Combat Pairing

Ch 20

POV Krauss Carnel

Time flew by and three months passed in the blink of an eye. I grew closer to Alfred and managed to get into his social circle slowly expanding my connections. This time was very peaceful as well. No assassins, no combat, just plain learning. As expected, killing those people after me in the entrance test completely erased any leads on me. None of these people suspected that I was under a false identity.

Some eyebrows were raised when my 3rd circle strength was revealed which was pretty rare for such a young age, but they just wrote it off as luck and talent and didn't poke into it, probably because of my apparent relationship with Alfred.

My daily schedule was very simple. Attending important classes in the morning, and studying more spells and rune patterns in my room in the evening. The rest of the time was spent relaxing and socializing. Afterall, having a tired mind is the most fatal mistake somebody can make while studying magic. This was repeatedly stressed by all the teachers and thoroughly impressed on every student's minds.

"Shut"

I closed the book in my hands.

"It's done."

Today, I had finished learning all the important magician grade spells I could get my hands on. This included the ones I had copied and also all the new ones I could find in the library here.

Speaking of which, the library was one of the first places I went to when I gained access to the point system. There were two buildings and each had nine nine levels, for a separate level of spells/arts. And when I first visited even though I was a third-level magician, I wasn't allowed to go to the second floor. It needed points to access that, as well as to borrow any book or spell tome.

Of course, I paid the required amount to the third floor in a heartbeat. That was the maximum I was allowed to go as an expert magician. And it was a good way to get rid of the fat stack of points I had sitting. If somebody saw that, some serious concerns over my strength would have been raised. If it was not obvious by now, I was trying to stay relatively unnoticeable.

The cost of borrowing the books also increased as you moved to the centre of the floor. That is to say that the books in the middle of the level were better than the ones on the outside. All in all, the library was… more or less what I expected. I mean this was only the first few levels so I was sure things would get better on the higher levels, but the spells here were very basic. I was glad I had squeezed the Imperial library before coming here. Otherwise, it would be a real pain to acquire the points for the new spells in mass as I did.

I had to spend a good afternoon searching through the first few levels before I found a couple of tomes that interested me. They were Throw Sound~, High Jump~, Glide~, and the last one was a ritualistic spell Erase Marks~. I had to pick it up after the thing Helen had pulled on me. Besides that, I also borrowed a couple more tomes and a few books on advancement to sorcerer to help me prepare. The rest, I had already learnt or were useless. For example, one of the spells was for heating toilet seats specifically. I could easily replicate that with a heat spell if I ever needed to.

After borrowing these books and the daily expenses that definitely weren't small when the days added up, my card balance had hit close to the bottom. I needed to earn some points, and with the event coming up, I must say that my timing was perfect.

Today was the day when the combat pairs were going to be announced. And soon we would have to depart in a mission outside the academy which would earn quite a hefty sum of points. Until now since we hadn't been allocated our combat pairs, the only mission that we could do were those that were inside the academy, and as you would expect, they didn't really pay well, to say the least.

Since it was almost time for the allocation, I quickly dressed up and exited my room.

"knock-knock" "Lord Alfred, are you ready to go?"

I could hear the sound of footsteps before the door was opened.

"How many times have I told you that there is no need to address me as 'Lord? In this academy we are equal as students." Alfred spoke with a helpless expression.

"I have also told you many times. Although we are in the academy we are still subjects of the Carnel Empire. And since you are a noble this is how it should be."

"Well said Leon. As expected of a former noble. But don't you think Alfred considers us more as friends rather than his vassals? If so, isn't it rude of you to reject his offer?" One of Alfred's sidekicks happened to arrive at the same time and caught my words.

"That is true. I will keep it in mind Louis and… Alfred." I tried my best to act like I was slightly hesitant about the whole deal. And a smile of approval formed on the two's faces when I dropped the honorifics.

"Well then, let's go, anymore dilly-dallying, and we will be late," Alfred said as he led the way.

.

.

.

We were sitting in the room with the combatant students, just like the first day again. I quickly found Charlotte's figure in the sea of heads. In all these three months of time, I hadn't met her once.

I drew a symbol in the air with my finger it quickly flew towards Charlotte.

|2-way-Communication|

If she had her qi circulating at full strength she would have been able to notice it approaching, but since she wasn't, I had the pleasure of watching her almost jump out of her seat.

"Hey. Long time no see."

"Wha-wait. Leon? How did you-"

"Don't worry. It's just a new trick I learnt."

Runes were amazing. Just a level one rune had this level of utility.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Just wanted to ask something."

"What?"

"Are you interested in a forming deeper partnership with me?" I asked her.

"What do you mea-zzt"

Before Charlotte could say anything the connection was lost for some reason.

"You cast a rune?" Louis asked with a curious gaze.

"Just saying hi to a friend."

These two had obviously noticed me drawing the symbol in the air. However, they couldn't hear the conversation since it was taking place mentally.

I didn't have to wonder long about the reason for the failure of the rune was.

"Look at this newbie trying to act as if he has already mastered all magic. How can I bear having this sort of student in my class?" I heard familiar a voice inside my head.

"Ah teacher. I was just playing a prank on an acquaintance. Weren't you the one who encouraged me to use as many runes I can in daily life to practice?"

It was my rune casting teacher who had interfered. Ursula Garbnier.

"I didn't interfere for no reason. If I didn't do it, you and that friend of yours would probably have faced a mental backlash just now."

Before I could understand what she meant the door opened and three figures entered the room. The one leading them was the fake teacher who took one of our classes. Petra Schmidt. Followed by Sir Weber and another man.

After that incident, I had asked around a bit and found some information about her. She seemed to be mostly an administrative personnel in the academy and taught only one elective class, which was Spell Creation – A course that few people ever chose due to it becoming obsolete in today's tome-dominated magic world.

"Alright, I will now tell you all your combat pairs. After three months of observing you all for these three months, we have paired up each one of you according to your temperament and strength. But that pairing might still not be suitable for you, so each pair will have to go through a simple test to check your compatibility and cooperation."

Just as Miss Petra finished speaking, a hand shot up.

"Why do we need to take a test? Is just forming pairs not enough?"

The one who spoke was a kid from the combatant division, judging by his outfit.

Miss Petra seemed to have expected such a question and flatly responded, "A combat pair is someone you can trust completely. You will probably have to cross moments of life and death together. If any of you betrays the other due to your petty hatred in such a moment what do you think is going to happen?"

The student who spoke up disgruntledly sat down back. No more questions were raised.

Suddenly I felt like maybe I shouldn't have asked Charlotte to be made as my combat pair. Surely she wouldn't betray me to keep her secret safe, right?

The names were called, and slowly the room was being emptied. Soon even Alfred and Louis were called up. After about 15 minutes, the only ones left in the class were Charlotte and me.

"…Lastly, Charlotte from the combatant division and Leon from the spell casting division."

She was already looking at me like she wanted to kill me.

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