The day was the 13th of Ilkamesh, in the year 10,178 After the Sealing. In the Kingdom of Ferhafen, the first rays of sunlight were already beginning to break through the windows of the houses, which were built with timber-framed fa?ades and sloped roofs adorned with intricate red tile designs, the kingdom’s characteristic style.

  The soft sounds of the first merchants’ footsteps against the perfectly cobblestoned streets were the only noises lingering in the air, occasionally accompanied by the whistling so characteristic of the Akhem, a species native to Ferhafen. Despite the fact that, after the Great Canal War, Ferhafen went through a period of civil wars and intense power struggles, over the years the kingdom managed to return to its usual tranquility… Well, perhaps not for everyone…

  “Iskra!” a shout was heard in the noble district, coming from one of the luxurious temporary residences typical of students.

  “Come on! Wake up! Wake up!” said a girl with crimson-red hair and emerald-green eyes, her voice euphoric and excited, as she dragged what appeared to be her roommate out of bed.

  “Ugh… calm down, Elyne, the ceremony starts at noon,” complained the girl who was being dragged out of bed.

  “Yes, the ceremony starts at noon… which means we’re already late!” said the red-haired girl worriedly, identified by her roommate as Elyne.

  “Come on, Iskra, hurry, get dressed quickly, we have to be the first ones there,” Elyne exclaimed as she tossed her roommate her uniform, while she herself was already perfectly groomed, wearing the sophisticated uniform of the University of Anzenwald, consisting of a white shirt with an embroidered collar, a black skirt that reached her knees, and a black jacket with Anzenwald’s symbol embroidered in red on both sides.

  “Sure, sure,” Iskra said with a small chuckle as she stretched sleepily.

  A few minutes later, Iskra and Elyne left their room and stepped into one of the kingdom’s busy main streets, where merchants usually gathered around a large square—one of the few built in the modern era—which featured a large fountain at its center dedicated to the heroes of the war. From the fountain, cobblestone paths spiraled outward, winding through the rest of the square until they disappeared into the crowd of people already beginning their daily routines.

  Elyne and Iskra began weaving through the crowd toward one of the food stalls located just a few streets away from their room. The stall was an old wooden cart, with a stone oven mounted on the side of the wagon and an eye-catching, though cheap, wooden sign with prices leaning against the other side.

  “Reinhardt! There you are! Can you believe it?! IT’S TODA—hngh!” Elyne shouted upon spotting a boy who looked very much like Iskra, dressed in the same uniform as them, before being interrupted by an elbow from Iskra.

  “Stop shouting like that or I’m going to pretend I don’t know you,” Iskra grumbled, crossing her arms.

  “Well, shorty, you look excited,” the boy laughed amusedly.

  “She’s been like this since she woke up,” Iskra complained.

  “How could I not be excited? We’re going to start studying at Anzenwald,” Elyne defended herself as she caught her breath.

  “I’m still excited about having passed the entrance exam, and that happened like two months ago.”

  After ordering something simple for breakfast at the old food stall, the group of three headed toward one of the side streets branching off from the main one, where the bustle of the crowd was much weaker.

  “By the way, did you manage to officialize your Class?” Reinhardt asked as he took a bite of his Kue sandwich, leaning against one of the oil streetlamps placed every forty-five cobblestones along the streets throughout the kingdom.

  “No, they told us we have to take the exam again,” Iskra replied with some irritation.

  “Aaghh… you didn’t have to remind me!” Elyne complained with exaggerated suffering.

  “What if I end up getting a lower Class this time?”

  “Lower than the one you already had?” Iskra asked, amused.

  “Yes! There is still a Class lower than mine!”

  “Relax, Elyne, dropping in Class is almost impossible,” Reinhardt said with a laugh.

  At that moment, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a great bell, signaling that Anzenwald had opened its gates so that students could begin gathering around the university’s main conference area: a large open-air auditorium, built with wood from Sylvareth and located to the northeast of the university’s main building.

  “The university bell?! So soon?!” Elyne asked, horror written all over her face.

