Thanks to their expedited travel due to her ladylove’s constant practice with lithorica, they had been able to reach Knight’s Landing in just a little less than two weeks. This much was expected, but because of it, they departed on the last possible day to maximize their stay at the Valasela Estate. Two whole months of holidays were a lot, but having a month of total travel was also a bit too much.

  “I cannot wait until you finally have enough resilience to make the flight to the estate in one go,” Christie whispered to her girlfriend as the students slowly gathered in class for the first day of the third year.

  “Same, Christie, same,” Agatha sighed, almost slumping on the desk. “I love the estate, but depths, these weeks of travel – month for the round trip – really gnaws on me. I cannot simply allow one month of my whole year to go to waste every year!”

  Her ladylove’s indignation only appeared cute to the redhead. “I would not say the journey has been a waste. I have been training lapiloquia whenever we stopped for a break, and you have done so the whole journey, mock sapphire. I do not know how you have enough mental resilience to carry Fran?ois for the whole journey.”

  Even if the blonde was underplaying her contribution, Agatha had been carrying Fran?ois on her big sapphire for the whole journey. The mock turtle had only touched the ground whenever the horses were not moving, and that was only a third of the time. And even then, in the time she should have used to rest, the petite lithorist was practicing even more with the Control and Shape commands, as apparently those were the most demanding ones mentally-wise, even if they were the first ones children learned.

  “Well, I will need it if I am to carry us both for the next years,” Agatha made reference to the flying contraption her dearest father had shown them.

  Christie had hoped that using lithorica and lapiloquia strategically, she might be able to create a weightless vessel to be hosted on the contraption with her sea of stones, but alas, neither of her Agatecraft disciplines were quite there just yet. She could only let her inner sea flow out for half an hour before it poured free and painfully out of her. And that was at her maximum and optimum. Not even close for a long and sustained flight that was bound to exhaust her even if she were only a passenger. I need to train even harder, her ladylove’s single-minded training didn’t demotivate her. If anything, it made Christie push herself far harder. She wouldn’t feel satisfied until she was puking blood, and even then, it might be too little. For a long time now, she had thoughts of being the perfect girlfriend, but no, she also had another thought.

  To be the perfect lapiloquist.

  She might not know even herself what that might mean, but that thought was partially shaped by Agatha’s dream of becoming the world’s best lithorist. And because as the perfect girlfriend she couldn’t seize her girlfriend’s dream, she opted for another one. A parallel one.

  Perhaps perpendicular, as a ‘perfect’ lapiloquist wasn’t quite the ‘world’s best’ lapiloquist. Once again, whatever it might mean. She was just guiding herself on vibes, and because it sounded right.

  Her thoughts came to an abrupt end as a powerful clap reverberated across the class. Well, not quite as powerful as I have seen them, Christie ruminated. Miss Diorite definitely made a more powerful one at the start of the holiday season. However it may be, the strenuous sound announced the entry of their teacher, René Dago.

  She had never confronted the man about it, but the more she looked at him, the more he looked like her dearest father. But there was still something wrong with him. For better or worse, dearest father is… grounded. But René… I do not know exactly why I feel like this, but he is unmoored by the same restrictions. If she had failed to confront him about his relationship with the Valasela patriarch, Christie would definitely not confront him over a gut feeling.

  “It has been a while since we have seen each other,” the black-uniformed teacher said as he sat on top of his desk. “As always, I hope that this holiday has been productive for you all. So let us start with the usual questions. Who has reached the Third Stratum?”

  Most students in the classroom raised their hands, barring the usual outlier that was Christie – which still hurt her not being like the others – there were also a handful of students who hadn’t raised their hands. Their teacher raised a brow at that.

  “Get them down,” the class obeyed at his words. “It is not mandatory for you all to reach the Third Stratum just yet, but I hope you have a reason for not having done so. And I have an idea of what it might have been. Now, who among you have all of their agates on the Second Stratum or higher?”

  Yet again, Christie failed to raise her hand – if anything, this goal was ever harder for her than the Third Stratum – but now some of the ones who hadn’t raised their hands had them up. Notable, Shayla was one who had done both.

  “Quantity is a quality of its own,” Teacher Dago said. “Both getting all agates to the same Strata or having a spearhead are valid options in lithorica. But we have now a new discipline to worry about, do we not?” He smiled. “Everyone who has unlocked lapiloquia, raise your hands.”

  A bit less than half the class raised their hands now. A surprising amount, but what was more surprising was Christie having hers up. She couldn’t stop smiling. She had felt awfully alone during the previous year’s round of questions, blanketed in a thorny coldness, yet now she was part of a group. And a select group at that! René Dago smiled like her as he looked at her raised hand. But if there was one person who smiled more than they did, it was Agatha.

