Even though Valar’s mood improved significantly during his time with Zeke, he did not return to school immediately. Instead, he took the day to wander around the city alone, just pondering on recent events as he explored the capital.

  Bronze rank… This fast?

  The boy was walking around the docks with a sausage pastry in hand, just looking around and going where his legs took him. His legs had a clear goal, however: The beach where the adventure burial had been held. Of course…

  Valar looked upon the pile of ashes on the ground, a single tear rolling down his face. He sat down on the sand, and just breathed.

  In stark contrast to the dreary weather just a single night ago, the day was absolutely beautiful. The sun illuminated the grains of sand on the beach, and regular citygoers splashed in the water with their children. Autumn was on its way, so they would have to leave the chilly waters behind soon. They look like they’re having fun… Nobody seems to even notice the remains of the pyre. Is that how fast people forget?

  “Those who are actually affected… They never forget, child,” an elderly voice came from his side.

  Valar’s head snapped to his right, and there he was. An old man with grey hair and a massive shield on his back, sitting right next to him. Baldwin.

  Unlike the first time they had met, the old man wasn’t posing as an iron ranker. His aura was completely unreadable to the boy, showing like there was nothing there. The man grinned as Valar’s eyes flashed once more, waggling his finger admonishingly.

  “That’s rude, you know.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Valar blushed. “It’s just so weird when I can’t see anything at all. Usually I see at least something—even if it doesn’t tell me the person’s rank—but you truly look like you have no aura in the first place.”

  “And now you’re trying to pry into my secrets, cheeky brat?” Baldwin laughed. “Unfortunately for you, I can’t let this one slip. Besides, you came here to think about the expedition, didn’t you?”

  “How’d you know I was in it?” Valar asked suspiciously.

  “I didn’t. Now I know!”

  Valar sighed in defeat. This old man is as annoying as he was last time…

  “In all seriousness, that expedition was an utter tragedy,” the old man sighed. “The nation was really close to sending out one of the fallingstar knights, you know? The only reason they didn't was that Edwin wasn’t at gold rank yet. The rules and regulations failed you adventurers…”

  “I don’t know if the tragedy could’ve been avoided like that,” Valar commented, tears flowing down his cheeks. “They would’ve only sent the knight after all the death, right?”

  “Yes… Your words ring true.” Baldwin grunted. He slowly got back up on his feet and waved down at Valar. “I just came to inform you that we have not forgotten. They are not forgotten.”

  The old man was gone as quickly as he arrived. The only thing he left behind was a pair of footprints on the sand, with no path leading to them

  …

  Returning to his studies proved to be much more difficult than Valar initially assumed. His first thought had been to just return to the normal lectures, but that was proven to be impossible. First of all, he wasn’t an iron ranker anymore! The lectures for iron rankers, while useful, weren’t exactly meant for someone of his rank. They had become an inefficient type of learning compared to tutoring and reading.

  Secondly, even if bronze rankers would’ve normally had lectures, they weren’t going to have them for a couple of weeks. That was due to something that Valar had entirely forgotten about: The academy tournament.

  The academy tournament—an event meant for combat-focused bronze rankers—was held yearly at the academy, and it lasted for a week. Participants would mostly consist of students from the royal academy itself, but all the other academies of the nation would send some students to compete as well.

  That tournament was going to be held next week.

  As Valar soon discovered, that was an issue.

  “Sorry, but private tutoring and lectures for bronze rankers will be on hold for the next two weeks,” Mary, the iron rank clerk and potential earth mage, sighed. “I don’t have a lot of good news for you, if you’re planning to start learning today… You’ll get free tickets to the tournament, at least!”

  “Yay…” Valar deadpanned. “Seriously, there’s nothing? I would really like to start my studies as soon as possible. I want to get back to adventuring without delay!”

  “Sorry, I can’t turn into a professor for you,” the young woman apologized. “What I can do is get library access for you, however. I hear some of the bronze rank students spend a lot of time there, so maybe you can research your magic or something?”

  “It’s better than nothing, I guess,” he grumbled. “How does it work?”

  “You have a sigil you use for your room, right?” Mary asked. “If you just hand it over to me, I can give it the necessary authorization to open the doors up to the bronze rank section of the library.”

  “Bronze rank section?” Valar questioned. “Are there different sections?”

  “You’ve never even visited?” a grin started forming on her face. “You’ve been missing out…”

  And so he had.

