Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner-Chapter 245: Homework

Aegis waited a full minute after Sylceris left before she stepped out from behind the corner and walked up to the study group like nothing had happened.

"Hey," she said, dropping into the open seat next to Ellis. "Sorry I’m late. Got held up."

"Lady Starcaller!" Miheyra looked up from her notes, copper braids swinging. "We were just talking about the new Courtly Arts assignment. Professor Loralei wants us to—"

"Yeah, yeah, we’ll get to that." Aegis waved a hand and looked at Tam. "So, I saw the new girl talking to you on my way over. What was that about?"

Tam blinked.

"Oh. Sylceris?"

"That’s the one."

"She was, um..." Tam’s quiet voice got even quieter, which Aegis hadn’t thought was possible. "She was mostly asking about you, actually."

[... Huh?]

"About me?"

"Mhm. Like, what you were like. How you treated us. How often you helped us out and stuff." Tam shrugged.

Aegis kept her expression neutral, but her brain was already chewing on that.

A shadow mage asking scholarship students about Aegis’s relationship with commoners. Obviously, that wasn’t random. That was research.

But why would she care about that?

"Weird," Aegis said. "What’d you tell her?"

"I dunno, just... the truth? That you helped us study and stuff." Tam looked a little nervous, like she was worried she’d said something wrong. "Was I not supposed to talk to her?"

"No, no, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it."

Ellis adjusted his spectacles.

"She talked to me too, actually. Asked similar things. Felt like a survey."

"Huh." Aegis leaned back in her chair. "Guess I’ve got a fan."

She left it at that. No point in making them paranoid. They didn’t know what Sylceris was, and Aegis intended to keep it that way.

Miheyra, oblivious to the undercurrent, pulled out a sheet of parchment and slid it across the table.

"Anyway, the updated academic calendar came out this morning. There’s a few big dates we should know about."

Aegis took the parchment and scanned it.

The first major event was the Crucible Exam, about six weeks out.

A comprehensive test combining combat, magic, and academics into one brutal evaluation. Unlike first year’s monthly ranking tests, this one happened twice a year and counted for a massive chunk of the overall grade. No expulsions tied to it, at least, but rankings still mattered for reputation and sponsorship opportunities.

After that, the Diplomatic Summit, a mock political negotiation run by Duchess Valemont where students represented fictional noble houses and tried to outmaneuver each other.

[Ooh, that one’s mine.]

And near the end of the term, the Starlight Ball. Another formal event.

[Because this academy can’t go two months without throwing a party.]

She handed the parchment back.

"Sounds manageable," Aegis said. "Let’s study."

For the next hour, they went over Nazraya’s latest theory material, debated aether channeling principles, and helped Jona fix a formula he’d copied wrong. Normal shit. Aegis answered questions, cracked a few jokes, and pretended she wasn’t thinking about knives and white armor the entire time.

[This is ridiculous. I’m sitting here reviewing homework while a shadow cult tries to recruit me and the church is breathing down my neck.]

She looked at her study group. Miheyra was chewing on her pen. Ellis was scribbling. Tam was re-reading the same page for the third time. Jona had ink on his face again.

[But this matters too, doesn’t it? These guys trust me. Can’t exactly save the world if I flunk out of school first.]

Aegis sighed and turned back to her notes.

---

{Sylceris}

The room was dark.

Not pitch black. There was enough light to see faces if you knew where to look, but the windows were covered and the only illumination came from a single candle on the table. It wasn’t for atmosphere. It was practical. Shadow mages worked better in the dark.

Sylceris sat at the head of the table, her arms crossed, her knife resting on the wood in front of her. Four others sat around the table with her. No names. Not here.

"So?" one of them asked. A low voice from the far end.

"She’s complicated," Sylceris said.

"Complicated how?"

Sylceris thought about it, choosing her words.

"She told me she married into the Stones for power, and I believe her on that. She’s not some lovesick idiot who threw herself at a princess. She’s calculating. But she’s not on our side either. Right now, she’s on her own side, and her own side includes not getting caught."

"That makes her a liability."

"Maybe. Maybe not." Sylceris leaned forward. "I talked to some of the commoner students today. The ones in her study group."

"And?"

"She’s real with them. It’s not an act. She sits with them, helps them study, goes out of her way to make sure they don’t fall behind. These people genuinely like her, and not because she’s powerful. They liked her before she had a title, before the Winter Trials, before any of that. And, of course, she slayed that griffin on the outskirts."

Silence around the table. The candle flickered.

"Why does that matter?" the dry voice asked.

"Because it means she knows what it’s like to be on the bottom. She came from nothing. She’s a shadow mage who clawed her way into the nobility through pure force of will, and she didn’t forget where she came from." Sylceris picked up her knife and turned it over in her hands. "Someone like that isn’t going to be satisfied propping up a system that would’ve crushed her if she’d been any less talented."

The figure at the far end leaned forward, just enough for the candlelight to touch their chin.

"You think you can convince her to join us?"

Sylceris gave them her honest answer.

"I think there’s a chance. If I don’t push too hard."

The group went quiet. The kind of quiet where people are thinking instead of waiting to talk.

"If she’s the one the prophecy speaks of," a third voice said, careful and measured, "then this isn’t optional. We need her."

Nobody said the words "Shadow Empress" out loud, but they didn’t have to.

"She put a knife to my throat today," Sylceris said. "After I put one to hers. She’s fast, she’s smart, she’s strong, and she doesn’t scare. But, I might be able to find a way."

"Then get on it. But, if you think she will give us any problems in the future, eliminate her. Prophecy or not, we’ll be changing the world soon."

"Got it."