  “Run or we won’t be the first ones!” Elyne could still be heard shouting before she started running toward the university, dropping her sandwich on the ground without a second thought.

  Iskra and Reinhardt exchanged amused glances and, with a sigh, began walking toward the university. As they drew closer and closer to Anzenwald, the streets gradually widened, signaling that they were approaching the city’s central district. The buildings ceased to be wooden structures with red-tiled roofs, giving way to elegant constructions of stone and marble, with complex designs carved into their walls and refined banners bearing the crests of noble families and important institutions of the kingdom, fluttering from their fa?ades and rooftops.

  Turning the corner by the Royal Bank, the siblings found themselves facing the imposing University of Anzenwald, the most prestigious among five of the six kingdoms known to the inhabitants of the peninsula.

  The enormous and imposing building, with exquisite carvings etched into the marble of its walls and massive statues honoring people whose names no one remembers anymore, embedded into its lateral walls, towered over the rest of the capital’s buildings—even over the royal palace itself.

  Reinhardt followed his sister toward the vast and elegant garden that preceded Anzenwald’s main building, pushing his way with some difficulty through the ever-growing number of students who were beginning to fill the surroundings of the university.

  “Where did that girl run off to?” Iskra asked irritably as she quickened her pace toward the auditorium.

  “She’s probably already in the front row,” Reinhardt replied, looking around over the heads of the other students, trying to locate Elyne.

  Both siblings circled the main building and hurried toward the auditorium. As they approached the university’s conference area, they could feel a faint tingling throughout their bodies—a characteristic sensation caused by the wood from the forests of Sylvareth, which increased the Nigzar concentration in the environment.

  Upon reaching the entrance to the auditorium, they were greeted by the university guards, whose duty was to ensure that only students were allowed inside. After a few annoying minutes of inspection, Iskra and Reinhardt entered the half-filled auditorium and made their way toward the already overcrowded front rows. After a few minutes of searching for Elyne, Reinhardt managed to spot her seated in the third row of the auditorium’s southeastern section. After telling his sister to follow him, the two siblings pushed their way through the students toward Elyne’s location.

  “Guys!” Elyne shouted when she saw the siblings approaching.

  “Isn’t it great?! I got front-row seats!” Elyne exclaimed, standing on her own seat and pointing at two empty chairs beside her.

  “I suppose you did,” Iskra said, shaking her head in amusement as she sat down in the middle seat of the three Elyne had secured.

  “Elyne, get down from there, you could fall,” Reinhardt scolded as he sat down beside Iskra.

  “Can you feel it on your skin?” Elyne asked, ignoring Reinhardt’s warning.

  “I’m sure this is a sign that I’m going to go up a Class this year!”

  “It’s the wood—it increases the amount of Nigzar in the air,” Iskra replied, tapping the wood of her seat twice.

  “Well… that’s great too!” Elyne said, dropping into her seat without losing even a shred of her excitement.

  “Brother, do you know who’s giving the welcome speech?”

  “Mmm… last year it was the president, but I think I heard that this year it’ll be Professor Xu Weilan.”

  “Weilan? The crazy old man who thinks Zisuda is good for something?” Iskra asked, intrigued and somewhat distrustful.

  “Yes… that very one,” Reinhardt replied with a sigh.

  “Xu Weilan? I haven’t heard about him…” Elyne said thoughtfully.

  “He has a foreign name… is he a Jiangpingren?”

  “He is. He came from the Kingdom of Jiangping a few years ago to help Anzenwald find a… useful application for Zisuda,” Reinhardt explained.

  Elyne nodded, processing the information, but before she could say anything else, a voice coming from the stage asked the students to finish taking their seats and announced that the welcome speech would begin in a few minutes. After the announcement, the chatter among the students gradually faded as each of them found a place in the amphitheater.

  A few minutes later, the place was completely silent, and nearly everyone was seated. The atmosphere was thick with expectation, everyone waiting quietly for the speech to begin.

  The curtains on the stage opened, revealing a man of approximately sixty years of age, short in stature, completely bald, and dressed in a shenyi made of silk from the Kingdom of Jiangping.

