As the carriage drew closer to Thesali and the Lucan’s view gained definition, he couldn’t help but notice a distortion in the air, shimmering in an iridescence that he was sure that he wasn’t imagining.

  His gaze shifted, scanning the city from one end to the other and sure enough, the entire city was included in the scope of the formation.

  “What’s that?” Lucan’s mouth fired off the question before he could come to a conclusion himself. “The uh, shiny distortion covering the city.”

  “So you noticed it,” Janis acknowledged. “That is The Veil of Thesali, a Fifth-Circle Formation Spell that guards the kingdom’s most prestigious academy. The moment we step inside its range, our every movement through the city will be tracked by mages in charge of managing the formation and the moment we take any hostile action, our location will be highlighted to the city guard and we will be the subject of some very powerful restraining spells,” Janis explained.

  “The formation spell is cast across… the entire city?” Lucan asked, dumbfounded by the prospect. “And a fifth-circle one at that?

  “It is indeed, very rare to cast a formation spell across a city, even if it is a small one like Thesali,” Janis agreed with the sentiment behind Lucan’s words. “Even excluding cost as a factor, a city-wide formation spell cannot have access to lethal spells, which in almost every circumstance, defeats the purpose of a defensive formation spell to begin with. But in Thesali’s case, the population of the city is deliberately restricted and the supplies the city needs comes directly from the crown, so the Veil, which is incredibly expensive to maintain, is not impossibly so.”

  “Because mages and knights would do a better job of defending the city anyway?” Lucan asked.

  “Exactly,” Janis replied. “A formation cannot have counter-measures for every vector of attack, it can be overwhelmed and shattered by an enemy that is clever enough and it cannot adapt to the battlefield. But when you put hundreds of inexperienced mages and aura knights in a city, teenagers most of them, you need a way to stop them without blowing them to bits. War mages are, understandably, not very good at that.”

  “Is the formation put in place to stop rogue students?” Lucan asked, raising an eyebrow at Janis’ statement.

  “Partly,” Janis replied, exhaling heavily from his nostrils as if he was holding back a laugh. “It also shows how deeply the king values the Imperial Academy and reassures Nobles that they can send their children to the Academy without worrying about their safety. Personal guards are banned in the Imperial Academy, which is not something most nobles are happy about, but ultimately something they can accept if their scions are safe— perhaps even safer than they would be in their own territories.”

  “That makes sense, I think,” Lucan muttered. “They won’t trouble Mira though, right?”

  “Ducal sons and daughters are allowed up to three attendants,” Janis answered. “Personal Guards aren’t banned because they want to keep the population of the city low, but rather because they want to emphasize fairness within the academy walls and avoid personal guards from aiding their charges and influencing their academic processes.”

  Lucan breathed a sigh in relief, also realizing that the no personal guards policy worked in his favor. At least it would be the students that would be coming to mess with him and not their Master-Mage uncles who had somehow passed for a personal guard.

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  The carriage began to slow down as it drew closer and closer to the city gates,

  Lucan felt it then, a presence washing over him, enveloping his body and then passing him by, only leaving a light prickling sensation on his neck behind, one that he would normally never notice if he wasn’t in a state of heightened awareness. He was being watched, he could feel it— his mana sight hadn’t picked up on the formation, which was intriguing. Silent Casting hadn’t been invented yet, but Lucan was sure that there were a hundred other ways to obfuscate the senses of a mage as green as himself regardless. Or maybe the mana involved in maintaining the formation was so little that it blended in and got covered up by the other, far more potent avenues of mana shining brightly within the city.

  Or maybe, his senses just sucked.

  Regardless, Lucan wasn’t bothered by the privacy invading formation at all. If anything, Janis had been too transparent in his words when he mentioned that some scions would be safer in Thesali than they would be in their own home grounds— on the House Velmoria, Lucan sure knew he was.

  Sure, even a Gathering Stage Aura Expert could probably behead Lucan before he could blink, a lesson that Lucan had learned after the display of power he had seen from the Velmoria Knights, but an assassination on the Imperial Academy grounds meant going against the King.

  Even someone like Lucan, who liked living with his head buried in the sand, knew that no noble wanted to mess with the Royal Inquisitors. Not even the Duchess.

  “Halt!” A voice boomed out as they entered the final stretch to the city gates, seemingly coming from every direction at once.

  Lucan flinched, his gaze turning towards Janis, who remained unflappable.

  “Identify yourself and state the purpose of your visit!” The stern, commanding voice demanded.

  “Young Lord Lucan Velmoria, Heir Apparent to House Velmoria, his guard and his personal retinue. We seek entry into Thesali for enrollment into the Imperial Academy,” Janis bellowed out at the top of his lungs, loud enough that his voice could be heard through the carriage’s enclosure.

  “Lift the Imperial Token in the air and hold it still to prove your identity,” The voice asked, the sternness not leaving it and any surprise at Lucan’s identity not leaking into his tone.

  Lucan had no idea what an Imperial Token was, but Janis calmly reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an azure medallion that had a silver spell circle engraved upon it. He raised it into the air, even though he was sitting in a carriage and there was no way for anyone outside could see it.

  Janis kept holding the medallion into the air for a minute, making him look just a little foolish, before the voice declared,

  “Identity confirmed. Admission offer to the Imperial Academy confirmed. Young Lord Lucan, welcome to the Academic City, Thesali. Please ensure that your personal retinue registers with the academy and obtains a servant pass within the week. Your personal guard is allowed to stay in the city for the next twenty four hours and temporary lodgings will be arranged for them, after which they must leave. Please do not worry about your safety, as long as the veil stands, there will be no threat to you that requires the aid of your guards.”

  Finally, the gates to Thesali opened for Lucan Velmoria.

  And with that, maybe the future changed, if only just a little.

  The Lucan Velmoria that stepped into the academy in the previous timeline was an alcoholic who hated everyone, had an estranged relationship with his step-sister and was going swimming in a sea of sharks hungry for his blood without being forewarned of it.

  The current Lucan Velmoria was marginally better off in an objective sense, having beaten the bottle for now, repaired his relationship with his step-sister and expressed his plans and emotions openly with his best friend, so she could aid him better ---- yet a lot of it was counter-balanced by the terrible burden of the devastating future that he possessed. But he was infinitely better off in a very subjective, emotional sense, because for the first time in so many years, he had regained what he might have once possessed, if only a small spark that required desperate kindling to grow any further.

  Lucan Velmoria had regained his hope.

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