“E-e-excuse me…” Lilium stuttered and then took a deep bow, red faced and trembling during the entire motion. Without raising her head, she walked backwards until she reached the door, whereupon she bolted out of the room.

“She said she is going to move in,” Lapis gave Mamori a thumbs up, a wide grin plastered on her face. 

“Get dressed… already…” Mamori sighed and then turned his attention to other matters. 

Because Lilium decided to move in, she wasn’t going to attend any lectures that day. This happened to make it easier for Lapis and Mamori to decide on a class they could both participate in together.

All the pair had to do was open up a popup menu and look at the available lectures for the day. It just took a single press of a button for them to register their intent to attend. 

However, when Mamori signed up for [Orientation to Magic Circles (1 of 1)], he was greeted by strange messages.

 

Mamori was back to his normal self after expelling his lingering libido through Lapis. Still, he was somewhat lethargic after the events. 

Thinking he might be hallucinating, Mamori closed his eyes tightly, cleared his mind, and then reopened his eyes. Yet, the notifications he saw were still there. 

‘Well, it is practically free stats… I’m not quite sure what the Lux Shop Voucher is though…’ 

Although Mamori was suspicious, he once again donned the white mask. With its cute red eyes and whiskers, he turned towards his roommate, who was getting dressed.

“Matching?” Lapis tilted her head and blinked several times, panties still dangling on her slender legs, “I guess this lady isn’t wearing outerwear today!”

Observing closer, Mamori noticed the panties were animal print and happened to feature a white cat on the fabric. 

“Can you be considered a lady?” Mamori asked, his face stoic behind the mask. It was clear the System was up to some funny business. It felt like his partner had accepted a bribe and was scheming behind the scenes. 

“What does that mean?!” Lapis puffed her cheeks innocently. 

Without giving her an answer, Mamori turned towards the door. “If you don’t get dressed properly and quickly, then I’ll leave you behind.” 

“Not this again…!” Lapis cried in complaint. 

There was no dress code for the 69th Academy. One could even go in their birthday suit.

Yet, one could earn extra participation points by wearing a school uniform. 

Given there was no official uniform, students typically used a tool called [Lux’s Wardrobe] that let users create a unique uniform from scratch: length, style, color. There were a lot of options. 

This resulted in a breathless Lapis appearing next to Mamori wearing a white uniform with a hoodie attachment. Two cat-like ears wiggled about as Lapis mimicked a cat and purred. 

She stretched out her hand.

“...”

Lapis beckoned Mamori with her fingers, “It is proper to escort a lady—”

“Again, I’m not sure you count as a lady…”

“Shock!” Lapis pouted; she turned her cheek but refused to lower her hand, “This is slander! I’m the proud second seed of the academy.”

‘Didn’t her sister say something similar…’ 

With that thought Mamori hesitantly opened up the [Message Tab].

 

‘...That is scary… but let’s pretend it is cute, yeah cute…’

 

‘That’s more normal...’

 

‘Past Mamori… I understand… but Present Mamori doesn’t want to deal with this either… he wants to nap… so it will once again be a Future Mamori’s problem!’ 

Deciding to at least appease the woman directly in front of himself, Mamori closed out of the messaging tool and accepted Lapis’ hand. She rubbed her face into his white sleeves.

“So furry…hehe.” 

 

***

 

Orientation to Magic Circles was an open lecture taught by Magic Professor Rivers, who was also in charge of Homeroom Class C and Frontier Hall. The only requirement to participate in the lecture was that one had to be part of the Pink Faction. Furthermore, only first year students would get participation points for attending. 

Rivers couldn’t help but return the ominous gaze he felt. Two beady red eyes glared at him. 

‘The first seat is a strange one...’

The little wrinkles around River’s deep blue eyes crinkled slightly as he coughed. His gaze and demeanor were sharp and professional. 

Yet, Mamori could not help but feel there was a gentle thoughtfulness behind the instructor’s gaze. However, realizing he was making the man feel awkward, Mamori broke eye contact. 

River’s coughed again and then adjusted his bright blue robes before turning to the other students filing into the lecture hall. 

‘As expected… the older students are downtrodden from the events of the previous scenario.’ River’s stroked his gray blue beard in thought, ‘I should try to brighten the mood… wait, maybe that is why the first seat came dressed as a cat…’

Mamori felt River’s gaze return to him, and so he waved his paw at the man. 

