Let’s Go Together

Adrian Heather gave Mikhail a light pat on the back as he stood there in a daze.

“There’s only about ten minutes left before class starts.”

Adrian was the first to break the silence. He didn’t want to be late for Elemental Spirit Studies. But the faint trembling he felt under his hand resting on the prince’s back was… suspicious.

“Wait… don’t tell me… you’re not crying, are you?”

Adrian cautiously shifted to Mikhail’s side, trying to catch a glimpse of his face.

“Crying…? As if I would…”

The prince spoke with his head still bowed. But his voice betrayed him—it wavered, as if on the verge of breaking. He let out a deep sigh, his shoulders sinking. A desperate attempt to calm himself.

Mikhail slowly raised his head, dazedly staring at the molten red lava churning below. As if by glaring at it hard enough, the salamander might burst back out of the lava lake any second now.

Looking like he might actually hurl himself into the lava, Mikhail leaned forward—and the dragon placed a firm hand on the prince’s shoulder. He had no intention of becoming the sole witness to the prince’s fiery suicide.

“This is exactly why you don’t mess with creatures you don’t fully understand. Come on, don’t take it too hard.”

Just get a new black bird. Adrian tried to offer a half-hearted consolation. The prince snapped his head to the side, eyes sharp—clearly, something about that rubbed him the wrong way. Not exactly the kind of look you’d give someone who’s trying to comfort you. And with that gleam of moisture in Mikhail’s eyes, there was an air of quiet pity about him.

“You don’t know anything else?”

Still staring at the lava, now devoid of any signs of the salamander, Mikhail asked in a disheartened voice.

“They say a salamander spits out a legendary sword only once in its lifetime.”

Not a bad bit of comfort. It would’ve been perfectly fine—if only he hadn’t followed it up with this:

“It just ate one, so… you’ll only need to wait a few hundred years.”

“……”

Mikhail’s beautiful face twisted in utter disbelief. The heat from the lava lake tinged his cheeks with a faint flush. Or maybe it was from the sheer frustration of having lost a treasured sword in the blink of an eye.

“…That’s supposed to be comforting?”

The prince stammered, like he couldn’t believe the absurdity of what he’d just heard. Adrian just shrugged. Maybe not to a human—but to another dragon? It probably would be.

“There’s got to be a way to get it back.”

“…Forget it, then.”

Adrian threw out a bluff to the prince who still refused to budge from the edge of the lava lake. If he’d known it would come to this, he would’ve just grabbed the salamander with his own hands before it escaped. Granted, that would’ve brought their little game to an abrupt end.

Mikhail slowly lifted his head.

Even if the world ended today, he still had to attend class. Adrian took the prince by one arm and started leading him up the stairs. Normally, Mikhail would’ve snapped and told him not to touch him, but today, he quietly followed behind.

Determined not to be late for Spirit Studies, Adrian gently coaxed the prince up the underground steps. Around halfway up, he suddenly thought to himself, Why the hell am I even making sure this guy shows up to class? But then the image of the entrance ceremony replayed in his mind. If attendance were called and the prince wasn’t there, every student and professor would immediately turn to look at Adrian. He’d buckle under the weight of their stares and end up having to come drag the prince out anyway.

By the time they entered the lecture hall, the professor was already at the podium, sorting through some materials.

“Good morning.”

Does Basamiel Academy not believe in retirement age or what? Adrian wondered. The professor was an elderly woman, far along in years. As students trickled in and took their seats, he occasionally scribbled notes on her papers.

“Good morning.”

Adrian and Mikhail replied to her greeting and made their way to their seats. As they walked by, Adrian snuck a glance at the papers the professor held—they looked like exam sheets, probably for the upperclassmen. No doubt about that, since first-years hadn’t even learned enough yet to be tested.

The professor’s grading was ruthless and swift. Even from his seat, Adrian could clearly make out the decisive red marks slashing across the pages. It gave him a good idea of just how brutal the upperclassmen exams were.