  …

  The academy library was predictably situated in the central tower, but against Valar’s expectations, it didn’t just take up one floor, but five.

  The way the library worked was quite simple: The further down you went, the higher your rank was. The iron rank floor, situated on the first floor of the tower, was the only one above the surface. The others were underground, as the information they held was much more tightly guarded.

  Without even knowing it, Valar had actually been on the silver rank floor once before. Well, not the library floor itself, but the vault where he had gotten his robe from was accessed through the same security. This time he stopped much higher up at the door that said: Library: Bronze rank section.

  Getting in was as simple as flashing his sigil at the door and walking in, but what was inside…

  “Magnificent.”

  Valar looked around the expansive hall, marveling at the sheer amount of books, tomes and scrolls. The hall itself was larger than a single floor of the tower, spanning almost as far as he could see in the dim lighting. Enchanted lights were placed above the aisles that snaked between shelves that looked like they could have stretched on forever. Each shelf was practically bursting with books or tomes, although scrolls and such were a rarer sight.

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  “The sheer amount of information…” he breathed out. “How do I even find anything?”

  Surprisingly, the question meant for only his own ears actually got an answer.

  “You come over here and find what you’re looking for on this tablet. Quietly.”

  Valar looked to his side. There, ten or so meters away, sat an elderly woman. She was dressed in mage’s robes marked with a sigil Valar was unfamiliar with. On inspection, Valar’s eyes widened. Gold… Almost onyx, even….

  “Can I ask what your affinity is, ma’am?” he whispered. I’m not going to be yelling when a gold ranker tells me to be quiet, that’s for sure.

  “Of course you can ask, child,” the woman smiled. “It’s a library, after all. I’m Livira, a gold rank sound mage and custodian of the bronze rank library of the royal academy. Would you have a name, young life mage?”

  When he realized he had been quietly staring at the woman for way too long, he coughed out, “Valar.”

  The old lady brought up a gnarled finger to her lips, giving Valar a gentle smile. “Silence, young Valar, you’re in a library.”

  “I… I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “I’m just playing around, “Livira chuckled. “Even though this is a library, there’s no reason to start whispering around. As long as you don’t start yelling obscenely, I won’t have to remove you from the premises. Now, can I assume you’re an orphan?”

  Valar tensed up, a frown forming on his lips. “Why do you ask?”

  The sound mage’s eyes gained a sad light and she sighed. “I’m one too, although the passage of time has made me forget the exact year it happened. It’s just that orphans like us are a rare find in these halls with nobles prancing around like they own the place.”

  “You don’t enjoy their presence?”

  “Hah!” Livira broke her own rule, cackling loudly. “I truly don’t… They come over here, demanding my services just because their uncle is an important politician in fucking Vilfrost! Do you know how much I care about some politician in fucking Vilfrost?”

  “If I had to hazard a guess, not much.”

  “Not much, indeed…” she smiled, lowering her voice back to a low hum. “I answer directly to the academy headmaster and the royals, but some insignificant nobles want to order me around… Now, I assume you came over here with a purpose in mind, not just to chat with an old woman like me. What do you desire from this library?”

  Valar scratched the back of his neck. “I’m not actually quite sure. I just ascended to bronze rank a few days ago, but since the academy is in full tournament mode, I can’t really start private tutoring or attend lectures. Are there some books on just bronze rank life magic in general?”

  “Are there some books, he says…” the librarian scoffed. “Look around. Of course there are books on general life magic at bronze rank! It’s just that I can think of at least twenty-five from the top of my head, so you’ll have to be more specific.”

  The boy grabbed his chin in thought. What do I want to actually know?

  He hadn’t come to the library with a crystal clear idea on what he actually wanted to do going forward, but Livira’s question made Valar actually consider his options. As I discussed with Felicia, me leaving the fire completely behind is... unlikely. Considering that will be a consistent part of what I do in the future, I should maybe research something that would help with its use.

  He ended up with the same idea he had at iron rank: Body enhancement.

  Simply, if Valar ever wanted to use his fire at least somewhat freely, he would need to be able to withstand and heal its effects on himself. He was pretty damn sure that pure healing wouldn’t be enough either, as he hadn’t been able to create any sort of balance at iron rank. While his life magic would improve, so had his fire…

  “Hmmm…” Valar hummed. “I need to know about the basic healing spells, since I work in a team, but…”

  “But?” Livira raised an eyebrow. “Plant magic, disease curing, and even animal husbandry are options-.”

