V

One day, as Augustin was making his way towards the library…

“Hm? Mr. Vigil? It’s a surprise seeing you around these parts.” He turned his head and saw Cynthia at the edge of the hallway, carrying an open-top box with a few small paper bags inside.

“Oh, Ms. Waldstone, good evening to you as well,” he responded with exasperation. “Need help with those?”

She shook her head. “Thank you, but I’m good. There’s nothing particularly heavy inside.” She proved his concern by lifting it up a little with ease. “I had my father ship me some chamomile from Vrastia. They’re flowers used in an herbal tea I was often given as a child when I was sick.”

It made Augustin remember she was a foreigner, despite her fluent Alvari. “I see…I suppose this reminds you of your homeland?” he contemplated out loud. The thought of his home frequently crossed his mind the past few weeks. While it’s been barely half a year, he was starting to feel a little homesick. From the faces of his sister and father to the estate and its surroundings, the different dialect, the different climate…in the end, even if the language and culture was very similar, he missed that sense of home.

“Not particularly. In fact, I should be happy to have an opportunity to study at Rosewood Academy. Wouldn’t you agree? Besides…” She lifted the box a bit: “Gifts like these always help.”

“If you say so…” he shrugged it off as he headed to the library door. Meanwhile, she headed the other way down the hallway.

“I wonder what chamomile tea tastes like,” he wondered. Then, from the hallway, Cynthia called out to him: “If you want to taste it, just ask Nanami and she’ll give some to you. I’m sure it’ll do wonders for your sleep.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not asking her for something like that,” a vein popped on his forehead.

“Ah, why didn’t I just accept it?!” he screamed internally. Sometimes, even he was woefully aware of his lack of honesty with himself.

Augustin entered the library and immediately saw the person he was hoping to see the least out of the corner of his eye. A frown immediately formed on his face. She was sitting alone at one of the 6-person tables on the 2nd floor by the windows amidst the bookshelves containing atlases and dictionaries, by the wall opposite to the door and overlooking the courtyard.

There were two staircases leading up to the 2nd floor - which might more aptly be called a platform, as it was just an elevated wooden platform supported by dark oak bookshelves and a few ornate pillars below it, where the less-desirable literature was held.

Not wishing to get involved in an argument in a library of all places - with several professors present - he scuttled through the nearer staircase and around the bookshelves, directly to the back corner, hoping that his presence wouldn’t alert Nanami.

“For starters, why am I in this predicament in the first place?” he asked himself. He always studied by himself, either in the park or in his room, but was invited to a group session with Vincent and Jonathan. Although normally he’d refuse such a request, sometimes, Vincent knew what strings to pull to convince him - even if he was reluctant. What sort of reasoning did he have to bring him here today? August had no idea. Normally, he was rather lax with his grades to the point that it’s likely he’d drop to class B by next year, something he said he doesn’t mind.

In the end, maybe he was trying to help Jonathan, but he was already rather good at calligraphy - one of the best ones in class, even. In fact, him beating Nanami was always a possibility, even in her head.

Vincent saw him approaching from the corner and waved. “Augustin! We’re here!”

“You buffoon!” Augustin cried on the inside. His call-out attracted the gaze of everyone in what was otherwise a rather quiet library, including the person he was avoiding at all costs. Vincent’s smile, meanwhile, made it hard to tell if it was even a mistake on his end as it reached both his ears.

Nanami briskly turned her head to her right and noticed him, a frown forming immediately whereas a vein popped on his temple after seeing her. Although they merely glanced at each other, the time window certainly felt longer.

From the corner of his eye, Augustin could also see one of the arithmetics professors - Ms. Professor Southwark - who was arranging the books as she glared at them. He did a light bow and scuttled to the table where Vincent and Jonathan were sitting. Ms. Professor Southwark slowly turned her head away, keeping an eye on them all the way before eventually walking downstairs.

“Pray tell, what are you doing, Vincent?!” he reprimanded him in a hushed voice, all whilst Vincent brimmed with a smile of questionable intent. Jonathan, who was sitting besides Vincent and the opposite of Jonathan only let out a faint laugh, which was met by a glare. He then leaned back into his chair and shook his head.

“Is the sole reason you’re here to make fun of me, or to study? Come on, pass me the dictionary.” Calligraphy itself as a study combined scriptology with certain elements of arcane studies. Since most of the arcane runes are written in Archaic High Elvish script, belonging to a language of immeasurable oldness. It was given to adjectives to differentiate it from various existing Elvish languages, since it’s inherently a lot different. Its pronunciation is considered too difficult for most, so it doesn’t see practical use anywhere, even as an auxiliary language. However, it has great usage in the field of magic and is the primary script used to make spell circles - as well as the only one that isn’t considered taboo.

