The actual procurement was nothing short of an amazing experience for Xian. He had expected to spend hours searching the city for artisans who could make Carmillia's specialized equipment. Instead, he discovered that people with enough money apparently did not need to do any of that themselves.
The banking house handled purchases like this through trusted merchants and workshops throughout Rozenfall. Carmillia had already written down the grades, materials, and specifications she required. Xian only needed to provide the list and authorize the purchases. Anything unavailable could simply be commissioned from an appropriate craftsman.
If an order required a detail outside Carmillia's written specifications, it would simply be held until Xian could ask her.
Most of what remained for him was paperwork.
Once again, Xian felt the power of money.
He read through another set of documents before signing his name where the clerk indicated.
"Deliver everything directly to Rozenfall Academy. The receiving location is Professor Caesar's private training compound." Xian placed another document beside the order. "Lady Carmillia's authorization is here, Professor Caesar's permission for the use of the property is attached, and this should cover entry through the Academy gates."
The clerk examined the papers before gathering them together. "That will be sufficient. Available items can be delivered first. Commissioned equipment will follow as each order is completed."
"Good."
That was easier than Xian had imagined.
With Carmillia's purchases finally being handled, his attention returned to something much smaller in scale but far more personally important.
His own money, the five Gold registered under his name, still had to go somewhere.
"Can I leave my compensation here?"
"Certainly. We can establish a personal account under your name."
"What do you need from me?"
"Your Academy identification will be sufficient for the initial registration. We will also require your signature and a verification record for future withdrawals."
Xian handed over his identification again.
The process was surprisingly straightforward. The clerk prepared another set of documents and confirmed his name and identity. Then he placed the compensation already waiting for Xian into a personal account.
From then on, the monthly payments from Carmillia and Renedon could be deposited there directly instead of being held until he collected them.
Xian considered taking all five Gold with him for half a second. Then he decided that carrying the equivalent of ten thousand dollars around Rozenfall was probably unnecessary.
"Leave four Gold and eighty Silver in the account. I'll take twenty Silver with me."
The clerk recorded the instruction. Twenty Silver was already more spending money than Xian had possessed at any point since arriving in this world. The rest would remain untouched for now.
For the first time since coming to Rozenfall, he had money that belonged entirely to him, stored somewhere under his own name.
Compared with the fortune he had just seen passing through Carmillia's account, it was almost laughably small.
Xian still found himself smiling anyway.
By the time he finished, much of the required equipment had been ordered, registered, and scheduled for direct delivery.
Xian walked back toward the Academy before curfew. His own salary was finally accessible, while Carmillia's research arrangements were already moving through the city's supply network.
…
Friday afternoon class.
Xian had once again learned plenty about the world during the first and second periods. Now, however, came something he was both excited and nervous about.
Mana and Aura students would be training together today, which meant the afternoon exercise would involve pairings and actual combat.
Nearly two hundred first-years filled the enormous training dome. The field had been arranged like an overgrown ruin, with sparse woodland between cracked stone paths, broken temple walls, shattered pillars, fallen arches, and patches of exposed soil. Several open clearings broke up the denser areas, leaving plenty of space for large fights while still providing cover and narrow passages.
The students were scattered across the field while attendants oversaw their assigned sections.
High above them, an enclosed observation booth protruded from the upper wall, its broad glass windows overlooking almost every section of the arena.
Aleandro and George stood inside.
"For the first exercise, choose your own partner. Mana students should pair with an Aura student when possible. Remaining Aura students may pair among themselves."
Aleandro's voice carried throughout the dome with some kind of amplification device, clear enough that even the students standing at the opposite end heard him without difficulty.
"Professor George and I will oversee the entire field along with twenty other attendants."
George stepped toward the glass and took the communicator from beside him.
"So don't get any funny ideas, eh, students?"
His voice rolled across the dome.
A few students laughed, while others reacted more cautiously to their instructor's loud warning. But Xian knew George had directed those words at him and Carmillia, likely because of Xian's confrontation with Adrian's group.
Even from below, Xian could see that Aleandro's gaze had already turned toward him and Carmillia.
