It was time for the second class of the day, and while Shu was on his way to attend the class that corresponded to him, Kaede was on her way to take her second class: how to read and use magic runes.
She walked through one of the second floor's various hallways, being impressed by its size and length.
So impressive…
As she evoked this thought inside her head, she noticed all the students that walked around the same hallway. It was filled with such an atmosphere that it couldn't compare to that of her previous school. Some students talking, others laughing, and even some others using their magic to fool around, like that one guy in her peripheral vision that launched water that seemingly emerged out of his eyes at someone else, similar to laser vision. How peculiar.
Reaching her next classroom and entering through its main door, she looked around. There were 2 long, oval shaped tables in the middle of the classroom. It felt sort of like your usual school's science lab.
Unable to stop herself from being excited once again, she thought to herself: This is cool!
She found a seat around the back of the table closest to the window that showed the distant city of Alie. Every other student followed suit; it was a classroom, so of course they would.
Putting her terminal's bag on the table, she kept looking around, only that as opposed to earlier, she glanced at the other students instead. Some of them followed suit, others took out physical notebooks and pens/pencils. The sound of students engaged in chatter reverberated around the classroom, bouncing of the walls into Kaede's ears as if it were some sort of echo. At least, that's what it felt like to her.
In the front of the classroom, a certain person stood still, currently rummaging on a mountain of miscellaneous objects that was near his desk. Once he was finished, he stood up, tidied himself up (most specifically his tie), and put his hands behind his back.
"Ahem." He replicated the sound of clearing his throat to get everyone's attention. All the students, Kaede included of course, turned to look at the man.
Kaede didn't realize before, but once she got a good look, the man seemed…familiar (?).
The man started to walk back and forth within the area up front, it being strangely far away from the tables. Once he observed all the students' eyes on him, he started speaking:
"Ahem. I'll keep this introduction short. This class will teach you about the origin and usage of Magic Runes, as well as how to use them. Now, would anyone like to tell me what exactly magic runes are?"
With the question asked, every student waited for another to raise their hand, just like in a regular school. It's not that they didn't know what they were, but rather that they didn't want to be wrong…okay, maybe some of them didn't know.
However, someone raised their hand.
"Ah, finally. Explain, miss."
This "someone" who raised their hand was none other than Kaede herself. She wasn't particularly in the mood the one to answer the first question, but seeing as no one else volunteered, she decided to do so in the long run.
"Magic runes are- "she cut herself off. "Wait, which type of Rune do you want me to explain?"
"Ah, a clever one, I see." The teacher said, putting his left hand on his chin afterwards in a thinking motion. "Explain only one of them. The ones you can create." He placed his arms behind his back afterwards.
"Understood! So, magic runes are a peculiar type of auxiliary magic that involves engraving certain items, special stones in particular, with certain symbols that allow you to use a different type of magic than the one you usually use."
"Ah, thank you, Miss." Once Kaede finished, the teacher realized something, putting a hand on his chin once again: "Oh wait, I should probably take the attendance, shouldn't I? Eh, I'll just do that later."
Auxiliary magic was a concept that was quite peculiar, even in the world of magic. It was a type of magic that unlike regular magic, it wasn't genetic. Instead, these abilities would be granted to a mage by an outside source, whether it's something like maybe an artifact, a grimoire or, as aforementioned, a magic rune. Even though this sounded strong (which it was), in had in fact a single weakness, that being the fact that 98% of all types of auxiliary magic was temporary. Yes, there's a very small percentage, calculated to be close to 2% of auxiliary magic that could in fact be permanent, but we'll leave that as a story for another day.
The teacher began once again: "Just so you know, I am Mr. Leca, your Magic Runes class teacher." He moved his right hand from his back and extended his index finger, pointing up as many teachers did. "Magic runes are a concept that I think every mage should have a grasp of regardless of if it's somewhat or if you have mastery over the subject.
Resting her head on her right hand, Kaede listened to Mr. Leca speak.
"As an example of a rune, allow me to show you."
He went to the mountain of random objects near his desk and took out what seemed to be an uncut black stone, similar to a pyramid if it was curved.
"As a fun fact, I possess the ability to "inject" these special stones with any rune that I've used before. Allow me to demonstrate."
Holding the stone on his hand, he looked at it, which caused glowing red energy to materialize around it, after a few seconds, the stone absorbed the energy, a strange symbol forming in front of it.
"The stone has now been transformed into what we call a magic rune. Now, would anyone like to try using the magic this rune can grant?"
No one wanted to volunteer once again. They all looked around and muttered to themselves, saying and thinking stuff like "this could be dangerous" or "that looks scary."