‘Maybe Mr. Baek was telling the truth… if that is the case… I’m going to have to work that man to his bones… hahahaha.’

 

‘The fuck is this?’ Mamori mused to himself, ‘Wait, did he perhaps figure out I was going to take a nap using the cat mask…! Hah, as one would expect from such an instructor...’ 

Mamori slunk into a chair as various traumatic memories of the conniving elders resurfaced. 

“Just five more minutes…” Mamori mumbled, immersed in reverie. Mamori recalled being rudely awoken and then being dragged to sign autographs for three days straight. 

“Huh,” Lapis poked him then clawed the air, “Nyaaaa!”

“...”

“Nyaaow,” she clawed the air with her other hand, “That I got your attention… anyone of these walking onaholes tickle your fancy!” 

Whack.

“Nyaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Lapis rubbed her head that got smacked. 

“Lapis, you can’t…” Mamori stopped himself; he realized that he had to change his approach, “...If you use such vulgar language then you will only scare people away.”

“Shock! But I love lewd talk!”

“Not, everyone is a succubus.”

“Nyaaa!” Lapis clawed the air again, “What a shock! But I’m sure Lilium, Lumi, Ryder, the twins, even that green-haired stalker—”

“I seem to attract horny women…”

Mamori rubbed his forehead, but as he did so a commotion could be heard.

“What’s up bitches. Your Queen is here!” Ryder kicked open the door of the lecture hall and entered with two members of her party: the perverted saintess and an unfamiliar magical knight from her party. 

“Hey, it’s Mamori!” Ryder didn’t hesitate to plop behind the man. She even lightly patted him on the back. “I’m not one to judge… whatever the two of you are into!” 

Mamori couldn’t help but notice that the saintess had tape over her mouth.

“I’m Clyde,” the black haired knight stretched his hand out towards Mamori, “Don’t worry about her. She likes it…”

Mamori shook Clyde’s hand; he felt an immediate sense of kinship. It was like two men could feel each other's hidden tears. 

Meanwhile, Ryder put her arm around the perverted saintess, “This slut can’t keep yapping sometimes. You see, it scares the youngins, so I had to take measures into my own hands. Haha.”

Mamori looked towards Lapis, who seemed to start to sweat.

“Nyaaa,” Lapis whimpered while giving a pitiful hand gesture. 

“Lapis is a good girl…” Mamori petted her, “No tape…” 

It looked like the day was going to be chaotic, so it best to just go with the flow. 

There were many other familiar faces as well that gathered around the group, causing quite the chatter. 

“It seems every magical user from Pioneer Hall has gathered here,” Aquilon the Wind Knight laughed slightly as he joined the increasingly large group with his partner, Nina the Fire Mage. 

“Fufufu, sister Lapis is dressed like a cat,” Melody giggled.

“It would seem so…” Harmony nodded but started at Mamori the entire time. 

Ryder yawned, “Probably because everyone procrastinated and chose the latest class… Personally, I was busy—”

The perverted priestess nodded her head vigorously and made muffled noises. 

Ryder coughed.

It was apparent that everyone got the implication behind what exactly was keeping the previous hero busy. Also based on the blushes and awkward eye movements of several students, it seemed many students were ‘busy’ with such activities as well.

Mamori, who deflowered the Flower Princess for over an entire day, could not find fault in his peers.

Nonetheless, Mamori used the awkward moment to expand his attention to the rest of the lecture hall. 

There were scattered students, but besides the students from Pioneer Hall, there were three other large groups: students from Frontier Hall, Border Hall, and students from the previous semester. 

A clapping sound reverberated from the front of the room.

“Now that everyone that registered is here,” River grabbed a ball and filled it with red mana, “Let's begin.”

As he finished speaking, the room seemed to spin. The walls melted away and a grassy training field appeared in its place. It was spatial magic inherent to the lecture rooms that let professors create and control a sub dimension.

Basically, instructors could instantly transform the room into any way they sought fit. 

Nearly a hundred metal-like spheres floated out of River’s hands and landed in front of every student.

“Please, fill the object with your mana, making sure to stabilize the structure. While you can use any method you want, I will be examining the results not only for this lecture but for future courses as well. Thus, it is perhaps in your best interest to use the magic circle system since it is my area of expertise.” 