  Ah, my cute ladylove! Instead of gelid, she felt incinerated by the radiant smile of her girlfriend in this round of questions. It took even more willpower than holding her inner sea to not assault her in the middle of the class.

  Huh? Christie managed to relax herself as she saw that one of the classmates with their hand raised was Shayla. So sixteen agates, all in the Second Stratum, barring at least one on the Third, and lapiloquia… You are becoming quite a menace. The redhead had had an eye on the dark-skinned girl for a while now, after certain developments, but now her sights were locked on her. Friend… or rival?

  Her thoughts came to an abrupt end as René Dago clapped. Déjà vu, Christie mused. The class also fell silent as some whispers had risen, but she hadn’t paid them any attention.

  “That takes care of the questions I am mandated to ask as a teacher, but…” He jumped out of the desk and smiled in a vulpine manner. “I have another one. Who here has gone beyond the Third Stratum?”

  His eyes lingered for a moment on Cristobal Echevarria, but he quickly looked away when the noble boy failed to raise his hand. Curious… The gesture had been so clear that even Christie noticed it. But as everyone had expected, only one hand had went up for that question.

  “Ah, yes, Miss Malachite. Your jump to the Fourth Stratum mid-fight was certainly awe-inspiring, but have you been able to take your progress even further?”

  “Yes!” Her ladylove announced proudly as she recalled her compacted sapphires and instead summoned a whole one midair, high up due to the classroom’s tall ceiling. The head-sized perfect sphere was clue enough, but she still stated it for everyone’s ears. “I have reached the Fifth Stratum!”

  René Dago’s answer was an impressed whistle. “It looks like it is time for a bit of an anecdote. As you may know, class, standard soldiers reach on average the Fourth Stratum. Now, elite soldiers do not fare much better as, on average, they are on the Fifth Stratum. You may ask yourselves why that small of an increase, but the answer is quite simple: lapiloquia. You need to focus on two disciplines, whilst the rest only on one. If a common soldier has a remarkable affinity to lapiloquia, then they will likely be ordered to stand down on lithorica. A military engineer – who usually are the expert lapiloquists – tends to have very low Strata as their focus went fully to lapiloquia.”

  He calmly strode to the slate at the front of the classroom and made some crude drawings, more diagrams than anything else.

  “Lithorica has a limited time span to grow, but that is not the same as lapiloquia. Lapiloquist that grow old tend to be scarier than lithorists by virtue of having decades to expand their power rather than years. But time gets us all, and if anything, the human body decays faster than the mind. The average age for a soldier is twenty, and they usually retire at twenty-five. But the military engineer? They retire at fifty. And there is this incredible sweet spot of youthfulness and experience around forty-something where they are at the apex of their power. A bit more than a half-century ago, the Shining Knight brought a single squadron of expert and aged lapiloquists here, in Knight’s Ascent, and created a whole military outpost – or rather, city – in a day for a war. The houses they made, almost as an afterthought, remain to this day, as you might know.”

  René Dago then put the chalk down and summoned one of his agates. He had shaped it to be perfectly spherical. Just like how it was required for the Gate command or Agatha’s big sapphire default state.

  “Now you might ask yourselves: ‘Interesting anecdote, teacher, but what does this have to do with high Strata?’. And to that I answer: now you have a solid image of the might of a lapiloquist at their best. But what about the lithorist? That is, unfortunately, far harder to quantify. Lapiloquia is a straightforward discipline; the more rock you move, the more powerful you are. Simple as that. But lithorica is open; there is no way to quantify power. Even the number of agates and their Strata fail at that. There is no way to say who the strongest lithorist is.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  That statement generated a lot of squall as everyone knew since they were young who the strongest lithorist was. Their teacher clapped to silence the class.

  “Of course, if one were so overwhelming in their number of agates and their Strata, they would be the world’s strongest lithorist. Do you want to know what the highest Strata of the Shining Knight is?” The whole class nodded viciously, Christie included, which made the teacher grin. “Eighth Stratum. That is the highest Cristos has reached. And that is after a century of living. A level few in history ever reached.”

  The eyes of her classmates shone as if commanded by Light, but Christie understood a different message than the rest. She didn’t know exactly if it was because of the choice of words or the tone of their teacher, but she got the feeling that Eight Stratum was a spearhead instead of his whole arsenal. The Shining Knight was known for his quantity of agates rather than quality.

  A man who had enough agates to make armor out of them.

  It sounded pathetic when compared to Christie in that sense, but considering she hadn’t gotten anywhere close to the Second Stratum, let alone Eighth, the difference was just insurmountable. But simultaneously inspiring.

