When Skyl called Melina, he was surprised to learn that she was currently studying at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
"Why did you go back to school?"
The question came out sounding a little wrong.
"..."
Melina said nothing on the other end of the call. Her silence was deafening.
"Sorry. What I meant was, weren't you hunting down the Frenzied Flame before?"
"I have already laid the patients infected by the Frenzied Flame to rest. The group spreading it is deeply hidden, and for now, I've been unable to find any new leads. After that, I had nothing else to do. Skyl, you once gave me a book on magic, so I came to the Academy to study it properly. I hope to become stronger."
That explained why Melina had suddenly enrolled in a school of sorcery.
"Ah, that's great. Are you busy right now? I was planning to visit the Academy."
"Please come. I'll wait for you."
Melina was as concise as ever.
Although the Academy of Raya Lucaria was sometimes jokingly called the Hogwarts of the Lands Between, its teaching style was nowhere near as warm and nurturing as Hogwarts. It was more like a university. Students could join different conspectuses, but above all else, they needed to be capable of teaching themselves.
This was Skyl's second visit.
The first time, he had come looking for Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, in order to reconstruct a physical body for Melina's spirit. He had fought his way straight into the Grand Library, so he had probably left quite an impression on the students who had been there at the time.
That was why, on this visit, people stared at him everywhere he went. Once he and his companions passed, groups of sorcerers would gather together and whisper among themselves.
Students whose academic pursuits were deemed worthy would be granted the appropriate Glintstone Crowns, heavy stone helmets embedded with glintstone and carved in the likenesses of renowned sorcerous scholars. They were cumbersome and oppressive, but represented academic honor and could enhance the wearer's mental faculties.
They were also a burden.
According to Melina, practically everyone at the Academy had chronic neck problems.
Spend years hunched over books while wearing several pounds of stone on your head, and studying quickly became a form of penance.
And that was exactly what learning was like at Raya Lucaria. Nobody forced anyone to study. Progress depended entirely upon self-discipline and a genuine thirst for sorcery.
Those capable of devoting themselves completely to scholarship had long since become accustomed to internal discipline, and the Glintstone Crown was almost a physical manifestation of that discipline.
Heavy, restrictive, and oppressive, the crowns narrowed the wearer's field of vision and made movement inconvenient. Students couldn't even see one another's true faces beneath them. Their first impression of each other was therefore simply that of fellow scholars, equals in the pursuit of knowledge.
In theory, that allowed scholarship to become an almost purely rational activity, stripping away as many social formalities and distractions as possible.
In practice, Raya Lucaria was still filled with hierarchy.
Sorcerers who had earned Glintstone Crowns stood above ordinary apprentices. Powerful conspectuses looked down upon weaker ones. Talented but dangerous sorcerers were ostracized, while those who lacked talent were treated with outright contempt.
Melina, whom Skyl hadn't seen in quite some time, was waiting for them at the Academy entrance.
She wore a sorcerer's robe of blue trimmed in red, giving her the appearance of a nun from some secluded monastery. Her short rose-red hair was damp from Liurnia's light rain.
Both Skyl and Millicent carried umbrellas.
When Skyl reached her, he handed Melina a long-handled umbrella, then summoned a gentle magical breeze to dry the raindrops from her clothes.
"This place has changed a lot," he said with a smile. "Last time I was here, I remember the Cuckoo forces were still stationed outside the gates."
"Rennala's mental condition has improved. With the Queen of the Full Moon once again overseeing affairs, she has mediated the conflict between the Academy and the Carian royal family, while also pacifying the Albinaurics living in Academy Gate Town."
Melina nodded politely to Millicent before leading the two of them into the Academy.
"She's completely lucid now?"
"It comes and goes. But Ranni the Witch visits frequently to help her mother."
Melina brought Skyl and Millicent to her dormitory.
She technically had a room meant for four students, but there were far fewer women than men studying at the Academy, so Melina was its only occupant.
Skyl wasn't in any hurry to go catch up with Rennala. Instead, he sat down on one of the unused four-poster beds and talked with Melina about what they had each been doing lately.
They were like old classmates who hadn't seen each other in years, catching up on their lives.
Skyl was the successful graduate from another school who had already entered the working world, founded a thriving enterprise, and even become lord of a flying city. Melina, meanwhile, had only recently begun her academic career.
Even so, the two of them still had plenty to talk about, especially when it came to magical theory.
As for Millicent, all she could really contribute was:
"Well... I've never actually gone to school."
The swordswoman quietly listened to their conversation, occasionally smiling whenever Skyl made some ridiculous joke.
There were very few personal possessions in Melina's dormitory.
She kept everything impeccably clean, almost like a traveler who expected to leave at any moment. Her clothes were all neatly stored inside the wardrobe.
Nothing was hanging out to dry on the balcony either.
It rained almost constantly around the lake. There might be only five or six genuinely sunny days in an entire month, and the humidity was ridiculous. Anything hung outside could stay there forever without fully drying, so washed clothes were simply dried in the laundry room instead, leaving them with a faint smell of wood ash.