  The man slowly walked toward the center of the platform, bringing his index finger to the center of his palms, then forming a circle by joining his index and middle fingers, leaving his ring and little fingers completely straight on both hands, and completing the circle by bringing his thumbs together.

  “Zinar,” the old man whispered.

  The air contained within the circle formed by the old man’s fingers began to move like a whirlpool toward the center of the gesture, growing increasingly blue until, after a few seconds, it shot outward toward the stands, dispersing like gas throughout the entire auditorium.

  The auditorium filled with murmurs of confusion from the students, and as the seconds passed, the bluish gas began to dissipate until nothing remained, leaving the auditorium in silence, waiting for the old man on the stage to explain himself.

  “Welcome, students of Anzenwald,” the old man said. His voice could be heard in every corner of the auditorium with the same volume and clarity.

  “Forgive the commotion, but I needed to perform a Zinar so that everyone could hear me equally clearly.”

  The stage filled with whispers, ranging from confusion to unease, due to the limited familiarity most people have with Zisuda or with some of the Zinar that can be performed using it.

  “Due to an unexpected emergency journey that the university president had to make to the Kingdom of Tarnwick, this year it will be I who delivers your welcome speech.”

  “I am Professor Xu Weilan, in charge of everything related to Zisuda at this university.”

  The whispers gradually died down, giving way to an expectant silence.

  “All of you here are familiar with the prestige of our university, so I will not focus on the honor of having been accepted into Anzenwald.”

  “Instead, I wish to emphasize the number of possibilities and paths that will be open to each of you from this moment on,” Weilan said as he slowly walked across the stage.

  “Most of you are here because you wish to become expert Hekari, or perhaps some of you wish to set aside Heka and focus on the study of Zisuda…”

  “Perhaps some of you are here with no interest in any of the previous options, and instead wish to learn about politics, warfare, or some other pursuit.”

  “What all of you have in common, regardless of your objective, is that you all wish to improve.”

  Weilan stopped at the center of the stage and remained silent for a few seconds, clasping his hands behind his back and lightly tapping the platform with his right foot.

  “But how are you going to do it?”

  “Do you expect that merely attending Anzenwald and fulfilling what we teach you will be enough for you to improve?”

  Several students whispered among themselves, confused, unable to grasp the point the old man was trying to make.

  “Here at Anzenwald, you will have access to a great deal of information—more than anywhere else.”

  “But having a great deal of information is absolutely useless on its own.”

  “What good is knowing how hundreds of types of Shekeni manifest if one has no purpose for using them? What good is learning the art of war if one wishes to live in peace?”

  “Some of you probably do not yet understand where I am trying to lead you,” Weilan said, beginning to walk across the stage once more.

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  “What I mean by all of this is that it does not matter if here at Anzenwald you have the capacity to learn everything and become the best.”

  “What matters is that you are clear about what you want to do with your life, and if you are not, that is the first thing you must learn here.”

  “Do not let your life be shaped by the information and knowledge we give you; instead, choose the information and knowledge you must learn for the life you desire.”

  “If you wish to devote yourselves to learning Shekeni of an element that everyone considers useless, such as air, why would you dedicate five years of your life to learning how to use an element like fire?”

  “Why is it better?”

  “Students of Anzenwald, your first task at this university is not to pass exams or to learn new things.”

  “Your first task at this university is to discover what you desire in life, and above all, to learn to do the things you wish to do, not those that others wish for you.”

  “Welcome to Anzenwald!” the old man concluded, raising his voice for the first time during the speech.

  Instantly, everyone in the auditorium stood up and began to applaud—some out of excitement, others out of fascination with the speech they had just heard, and others simply out of obligation.

  Little by little, the students began to leave the amphitheater. Some of them still had to complete their enrollment process at the university, while others would simply spend the day touring Anzenwald’s facilities while waiting for the academic term to begin the following week.

  Elyne was still seated in her chair alongside Iskra and Reinhardt, the three of them waiting for the flow of students at the exits of the amphitheater to subside so they could leave.

