Rylan let out a breath as he leaned back in his seat. He watched the male professor leave with a serious expression. To his right, Aelfric looked at him worriedly.

“…Are you okay?” Aelfric tentatively asked. “You haven’t been looking so good these past few days.”

Rylan immediately smiled as he looked at his brother.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about some stuff.”

In the row behind them, Jasmine and Hayden stayed silent. Next to Jasmine, Isa leaned forward with a grin.

“Is it girl trouble?” she asked in a joking tone. “I can help. Maria too.”

Jasmine scoffed, but Rylan didn’t say anything. He only shook his head with a smile.

“Taking advice from you would result in me getting dumped within a day.”

Isa furrowed her brow and pouted.

“My advice is good,” she mumbled, then looked at Maria, who was sitting next to her. “Right?”

Maria nodded seriously, making Rylan laugh.

Meanwhile, most students had already left their seats and were walking around the classroom, going over to their friends’ seats to talk and laugh. Rylan looked around with a smile.

I like these moments.

The brief lulls between each lecture were the only moments during daytime where the students could relax and talk about whatever they wanted, apart from lunch time. They had become one of the things he appreciated the most about the Academy, as they were moments when he could truly enjoy a life that he’d never lived before in either of his lives.

Luna and Aelfric started a conversation with Isa and Maria, but Hayden and Jasmine stayed mostly silent with grave expressions. Rylan looked at them with a soft gaze.

…I couldn’t keep you from learning too much.

Now that they were aware of the kingdom’s situation, it was naturally harder to simply enjoy their Academy days. This had become specially obvious in the few days that followed the conversation they’d had in Damian’s mage tower. Rylan smiled bitterly.

In this atmosphere, the doors suddenly opened, making almost every student reflexively look at the person walking in. The next second, Rylan furrowed his brow. The girl who had just walked in had long pink hair and bright blue eyes. She was thin and rather tall, which only added to her beauty. The look in her eyes seemed to have traces of mirth as she scanned the room, as if looking for someone. Most importantly, however, she was someone he didn’t recognize.

Before Rylan could think about it further, another person entered the classroom. He was a tall man who looked to be twenty-one or twenty-two years old, with grey hair and blue eyes. Just like the girl, he was eerily good-looking and towered over her. Unlike the girl, however, he took only a couple of seconds to lock eyes with Rylan. Simultaneously, the noise inside the classroom died down as the students traded confused glances.

“My name is Lucian Raussac,” the grey-haired young man started in a firm tone. His voice was deep and strangely melodic. “And I’m the student council president of this Academy.”

A collective wave of gasps rang out in the classroom as the students elbowed each other and whispered under their breaths. The pink-haired girl beamed at the class.

“And I’m Ophelia,” she said playfully.

“I am here to talk to Jasmine Lamollet, Hayden of Lindsor,” Lucian continued, ignoring the commotion, and narrowed his eyes at Rylan. “And Rylan Flameheart.”

Almost at the same time, every single student inside the classroom turned to look at Rylan and his two friends with piercing gazes. A few of them nodded to themselves, while others looked starstruck. Rylan only narrowed his eyes right back at Lucian.

Not bad.

Now that he’d improved with his training, he could see others’ levels of strength more clearly. Lucian had a strong, trained body, but also a considerable amount of mana.

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Fourth Circle? Or at least close to it.

It meant that Lucian was at least on the same level as Evenon, who had been decades older. Considering the gap between each Circle as one went, the fact that Lucian had reached the Fourth Circle at such a young age was proof that he not only had a great amount of talent, but also that he’d trained hard for a long time. Rylan nodded to himself before standing up. At the same time, he scanned Ophelia. The girl seemed to be very deep into the Third Circle, even though she looked younger than Lucian. It was likely that her level of talent was the same as his. Rylan nodded to himself again.

Behind him, Hayden and Jasmine also stood up. Under the watchful gazes of the other students, they walked down the stairs and arrived in front of Lucian and Ophelia. Rylan tried to ignore the whispers all around him, but his improved hearing managed to grasp most of them.

“Do you think they fucked up?”