They naturally paired as master and servant and as the First and Second Seats. More importantly, they were two people who would almost certainly end up fighting beside one another in the future.
Carmillia seemed to understand the same thing. If Xian was going to remain beside her, she would eventually have to become familiar with his pacing, just as he needed to become familiar with hers.
Once the students had settled into pairs, attendants began moving through the crowd with two bundles of cloth tags.
"The objective is simple. Protect the tag assigned to you and collect as many points as possible."
"Your assigned tag must remain visibly worn and cannot be voluntarily transferred. Captured and unclaimed tags may be transferred, but only the student holding them when the exercise ends will receive their points."
Red tags were distributed to Mana students and white ones to Aura students. Each had to be worn somewhere clearly visible on the body.
"Your tags are not all worth the same amount. For this exercise, your current rank is based on your entrance examination results."
Several students who were still fixing their tag looked up, especially those too far from the observation booth to tell where the voice was coming from.
"An unranked student carries the lowest value. Heath tags are worth more, followed by Orchid and Iris. Rose holders possess the highest-value tags on the field."
Xian could practically feel several heads turning in their direction as murmurs spread across the field.
"Your current rank is already recorded on the tag, so there will be no dispute over its value. You are free to pursue whoever you believe is worth the risk."
That last part changed the atmosphere completely.
"There are also unclaimed tags scattered throughout the arena. Those carry the base value. Whoever reaches one first may claim it, but afterward it can be transferred or stolen like any other captured tag."
So there were two ways to build a score.
Search the field.
Or rob someone who had already done the searching for you.
Xian wrapped his white tag tightly around his left wrist, where it would interfere with his grip as little as possible. He had already taken one of the wooden training longswords provided for the exercise. Since this was only practice, he had no reason not to use the weapon Serika had been drilling into him.
Carmillia, meanwhile, tied hers around her neck. Against her white-and-gold training uniform, the red cloth looked more like a small ribbon accessory than a high-value tag.
'Why there?'
It was one of the least practical spots she could have chosen. Xian pointed that out, but Carmillia merely looked at him.
"Why? Can't protect me?"
Xian decided to shut up and do well, since the ribbon looked cute on her. Unfortunately, she was still Carmillia, who made things a bit more difficult for him.
Elsewhere, students were already reacting to the rules. Some searched for high ground to get a better view of the field, while others began studying nearby pairs instead of the scattered tags.
Many eyes drifted toward the students carrying the most valuable tags. Most of the higher-ranked tags belonged to students from the Royal and Elite Classes.
Tension built as pairs with titled tags warily watched the students eyeing them.
"Then… begin."
The entire field erupted with shouts and footsteps. The chaos wouldn't make much of a difference to Xian and Carmillia, though.
His gaze soon landed on a group of Common Class students, and for a brief moment, he met the eyes of one of them.
"Spread out!" the student ordered, sounding almost frightened.
Several nearby pairs actually followed his command.
Xian began to wonder if they were part of the reformists. It was a strange sight, after all. Even though everyone had been divided into pairs, the Commons were already acting almost like one body, coordinating as they singled out targets and avoided dangerous ones.
'Only people from the same organization would act like that. Unless the whole Common Class is made up of reformists?'
As the first few clashes broke out, he saw students ganging up on those from different divisions, mainly the Royal Class.
From afar, Xian could see three Common Class pairs circling Rhykard.
"Shit, you damned peasants! Go get those two if you're going to gang up on someone!"
Rhykard pointed angrily at Xian and Carmillia as he released the thin steel poles and chains to attack and restrain the three Mages targeting him. A female fighter took on the other three.
Xian activated the Glimpse Lens and saw that she was Level 9, one of the few students whose Level actually rivaled Fahna's.
He remembered the girl playing a role similar to Serika and Lucinelle, though she didn't disappear midway through the game like those two. She remained alive as long as Rhykard did.
The Elite students took a similar approach. They kept their assigned tags on themselves but began pooling the tags they had captured, handing them to whoever seemed to be their leader. Adrian, Kyrin, and Rumi had adapted to the system just fine too.
The Royal Class was the only group struggling because its students refused to unite.
'Now then, we should get moving too.'
"Your orders, Milady?"
