With a week's worth of classes behind me, I had been quietly measuring the mana flow of each of the instructors that I'd been studying under. Taking another look at Rapfrad Loen, he really didn't stand out in that regard at all. Of course the instructors as a group were a solid tier above that of the average student at the academy, and it wasn't the sole deciding factor in a mage's ability either. If he was a noteworthy mage by Mela's standards, then he was certainly someone with teachings worth listening to, and so I perked my ears along with many other students as he started his second lecture on composite spell arrays.
"We'll start today with an organizational matter. As you know, the academy encourages students to specialize, but at the same time cooperation between fields is also an important matter. The creation of composite arrays is one of the most common and concrete examples of such cooperation among mages. As such, your primary evaluation for this course will be based on a group project."
That didn't sound good. Not because I had any issue working with others, but the other way around was the problem. I could already feel many pairs of eyes drilling into my back. Where they hoping for a chance to improve their evaluations by getting a top student in their group? No, surely they were each thinking about what they had to do to make sure that they didn't end up with me assigned into their group.
"Your objective will be simply to design a composite spell array that best showcases the individual talents of all the members in your group, whilst having a concrete purpose. At the end of the course I'll examine each of your arrays, possibly at work as a spell if we have the time, to grade your performance. Go ahead and arrange yourself into groups of at least four, where each of the members has a different field of specialty they can apply to the project. Bear in mind that each additional member and specialty introduced into the group will make the array more complex and difficult to design."
So we were free to form our own groups, as long as we conformed to that requirement. Of course, we were all adults after all, so surely we didn't need our instructors to figure out something like that for us, right? But for my part, I'd already started getting used to being left alone. It wasn't that different from my last time studying at the academy, though back then I'd simply been ignored most of the time. After a week in this body, the only student I could recall having amicable interactions with was Rohn, and the episode the previous week didn't leave me with many positive feeling about the students in this course.
"Excuse me. Would you mind forming a group with me? I'm Rokus Galein, and I specialize in chants based magic. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Tannel."
I could barely believe how quickly I had to amend my thought, as I'd barely started to think of how to convince anyone to associate with the scary Tannel. I should have probably counted this boy among my more positive interactions, as he'd distinguished himself from the crowd in last lesson, by at least being polite and smiling at me. But I still hadn't expected that he'd head straight for me, and introduce himself with no less than a small bow and full courtesy. I was a little tongue-tied, feeling awkward when faced with his smiling and expectant manner, but I had no reason to refuse.
"Of course, that's fine with me. And please, just call me Mela."
Seeing him from the front, this time I was able to see that he was wearing a prefect's pin. Despite the light apprehension I had started to feel towards that symbol, not only was he seemingly a paragon of good manners, but his tone was outright friendly. And his smile really was dazzling, either genuine or very well practiced, and it grew even broader when I agreed. I couldn't help but be a little wary, because I couldn't figure out why he would be so eager to team up with me. It was too much if he was just taking pity on me for being lonely.
"Certainly. You can call me Rokus as well."
I would have anyway. That aside, I had the thought that the name Galein sounded somewhat familiar, but I did not think it was one that I'd heard in the past week. Perhaps I was recalling the name of some noble line, as family names had been considerably rarer three hundred years ago. It would have certainly explained the overly courteous manner of his, which I thought would have been more suitable among a gathering of nobility. Not that I'd ever experienced such a gathering, but he looked like he'd in fit perfectly. He was young, but I could see that he stood at a fair height, and had the build of someone who'd diligently practiced their body, perhaps in the martial arts of a noble, again making him stand out from the crowd of the academy.
"Can I join as well? I'm Iole, I work with magic inscriptions."
Another surprise followed up soon enough, as a girl that was sitting in the row front of us turned around to face us just as we'd started looking around for anyone else to join. Compared to Rokus's overstated and friendly behavior, she was outright blunt, and her offer was stated in an utterly nonchalant manner. She was dressed in a plain and unassuming manner, matching her speech. It seemed to be a fair guess that she was a bit of a loner herself, as she'd been sitting alone and quietly in front of me, and hadn't spared me a glance before this moment. Not that I had any issue with that, since it indicated that she wasn't worried about any rumors. And so Iole become our third member, but perhaps the biggest surprise was yet to come.
