At those words, Lith finally understood Phloria’s change of heart. If on one hand he found reassuring that he wouldn’t have to stand an insipid puppy love, on the other one he felt offended.

"You sure know how to catch a man’s heart." His voice oozed sarcasm.

"I didn’t get so many insults at once since that time I tripled the healing fare to a merchant for being a rude prick."

His words made Phloria chuckle, but she didn’t let him go, nor he tried to push her away.

"I didn’t insult you. I just stated the truth. I dare you to deny any of the above."

"Well, yeah. All the more reason why you shouldn’t consider me boyfriend material. Especially after hearing my story. Despite being only twelve, I’m already a broken mess. If you want to have fun, you can have much better."

"That’s not true!" She held him even tighter, like she was trying to console him

"First, you are not my boyfriend. We have a lot of time to know each other better, let’s use it wisely. Second, you are my best friend in the academy for more than one reason. Under that cynical shell, you are kind and caring.

No matter how many times we stumbled and fell, you were always there, extending your hand to help us get back up. You even did it during the mock exam, after we treated you like cr*p and almost dragged you down with us.

You made a great impression on me back then. That’s why I joined your group later."

Aside from Solus and his family, no one had ever said such kind words to Lith.

- "I would be moved if she wasn’t entirely wrong." He thought.

"I helped them only because I understood the exam’s true goal and had to deceive them since I knew we were being observed. She’s just like Quylla, seeing someone that’s not me."

"No, she is not." Solus objected

"Phloria has spent a lot of time with you, actually talking to you, instead of staring from a distance. She has also noticed your efforts to take care of the people around you as well as your flaws."–

"Also..." Phloria added.

"Don’t think that I’m not grateful to you for still being holding me despite all the things that I said and not pointing out in retort that I’m as flat as a board."

Lith feared she was actually fishing for compliments, but Phloria started laughing at her own joke and he merrily joined her.

- "Yeah, it’s sad that with her physique a B cup is barely noticeable. With her age and height, I doubt she can improve much in that department."–

"Thank you for pretending to not have seen anything back then..."

"I don’t know what you are talking about." Lith lied through his teeth, but Phloria ignored him.

"...yet swearing on your brothers’ heads was really shameless. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?"

"A man can try." He shrugged.

"Gods, you really are like my mother." Phloria pushed him away, pretending to be angry.

"Well, ’mommy’, I hope we’ll get along. Don’t get all clingy on me, I still consider you just a friend. Try to pull a Yurial on me and I’ll kick your ass."

When Phloria calmed down, she and Lith returned to the compulsory courses’ class for the last lesson of the day. After getting everything off her chest, Phloria felt light as a feather.

On the contrary, Lith was gloomy and disappointed, but nothing of it showed on his face while they kept making small talk. Solus laughing her a*s off at his expenses surely didn’t help.

- "And here I thought that my mature charm made an impression on her. Phloria is not looking for a boyfriend, more like a father figure while she is inside the academy."

"More like a mother figure, my dear wannabe Casanova." Solus couldn’t stop laughing.

"Her words, not mine. Isn’t it better this way, though? It’s like you gained a new sister that will keep away all those gold diggers that pestered you until now. Aren’t you a little too disappointed for someone who doesn’t like Phloria as a girl?"

"It’s a matter of pride. Even if I end up rejecting a girl, being courted it’s always flattering. I much prefer being liked as a boy than coveted as a mother hen."–

When they sat down at their desks, Yurial gave him a wink and a thumbs up. In his mind, his two friends had now a new and intimate knowledge of each other. Quylla didn’t know how to face Phloria, who didn’t seem to notice her distress, greeting her with a radiant smile like she always did.

- "I’m sorry little one," Phloria thought. "but you are still twelve. You have four years before having to decide what to do with your life and you’ll probably end up working in a safe environment, like the academy or a great hospital.

I have a little more than a year for crossing off as many things as I can from my bucket list. I hope that you’ll learn from this experience. As our mother always says: when you see a good man, make your move or someone else will."–

Phloria was well aware of her adopted sister’s feelings, but she considered them nothing more than a childish crush. In all the time they had known each other, Quylla had always been passive, managing to speak to Lith only about homework and magic.

Phloria, instead, despite not knowing why his presence made her feels safe, was determined to understand her own feelings and let the answer, whatever it was, lead her way.

When the second gong resounded, a plump woman walked into the classroom. The students’ chattering stopped immediately. Their attention drawn to the newcomer.

She wasn’t a beauty nor intimidating, quite the contrary. She was in her late forties, about 1.54 metres (5’1") high with long blonde hair with shades of black that reached her hips.

Her smile was contagious and had a round, jovial face that that one would find much more fitting to a baker selling sweets rather than a powerful mage. Unlike all the other Professors, her clothes and robe weren’t pristine white but pitch black.

"Good evening, dear students. My name is Calyn Zeneff and for this trimester I’ll be your guest lecturer for the necromancy course. As you have probably noticed from my outfit, I normally teach at the Black Griffon academy.

Our institutions have agreed to an exchange programme for the Professors, so that we can learn from each other and improve the relationship between our schools."

