Bookbound Bunny

"Um… she's in second year, so I don't think we'd compete against her?" Lily said.

"Really? Darn." Lotte replied.

"That's not entirely the case," Thomas interjected. "Individual competitions are broken up by years, but there are group events that include all years. Usually with the higher years taking on a leadership role, like a commander on a battlefield."

"Or a leader in a dungeon group?" Lotte asked.

"Yes, exactly, although that wouldn't be a direct competition against us. From what I've read so far, the dungeon competitions are almost always either time-based or endurance-based; how quickly can you get to a certain point, or how far can you go?"

"Wait, you read this stuff? Where and how?" Lotte asked.

Thomas rapidly blinked as he stared at her, surprised by the question, "I visited the library. What have you two been doing with all your free time?"

"Drawing glyphs and settling down," Lily answered. "But I didn't know the library was open yet."

"It's just a small section so far, until classes start. Mostly just stuff about Regarth itself, or some information about its alumni," Thomas replied, then turned to Lotte. "And you?"

"Uh…unpacking…eating…sleeping…" she replied, trailing off into incoherent mumbles at the end.

"Good luck with all that busy work," Thomas replied, rolling his eyes. "Anyway. The dungeon competitions are the biggest group events, although as I mentioned, they aren't the only ones."

"Well, that doesn't sound so bad. I'd rather not fight Rose," Lily said.

"Can you not use your sisterly charms to get her to go easy on you?" Lotte suggested, recovering from the change in topic. "It sometimes worked between my siblings, for matters unrelated to food."

"I doubt it. Rose was super competitive, even at the orphanage, and she hated losing. She would always give her utmost effort to win, especially after her bloodline awakening."

"Guess you could say it brought out the dragon in her," Lotte teased.

Lily giggled, but Thomas let out a defeated sigh. "Not exactly the best circumstances. I hope Maranix has some star students to make up the difference."

"Well, there's already a star mage," Lotte said, pointing at Lily.

"Hilarious," Thomas replied dryly.

Lotte stuck out her forked tongue and blew an ineffectual raspberry. Seeing as it had little effect, she swiftly moved on.

"In all seriousness, Lily might have a good chance. Her cloak looked amazing, so if her attack spells and other ones are any good, then there's probably some hope."

"I hope it's got an amazing effect too and is not just visually impressive," Thomas responded.

"Defense, stealth, utility, the works!" Lotte replied excitedly before Lily could say anything.

The sound of the door abruptly opening caused Lily to flinch. The other two had lesser reactions, but turned to see the source. It was a senior-looking boy by the looks of it.

"I was wondering what the racket outside was, but it turns out it's three new recruits. I'm Shawn, by the way," he finished his sentence with a tongue-click.

"Thomas."

"Lotte."

"Lily. Sorry if we disturbed you."

"Not really, there's not much going on until the new year officially starts," he replied and gave the three a more thorough examination. He seemed to ignore Lily and Thomas, instead honing in on Lotte. "Did we score our own dragon this year!?"

"Ugh. No, I'm not a Dragia."

"You really weren't kidding about it happening all the time," Thomas commented.

"Ah damn that sucks. I was hoping we had a chance this year," he replied, his prior enthusiasm deflating like an old balloon.

"Why not put in the effort and become the hero of Maranix yourself?" Lotte asked. "It's way better than putting your hopes and dreams in something outside of your control."

Shawn gave a defeated chuckle, practically dripping in sarcasm, as if he'd heard this argument countless times before. "Easy for a demi to say. We humans don't have it so easy; we just can't compete."

"Hey—" Thomas tried to interject, but he just continued talking.

"And that could have been me. My dad is in the military, a proud Aviania. But my mom was a human, and I drew the short end of the stick. My brothers all got to be born demis, but I'm stuck as the only human in the family."

Thomas and Lotte were frowning, for differing reasons, but both took offense to his utterings. Lily, on the other hand, felt a bubbling awkwardness; she wasn't sure how to respond to such a sudden trauma dump.