  “Body enhancement.”

  The librarian’s other eyebrow joined her first. “Body enhancement? You do know that it’s quite frowned upon by many other healers?”

  Valar grinned. “I know.”

  “You know what… I think I like you, Valar. I think I like you a lot.”

  Borrowing from the library could be done in two ways. The first method, preferred by most of the student body, was taking a book out of the library and reading it in their dorm or elsewhere in the academy. The books were still magically tracked by enchantments engraved in their covers, preventing their transportation outside of the academy grounds, but there was some more freedom in where you wanted to read. The second option, preferred by Livira, was that you read in the library. This method, while providing less freedom, also removed much of the responsibility from the student’s hands. There was also less chance for unfortunate accidents and damage to the books. You did not want to damage the books.

  Valar opted for the latter option, gaining the librarian’s favor. She searched for his books on the stone tablet in her hand, and gave him directions to the correct shelves.

  “The book on basic healing spells that will probably help you the most is on shelf AB, row 42 Mind you, there were lots of options to choose with this one, but I picked one that I thought suited your purposes the most. As for the book on body enhancement… Hmm, let me see..”

  The old librarian tapped on the tablet for a few seconds with a frown on her face. “Oh, there it is! It’s further along than I thought. shelf FG, row 98. Wow, that truly is really far back. Body enhancers are rare…”

  Valar wrote the directions in his notebook and thanked the woman, setting out on his grand search for two simple books. He took his time, wandering around the isles, just taking in the ambience. The smell of leather covers and old paper was all consuming, bringing a smile to his face.

  As he turned to the shelf of the first book, Valar marveled at the sheer silence of the hall. There was no chatter, nor were there footsteps, apart from his own. It’s peaceful, but I’m not sure if it’s too peaceful. I wouldn’t want to live here, I think.

  Still, it was a nice respite from the noise of the city and academy. Good for studying. No distractions!

  Valar found his first book relatively easily. AB was the second column of shelves from the left side of the room, and row 42 could be found near its halfway point. The book itself had leather covers and the title: Healing at bronze rank: Tips and tricks to become a healer your team will cherish!

  Oh, it’s written from an adventurer perspective? That’s nice! Valar had feared that he would need to go over countless options for infirmary healers before finding something that worked for him, but Livira had saved him from needless hassle. I’ll have to thank her later.

  Finding the second book… That was harder.

  First of all, column FG was not as easy to find as AB. At first, Valar wandered around aimlessly, but he quickly realized that the library was actually split up in two sections. The first section was reserved for letters A through D, and the second section—much farther back—was meant for E through G. Realizing his mistake, Valar wandered over to column FG, and…

  What the fuck?

  Chaos. Total chaos reigned over the column of shelves, random books stacked upon the floor and on top of the shelving. This is a total mess… At least I found the right column.

  He walked over to row 98, which was of course at the back of the massive column of shelves, grumbling as he needed to step over haphazardly strewn books. Why is this section so badly managed? Row AB and all the others I’ve seen were in pristine condition!

  Soon, he reached the row he was supposed to look at. It was as chaotic as the ones around it, so he got to work. Valar read one book title after another as he looked for his book on body enhancement, but as he kept looking, his frustration kept rising.

  Finally, after going over tens of books, Valar let out a relieved sigh. There it is…

  How to stay alife: A compendium of body enhancement spells for bronze rank life mages.

  Really? A pun? Valar looked at the worn-down book with disgust on his face, almost tossing it over his shoulder immediately. Could a book with a pun in its title really hold anything of note? He was highly skeptical, to say the least…

  He still took it with him, of course. Even though the title was childish and the cover was worn, what of it? It was essentially the only option he had, after all.

  He carried a book in each arm, wandering through the library. He walked through the shelves, marveling at the sheer quantity of written material around him. There were texts about all affinities, combat, history and even something like gardening. One shelf he passed was purely devoted to research papers from magical researchers, the results of countless different experiments free to peruse.

  I’ll definitely visit this place again… I’ll visit as many times as I can!

  To make the experience even more enjoyable, the front wall of the library was devoted to comfortable sofas and reading tables with magical lights. Valar took one, noticing a couple other students sitting at their own sofas far away. I’m not totally alone, after all. Good, this place deserves to be used.

  Valar took a deep breath. Focus! I’ve got things to do. Books to read…

  He opened the book on healing spells, and started to read.