrong. That is why you are already under different rules than the rest of your year, even if most of you haven’t felt the difference yet."

His eyes returned to Ethan and Nora.

"The academy’s job is not to make you comfortable. It is to make sure that by the time you leave these walls, the dangerous ones are either useful under control or no longer a problem. The MCA takes this a step farther."

A few students shifted uncomfortably, most simply listened.

Grant continued, pacing around as he did. He covered official restricted expectations, the higher rate of post-graduation incidents involving restricted classes, and the lengths at which the MCA could impose additional restrictions if they deemed it necessary or felt like it.

"Some of you will decide this doesn’t apply to you," he said near the end. "You’ll tell yourselves that careful behavior and good intentions are enough but history says otherwise. Most restricted users who become problems didn’t start out trying to be one—they started out thinking they were an exception."

He stopped pacing.

"You two. Sit."

Ethan sat, and Nora did the same a moment later.

Grant looked across the full class one last time.

"Restricted-class students are risks, statistically proven. The majority either become operational problems or end up contained. The academy exists in order to identify which ones can be made useful before they leave, and which ones need tighter limits placed on them early. That process is already running whether you notice it or not."

His gaze settled on Ethan and Nora again, longer this time, long enough that the rest of the room noticed it.

"Class dismissed."

Chairs pulled backwards as the students began filing out one after the other.

Marcus said something to one of his followers that drew a short laugh and a group of students began flocking around Aria.

Ethan remained seated a moment longer, staring at the professor as he turned the lecture over in his mind

It seemed that the academy was going to make the most out of making his life here exceptionally hard...