"And that is the reason why there is a giant crater underneath us from which this Solicrave Academy was built on top of; any questions?" the magic history, the tall and bushy-bearded man, stated, finishing off his lecture by setting his mana chalk down on its wall-magnatized whiteboard. With his lesson reaching its end, the history enthusiast anticipated to recieve a few follow-up questions, which he did by the raised hand of Myendi.

  "Just to make sure I heard you right, some crystal-looking monster appeared from the sky? Then some kitsune demon appeared from the sky, whose tagalong annihilated said monster and its surroundings, leading to the formation of the Phantasm Vortex?" Myendi asked exhaustedly, voice dripping with an endless amount of suspicion, with her chin resting on her desk to keep herself from falling asleep.

  "In a grossly oversimplified way, indeed," the history teacher said, confirming Myendi's request for confirmation, using a tone to imply the girl's choice of words was nothing short of an insult to his lesson. But with her question answered, the teacher moved on to another student, Enetha, as she asked him if the kitsune demon or their tagalong was secretly a stigmai, given the Phantasm Vortex is where all other stigmai originated from.

  The history teacher could neither confirm nor deny, given how the knowledge pertaining to Phantasm Vortex was rather mysterious.

  While her head had finally rolled forward and her face down on her desk, Myendi refused to fall asleep, not that she wasn't trying to escape the chore that she knew as history class. That part about her hadn't changed since her first go at the game of life, that much, was something Xythio could surmise from the girl's constant groaning in all the history classes they've shared over the years.

  "Are you really questioning this world's history? After all these years living in it?" Xythio grumbled, mentally exhausted at seeing Myendi's emotional exhaustion. At hearing her friend, Myendi imagined herself dramatically jumping up on her desk before proclaiming that history classes are the places where love and passion go to die, mainly because most stories in history are about people dying.

  However, the sheer act of imagining such an act was tiring for the girl. So instead of doing all that, Myendi, with a great deal of mental effort, forced her head to roll until she faced Xythio sitting beside her and mumbled out something that could somewhat be comprehensible: "Look, some things are too absurd, even for a magical world."

  Xythio rolled his eyes, dismissing the words she spoke, as he knew what she was really upset about: the history teacher hadn't continued the pseudo-love story involving a living doll finding the ability to feel from the previous lesson.

  "Hmm... what a peculiar origin for one of the Three Great Epicentres, would've thought it had a similar origin to its sister epicentres," Inkaro remarked amusedly and mentally, while lightly rocking his head in relief; as he recalled, Nuenala only signed up for all the blacksmith-adjacent courses. Had she not been so hyper-focused like himself for her chosen craft, he knew it left a higher chance she'd encounter this teacher and be reminded of the guy she'd coined the calamity adopter, leading her to tease Inkaro over it, again and again and again.

  Overhearing Inkaro's remark by accident from the back of the class, Myendi swatted her hand onto her desk and silently slapped the tapestry of hers that caused her unintentional mind-reading. The impact of her silent strike snapped the tapestry back into its inert mode as a wisp of shadowy mana retreated into the golden bracelet that she wore on her left wrist.

  [Minagary of Broken Reflection][Type: Ability Absorbsion][Rank: SS]

  -[Inert Mode] Twelve, and-sized, fifteen centimetre tall, six centimetre wide, and one centimetre thick, almost fully opaque, grey reinforced glass. Its borders are covered by a sleek, muted band of grey metal casing.

  -[Shadow Type] Hand-sized, fifteen centimetre tall, six centimetre wide, and one centimetre thick, almost fully opaque, black reinforced glass. Its borders are covered by a sleek, muted band of very dark grey metal casing that appears to be moulded to resemble solidified mist.

  [Refracted Brand][Type: Ability Absorbsion][Rank: SS]

  -A golden bracelet adorned with greyish silver running along it at an angle on her left wrist.

  Despite not intending to hear it, Myendi felt a strange compulsion to comment on Inkaro's remark nonetheless: "Of course he'd find something so boring interesting... wait, the guy in the story is what?"

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  "And this is why I told you doing some basic history reading was important, instead of wasting your brain on all those things you call books, Myendi," Xythio stated coldly while doing heavy air quotes with his use of books. Myendi should've been mad at the guy insulting her choice of literature. Still, his cold tone overrode the small logical part of her brain, replacing whatever annoyance she had with twisted satisfaction. Seeing his error, but mostly the girl's twisted grin of satisfaction, Xythio shuddered and slumped his shoulders as he uttered, "You really are a whack job."

