Learning is an interesting concept.
Most people treat it like a simple process. You attend school, listen to someone explain a subject, memorize the information, and eventually repeat it on a test. Once the test is finished, the knowledge fades until it is needed again.
It is a cycle of temporary understanding.
But real learning rarely works that way.
Real learning happens when the framework you rely on collapses. When the rules you thought were absolute suddenly stop working. At that moment you are forced to either abandon your assumptions or rebuild them into something stronger.
The society of magi has always understood that perfectly.
A magus does not truly learn by memorizing theories written in old books. They learn by experimenting, by testing the boundaries of reality, and by discovering where those boundaries break.
The Clock Tower is supposedly the center of that philosophy.
To the outside world, it is nothing more than a prestigious university in London. A place where scholars study history, languages, and philosophy within buildings that have stood for centuries.
And to be fair, that description is not entirely incorrect. If you enter through the front gates during the day, you will see exactly what you expect from an old academic institution.
Stone buildings covered in centuries of weathering. Students walking between lectures with books tucked under their arms. Professors arguing with one another about obscure theories that no one else really cares about.
But that illusion only lasts as long as you follow the paths meant for ordinary people. The Clock Tower is nothing like that.Take a few turns and you'd end up in a whole new world entirely.
Hallways split into smaller hallways. Staircases descend into areas that do not appear on any official map. Entire sections of the campus are hidden behind bounded fields so subtle that a normal person would walk past them without ever realizing they exist.
And last night I became one of these people.
I arrived in London around four in the evening. My grandfather accompanied me to the Clock Tower so I could formally introduce myself to the professor and the heir of the El-Melloi house, Reines El-Melloi Archisorte. We are all part of the same faction, the aristocrats. Stuck up nobles who think they're better than everyone else because they have a longer lineage of magi. I mean they aren't completely wrong, but I always stood on the opposing side of fate. If someone really wants to, I believe they can become great, using their own hands. They can claw themselves to the top if they have the heart for it.
But after that I had to take a test of some sort. I had to go to the department of policies and perform in front of some lecturers and lords. Depending on how good I do on this test will measure if I how many years of the General Fundamentals course I have to take. You need at least 5 years in the course, but you can cut those years down if you just do well enough.
Then, we were shown to the student residence controlled by the El-Melloi faction. The place functions like their own little territory within the Clock Tower. Anyone affiliated with them ends up living there, which makes it easier for the faction to keep track of its members.
By the time everything was finished it was already late.
I barely slept during the entire trip to London, so the moment I reached my room I set up a bounded field outside the door as a precaution and collapsed onto the bed.
My grandfather told me to always keep my head up in here, so I don't plan on taking any chances.
Honestly, my sleep could have been worse. I woke up at 7:30 AM feeling pretty bright, and I was honestly excited for my first class.
Today is Monday, and my first class starts at 9:30 AM. It's in the Department of General Fundamentals. Instead of the 5 years most magi have to take the course though, I only have to take it for 1 year. I'm taking the whole course over the summer as well so I can get it over with. I actually did pretty well on the test, I'm just brushing up on minor things. After that, I'll be allowed to choose a department to study from.
I got out of bed and shut off my alarm so it wouldn't ring later in the day. Honestly I decided to go to a small coffee shop this morning. It wasn't anything fancy, just a quiet place a few blocks away from the Clock Tower where students stopped before their morning lectures.
I stepped inside and walked up to the counter.
"A medium double-double and a donut," I said.
The cashier nodded and rang it up. A minute later I took the coffee and donut and found a seat near the window. I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through the local news. Most of it was the usual nonsense. Traffic problems, politics, the weather. A big nothing burger if I'm being honest.
I had just taken a bite of the donut when someone suddenly spoke from the side of my table.
"Hey!"
I looked up. A blond guy with blue eyes was standing there with a bright grin on his face. "You're the guy who moved into the dorm right next to us, right?" he said.
I stared at him for a moment before answering. "Maybe?"
"That's awesome!" he said immediately. "I knew it. I saw you yesterday when you were moving in. I've got a great memory for faces."
Before I could respond, another voice spoke from behind him. "Flat, I think you're making him visibly uncomfortable." A second student stepped up beside him. This one had slightly darker hair and a noticeably calmer expression.
"Relax, Le Chien," the blond one replied. "I'm just making conversation with the new guy."
"DON'T CALL ME THAT ACCURSED NICKNAME." The second student immediately snapped back, his calm expression gone in less than a second. He then turned back to me, looking annoyed. "My name is Svin Glascheit, don't listen to any of the utter bullshit he's spouting."
I just looked back at both of them before responding. "My name is Teitoku Kakine."
Honestly, I'm still not used to introducing my first name here. My customs are stuck in introducing my last name first and my first name last like back in Japan.
Flat stuck his arm out, inviting me to shake his hand.
I stared at it for a second before reaching forward and taking it. His grip was firm, but not overly strong. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to put a curse on me, so I did it without thinking honestly.
"Sorry, we can't stick around," Flat said suddenly, glancing toward the clock on the wall. "We've got class." He stepped back and waved casually. "We'll talk to you later!" Svin gave a small nod before following him out of the shop.
Honestly, those two looked eccentric as hell. They didn't seem like bad people at least, so I can rest easy knowing that. I ran a quick structural analysis on my hand just to make sure I didn't get cursed, and it turned up empty. As I thought nothing bad happened. Or at least I hope so.
I finished the rest of my coffee in one long gulp and shoved the last piece of the donut into my mouth. No point lingering around. After tossing the empty cup in the trash, I stepped back outside and started walking toward the Clock Tower. I'd go to my classes and then focus on my research.