Augustin himself had studied calligraphy at home under the tutelage of a private instructor, so he had a large head start before his classmates. Despite that, he had a natural gift for absorbing information and anything they touched upon in class, he would be able to memorise rather quickly after reviewing it only a couple of times.

This put him apart from Nanami, who had a gift for understanding things, which is what gave her the edge in certain subjects where the trick wasn’t to retain pages of information but rather to understand bits and pieces of complexity.

Nanami has a clear advantage at the more natural subjects, such as natural sciences and arithmetics, whereas Augustin performs far better at the more cultural subjects like social sciences and calligraphy. Physical training? That isn’t graded, they’re just there as a form of recreation. And arcane? Well, it’s divided between boys and girls regardless, so it doesn’t matter. And results are posted in their respective dorms, so they can’t compare either way.

So, for now, they have to make do with tackling each other in those four subjects as they wait for their autumn geometry showdown. And calligraphy is up next.

As Jonathan lifted a large dictionary on Archaic High Elvish, he let out a tiny wince. “All good?” Vincent asked him concernedly as he handed it to Augustin.

“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Just a bit sore from yesterday’s physical training classes,” he said as he stroked his left shoulder, which was sore from last day’s fencing practice. “I wish magic would advance to the point where spell circles would make it unnecessary to know fencing.”

“I know what you mean!” chimed in Vincent. “Imagine a giant fencing golem with spell circles. You’d just dump magic into it and it’d do everything for you.” An image of a suit of armour with a bunch of strips of paper popped up in his head as he presented the idea.

“Do you know how much time and how many parchments you’d need to make it capable of making even a basic range of motions precise enough for fencing?” Augustin interjected. “Besides, there’s no one in Alvaria that knows how to use Space-Time Magic at a sufficient level to help fine-tune it.”

“Aaaa, save us the boring reality check,” Vincent audibly complained. “Let us fantasise. If it was possible, I’m sure someone from the Royal Fellowship Society would’ve done so already.” In the end, little could be done to dampen their mood as they excitedly began talking about it in detail while glossing over feasibility, which would certainly be an issue if there was a shred of seriousness behind it.

“If you want to avoid fencing altogether, why not make a weapon that’s easier and less exhausting to use?”

Augustin, who was deeply engrossed in studying and only hardly listening to the conversation, jumped in his chair as he was utterly jumpscared by Nanami from behind, who soundlessly snuck up on them - likely unintentionally so - and offered up her own idea.

“Ms. Underland, pray tell, what in God’s name are you doing here?!” He was clearly not happy as he spun his head around to reprimand Nanami. Being seated while she was standing made them be rather close to eye level, so it would almost look like an even fight to onlookers.

Even though it usually looked even despite height differences, so maybe this made it a bit more Nanami-sided…?

With the most smug face she could manage, she stated: “My, Mr. Vigil, I was diligently studying so that I could surpass you yet again at another subject. And how has your day been going?” To Augustin, her voice reeked of sarcasm and he despised it beyond anything else. His sharp green eyes only glared at her that belied his usual timid nature whilst her narrow ones followed suit.

Vincent rested his head onto his palms as he jokingly said: “Now, now, you two lovebirds can take this outside later, but I’d definitely wanna hear of that proposal Nanami had in mind.” He let out a giggle after saying that whilst Augustin burned up, red-faced. “You idiot, just what do you think you’re sprouting?!” he screamed at him, tripping over his words whilst talking. His embarrassed complaints, however, went on deaf ears as Nanami happily explained her idea.

“Well, the problem with fencing and swords is that they’re exhausting and hard to use. So I’ve had an idea of a ranged weapon that’s only restricted by your aim,” she explained, completely glossing over Vincent’s strange statement. “Isn’t that just a bow?” asked Jonathan, perplexed as her idea seemed like something everyone already knew about.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” she waved her finger and continued elaborating with a great deal of pride in her idea. “What I was thinking of is a metal automatic weapon that doesn’t require a lot of force to load and use - you only load it up and fire. Think about it! Bows are hard to use, put a lot of force on your traps and delts, whereas this would require practically no work after loading it besides pressing the trigger. Aim, set, boom!” Her vibrant and energetic presentation was accompanied by onomatopoeia as she explained her idea with bright eyes.

“Ehehe, I don’t know what a lot of those words meant, but to me, it sounds like you’re trying to rip-off the crossbow, no? That has existed for, what, 400 years by now?” Vincent asked innocently.

