The Haematology class was held in a separate building known as the Magic Bullet Firing Range.
And the professor in charge was none other than the infamous Silage Basabar.
His appearance was as dreadful as ever.
His complexion looked no better than that of a terminally ill patient, pale to the point of appearing unhealthy, while his cheeks were sunken deep enough to make the entire impression even worse. The white in his hair had already begun to outnumber the black, and even his hands had taken on a yellowish, sickly tint.
"Cough, cough. Haematology," Silage began in his dry, rasping voice, "is a branch of black magic that uses blood as its medium."
At the firing line, Simon stood together with six other students. Two hundred meters ahead of them, a row of targets had been set up in the distance.
"To the public, it is often mistaken for a field created to imitate the secret techniques of vampires or blood wolves," Silage continued. "Hm! But that is incorrect. Since the caster's own blood is the material most compatible with Darkness, this field possesses a long and well-established history."
While the students positioned at the firing line prepared to shoot, the rest of the class remained seated and listened to the lecture.
"Darkness and the caster's blood are compatible in nearly every sense. By artificially combining blood with Darkness, a necromancer can induce a wide range of magical reactions."
As he spoke, Silage spread his hands apart. A droplet of pure Darkness hovered above one palm, while fresh blood trickled from the other.
The moment the two met in midair, they reacted violently.
The fused droplets burst apart and scattered in every direction with explosive speed, drawing gasps of surprise from the students watching.
"Setting aside the fact that I am the Haematology professor," Silage said, "I can say with confidence that for a necromancer not to use blood is a waste of potential. Though it consumes stamina, Haematology can become the fastest and strongest weapon available to a necromancer."
At the assistants' signal, the students at the firing line raised their right hands and pointed only their index fingers at the distant targets, while their left hands remained clenched.
Attached to each of their arms was a device resembling an IV line.
Once the assistants activated those devices, magic circles formed in front of the students' extended fingers, and soon took on a blood-red hue.
This was the most basic technique in Haematology—
Blood Bullet (Bloodshot).
The IV-like device was, in essence, a Haematology-specific version of a magic circle calibrator.
"Hmph. Since this is Class A's first session, the schedule has already been delayed considerably," Silage said. "So today, we will first identify what attribute your blood possesses, how that blood can support your abilities, and then proceed to the practical use of Blood Bullet."
Even by Kizen's standards, that was an absurd amount to cram into a single class.
As the other students looked at the firing range ahead of them, their attention naturally drifted toward the targets. There was not just one, but ten placed in a line behind each other, as if the class fully expected them to shoot through multiple layers from the very beginning.
Knox, however, was thinking about something else entirely.
His eyes remained on Silage.
Silage Basabar...
A faint sigh passed through his mind.
Kizen really needs to re-examine the way they recruit people. First Flema... and now him.
The thought was not baseless.
Knox already knew, from the original story, that Silage was no ordinary professor. Just like Flema, who had once disguised herself as Francesca, this man was also tied to the 'werewolf' side.
To be more precise—
Silage Basabar was actually a bishop of the Blood Heaven Church.
An undercover villain, hiding in plain sight within Kizen itself.
Knox's gaze did not change, but the thought that followed turned noticeably colder.
I should find a good chance later to root this guy out.
Completely unaware that he had already been marked in Knox's mind, Silage turned back toward the class with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Then," he said, "we will begin practical training."
That was what Silage said before giving the next instruction.
"Line 1, prepare."
"Yes! Line 1, Karell Oxara, ready!" Karell responded exactly as the assistant instructor had taught him.
Silage gave a small nod.
"Fire."
The moment Karell activated his magic circle, a bullet formed from blood and Darkness and shot from his fingertip.
Bang!
The projectile pierced straight through the center of the target.
"Blood type is AP-5. Penetration mark diameter: 45 millimeters. Three targets pierced."
The assistant immediately gave her report.
Silage nodded again, then activated the mana projector. At once, the targets struck by Karell Oxara were displayed for the students seated outside the firing lines.
"AP-5 type blood possesses a contracting property when combined with Darkness."
Holding out his palm, Silage shaped Darkness into the form of a balloon, then let a single drop of AP-5 blood fall onto it.
Instantly, the Darkness compressed sharply around the blood.
"It has excellent penetrating power due to the extreme degree to which it compresses Darkness," Silage explained. "However, in truth, it is more specialized for construction than discharge. Ahem. It is also useful in the formation of magic circles, making it a blood type specialized in supporting Darkness."
Then he turned his head back toward Karell. "Return to your seat. Collect your AP-5 name tag from the assistant."
"Yes, sir! Thank you!"
"Everyone else, wear your name tag on the right side of your chest during Haematology class. Next, Line 2."
"Y-Yes!"
A nervous female voice responded.