The morning air was cool as I walked through the streets of London, the city already busy with people heading to work or school. It took about fifteen minutes before the familiar stone buildings of the Clock Tower came back into view.
I passed through the main gates and made my way across the campus, eventually arriving at the Department of General Fundamentals.
My first class was about to start in about 10 minutes.
I pushed open the door and stepped inside. Most of the seats were already filled with students.I scanned the room for a moment before taking an empty seat near the middle.
The student sitting next to me was a small white-haired kid with braces. He was hunched forward slightly, his shoulders pulled in like he was trying to make himself smaller.
The way he kept his eyes down made it pretty obvious he didn't want attention. I figured small talk probably wouldn't work on someone like him, so I just left him alone and waited for the class to start.
The door opened and I saw Lord El-Melloi II walk into the classroom.
The room quieted down almost immediately.
He carried a stack of papers under one arm as he stepped inside, his expression looking more tired than anything else. His dark hair was slightly messy, and the faint shadows under his eyes made it seem like he hadn't slept much either.
Honestly, he didn't look that impressive at first glance.
If anything, he looked more like an overworked graduate student than someone responsible for teaching at the Clock Tower. But my grandfather made a point on how good of a lecturer he was, so I would just hold my tongue.
I'm surprised that other professors pretty much prostate themselves so he can teach their lectures. I mean take this for example, this isn't even his lecture, but he's the one teaching it.
But the moment he placed the papers on the desk at the front of the room, the atmosphere shifted. Even the students who had been talking earlier straightened in their seats.
"Before we begin," he said, "let me correct a common misunderstanding."
He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote three words on the board.
FOUNDATION. STRUCTURE. RESULT.
"Most amateur magi obsess over the third one," he said, tapping the last word with the chalk. "The result. The visible effect of a spell." The chalk moved again, drawing a line back to the first word.
"But results are only part of the equation."
He turned toward the class.
"You should also care about why the result occurred."
A few diagrams slowly began filling the board.
"If a magus from a family with five hundred years of research performs a ritual," he continued, "they are not simply casting a spell."
He tapped the chalk against the diagram.
"They are borrowing the weight of every generation before them."
Someone in the back raised a hand and asked a question. "So, magecraft is basically reliant on tradition?"
Lord El-Melloi's expression flattened.
"That's an oversimplification."
He drew a new circle around the diagram.
"Magecraft is an accumulated authority. Tradition simply happens to be the most efficient method of storing it."
He let out an exhale before continuing.
"Modern students make the same mistake every year," he continued. "They memorize procedures without understanding the theory behind them."
"They then try to modify the ritual and end up killed."
A few people shifted in their seats, but to me this was all basic info. I guess this class was really for beginners. It makes it humiliating that I have to take this class in general.
Then about halfway through the lecture, Lord El-Melloi suddenly turned around.
"You," he said, pointing toward a student near the front. "Explain why bounded fields fail when copied directly from historical records."
The student froze.
"…Because the records might be incomplete?"
"Partially correct," Lord El-Melloi replied. While making a so and so gesture. He drew another circle on the board.
"Rituals are never isolated systems. They interact with the environment they were created in." He tapped the chalk against the circle again.
"A bounded field designed in 15th-century France will not behave the same way when recreated in modern London." He looked back across the classroom. "The world itself is part of the formula, the mystery of the times you create strengthen it."
The lecture continued like that for nearly an hour. Most of it consisted of short explanations and every now and then he would throw questions at a random student. When the clock finally reached the end of the period, Lord El-Melloi set the chalk down.
"Before you leave," he said, adjusting the papers on his desk, "you will have your first assignment."
"You will be working with one other person," he continued.
"Your task is simple. Analyze the ritual framework printed here and identify at least three structural weaknesses that would cause the spell to collapse."
I went up to the desk and grabbed the piece of paper. The spell was rather simple.
A fire spell using Kabbalah as a framework. Nothing destructive, just a small flame you could light a candle with.
The structure was straightforward. Kabbalistic magecraft works through the four worlds. Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. Which translates to Emanation, Creation, Formation and Action. Each world is a layer between the divine source and the material world. A properly constructed spell draws power from one of them depending on how you route the energy.
This ritual was pulling from Yetzirah. I could tell by the sefirot arrangement. Yetzirah is the world that holds the concept of formation and emotion. The rune was designed to tap into Geburah, the sefirah of severity and fire, and let a tiny fraction of that energy leak downward into a physical effect.
A small flame. That's all.
The assignment was to find three structural weaknesses. I looked around and the only kid without a partner was a small white haired kid. I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up to me with a hesitant expression on his face. The kid seemed introverted as hell in all honesty, but it didn't matter.
He flinched slightly, then looked up with a hesitant expression. Like he expected me to be there for some other reason and got confused when I wasn't.
I held up the paper. "I need a partner and you're the only one without one."
He blinked at me for a second, then nodded slowly. "Yeah. Okay." His voice was quiet. Almost a mumble.
I sighed. This kid was really shy and didn't want to speak to anyone. I guess an introduction of names was in order. A name carries weight in the Clock Tower. It's also a sign of trust. The most basic spells in the Department of Witchcraft are curses using someone's name or picture. Giving yours freely means something.
I held my hand out to him before speaking.
"My name is Kakine Teitoku. What's yours?"
He looked up at me, his voice hesitant. "My name is Kadoc Zelumpus." He said, his voice a whisper. I gave a short nod and shook his hand. His grip was light and nervous, but I could tell he wanted to learn. Then we proceeded to head to the library to finish our assignment. It was due on Wednesday, when our next lecture would take place.