Aside from the fact that he had already caught the attention of the villain of the story, the rest of the week passed by easily. The classes were difficult to understand and the only way that he could pass them was by writing down literally everything the professors said and going over it again and again in the school's library. The library of Aurelis Academy was much much bigger the Frosthaze's and there were so many more books there that it was probably as close to paradise a person could get. Knowledge from a different world.

Science did exist, because although everyone had magic, only about a third of the population had enough magic to actually use it, and if the magazines he'd spotted in the library were any indication, electricity was currently being invented by a talentless mage, though it was impossible to tell if it was going to go somewhere.

Cale didn't make any friends as he used most of his energy trying to keep away from people. He ate breakfast before nearly everyone else, was always first to class and spent all his free time either in the library or in his room, studying everything he could. Studying wasn't actually boring, rather it was fascinating and informative. If he was now stuck in this strange world of magic, villains, and heroes that had frankly ridiculous good luck, then learning everything that he could was simply common sense.

Unfortunately, he had three classes a week with the ultimate villain in Offensive Magic.

He wasn't sure how he was going to manage an entire year of it.

He made sure to pay attention to what Valerio was teaching and was honestly a little stunned that Valerio was a good teacher. He knew what he was talking about and how to make others understand. For some reason, he had expected that as the villain he would be horrible at it, but Cale listened and learned and though he hadn't quite gotten enough courage to ask questions yet, he thought he might one day.

On the other hand, so far, he had managed to avoid the protagonist completely.

The protagonist was Calla's adopted cousin on his father's side. As the protagonist was three years younger than Calla, he was currently seventeen and a student at Aurelis Academy. Even members of Cale's class had heard of the impressing amount of raw power that he had and his skill with spells. He was a terrifying fire mage already and Cale had absolutely no interest in meeting him.

In the novel, Calla's and the protagonist's relationship was described as distant and fragile. It was only after Calla died that the protagonist started to care for his cousin and that was because he thought that Calla had purposely eaten his poisoned food and died for him. In short, if Calla hadn't died, the protagonist wouldn't have cared about him at all.

Hopefully, this meant that the protagonist wouldn't bother trying to track him down.

He was already in enough panic and distress from having to spend three hours a week with Valerio Hallow; he didn't think he could handle any more drama.

Cale closed the book and pushed his chair back, stood up and started to gather his things from the large wooden table. He piled everything up until he could squeeze what he was taking back to his room into his bag and pushed the loose hair back from his face. It was evening now, and the library was about to close which meant that he had to leave, whether he wanted to or not.

Once his bag was full, he took a hold of it, swearing under his breath due to the heavy weight of the many books that he had squeezed into it.

Cale let his eyes drift over the rest of the room, noting that he was the last one there and that the librarian was starting to look impatient. He gave the old woman a kind smile and started walking for the doors.

The library had large double doors, exaggerated like everything else seemed to be. He pushed them open and left the library.

The walk back to his room was long and winded and by the time that he arrived, night had fallen. Thankfully, Calla's body didn't seem to need as much sleep as his own, so he could function despite the long nights and early mornings — but he was still exhausted by nightfall regardless. Cale lugged the bag over his shoulder and unlocked his room with the silver key.

Just as he was about to enter, a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Back so late?" Cale turned around and looked towards where the voice was coming from. He saw a young male teenager that he didn't recognize leaning against the wall some distance from his door. Had he waited for him?

"I was in the library studying," Cale responded to the question.

The boy hummed in thought. "Really? And here I thought you were just going to take advantage of the professors' pity for you again."

Cale narrowed his eyes and answered, "You can't get by on pity forever."

The fact was that it was entirely possible that Calla had gotten by on his professors' pity before. Aside from his history of illness, not much was known of Calla, so Cale had no comparison. At best, the only thing to do was to guess and try to answer all questions neutrally. The ones that he couldn't turn back on the questioner, that was.

The boy, who probably couldn't be older than fifteen, hummed again. "I guess not. But you know, it'd take a miracle for you to be able to graduate this year. You're probably just going to be held back again. You should just give up."

Cale just smiled at him and asked, "And you? How are your studies going? I haven't seen you in a while, I'm curious."

Hopefully, the boy wouldn't notice that Cale was bluffing with everything that he had right now.

The boy tilted his head, his face obscured by the hallway's darkness. "I'm at the top of my year, unlike you who's a failure. I don't get what Sayer sees in you. You should just stay away from him. He doesn't need you."

With that, the boy left.

Cale waited until the boy was gone from his sight before he finally entered his room and locked the door behind him. He breathed out deeply, unexpectedly rattled by having to lie on the spot. He'd just thrown words out of his mouth, hoping they'd make sense to the boy.

What was even more rattling though was the name Sayer.

The name of the protagonist that he had so far tried not to think about.

Sayer Frosthaze was the adopted son of Calla's father's younger brother. As such, Calla was the heir but as the only child, once he died, the next in line was Sayer. He didn't like to think that Sayer had wanted the lordship; because the Frosthaze family was declining lately and that wasn't the sort of thing that a protagonist was supposed to do. But it had never actually been said in the book that Sayer didn't know that the food was poisoned. It was entirely possible that he had known and just not done anything.

Until Cale knew for certain, there was no way he was getting anywhere near him.

And even after he knew that Sayer hadn't known, he was staying for away from him. As cannon fodder, being close to a major character, no matter their intentions, was practically a death sentence.

Though this begged the question of who the boy was.

Honestly, Cale had no clue.

And he wasn't particularly interested in finding out.

Cale left the bag full of books on the desk and started getting ready for bed. The worry of being caught as an imposter was exhausting, but it was still less than at the Frosthaze manor. But then there was the worry that when they started actively using magic in classes, he was going to get caught at once if he couldn't live up to their expectations.

Hell, was he even an ice mage?

If he wasn't, he was soon going to have a huge problem.

Finished with his preparations, he climbed into the moderately big bed, pulled the covers up to his chin and fell asleep.

Exhaustion was so troublesome.