Melody looked at the orange spheres of mana above each of her palms with an expression of utter shock and bewilderment. They were perfectly spherical in shape and rotated clockwise at a fixed speed in the air.

Rudy let out a whistle of appreciation, inspecting the structure of the mana with interest. "Damn, that's pretty impressive."

Meanwhile, Michael's heart was beating faster in his chest. If even Charles had deemed the task impossible—it meant that this feat was very difficult. His old tutor had the best mana control he'd seen, even ahead of Melody.

Yet it was his student who had now accomplished something that he said was impossible.

"By the Arcane… It really worked?" he muttered, rubbing his eyes and checking again to be sure.

Michael felt a wave of enthusiasm. If Melody and Rudy had improved so much, then wouldn't his own soul have had such a change after taking the pill?

He quickly decided to try the same thing as Melody, summoning two orbs atop his palms. The first one formed without issue—after all, he'd been practicing the technique for over three years.

But the second one…

Just as his crimson mana began to take shape, both of the orbs dissipated into nothingness. He stared at his now two empty hands and frowned deeply, not understanding.

What? Why isn't it working for me?

While he wasn't as proficient in mana control compared to Melody, he was not far off. If she could do it so easily after taking the soul pill, then by all accounts, Michael should be able to as well.

"Ooof, don't worry man… Just keep practicing." Rudy said, consoling him. He pat a heavy hand on Michael's shoulder, nodding his head slowly.

"Have you not felt any improvements in your soul Michael?" Melody asked with some shock.

A pained expression crept onto his features before he shook his head. "Nothing out of the ordinary," he admitted.

Melody reclaimed the mana back into her body and faced him, "Well don't lose hope," she said softly, "there is plenty that we still don't know about the soul. You might have improved in other areas that doesn't include mana control…"

Michael nodded slowly, appreciating her comforting words. The soul was a mysterious thing, especially his since it was a unique soul. Perhaps the effects of the pill would manifest in other ways sometime in the future—or maybe he needed to take more than one pill?

However, ever since that night three months ago, his soul seemed to have no interest in the pills anymore.

"Thanks…" he replied with a smile. "We should probably keep studying, it's not just spellcrafting that we've got exams for."

Melody nodded, "The alchemy exam is first up tomorrow, let's focus on that for now."

"Ugh, do we have to?" Rudy replied with a groan, clearly not interested in the subject. "Professor Mia will probably fail everyone in the class but you and Lilly anyway."

"There's two parts to the exam idiot. As long as you pass the theoretical—you won't have to take supplementary classes." Melody shot back, barely sparing him a glance.

But the mention of theory just seemed to make things worse. Like a child, Rudy groaned again, massaging his stomach, "I'm hungry…"

"We just ate breakfast…" Michael replied in disbelief.

After some back and forth, the guy begrudgingly sat down at the table. After a while, the sound of pen's dipping in ink and scribbling on parchment filled the room as the teens began their long session of studying for the midterms.

The next morning, Michael woke up with a slight headache—his eyes bleary.

They had spent majority of the previous day and night studying for the exams this week. It wasn't until midnight that he finally decided that it was counterproductive to continue.

With a deep stretch, he rolled out of bed and moved the curtains aside, seeing the sun perched upon the horizon—sending its warm light cascading over the eastern forest.

The sight was beautiful, yet he couldn't appreciate it right now.

His ears twitched at the soft snores coming from the other side of the room. Letting out a small sigh, he decided to wake his friend and start the day despite the minimal sleep the night before.

Exams started at 8am this morning—doing them while half asleep would be less than ideal.

However, as he approached, he saw the guys face was scrunched up, as if he was having a bad dream.

"Ma… Pa…" he muttered, tears at the corner of his eyes.

Michael's heart ached at the sight. He sat on the edge of the bed and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, nudging him.

The guy flinched, his eyes opening wide in shock.

"W-what is it!?"

"Good morning sunshine." Michael replied, wearing a smile.

Rudy looked confused for a few moments before a look of understanding finally appeared on his face. He rubbed at the corner of his eyes and sat up slowly.

"Morning…"

"Let's go get some breakfast, we've got a big week ahead of us." Michael suggested.

"Mm"

Like that, the two got dressed and made their way out of the room—still looking rather tired. Surprisingly, Melody was on the lounge, her arms wrapped around a cushion, sleeping silently.

"Did she sleep out here?"

"I don't think so, she's already in her uniform." Michael pointed out, "She probably woke up before us and had the same idea."

Rudy nodded, "You should probably wake her up…" he suggested, "I don't feel like dying this morning."

Michael suppressed a chuckle, making his way over. She looked cute, clutching the cushion close to her chest as if it were a plush toy.

"Time to wake up princess." He said, nudging her.

However, the woman gave no response. Instead, she hugged the cushion tighter, burying her face into it.

"Melody… wake up."

"Fuck off." She mumbled, turning over.

"Pfft."

Rudy's hand shot up to his mouth as he tried to keep in the laugh from escaping his lips. But it didn't last long after seeing Michael's dark expression.

This is why I hate waking her up… he lamented inwardly.

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