  “I didn’t know Weilan knew how to give speeches,” Reinhardt commented as he stood up and stretched.

  Iskra let out a sarcastic laugh at Reinhardt’s comment. “It was a pathetic speech.”

  “Pathetic?… I thought it was kind of nice,” Elyne said with a smile, clasping her hands together in an adorable gesture.

  “Well, that’s because you see everything as nice, Elyne,” Iskra laughed, placing her hand on Elyne’s head and playfully ruffling her hair.

  Elyne pouted and crossed her arms. “That’s not true.”

  “I didn’t think it was a bad speech either. What do you find pathetic about it, Iskra?” Reinhardt asked, a mix of confusion and curiosity in his voice as he sought his sister’s point of view.

  “It’s obvious Weilan gave that speech because he wants more students to consider dedicating themselves to Zisuda. I mean, if all students focused on studying something even minimally useful, the Zisudim would disappear.”

  Reinhardt was slightly taken aback by his sister’s response. “Well… I don’t think that was Weilan’s intention.”

  “I’m not saying it was his only intention, but it was obviously one of them. Or do you think he put on that spectacle with that stupid Zinar in front of everyone just because he needed to be heard clearly?” Iskra said sarcastically.

  Elyne’s eyes lit up at the mention of the Zinar used by Professor Weilan. “Oh, that was super cool! You mean the blue smoke?! It looked incredible!”

  “See? Now Elyne’s going to become a Zisudim,” Iskra laughed.

  After finally managing to leave the amphitheater once the crowd of students had thinned, the group headed toward the fountain in the park in front of the university’s main building. As they walked, a group consisting of two boys and a girl recognized Reinhardt and approached to greet him.

  One of the boys—the shorter of the two, though only by a small margin—was dressed in the Anzenwald uniform like the others, but his bore golden embroidery, and the symbol of Anzenwald embroidered on his jacket was smaller than that of the others and placed to one side, as the large symbol of the royal family occupied the center.

  The boy approached Reinhardt and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “What are you doing here, nurse boy?”

  The only girl in the group, dressed in the same uniform as the previous boy, raised an eyebrow upon seeing Iskra and Elyne. “Are you playing babysitter, Reinhardt?”

  “Who are these people?” Iskra asked, irritated by the intrusion.

  The three youths looked at one another, taken by surprise by Iskra’s blunt and direct comment.

  Reinhardt’s eyes widened slightly in embarrassment at his sister’s attitude, but he quickly regained his composure, clearing his throat. “Allow me to introduce them.”

  “Iskra, Elyne, these are Leofrik von Eisenkranz, Crown Prince of Ferhafen,” Reinhardt said, gesturing toward the first boy.

  “She is Serelinde von Eisenkranz, Princess of Ferhafen.”

  “And he is Ayanokooji Reigen, Prince of Tsukimine.”

  “Leofrik, Ayanokooji, Serelinde, this is Iskra, my sister, and Elyne, her best friend.”

  After Reinhardt’s introduction, Elyne remained silent for a few seconds, casting a confused glance at Iskra, suddenly feeling out of place.

  “I–it’s a pleasure…” Elyne murmured, taking a small step back.

  Sensing the tension, Leofrik stepped closer to the girls with a confident smile, took Elyne’s hand, and gently kissed it, making her blush and feel even more out of place.

  After kissing Elyne’s hand, Leofrik took Iskra’s hand and did the same. “The pleasure is mine, beautiful ladies.”

  “Why are you doing that standing up?” Iskra asked. She disliked feeling inferior to anyone, and whenever that happened, she became even colder in her manner.

  Leofrik opened his eyes slightly, surprised by Iskra’s audacity, but instead of taking offense, he smiled and knelt in front of her to kiss her hand. “Forgive my insolence.”

  “Leo, stop making a scene,” Serelinde said, pulling her brother up by the ear.

  “I’m just being a gentleman, sister,” Leofrik protested, rubbing his ear.

