Alec stared blankly at Reina for two halves of a second before slowly reaching up and trying to remove her rock-solid grip on his shoulders without much success.

"No…"

Reina shook him back and forth in frustration.

"Then why did you do something like this?!" She demanded.

"Did it not work…?" Alec asked, fear setting in like ice creeping through his veins. There had to be a reason for Reina's reaction. What if he had failed and was about to die? Or shortened his lifespan?

"That's not the problem here! Are you insane?! How did you even think of doing something like this?!"

Alec winced slightly as Reina's grip on his shoulders tightened, but she didn't seem to care and kept shaking him back and forth.

"Um, it just kind of happened while I was trying to, you know, prepare for the future."

"Prepare for the future…?" Reina asked in a calmer tone.

"Yeah—"

"What future?!" Reina shouted and kept shaking him.

"S-s-since m-m-ore s-circles—can you stop shaking me?"

Reina stopped shaking him, but she didn't let go, even when she hung her head in despair.

"More circles mean more pressure on the heart. I wanted to do something about that. Otherwise, I probably won't get past the six-circle wall that stops most mages."

Reina slowly raised her head and looked at her pupil.

"You're…serious."

Alec nodded.

"As far as I know, there is only one or two mages at the seventh circle in the kingdom right now."

Alec nodded.

One of them was one of the Guardians of the kingdom. There were rumors of another, but no more than that.

"What makes you think you will ever reach such heights in your life?" Reina asked. She didn't want to disparage Alec. But maintaining some semblance of realism was necessary to keep a stable perspective on life.

Reaching the seventh circle or star was something that fewer than one of the millions of people in the Kingdom could do each generation.

"Is there a reason I should limit myself with such thoughts before I even try? Is there a reason why I shouldn't be able to reach such heights?"

Reina's eyes widened and flooded with light like someone had flicked a switch inside her head.

"I guess…I guess that's true." She finally let go of Alec's shoulders.

He rubbed them with a frown to try and ease the bruises that were sure to bloom.

"Still, that doesn't change the fact that what you did was suicidal. Why didn't you consult with me first?"

"I…didn't want an outside opinion to influence my actions. I had a good feeling about it, and I had another feeling that you would caution me against it."

"I wouldn't just have cautioned you against it. I would have forbidden it and threatened expulsion if you were to go through with it."

Alec's eyes widened.

"Is it that bad? I mean, I'm alive, aren't I?"

"And I have no idea how. I can't even guess how you did what you did, but I do know one thing."

"What?"

"What happens when you run out of mana?"

Alec froze.

The mana in his magic circle kept his heart beating despite the bubble restraining it.

"Oh shit."

If he ran out of mana, his heart would stop beating.

His heart might not fail under the pressure of his magic circles, but that wouldn't matter if it stopped beating as soon as he drained his mana.

"But how often—"

"All the time. You've experienced it once already, haven't you? In a fight to the death against a monster, you don't save mana for the future. You use it all in the hopes that the monster dies first."

"..."

Alec didn't have an answer to that.

"Is there a way—"

"Of course. There are multiple ways to deal with it, especially since you have managed to protect your heart.

"The most straightforward way would be to use mana-efficient spells to conserve your mana.

"Another method would be to resort to a trick that mages who can't get past the second circle often resort to. Instead of condensing another circle, they reinforce the ones they have. Of course, that increases the burden on the heart more than just adding another circle, but since you don't have that problem…"

Alec nodded. In theory, he could both condense multiple circles and reinforce them.

"Won't that make me very powerful?" His eyes lit up with excitement. Maybe things had gone even better than he thought.

"Yeah, if you set aside the fact that you need to maintain an extremely delicate balance between everything you do with your magic circles. They keep your heart beating, after all."

Reina didn't need to explain further. Alec understood.

He used his magic circle as a pacemaker. Because it was at the perfect distance, he didn't have to worry about his heart. But if he added another circle or strengthened the one he had, the pressure on the bubble around his heart would increase, and with it, the rate at which his heart beat.

If he didn't balance it, his heart would burst from beating like the war drums of a twelve-armed tribe.

"Will you help me?"

Reina gave Alec a deadpan look.

'Now you ask?'

"Of course. You're my teaching assistant, after all. And you're going to help me figure out a way to protect my heart."

Alec nodded confidently and reassuringly tapped his arm, full of undeserved confidence.

"Shouldn't be too difficult."

Reina continued staring at him with a deadpan expression until he got the hint and left her to her paperwork. While they were both eager to get started, one of them had work to do. And Alec had something to play with now that he had gotten his hands on the spell formation to Scan.

Alec left Reina's office to return to the study room and start going through Scan.

He didn't get far before Taryeon turned the corner with hungry eyes like those of a starved beast. He wiped the drool from his chin before pointing at Alec.

"Don't you dare run."

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