When he asked, Carmillia was already casting a spell.
A huge flower bud grew from the ground until it stood twice as tall as Xian. The bud suddenly bloomed and spat its seeds across their surroundings.
"We wait. Then capture anyone who comes."
…
"Tsk, I can't cast properly if I have to keep dodging, Sabel!" Rhykard shouted at the girl paired with him.
She was a quiet-looking girl who barely stood out beside the far more conspicuous Rhykard. While he tried to control the space around himself with thin steel poles linked by chains, she intercepted anyone who slipped through his reach, never remaining in one place longer than necessary.
"What are you doing? Do your job properly!"
The other Mages took turns keeping Rhykard occupied to prevent him from preparing anything stronger.
"I… I can't block all of their attacks!"
Three Mages, even at a novice level, were still troublesome when firing projectiles from different directions. If Sabel focused entirely on interrupting them, however, Rhykard would be left exposed to the three Aura students trying to break through his steel network and take his tag.
Rhykard was still a Mage. If several trained Aura students reached him at once, they would force him into exactly the kind of close-range fight he wanted to avoid.
"Then take the hits with your body! If I go down any further than Fourth Seat, you know what'll happen, don't you?" Rhykard hissed as Sabel returned to his side after forcing back three Aura users with her training broadsword.
"…"
"Don't worry. I can always fix you up later."
And so, she did.
Sabel stepped directly in front of him, deflecting whatever spells she could with the broad face of her blade while the Aura students continued trying to overwhelm her or tear away her tag. When too many attacks came at once, she stopped attempting to evade everything.
A basic Mana projectile struck her shoulder with a cracking sound, wrenching the joint out of place. Another glanced off her elbow and tore open the skin.
"Ugh!"
The third was about to hit Rhykard when she took it in the side instead, all while struggling to hold back the Aura students pressing against her blade.
The attackers hesitated when they realized she was allowing the spells to hit her rather than let them reach Rhykard.
"T-This is crazy!" one of them cried.
"Alright, you did well. I'm done."
Rhykard's voice suddenly came from behind her.
The dust around him thinned, revealing several steel poles and lengths of chain suspended in a dense interlocking formation. The Common Class students saw what he had prepared, but rather than retreat, the Aura users rushed forward while their Mages released another volley of magical projectiles.
"Heh. Fools."
The chained steel formation moved.
Three poles whipped outward in wide spinning arcs. One smashed through an incoming projectile before continuing toward its caster, while the others swept across the remaining Mages with enough force to knock them from their feet.
The Aura students faltered at the sudden reversal.
Seeing an opportunity, Sabel moved.
She struck one across the back of the shoulder with the flat of her broadsword and drove the pommel into another's stomach. Then she hooked an arm around the last student's neck long enough to drag him off balance before striking him across the back. She did it all with one hand while her other arm hung limp.
As if that wasn't enough, Rhykard's chains swept through the group. Steel wrapped around wrists, ankles, and torsos before tightening just enough to pin them together against the ground.
Rhykard stared at the captured students with a livid expression, but he stopped when his gaze shifted toward one of the higher vantage points overlooking the field.
An Academy attendant in Mage attire had already revealed himself there, watching silently.
Rhykard clicked his tongue.
"Shit. Damned peasants. I'll remember your faces."
He turned away, though the spite remained in his eyes.
"Hey, Sabel. Go collect the tags. If you lose so much as one, that's one less person I'll permit. You understand?"
"…Yes."
"If you know, then hurry it up. Let's go meet those fools."
Whoever he was referring to, Sabel did not seem to care. With the same blank expression, she gathered the captured tags, tied them securely around her shoulder, and hurried after Rhykard.
Just then, the Mage attendant appeared near Sabel. Startled, she tried to cover her wound and turn her body to hide her injured arm.
"Sabel of the Royal Class. Are you going to continue?"
"…Yes."
The Mage nodded in understanding and moved to retrieve the fallen students.
Eventually, only silence remained as Sabel continued to follow Rhykard.
…
From the elevated observation area overlooking the field, George's attention gradually settled on several pairs.
"Hrrm. Got a troublesome few again. Damn it, kids like these never disappear, huh?"