She paced slowly through the classroom, studying the student’s reactions.

"Before starting our lesson, it’s better if I answer to all the questions that usually pop in the head of those who hear the word ’necromancy’ for the first time. No, it’s not a forbidden discipline, nor necromancers skulk during the night to kidnap infants and virgins.

"Necromancy is just a magical discipline like any other. We necromancers got our bad reputation thanks to ignorance, superstition, and some bad apples.

Remember, no matter if you are a Forgemaster or a War Mage, the only spells that are considered forbidden in the three great countries are the ones that use living humans as materials or require trading lives for power.

What I am going to teach you are the basics of necromancy, its laws and practical uses on the combat field. Because of the nature of my subject, my colleagues here at the White Griffon have nicknamed me ’the anti-Rudd’.

Just as for dimensional magic, passing this course will influence your overall grades but will not affect in any way your chances to graduate. Also, while Rudd’s subject is long and complicated, mine will be relatively short and easy.

Let’s start with a brief introduction. Because of the moral and legal implications of using corpses as tools, necromancy can be considered a really special branch of magic. Tier one to three spell are considered basic necromancy, and that’s what I’m going to teach you.

Tier four and five consists of either advanced necromancy, that requires joining the royal army or the Queen’s corps to be taught, and forbidden magic, the practice of which is a capital offense in all the three great countries.

Basic necromancy is about temporarily turning a corpse into an undead to serve you as a guard, manpower, or a scout. It’s very useful for rangers and mages who like to fly solo.

Advanced necromancy allows to permanently create undead slaves that will serve you until they are destroyed or run out of magic. This discipline is not taught at academies nor by the Mage Association.

Only the Crown is allowed to have an army, be it living people or not doesn’t matter.

Turning yourselves or others into vampires or lichs, instead, that’s forbidden magic and as such is a capital offense. I’m also going to explain why necromancy is so strictly regulated, what are its risks and how to defend against it.

Let’s start with a little demonstration."

With a snap of her fingers, Professor Zeneff took out the skeleton of a rat from her dimensional ring.

"Normally your subjects will not be this clean. I purposely removed all the unnecessary parts to avoid most of you puking. I’m telling you this because necromancy is useless if the carcass is older than five days.

Past that time frame, the chances of success decline fast. Only fresh bodies can be turned into undead. Things like necromancers raising whole cemeteries are just folklore and fairy tales."

Lith knitted his brows, becoming more pensive the more discrepancies he found with what Kalla had taught him

- "Five days? The corpses Kalla stores in the forest are at least months old. Even those I rose back in the quarantine zone were dead from weeks." Lith thought.

"The good news is that I can already ace this class, the bad news is that it seems to be a colossal waste of time."–

Professor Zeneff cast her spell, allowing Lith to spot the first differences between true and fake necromancy. When Lith created an undead, he would send a single tendril of darkness magic in the corpse creating a blood core.

By adding a spark of light magic during the process, he would imprint the creature with his lifeforce and bind it to his will.

The Professor, instead, had created a dense fog of dark energy that was going in and out the rat’s skeleton, like it was looking for something. In a few seconds, the fog was completely absorbed by the bones and a red light shone from the empty eye sockets.

Before the process was completed, Zeneff executed a second spell that left a glowing mark on the creature’s head. The class gasped while the undead stretched its limbs producing an oddly amusing rattling sound.

"This is what is considered a success." The Professor sent the rat doing a round of the class with a simple wave of her hand.

"As you can see, the creature is perfectly functional and obeys to my every command. Unlike all the other disciplines you have studied before, necromancy isn’t as simple as point and shoot. It involves willpower and the use of multiple elements even at its first tier."

A second snap of her fingers produced a metal cage containing a second rat skeleton. She repeated the darkness spell but this time she didn’t perform the light one. The new undead went into a frenzy, clashing against the bars with all its strength, trying to reach Zeneff.

"This, instead, is an aberration. It happens when due to the magician incompetence or lack of willpower the creature is allowed to go on a rampage. Usually its first victim is the necromancer itself."

While she spoke, the undead kept emitting a shrill sound that resembled the cry of a child. It charged against the bars over and over, until bone bits started to fall on the teacher’s desk.

"Creating and controlling an undead require focus. The stronger your creation, the harder it will be to control. Bit more than you can chew either by sheer power or numbers and that’s what happens." She pointed at the cage.

"Back in my day, when necromancy was taught during the first year, a lot of students died by the paws of these little monsters that they kept as pets."

A familiar looking girl raised her hand.

"What’s on your mind, miss...?"

"Lady Mirna Kratic." She gave the Professor a deep bow.

"Why someone should want such a thing?" Mirna couldn’t stop turning her head to keep watch on both the undead rats.

"Excellent question, Lady Kratic. The answer is: for power and control. It was a way to show off one’s talent and have loyal bodyguards 24/7. Bullying makes the undead much more appealing than the living." Zeneff sighed.

The Professor closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. Suddenly, the first undead ran towards Mirna. It jumped on her desk and said:

"Also, mostly because of this."