"Line 2, Camibarez Ursula. Ready!"
For the first time, a faint trace of interest touched Silage's otherwise unreadable expression.
Ursula, hmm. A vampire.
Cami's arms trembled slightly as she aimed at the target.
Perhaps it was because Haematology had been her first-choice field, or perhaps it was because she belonged to the vampire race, widely regarded as the rulers of Haematology. Either way, the attention directed toward her was obvious.
You can do it, Cami. From Line 6, Simon silently cheered for her in his heart.
And then, as if somehow sensing it, Cami briefly turned her gaze toward him.
She offered the faintest smile, then turned back toward the target and focused again.
"Fire."
At Silage's command, she activated her magic circle.
Blood and Darkness flowed from her fingertips and fused together. With a thunderous boom, the projectile shot forward.
BOOOOM!
And then something unexpected happened.
Instead of piercing through the target, Cami's blood bullet exploded the moment it made contact.
Four surrounding targets were caught in the blast and shattered apart at once.
"Ooooh—!"
Gasps rose from the students still waiting in the shooting lines. Even those seated at their desks craned their necks to get a better look.
"Blood type is KP-1. Estimating a penetration diameter is meaningless. Four targets destroyed by explosion."
On the mana projector, the destroyed targets were displayed clearly for everyone to see.
Silage resumed his explanation.
"KP-1 type blood tends to explode when fused with Darkness. In terms of pure offensive power, it is the strongest among all currently known blood types. Only vampires possess it."
Then he looked toward Cami's lane and said,
"I expect I will be seeing you often, Cami." Silage had taken notice of her.
Overcome with emotion, Cami thanked him so loudly that a few nearby students began murmuring in envy.
"...Of course it's a vampire."
"What a ridiculous bloodline bonus."
"Well, it's Ursula. What did you expect?"
After that, students in Lines 3 and 4 fired in quick succession. Each had a different blood type, and Silage explained which forms of black magic each one was most compatible with.
A short while later—
"All right. Next, prepare, student."
"Yes."
While Line 5 took their turn, an assistant approached Simon in Line 6.
"Excuse me. This may sting a little."
As she activated the IV-like device attached to his arm, Simon felt the blood inside his body gather toward his fingertips.
Soon afterward, she unfolded a magic circle at the tip of his finger. Simon's blood and Darkness flowed into it, staining the circle crimson.
"There you go. Good luck~"
The assistant whispered the cheer softly before stepping back.
"Line 6." Silage's voice rang out.
Simon straightened immediately.
"Yes. Line 6, Simon Polentia. Ready."
At last, it was his turn.
Closing his left eye, Simon extended his index finger and carefully took aim at the target in the distance.
"Fire."
The instant Silage gave the order, Simon's mind became blank.
His concentration sharpened to its peak. Then he activated the magic circle.
With a jolt of recoil, the blood bullet launched forward.
Pop!
And then—
it vanished in midair.
Simon blinked.
So did the rest of the students watching.
A second later, laughter burst out from Hector's faction.
"Ahaha! What was that?"
"What kind of black magic makes your bullet disappear?"
Then the vanished blood bullet reappeared directly in front of the target, glowing blue.
Crackkkk!
The blue light struck the target and spread outward in a wide fan.
Two targets directly ahead were torn apart, and one target each from Lines 5 and 7 were destroyed as well.
...!
A blood bullet that disappeared, then reappeared and spread in a fan-shaped burst upon impact—
Silage had never seen anything like it before.
Even the assistant, looking completely bewildered, could only shake her head before reporting, "Blood type has not been previously recorded. New type."
A wave of murmurs swept through the room.
Silage raised one hand, quieting the students before speaking.
"Two targets were hit directly in front, and two at the sides. As this is a blood type I have never seen before, I cannot provide an explanation at this time. Next, Line 7, prepare."
And just like that, he moved on to the next student.
Simon, however, remained standing there in a daze.
Could even a Haematology professor fail to recognize a blood type?
As he stepped out of the firing lane, the assistant distributing name tags scratched her head awkwardly.
"You... don't have a tag yet. I'll make a new one and bring it to class tomorrow."
"Ah... okay."
Still wearing a blank expression, Simon returned to his seat, where Rick, Meilyn, and Cami were already waiting for him.
The moment he arrived, the three of them leaned in at once.
While Simon was immediately subjected to a barrage of questions from his group, Knox and his own group were discussing Simon's result as well.
"Hey, did you see Simon's bullet just now? What was that?" Cindy asked.
"...I don't know," Merida replied. "I only saw it go poof and disappear... then boom, it showed up again."
"A new type..." Claudia murmured. "As expected of Simon. Special Entry No. 1 really was never going to be normal. Just like Knox."
The three of them then turned toward Knox at the same time.
