Chapter 92: Routine Without William

Kai woke on a Saturday morning to an empty room.

William had left for his family estate the day before, and the absence was immediately noticeable in a way Kai hadn’t expected. The room felt quieter somehow, despite William not being particularly loud normally.

Kai got dressed and headed to breakfast alone. The dining hall was moderately crowded with students enjoying their weekend morning. He grabbed food and found an empty table in a corner, content to eat in peace.

That lasted approximately five minutes before Marcus appeared.

"Kai! Mind if I sit?" Marcus was already sitting before Kai could respond. "Where’s William? I haven’t seen him since yesterday."

"He went for a family visit. He’ll be back in a few days."

"Oh, right. He mentioned something about that." Marcus started eating enthusiastically. "So what are you doing today? Want to join our study group? We’re meeting in the library this afternoon to work on that Magical Theory essay."

"I’m fine."

"Come on, it’ll be fun! Well, not fun exactly, but better than doing it alone. Sara and Elena will be there too."

Kai considered declining, but he had nothing else planned and sitting in an empty dorm room all day seemed depressing even by his standards.

"Fine. What time?"

"Two o’clock at the ibrary, at third floor, near the magical theory section." Marcus looked genuinely pleased. "Great! It’ll be good to have someone else there. Sara’s too organized and Elena barely talks, so I need another person to complain to when the material gets boring."

Kai spent the morning in his usual routine doing some light training in an empty practice room then reading in a quiet corner of the library, avoiding most social interaction.

By two o’clock, he made his way to the third floor and found Marcus, Sara, and Elena already set up at a large table covered in books and notes.

"Kai! You actually came!" Marcus gestured to an empty chair. "I thought you might bail."

"I did say I would be here."

Sara looked up from her meticulously organized notes. "Good, we can use another perspective. This essay on essence flow optimization is killing me. The textbook explanations make no sense."

Kai sat down and pulled out his own materials. The essay was due in a week and required analyzing three different essence manipulation techniques for efficiency and practical application.

"I don’t understand why we need to analyze techniques we’re never going to use," Marcus complained while flipping through his textbook. "Who cares about theoretical optimization when practical application is completely different?"

"The point is understanding the underlying principles," Sara said. "If you understand why a technique is efficient, you can apply those principles to techniques you actually use."

"That sounds like something a professor would say."

"That’s literally what Professor Ashcroft said in class last week."

Elena spoke up quietly. "I think the essay is actually interesting. Understanding efficiency helps with essence conservation during extended combat."

"See? Elena gets it." Sara looked at Kai. "What about you? Have you started the essay yet?"

"I finished it yesterday."

Marcus stared at him. "You finished a week-long assignment in one day?"

"It wasn’t that hard. Just analysis and comparison." Kai pulled out his completed essay. "You can reference my approach if it helps."

Sara immediately grabbed it and started reading. "This is... actually really well done. You’ve broken down the essence flow patterns in ways I hadn’t considered."

They spent the next few hours working through the essay together, with Kai occasionally clarifying concepts when the others got stuck.

It was surprisingly tolerable for Kai. Marcus provided entertainment through constant complaints, Sara kept everyone on task with her organizational skills, and Elena made insightful observations when she bothered to speak.

"I still don’t understand the third technique," Marcus said eventually, rubbing his eyes. "The channeling pattern makes no sense."

"You’re thinking about it backwards," Kai explained. "The technique isn’t about forcing essence through specific pathways. It’s about creating conditions where essence naturally flows in the desired pattern."

"That’s the same thing."

"No, it’s not. One requires constant active control, the other requires good setup and minimal maintenance."

Sara looked up from her notes. "That’s actually a really good distinction. Can I use that in my essay?"

"Go ahead."

They worked until dinner time, at which point Marcus insisted everyone eat together since they’d been productive.

"Come on, we’ve earned food after all that work. Plus I’m starving and eating alone is depressing."

They gathered their materials and headed to the dining hall as a group. Kai found himself at a table with the three of them, eating and half-listening to Marcus’s running commentary about various academy gossip.

"—and apparently someone saw Seraphina and William walking together through town last weekend," Marcus was saying. "Like actually together, not just training partner stuff."

"They’re on the same Inter-Academy team," Sara pointed out. "They probably spend a lot of time together."

"Yeah, but this was outside academy grounds. In town. That’s different."

Elena spoke up softly. "Why does it matter where they were walking?"

"Because it might mean they’re actually friends or something more, not just teammates." Marcus grinned. "I think William’s got way more going on socially than he admits to."

"Or people are reading too much into normal interactions," Sara said. "You know how academy gossip works. Two people talk twice and suddenly everyone thinks they’re dating."

Kai ate silently while they debated social dynamics. It was fascinating in an anthropological way, watching how students constructed narratives from minimal information.

After dinner, Marcus suggested they continue working on their essays, but Sara declined.

"I have enough material now. I’m going to write my draft tonight while everything’s fresh in my mind."

"Same," Elena agreed quietly.

"Fine, abandon me to essay hell alone." Marcus looked at Kai hopefully. "What about you? Want to keep working?"

"I told you, I already finished."

"Right. I forgot you’re mysteriously ahead on everything." Marcus gathered his things. "Well, thanks for the help anyway. See you guys tomorrow?"

They parted ways and Kai returned to his empty dorm room. The quiet felt different now after spending the afternoon with other people. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

He settled into his usual chair with a book, reading until late into the night before finally sleeping.

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8 more T_T