"Rokus, could I join your group? I think our specialties match well, according to what instructor Loen said last lecture."
I turned around to look behind me when I heard yet another voice. I couldn't help but recognize her for the girl that had rudely interrupted me by giggling, when I had been put on the spot during the first lecture. And what was she even doing there, when she had been seated at the other side of the room? I braced myself for the possibility that she was coming just to pick a fight with me, but I soon realized that she wasn't even sparing me a glance, nor Iole for that matter. She'd asked Rokus, and apparently wasn't so concerned about what anyone else thought, or if her specialty, whatever it was, matched with the rest of the group.
To his credit, Rokus wasn't unaware of the awkwardness of the situation, and glanced my way as he momentarily hesitated to answer. I just gave him a small shrug, not really caring enough to refuse her. But I could see a small annoyed twitch on her face when Rokus was looking my way for confirmation, which gave me a fair hint of what I could expect from her going forward. With how haughty she looked, it didn't seem that she often bothered hiding such emotions, though she was paying attention to approaching Rokus with care.
I almost regretted giving my permission, but Rokus was already introducing her, seeing as she hadn't done the courtesy. Maeve, last name Byrnoi – another one of the Tannel family's self-proclaimed rivals, weren't they? It would match with how she was ignoring everyone but Rokus, whom she had apparently deemed worthy of her attention. My brief optimism about the upcoming project suitably dampened, I faced forward to listen as Rapfrad continued his lecture.
"I'll mark down your groups at the end of the lecture, and if anyone's still lacking a group, you can come to me then. I'll start the lecture now. I suggest that you sit down with your groups and start making notes for what you can utilize in your array. Feel free to start working on it in your own time, but we'll have a few more lectures before we dedicate any class time to it."
Over the past week I had been noticing that a lot of the ingredients in the meals that I was eating seemed to be more processed and standardized than I was used to. For example, the bread that I was eating as part of my lunch, after Rapfrad's lecture, was white and amazingly soft. It was very easy to chew, but at the same time it was also disappointingly lacking in flavor, seemingly meant only as accompaniment for the rest of the meal.
"Can we sit here?"
I looked up to see a girl pleasantly smiling down at me, and with another three students lined up behind her. It was the first time, since Celine had left a week before, that someone interrupted the pensive thoughts that I'd been spending my lunch breaks with. But it was true that I was occupying a large table all by myself, so I just nodded and moved my chair a little to make room for them to sit down. I expected to be left alone after that, but instead the girl started energetically introducing herself and her friends, not losing the easy smile, which appeared to be her default expression.
"Thanks. I'm Phila, by the way. This is Alla, and the boys are Mateo and Kellen."
"I'm Mela."
As each of her friends made some friendly gesture to go along with her naming them, I felt compelled to respond by simple politeness, but I already prematurely cringed, expecting them to finally recognize me when hearing my name. It seemed that they didn't though. Aside Kellen, that is, whose eyebrows shot up. He didn't say anything though, just narrowing his eyes and giving me a somewhat rude stare. Dressed primly, he looked rather serious compared to the other three, who looked rather casual and continued to obliviously act friendly. I wasn't about to do something as awkward as telling them that I was the local bogeyman, and it seemed that Kellen was fine with letting it be as well.
"So what are you studying at Altrel?"
Phila in particular continued to insist on drawing me into conversation, immediately asking more about me, as she and her friends started on their meals. I had to consider for a moment, not actually entirely certain what Mela had focused her studies on, but settled for an answer that at least wasn't entirely wrong.
"I'm focused on the magic of machinery."
"Oh! I'm studying mechanical engineering! We'll probably have some overlap in courses!"
The needlessly chipper girl seemed to get only more excited at my answer, so I just gave some non-committal answer, as I instead focused on the unfamiliar term. I could more or less intuit what mechanical engineering referred to, but it presented a rather curious revelation. It probably wasn't all that surprising that subjects unrelated to magic were also being taught at Altrel, but previously I had simply assumed that it had remained solely a magic academy.