George, standing beside Aleandro, was clearly referring to Rhykard and Sabel. Their exact relationship wasn't clear to either professor, but both could see it for what it was.
It wasn't just them. The Royal Class students were generally stronger than the rest, yet several pairs also offered perfect examples of the master-servant relationships common among nobles. One student might submit to another because of family obligations, leverage, or some other form of subordination.
The Common and Elite Classes ganging up on the Royals only made life harder for those subordinates. It didn't help that both groups acted like organized units.
"Aish, I always find this cruel. You really can't tell them how the first exercise's gonna go?"
"No. It's better for them to learn as they go."
"Sometimes I wonder if yer more savage than me or nah."
"My methods prove otherwise. Breaking their illusions about authority is the very first step."
Aleandro's already stern expression grew even colder.
"They need to see how cruel those born disadvantaged can become when given a chance to drag down those above them. These students are the future leaders of their respective houses. The society waiting for them is full of greedy devils who will eat them alive at the slightest sign of naivety."
George stared intently at his junior colleague. Aleandro had taught several first-years the hard way using this exact method before they advanced to higher years: withholding information while the other divisions helped their own students overtake the Royals and seize every advantage against them.
To their frustration, Aleandro's habit of gradually breaking the Royals' spirits over the course of their first year had produced cunning and manipulative monsters in later years.
It wasn't a pleasant method to watch, but it mimicked the Headmaster's philosophy almost to a fault.
"…Yeah, yeah, whatever. You think we should separate those two as well?" George pointed at Carmillia and Xian.
Carmillia sat in a throne-like entanglement of vines in an open space while Xian faced any students who wandered into her sphere of influence.
From his vantage point, George could see just how far her network of vines had spread. Whenever one of the black flowers opened somewhere within it, nearby vines reacted and tugged Xian toward that section. He took out whoever he found there in only a few hits.
As for Carmillia, anyone who slipped past Xian and made it to her usually underestimated her capabilities and ended up caught.
The problem was what she did afterward.
"Look, she aint lettin em go."
"Hm."
Carmillia didn't let the captured students go, preventing them from gathering any more tags. She seemed to revel in the fact that they could only remain helplessly entangled in her vines. Without any real injuries, the attendants had no grounds to remove them from the exercise.
From above, the pattern resembled a spiderweb, with plenty of prey trapped in its midst.
'Troublesome indeed.'
Although Aleandro's Magic bore some resemblance to Carmillia's, hers focused far more heavily on control, which made her opponents look even more pathetic against her.
"Yes… In the next exercise, we must."
"Oh, the number four lass from that booklet is headin' straight for her."
"?"
Aleandro was distracted for a moment by that. Frowning, he turned to George first, then followed the direction of his gaze.
Prey that might be too big for the spider had entered its web.
…
Gumin saw a strange dark vine, a rare type of Magic she rarely encountered back home. Mages who specialized in those fields rarely stayed in the bitter cold of the Rift she called home. Its flexibility and darkness were the same traits she had seen during the entrance examination.
'What does the darkness do? Inflict more pain? Poison? Or Decay?'
At Enhen Anterei, she had only been allowed to read a limited selection of books on Magic. Darkness and Botanical Magic were particularly rare among the works her master permitted her to study.
Even as an Archmage's disciple, she still wasn't entitled to access the full research of most Mages.
Her master had many excuses, which she had already memorized. Most of them were true and made sense, though, so Gumin never held a grudge.
Her reason for coming to the Academy was part of a deal between them. Upon graduating, Gumin would be allowed to browse the full archives of Enhen Anterei and become her master's official successor once he stepped down.
"Ms. Gumin, I have a bad feeling about these vines… Some pitch-black flowers bloom whenever we approach too." A student wearing the Royal Class training uniform followed behind her with an apprehensive expression.
Somehow, Gumin had ended up paired with one of the Aura students from her own class. She had been half-asleep when everyone chose their partners and hadn't cared enough to pay attention until it was already decided.
After classes, she usually took every opportunity to read whatever caught her interest. Maintaining good grades at Rozenfall was mostly a means to an end. What she really wanted was access to knowledge she couldn't obtain back home.
