As Lance entered his assigned classroom, he couldn’t help but mutter, “Of course we’re in the same class…” 

Sitting in the frontmost desk is none other than Aria Silverhart. She’s sitting right in the middle too.

The classroom was spacious inside, and resembled a small hall. It features a teacher’s podium facing tiered desks, with the desk becoming more elevated the further you are at the back. It seems that most of the other students were staying away from her seeing as no one else was sitting on the desk she was occupying save for her.

There is one red haired girl sitting on the seat directly behind her, reading a thick book titled “Compilation of Magic Theory”.

Lance raised an eyebrow at the sight, but decided to put it off for later. I need to secure the best seat first.

Sure enough, the best seats were already occupied. Lance weighed his options, and ended up approaching Silverhart’s desk.

“Can I sit beside you?” he asked.

She looked at him, tilting her head a little. “Aren’t there any other seats?”

“I would like to be as close to the teacher’s podium as possible.”

Aria kept her gaze on Lance for a few seconds, before breaking eye contact. “Just don’t distract me.”

“Understood. By the way, my name’s Lance Einfelt."

That caused Aria to widen her eyes. The girl sitting behind her also stopped reading her book, sporting a similar reaction.

Lance smiled wryly as he took a seat on her left. He tried to ignore the pointed glance directed at him.

“You’re Master’s brother…”

“That I am.”

“....”

Lance pulled his notebook and writing paraphernalia from his magic bag.

A magic bag is enchanted with space magic that allows storage of more items than a normal bag. It is also one of the important things that civilization managed to keep after the fall of the Magic Capital due to how widespread the information was on how to create one. The bag Lance was using was also magically bound to himself to prevent theft. Rose said it was pretty brilliant and she’ll also do it with her apprentice(the girl beside me) and her own bag.

Lance then turned to face the girl seated on the desk behind him, who he found was no longer reading her book as he met her gaze.

“Hello.” Lance started. “You probably overheard me earlier, but I’m Lance Einfelt, and you are…?”

“Lily Belladonna,” the girl said after a slight pause. “It’s a pleasure meeting you.”

Marquis Belladonna’s only daughter?

“Say, that book you were just reading,” Lance moved his gaze to the book lying on Lily’s desk. “Is that the one that was co-written by Rose and Lettie?”

“Yes!”

Lance and Lily exchanged ideas and hit it off well. The two didn’t notice it, but Aria slightly adjusted her body to listen into the conversation.

“In the section that compared Portal Magic and Teleportation Magic, I must say that I prefer the former over the latter in fights.”

“While it’s true that Portal magic has some advantage over Teleportation Magic, its cast speed is slower while Teleportation is significantly faster.”

“That is true, but that can be solved by pre-casting the spell.”

“Pre-casting a Lost Magic…?” Lance paused, contemplating what Lily said. “Even if that’s possible, that would require a significant skill on the mage, and one still needs to pre-set the coordinates of the portal…”

“Even if it’s just a far-off dream, I still want to chase it,” Lily said with determination in her eyes. “With that said, I still haven’t figured out how to go about it…”

“You’re researching Portal Magic?”

“In passing,” Lily replied. “A childhood friend of mine keeps using a family artifact that lets her open a magic door to play pranks on me, so I took an interest in it.”

“Your friend must be very rich if she can use an artifact like that.”

“It’s a long story…”

 A few others ended up listening after this, but most of them were confused by the topic Lance and Lily were talking about. 

As Rose’s apprentice, Aria had a much better understanding of Magic than most of her peers, but even she groaned as the two became increasingly technical before she gave up listening and pulled out a novel.

After a while, the professor arrived and the two had to cut their conversation.

The professor stood behind the teacher’s podium and introduced himself. 

“Good morning class, I am Professor Zeke Archaman, and I will be in charge of this class and will introduce you to the fundamentals of Magic.”

“Before we start, I know some of you were already taught by a private tutor or a close relative that is a mage—” The teacher took a quick look at my desk’s direction, then continued, “but for most of you, this will be your first time having a formal lesson in magic. Now then, what is mana?” The teacher asked the class.

The information about mana is common knowledge, considering how it’s used in everyday life, all the students in class probably know a thing or two about it. A lot of students, me and Silverhart not included, raised their hand to answer the question. The teacher picked a boy in the middle of the room. 

The rest of the class lowered their hands as the boy stood up and answered, “That’s easy! Mana is the source of Magic!”

He’s not entirely wrong but… Lance thought.

“An acceptable answer for someone new to magic, but not entirely correct. You may sit down now," he said as the boy lost his energy as he sat down dejectedly.

“Now then, can you answer the question-” He said as he looked at my desk.

Please don’t call me…

“Einfelt. Can you enlighten the rest of the class?” My thoughts were interrupted as my name was called.

