The Grand Auditorium carried the heavy scent of ancient ink, cold stone, and the sharp ozone of hundreds of mana signatures confined in a sealed space. The room itself had not physically changed. The vaulted ceiling and steeply tiered seating remained exactly as they had been fourteen months ago. But the third-year class occupied the space entirely differently.
There were far fewer of them now. The brutal attrition of the Academy was no longer a theoretical concept. It was a physical reality, visible in the scattered, glaring gaps of empty wooden chairs. No one spoke about the missing students. The quiet weight of their absence filled the room on its own.
