Lucid sat in the lecture hall, slumped in his seat, staring at the wooden desk in front of him. The academy uniform felt strange on his body. The blue shirt was too stiff, the tie too tight around his neck, and the blazer made his shoulders feel boxed in. He tugged at the collar for what felt like the hundredth time.
'How did I even get here?' he thought, his mind sluggish with confusion and disinterest. 'A couple days ago I was wandering around the kingdom, just looking at buildings and streets. Now I'm a student. How does that even happen?'
"You look quite dashing in that uniform, Lucid," Alice's voice chimed in his mind, a teasing lilt to her words.
"I wish I could also wear them..."
'Oh really,' Lucid replied shortly. 'I thought maidens wore formal white robes and acted all benevolent.'
Alice laughed, the sound like wind chimes in his head. "My, my. Such sass. If I had a body, I would look quite good in one of these uniforms, don't you think?"
Lucid didn't respond. He didn't have the energy. The whole situation felt wrong. He had no records. No background. No proof he was a noble or had any right to be here. Yet here he sat, in a lecture hall full of rich kids who looked at him like he was a stray dog that had wandered in from the street.
'How did I even get enrolled?' he wondered, his suspicion growing like a weed in the back of his mind. 'I'm no noble. I have no records. Yet Frederick just... made it happen.'
Frederick. The young knight with the easy smile and the influential connections. Lucid had been growing more suspicious of him with each passing day. The way Frederick had pulled strings to get him into the academy suggested someone powerful was backing him. Someone with real influence. But Lucid didn't care enough to dig deeper. As long as he had his freedom, Frederick wasn't his problem.
'Though he could throw me back in prison if he wanted to,' Lucid thought grimly. 'He's a proto knight. Our bond is a pact. A contract. Even if he seems nice, that doesn't mean anything.'
He looked up at the professor, a man in his mid-thirties with graying hair and a voice that droned on and on about fate resonance. The professor was explaining something about threads of fate, how you could calculate probability based on the strength and color of someone's fate essence, how different techniques could measure compatibility between awakened individuals.
Lucid didn't understand a word of it. Or maybe he just didn't care.
"Fate resonance is not just about raw power," the professor was saying, pacing back and forth at the front of the room. "It is about harmony. About understanding the flow of fate and aligning yourself with it. Those who can perceive the threads of fate have an advantage in combat, in strategy, in life itself."
'What a load of garbage,' Lucid thought.
Movement to his left caught his attention. He turned his head lazily, not really in the mood to talk or converse with anyone. A girl had sat down beside him. She was smiling, all bright and happy and inviting, like they were old friends.
It was Mary. The ginger-haired girl with the oversized glasses.
'No,' Lucid thought, his internal voice flat with dread. 'First day and I wanted to not stand out. Yet here's someone trying to be friends.'
"Lucid... I suggest you don't get into any romantic relationship, especially on the first day," Alice chimed in, her tone dripping with amusement.
'This idiot!' Lucid yelled internally.
Mary was still smiling at him, completely unaware of the conversation happening in his head. She pulled out a notebook and a pen, setting them neatly on the desk. Then she glanced at him again, her smile widening.
"Hi again!" she whispered, trying to keep her voice low so the professor wouldn't notice. "I didn't know you were in the academy, I was searching for you... you seemed new, Well this is wonderful!"
"I'm glad you enrolled..."
"Yeah. Wonderful," Lucid muttered back, his tone completely flat.
Mary didn't seem to notice his lack of enthusiasm. She kept talking, her voice a quiet stream of words about classes and professors and how fate conjuring was her favorite subject but fate resonance was really important too because it helped you understand your own potential.
Lucid tuned her out. His eyes drifted down to the badge pinned to her chest. It was silver. His own badge, tucked into his blazer pocket, was also silver. He had noticed earlier that some students had black badges instead. He didn't know what the difference meant, but he'd heard whispers in the hallways. Something about true nobles and commoners. Something about who had real power and who was just allowed to be here.
'Mary has a silver badge,' he thought, his gaze lingering on the small metal pin. 'But she seems... happy. Like she doesn't notice anything wrong.'
The lecture continued. The professor wrote something on the board about probability calculations and fate thread density. Lucid didn't write any of it down. He just sat there, staring at the desk, feeling the weight of the uniform pressing down on him like a physical thing.
Then the door at the back of the lecture hall opened. Three students walked in late, their footsteps loud and deliberate. They all had black badges pinned to their chests. The professor glanced up, opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it and went back to his lecture without a word.
The three students laughed among themselves, taking seats in the back row. One of them, a tall boy with slicked-back hair, kicked his feet up on the desk in front of him.
'Interesting,' Lucid thought, watching the professor ignore them completely. 'So that's how it works here.'
Mary shifted uncomfortably beside him. Lucid noticed the way her shoulders hunched slightly, the way her smile faded just a little. She kept her eyes on her notebook, scribbling notes with more focus than before.
The lecture ended after what felt like hours. Students began packing up their things, the room filling with the sound of shuffling papers and closing books. Lucid stood up slowly, stretching his stiff shoulders. Mary stood up beside him, clutching her books to her chest.
"That was a good lecture, wasn't it?" she asked, her voice bright again.
"Sure," Lucid said.
They walked toward the door together. Lucid wasn't sure why he was walking with her. He didn't particularly want company. But she was there, and it seemed easier to just go along with it than to make an excuse.
As they stepped into the hallway, a voice called out behind them.
"Hey! Silver badge!"
Lucid turned. The tall boy with the black badge was standing a few feet away, his arms crossed, a smirk on his face. His two friends flanked him on either side, both grinning.
"Yeah, you," the boy said, pointing at Mary. "The ginger one with the ugly glasses."
Mary froze. Her grip on her books tightened, her knuckles turning white.
"What do you want?" Lucid asked, his voice flat.
The boy's eyes flicked to Lucid, then back to Mary. "I'm not talking to you, mist face. I'm talking to the silver badge."
"Her name is Mary," Lucid said.
The boy laughed. "Oh, it has a name. How cute." He took a step closer, his smirk widening. "Listen, silver badge. You're in my way. I need to get through, and you're blocking the hall."
Mary glanced around. The hallway was wide open. There was plenty of space to walk around them.
"I... I'm sorry," she stammered, taking a step to the side.
"Not good enough," the boy said. He reached out and knocked the books from her hands. They clattered to the floor, pages scattering across the polished stone.
Mary let out a small gasp, dropping to her knees to gather them up.
'Don't get involved,' Lucid told himself. 'This isn't your problem. You don't even know these people. Just walk away.'
But his body didn't move. He stood there, watching Mary scramble to pick up her books while the three boys laughed. One of them kicked a book further down the hall, and Mary had to crawl after it.
'Why are you still standing here?' Lucid asked himself. 'Why do you care?'
He didn't have an answer.
The tall boy leaned down, grabbing Mary's glasses off her face. "Wow, these are thick. Can you even see without them?" He held them up to his own eyes, squinting. "Nope. Too ugly for me."
"Please give those back," Mary said quietly, her voice shaking.
The boy tossed the glasses to one of his friends, who caught them and laughed. "Maybe if you beg."
Lucid felt something shift inside him. It wasn't anger. It wasn't some noble sense of justice. It was just irritation. A low, simmering irritation at the pointless cruelty of it all.
'I told myself I wouldn't get involved,' he thought. 'I told myself I'd keep my head down. But here I am.'
He reached out and grabbed the boy's wrist. The movement was casual, almost lazy, but his grip was firm.
"Give the glasses back," Lucid said.
The boy's smirk faltered. "What did you just say to me?"
"I said give the glasses back."