9 Aftermath

According to my brother later that night, I was among the last to wake up after the incident that happened.

Surprising, as I had collapsed from exhaustion and not from corruption from the miasma. I should have known that splitting my focus like that was not good, but I still had no choice but the channel the aria after already exhausting my mental energy by simultaneously casting invisibility, flying, and defensive spells one after the other.

As I didn't have my cloak that would assist in burdens with concentrating on different spells, such exhaustion was not something I had felt for many years. When I had reincarnated into this world, nothing I physically held at the time came with, only my knowledge.

I still, however, could not figure out any methods for communicating with anyone from home. I tried contacting Therese, but it led to a complete dead end, with no sign that I had even gotten through.

I didn't even have any idea what was happening to my body back home. As far as I know, only my consciousness was carried over, and my physical body was nowhere to be seen.

Before I can make any further decisions about what to do in the near future, the most important thing is still to look straight in front of me. While the overall goal is to figure out exactly how this "new world" works in relation to my "home world," looking straight ahead is still the most important thing.

When I had defeated that darkness forme yesterday, it was a simple matter to tell that it wasn't very intelligent.

Lower intelligence meant that it was controlled by something. At least thinking by the logic of matters that happen back home, the darkness formes had different ranks, with the higher-ranked formes having the most intelligence.

We ranked them similarly to our mage-ranking system, with the infantry gruntmen at the bottommost D-rank, all the way up in threat level to the leaders at S-rank.

The thing we had warred against years ago was a classified S-rank monster. Fitting that we had lost a large portion of our firepower, unfortunate as it was.

If I had to classify the forme that had shown up yesterday, there was no possible way it would be higher than B-rank since the aria managed to destroy it so well. Although it could be said that darkness would be weak against light magics, it's not a complete stretch to say that it would have been far more difficult to rid of it if it were even close to A-rank. If it were even touching on the boundaries of the S-rank, the aria would have been, for the most part, useless.

It didn't seem to have much intelligence, only a large amount of miasma. As this was not something I had encountered previously, I couldn't say for sure what rank it would be placed at.

My best guess would be the C-rank, since the aria had completely obliterated it. If it were A-rank, it would only be largely injured, and if it were B-rank, it wouldn't have been repelled by the barrier so many times.

Regardless of that, it was still a close call, since it had almost stopped the channeling process. I had been planning to jump out of the way, but I knew in my head that it would be possible to finish on time, so I didn't take the risk that would come with even partially splitting my attention.

It seemed that it had shown up very specifically to show its powers. I was unsure of why exactly it chose a place so close to magic-users, specifically a Magic Academy, but that wasn't my decision. If it wanted to show off, shouldn't it pick a more isolated village, unless they were completely certain of their victory?

But what would the S-rank threat be planning here?

I was suddenly jerked out of my thought process, in the infirmary when I heard the clean clip of shoes walk in.

"Mr... Eustice?" I asked.

Ah, right. He should have been back at the school as well, taking care of the students in case harm came further this way.

"Yes, Miss Mendoza," he said, stepping in, closing the door behind him. He seemed somewhat nervous, fidgeting with his sleeve as he turned to face me.

"Is anything the matter? Why come see me?" I asked.

"Ehm... Miss Mendoza," he started. "W-would you mind speaking in my office?"

"Well..." I said. "I wouldn't mind but we're speaking now, are we not?"

"I-it's important," he said.

I shrugged, getting out of bed to follow him.

On the way, we passed by Esther Cohen, A-class' favorite Practicals instructor despite her somewhat harsh nature.

She's definitely had it out for me since the first day of her class yesterday. My price to pay for showing off in the Battle Royales, I suppose.

She called on me to demonstrate and without warning, we started an unofficial duel. Me, getting into fights at the Academie de Magie?

Impossible. Who knew?

In the end, the first Freshman A-class Practicals could be considered a failure. She spent the entire time block trying to get a good hit in on me, while I spent the entire time block exhausted, completely torn between completely destroying her and losing early on purpose.

In the end, the bell rang, but she still wouldn't let me off, so I ended up getting hit with a fire blast on purpose so the rest of the class could leave.

