The next morning, I noticed something highly disturbing.

  Very disturbing.

  Princess Elinia was looking at me. Not with her usual aristocratic suspicion. Not with competitive irritation.

  She was scanning me.

  First Period: Water Magic The instructor had ordered us to maintain a stable sphere of water. Every student was focused intently on their hands, keeping the liquid streams perfectly calm and even.

  And the Princess? She was holding her sphere flawlessly, of course. BUT her eyes weren't on the water. They were locked onto me.

  I could physically feel her analytical gaze dissecting the flow of my mana.

  Seriously? I thought, slightly annoyed. You're going to aggressively analyze me in the middle of class?

  I immediately throttled my mana output, intentionally making my aura look as weak and pathetic as a dying monkey's.

  She blinked. But she didn't stop scanning.

  Second Period: Combat Magic The instructor was demonstrating the intricate mechanics of the "Water Blade" technique. The entire class was listening with rapt attention.

  Except for her.

  She had positioned herself almost uncomfortably close to me. I could feel microscopic, virtually invisible threads of her mana gently probing my spatial boundaries.

  WHERE. IS. MY. PERSONAL. SPACE? I screamed internally.

  I subtly took a half-step away from her.

  She took a half-step forward.

  Third Period: Swordsmanship Everyone was swinging their wooden training swords. Some moved fast, some moved gracefully, and Finn mostly just flailed aggressively.

  Elinia was pretending to run through the standard katas... but she was wielding her sword with only one hand. Her other hand was subtly angled toward me, actively attempting to read the microscopic fluctuations in my physical aura.

  I genuinely wanted to drop my sword, turn to her, and ask: Are you completely devoid of shame?

  But I held my tongue.

  Siren, who was sparring a few paces away, paused and cast a highly confused glance between the two of us. He leaned over and whispered, "Um... Zen... are you and the Princess... together?"

  I nearly dropped my sword.

  For the rest of the week, this bizarre dynamic continued.

  I continued to play the role of the weak, average student during the day. In secret, I had mapped the structural properties of metals, electrons, and magnetism, amassing more functional knowledge of physics than all the Archmages in history combined. I could theoretically construct a localized electromagnetic barrier stronger than any physical shield in existence.

  And Elinia?

  Every single day. Every single lesson. Every single glance. Every single break between classes.

  She was SCANNING me.

  At one point, I actually started to doubt her lineage. Is she really a Princess? Or was she trained as a Royal Assassin? Or is she just a cat? Cats stare exactly like that when they suspect you're hiding food from them.

  The Library: My Kingdom of Chaos

  While the rest of the Elite Class trained, sweated, and improved their combat skills, I remained firmly entrenched in my favorite corner of the library.

  I was surrounded by a small mountain of research materials: scattered textbooks, dozens of my encrypted notes, mana crystals, raw ore, chunks of iron, copper wiring, and a few slightly charred, failed electromagnets.

  My desk looked as though a dragon had swallowed an alchemical laboratory and violently coughed it back up.

  But I loved it. It was quiet. It was empty. No one bothered me here.

  I spent hours dissecting everything. Gold. Alloys. Silver. Iron. The true nature of lightning as a directional flow of charged particles. The exact mathematical ratio required to stabilize a magnetic barrier.

  I wrote page after page of notes in my newly invented, frequency-locked cipher.

  Until...

  THAT NIGHT.

  When I finally packed up my things and stepped out into the dimly lit corridor, she was waiting for me.

  Elinia.

  She was leaning against the stone wall, wearing a deeply, terrifyingly satisfied smile.

  And in her hand... she held ONE OF MY ENCRYPTED PARCHMENTS.

  She held it up so I could see it.

  And right before my eyes, the chaotic, meaningless ink splatters slowly began to... align. It wasn't perfect. The text flickered. Some letters remained scrambled, and the sentences had massive gaps.

  But she had done it.

  She had forcefully replicated my exact, unique mana frequency. She had achieved something that no Demon Lord could have ever accomplished without possessing the physical key.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "Well?" she asked, her smile widening. "How do you like my decryption work?"