“I heard from my father that Epossians brought it here all the way from the dwarven cities in Valesia, but it doesn’t match our longbow in performance, so it’s clearly just a worse weapon,” Jonathan added to his point. Nanami sighed disappointedly at their opinions. Augustin, meanwhile, saw this as a perfect opportunity to have a jab at her: “Is this all of those crazy inventions amount to? Ripped-off dwarven products you heard of whilst overseas?”

“Shut up…!” Nanami lost her cool for a second, but quickly corrected her pose and let out an intentional cough. “This ain’t no crossbow, what I’m proposing is a completely different weapon. Imagine something like a cylinder that you could put a stone into and it’s go boom!, you know?” She met the gaze of all three of them and noticed that none of them had any idea what she was talking about. Vincent just smiled as he listened, knowing damn well he had no clue what was happening. Jonathan looked like he was interested, but struggled to put what she said together whilst Augustin was just looking at her, unimpressed.

“Ah, you’re all hopeless,” she wailed, facepalming. “Imagine a narrow tube with only one opening, okay?” she asked reluctantly and smiled bitterly. Vincent and Jonathan nodded whereas Augustin looked displeased, but none of them said anything. Confirming she had their attention, she continued: “So, while imagining the tube, imagine there being an orb inside it that you could shoot out at incredible velocity with only the flick of your finger. With enough pressure at the end being released suddenly, the velocity would be insane! Just a large push of energy from the closed section and fhwhomp, it shoots out and pierces the enemy!” She finished her speech with extravagant gestures.

She then glanced at Augustin to see his reaction, who seemed to be thinking about it. She looked at him in anticipation for his answer, a faint smile on her lips. For a change, they were seriously listening to each other and some onlookers even caught onto that rather than just performing meaningless toxic banter aimed at trying to get the other to lose their cool.

“Assuming…” Augustin started. The other 3 paid their full attention to him. He looked around somewhat uncomfortably before resuming. “Assuming that I understand what you mean, which I can’t say I do…how are you going to generate that blast? A regular movement spell parchment wouldn’t make anywhere close to enough, so I’m sure you had a different idea in mind…am I correct?” he asked and looked to Nanami’s side, refusing to make eye contact.

Nanami, meanwhile, had a grin spread across her face as her eyes sparkled with excitement. “There’s actually two methods I’ve been thinking of. One is to get a strong capsule filled with gas that you can open at will and propel it via pressure.” She made an orb with her hands as she explained. “The other is to have the air behind the small ball rapidly expand via using Space-Time Magic. From only a single invisible point it would in the blink of an eye expand throughout the entire barre-...I mean, tube and shoot the ball out at an immense speed!”

Augustin let out a sigh. “I don’t know who gave you the idea that it’d be possible, but there’s no way you’d be able to find anyone who knows how to make a spell circle small yet complex enough in Space-Time Magic to help you out there.” Her idea was shrugged off by him immediately, but it did little to dampen her spirits.

Magic that can be used with spell circles can be simply divided into four types - Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Aether, which goes by different names depending on culture. For example, in Alvaria - as Augustin said earlier - it’s known as Space-Time Magic. Knowledge about its higher tiers is effectively exclusive to the Seven Walls Society and is one of their key geopolitical weapons. Needless to say, its knowledge beyond the sheer basics is all that most countries have.

“Huh, I guess you’re right…? Hold on, I have to try something.” She bounced back to her table and briskly put the study material back to where it belonged before scurrying out of the library.

“What’s her problem…” groaned Augustin and leaned on the table as he met their gazes. “Showing up behind me, making an absolute bogus proposal and then rushing out like that.”

“Ah, where’s the harm?” Vincent asked smugly. “She’s having fun, is she not?”

“It’s not that, it’s just…” Augustin was at a loss of words and beyond frustrated, gripping his fist tightly. “Forget it, let’s go back to studying.”

“Speaking of that,” an older woman’s voice came out of nowhere behind them. Vincent and Jonathan broke out in cold sweat, with even Vincent’s ever-happy face tensing up. Augustin reluctantly turned his head around and met the gaze of Ms. Professor Southwark who was all but pleased, her normally-peaceful gaze belying her current mood.

“Get out!”

The following week, Augustin took home first place at calligraphy, at a solid 9 points lead over Nanami. However, that day, there was no fight between the two. Both of them saw the result, yet simply retreated to their corner of the classroom...completely unconcerned over what happened while the rest of the class just eyed them, suspiciously.