Payback for showing off in Magic Circle Computation? Maybe. Not a single one cared about my state of defeat afterwards.

When we passed her today, however, she was limping, and I could feel that the miasma had reached her bones due to her collapse at the scene.

I fuzzily tried to recall her there, but Wilfred dragged me off to his office before I could say anything to her.

I furrowed my eyebrows as he sat down at his desk after ensuring the lock on the room was secure.

"So," I started.

"About Ms. Cohen," he said. "She was one of the first to the scene along with the rest of our school's top fighters. All of them are in similar condition now. I believe that Miss Arvras suffered the most, and is still unconscious."

Did the miasma penetrate that deeply? The Purification Song should have cut straight through it! Or did I fail to channel enough energy because I was already exhausted at that point?

"Is anything currently known about why they are in such a state?" I asked carefully.

"I was hoping you'd know, Miss Mendoza," he said plainly.

"And you were hoping that, because...?"

"Well, you aren't from this world, aren't you?"

My first instinct at a critical juncture such as this would be to panic, but that was the exact opposite of what I needed to do right now.

"And what makes you think that?" I questioned.

"Your magic."

"As I'm sure you're aware, my parents are-"

"I know full well who your parents are," he cut me off.

"Yes, of course, Gera-"

"No," he said, interrupting me again. "You're the daughter of Elaine and Christensen Mendoza, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry?" I asked, pretending to be confused still. "The only parents I've known are Geraldt and Aprilynne."

"Stop lying to me, Candace. I know you, even though you might not remember me."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Eustice, I was under the impression that I had never met you before class on Monday."

I really hadn't, that last part really was not a lie. Even if he came from my home world, I don't remember anyone by the name of "Wilfred Eustice," so it was useless.

"Well, putting aside potential timeline differences..." he muttered.

"Did you say something?" I asked, quickly picking up on his mistake.

"It would be stranger for me to not know you!" he burst out.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Eustice, I truly do not follow your line of thinking."

"Candace Mendoza, youngest leader the Society of Mages has known, taking over the position at twenty-four after the death of Erhardt Mahler," he said.

"I'm sorry, sir, I'm only sixteen years of age. Besides, what's this 'Society of Mages' you speak of? And Erhardt Mahler is alive and well as dean of this school, last on checked on Monday."

The only possibility here was that he was from the future timeline in my home world, as he seems to know me from the age of twenty-four, though I knew I was very clearly twenty-one in the past timeline. But even then, it's not impossible for there to be yet another timeline where I become leader.

"Ugh, that's exactly something you would say..." he muttered.

"Excuse me?" I asked again curiously.

"Nothing, nothing," he seemed to have calmed down.

"I should start from the beginning," he said after a short pause. "My name is Wilfred Eustice, and I come from what could be known as a 'different world,' from the year 2034."

If we really were from the same world, he was eight years ahead, since I recalled it being 2026 when I left.

"...and that's really all I know," he finished. "I have no idea why the two of us are here, or why we seem to be from disjointed timelines."

I quirked an eyebrow at that one, but as I didn't have the information to refute him, I refrained from saying anything more.

"Well, Mr. Eustice," I said. "I'm not quite sure what to make of your story. As far as I can tell, I've lived here in Tervas my entire life."

"Oh," he said. "That definitely explains how a complete dunce in the various topics of magic managed to score in the top of her class and her sudden proficiency in water magics, particularly freezing magics."

"... As I expected, it's been too obvious, huh?" I suddenly blurt out.

"I'm the only one that would know," he shrugged. "I'm sure everyone else will continue to buy the whole amnesia story."

I rolled my eyes. "Really now, if you knew so far ahead of time, could you have not called on me in class on Monday?"

"Nope," he said with a slight pop. "I was instructed to by someone."

"Why does future me have to be so smart? I can't keep up!" I said, exasperated.

"And there, we've let a bit too much slip," he said, suddenly appearing in front of me.

A vanish step spell, he really was from the Society!

"I'm sorry about this, Miss Mendoza," he said. "But the future you didn't want you to piece everything together quite so quickly."

I felt his hand on my head, and before I could pull a protective spell I always kept prepared from my pocket, I blanked out and collapsed.