I watched my summoner in slight disbelief as he approached my 4th classroom’s entrance.

  For a moment, I was hopeful he was also attending this class, but I lowered my expectations. Perhaps he was only here to relay something or give me something useful, whatever that would be, before heading off to his next period.

  He spoke words I didn’t understand, before patting me on the shoulder as he walked into my 4th classroom behind me.

  I snapped out of my bewilderment before turning around and walking in to confirm if he was attending. That’s when I noticed the room itself.

  Compared to the previous classes, the seats in this room were arranged on stairs, with 6 seats on each stair. It’s identical to the one where I was coerced into signing the school’s enrollment form.

  After walking up, he stopped at the third stair from the top and took a seat at the middle desk, leaving the one to his left empty. He pointed at the empty seat while looking me straight in the eyes. I walked up the column of stairs that he didn’t walk on and sat in the seat he pointed to.

  I waited for him to make any indication of initiating another conversation, yet he sat idly, resting his chin in his hand, looking very bored. Whether it was because his mind was occupied or he was genuinely disinterested in whatever was going on around him, even though it was only me, I’d wouldn’t know.

  As we sat idly, more students piled into the classroom, either taking their seats or moving to chat with another student by sitting on a desk or standing idly. Eventually, the only person I assumed to be this class’s teacher walked in, followed by two students carrying a crystal between them. It was about half the size of their torsos, shone a magenta-pinkish color, and, judging by how the two struggled to carry it into the room before placing it with an audible thump at the front and center on the stage at the front of the room, as per the teacher’s instructions, it was really heavy. The two students who brought in the crystal briefly exchanged words with the teacher as they took their seats. It was then that idle chatter died down as the teacher stood in front of the heavy pink crystal, facing her students.

  When I heard her voice, I recognized who she was. It was Ms. Grey, the first person to treat me to a meal, and who seemingly has a boss-subordinate relationship with Mr. Blonde.

  I’m guessing whatever she was monologuing about has something to do with the heavy pink crystal she had brought into the room, as she was pointing to and walking around it as she talked. It felt like she was giving a sales presentation on a newly made product.

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  Wonder what the crystal has to do with the lesson? Maybe it’s magic-related?

  I turned to my summoner to gauge his reaction, but his lack of a reaction didn’t tell me anything.

  It wasn’t until Ms. Grey’s voice shifted to something more commanding, resulting in students getting up and forming a line leading to the crystal.

  Oh, it’ll be this involved?

  I looked around, checking to see if the line was voluntary. One by one, students got up to get a spot in line. Even my summoner shifted in his seat to prepare to stand up when the line didn’t stretch past our desks. The line stretched around, with the start of the line looping around to our seats.

  I once again heard the syllables referring to me from my summoner and got in line, with him standing behind me shortly after.

  When it got to the point where my summoner and I were facing the front of the room, I looked ahead to see what was going on. One at a time, students knelt or sat on the floor to put a hand on the crystal. Guys knelt with their left leg on the floor while the girls sat on their legs, the latter reminding me of the start of a Japanese bow, where the one bowing needs to be seated to perform it.

  The whole thing felt like a proper ceremony or ritual, but the display of the 2 students struggling to carry it beforehand had me questioning the legitimacy of this so-called ceremony. I should follow their leads, just to be safe.

  As the line got shorter, I noticed the time each student spent at the crystal varied. Some spent no more than a minute, and fewer spent longer than 2 minutes.

  I looked to the teacher who instructed us for all of this. She was staring very intently at the crystal, only turning and speaking a few words to the students who finished touching it.

  Am I supposed to do something?

  We got closer, with fewer than 9 students between me and the crystal. I observed the reactions of the student touching the crystal—no wincing, so it didn’t seem like some weird ritual that necessitated pain. Thankfully, sitting or kneeling in the exact position wasn’t mandated, so I was able to observe the reactions of those facing toward the line when they touched the link crystal. Expressions of nervousness or excitement varied, but when all of them touched the crystal, they had expressions of pure, undisturbed focus.

  But there wasn’t anything happening in the crystals. Could they be seeing something only visible to mages?

  Eventually, it was my turn, and the nervousness only piled with each touch of the crystal. I nervously looked to my summoner, hoping for something to relieve the anxiety I was feeling. He said something, but I didn’t feel any less nervous.

  Welp. If this leads to me being kicked out, I’ll at least have my power to help me manage. Maybe I should commit to a life of robbery for money.

  I knelt on my left leg and put my hand on the crystal. The teacher’s expression remained indifferent- no, focused on the crystal I was touching.

  She said some syllables that made other students remove their hands from the crystal, and I immediately stopped. She then directed me towards the seats, to which I wordlessly complied.

  As I walked back, I looked to my summoner. He looked… extremely confused, making a really weird expression I could never have pictured him making.

  I wanted to stay back and watch my summoner’s session with the crystal, but repeated syllables from Ms. Grey told me I needed to take my seat.

  After we took our seats, class didn’t require further involvement, except in the form of homework presented as a single sheet of paper with diagrams of the human body.