The professor glanced at the clock visible from the podium, then tapped her papers into a neat stack. Class was starting.

“Alright. Shall we begin?”

The Spirit Studies professor walked slowly to the front wall of the lecture hall. When she pressed a button embedded into the wall, something unrolled from the ceiling like a theatrical curtain. It was a massive sheet that spanned the entire wall, covered in detailed illustrations—clearly the work of an artist who had observed each subject with intense focus and captured them with precise pen strokes.

They were images of spirits.

A wide variety of animals and plants were intricately drawn in black and white ink. Adrian’s eyes wandered across the sheet until they stopped on one figure—there it was. The salamander. After spotting it, he cast a sidelong glance at Mikhail. The prince had also noticed, his eyes wide as he stared at Adrian.

Maybe that offhand remark Adrian made earlier—that there might be a way to retrieve the sword—wasn’t total nonsense after all. And if there was anyone in the academy who’d know the most about salamanders, it had to be the professor standing before them now.

“Some of you may be deeply skeptical about Spirit Studies as a discipline. That’s perfectly fine. I understand. Studying something invisible can sometimes make even me question my beliefs.”

The professor began the lecture, slowly pacing in front of the enormous illustration on the wall.

“In ancient times, spirits were said to have lived alongside humans. Mana was so abundant in the human realm that most people could perform basic magic with ease. There’s plenty of evidence of this in ancient texts and murals—we’ll take a look at some of those later, when time permits.”

Her eyes sparkled, as if eager to share the troves of material she’d gathered with the class right this very moment.

“But what about now?”

The warmth in the professor’s eyes vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, replaced once more by her usual cool composure.

“Only a very small number of people can use magic today. Why? Because the mana in the human realm has thinned. As a result, spirits—who are drawn to mana-rich places—have gradually disappeared from around humans. Unfortunately…”

The Spirit Studies professor narrowed her eyes slightly, a faint crease appearing between her brows.

“The spirits most of you are familiar with probably look like these, correct?”

She swept her hand across a broad section of the image. That area depicted lizard-like creatures breathing fire, long serpentine forms, and boulder-like beasts resembling moles.

“Creatures like these. But the scope of what constitutes a spirit is far broader than you might imagine. Later on, you’ll find yourself saying, ‘Wait, this is a spirit too?’ For instance…”

She traced her finger across the illustration, searching until it stopped at a specific point.

“Even this tadpole-looking creature here is a spirit. It’s called a Tadpolly. These spirits can survive on very low levels of mana, which is why you can still spot them in a few lakes even today. Like the Tadpolly, there are still many ancient spirits that continue to live among us. They’re just hard to distinguish because they blend in with ordinary animals.”

She drew a small circle with his finger over a particular part of the Tadpolly’s anatomical sketch.

“You can find a blue spot on the Tadpolly’s belly. That organ is responsible for filtering and absorbing mana mixed into the water in its purest form. Since they look exactly like regular tadpoles, even scholars sometimes capture them by mistake—only to release them back into the lake once they realize.”

Something seemed to cross the professor’s mind, and she smiled faintly. Then, with a soft tap of his knuckles on the large sheet at the front of the classroom, she set the tone for the entire course.

“We’ll be exploring these diverse types of spirits one by one. Since you’re all first-years, that much is enough to start with. It’s time to get you familiar with the very idea of spirits.”

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like a difficult class. And somehow, Adrian had a feeling that this course might also cover the herbs that had sparked his interest in enrolling in the first place. Life forms constantly evolved. A third of the species known to dragons in ancient times had already disappeared, replaced by new ones—and the herbs he’d found in his lair were probably no exception.

“Any questions?”

The Spirit Studies professor cast her eyes around the room, fully expecting no one to respond.

“Yes.”

Heads turned all across the lecture hall, students craning their necks to see who could possibly have a question during the first class. Adrian turned as well. The dragon tilted his head back, then slowly nodded with a quiet look of Well, of course he’d ask in his eyes.

“……I have a question.”

Mikhail had raised his arm high from the back of the room.