Stellar Academy's curriculum was divided into two main tracks: the Mage Course and the Knight Course.
There were other options, of course—an Administrative Course for those aiming to become imperial civil servants, and an Alchemy track offering specialized lectures in magitech item and potion crafting—but the vast majority of students chose one of those two paths and built their schedules around it.
Aiolette was no different.
The lecture she was currently attending was called ⟨Understanding Circle Magic⟩.
It was one of the mandatory courses that any student enrolled in the Mage Course was required to complete.
As such, it was among the most important classes offered—yet the mind of the student sitting inside that very lecture hall was anything but settled.
What kept surfacing in Aiolette's thoughts was the image of Gladia, drenched in blood.
She had never seen Gladia that weakened before, not once in her life, and the shock of it had struck her at a depth she couldn't put into words.
The Gladia she had known all this time had always carried herself with a certain ease—composed, capable, unshakeable.
*"Uuugh, my lady. Your maid is dying…."*
…Well. There had been the occasional collapse, admittedly.
But even then, Gladia always bounced back almost immediately, moving around as if nothing had happened.
The first time Gladia had taken to bed, Aiolette had been genuinely worried, of course.
Gladia had been the only ally Aiolette had found when she had no one else to lean on.
So Aiolette had nursed her with clumsy but wholehearted effort—and then:
*"Gladia: Resurrected!!"*
By the very next morning, Gladia was back on her feet and prancing around without a care in the world.
Then about a week later:
*"Ugh, your devastatingly beautiful maid is dying."*
Down again.
*"Gladia: Rise and shine!!!!!!"*
Up again.
This cycle repeated itself enough times that Aiolette eventually came to regard Gladia's periodic collapses as something of an annual tradition.
So when Gladia had fallen ill this time, Aiolette hadn't thought much of it at first.
She'd simply assumed Gladia would be back on her feet in no time, same as always.
But then she had woken up in the dungeon—and the scene that greeted her eyes had torn that comfortable assumption out by the roots.
Gladia's maid uniform, always so crisp and perfectly pressed, was a ruin of red blood and grey dust.
Those sharp eyes that never lost their composure had tears of pain clinging to them, and along the pale line of her jaw, droplets of freshly coughed blood fell to the floor—one, then another.
*That idiot. If she was hurting that badly, she should have said something…!*
Aiolette couldn't clearly remember what happened after that.
Only fragments remained: blind panic, and then somehow Gladia was on her back and they were moving, and then they were in the room.
Even after returning to the room, Aiolette couldn't bring herself to step away. She had stayed pressed close to Gladia's side, unable to feel anything close to relief.
She was terrified that if she took her eyes off Gladia for even a moment, Gladia might simply stop being there.
Like her mother, who had left the world and left Aiolette alone in that cold ducal house.
She hadn't wanted to come to this lecture at all.
But Gladia had pushed her out the door so insistently that Aiolette had ended up attending against her will, swallowing her protests like bitter medicine.
*I'm going straight back the moment this ends.*
While Aiolette was steeling herself with that resolve, an elderly professor shuffled into the lecture hall.
"Now then. Everyone settle down."
***
The professor for ⟨Understanding Circle Magic⟩ was an old man distinguished by a long white beard.
He looked as though a wizard had stepped directly out of a storybook and into the real world, and the wisdom that shone from his eyes was the kind that made students instinctively lower their heads when his gaze found them.
The old professor made his unhurried way to the front of the room and took his place at the lectern.
"Well then. Good to meet you all. I'm Felix Lister, and I'll be leading ⟨Understanding Circle Magic⟩."
After that gentle introduction, Professor Felix swept a benevolent smile around the room.
"You may call me Professor Felix."
Wherever his gaze landed, students swallowed quietly and straightened in their seats.
"Since this is our first session, before we begin the proper coursework, I'd like to ask one foundational question. Can anyone here explain to me what a Circle is?"
At that, a student in the front row raised a hand.
"Yes—go ahead."
"Sir! A Circle is an invisible vessel of mana that forms within a mage's heart! There are seven elemental affinities in total—fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, light, and darkness—and one Circle can be formed per affinity. Therefore, the theoretical maximum number of Circles a mage can form is seven!"
"Good. A very textbook answer."
Professor Felix stroked his white beard with evident satisfaction and nodded.
"As that student said, seven is correct in theory. But reality is another matter. Expanding one's Circles is not nearly as simple as it sounds."
