No! I don't want to be a Super Necromancer!

Professor Kong Hu flipped a switch on the console. The mic activated.

"All first-year trials are complete," he announced. "Proceed to lunch. You have ninety minutes. Afternoon combined training with the second years resumes at 14:00 sharp."

Cheers erupted through the training grounds.

The moment they were dismissed, the first years scattered like survivors from a collapsing dungeon.

Zhao Rui groaned and limped toward the dorm with Ji Chen, both looking like they'd just escaped a magical prison riot. Jennifer Aquafrost rolled her eyes and loudly announced she was going to "ice her entire soul." The triplets vanished in a synchronized flash of mana and sass.

Damien Bloodbane, however, made his way quietly to the cafeteria, his shirt torn, his appetite somehow intact.

He sat down with a simple tray. A huge bowl steamed rice, a huge bowl of meat stew, a huge bowl of meat, six boiled eggs, and a huge cup of something vaguely fruity. Not bad, all things considered.

He ate in silence, the noise of the lunchroom fading into the background.

Halfway through his meal, he caught fragments of conversation from a group of gossipy second-years at the next table over.

"...I heard she's a princess, like, actual royalty…"

"...from America, yeah! Something about diplomatic relations…"

"She's supposed to be crazy beautiful. Like, top-tier bloodline. Super high mana compatibility…"

"She's having lunch with the school board right now. General Chen, Principal Wu, all of them…"

Damien Bloodbane didn't even look up.

Royalty. Politics. Diplomacy.

Not his problem.

He kept eating. The stew was actually well-seasoned, which was shocking for a military-run institution.

As he chewed, his mind drifted.

There were a lot of things he wanted to do. He wanted to experiment more on runes and their applications. And then he also wanted to experiment on mana compression and their applications. And maybe even combine the two together? And he also wanted to "discover" more spells.

"So much to do, so little time," Damien Bloodbane sighed.

SMACK.

A firm palm came down on the top of his head.

His spoon clinked against the bowl.

He looked up slowly.

Standing there was a golden-haired girl with sea-blue eyes, a wild smile, and absolutely no respect for the concept of personal space.

Athena.

"Brother!" she chirped sweetly. "You looked like you were about to marry your stew."

Damien Bloodbane blinked. "Athena."

She plopped down across from him like a meteor landing on a quiet mountain.

"How have you been? I missed you!" she beamed. "It's been, what, a week? A whole week! That's like seven years in friendship time."

Damien Bloodbane stared at her.

Her uniform was perfectly pressed. Her hair shimmered like sunlit gold. And her eyes, bright, unbothered, annoyingly genuine, didn't hold even a flicker of what he'd seen that day.

That day at the net café.

The guns, the blood and the powerful black robed mage who cast a time stop spell to rescue her.

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

She was chatting happily about cafeteria food now.

"...but then they ran out of strawberry pudding, so obviously I had to file a formal complaint, because hello, how am I supposed to unlock my full potential if I'm underfed?"

Damien Bloodbane kept watching her, unmoving as his memory stirred slightly.

She seemed familiar somehow.

"Have we met before?" he asked quietly.

Athena blinked. "Huh?"

"Before the Coffee Club. Before Pearl."

She tilted her head, pretending to think. "Hmm. Nope. Not that I know of. Unless you were reincarnated from a golden retriever or something. I do attract those."

Damien Bloodbane chuckled, the sound low and short, but real.

She didn't want to spill.

So be it.

He focused back on his food as Athena happily stole a spoonful of his stew like it was part of a sacred friendship ritual.

"You're in a good mood," Damien Bloodbane said, casually. "Training going well?"

"Please," Athena said, flipping her hair dramatically. "I trained so hard yesterday, my sword begged for mercy. It tapped out. Wrote me an apology letter. Swore allegiance to me."

Damien Bloodbane snorted. "Poor sword."

"Don't pity the sword," she said with mock seriousness. "Pity the desert."

Damien Bloodbane looked at her. "Desert?"

She blinked, then gave him a grin. "Ah, right. You don't keep up with the gossip boards."

"I have this thing called dignity," he said dryly.

"Well, Mr. Dignity, let me introduce you to the Little Generals War."

Damien Bloodbane raised an eyebrow. "That sounds unnecessarily dramatic."

"It is," she agreed cheerfully. "It's a week-long survival challenge for potential generals. Thirty-two of the top colleges will each send seven students. They'll be dropped into a big, dusty sandbox. Mana-suppressed desert terrain, full of monsters, heat, dehydration, maybe a sandstorm or two for flavor."

"And the objective?" Damien Bloodbane asked, now mildly interested.

"Survive," she said. "Reach the designated meeting point as a team. That's phase one. Only the top twelve colleges make it through."

"And phase two?"

Athena smiled excitedly. "Battle. All-out. But no one knows the format until it starts. Could be duels, team warfare, capture-the-flag, who knows. The instructors love surprises. You might end up playing mana chess on giant scorpions."

Damien Bloodbane leaned back. "So I assume Pearl's sending a team."

"Oh, absolutely," she said, crossing her arms. "You've won four years in a row. Can't let those softies from Northern Arcadia get smug. Their last captain wore fur gloves in a volcano zone."

"You've? So you're not from Pearl." Damien Bloodbane raised an eyebrow in interest.

"No silly, do I look Chinese? I'm from the USA. I'm just here for a short visit." Athena giggled.

"I see. So you're from the Princess's entourage." Damien Bloodbane nodded and pieced the information together.

"Correct," she said, leaning in with a grin. "But don't think that means you're safe from me. The U.S. and China are forming a proper alliance now. We're sending a few of our colleges into your Little Generals War to make a strong statement. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Damien Bloodbane gave her a half-smile. "You stole my egg. Give me back my egg"

"Why? Your egg is my egg. My egg is your egg." Athena popped the egg into her mouth and chomped furiously.

Damien Bloodbane rolled his eyes at her and returned to his stew.

"You ever think about joining?" she asked, poking at his tray again. "You'd fit right in. That attitude, that hair, those mysterious pauses… You'd get fan mail by day two."

Damien Bloodbane considered it. Just for a moment.

"Why not?" he said, flicking at her hand before she could steal another egg.