  At that exact moment, I felt an overwhelming urge to:

  

  
• 
  
    Hang myself.
  
    


  
• 
  
    Bury myself alive.
  
    


  
• 
  
    Flee to a neighboring continent.
  
    


  
• 
  
    Resign from being a mage.
  
    


  
• 
  
    Resign from being a demon.
  
    


  
• 
  
    Resign from EXISTING altogether.
  
    


  

  "...How did you... do that?" I managed to croak.

  "Well, your previous notes provided an excellent foundational theory," she replied smoothly. "And... I simply spent a very long time observing the exact oscillation of your mana."

  ...Exactly HOW long is 'a very long time'? I thought numbly.

  And then, she stole the remaining oxygen from my lungs with a single sentence.

  "You know, Helvard, when you get truly engrossed in your work... you have absolutely zero situational awareness."

  She looked strangely triumphant.

  "I walked right up to your desk in the library yesterday," she confessed, her eyes gleaming. "You didn't see me. You didn't hear me. You didn't even sense my mana."

  I froze entirely.

  "So, I simply picked up one of your pages and walked away," she continued. "And then I studied it. For a very long time. Probably entirely too long." A faint, embarrassed flush crept onto her cheeks. "Replicating a foreign mana frequency is incredibly draining. It was the hardest magical exercise I've ever attempted."

  My inner monologue was currently experiencing a total meltdown.

  ...SHE STOOD RIGHT NEXT TO ME FOR AN UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME?! AND I DIDN'T NOTICE?! THE SUPREME DEMON KING WAS SUCCESSFULLY PICKPOCKETED BY A HUMAN TEENAGER?!

  She lifted her chin proudly. "But you know what? I'm genuinely proud of myself."

  "...Congratulations," I muttered weakly.

  She tilted her head. "Why do you look so angry?"

  "I'm not angry," I lied. "I'm... surprised."

  She chuckled softly, spinning the parchment between her fingers, and walked away down the corridor, radiating sheer victory.

  The Next Morning

  When I walked into the classroom the next day, Elinia was fast asleep.

  She was literally face-down on her desk, dead to the world.

  The instructor walked in and paused. "Elinia...? Are you sleeping?"

  The Princess didn't even twitch.

  Miella leaned over and whispered, "What's wrong with her?"

  "She looks completely exhausted," Tara noted.

  Siren frowned. "Perhaps she was pushing herself through secret night-training?"

  I stared at the back of her head.

  ...Is this because of ME?

  She had actually spent half the night agonizingly forcing her mana to perfectly mimic mine, just to read a single page of my notes.

  I let out a long, silent sigh.

  Gods preserve me... I have accidentally created a genius rival.

  Or... was she an ally?

  Or just a massive, unsolvable problem?

  A Paranoia-Driven Masterpiece

  After the terrifying realization that the Princess could physically hack my biological mana signature, I completely stopped going to the library.

  Not because I was afraid of her. Not because I was angry.

  But because... I genuinely didn't want to interfere with her progress.

  It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling. Watching a human being struggle, analyze, make mistakes, and ultimately rejoice in their own hard-earned discoveries... it was deeply satisfying. For the first time, she wasn't playing the role of the "Perfect Princess." She wasn't acting like the arrogant Crown Heir. She was just a brilliant, curious person desperately trying to understand something fundamentally new.

  And to my own surprise, I wanted to let her have that.

  However, because I am still, at my core, an incredibly paranoid Demon King... I needed a new cipher.

  Not just a magical one. A physical-magical hybrid. A cryptographic masterpiece that combined metallurgy and mana tension.

  I took a thick, blank grimoire from the Academy archives. I meticulously stripped the leather cover. Using the small amount of tungsten-infused gold I had synthesized based on Finn's ring, I forged a complex metallic lattice and embedded it directly into the spine of the book.

  This metal wasn't just decorative. I infused it with three distinct layers of overlapping mana frequencies. The book now required a physical metallic "key" that resonated at the exact correct frequency to open.