Knox, caught completely off guard by the synchronized stare, blinked.
"...Guys?"
None of them answered.
But the thought in their eyes was obvious enough.
If Simon's already like that... then what about this guy?
After Line Six was over, it was finally Line Seven's turn.
Knox stepped into position without the slightest trace of tension, his expression as easygoing as ever despite the attention that had already begun drifting toward him.
After all, Simon's result had just shaken the entire class.
Now, whether they admitted it openly or not, quite a few eyes had naturally turned toward the next person in line.
And that person was Knox.
"Yes," Knox said, raising his right hand and extending his index finger toward the distant target. "Line Seven, Knox Aznable, ready."
The assistant activated the device attached to his arm.
At once, blood gathered smoothly toward his fingertip, and the magic circle in front of it bloomed into a deep crimson color.
Silage looked at him for a moment, then gave the order.
"Fire."
Knox activated the magic circle.
The instant he did, the bullet shot forward with terrifying speed.
Unlike the previous shots, it did not produce an especially loud explosion at the moment of release. It simply vanished from the eye almost as soon as it was fired, moving so quickly that several students instinctively lost track of it.
Then it hit.
BOOM—
The first target ruptured violently from the point of impact, as if something had spread through it from the inside and torn it apart in every direction at once. The destruction did not stop there. The force burst outward and forward, shredding through the next targets behind it in rapid succession, until multiple targets were destroyed almost at the same time.
A stunned silence fell over the firing range.
But then—
the remains of the shattered targets began to change.
Faint red traces appeared across the broken surfaces.
At first, they looked like little more than residual stains.
Yet within a second, the crimson deepened.
The color spread in thin, branching lines, curling and blooming across the fractured targets in intricate patterns that looked eerily similar to the shape of a lycoris flower.
The sight was so strange, so unnervingly beautiful, that for a brief moment, no one spoke.
Even the assistant nearest the targets stared in open bewilderment before finally snapping back to herself.
"All targets destroyed...!" she blurted, then faltered as her eyes remained fixed on the lingering crimson patterns. "And... blood type….. unconfirmed. …..Another New type."
Murmurs broke out at once.
"What was that?"
"It exploded... no, it spread?"
"Did you see those red marks?"
"That wasn't normal at all..."
Cindy's eyes were practically sparkling.
"Ah! I knew it! I knew Knox wouldn't be normal either!"
Merida, for once, looked slightly more awake than usual as she stared at the shattered line of targets.
"...Devil."
Claudia let out a quiet sigh, though her expression carried no real surprise anymore.
"At this point, I think expecting normal from Knox is our mistake."
Not far away, Simon also found himself staring at the wrecked targets.
Even after his own newly discovered blood type, the result Knox had produced felt abnormal in a completely different way.
Silage said nothing for a brief moment.
That alone was unusual.
Then, slowly, he looked away from the targets and back toward Knox.
For the first time since the class had begun, the sickly professor's gaze sharpened with unmistakable interest.
While they waited for the rest of the students to finish their turns, Group 8 quickly gathered around Knox as though they had been waiting for the exact moment to pounce.
Naturally, what followed was less a conversation and more an interrogation.
Most of the questions were aimed at the same thing.
What exactly had that blood bullet been?
How had it spread like that after impact?
And what on earth was that strange red pattern that had appeared on the targets afterward?
Only Cindy, true to herself, managed to ask something completely unrelated by the end.
"So," she said with shining eyes, "when are you holding another barbecue party?"
Knox blinked at her.
"That was a very sudden change of topic."
"It's important," Cindy replied seriously.
Meanwhile, Claudia and Merida were still focused on the actual issue.
"That effect was clearly different from Simon's," Claudia said, folding her arms lightly as she looked at Knox. "Yours was... stranger."
Merida gave a slow nod.
"It exploded."
Then, after a short pause, she added,
"And then it got creepier."
"That is an incredibly rude way to describe my blood," Knox said with mock offense.
Before Group 8 could continue pressing him, Group 7 also made their way over.
Simon, Meilyn, Rick, and Cami all approached with open curiosity written across their faces, though the degree varied from person to person. Simon looked thoughtful, Cami still seemed excited from her own result, Rick looked openly amazed, and Meilyn had the air of someone trying very hard not to seem too interested.
Still, even she ended up asking.
"What exactly was that?"
"Yeah!" Rick said, leaning in. "How does a blood bullet even do that? It was like it exploded, but not really, and then the target turned red all weird after!"
Cami nodded rapidly.
"And those flower-like patterns too! I've never seen anything like that!"
Simon, more composed than the others, asked in a calmer tone.
"Did you already know your blood would behave like that?"
At that, all eyes turned back to Knox again.
Knox smiled.
Then, with perfect shamelessness, he chose the path of evasion.