“Hell no. Don’t you see what this is? They want to recruit them before it’s too late.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gods, you’re fucking stupid.”

From the other side.

“Took them long enough.”

“I wonder why the other factions haven’t made their moves yet, though.”

“They definitely have a plan. Did your parents say anything?”

“No, strangely enough.”

The whispers gradually became louder, making Lucian sweep the room with his gaze once again.

“We should talk somewhere else,” he stated.

Rylan nodded at him.

“Lead the way.”

Lucian nodded back and walked toward the doors, then out of the classroom. Once Rylan and the others followed him, the doors closed automatically, immediately blocking all noise from the inside. Lucian turned around and looked at Rylan. At the same time, Jasmine walked up to his side from behind and stood close to him as she stared at Lucian with a serious expression.

“We don’t have much time, so I’ll just get to the point,” Lucian started, Ophelia by his side smiling at the trio. “I’m here to make you an offer to join the student council alongside us two and the others.”

Rylan tilted his head.

“And what would be the benefits of joining?” he asked.

Naturally, he expected there would be meaning to this decision. If the student council were simply about helping other students manage their school life, then he would have to refuse, as he didn’t have the time to do that with the situation as it currently was. If there were benefits to being a member of the student council, however, he might be willing to consider it. Right now, he simply needed to grow as quickly as possible.

“There are resources available only to the student council,” Jasmine replied to his right before Lucian could, making him look at her. Ophelia followed his gaze with a grin. “It’s more of a position of power than a proper council. Getting into it is sort of a competition. There are also facilities where the members have priority and such things.”

Ophelia nodded at her, then looked at Rylan.

“Of course, there are also responsibilities. We’re expected to step in and resolve conflicts on campus, mediate for the students with the Academy, and act as the contact point between the Academy and the students in general,” she said. “That said, yes, there are various benefits, which include what Jasmine just said, but also stuff like private lessons from a few professors and a greater amount of influence over what goes on inside the Academy.”

Rylan slowly nodded to himself.

“What kind of resources and facilities?” he asked.

“We can learn about spells and Skills before most students, if they were going to be taught those at all,” Lucian replied. “We can also go through personalized training, and a professor can accompany us into a Dungeon to oversee our Leveling process. Though, the training part shouldn’t matter to you guys, since you’re the Headmaster’s students.”

Rylan rubbed his chin.

“…None of those sound particularly attractive to me,” he said after a few seconds of silence.

He didn’t need a professor’s oversight when going into a Dungeon. In fact, that would only result in him being forced to limit his abilities and not try his hardest. The personalized training wasn’t of much value to him either, since Damian himself was his master and guided him daily. As Damian’s disciple, he also enjoyed considerable priority over almost anything inside the Academy grounds, and plenty outside of it. Naturally, he couldn’t give less of a damn about the status that came with being a member of the student council.

Behind him, he noticed Hayden nod.

“Yeah, I’m not really seeing the vision,” Hayden said. “Is there more to this choice?”

Lucian and Ophelia traded a glance. All of them went silent for a few seconds.

“I told you the usual talk wouldn’t work,” Ophelia suddenly said to Lucian. “You owe me five gold.”

Lucian scowled at her.

“Fine. You win, woman,” he said before turning to look at Rylan and the other two again. He raised two fingers. “There are two main reasons why you guys should join the student council.”

Rylan motioned at him for him to continue.

“The first is, naturally, networking. Most of the strongest and most talented students in the entire Royal Magic Academy are part of the council, and they’re all very eager to get to know you three. It was a pain to keep them from contacting you before us,” Lucian continued with a serious expression. Rylan raised an eyebrow. “The second reason is information. Because of how widespread the council’s influence is, alongside how powerful the families behind most of the members are, we get to know about things much faster and quicker than the others. Sometimes, the news reach us before they even reach the Headmaster.”

Rylan raised his eyebrows in surprise. Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Damian was the kingdom’s strongest Mage, but he was also only one man. His influence across several kingdoms was bound to be limited. On the other hand, since the student council was mostly made up of members from powerful noble families that had alliances and relationships with the noble families in other kingdoms, it represented an important source of possible intel.

Rylan smiled.

Now this is more interesting.