To get to the training grounds at Valthrune, you had to pass through the Combat Department.
The tall spire looming before me was intimidating.
Long. Dark. Piercing all the way into the sky, breaking through the clouds above.
Unfortunately, there were only two ways to reach the training grounds.
Enter the Combat Department and walk straight through to the other side…
Or go around.
I forgot to mention that each spire was about three fields wide.
So really—
Only one option.
I sighed.
"You know, it's not normal to be so apprehensive about entering a building, young man."
I turned my head and saw Knight looking up at the spire with nostalgia in his eyes.
"Ah… how I miss my days in Combat. Learning in class, making friends. It really was such a fun time in my life."
"But like all things in life—"
"You take it for granted."
I looked to my left.
Bloody had interrupted him.
He stared at Knight with a scowl before turning back to the spire.
He looked…
Sad.
I wondered what that was about.
Even though I had entered their lives and basically lived them myself, I didn't know what truly plagued them. I had only searched for memories related to the end of the world, after all.
All I remembered was that Knight and Bloody had both been in the Combat Department during their lives.
Bloody had left much earlier than Knight.
Trying to recall those memories made my head ache.
I sighed.
Of course, I had my own reservations about this place.
I didn't have many good memories of the Combat Department.
Most of the time, Studies students only entered this place for special joint training. If I remembered correctly, it was meant to let us observe the practical application of mana and origin spells.
For most people, seeing mana used outside magical tools was rare.
Besides that, and some… other things, I had barely entered the Combat Department at all.
Students began flooding out of the building and down the wide steps of the dark spire.
The time had come.
As the name suggested, the Combat Department was all about combat. Naturally, that meant plenty of training fields.
My target was one of the most deserted ones at the far back of the spire, away from most students' knowledge.
The reason I knew about it?
I glanced at Knight from the corner of my eye.
In his memories, that training spot had held a lot of importance.
It was a core memory.
Something precious enough to shape part of his soul.
I didn't know why it mattered so much to him.
And I had promised not to pry.
No matter how important it seemed.
Once the flood of students had thinned down to a few weirdos eating on the stairs, I made my way up.
Now, of course, as a Studies student, I wasn't allowed onto the Combat Department's training grounds.
That was why the plan was simple.
Enter after most of the Combat students had finished class and gone down to the city.
Act like I belonged.
Make my way to the secret training ground.
Simple.
Supposedly.
As I walked through the halls, cold sweat slowly slid down my face.
Every student who passed looked like they belonged here.
Broad shoulders. Weapons at their waists. Confident strides, like they had never once questioned whether they should be standing in these halls.
Meanwhile, I was trying very hard to look like someone who hadn't spent most of his life buried in textbooks.
Technically, I was now a mage. I met the basic requirement for joining the Combat Department.
But I was still a Studies student.
If I met a mage at tier three or above, they could tell my mana level with a single look.
Fortunately, the only people at that level this early in the year were professors.
I grimaced.
And the constants.
I stayed close to the wall, doing my best to hide my presence.
Eventually, I made it.
Two vast double doors stood before me.
I pushed them open.
A wide training field stretched out beyond them.
Dummies and spare weapons littered the ground. Scorch marks and broken targets scarred the field.
Only one person was there.
A tall girl with long dark hair reaching the middle of her back. Her legs were long and armored. Her eyes sparked deep violet, like the heart of lightning.
In her hands she held a spear more than twice her height.
And she was taller than me by a good few inches.
Then I saw the top of her head.
I froze.
My eyes widened.
Two black cat ears poked out, white fur visible inside them.
Oh shit.
This was one of the last people I wanted to see.
A tall girl.
A spear longer than her body.
Long black hair.
Cat ears.
This was—
"Ah! It's Lucinda!"
Knight cheered excitedly from my side.
Bloody tsked and turned away.
For once, he didn't throw out an insult.
The heart in his chest only beat once.
Hard.
Ugly.
One of the constants.
One of the Main Constants.
Self-proclaimed harem member three.
Lucinda Anubeca.
The Lightning of Fury.
Alarm bells rang inside my head.
Fortunately…
She didn't even see me.
"Ah."
A pathetic sound escaped my mouth.
It made sense. Why would she interrupt her training just because someone entered the same field?
She probably didn't even register me.
I sighed in relief for the first time in a while.
That was way too close.
I put a smile on my face and walked across the scorch-marked field, making my way toward the forest beyond it.
Yes.
The private training field was just past this one.
As I blended into the forest, I followed a path that felt perfectly memorized in my mind.
Behind me, Knight gasped.
"Young man… are we going where I think we are?"
I turned around and nodded.
"What's the deal with this training ground?" Sleazy complained from behind me. "We had to take such a convoluted route just to get here."
I opened my mouth to respond, but a distant sound caught my ear.
Water.
I started running.
Breaking through the wall of trees, I emerged into a clearing.
A waterfall crashed down into a wide pond below.
Sunlight shimmered across the water, making the surface look like a giant mirror.
Knight had gone quiet.
His eyes were fixed on the waterfall.
Instead of looking like a stoic knight, he looked like a person standing in front of a grave.
"This," I said, grinning, "is why we took so long to get here, my shifty clone."
"This place is going to be our private training ground from now on."
Sleazy drifted in front of me and gave me a confused look.
"What do you mean? Why did we need such a secluded training ground so far from the academy?"
"I'm also confused, young man," Knight added. "Though I must say, I appreciate being able to see this place again. Still, you didn't need to come all the way out here just to train your ability."
He was right.
