Her shouts echoed across the empty hall, her wooden staff getting harder to grasp and use as time passed.

But that's all she can do. All she can do is keep swinging this heavy wooden staff forward and backward, spin, step aside, then swing the heavy wooden staff again.

But it was a good kind of repetition. Normally, she would be bored immediately and go back home to relax. Instead, all she wanted to do was to keep training.

Because what else can she do?

"Clara."

Clara looked back to find Alissa appearing into the hall from the double doors. She breathed heavily, coated in sweat in her training clothes, but Alissa still approached with that beautiful smile Val always showed, though Clara knew she would never say that in front of Ali.

She handed her a cold towel to which Clara took gratefully. She groaned in pleasure before Ali also handed her a water bottle to drink from. Taking a swig from the bottle, she let out a heavy sigh of satisfaction.

"Thanks, Ali," Clara said with gratitude. Ali just nodded.

"You've been doing so well lately. You deserve a break," Ali said, her tone soft and gentle, but there was that finality Clara knew all too well.

"But I don't want to take a break," Clara said, though she immediately let her muscles relax when she took the towel and water bottle. If she tried to work now, it'll only get worse later, so her body took a break before she could. The traitor. "I wanna keep working."

"It's good to keep training, in fact I implore it," Ali said, shaking her head. "But you're still so young. There's no reason to work yourself to death. Don't you want to come back and see Bobo and Sissy?"

"But they're busy…"

Clara said, though she was also a bit ashamed. There they were, working with the other people from their world, trying to help them get stronger. Yet, all she can do is just watch and cheer on. What point is there to do that? The best thing she can do with her time is train and study to become a better fighter when she becomes fifteen years old.

She wished she could become fifteen already, already beating any feeling of wanting any birthday or christmas presents. She wanted to get the system and get stronger to help them.

However, Ali gently caressed her shoulder, making her look up to her despite her still being sweaty.

"They're never busy when it comes to you. I'm sure either Bobo or Sissy would come in and spend their break time with you. They know how hard you're working too. But I know they share the same thing as I do. Come on, take a break."

Seeing her insistence, Clara agreed and dropped her training for the day. She can just study runes with Bobo later when he feels better. He had headaches lately which made Clara worry, especially since he got it because he was being a dingus again.

But she knew. She knew he did it so that he can save everyone like the hero he is. He hated being called that, but that was how Clara saw him. A hero that kept sacrificing himself to save people.

She wanted to do that, though if she said that to him, he would desperately stop her from doing so. That's why he's such a dingus.

After taking a shower and putting on fresh clothes, Clara was ready to leave the training hall of the gym to her house, but before Clara could do so, Ali called her over to talk again.

She wondered what it was, considering Clara already decided to go along with her. She faced her with that gentle smile again, though Clara can tell it was a bit different.

"Clara, be honest with me; do you hate standing around in my house?"

That took her by surprise. She really wanted to say no, say that she actually enjoyed being around her and her house.

But then she realized what she was implying. She quieted for a second, then she nodded slightly.

"I know Bobo and Sissy have important jobs to do. I know that I can't join them. But I still hate doing nothing."

It was the truth. She would never blame Bobo and Sissy for leaving her behind so many times. How can she? They're constantly risking their lives to save others, to help their fellow otherworlders, and more importantly, trying to help Clara live in this world.

She knew this, but she still felt that it was very unfair to be left behind.

"I see," Ali nodded, as though it was obvious. "I know that Bobo and Sissy have a hard time leaving you behind as well. I can see it in their eyes. You don't hate them for that either, right?"

Clara shook her head vigorously. "Of course not!"

"But…" Ali smiled mischievously, surprising Clara. "You want to get back at them a little for leaving you behind all the time, right?"

Her eyes widened, and her heart raced. She would never bother them with stupid pranks or something like that. But… it wasn't as though she also didn't want to get back at them, make them squirm just as she did whenever they go out for a dangerous mission.

But she squinted her eyes at Ali, not really understanding the reason. "Why are you asking?"