“Einfelt...Could he be…?” “We’re in the same class as her brother..!” "So I heard it right earlier…" 

Rose’s fame is quite a bother at times... Lance thought as he stood up.

 Still, the fact that he knows who I am...Did Rose tell him? Lance took a peek beside him to find Aria looking at him with a slightly piqued expression.

“Very well professor," Lance said.

“The phrase ‘Mana is the source of Magic’ isn’t right because up until now, we still haven’t figured out where Mana comes from, which is the true source of Magic.”

He paused for a bit before continuing.

“While there are disagreements as to where Mana comes from, the general consensus is that there is a source, and that this source produces Mana, which then fuels our spells to create what is called Magic.”

“Therefore, Mana is a fuel that is used to power Magic. Was that alright, professor?”

“Yes, that was a brilliant answer, Mr. Einfelt," he said. “Your sister must be proud to have a brother like you.”

“You praise me too much professor…” Lance scratched his cheeks.

Lance sat down afterwards as Professor Archaman picked up a piece of chalk and faced the blackboard. “As Mr. Einfelt has told us, Mana is the fuel that allows us to cast Magic. As for what Magic is… At its very core, it is the result of a mage’s will imposing itself upon the world.”

Professor Archaman started explaining that there are different tiers of spells, based on the scale and complexity of it, though Lance didn’t listen to it as a folded piece of paper suddenly landed in front of him. He glanced at Aria’s direction, seeing her looking at him as he opened the paper to see what was inside, which read: 

“I challenge you to a duel.”

What. Lance was frozen before he managed to write a two letter reply rejecting her challenge.

He passed the paper back to her, and returned to face the board. 

“Hmmm…" Lance heard beside him.

Meanwhile, Professor Archaman continued his lecture.

“There are three general types of spells. They are Offensive, Defensive and Auxiliary." 

“Offensive spells are a type of magic that inflicts damage upon a target. One such spell that you will see in a bit would be Fireball, a basic fire spell that creates a ball of flame that you can throw at a target." 

He drew a simple illustration showing a mage using a fireball.

“Defensive spells are magic that allow you to defend against either magical, physical, spiritual or mental attacks. Barrier is one of the basic non-elemental defensive spells. It allows you to defend against attacks all around you. It is a flexible spell that allows for personal modifications, such as not letting people cross the barrier, blocking noise from going in or out, etc." 

He drew a simple illustration of a mage activating Barrier.

And lastly would be Auxiliary spells, which movement and support spells fall under. One such spell would be what I would be demonstrating to you all now."  He said as he moved to the center of the room.

What spell would you use that would require you to move in the center…is it...

“Teleport!” The teacher exclaimed as a magic circle glowed on the floor. 

“Wha-” Was the last thing I said before light engulfed the whole class.

They found themselves in an open field.

“There’s a magic circle inside the classroom!? Is there some kind of concealment spell?”

“...I didn’t notice it either..." Aria replied.

“I…didn’t expect this…” Lily muttered behind them.

“And that, my dear students, is Teleport. It is a movement-based support spell that allows you to move from one point to another. There are two types of Teleport spells. One is without a magic circle, while the other is with a magic circle, which is the one I just used.”

“For the purposes of this lecture, we shall discuss the magic circle type.” He gestured to them. “As you may have noticed, your chairs have been brought with you.” 

“It is to avoid getting you all getting injured due to falling to the ground at the sudden loss of the chair due to teleportation as you are all still sitting down at the time of the spell. This is one of the advantages of a circle-based Teleport as it allows you to set who and/or what gets sent to the connecting circle beforehand," he said, pausing a bit before continuing.

“But as with most circle-based magic, it is also stationary, therefore the places you want to travel with this method will need to have a magic circle placed down beforehand. And if the magic circle is tampered or destroyed, the spell will fail.”

“Now then, on to the demonstration of offensive and defensive magic. For magic circle types, depending on the placement and the direction of the magic circle, the spell being cast will also come out in that direction.”

 “Normally, I would be using a training dummy and show you all how to cast Fireball and Barrier, but considering we have Mr. Einfelt and Miss Silverhart, they would be able to demonstrate how each spell interacts with each other. Of course, if the two of you don’t mind.”

Lance jolted a bit at Professor Archaman’s words.

Certainly, having the most capable students in the class perform a demonstration is one way of teaching, but… 

Lance looked at Aria

I have a bad feeling about this.

“Is this really-” Lance tried to say something, but...

“We don’t mind," Aria said.

“Wai-”

“We don’t mind." Silverhart insisted, this time looking at me with fierce eyes. The rest of the class have also caught on and are waiting for my reply with bated breath. Lance could feel the pressure in the air.

That’s just not fair… Lance thought as he looked at Aria, whose eyes were telling me “Just give up.”

“....Fine…” Lance said in resignation.

Somewhere in the academy building, Rose was looking outside the window in the direction of Lance and Aria’s class.

“Have fun~"