Never Die Villain

Tuesday.

Unlike the previous day, Ilya’s schedule consisted of an entirely different set of courses. Most subjects at Holy Trinity Academy followed either a Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday schedule, which also meant that students rarely shared the exact same classmates throughout the day.

Friday was the exception, reserved for a single class that occupied most of his academic day. Ilya had arranged his schedule that way deliberately when transferring into the Magic Department, shifting around whatever courses he could until everything fit reasonably well with his preferences.

Naturally, everyone else did much the same. Students chose different sections and time slots depending on their own schedules, so the people Ilya sat beside in one class could be completely different from those he would see in the next.

"Ilya!"

"Hm?"

Well, perhaps it wasn’t that surprising.

Elise was here.

She beckoned him over, and since there wasn’t anyone else Ilya knew particularly well in this class, he made his way toward her. Elise was already sitting beside another girl, someone Ilya more or less recognized by face but had never actually gotten the opportunity to speak with.

"You can sit here." Elise gestured toward the empty seat beside them before turning toward the girl. "Oh, right. You two haven’t actually met before, have you?"

"Not properly."

The girl looked toward Ilya.

"Solenne Vernet." She offered her hand. "Nice to finally meet you."

"Ilya Valentinovich Belozersky."

"I know. Hehe."

Ilya shook her hand before taking the empty seat, and the three quickly settled into conversation.

It didn’t take long, however, for Ilya to notice several people around the laboratory looking in their direction, with more than a few students openly turning in their seats to peer at the rather strange trio.

After all, the girl sitting beside Elise was none other than Solenne Vernet.

Solenne wasn’t a noble, but her surname held enough weight that it hardly mattered. The Vernets had no title or territory to their name, yet there were plenty of nobles throughout the Empire who would think twice before offending one of them.

Her family controlled the Vernet Mercantile Consortium, the largest merchant organization in the Empire, with businesses spanning banking, shipping, mining, magical materials, luxury goods, and international trade.

Even several of the older noble families had financial ties to the consortium in one way or another.

Solenne also happened to be the chairman’s daughter.

Ilya glanced between Solenne and Elise, then finally understood why so many people kept looking their way.

One was the daughter of one of the Empire’s most powerful ducal families, while the other was the heiress to its largest merchant group.

Then there was Ilya, a Belozersky, born into the family regarded as the pinnacle of swordsmanship throughout the Empire, who had somehow ended up sitting right beside them in a Magic Department laboratory.

"...."

None of them seemed particularly unusual on their own, but putting the three of them together certainly made for an odd combination.

"Did you know?" Solenne suddenly said. "Every Grand Duchy in the Empire has ties to the Vernets. Every single one except for one, actually. Can you guess which?"

Ilya tilted his head, although it wasn’t particularly difficult to put two and two together.

"My family?"

"That’s right. The Belozerskys!" Solenne pointed at him with a grin. "We’ve tried several times over the years, too, but apparently your family would rather drag everything across the snow themselves than let us establish a proper trade network in the North."

"...That sounds about right."

"You don’t seem very surprised."

Ilya rested an elbow against the table. "You’d have an easier time convincing my father to become a wizard than convincing some of the older people in the North that they need outsiders helping them."

Elise looked at him. "...Is it really that bad?"

"They’re all stubborn."

Solenne laughed. "Hee-hee! Well, that’s exactly why the North is so interesting to us."

She leaned forward slightly.

"Do you have any idea how many resources exist up there that are difficult to obtain anywhere else in the Empire? Northern monster materials, ores, medicinal plants, mana crystals, all sorts of things! Your family controls an absurd amount of territory, and barely any of it reaches the southern markets directly!"

"Are you trying to negotiate with me right now, Ms. Vernet?"

"...Can you negotiate?"

"No."

"Then I’m just complaining. Hee-hee!"

Solenne smiled before leaning back into her seat, seemingly satisfied with that answer. Ilya was beginning to understand that despite her family’s reputation, she wasn’t nearly as formal as he had expected the daughter of the Vernet Mercantile Consortium’s chairman to be.

Elise sighed beside them.

"You two have known each other for five minutes."

"And?"

"...You’re already discussing opening the North to outside trade."

"We’re making friends," Solenne replied.

Ilya nodded. "Apparently."

"...."

Elise looked between them. "Why was it so much harder when I tried?"

After that, the professor stepped into the laboratory and began introducing himself.

This was still the first week of the second semester, so most of their classes had yet to move beyond introductions, explanations of the syllabus, and whatever expectations their professors had for the months ahead.

"Good morning. My name is Professor Stellan Haldorsen, and for this semester, I’ll be handling Magical Materials and Catalysts."

Professor Haldorsen placed a thick stack of papers on the table at the front before looking around the room.

"Magical Materials and Catalysts is exactly what the name suggests. We will be studying materials that possess magical properties, how mana interacts with them, and how those properties can be utilized in practical magecraft."

He walked toward one of the cabinets and opened it, retrieving a small container filled with pale blue crystals.

"First, let’s clear up a common misunderstanding. You do not need a catalyst to cast magic."

Professor Haldorsen picked up one of the blue crystals and held it between his fingers.

"Any properly constructed spell can function using nothing but the caster’s own mana. Nothing you learn in this classroom changes that."

He placed the crystal on the table.

"What materials allow us to do is change the conditions under which that magic operates. A catalyst might reduce the amount of mana required for a particular reaction, increase the efficiency of conversion, introduce properties that would otherwise require additional layers in the spell construction, or simply make something considerably easier to accomplish."

Professor Haldorsen turned toward the board and began writing.

"Take fire magic. You can produce fire perfectly well without carrying a pouch full of powdered monster organs everywhere you go, and I sincerely hope none of you do. However, introduce the correct material into that same spell, and you might increase its temperature without increasing your mana expenditure, alter how long the flame persists, or change how it interacts with whatever it touches."

He tapped the chalk against the board.

"This becomes more important outside ordinary casting. Alchemists depend on magical materials. Enchanters work with them constantly. Magical engineers need to understand which metals can tolerate repeated mana exposure without degrading, and even a wizard who never intends to pursue any of those fields will eventually encounter situations where the right material can accomplish something far more easily than brute-forcing the same result with mana."

Ilya glanced toward the container of crystals.

That made more sense. Magic didn’t require materials. Materials simply gave a wizard more options.

At the front, Professor Haldorsen continued explaining the course.

The first few weeks would focus primarily on identifying common magical materials and understanding how they reacted to mana, while later lessons would move into practical applications, including catalyst preparation, material compatibility, and laboratory testing.

For Ilya, most of it was unfamiliar territory. Using physical materials to modify the behavior of magic was something he had barely touched upon.

Ilya picked up his pen.

At the very least, this class seemed useful.

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