There were still ten minutes left before Professor Esther arrived to begin the lecture.

Yet even before she showed up, the classroom had already begun to fill slowly.

Class S had a total of one hundred students, and by now, nearly seventy had arrived.

Seats that were empty just moments ago slowly disappeared as students entered in small groups, taking their places.

Leon glanced around the room.

Except for him, no one really missed classes the way he did.

Well, they could not help it.

Research scholars were granted certain privileges in Eclipse, and even in Class S, only two students held that position.

Leon himself, and Alice.

He turned his head slightly and looked at her.

"How many classes have you missed so far?" he asked.

Alice yawned openly, rubbing her eyes without any shame.

"Classes?" she muttered lazily. "Umm…"

She paused, her eyes remained unfocused as she began counting in her head.

"…Around two," she finally said. "And even those required official permission from professor Esther."

Leon frowned slightly.

"…Less than me," he muttered.

Unlike Alice, Leon had not submitted a single research update yet. He had not shown any visible progress on the research Professor Esther had assigned him.

And knowing Alice, she was probably already close to finishing hers.

Leon glanced at her again.

This time, he noticed something he had missed earlier.

There were dark circles beneath her eyes.

"…Did you not sleep?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Alice leaned forward and rested her head against the desk, then turned her face slightly toward him.

"I was preparing for a research presentation," she said flatly. "Didn't get proper sleep for the last three days."

"I see…" Leon sighed quietly.

Hearing that made things clear.

Alice had likely already completed her research. All that remained was presenting it to the Eclipse board and getting formal approval based on its feasibility and originality.

Leon leaned back in his chair.

'I need to submit something soon,' he thought.

He had several topics that would easily pass the Eclipse board. That was not the problem for him.

The problem was the order.

Chronology mattered for him. If he presented something big, then that would create problems.

Leon's eyes narrowed slightly as a thought surfaced in his mind.

'I think now that I have Rumi, I can make real progress with three-line incantations.'

He nodded slowly to himself.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

With the help of a True Ice Spirit, his understanding of Ice affinity was bound to skyrocket.

Leon already knew how spells worked. But all of that knowledge came from the perspective of a game developer, not the real world.

He understood systems, mechanics, structures of how things operate here.

But magic in real life was deeper. It was more layered and complex.

Just like physics, magic too has its own protocols.

Still, that did not mean his knowledge was useless.

Leon simply needed to bridge the gap.

He needs to compare his developer logic with the world's actual magical principles.

And once he did…

An ice spear would no longer be just a spell that required a chant, magic formula and mana flow.

He would understand why it formed that shape, why the mana condensed instead of dispersing completely, at what temperature the ice stabilized, how its weight affected its velocity, and why it shattered at a specific impact point instead of piercing clean through the target.

It would no longer be simply about casting magic.

It would be about designing it from a base level.

And then, he would not merely understand how magic worked in this world. He would understand why it worked the way it did.

Leon's gaze slowly shifted toward the doorway.

Students were still walking in.

One by one, they stepped inside laughing or chatting, only to pause the moment they noticed him. Their eyes lingered for a fraction of a second too long before sliding away.

Leon ignored most of it.

None of those whispers mattered enough to occupy his current thoughts.

His eyes drifted forward instead. Toward the front rows, where a small group sat together as usual.

Princess Rinna was there, seated among the other princes and princesses.

They were chatting quietly. Leon could see her forcing a laugh at something Prince Kyan said, her smile was a bit too stiff, and a bit too polite.

Leon scoffed inwardly.

'Heh. That dork is into her.'

Anyone with eyes could tell. Kyan was clearly trying, putting in visible effort, and leaning in a little too much whenever he tried to talk to Rinna.

'Well, too bad,' Leon thought flatly. 'She's already cringing to you.'

He did not say it out loud.

"…That dork is into her."

Leon's eyes twitched the moment the words slipped out from someone seated beside him. He turned his head slightly.

Alice had lifted her head just enough to look at Kian, with one eye half open.

Ethan, on the other hand, stared at Alice in disbelief.

"…Wow," Ethan muttered. "You really have no filter."

Alice smirked faintly. "Thanks for the compliment."

"That wasn't a compliment," Ethan replied. "But sure."

"Haa…" Leon sighed, adjusting his glasses.

His gaze moved again.

This time, it stopped at the next column to his own.