The students held their breath. Professor Felix raised a hand and began counting on his fingers.
"First, the light and darkness affinities can only be wielded by those born with an innate aptitude for them. And second…."
Professor Felix's eyes briefly touched on Aiolette and the Saintess before moving on.
"As the number of Circles increases, the mana of each different affinity gathered within the heart begins to push back against the others with tremendous force. Suppressing that resistance and weaving a new Circle into existence is something close to a miracle. That is why the ultimate pinnacle of human achievement—the limit of what we can reach—is generally defined as the '5th Circle.'"
Professor Felix said nothing more. He simply spread the five fingers of his right hand with an easy, unhurried motion.
*Crack—!*
With a crisp snap, five distinct elemental magics bloomed simultaneously above his five fingers.
A small tongue of flame rose above his thumb. A clear droplet of water formed on his index finger. A tiny whirlwind churned around his middle finger. Blue lightning sparked and crackled above his ring finger. And above his little finger, a solid fragment of rock materialized and floated gently upward.
Fire, water, wind, lightning, earth.
The five basic affinities among the seven that could form Circles.
Professor Felix closed his hand lightly around the dancing elements and scattered them into the air.
A low murmur of admiration rippled through the students.
The magic Felix had demonstrated was not particularly advanced.
But what he had just done was use five different elemental magics simultaneously, without a trace of resistance between them.
In that moment, the students understood: the old man standing before them had reached the 5th Circle—the boundary called the limit of human possibility.
"Over the course of this year, you will work alongside me to explore the most fundamental theory and practice of Circles. We will focus primarily on calculating the flow of mana and on learning how to weave Circles within your own heart safely and with lasting stability."
Felix continued his lecture with the ease of someone long accustomed to such reactions.
A stretch of dry, scholarly explanation followed—and then, at last, the moment every student in the room had been waiting for arrived.
"That will do for our first session. Consider today an orientation. Well done, everyone."
"Thank you!"
The instant Professor Felix declared the lecture over—
*Clack—!*
The first person in the entire room to shove back their chair and stand was Aiolette, in the very last row.
With no apparent regard for the startled looks of the students around her or the professor's eyes following her from the lectern, Aiolette didn't spare a backward glance—she threw open the rear door of the lecture hall and bolted into the corridor.
"Wait, please!"
But Aiolette was forced to stop almost immediately.
Someone had stepped into her path.
Given Aiolette's temperament, the natural response would have been to simply move the obstacle aside and keep going—but the person blocking her way was not someone Aiolette could easily brush off.
"Ha—hah. Just—just a moment. I need to—talk to you."
An enormous chest heaving dramatically with every ragged breath, as though she had sprinted the whole way here.
Lustrous pink hair swaying just below the shoulder line.
And a pure white vestment that radiated sanctity to anyone who laid eyes on it.
The goddess's representative, arrived for the first time in a thousand years.
The Saintess, Cruje, opened her mouth.
"It's genuinely important."
***
I found no additional clues in the Core Room in the end.
The system window had clamped its mouth shut on me too.
*Something's definitely off about that thing….*
But there was nothing I could do about it right now.
Still, there had been a clear upside.
"Gladia: Resurrected!"
My body didn't hurt!
Since drinking the ⟨Hero's Blood⟩, the backlash from the ⟨World's Trial⟩ that used to follow me around had vanished.
That said, when I'd cut through the stele this time, I'd gotten a little annoyed and pushed myself harder than I needed to—so I'd braced for a heavy rebound. What I actually felt was pain noticeably reduced compared to before.
It hadn't disappeared entirely, but it was well within the range I could manage.
The ⟨Hero's Blood⟩ really is absurdly generous as items go.
Physical enhancement *and* reduced backlash?
If it keeps giving away this much, what's left for anyone else?
You are, dear reader! Ha!
Feeling my body recover put me in an excellent mood.
Riding that momentum, I'd made my way to the Mage Course lecture building to meet my young mistress.
She'd been so worried—seeing that I'd recovered should cheer her right up, shouldn't it?
*She's not going to cry again, is she?*
Just then, Heart-Sight picked up a familiar mana signature.
"My la—?"
But my young mistress wasn't alone.
"Let go of me!"
"It really, truly is important!"
"I said I'm not interested!"
"Please just listen to me!!"
Some woman was pressing an obscene quantity of chest against my young mistress and clinging to her like a barnacle!
*How dare she push herself up against my young mistress, the one I outbid everyone else for…!*