  Soon, the class came to a close, and the mixed class funnelled out of the classroom. Leaving the room first, Inkaro had G.Galore perched on his shoulder to project a purple mana screen in front of him, displaying a mess of an idea board that only G.Galore/Morilore and Lizu would have any hopes of deciphering the contents of. Of the board's contents, one thing was clear: the subjects were of the Three Great Epicentres and his Anazenpha assist plan.

  "What's that supposed to be?" Yuuvia asked wearily as she carried a piggybacking Anazenpha with the girl's heavy tome included on her back. With how her body showed no signs of quivering, clearly Yuuvia's weariness wasn't from a physical act of exertion, so Inkaro could only turn his head in confusion from trying to comprehend an answer behind her voice's oddity. "Oi, don't ignore me, you somniphobic menace."

  "Huh? Oh, just my rough outlines for how to help Anazenpha," Inkaro stated earnestly, while gesturing for her to take a look and give any input should she have any.

  Side eyeing the projection with a mean glare, Yuuvia clicked her tongue from not understanding a lick of it, which was especially infuriating for her with how the guy's excellent handwriting made the lack of understanding her own fault: "Yeah... not going to waste my sanity by trying to understand any of that."

  "That-a shame," Anazenpha murmured as she wiggled her feet about playfully before peering up at Inkaro, "Lunch time?"

  "Doubt it, only two classes have passed so far, the time slot you all are in is designated as Break Period," G.Galore stated boldly, swiftly switching the display on her mana projection to a digitised frowning face. Yuuvia didn't appreciate the sentient grimiore's tone, mostly from its similarity to Lizu's when she's mocking her, but chose to stay silent, knowing that stoking someone who was the culmination of Lizu's condescension, Inkaro's outlandishness, and Nuenala's competitiveness was dumber than idiotic.

  Finally leaving the room, having been distracted by the history teacher's extra but short story relating to the dream-related stigmais, Lizu spotted Inkaro hanging about by the classroom and raised a perplexed eyebrow: "What are you standing around for? Don't you and Xythio have a challenge to get to?"

  "Oh, the guy who muddles up words worse than me~," Anazenpha mumbled excitedly, already imagining all the extra mana in the air that she can use to sate and refuel her energy levels.

  Lizu lightly huffed with a small smirk on her face at Ana's words, finding it innocently endearing, and cheekily commented, "Muddling up words is putting it lightly."

  "Mind sharing where this sparing endeavour will be taking place? I would much like to see it myself," Enetha asked as she trotted her way out into the hallway with Nova and Myhail following shortly behind her. Much to Myhail's displeasure, Nova gladly eyed Inkaro, sizing up his combat potential.

  "Oh-ho, so you're the reason why someone pre-booked the combat colosseum before I could?" Nova asked smuggly, with Myhail deeply groaning into his hands, dreading what he believed would happen. For a moment, Nova narrowed her eyes, inspecting some invisible aspect about Inkaro before silently sighing, "Sparring with you would be no fun."

  With that, Nova stepped around Inkaro and strutted down the hallway disappointedly, which Myhail knew was in the direction of the academy's second-largest arena. Myhail might've been relieved by what Nova had said, had it not left him utterly baffled in the same breath. However, the prince was sure of one thing; he felt truly like the fool for putting so much effort into something he hadn't needed to. Myhail waved off to Enetha before departing after Nova.

  "I believe that answers your question," Xythio announced calmly as he and a palm-shaped, red-faced Myendi exited the walked up to the gathering. Enetha nodded in agreement, turning to Inkaro and eyeing him with a blank stare that somehow conveyed a clear message: "It's rude to keep people waiting."

  A little bit down the hall, Nova marched on, disappointment plastered clearly on her face from her assessment of Inkaro. The thought gnawed at her brain; how could the guy fit so many of her criteria for a good sparring partner but be lacking in the most important aspect? How could someone be such a good fighter but not have a liking for fighting?

  Those types of thoughts permeated the war-stigma-having princess as she marched on, intending to scratch the growing itch in her core the second she and Myendi arrive at a combat arena. At least the prince enjoyed the act of improving his swordsmanship, which was close enough for her liking.