The gloomy Academy of Raya Lucaria was breathtakingly beautiful and absolutely miserable to live in.
Natural lighting was so poor that candlesticks, torches, and glintstone lamps could be found everywhere.
Melina had placed her desk beside the balcony and erected a magical barrier of her own to keep out the rain.
Normally, she studied there for hours at a time. Rain pattered softly against the barrier while gentle breezes passed straight through it, and she would remain at her desk until the clouds finally broke and clear skies returned.
Skyl cast a Weather Charm and dispersed the clouds.
Sunlight spilled across Liurnia of the Lakes.
Melina had seen this scenery many times before, yet every time the sun emerged she would stare at it silently for a long while.
No one had ever been there to admire it with her.
Now she had two companions beside her, and she no longer needed to lose herself in old memories while watching alone.
A Witch's Glintstone Crown rested in one corner of her desk.
It was an honor granted to female Raya Lucaria scholars who distinguished themselves in their studies, earning them the title of "witch."
Melina could now properly call herself one.
According to her, she had only been studying at Raya Lucaria for a little over half a year.
The fact that she had already achieved something that took many sorcerers several academic years proved both how hard she had worked and how naturally talented she was.
Skyl praised her with a grin, telling her that before long she would become a legendary sorceress known throughout the Lands Between.
He was only teasing her, the kind of joking compliment exchanged between friends.
Melina's expression remained completely unchanged.
The tips of her ears, barely visible beneath her short hair, turned bright red.
"The magic book you gave me was a tremendous help. It's very comprehensive, and its explanations are much easier to understand than the instructors' lectures."
"Don't you snack while you're studying?"
Skyl patted his stomach.
He didn't actually need food anymore. He simply still had the habit of craving something to eat.
Studying had always made him hungry.
Back in the Tower of Tomes, the house-elf Gally would occasionally bring him platters of fruit and snacks. When studying in the Hogwarts dormitories, he and his roommates often shared food, which made late-night study sessions surprisingly enjoyable.
Skyl himself had frequently gone through several cups of sweetened coffee during an all-nighter. Once he became absorbed in studying, he would inevitably realize hours later that every snack within reach had somehow disappeared.
Melina shook her head.
The Academy's food situation was terrible.
Even the demi-humans living in the wilderness could hunt meat, but after the Academy became isolated, its sorcerers had survived largely by raising crabs. Their daily meals consisted of dry, flavorless boiled crab.
Some particularly bored sorcerers assembled leftover crab shells into models or arranged them into pictures. Others used crab legs as counting sticks or crab shells as makeshift percussion instruments.
Even their vinegar and alcohol were fermented from mushrooms and aquatic plants. They tasted bizarre, and food poisoning was hardly unusual.
Unfortunately, shortages were unavoidable during wartime.
Melina couldn't even offer her visitors tea or snacks.
Normally, she drank an infusion brewed from dried aquatic plants. It was highly stimulating, but it had such a strong earthy taste that most guests probably wouldn't enjoy it.
"That's rough."
Skyl nodded in understanding.
He began telling Melina about Skylrael and invited her to move to the flying city with him.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
"Is Mage Skyl here? It's Thops. Do you remember me?"
Their visitor was Sorcerer Thops, a bald-headed mage whom Skyl had met long ago.
Skyl had invited him to become one of the promising scholars affiliated with the Tower of Tomes.
Thops had developed a form of forcefield sorcery capable of deflecting both sorceries and incantations. It was a profound theory that touched upon some of the fundamental principles underlying magic in the Lands Between.
Thops had once been a brilliant man whose talent had gone completely unrecognized.
After meeting Skyl, however, he regained his confidence. With access to the Tower of Tomes' vast collection, he had continued refining and expanding his system of magic.
Now he had returned to Raya Lucaria and was preparing to establish a conspectus of his own.
The moment Thops heard that Skyl had come to the Academy, he hurried over simply to catch up with him.
As soon as they met, Skyl enthusiastically shook his hand.
Thops had spent so many years being looked down upon that whenever someone treated him warmly, he still seemed almost overwhelmed by it.
They talked about what each of them had been doing.
When Skyl heard that Thops was preparing to establish his own conspectus, he curiously asked how things were progressing.
Thops's expression dimmed for a moment, but he quickly smiled and said everything was going fine.
He was a timid, mild-mannered sorcerer, the stereotypical socially awkward academic who could barely get his words out properly. He repeatedly thanked Skyl for everything he had done for him.
When Skyl asked whether he wanted to move to the flying city as well, Thops hesitated.
He stumbled over his words and eventually declined, reluctant to abandon the career he was trying to build at the Academy.
Only after Thops said goodbye and left did Skyl learn the truth from Melina.
Thops had put enormous effort into establishing his new conspectus, but the other factions continued to ostracize him.
He could barely recruit anyone.
At present, only a single young apprentice was studying forcefield sorcery under him.
"Every great theory needs time before people recognize its worth," Skyl said with feeling. "Truth doesn't stop being true just because people refuse to believe it."
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