A boy sat there alone, with a straight posture. His presence was quiet but firm.

'Cyan Miller.'

A commoner. One of the rare few in Class S.

He was a hard worker. And the most proficient Fire affinity user among the first years.

Leon remembered him clearly.

In the future, Cyan would earn the title Flame Master. And in the original storyline of Rebirth of the Fivefold Calamities, he and Ethan were inseparable.

They were a duo that fought side by side through multiple arcs.

Leon narrowed his eyes slightly.

'Looks like they still haven't met.'

That was his fault.

Ever since Leon stepped into the center of Ethan's path, his attention had shifted completely. Opportunities that were meant to occur naturally had been delayed or never happened completely.

'Their meeting is necessary,' Leon thought.

Ethan and Cyan's bond will create an opening for an important arc.

And it was an arc which would benefit all of them

He leaned back slightly in his chair.

'Guess I'll have to force it to happen.'

"Alright, settle down."

A single sentence echoed, and cut through the entire classroom.

The chatter died instantly, and even Leon's attention shifted toward the entrance.

Professor Esther walked in through the doorway, holding a stack of books held loosely against her chest.

But something felt off.

The Esther Leon knew was usually lively in the mornings. Always carrying that subtle energy that made students straighten up unconsciously.

Today, she looked… drained.

Her eyes were heavy with dark circles, and her hair a bit messy, as if she was dozing off just recently.

If Leon had to guess, she was in a very bad mood.

'Damn,' Leon thought. 'Who pissed her off this early morning?'

Esther reached the podium and placed the books down with a dull thud.

"Ooooff…"

A long, tired sigh escaped her lips.

She did not greet the class, nor did she even look up.

Instead, she pulled the chair back and sat down, resting her elbow on the desk and pressing her fingers lightly against her temple, as if trying to keep her head from splitting apart.

The classroom fell into an awkward silence staring at her.

For a full five minutes, she did not move.

No one dared to speak.

There were a few quiet murmurs here and there, but no one addressed her directly.

By now, every seat was filled. All hundred students of Class S were present, yet the room felt unusually tense.

Leon glanced sideways at Alice.

She had her head down again, eyes half closed.

For a moment, she and Esther looked oddly similar.

'I think Alice was having a bad influence on Professor Esther…' Leon joked to himself, and sneered inside his head.

After a while, Esther finally stirred.

She lifted her head, exhaled once more, then stood up slowly.

She walked toward the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and without saying a word, wrote two words in clear, firm strokes.

[Mana Affinities]

She placed the chalk back on the tray.

Turning around, she looked at the class.

Her gaze swept across the room evenly, without focusing on anyone in particular.

"Alright," she said, her voice was calm but firm. "Who here would like to tell me what mana affinities actually are?"

The first hand that went up belonged to Princess Rinna.

She straightened in her seat, as Esther nodded once, gesturing for her to speak.

"Mana affinities," she began calmly, "are the forces that drive the natural order of the world."

"They are the concepts that define how nature behaves. The builders of phenomena, and the medium through which mana interacts with reality."

She paused briefly, then continued.

"The commonly known affinities are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Ice. Each represents a fundamental aspect of nature. Fire governs heat, combustion, and expansion. Water governs flow, adaptability, and pressure. Wind governs motion, direction, and acceleration. Earth governs structure, density, and stability. Ice governs entropy, preservation, and control."

Esther listened and nodded subtly.

"Most awakened individuals resonate naturally with one of these affinities," Rinna continued. "This resonance determines how their mana manifests, how it reacts to the environment, and how efficiently it can be shaped into spells."

Rinna inhaled softly. "Affinity resonance usually occurs at the moment of awakening. From that point onward, the individual's mana aligns itself with that element, allowing them to manipulate it."

Then she hesitated to add...

"There are also, two legendary affinities recorded in history."

The room grew quieter as the mentioned of this.

"Light," Rinna said, "and Darkness."

Her eyes flickered slightly as she spoke.

"These affinities are extremely rare. So rare that only a handful of cases have ever been recorded."

She looked up.

"The last known human to wield such an affinity was from the Era of Calamity." Her voice lowered a fraction. "By, Goddess Everbright."

That was enough, and almost instantly, the atmosphere shifted.

One by one, heads turned to look at the very back.

Their eyes moved, all landing on the same person seated there quietly, his cold golden eyes staring straight ahead, completely unbothered.

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