Ali then grinned. "How about going to school? And not just any school–It's Arcelot's very own private Magic Academy for the Gifted. Over there, you can learn how to study and use your skills effectively, and learn many other things besides that. More than anything–you can meet new people and make friends there, which has got to be way better than staying inside my house all day, right?"

Clara's eyes widened again, this time becoming dinner plates. Did she say school? A magic school?

She heard about this plenty of times from all the movies she watched in the old world. She always loved the idea of going into a magic school to learn how to use magic. Even if she can technically learn magic from Bobo, it was just a different feeling to go to school for it.

And to make friends? That was… well, that wasn't exactly what Clara liked to do, but it sounded a lot better than staying at home talking with Zoan all the time. Especially since Ana wasn't there.

Her heart skipped several beats as she nearly jumped in place. "Yes, yes, yes! I wanna go! I wanna go to the magic school!"

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Ali smiled brightly, a rare one that doesn't usually come from her. "Perfect. Cronus already put in the paperwork, so all we needed is your permission to get you in. You can enroll next week, and I also already got everything you need to head into the academy."

"Whoa!" Clara nearly shouted. "That's fast! And did you say that Cronus already let me in?"

As far as she knew, Bobo and Sissy didn't like Cronus very much, and neither did Clara if she was honest. It was thanks to him that Bobo lost his barrier spell and got so depressed over it. Ali nodded to her question.

"Yes. Despite how he looks, he's always fond of children. Particularly gifted children with a drive for improvement like you. That's why he created the academy for those very same children. There are some brats there from noble houses, but the real intention for the school is for kids like you who want to improve themselves way before the system arrived, and with great results."

"Wow, really?" Clara asked. She really was surprised. It turned out Cronus was an alright guy, after all. "That's neat! I wanna thank him!"

"I'm sure he would gladly receive it. You'll see him when you get to the school," Ali said, but then she frowned a little before talking again. "But… Do you think Sissy and Bobo will allow you? I can help convince them, but do you think they'll let you go?"

Clara instantly grimaced, especially when Sissy would hear about this soon. Seeing her expression, Ali raised a single brow concerningly.

"Uuh… do you think I can just go without telling them?" Clara said. "Actually, maybe say it to Bobo. Then when I leave, Bobo can tell Sissy."

"Isn't that, uhh, kinda unfair to Bobo?" Ali asked, raising a brow at her.

"Hey, he's the one that's dating her," Clara said defensively. "He can handle her… maybe."

Of course Clara knew that Sissy and Bobo were dating. It was bound to happen at some point. What she didn't understand is why Sissy and Bobo aren't married yet. She understood that there's a wedding to do, and people to invite, and she was sure they would want to invite Cloud, Val, and Ana to their wedding too, and that was just hard to do right now.

But still, it was bound to happen.

After a careful moment of thought, Ali just shrugged her shoulders. "Good point."

"I know, right? See, I can be smart enough to get top marks at that school!"

"I'm sure you can," Ali giggled.

Then Clara decided to do what she wanted and hugged Ali around her head. Ali was bending down slightly to face her, wanting to talk to her face to face, so it was easy for Clara to grapple Ali into a hug. That surprised her, but she took Clara's hug easily enough.

"Thanks Ali! You're the best! Thank you so much!"

Ali didn't respond for a while, and Clara worried whether she took it too far. No matter how similar she looked like Val, and how often their gentleness seemed alike, she knew Ali wasn't as keen on affection as Val was.

However, Ali took her into a tight hug, making Clara feel all warm inside from the gesture.

"I know I am. I'm way better than Valorie, at least. Aren't I?"

Clara decided to lie, just a little. It was a simple white lie, especially when she knew the two were never better than the other.

"Yep! You're way better than Val!"

Despite sounding just a tad bit sarcastic, Ali didn't seem to care as when she released the hug, Ali looked so content that Clara thought she was easy to manipulate as long as you compare her to Valorie in a better light.