  The boy who had remained silent until now, Ayanokooji Reigen, adjusted his glasses and stepped forward. “It is a pleasure to meet you, but we are running late. We have an important meeting.”

  At Ayanokooji’s reminder, Leofrik let out a sigh of exaggerated boredom. “Yes, of course—the meeting with the old men.”

  “Well then, I suppose we should be going.”

  The group of princes said their farewells and continued on their way toward the royal palace located to the north of Anzenwald.

  “You never told me you were friends with the royal family,” Iskra accused Reinhardt, crossing her arms.

  Reinhardt raised his hands in a guilty gesture. “I didn’t think we’d run into them.”

  “W–we were talking about officializing our Class, right?” Elyne asked, still quite flushed, trying to change the subject to something that would not make her feel embarrassed.

  “Yes, you’re right,” Iskra sighed.

  “We need to obtain our Class certificates to complete our enrollment process.”

  “Well, we could go now. There’s an office that handles that on one of the streets near the university, where you both can obtain your certificates,” Reinhardt suggested.

  After deciding that they would go and officialize their Class right away, the three left Anzenwald, walking along the wide cobblestone streets surrounding the university grounds, searching among the various administrative buildings for the one where Elyne and Iskra could officialize their Class.

  Walking through the streets around the university, they arrived at a simple yet elegant building, constructed of smooth marble, with two large windows flanking the wooden entrance at the center of the structure. The banner of the royal family draped like a cascade over the corners of the building.

  Iskra approached one of the guards to confirm that this was the correct building, and after doing so, returned with Elyne and Reinhardt to stand in line. The line was made up of other students who needed to obtain their Class certificates, stretching almost an entire street away from the entrance.

  After waiting what felt like an eternity, the group was only a few turns away from their own. Reinhardt had left some time earlier, since he already had his certificate and did not need to go through the process again. He had instead gone to a nearby pin shop, hoping to find an interesting pin to add to his collection.

  As for the two girls who remained in line, there was an unusual silence between them. Iskra was not normally very talkative, but Elyne rarely stayed quiet for long, especially when it came to anything related to her enrollment at Anzenwald. The fact that she was so quiet just minutes away from officializing her Class was unusual in itself, and the way her gaze remained fixed on the ground, her shoulders hunched—as if she were trying to make herself small enough to disappear—made her behavior all the more out of character.

  Iskra noticed Elyne’s attitude and, already having a rough idea of what was going on, sighed and placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Elyne, you know that the Class you have at eighteen isn’t final, right? You’ve just entered the university—it’s normal for it to be low.”

  “I know… it’s just that mine is lower than normal… maybe it’s because I’m not meant to be a Hekari,” Elyne murmured in a voice that was barely audible.

  Iskra frowned at Elyne’s response, withdrew her hand from her shoulder, and sighed, trying to find the words to encourage her friend—something she was very bad at. “Hey, it’s true that your Class is low, but you have a fairly high Rank, and you’re at Anzenwald. You can improve a lot if you really set your mind to it.”

  “Besides, if you’re sad, then I’m sad, and I don’t know what to do. That’s not fair,” Iskra murmured vulnerably, crossing her arms and averting her gaze toward the Anzenwald building.

  Elyne smiled faintly at Iskra’s attempt to cheer her up, even though her comment downplaying the situation was clearly a lie.

  “You’re right! And besides, my Nig?ura is about to reach Category One!” Elyne forced herself to push aside the feeling of helplessness she had been carrying.

  “That’s true, I had forgotten. If your Nig?ura strengthens just a bit more, you’ll be the only one of the two of us to be Category One.”

  “See? You’re fine, shorty. Don’t get discouraged over something you can change,” Iskra said, giving Elyne a pat on the back.

  Elyne pouted at Iskra’s comment. “I’m not short. In fact, in Jiangping I’d only be a few centimeters away from average height! So technically, I’m close to considering myself tall.”

  Iskra couldn’t help but let out a laugh at Elyne’s absurd comment, especially when contrasted with the fact that Elyne was basically two heads shorter than her—and Iskra herself was of average height. But before she could say anything else, the guard in charge of calling the next people in line called them forward, along with four others.