I didn't need to come out here just to train my origin spell.
Even as a Studies student, most Combat students wouldn't recognize me based on mana alone. I could have trained somewhere else without much issue, even if a professor or constant showed up.
That was what would have happened if I were normal.
I began removing my uniform jacket.
"Well, you're mostly right."
"This would be unnecessary if I were like the other students."
"What do you mean, 'not like the others'?" Bloody finally asked.
I set the jacket aside and placed a hand over my heart.
"You all remember the mana tethers connecting us, right?"
They nodded.
"After looking through the memories during my Soul Dive, I inferred something."
"You all have different origin spells."
Knight nodded.
"That makes sense. Even visually, we all have different transformations."
"Exactly."
"We all have different origin spells. Conveniently, none of us are attuned to any elemental magic."
Besides an origin spell — a spell or type of magic unique to the individual — mages could also use elemental magic.
For example, Lucinda's mana was attuned to lightning.
Just like with origin spells, a mage awakened their element when mana entered their body.
Temperament determined elemental affinity.
Most mages were attuned to some type of element, but it wasn't uncommon to have none.
Just like me.
It was possible to be attuned to more than one element, but that was rare.
More than two was even rarer.
I turned back to Knight and got straight to the point.
"The mana tethers attached to my soul seem to let me use your origin spells."
I grinned.
"All of them."
Gasps rippled through the ghosts.
Then I felt something leave my soul.
Lazy emerged, wide-eyed, a bead of cold sweat running down his face.
"That's impossible! No one person can have more than one origin spell. It's attached to the soul. Made from it, even!"
I blinked.
This was the most active I had ever seen Lazy.
I raised my hands to calm him down.
"I don't know for sure yet, but considering you guys can hurt me by pulling on the tether, I can also feel something when I pull on the tethers myself."
"What do you mean, you haven't tried it?!" Bloody screamed from behind me. "Are you just spouting nonsense?!"
I grimaced and quickly tried to calm him down.
"Hey, I'm like ninety percent sure this is true. I just haven't tested it yet."
I gestured around us.
"That's the whole reason we came out here."
"Okay then," Sleazy said.
"Let's test it."
"Huh?"
I turned.
Sleazy gave me a wide grin.
"I said let's try it, Seer. Let's see which origin spell you can use."
A deep sigh came from behind me.
Lazy massaged his temples.
"Yes. Let's see which ones you can draw out. Start with Sleazy's first."
Sleazy grimaced.
"Sorry, no can do. My origin spell is a little… technical."
"You can't use it as a tier-one mage."
I frowned.
"What do you mean I can't use it?"
"I mean the ability is too delicate. The cleanup is too much for someone at your level."
He shrugged.
"At minimum, you'd need to be a tier-three mage just to use it safely."
I stared at him.
What did he mean I had to reach the third tier just to use his ability?
Of course, I had an idea of what it was from the memories I'd seen, but I didn't know the exact details.
That was the same for the others.
Knight tapped his sword against the ground.
"You cannot use mine either. My telekinesis is too difficult to manipulate right now. It does not require the third tier, but you should use another ability first to get a feel for this."
He bowed slightly.
"I apologize, young man."
I waved my hands.
"It's alright. You don't have to apologize. We'll just use Lazy's—"
"That's not possible either."
I turned to him.
"What, are you too lazy?"
I was stunned.
That was three out of four abilities I couldn't use.
Origin spells weren't usually gated like this.
They were magic made for the person themselves.
And these guys were literally me.
I sighed and turned to the last ghost with a dejected stare.
"What about you? Let me guess. If it has anything to do with that heart of yours, it's probably too dangerous."
Bloody put a finger to his chin.
For once, he actually seemed to think about it.
Then he grimaced.
"Unfortunately… it's possible."
I lit up.
"Really? Let's try it. Let me pull on the tether."
Before Bloody could say anything else, I lightly pulled on the tether binding us.
A rush of mana foreign to my own surged into my body.
Bloody's mana.
But instead of violently rejecting it and destroying my mana veins, the mana settled into my core.
As if it belonged there.
"There. I did it. Let's see what we're working with."
"You idiot, don't do it yet!"
Ignoring Bloody's protest, I pulled on the red mana in my core and let it flow through my body.
For some reason, it refused to leave.
I closed my eyes and tried again.
Same result.
"You moron!" Bloody shouted. "You can't just use magic without invoking it!"
He looked genuinely offended.
"I can't believe such a moron gets to use my ability. This is humiliating."
Bloody stood in front of me, furious.
I stared at him.
"What do you mean I have to invoke it?"
"It means the mana in your body doesn't know what to do! You can't use magic without guiding it, you moron!"
"Tsk."
My eye twitched.
What was with this guy's attitude?
I became a mage a few days ago!
Gritting my teeth, I asked,
"So what do I say to invoke your origin spell?"
Bloody huffed.
"You say the name of the magic."
He stared into my eyes with his red ones.
"Mine is called Bloodrend."
"Bloodrend…"
I murmured it under my breath.
What an ominous name.
This time, I let the red mana flow through my body again.
When it reached the edge of my body, I invoked it.
"Bloodrend."
The mana shot out, turning deep red as it gathered in my palm.
It did not glow.
It thickened.
Like blood remembering it used to be alive.
"Woah."
This was my first time using magic besides my own.
I could barely call the first time fun.
But this…
This was awesome.
The blood-red mana finished forming in my grip.
Then it took shape.
"Ummm…"
A cleaver.
Deep red blade.
Black hilt.
I stared at it.
It was so…
"Lame."