She decided to tuck that little nugget of wisdom into the back of her mind, in case she wanted Ali to do something for her.

…..

Cronus rubbed his temples, not really needing it to ease a headache, but as a gesture he picked up throughout the years and can't seem to get rid of it.

He only did this when he was alone, in his office after dealing with another horde of noble representative attacks. Once again, he realized just how futile it was to deal with nobles without any common sense.

Then there was the matter with the otherworlders, as well as the towers that would come by like some ambush in the night. He sometimes wondered if even Masters can fall prey to stress, rather than some difficult Master-rank monster or the like.

"Honey, I got some bad news."

Suddenly hearing his darling wife Anabelle say those words already got Cronus to groan, another rarity from him. He only just got out of talking his way around the convoluted nobles and now he had to hear this from his wife?

Turning over to the crimson-haired beauty that never once lost herself to age even after decades together, he let out a heavy breath. "What is it? And is it worse than the nobles?"

Honestly, nothing can come close to dealing with the nobles. It was as if they survive on entirely different aspects, relying more on reputation and deceit than actual food and sleep. However, Anabelle didn't get along with his crap humor, instead showing a rare frown that got Cronus to pay more attention.

"It's worse. Do you remember the Institute of Fallen Stars?"

"The organization in charge of investigating the mysteries of the world and one of the rare publicly known group of crazies? How can I not?"

Despite the nasty sounding reputation, he was actually rather fond of the Institute. Unlike any guilds and political parties, the Institute is just a random group of people who got really into conspiracy theories and decided to make a name for themselves by studying and researching anything even remotely interesting.

He honestly only let them be for the past few decades because he thought it would be funny, and totally expected them to disband just several years later. Now they're a well-known institute filled with top of the line researchers and scholars that once had such proud reputations within Arcelot. Of course, they were still a bunch of crazy people with loads of ideals in their heads than actual sense, but quite frankly he still found them better than dealing with nobles.

"Well, those group of crazies apparently studied up on the towers," Anabelle said, her lovely smile returning. "And they came back with some surprising news."

"Oh?"

"They predicted where the next tower is going to pop up in Arcelot."

The room turned still when those words escaped Anabelle's sweet lips. Cronus, for once, became shell-shocked at the news.

"How? Do they have some sort of connection to the towers? Do they have otherworlders in their midst?"

"No, and they still don't know the existence of otherworlders. You can imagine how much of a headache that would be if they knew about people from different worlds, right?"

Cronus grimaced. "Good point. Continue. How did they know?"

"Apparently they managed to interlock with the ley lines with the aid of enchantments and runes when they were experimenting with the data they bought from one of our men. Do you remember what we did when the towers first arrived? We tried everything to find out about them while concealing our moves from the other noble houses."

"Right, we pretty much spent most of our resources on finding the towers through various means. I'm not surprised that the Institute is crazy enough to buy information about the towers from us. I'm surprised they haven't spoken to us directly."

"Don't you remember what you did to their leader 30 years ago? They keep retelling that story every time they get a new one, ensuring that they don't bother you ever again if they try to find out more about Arcelot's conspiracies."

"Oh…" Cronus nodded. He did certainly remember that one. That one leader was so insistent on bothering him that Cronus decided to teach him a lesson.

It wasn't a bad one, or even that horrible. If anything, it was tame. Still, that leader did have some trouble living a normal life for the next few years.

"Makes sense."

"Well, thanks to that, they predicted where the next tower is going to show up."

"Now that is… very interesting," Cronus said, though his face betrayed his words. "Do you know?"

"If anything, they practically threw the answer at us once they made a decent enough accurate prediction. This is where things get complicated."

"Can't be any more complicated than this situation right now."

Cronus said, and as though wanting to prove him wrong, she went over and whispered the information to his ear. Why she was whispering to him, he didn't know.

After hearing the words, Cronus closed his eyes.

"...That is actually pretty damn complicated."

Cronus let out another heavy breath. It is now proven that stress can really do indeed take down a Master if enough is piled up.

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