However, there was one who was as brave as Kaede to be the test subject. This boy raised his hand from his seat and said that he'd like to try. The teacher was surprised that someone aside from Kaede wanted to volunteer, so he let the boy walk up to the front.
The boy who'd stood up abruptly was, obviously, wearing the standard Rose Academy uniform, which resembled a suit, except the suit itself was red and the undershirt white, alongside a black tie which reached the middle of his torso. In his case, his suit was fully unbuttoned. As for his looks, he had shoulder length blue hair, and a pair of the same color eyes.
As he walked to the front, he ahd his hands within his pants' pockets and had a smile on his face. Actually, it was more fitting to call it a "grin", in this case.
"Ah, you're also a brave one, I see. Very well."
The boy held out his hand, signaling the teacher to give him the stone. Mr. Leca did so. The boy stared at the stone in awe, muttering to himself something along the lines of "it's so pretty…"
"Now, to absorb the magic, you need to-"
"Oh, don't worry." The boy remarked with that same smile on his face. "I know how to do this." Once he said this, the boy used his hand to crush the rock, being able to do so after a bit. Once this was done, the red energy within the stone (or as of right now, floating over his hand), began to get absorbed by his body. Once the energy fully made its way within him, his teacher spoke:
"Very good. Now, I want you to-" once again, though, the boy interrupted him, though not with his voice this time, rather his actions.
He extended his hand, causing a red flame to materialize slightly above it, very reminiscent of a will-o'-wisp, but red instead obviously.
"So, this magic allows me to shoot red fireballs. Interesting…" Even though many students thought of the boy as sort of annoying, they couldn't help but be impressed. Being able to tell what magic a random rune you use gives you is no easy feat (unless you're the one that creates them.)
"Y-yes, indeed. Now, I want you to-" after Mr. Leca cleared his throat to tell him the next set of instructions, he was, of course, interrupted once again. This boy loves to interrupt people, doesn't he?
"I shoot it, right? Don't worry!"
The boy extended his hand to the wall behind the tables the other students were sitting at and began to charge up the fireball, it becoming bigger.
"Uh, you should maybe shoot it out the win-"
"Nah, this is more fun!"
And so, grinning so hard that it seemed his mouth could get stuck on that position, the fireball was shot.
"AAHH!" Many of the students, mainly the ones near that wall, screamed due to the impact of the fireball. Some of them fell on the floor due to panic, others screamed so loud that you could possibly hear it from the other 2 main buildings, and one of them stayed completely calm through all this.
The back wall of the classroom was broken, a hole taking the place of was once was a perfectly made wall. On the other side of the giant hole, the stairs used to get to the second floor were fully visible.
With a smile on his face, the boy said: "That's how you use magic runes."
The teacher stood there in shock alongside the rest of the students. Kaede, however, was completely calm. She'd seen way worse than this. If anything, she couldn't help but laugh at the boy. In fact, that's exactly what she did.
"Ahahaha!"
"Huh? What's so funny?!"
Turning around, he saw the Kaede who was laughing so hard that she was struggling to stand. She used one of the tables nearby as support to not fall.
"Oh, you really think you're so cool by breaking a wall! So hilarious!"
Hearing her response, the boy became flustered. "Wh-what did you say…?"
As she calmed herself down, she replied to him with 2 simple words with a confident smile: "The truth."
The other students also laughed once she said this. Comments like "Damn she's so right!" and "Oh my god!" Were heard within the group.
"J-just you watch!" The boy replied. Mr. Leca was about to rinse him for what he'd done, but before that, the boy extended his arm out once again.
As soon as he did, his eyes turned into a shade of dark purple. Once this happened, he began to use his magic.
With a pace that was neither too slow nor too fast, the pieces of the wall that were broken were slowly making their way back to their original position. It was almost as if he were turning back time…oh, right, because that's exactly what he was doing.
As soon as the wall was "reconstructed", the boy turned to look at the others. "That's my magic." He started once again with the same exact grin, "I can control the time of inanimate objects. Isn't that cool?"
The teacher wasn't having it with his arrogant attitude. "Class, sit back down, let's continue the lesson. You, whatever your name is, you're staying after the class. I have a few words I'd like to share with you."
And so, after that, the class went on just like normal. To be completely honest, the rest of the lesson isn't worth talking about as much as the more important concepts. Only the kinds of stones that could work as runes were discussed, which it sort of strange because most users only use the most common type of said stone.
Regardless of that, the sound heard around the school rang again, meaning that it was finally time for the first break of the day, which has many names. "Snack", "free time", even some more obscure names like "fight practice", as the more "hardcore" people call it.