  The interior of the building was rather simple: a small hall where only the faint sounds of paper could be heard, with a ceramic floor, walls adorned with banners and carved crests representing the royal family and the noble family that had financed the building’s construction. A few elegant vases filled with exotic flowers decorated the corners, and at the center of the room stood three wooden booths, each with two empty chairs in front of it.

  Elyne and Iskra approached one of the three booths at the instruction of a guard, and each took a seat in one of the available chairs. The woman on the other side of the glass separating both sides of the booth asked them for their personal identification.

  “Very well. Iskra Falkenrath and Elyne Feuerkranz, I will briefly remind you how the peninsula’s power classification system works,” the woman said in a monotone voice.

  “Classes can be S, A, B, C, and D, and they quantify the amount of Nigin-zārum you possess and the degree of influence your An?utuku—commonly known simply as Nigzar and An?u—has over it.”

  “Ranks go from Rank One as the highest to Rank Four as the lowest, and, in short, they quantify the number of elemental or sub-elemental affinities you possess.”

  “Finally, Category is divided into Category Zero for those who do not possess a Nig?ura with sufficient strength to be used, and Category One for those who do possess a Nig?ura strong enough to be used.”

  “The amount of Nigzar and the level of influence of An?u, the specific definition of which or how many elemental or sub-elemental affinities are required to enter each Rank, and the level of strength a Nig?ura must have to be considered Category One were all defined at the inter-kingdom assembly held on the 26th of Kishmari in the year 10,117. If you require detailed information on anything I have mentioned, you may request a copy of the assembly’s document from any employee of the royal family.”

  “Any questions?”

  Elyne—who was trying to pay as much attention as possible—and Iskra—who wore a bored expression—both shook their heads.

  “Very well, then we may begin. Who will go first?” the woman asked in the same monotone voice.

  Iskra’s gaze settled on Elyne for a few seconds, and when she saw that Elyne did not immediately volunteer, she realized that she was still somewhat discouraged by the idea of officializing her class.

  “I will.”

  The woman took a small device from beneath the desk: an opaque gray apparatus with a cube-shaped base, blue gemstones set into its lateral faces, and atop the cube, a kind of open bracelet.

  “Place your wrist here. You may feel intense heat if your Nigzar is excessive, but that is normal—do not worry,” the woman instructed through the glass as she prepared a form with Iskra’s name.

  Without saying a word, Iskra placed her wrist into the device, and the bracelet instantly closed around it. It began to emit a faint blue light, and as the seconds passed, the gemstones on the sides of the lower cube also began to glow—at first a dull light blue, but gradually the color intensified, emitting more and more light until it reached a clear blue hue. Then the bracelet opened, releasing Iskra’s wrist.

  The woman examined the color of the gemstones on the cube. After comparing it with a chart on her desk, she wrote something down on the form.

  “Impressive. Class A at such a young age,” the woman praised, setting the device aside on her desk and taking out a circular container, a needle, and a small vial filled with a transparent liquid.

  She placed the container in front of Iskra and filled it with the liquid from the vial. “Your wrist—place it over the container.”

  Iskra did as the woman instructed and placed her wrist over the container. The woman held her wrist and began to carefully search for something on it with her finger. Upon identifying a specific area where the four types of veins could be faintly seen through Iskra’s pale skin, the woman lightly pricked the most light-blue of the veins, causing a blue liquid to begin flowing from Iskra’s wrist.

  “Let a few drops fall into the container, then press the wound with this,” the woman said, handing Iskra a piece of cotton while reaching for five other small vials along with a pipette.

  The blue liquid that fell from Iskra’s wrist mixed with the transparent liquid in the container, turning it white. Using the pipette, the woman let a light-blue drop from the first vial fall into the container. Nothing happened. She then added a brown drop from the next vial—again, nothing. She continued with the third vial, releasing a gray drop. This time, the white liquid in the container took on the same color as the drop for a brief moment before returning to white. The woman briefly noted something on the form and continued with the next vial, releasing a red drop into the container, but once again, nothing happened. From the last vial, the woman let a turquoise drop fall into the container, and upon doing so, the white liquid turned turquoise for a couple of seconds before returning to its normal state.