"From a certain perspective, that is indeed a good question…" Knox said, sounding like a retired, penniless archon.
"That's not an answer," Meilyn said immediately.
The stares he received in return were utterly unconvinced.
The truth was simple.
Knox himself did not actually know why his blood had produced that exact effect.
Back when he had been living in Nefthis's house, he had already been trained in that area and had experimented with his own blood more than once out of curiosity. At the time, he had analyzed its reactions with Darkness as much as he could.
But back then, his blood had never shown that second phenomenon.
The spreading destruction was one thing. The deepening crimson. The lycoris-like pattern appearing afterward.
That part was new. Completely new.
Naturally, he did have a guess.
A very suspicious guess.
...This has to be because of one of those gacha skills again.
More specifically, Knox could not help but think of the skills and influences he had acquired from worlds connected to Honkai. The red spread and floral pattern had reminded him a little too much of the early visible signs of Honkai corruption before full transformation into a monster began.
Of course, it was still only a guess.
But honestly, there was a famous saying for moments exactly like this.
When you don't know why, just blame it on Honkai!
Internally, Knox found that logic extremely convincing.
Externally, however, he gave the group a much safer answer.
"Hmmm... I'm not fully sure either," he admitted at last. "I did know my blood reacts a little strangely with Darkness, but that second effect was new to me too."
That answer made the surrounding students pause.
"You too?" Cami asked, surprised.
Knox nodded lightly.
"Mm. Apparently my blood decided to surprise me in public today. Very kind of it."
Rick let out a disbelieving laugh.
"How are you saying that so casually?"
"Because panicking won't make me understand it any faster."
"That's true," Simon said quietly.
Claudia let out a small sigh.
"So in the end, even you don't know."
"Sadly, yes." Knox spread his hands. "I'm also a victim here."
Meilyn stared at him for a second.
"No, you're clearly not."
Cindy raised her hand again.
"Then more importantly, about the barbecue party—"
"Why are you still on that?" Claudia asked.
"Because this is the truly important matter!"
Knox gave a solemn nod.
"She gets it."
"You're encouraging her," Meilyn muttered.
Merida, who had been silent for a while, looked at Knox and said in her usual flat tone, "If your blood gets weirder next time, tell us first."
Knox smiled.
"I'll try my best~"
"That doesn't sound reliable at all," Claudia said.
"It really doesn't," Simon added.
And just like that, the strange tension surrounding Knox's abnormal blood type loosened a little, replaced once again by the familiar rhythm of conversation around him—even if several pairs of eyes still occasionally drifted toward him with the same unspoken thought.
As expected... Knox Aznable was not normal either.
"Mmm."
Meanwhile, Rick crossed his arms and frowned as though he had just thought of something unpleasant.
"It's cool and all that Simon and Knox got new types," he said, "but... doesn't that actually make things troublesome later?"
That made several of the others pause.
Claudia was the first to catch on.
"Ah... right."
In Haematology, even if the magic itself was all based on blood, the actual training methods could vary greatly depending on one's blood type.
That was precisely why Haematology had more assistants than most other classes, and why every student was required to wear a name tag showing their blood type on the right side of the chest during class.
Silage provided the broad direction for the lesson.
The assistants, meanwhile, were the ones who gave more detailed guidance based on each individual blood type.
Which meant—
if there was no recorded type yet, then there was no proper tag.
And if there was no proper tag, then there was no established guide for that type either.
Cami blinked.
"Oh."
Simon's expression stiffened almost immediately.
Now that he thought about it, that assistant earlier really had said she would have to make a new tag for him by tomorrow.
Which meant his type truly had not existed in the records before today.
And Knox's case was clearly no different.
Claudia let out a small sigh and looked between the two of them.
"So in other words... from now on, there's no proper guide for either Simon or Knox in Haematology."
Rick made a face.
"That sounds kind of bad."
"Not kind of," Meilyn corrected. "It is bad."
Cindy tilted her head.
"But... doesn't that also mean they're super rare?"
Merida answered in her usual flat tone.
"It also means the professors might have no idea what to do with them."
That was, unfortunately, the real issue. Being labeled a new blood type sounded impressive at first.
Special, even.
But the practical side of it was much less glamorous.
Without an existing classification, there would be no accumulated data, no standardized explanation, and no training method specifically built around their blood.
Silage might be able to identify what happened in broad terms, but the finer details—how to stabilize it, how to control it, how to improve it, what kinds of applications it favored—would all be uncertain.
Simon's brows drew together slightly.
So what happens to me now?
For the first time since his turn at the firing line, that question settled properly in his mind.
And beside him, though he looked much calmer on the outside, Knox was thinking something similar.
Though admittedly, his thoughts were a little less academic.
What kind of BBQ sauce should I make later…?