  As Christie turned her head to face her ladylove, she realized Agatha understood the message too. Agatha has so far increased her Strata by two each year, and even if her pace halves now, she will still reach that Eighth Stratum. And if what Terráquea and dearest father have told us is true, then she might increase two Strata beyond that… Would a hypothetical Tenth Stratum make her girlfriend the world’s best lithorist? Christie wasn’t so sure, but what she knew for a fact was that her ladylove was burning hotter than ever before.

  She was sitting silently on her seat and unmoving, but Christie wasn’t fooled. The redhead could feel the heat and the vibrations in her very heart. Agatha was radiating far more potently than the crown in the heavens at this very moment.

  Ah, yes… Christie thought with yearning eyes. Burn, burn brighter…

  Then once again, she was cast away from her fantasies by a loud clap. I am going to murder this man, she scowled in annoyance. Can a girl not fantasize in peace?

  “But that is enough motivational speech,” Teacher Dago said to the class, completely unbeknownst to Christie’s gathering rage. “As you have all reached the third year of your five-year instruction, it is time for you to choose your electives!”

  As soon as he said that, papers started flying from his desk and across the classroom. The grey-eyed soldier, of course, had used his agates to mobilize the papers and then rain them on the students. But if lithorists had something, it was good reflexes and reaction time. Most snatched the papers on the fly. Well, not Christie. Her strengths lay elsewhere, but her sweet girlfriend snatched an additional paper for her and offered it to her with a smile, which the redhead lovingly reciprocated.

  “As you eye the papers on the available electives, it is a good time to mention that the last year of the academy is more of a long military exercise. So this year and the fourth will be your second half. Furthermore, with the electives you chose, you will specialize more in a given field. Electives are limited and interchangeable with years – they will not run away, so do not worry – except for a select handful that are either continuations or reserved for fourth years. Maybe you only need to pick two, but that only means that your choices are more significant.”

  The electives in the paper weren’t the stuff people would dream about, or that was Christie's opinion, as she read the boring titles of ‘Advanced Lithorica’ and ‘Advanced Lapiloquia’. In her mind, those were just more Agatecraft classes, only that specialized in those certain disciplines. But boring didn’t mean useful or even interesting, which couldn’t be said for other electives as ‘Strategy and Logistics’ and ‘Commandeering’. Anything that was military-related or adjacent just made the redhead roll her eyes. There were at this moment only two reasons why she was at the Skyscraper Academy, and neither were related to a military career.

  But there were some hidden gems in that limited selection of a list. Namely ‘Military Engineering’ and ‘Agatecrafting’.

  Now, that first elective did have military in the name, but the description next to the name and René Dago’s previous words revealed to her that it had nothing to do with the military, but just lapiloquia applied to engineering. Or the reverse, engineering applied to lapiloquia. Perhaps both.

  But Agatecrafting… It wasn’t a topic that was normally spoken about, but everyone knew about Agatecrafting, the act of pushing commands into agate veins. And as tempted as she was to sign up for that elective, Christie got hit by a reality check as she read the warning next to the elective’s name.

  This elective requires a minimum of a Third Stratum agate at the third year and Fourth at the fourth year. No exceptions will be made. Train harder next time.

  The last sentence was wholly unnecessary and it just made Christie’s blood boil. I cannot physically train harder! She wanted to scream with all her might, but common sense pinned her to the ground and impeded her from doing so. Hmph, not like I am here to learn Agatecrafting. But it made her unbearably sore to not even be able to do so. The concept of giving permanent commands to foreign agates did scratch a certain part of her brain.

  That raises a question, though… Christie raised a hand as the rest of the class was still reading the paper. Being a bookworm had advantages, for she had already read the paper thrice.

  “Yes, Miss Valasela?” He acknowledged her with an up nod.

  “Would Agatecrafting be a discipline of Agatecraft?”

  “That…” René Dago smacked his lips. “I do not think I can respond to that question correctly. Just like when you ask a scholar about the difference between rock and stone and you might get different answers, the same occurs here. I, personally, do not consider it a different discipline as it depends on lithorica – and even lapiloquia to an extent – to work. But others, especially the Agatecrafting teacher, would say otherwise. And now that you have brought up the subject, if anyone plans to take Agatecrafting, I recommend waiting for the fourth year, as the introduction is rather slow if you start at the third year, but everyone is free to decide their path. I recommend Advanced Lithorica and Lapiloquia, but you already know that.”

