By the time Kael returned from the training grounds, the academy had fully awakened.
Students filled the halls in streams of movement and noise, uniforms blending together beneath the pale morning light spilling through the massive glass windows. Conversations echoed endlessly through the corridors.
"S-Class already started combat rotations."
"I heard A-Class gets private instructors this year."
"D-Class practicals are supposed to be brutal."
Every sentence carried the same thing beneath it.
Rank.
Position.
Value.
---
Kael walked through the crowd quietly.
No one moved aside for him.
One student clipped his shoulder while passing and didn't even look back.
---
F-Class was on the lowest floor of the eastern wing.
Farther from the central academy buildings.
Farther from the training arenas.
Farther from importance.
---
When Kael entered the classroom, the noise was already unbearable.
Some students argued openly.
Others sat in small groups formed almost instantly within only a few days.
Kael crossed the room without speaking and sat near the window again.
Third row.
Same seat.
Cold air drifted through the slightly open window, causing strands of his black hair to sway faintly across his eyes.
He didn't move them away.
---
A few seats behind him, someone laughed quietly.
"The corpse is back."
Another voice answered.
"Maybe he spent all night reading again."
Short laughter followed.
Kael ignored it.
---
The door opened.
This time, it wasn't Instructor Halvern.
A taller woman stepped into the room instead, wearing dark academy robes lined with silver threading near the sleeves. Unlike Halvern's detached indifference, her posture was straight and sharp.
The room slowly quieted.
---
"My name is Instructor Selene Vey."
Her voice was calm.
Controlled.
---
"I'll be handling your mana theory lessons."
She placed several thin books onto the desk before looking across the class.
Her eyes moved quickly.
Assessing.
Categorising.
Discarding.
---
"Most of you misunderstand mana."
She turned, writing several symbols across the board with precise movements.
"Mana is not emotion. It is not imagination. It is structure."
---
Kael's eyes focused instantly.
---
"Every spell formation follows three principles."
She wrote beneath the symbols:
Input. Flow. Stability.
---
"Mana behaves similarly to pressure within a closed system. The greater the output, the greater the instability if the structure cannot support it."
She tapped the final word once.
"Stability."
---
Several students already looked lost.
Others pretended to understand.
---
Instructor Vey continued anyway.
"Low-level students often make the same mistake. They increase output before establishing control."
She glanced briefly toward the class.
"Which is why weaker students destroy their own formations."
---
Kael listened carefully.
Every word connected cleanly with what he had experienced that morning.
---
> Too much spread.
---
His fingers tightened slightly beneath the desk.
---
"Think of mana like force moving through a pathway," she continued. "If the pathway is unstable, the structure collapses regardless of power."
---
One student near the front raised his hand.
"So stronger mana automatically means better spells, right?"
---
A few students nodded immediately.
---
Instructor Vey shook her head once.
"No."
The room quieted slightly.
"Greater mana simply creates greater strain. Without control, power becomes inefficient."
---
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly.
---
That explained it.
---
Not fully.
But enough.
---
Instructor Vey turned back toward the board.
"Answer this," she said calmly. "What is the primary cause of first-stage mana collapse?"
Silence.
---
Students looked at each other uncertainly.
---
One answered weakly.
"Low mana capacity?"
---
"No."
---
Another tried.
"Poor incantation?"
---
"No."
---
The silence stretched.
---
Kael spoke quietly.
"Structural instability during flow expansion."
---
The room shifted slightly.
Several students turned toward him.
---
Instructor Vey paused.
---
"…Correct."
For a moment, her expression showed faint surprise.
Then it disappeared.
---
"But memorising theory is meaningless if you cannot apply it."
Her gaze moved away from him immediately.
"Especially in F-Class."
---
A few students laughed under their breath.
---
"Of course the theory freak knew that."
"Still can't use mana properly though."
---
Kael stayed silent.
---
The lesson continued.
Diagrams.
Flow patterns.
Basic mana circulation principles.
---
Most students lost focus halfway through.
Kael didn't.
---
He memorised everything.
The structure of the diagrams.
The sequence of mana flow.
The reasons instability occurred.
---
Not because he enjoyed learning.
Because he needed it.
---
The next class was practical control.
Instructor Halvern returned for that.
His expression looked exactly as lifeless as before.
---
"Basic formation exercise," he said flatly.
"Begin."
---
Students spread out across the training room.
Mana flickered into existence around the space in unstable bursts.
Small flames.
Weak currents.
Partial structures collapsing mid-formation.
---
Kael lifted his hand slowly.
Focused.
Reduced output.
Minimised spread.
---
A faint structure formed.
Small.
Stable.
---
It held briefly.
---
Then faded.
---
Halvern walked past without stopping.
Didn't comment.
Didn't acknowledge it.
---
Near the centre of the room, a D-Class transfer assisting with demonstrations created a larger unstable flame that nearly collapsed entirely.
---
Halvern nodded once.
"Decent."
---
Kael's eyes shifted slightly.
---
No one reacted to the difference.
As if it were normal.
---
Maybe it was.
---
By the end of the session, students were already talking over one another again.
Complaints.
Excuses.
Boasting.
---
As Kael packed his things quietly, someone passing by knocked one of his books from the desk.
The pages scattered slightly across the floor.
The student didn't stop walking.
---
"Watch where you put your stuff."
---
Laughter followed from farther down the room.
---
Kael crouched silently and picked the book back up.
No anger.
No reaction.
---
Just observation.
---
The stronger students weren't stronger because they understood more.
Many of them barely understood anything at all.
---
But the academy still treated them differently.
Teachers.
Students.
The entire structure itself.
---
Kael closed the book slowly.
---
Then he stood.
---
"…then I'll grow anyway."