  “You have affinity with water and air, and no sub-elements, therefore your Rank is Three. Additionally, the liquid turned white, which means your Nig?ura has barely any strength, so your Category is Zero,” the woman reported as she wrote on the form.

  “You are therefore officially registered as Class A, Rank Three, Category Zero.” The woman stamped the form and filed it away, handing Iskra a small identification card with her Rank.

  The woman poured the liquid from the container into a waste bin and refilled it with fresh liquid. She also repositioned the first device, this time in front of Elyne, who had been staring at the floor the entire time.

  “Your wrist, please,” the woman requested as she prepared a form with Elyne’s name.

  Hesitantly and slowly, Elyne squeezed her eyes shut and placed her wrist into the device. Just as with Iskra, the bracelet closed around her wrist. It began emitting the same faint blue light, and the gemstones on the lower cube also began to glow with a dull light blue. However, as the seconds passed, the light did not intensify as it had with Iskra; instead, it remained the same pale blue until the bracelet opened.

  Upon seeing the color of the gemstones on the cube, the woman glanced sideways at Elyne, somewhat incredulous that she was truly a student of Anzenwald, but she remained silent and wrote on the form.

  “You are Class D.”

  Elyne nodded slowly, a knot forming in her throat, yet forcing herself to downplay the importance of her Class, knowing that the worst part was already over. When they moved on to the next test, the transparent liquid in the container naturally turned gray and reacted with the gray and red liquids from the vials. When the brown drop fell, the liquid turned brown and then silver before returning to gray.

  “You have affinity with fire, air, and the sub-element of the earth element—Metalkinesis—so your Rank is Two. Your Nig?ura has considerable strength, but for it to be considered valid, the liquid would need to turn black, not gray, so your Category is Zero,” the woman said as she stamped Elyne’s form and handed her Class identification.

  Once outside the building, Iskra went to buy two fruit smoothies while Elyne waited for her, seated on one of the benches along the perimeter of the university.

  “Well, it wasn’t that bad, right?” Iskra said as she sat down beside Elyne, handing her the smoothie.

  “I… have the same Class as a child,” Elyne murmured, interrupted by a sip of her smoothie.

  “Then you’ll have to make sure you raise it. That’s why we entered Anzenwald.”

  “Yeah… you’re right,” Elyne nodded, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before slipping her identification into the pocket of her jacket.

  “By the way, you’re Class A! That’s incredible—now you’re like super powerful, right?” Elyne said, returning to her usual attitude.

  Iskra laughed and shook her head as she took a sip of her own smoothie. “I’m Class A, but I still don’t know anything about how to use Heka, so I’m no more powerful than a normal person.”

  “But I do have a really cool Class ID.”

  Elyne’s eyes lit up with an idea.

  “I know! In your second year, you could apply to join the university’s Arethón team! With that Class, they’d definitely accept you,” Elyne suggested excitedly as she took another sip of her smoothie and looked at Iskra as if she were the most incredible person in the world.

  Iskra drank her smoothie with a thoughtful expression. “I’d never thought about it.”

  “They’d definitely accept you, and you could get me in as an equipment assistant! That way we could travel together across the kingdoms when the peninsular tournament comes around!” Elyne said, growing increasingly excited.

  “Whoa, calm down, shorty—we haven’t even started classes yet,” Iskra laughed.

  Later, when Reinhardt returned with twelve new pins, the three of them went to Anzenwald’s main building to submit Elyne’s and Iskra’s Class certificates and finalize their enrollment process. That night, Reinhardt headed to his university dormitory at Anzenwald—reserved exclusively for the university’s top students and those from the most important noble families—located right beside the amphitheater where the welcome speech had been held. Elyne and Iskra returned to their shared room in the noble district, where they had dinner together before bringing the day to an end.