  Reviewing the paper for what felt like the ninth time, Christie decided that her only real options were Advanced Lapiloquia and Military Engineering. The better my grasp of Agatecraft as a whole is, the stronger my grip on my sea of stones is. It is better if I focus on the one discipline I can do something about. Perhaps they were only minutes now, but Christie dreamt of the day when they were hours she could live with an unrestricted inner sea.

  “I think I will choose these,” Christie pointed at the paper as she talked to her ladylove. “How about you?”

  “Hmm, I think I am morally obliged to pick up Advanced Lithorica considering I am the best lithorist of the class, but I am not sure what to pick for the second elective,” Agatha mused. “I would not like to spend classes without you either…” Without a second thought, Christie stepped on her toes. “Ah! What was that for?” The petite lithorist shouted in a murmur.

  “That was because you were being a dummy, mock sapphire,” the redhead smiled at the blonde. “This is our path, what marks our future and proficiencies. We see each other every hour of the day. Can you really not depart from me for a handful of hours?” Her ladylove whispered something, but she didn’t catch it. “What did you say?”

  “Uhm…” Her cute girlfriend blushed and slightly twitched as she fidgeted with her fingers. “I said that… I c-cannot do without you for-for a handful of hours.”

  “Ah…!” Christie let out a drowned yelp. A stark contrast of what was going on inside her head. I want to eat you! I want to eat you! I want to eat you! I want to eat you! I want to eat you! I want to eat you! I want to eat you! I want to eat you!

  The concept of eating the world was one Christie had abandoned a while ago as it was too excessive, but right now the concept of eating her girlfriend looked like the only logical outcome. It was at this point that she noticed how much of a mental effort keeping her sea of stones inside her, because she was trembling as her body fought her common sense and mind.

  She could feel the thousands upon thousands of tons inside of her being tremble even though she had the Sleep command active. How can you be this cruel of a seductress? You are making me go insane!

  It was probably the hardest effort Christie had made. Every sparring, every training, the battle against the behemoth, unlocking lapiloquia… All paled into comparison over the megalithic effort that was not being a despicable human being right then and there.

  Her body stopped trembling with a long exhalation. Barely a handful of seconds had gone by and she hadn’t moved from her seat, yet the redhead was utterly exhausted from calming her inner sea.

  “Er…” Her adorable ladylove murmured. “A-are you-you alright, Christie?”

  “In pristine conditions,” she answered with a composed and stone-solid tone. She had never felt more lucid in her life than now. “I was just thinking that I loved you very much.” Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. The nouveau riche said that part unspoken as she smiled at her. “You should not make that sacrifice for only a couple of hours each day. Just choose whatever electives speak to you the most.”

  “I… see…” Agatha looked at her straight in the eyes, and Christie felt naked for a moment, as if the petite lithorist could see inside of her through her eyes, see the true, horrible being that hid behind them.

  But then she smiled and the tall lapiloquist was fulgurated by the truest of radiances. A monster purified by a touch of light. Ah, yes, both the problem and the answer. I cannot do without you any longer, Agatha. But at the same time, I can go forever if you are alongside me. All the novels Christie had read all her life felt like nonsensical garbage when she saw the true purity she felt with her ladylove. The feelings were quite literally destroying her, but that damage was the most fulfilling and satisfying feeling she had ever felt in her life.

  “So,” Christie inquired with a smile as she tried to ignore everything, ignore herself, “what are the electives that resonate with you the most?”

  “I would say… Advanced Lithorica that I have mentioned before and…” Her ladylove scanned the paper again. “Agatecrafting.”

  “Really?” The redhead raised a brow.

  “I did not know you were interested in Agatecrafting.”

  “I cannot say I am, but all the other options…”

  “…are a bit lackluster.” Christie finished the sentence with a giggle as she covered her mouth. “I understand. Many of the other limited options are focused on military subjects or lapiloquia, so it makes sense that you focus on other lithorica alternatives.”

  “Yeah, that is kind of all I have going on me right now,” Agatha added with a self-deprecating giggle.

  “Mock sapphire,” the redhead snapped with a dry tone.

  “Yes?”

  “If I were to not just name everything that I love about you, but everything that you can do too, I would not finish by the time the sun has set,” Christie spoke with complete and utter confidence. Her tone wasn’t subjective, but objective.

  “Oh, you are such a dummy doll,” the blonde giggled.

  “Oh, you do not believe me?” The nouveau riche snickered and puffed her chest. “For starters, I love how…”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. There is no need to do so…” The seamstress pressed a hand against Christie’s in a panic.

  You did not even allow me to state a single point. How adorable… Christie giggled internally as she took delight in her ladylove’s gathering flush. She knew better than to say that aloud, because if Agatha got any redder, they would attract the whole attention of the class, for a student would’ve become a carnelian.

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