Ironically, Rozenfall offered her a wider variety of subjects than Enhen Anterei ever had, because in here, she was practically free to choose among its whole collection. Maybe, even the hidden one's in the future.
"It's some kind of alarm Magic, I guess," Gumin answered without much urgency while daydreaming about new magic books.
"Eh? Then shouldn't we leave?"
"It's too late."
Her partner, whose name she still didn't know, had already triggered the alarm several times despite Gumin's efforts to avoid notice.
'I guess it detects sound instead, huh?'
"But we already have enough tags! What if we run into a large group?"
Gumin stopped and looked at the pathetic boy who had been paired with her. She hadn't cared who she ended up with, but now that she looked at him properly, she recognized him as one of the classmates who had crowded around Fahna on the first day.
'Not the snob or the big guy… must be the sleazy one.'
He had approached Gumin the same way, praising her appearance and calling her pretty and elegant. Those would have been perfectly acceptable compliments in her book if his eyes hadn't kept wandering where they shouldn't.
"You can go, but you'll have to leave the tags I collected."
So far, Gumin had collected roughly eight out of every ten tags their pair possessed.
"W-What are you saying? We're a pair, aren't we?"
'Honestly, someone just take this guy out.'
Gumin hadn't heard anything about being disqualified if her partner was taken out of commission. Of course, taking him out herself would probably be a different matter altogether.
"In any case, let's just be careful."
'Says the least careful guy here.'
She kept that to herself. Staying focused was already difficult enough with how little sleep she had gotten.
Just then, Gumin's own warning spell reacted.
Vines hidden beneath the ground sprang upward and closed around them like a cage.
Before they could bind her, Gumin formed a spell with a simple thought.
'Will o' Wisp.'
A gentle plume of blue flame swept in front of her as she stepped beyond the reach of the closing vines. Her companion, however, wasn't so lucky.
'Should I take it? No… Let's try to take it from her instead.'
"Ms. Gumin! Ahhh! Gumin! Come back here right now!"
Gumin left him behind without another thought.
She already recognized the traces of Mana woven throughout the vegetation. They belonged to the same Mage whose dark vines and strange Darkness Magic she had seen during the entrance examination.
'She's here. That Lady Carmillia they're talking about.'
Someone was forming spells throughout the surrounding terrain rather than from a single visible position. Gumin looked forward to seeing what other spells she would use.
According to her master, House Montagne was one of the families she needed to pay attention to during her time at the Academy, especially its heiress, who would be attending in the same generation as her.
Apparently, House Montagne was Enhen Anterei's premier supplier of magical jewels and stones sought after by accomplished Mages for enchanted equipment. Carmillia herself was another matter. Information about her had been tightly controlled, and little was publicly known beyond the fact that she was a Mage.
'It's pretty good.'
The deeper Gumin went, the clearer it became that Carmillia had prepared this entire section of the ruins beforehand.
Roots disappeared beneath cracked stone paths while dark vines climbed the remnants of broken walls and pillars. The vegetation became noticeably denser around one particular section of the old temple grounds.
Gumin had barely passed beneath a collapsed arch when the vegetation moved.
Three vines snapped toward her from different angles. A small blue flame expanded from the tip of her staff and burned through the first, while a second spell forced the other two aside with a burst of wind. She continued forward without stopping, only for more vines to emerge from cracks in the stone where there had been nothing moments before.
'Prepared beforehand.'
That explained why the Magic had felt strange from the beginning.
Another vine came low for her ankle. Gumin floated over it and landed atop a broken section of temple flooring, but the moment her feet touched stone, black petals scattered from somewhere above. Darkness spread between them, flowing beneath the trees and through the gaps in the ruins until the distance ahead became difficult to judge.
Gumin used a simple wind spell to blow it away.
The mist broke apart around her, only to reveal a mass of roots already crossing the ground underneath it.
'Is this really all Darkness does?'
She had expected more from it than simple visual obstruction.
'It's a little creepy.'
Gumin's sleepy eyes opened a little wider as she raised her staff. A barrier caught the first cluster of roots while concentrated flame burned through another. She followed with a simple Force spell that threw the severed vines aside before they could obstruct her footing.
