Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 48

Three days later.

*

“Xiya, what are you thinking about? You’ve been lost in thought for ages.”

You Xia’s voice pulled Cynthia back to herself.

She set down her quill and leaned against the sofa. “…Nothing. I’m just a little tired.”

“Then rest properly for a while.” You Xia straightened the magic-circle diagrams covering half the table and muttered, “You practice for sixteen hours out of every twenty-four. It would be strange if you *weren’t* tired.”

Cynthia smiled. “Teacher You Xia is personally taking such pains to instruct me. How would I dare slack off?”

“Hmph, hmph.”

By now, You Xia sincerely admired her perseverance.

She could endure hardship and possessed exceptional comprehension. If she had belonged to a high Sequence, she might one day have claimed a place on the continental rankings.

What a pity…

Why did she have to possess the lowest Sequence?

You Xia sighed.

Cynthia had no idea what he was thinking. Reclining on the sofa, she tilted her head slightly, and her gaze drifted unconsciously to the flowerpot on the balcony.

Her thoughts scattered.

Three days had passed since their loss to Heaven’s Judgment Team. The academy competition no longer had anything to do with Eclipse Moon Team.

Griffin, their direct mentor, had vanished again. No one knew what he was doing. That left them free to arrange their own time.

After returning from the infirmary, Cynthia had not left her dorm for three days.

At night, she soaked in marrow-cleansing baths as You Xia instructed, washing away more toxins and impurities. During the day, she formally studied magic arrays under him.

You Xia truly possessed profound knowledge of magic circles, and his explanations were excellent.

Thanks to him, she had mastered dozens of different types in only three days.

Everything was perfectly normal.

Except… Richter’s uncharacteristic behavior that day continued to bother her.

He had spouted a string of nonsense, then looked as sullen as if he had suffered some enormous grievance.

He had even seemed a little angry.

Mm. Perhaps because his emotions had been running high, the tips of his ears, his neck, and even his face had flushed after he said those incomprehensible things.

The sight of him fleeing in panic afterward had been rather amusing.

Instead of a puppy, he had looked more like a Persian cat with every hair standing on end.

Was that because of his excessively beautiful face?

Even his unreasonable sulking had seemed a little cute.

…Wait.

Cute?

Realizing where her thoughts had gone, Cynthia snapped back to herself.

She remained frozen for quite a while, then covered her face with one hand.

“…I’ve gone mad,” she murmured.

What sort of nonsense was she thinking?

When had this started?

Cute, her foot.

It was not as though she were staging some melodrama where she talked herself into falling for someone…

Fine, the man was handsome. Those ice-blue eyes were absurdly beautiful as well… But however she looked at it, that hardly made him *cute*.

Come to think of it, had she ever allowed a man or woman to cross her boundaries so casually?

No.

She was not particularly averse to physical contact, but she had known Richter for less than two months. When had she grown accustomed to his closeness—so accustomed that she let him cling to her?

Was she truly the sort of person who lost all caution over a pretty face?

“…”

Expressionless, Cynthia sat upright and resumed practicing magic circles.

Apparently, spending too much time with lunatics had infected her with their madness.

She needed to calm down.

*

Beside her, You Xia watched her sigh, frown, and then abruptly turn solemn again.

And then… she threw herself back into study, intently breaking down the spell structures and spirit runes of a magic circle.

He could not make sense of it.

What exactly was wrong with her?

She did not look as though she had encountered some impossible spell problem.

You Xia thought for a moment, then remembered her practice goal from several days ago.

Was she dissatisfied with her progress?

The more he considered it, the more likely it seemed.

“Xiya, you can try the two-star Spirit-Submergence Magic Circle now. You may be able to complete it.”

“All right.” Cynthia had so many things to consider these past few days that she had nearly forgotten.

At his reminder, she tried drawing the two-star circle again.

Perhaps the marrow cleansing had strengthened her magic, while days of relentless practice had also improved her mental strength. This attempt was not as difficult as before.

She was still a little short on magic.

After three failures, Cynthia considered the problem, took out a potion that temporarily amplified magic, and drank it.

Then she tried again.

This time, she succeeded.

Light flared. Cynthia lay back on the sofa and allowed herself to sink into unconsciousness.

Would she enter the same person’s mind again?

Surely coincidence would not carry her there a third time.

*

It did not.

Cynthia had barely entered the consciousness space and had not yet seen it clearly when its owner rejected and expelled her.

She was forced awake.

“…”

Cynthia stared at the white ceiling without expression.

Judging by the distinctive hair color and physique she had glimpsed, she had probably intruded into Eli’s consciousness this time.

His rejection was impressively strong.

She had not seen what his consciousness space looked like, but she had successfully completed a two-star circle.

That alone was a leap forward.

Unfortunately, she had been expelled too quickly to test whether she could use magic inside.

Should she try again?

Dreams and consciousness spaces were both subconscious landscapes. Collectively, they were known as illusory realms, or illusory worlds.

Everything within an illusory world was a projection of the heart, which meant its scenery could reveal the owner’s inner self.

Only high-grade circles of five stars or above could lock onto a precise target.

Beginners like them naturally could not manage that, nor had they ever seriously considered it.

Over the past few days, Cynthia had sensed her teammates’ conscious forms wandering into her own dreams or consciousness space while they practiced similar circles.

The circles expired quickly, so none remained for more than a few minutes.

Cynthia could recall part of what occurred during those visits.

The “Cynthia” inside her illusory world did nothing but sleep. The surroundings were eternally white.

Whenever her four teammates accidentally entered, each behaved as if they had agreed in advance. They simply stood still and waited for the circle to expire and send them away.

This was the first time Cynthia had entered a teammate’s consciousness.

She still had no clue who owned the illusory world she had visited on the first two occasions.

Given the distance covered by her circle, it had to be either a teammate on the same floor or another student from her academy living one floor above or below.

Only ten people lived on those two floors. Seven were girls and could be excluded.

The three boys’ eye colors did not match, so they could be ruled out as well.

The only person who met both conditions was Sangmo.

Yet his reactions did not seem right…

Well, she had nothing else to do. If she drew the circle often enough, she was bound to enter that person’s consciousness again.

Then she could simply confirm it herself.

Constantly dwelling on the question was irritating. Cynthia decided to resolve it first.

After dozens more attempts, she finally got her wish and successfully entered that familiar realm of darkness.

But compared with the sinister scene she had witnessed twice before, this space appeared to have undergone a strange change…