Cassandra woke up, still within Yuuki’s embrace and got flustered immediately.

“Good morning.” Yuuki said, patting her head gently.

“Is it morning already?” Cassandra got worried.

“I’m kidding. It’s been a few minutes at most. I couldn’t wake you, you were simply too adorable.”

Cassandra said nothing, she leaned into Yuuki’s embrace. A few more minutes passed with neither of them saying a thing. They just sat there comfortably.

“I should get going.” Cassandra said, breaking the silence, so Yuuki let go of her. She practically ran out of the room and closed the door behind her, she was risking a heatstroke from blushing at this point.

Yuuki’s face quickly lost all emotion and she put up barriers all along the walls of her room to prevent anyone from eavesdropping.

“What do you want?” As she said that, a humanoid figure made of solid light appeared in front of Yuuki. The feminine figure looked at her with a warm smile.

“Why are you so annoyed with this little visit?” Her voice was soft and comforting.

“I was told gods would not interfere with the world. I made my plans accordingly. And yet, you keep interfering. You are whimsical, unpredictable and a general nuisance.”

The figure’s smile became awkward. She did not expect being berated. “We just talk to some people. Why is that so bad?”

“You are near omniscient.”

“But we won’t start telling people secrets.” She was starting to get defensive.

“Right. What do you want?” Yuuki didn’t seem convinced whatsoever.

The figure pouted. “I wanted to thank you for taking care of Cassandra.”

“I do it because she could be useful to me in the future.”

“Oh really?” She asked with an amused smile and got a bit closer. “That’s strange, you seem to enjoy your little meetings. And only a part of it is an act.”

“My mission comes first.”

The being of light was getting seriously annoyed. “Oh come now. Why don’t you use that smart logical brain of yours? How long do you think you’ll live for?”

Yuuki was about to answer but was cut off by the figure who was yelling at this point.

“INFINITE! Because guess what? There’s no way in any of the billion hells that you will be killed or will die of old age.” She stopped for a bit to cool down. “I just want you to realize that you should care more about yourself. Everyone around you will leave after only a blink of the eye. You should cherish them while they’re still there.”

The figure disappeared and Yuuki dropped the barriers.

--

The weekend passed uneventful and Monday came. The entire day would be combat training. The instructor was a large bear-kin man. Yuuki could tell by his mannerisms that he was once a soldier. She knew all about those telling signs that she herself was forced to learn to conceal. His posture, the way he walked, even the way he breathed, talked and scanned his surroundings. These traits seemed to surpass the boundaries of worlds. The students lined up and he yelled at them as a greeting.

“Listen up! If you have any dreams of your time in this academy being soft and cushy, throw those dreams away and burn them for good measure. During your stay, you will be taught all the necessary skills to become world-renowned mages. That however can come with a lot of dangers. I can’t teach you magic, but I can and will teach you how to use it. With discipline, and purpose. Any questions?”  A few people put their hands up. “No? Good. Let us begin.”

They all were given a weighted wooden sword to practice with. Most of them struggled to keep it straight while Yuuki took a few practice swings to feel out its balance. She never received sword training, she simply picked the skill up during her time fighting through the legions of hell.

The class was split into three groups based on physical prowess. The teacher had a list that the PE teacher gave him and he split up the students accordingly. All except for Yuuki.

“Ashwood, get over here.”

Yuuki complied and walked in front of the teacher, sword in hand.

“So, I hear you’re the strongest out of the lot. Is that correct?”

“It is.” Yuuki said confidently. The teacher took a long look at her.

“Alright, you will help me demonstrate then.”

The students gathered around to look at the teacher and Yuuki facing each other, both in a stance. The teacher had a wooden sword in one hand, clearly too small for his frame while Yuuki was grabbing hers with two hands, clearly too large for her frame. Without warning, he attacked, unnaturally fast for his size. It was an overhead blow that Yuuki sidestepped and went for a counter in one fluid motion. The teacher, slightly caught off-guard, took a step back, which got him out of range. He got back in stance and attacked once more. What followed was a flurry of blows from both sides. Yuuki was on the defensive, but she wasn’t being pushed back. She would dodge or parry every attack directed at her, using her agility and size to her advantage. The teacher attacked relentlessly, and blocked any attack that came his way. They were in this dance for two minutes before he signaled to stop.

“Very good.” He turned to look at the other students, still in a daze. “You will have two main goals in your training for now: learn to change how you fight depending on the circumstances and to move without hesitation.” He pointed at Yuuki. “If she didn't have either of those qualities, she would be on the ground with broken bones. Now that you see your goal, time to begin training.”

He ordered everyone to line up in front of him once more, and had them copy basic stances and moves. After that, everyone had to find a sparring partner from their own group. Yuuki waited patiently to hear what she would have to do next. The teacher looked at her with an unreadable expression and asked a simple question.

“Who was your first kill?” He asked it quietly so only she could hear.

“I don’t remember.” Came the stone cold reply that told him, if not everything, enough.

“Look at their fights and point out mistakes.” He said and walked off to do the same

--

Weeks passed and the new students slowly got into a rhythm.

On Monday they would have fencing classes where Yuuki would watch over the fights, much like the teacher himself, and point out all the mistakes they made, which was pretty much everything at first. They also saw her spar with the teacher every so often, to show how to fight with and against different sets of weapons. They watched as the normally cheery girl turned into the Spirit of War and kept up with a person twice her height and over four times her weight.

On Tuesday they would slowly begin learning the basics of magic theory. Every time there was something ‘practical’, as the teacher put it, Arthur, Cassandra and Yuuki aced it without fail. During the etiquette no one really stood out in particular. In mathematics classes, they were really good, and learnt a bit faster than the rest, oftentimes being the ones to explain things to others.

Wednesdays started with double PE that Yuuki didn’t tryhard unless there was an exam or race. In which cases, she owned the competition. History was a breeze for all of them, after all, it was just memorizing things.

On Thursdays, the ones that still couldn’t read and write would learn very quickly.

After the double etiquette classes that started their Fridays, they had PE to wake them up a bit. The last lesson of the week would be magic basics once more.

A few weeks in, one of the kids casually asked Yuuki as a joke if she wanted to keep some lessons, to which she replied ‘Sure, but it’ll be hell.’ with a smile. It was on Friday afternoons, and lasted 3 hours before dinner. Keeping her promise, it was hell. The ones that went there, thinking it would be a joke would learn the hard way, that it wasn’t the case. She decided that their combat skills were the most lacking, so she beat the skills into them and healed them with magic later. At first they wanted to quit, but they didn’t. It was quite normal that the youngest age group would be the most determined, they usually chose to start early because they had something to prove. Eventually everyone from their makeshift class of 6-8-year-olds was attending ‘Elizabeth’s training from hell’ as they started calling it. Little did they know just how on point they were. She also began teaching them how to use magic, how to use it properly, and when to use it. She started incorporating magic into her training exercises, claiming it was an extension of the body.

And like that, a third of the first year flew by.