That might have been me if I hadn't met Arakil.

Shawn pointed a finger at Thomas, singling him out. "I bet you're thinking, 'if I put in enough effort, I can overcome it'. I've been down that road; it doesn't end well. My teachers used to call me a prodigy growing up, but after coming here, I discovered that we humans just don't have a chance. Sooner or later, you'll be joining me on the cheerleading side."

Growing up in the orphanage, my "siblings" were all different, so I can't really relate, but it's probably got to feel pretty lonely being the only human if the rest of your family are all demis.

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Thomas didn't say anything, but judging by the look in his eyes, Lily would've bet money that he hadn't been dismayed and, if anything, he had become even more determined to prove Shawn wrong.

[Ridiculous. To think he put in the time and effort to get accepted into Regarth and then just gave up because it became challenging. Or perhaps he thought he could always fly through things easily as a childhood prodigy.]

It was always odd that human children could still occur almost randomly, even between two demis on occasions. Growing up, Lily had always wanted to experience what it was like to be a "proper" Lagia, but now, having discovered the wonders of magic, she wouldn't trade it for the world. Humans being born with natural unaligned magic meant that they could go in any direction that they wished, rather than a predetermined path, what more could you ask for?

"If it's going to be a pity party, maybe we should check out the Maranix building another time," Lotte suggested, breaking the awkward silence.

Shawn clicked his tongue, his face going a little pale as if he suddenly realized what he'd been doing.

"Sorry… last year was rough," he said, trying to justify his actions. "I'll give you a quick tour of the facilities as an apology, if you want."

Lotte looked like she was going to reject him, but Thomas spoke up first. "Sure. It's better than wandering around blindly."

Lotte's eyes flashed as she gave Thomas an accusatory look, but in response, he just gave a silent shrug and wink.

I can only assume he doesn't want to burn any bridges, like if Shawn has any Maranix friends, and then he badmouths us to them.

It was the sort of thing Lily would've expected from someone like Tim, and while she didn't want to judge a book by its cover, she couldn't help but notice some familiar hints of that toxic personality.

"Just so you're aware, as long as you're wearing your badge, you can open the door. No need to knock and wait for someone to let you in," Shawn explained as he gestured for them to enter.

The interior was well-furnished and resembled the type of home a wealthy merchant or minor noble might own. They were also informed that there weren't many students yet, as some had either not returned from visiting home or were exploring the dungeon.

"Why aren't you in the dungeon?" Lotte couldn't resist asking.

"I get enough of that during classes… besides, I'm still on holiday," he said, brushing it off.

The ground floor was mostly a sort of "common area" with a lounge, bathrooms, dining room, and even a small kitchen. Shawn explained that the kitchen received a lot of usage, depending on who was running the cafeteria at the time. The dining room, in particular, had one of the largest tables Lily had ever seen.

The second floor was the "quiet" area, with individual rooms intended for closed studying, although Shawn pointed out that some students often used them for afternoon naps. When he'd offered them a brief tour, he wasn't kidding as he wasted no time in moving to the next thing.

To Lily's joyous surprise, there was even a small alchemy area with a well-used cauldron. Although judging by the shelves nearby, it appeared to be poorly stocked.

"Sometimes students donate resources, but otherwise, everyone just brings their own stuff. Plus, I think the alchemy class has better tools, so unless it's for a competition and people want to keep it hush-hush, then nobody really uses this one," Shawn explained.

The final floor featured training facilities, including weights, exercise mats, targets, and even magical dummies. Shawn explained that the entire floor was heavily enchanted for protection and soundproofing, so students tended to go wild on the floor and not hold back.

"Lily, you should show me your offensive magic!" Lotte said excitedly.

"Um… are we allowed?" Lily asked.

"Yeah?" Shawn replied, still clicking his tongue as he talked. "As long as you aren't targeting another student outside of a duel, then anything is fine. This is a magic school, after all."

He pointed at one of the target dummies. "These are pretty great, they can survive even dragon fire, and any damage they might have taken gets promptly repaired."