There were several popping sounds as over ten spheres exploded.

“My power is overwhelming!”

“It couldn’t hold my power!”

“I’m the protagonist!” 

“I’m going to be the harem king!” 

“I just unsealed a sliver of my dark power!” 

“...”

“Yes, yes… this happens every time. If the sphere explodes then you simply failed; this isn’t a light show.”

“...” “...” “...” “...” “...” 

River’s calmly explained with a serene face, “The first step is to fill the object — not to overload it. Furthermore, the task is to stabilize the structure. Does it make sense for it to explode?” River clapped again, “Your device will repair itself. Please, try to do better this time.” 

Mamori’s mana core or mana heart, the place that stored all of his mana, had a single ring orbiting it.

The status of the structure as well as the quality of the mana circling through said structure determined one’s inherent output. 

For instance, Lapis’ core possessed two rings. One was for general stabilization and purification of mana, while the other was an ice-like ring that changed the quality of the mana, making ice magic easier. 

Her ice-like ring was vastly more complicated than the first one; it was also unique and inherent to Lapis because of her special heritage. In other words, she was practically born with the ability to efficiently use ice mana. 

Mamori examined the work of his peers and nodded his head as he went over the magic sequences they embedded into their cyclic constructions. 

The process was quite familiar to him. Whether it was when he was performing rituals or setting up countless spell formations at the Holy Mountain Sect, Mamori was experienced in stabilizing energy structures. His methods were less uniform though and focused on the inherent balance of things. 

For example, when Mamori set up a barrier to protect a room the arrangement of the spell was molded by the contextual analysis of the space. 

However, these similarities focused on creating semi-permanent structures and were less applicable to direct spell casting. In other words, Mamori wouldn’t be considered a skilled mage; instead, he would be regarded as a genius at magical engineering. 

If there was a problem with Mamori’s methods it was that his process was time consuming, not efficient on a mass scale, and not very replicable.

“Professor Rivers, may I see a demonstration,” Mamori, having already examined his peers, wanted to see even more complicated usage of circles before continuing.

“Hmm… I was going to do a demonstration after, but this is also fine.” River’s pulled something out of his robes, “This is my specially designed Spell Storage Device. It uses 5 circles to house the spell: Autonomous Magical Rain [Grade A+].”

River’s activated a non-lethal setting on the device that was used for simulating the effects of a product. He then threw the black orb into the air, where It hummed while floating in the sky with five red circles orbiting it from different angles. 

While the device buzzed through the air, thousands of red droplets shot out of the device from the entirety of its hemispherical bottom half. 

Like its name, it was as if a rain of magical bullets had descended. The inherent energy stored in the device meant such a downpour would continue for several minutes.

“The core of the device holds the main magic sequence for Magic Missle. Three auxiliary spells are engraved in the interior rings that surround it: Flight, Autonomous Control, and Amplification. The final two outer rings are for stabilization and protection, shielding the device from outside forces to prevent the collapse of the spell. Altogether it is a device designed for war, meant to be launched towards the enemy's frontline to cause disturbation.” 

There was a lot River’s didn’t explain, but it could take multiple lectures to address a singular point in depth of which there were countless topics that could be discussed. 

“The most important thing to consider is the balance between offense and defense. In particular, magic users have to watch out for mage seekers, anti magic specialists, and the like. These kinds of figures specialize in the disruption of spells and the elimination of magical threats.”

Rivers retrieved the SSD and then seemingly rested his eyes. He was content that his demonstration had a positive impact on the classroom. 

However, when Mamori was about to complete the assignment after some experimentation, a commotion filled the room. 

A familiar figure with ash-gray hair burst into the classroom.

“Is that?”

“What is that bitch doing here?” Ryder clicked her tongue.

“Nyaa, sister?” Lapis tilted her head.

“Oh, yeah you're related to her, huh.” Ryder hummed and then turned to Mamori. A smile appeared on her face, “I see.” 

The professor turned to the Lower Student Council President that interrupted his class. 

But the ice-cold woman responded before the man could say anything, “I’ll be joining your class today.”

“Ugh… sure…” Rivers quietly nodded his head. He had heard the various rumors and gave a certain man a pitiful look. He decided not to question things further.

Lumi’s eyes were locked onto Mamori.

‘Why. Have. You. Not. Been. Responding. To. My. Messages. My. First. Friend. Mamori!’