She had plenty of countermeasures. Fire burned the vines, wind cleared the mist, and barriers bought her enough room to deal with whatever came next.
The annoying part was how rapidly Carmillia kept changing the spells Gumin had to pay attention to.
A bolt of Darkness struck her barrier just as another root emerged from below. A blackened patch spread across the point of impact, slowly eating into its surface.
'Oh, it's getting degraded…'
Gumin hurriedly stepped aside before the root could exploit the weakened section and burned it away, then turned when several vines came around the remains of a broken wall instead of approaching from the front. By the time those were gone, Darkness had already begun gathering again where the wind had cleared it.
'Annoying.'
She finally saw Carmillia through an opening between the ruined pillars.
The Second Seat had hardly moved from her spot, probably overseeing everything from there the entire time.
Thick vines had grown together beneath her into something resembling a chair, raised slightly above the surrounding roots, while numerous captured students remained bound among the nearby ruins. Some were pinned against walls and others sat helplessly on the ground, but none appeared injured enough for the attendants to remove them.
Even her partner was there, along with a portion of the tags she was supposed to take.
Carmillia's red tag rested around her neck like a cute ribbon, while several others she had collected dangled loosely from one hand as she idly played with them.
Gumin fixed her attention on it.
A direct path would be simpler.
Fire gathered around her staff as she began constructing a spell meant to clear everything between them at once. It was already enough to burn a path through the vines and roots blocking her approach.
Gumin hesitated.
If she stopped there, Carmillia could simply grow through the damaged sections again.
'One more.'
She added enough sustained heat to keep the path burning after she crossed.
That was when Carmillia changed her method again.
The roots surrounding Gumin no longer approached one after another. Several sections of the hidden network activated at once, tearing through the stone from below and collapsing inward from both sides as vines descended from the ruins above.
Gumin's unfinished spell remained suspended for another moment before she abandoned it.
A full-body barrier formed around her just as the first roots struck.
The barrier held, but Carmillia didn't try to break it. Roots wrapped around the outside instead, anchoring themselves against the ruins while additional vines tightened over them. The more Gumin reinforced the barrier, the more completely the vegetation enclosed it.
'She's trapping the barrier.'
Staying inside would only let Carmillia finish surrounding her.
Gumin released it and propelled herself through the narrow opening left behind by its collapse.
Something brushed past her shoulder.
She landed several meters away and turned, expecting another attack.
Nothing came.
Instead, one thin vine was already retreating through the grass.
Her red tag was wrapped around its tip.
"…"
Gumin stared at it.
The vine disappeared into the root network before she could retrieve it, passing beneath a broken wall and emerging moments later beside Carmillia.
Carmillia took the tag without even standing from her seat.
Gumin's expression finally lost some of its drowsiness.
She tightened her grip around her staff.
This time, she didn't bother constructing anything elaborate.
Fire swept across the nearest vines while a second spell blasted the burning growth aside. She pushed through the opening before Carmillia could close it, crossed the remains of a fallen column, and sent several basic projectiles directly toward the vine structure beneath her.
A wall of interwoven briars rose in front of Carmillia.
Gumin destroyed part of it with another burst of fire, only for roots to seize the broken masonry around her and drag it inward. She jumped from the collapsing stone, changed direction in midair, and landed close enough that Carmillia's tag was finally within reach.
Darkness swallowed the distance between them.
Gumin instinctively stopped to clear her sight with wind.
That fraction of a second was all Carmillia needed.
Roots erupted around her from every direction before she could finish forming the spell. She destroyed the first layer, but the delay allowed the vines already spread throughout the surrounding ruins to fold inward, forcing her to cast another spell against the growth coming from behind.
By the time Gumin finally tore herself free, the opportunity was gone.
Carmillia was still sitting where she had been.
Her red tag remained untouched around her neck, while Gumin's tag already hung among the collection beside her.
Carmillia looked at the ruined vegetation between them, then at Gumin.
Both were women of few words, and neither felt the need to speak.
The exchange they had just shared through Magic had already been more than enough of a conversation.
As for Gumin, she was fully awake now.