"Oh. I might actually be able to practice my own magic too, then," Lotte said happily. "I thought I'd only get to practice when in the dungeon."

Shawn let out a snort. "Why would you struggle to practice?"

Lotte gave a wicked, fangy smirk in return. "My targets usually melt into a puddle after one or two spells at most. I'm even restricted from duels."

You could hear him gulp.

"Anyway. Feel free to cast a spell or two before I show you the outside. Although it's honestly not that different than here," he said quickly.

"You're up, Lily," Lotte said.

Lily nodded and walked over, placing herself directly in front of the target dummy. While her star cluster spell wasn't at the level of her nebula veil, it was still something she had practiced enough to cast with two simplified gestures.

The downside was that it was still entirely random; nothing Lily could do would ever remove the possibility of rolling a zero. Still, it wasn't exactly a downside as the Stardust buildup would make her eventual success even greater.

Lily channeled her Mana, extended her arm, and performed her somatic gesture while visualizing her intent. She was giving it enough juice for around four stars, as she didn't want to accidentally go too overboard.

Two stars flung out from her casting, and she mentally cheered at a good number. Her three spectators made differing sounds as her projectiles flew through the air and collided in succession—the first a minor amount of damage, but leaving the stardust mark, and the second exploding in a spectacular shower. The target dummy survived the barrage, although the damage was evident.

Lotte immediately burst out into applause.

"Wait, she can cast spells?" Shawn blurted out.

"Gee, did the Maranix badge, floating book Familiar, and her mere presence at Regarth not clue you in?" Lotte replied with almost venomous sarcasm.

"I… thought she might have been someone's kid, sorry…" he replied, sounding genuinely upset at his mistake.

Lotte rolled her eyes before returning a happy gaze to Lily. "Damn that was so cool! You literally shot stars out. You really are a star mage!"

"That's a factual description… but it really lacks in elegance and presentation," Thomas replied.

"I'm still open to suggestions," Lily replied stubbornly.

"Night magic," Lotte suggested. "Since you're using the night itself as your weapon—you wear it, you shoot it, it's perfect."

Lily wanted to scream an objection, but didn't want to hurt her potential new friend's feelings. It was a horrible name, worse than even "star magic" in her opinion.

Thankfully, Thomas came to her rescue with his criticism. "That makes it sound like it's a derivative of shadow magic, which it definitely isn't."

"I've seen shadow magic. It's nothing like that," Shawn agreed.

"I guess we are sticking to star magic for now," Lily said, hoping to swiftly move away from even the possibility of the name night magic coming back up again.

"Maybe a teacher will come up with a better idea," Thomas suggested.

Lily gave a bobbing agreement before turning to Lotte. "So, can we see your magic now?"

She sighed but eventually gave a nod. "Sure. It's only fair since you cast something for me. Just be warned, it's not pretty."

"Magic is magic," Lily replied, hoping to bring up her confidence.

Lotte replaced Lily's position in front of the dummy. Just as Shawn had mentioned, it was self-repairing, and other than some sparkling stardust left behind, you would swear that two sparkling magic stars had not just exploded on it.

Lotte didn't do any finger gestures; she pointed with her index finger at the dummy and made a strange incantation that sounded like hissing.

A luminous green projectile shot out from her fingertips. It was long and thin like a snake, and it even "slithered" through the air like one. When it reached the dummy, it actually reared back its "head" and "bit down" on the dummy before dispersing.

The area where her spell had struck was making a loud sizzling noise, like a caustic alchemy mixture, and smoke was leaking out of it. Lily let out a small gasp as she noticed that Lotte's spell was "eating" into the dummy, a small hole that was rapidly growing in size.

"Told you it's not pretty," Lotte said.

Lily shook her head. "That was incredible! I've never seen anything like it before. It's like working with alchemical acids."

"I can see why you said you were banned from duels," Thomas chuckled dryly.

Meanwhile, Shawn was looking at the two girls with an expression of wonder, "Maybe Maranix has a chance this year after all."