The other three went on to dutifully tell me what they were studying, including Kellen, who seemed to satisfied that I wasn't planning anything nefarious for the moment. I didn't care that much, but I did note that Mateo, who was almost as loud in the conversation as Phila, also was focused on studies that didn't have anything to do with magic as such. He looked to be the oldest in the group, though probably still younger than Mela's actual age, and I quickly got the impression that he was used to watching over the others. Aside explaining that this group had known each other since before coming to the academy, he also helpfully spoke a little more on the topic that I was curious about.
"Phila and I came to study at Altrel so that we could stay together with the other two, since they decided to study to be mages and here we might still be able to study together sometimes."
Expanding into other fields probably partly explained the growth in size of the academy as well, but this was simply the first time I had any indication of it. I could have been just that the buildings that I'd spent my time in were the ones focused on magic studies, and other fields were based elsewhere on the vast academy grounds, but magic probably still remained the primary focus of the academy, based on everything I'd seen.
Of course there had always been some classes that weren't primarily focused on learning magic. The lecture on the Fae rift hadn't really had any component directly related to magic either, though of course a certain understanding of magic was required to understand the fae. There were many other subjects closely intertwined with the study of magic, that one had to have some understanding of, if they were to ever comprehend how to most effectively utilize magic.
These other studies had always been supplementary to magic studies at Altrel, but perhaps any non-magic departments still supported the magical research of the academy, just in a broader sense. I thought that it certainly would be useful to have experts that could, using Phila as an example, help construct the machinery needed for my magic. There was only so much talent that could be drawn towards secondary pursuits from the already limited number of mages.
"Oh, we aren't bothering you, right?"
It seemed a little belated, but it had finally occurred to Phila to worry, maybe because she'd seen me fall into my own thoughts. But since I wasn't eager to drive away some of the only company that I'd had in a week, not to even mention the years that I'd spent mostly in isolation before I had created Mary, I smiled and dismissed her concern.
"No, it's alright."
Of course it was exactly what I'd have said if they were bothering me, but Phila seemed to take it at face value and happily continued chattering away, when she saw that I was paying attention again. Just the easygoing atmosphere was enough to help lift my spirits, as the friend group chatted next to me. I didn't end up really engaging myself, until Phila presented a slightly awkward question to draw me back into the conversation. It seemed like it wasn't actually the first time she had noticed me.
"So what happened to that other girl you were eating with a week ago?"
"That was my sister. She's not actually a student here, so she was just visiting for the day."
"Oh, that's a shame, I thought we could greet her as well! I wanted to see if we could talk, since you are always eating alone here, and we are all new to the academy as well."
That explained some things. Phila thought that I was always alone because I was a new student and hadn't got to know anyone yet. I could guess that it was because of how young I looked, younger in fact that all of these new students. And since they were new to the academy, they might not even have known about Mela, aside Kellen who had clearly heard the rumors. In a way, it wasn't exactly wrong, but neither was it right.
Either way, I didn't really feel like correcting her, and ruining the whole situation. I thought I could at least enjoy a single pleasant meal, aside the suspicious glares from one person in the table, even if it was the result of a misunderstanding. It was already the most human contact that I'd had in a week, and I wasn't really good at dealing with such extroverted people, but I wasn't yet in a hurry to return to a solitude surrounded by fearful looks.
"Really, I can't figure out why everyone would leave such a cute girl alone, especially after you've started dressing so charmingly!"
As Alla chimed in, my peaceful mood was slightly disturbed. She looked like a kind and polite girl, but her words sounded a bit more familiar than how the rest, even the very chipper Phila, had been talking to me. I had a thought that Mela probably had dressed like she did because she didn't want to stand out, but apparently Alla had noticed her, despite somehow not hearing the rumors, and recognized her appearance even after the makeover that Celine had put me through. Speaking of Celine, I thought that the delighted smile, that Alla was showing while looking intently at me, seemed a little familiar. And I hoped that I was just imagining it getting wider, when she saw my confused embarrassment at her compliment.
