She needed to know exactly which books Irina… or rather, her people, had touched and what their purpose was.
Sunlight streamed through the high windows, casting pillars of light amidst the ancient bookshelves and dust.
The afternoon was for Magic Theory and Practice.
Although Lyra was Freya’s assistant, she was not a student of the Academy and could not attend the class.
Even though Lyra was blinking her watery eyes and pouting—looking as cute and pitiful as a fluffy rabbit—Freya resisted the urge.
Freya suppressed the itchy impulse to rub her head and handed over her own meal card.
“Take the meal card. Go to the school cafeteria and buy some delicious desserts and meat. We’ll talk after my class is over.”
As expected, Lyra was overjoyed at the mention of good food. She took the meal card and held it sacredly, as if it were the greatest treasure in the world.
“Boss really is the best in the whole world!”
Then, before Freya could react, the girl lunged forward, hugged Freya’s neck, rubbed her cheek against hers frantically, and quickly ran away.
Freya: …
After a moment of silence, the girl’s ears quickly turned red.
Where did Lyra learn such a bad habit!
She was just like a cat!
‘I have to make her change that habit next time!’
‘Yes! Definitely!’
***
The afternoon sun shone through the massive arched windows, making the largest lecture hall of the Central Magic Academy bright and warm.
Magic Theory and Practice was one of the core courses. Currently, the Professor on the podium was explaining the complex Advanced Elemental Resonance Model. The blackboard was covered in intricate magic circles and rune formulas.
Freya sat near the front, her long purple hair tied back simply with an Academy ribbon, revealing her smooth forehead and focused profile.
Thick magical grimoires and notes were spread out before her. Her quill recorded key points from time to time, and she occasionally raised her pale purple eyes to look at the Professor or the derivation process on the blackboard, her expression calm and serious.
After the morning’s interlude and a short midday break, she had temporarily suppressed those chaotic emotions and devoted herself entirely to her studies.
This was her familiar domain and the foundation of her power.
However, her thoughts were not entirely undisturbed.
From the corner of her eye, she could always catch a glimpse of a figure sitting not far behind her to the side.
Irina Ewell.
She was also wearing the female uniform of the Central Magic Academy. Her long golden hair draped softly over her shoulders. She kept her head slightly lowered, seemingly writing something seriously in her notebook. Her profile appeared exceptionally quiet and gentle in the sunlight.
She seemed to have completely integrated into the class. A few students even took the initiative to whisper with her, and she responded with a shy, timid smile.
What a perfect disguise.
Freya sneered inwardly.
‘If I didn’t know her true face from my past life and the clues I found in the archives last night, I would probably be deceived by this image of a “timid genius girl trying hard to fit into a new environment.”‘
Why was Irina in this class?
This course required extremely high mana control and theoretical understanding. It was usually an elective for upperclassmen or particularly outstanding students.
Given that Irina had only recently transferred and her surface specialty was Light-element Healing Specialization, it didn’t seem to be a perfect match.
Was her talent truly all-encompassing, or… did she have another purpose?
For example, to observe Freya at close range?
Or to look for an opportunity during classroom practice?
Freya’s vigilance was at its peak.
She quietly infused a trace of mana into the Interference Detection Wristlet her grandfather had given her. At the same time, she more carefully controlled the fluctuations of her Mana Heart Crystal, perfectly hiding it beneath the normal flow of mana.
The class progressed to the practical demonstration phase.
The Professor randomly selected several students to come forward and demonstrate how to perform a preliminary, controllable resonance fusion of two different basic elements (such as water and fire) to form an unstable “Pseudo-Chaos” energy ball and maintain its stability briefly.
This was a classic task to test fine mana control and depth of energy understanding.
The selected students went up one by one.
Some succeeded and maintained it for several seconds.
Some barely managed the fusion, but the energy ball was extremely unstable and quickly dissipated.
Others directly triggered a small-scale elemental conflict, causing a small burst of harmless magical fireworks within the protective array, which drew a round of good-natured laughter.
“Next—”
The Professor pushed up his glasses and scanned the list.
“Freya Christo Dale.”
A low murmur of discussion and expectant gazes filled the classroom.
Freya’s achievements in Energy Magic were well-known throughout the Academy.
Freya stood up calmly and walked toward the demonstration platform in the center of the classroom. Her steps were steady, and her posture was composed.
After standing still, she first nodded slightly to the Professor, then extended both hands, palms facing each other.
There was no long incantation or complex opening stance. She simply closed her eyes slightly and mobilized the pure mana within her body.
Above her left palm, a small ball of clear, flowing water quickly condensed. Above her right palm was a cluster of dancing flames with perfectly controlled temperature.
Then, she slowly brought her hands together.
Water and fire—two completely opposite and naturally conflicting elements—did not violently repel each other or directly annihilate the moment the distance closed, as they had during the other students’ demonstrations.