  Then, I engineered the pages.

  

  
• 
  
    The right-hand pages could only be read if mana was channeled at a specific 45-degree angle.
  
    


  
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    The left-hand pages required a 135-degree angle.
  
    


  
• 
  
    If the wrong frequency was applied, the ink vanished completely.
  
    


  
• 
  
    If too much mana was forcefully pumped into it (like a certain stubborn Princess might try), the page would temporarily "die" and remain blank for twenty-four hours.
  
    


  
• 
  
    If too little mana was applied, the text scrambled into chaotic scribbles.
  
    


  

  But the most important fail-safe? Without the physical metallic key inserted into the spine, the book would absolutely not open.

  Raw mana wouldn't work. Spatial teleportation wouldn't work. Remote scanning wouldn't work. It required physical, mechanical contact combined with flawless magical resonance.

  I snapped the heavy book shut.

  "There," I muttered to myself. "She definitely won't be able to hack this one..."

  I paused. "...At least, not for the first few days."

  The End of the Lightning Research

  I had finally reached a stopping point. I had researched electricity as deeply as was physically possible with the materials available in this primitive era.

  I understood how the charges moved. I understood why gold was the ultimate conductor, and why water conducted so chaotically. I knew how to accelerate the flow, how to induce resonance, how to stabilize an electrical field, and how to forge rudimentary electromagnets.

  Manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum had become as natural to me as breathing.

  For now, it was enough.

  Over the next few days, I watched Elinia in class. She looked constantly exhausted. Her eyes were rimmed with red, and she frequently nodded off during lectures. But beneath the fatigue, there was a fierce, burning focus. I knew exactly what she was doing. She was still desperately trying to decipher the theories in the single page of notes she had stolen.

  It was simultaneously hilarious and deeply endearing.

  Finally, at the end of the week, she approached my desk.

  There was no arrogance. No icy superiority. No attempt to intimidate me.

  She just walked up and stated simply, "Helvard... this is a monumental breakthrough. I've studied everything I possibly could from that page."

  And then, looking exactly like a child eager to show off a new toy, she raised her hands.

  She created an electrical barrier.

  It was pure. It was highly stable. It was perfectly transparent, without a single stray, chaotic spark leaking from the edges. It was significantly weaker than the one I could produce, but structurally... it was absolutely flawless.

  Then, she flicked her wrist.

  A heavy metal chair from across the room violently dragged itself across the floor and slammed into her outstretched hand.

  I blinked in genuine shock.

  Elinia beamed with pride. "You see? I amplified the magnetic field of your little toy by alloying it with Lunar Silver. The magical resonance is infinitely cleaner."

  She stood there, clearly, desperately waiting for praise.

  I couldn't help it. I offered a soft, genuine smile. "That is exceptionally well done, Elinia."

  A faint blush dusted her cheeks. "For the first time in my life," she admitted quietly, "I feel like I am actually discovering something new. I'm not just repeating historical magic. I'm not memorizing cliches. I'm not just blindly following the instructors..."

  She looked radiant. Truly happy, for the first time since the semester began.

  "Thank you, Helvard."

  I looked away quickly, not wanting her to see how wide my smile had gotten. "I didn't do anything," I muttered defensively.

  "You gave me a direction," she corrected me softly. "And now... I actually have a purpose."

  I looked back at her.

  She offered a wicked, knowing smirk. "And yes. I did steal your magnet."

  "...I noticed."

  She laughed—a bright, genuinely joyful sound—and walked away, looking as though she had just conquered the entire magical world.

  I watched her go, then slowly gathered my things and headed back to my dormitory.

  And for the first time in an eternity, I didn't feel the crushing weight of irritation or boredom. Instead, I felt... glad.

  I was glad that someone was growing. I was glad that someone had found true meaning in the arcane. I was glad that my ancient knowledge was actually useful to someone.

  And for the first time in centuries...

  I didn't feel entirely alone in my research.