On the contrary, they seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, beginning to rotate and approach each other with a strange rhythm.
Ripples appeared on the surface of the water sphere, and the flames flickered slightly. The space between them seemed to produce a certain viscous tension.
Fine beads of sweat formed on Freya’s forehead, and her expression was incredibly focused. She carefully adjusted the output frequency and attribute ratio of her mana, as if plucking invisible strings.
Finally, under everyone’s bated breath, the edges of the water sphere and the flames touched very lightly!
There was no explosion, no annihilation.
An extremely thin, semi-transparent energy membrane, constantly shifting with blue and red halos, was born at the point of contact.
It incompletely enveloped the two elements, forming a “Pseudo-Chaos” energy ball that was extremely unstable yet strangely maintained a balance with light and shadows flowing inside.
The energy ball vibrated slightly, emitting a low hum as if it might collapse at any moment.
But under Freya’s exquisite control, it lasted for a full 10 seconds before she actively guided it to slowly dissipate into the air, turning into specks of mana dust.
The classroom was silent for a moment, followed by a burst of warm applause and admiration.
Even the Professor showed an approving smile and nodded.
“Very出色, Freya. Your understanding of the essence of energy and your control have far exceeded the others. Please return to your seat.”
Freya bowed slightly and walked back to her seat.
She could feel a particularly burning gaze, filled with complex emotions, sticking to her back—it came from Irina.
In that gaze, there was jealousy, desire, evaluation, and even a trace of… greed?
It was as if what Freya had just demonstrated wasn’t magic, but some sort of coveted treasure.
Just then, the Professor’s gaze scanned the list again and paused for a moment. He seemed a bit surprised but still read out.
“Next, Irina Ewell.”
Irina seemed startled. She looked up like a frightened fawn, her pink eyes full of panic and helplessness.
“Pro… Professor? Me? Is it okay? I just transferred here, and… I might not be very proficient yet…”
Her voice was light and soft, with just the right amount of timidity.
“It’s fine. It’s just a demonstration. Participation and experience are what matters,” the Professor said gently. “You can try. It doesn’t matter if you can’t control it. There’s a protective array.”
Under the encouraging gazes of the Professor and other students, Irina timidly stood up and walked toward the demonstration platform.
She looked extremely nervous, her hands tightly clasped in front of her, taking small and slow steps.
Freya watched coldly.
‘Keep acting. Just keep acting.’
Irina stood in the center of the demonstration platform and took several deep breaths, as if cheering herself up.
Then, she also mimicked Freya’s posture and extended her hands.
Her mana fluctuations appeared—it was a pure and gentle light attribute, carrying an aura of healing and soothing. It didn’t seem to have much to do with basic offensive elements like “water” or “fire.”
She tried to condense the water element, but the water sphere formed slowly and was unstable, its color somewhat murky.
When she condensed the fire element, it was even more difficult. The flame was so weak it almost went out.
Clearly, her affinity and control over these two elements were mediocre at best.
Some good-natured chuckling and whispers broke out in the classroom.
There was no malice; they just felt that this new transfer student, famous for her light-element talent, looked a bit clumsy but also somewhat cute as she worked hard in an area she wasn’t good at.
Irina’s cheeks turned bright red, and her eyes seemed to tear up.
However, she bit her lip and didn’t give up, continuing to bring the two misshapen elemental spheres closer together.
Just as the water and fire were about to touch, and everyone thought it would end in failure or a small elemental mess—
A sudden change occurred!
The mana output from Irina’s fingertips seemed to suddenly glitch!
The weak water sphere and flame shuddered violently. Instead of dissipating or conflicting normally, they seemed to be forcibly blended by some external force, exploding into a small cluster of extremely unstable, mottled, and distorted energy!
That energy did not form a “Pseudo-Chaos ball.” Instead, it was like an out-of-control, small light snake of mixed colors.
It suddenly lunged out, its direction… aimed squarely at Freya, who had just sat down!
“Watch out!” someone cried out.
Freya’s pupils constricted!
The “light snake” wasn’t fast, and its power didn’t seem great. It looked more like an accidental splash from a loss of mana control.
But the moment it appeared, the Mana Heart Crystal in Freya’s heart suddenly throbbed!
In the mottled energy of that “light snake,” there seemed to be an extremely obscure yet strange fluctuation that made her Heart Crystal feel an instinctive repulsion and attraction!
This wasn’t a simple loss of mana control!
In that split second, Freya didn’t have time to think. She also couldn’t allow the abnormal reaction of her Heart Crystal to be exposed.
Relying almost entirely on combat instinct, she didn’t use any defensive magic.
Instead, she just “panicked” and dodged to the side somewhat clumsily, “accidentally” knocking over the ink bottle on her desk in the process!
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