Nyx was standing in front of the gate when Takeshi and Aoi got out of the car. She was wearing her uniform, her backpack slung over her shoulders. The driver pulled away as soon as the three of them stepped off the sidewalk.

"Merwyn told me a little while ago."

Nyx said.

"I didn’t expect you to come this early." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Merwyn doesn’t leave much room."

Takeshi replied.

The three of them headed down the street toward the high school. The neighborhood was quiet at that hour. Some shops still had their shutters down, and there weren’t many people on the sidewalks.

Takeshi walked in the middle, with Aoi on his left and Nyx on his right. The chat appeared in his field of vision with a few comments.

[walking between two cute girls, I’m so jealous]

[it should be me, not him!]

[I want you to know there’s a god watching everything]

’These guys are making me cringe.’

After a block, Takeshi glanced at Nyx.

"Have you always lived in that house?"

Nyx took a moment to answer. She didn’t seem uncomfortable with the question, she just considered her response before giving it.

"I moved into that house three years ago."

"And before you moved, where did you live?"

"Before that, I lived with my family."

Takeshi waited to see if she would continue on her own, but Nyx kept walking with her eyes forward, showing no sign of adding anything else.

"Is it true your family barely sends you any money?"

Takeshi asked.

"That’s correct. They send me just enough to survive, and I almost never hear from them."

"Why?"

Nyx looked at him for a moment with a melancholic expression before turning her gaze forward again.

"Because they see me as a disgrace to the family."

Takeshi opened his mouth to ask something else, but at that moment the three of them turned the last corner, and the entrance to the high school came into view halfway down the block. Students were arriving from different directions, and the gatekeeper already had the doors open.

The three of them walked through together. Inside the building, Nyx checked something in her planner and looked up.

"My classroom is in the south wing. You guys have to go to the north wing, right?"

"Yes."

Aoi said immediately.

"Then we’ll split here."

Nyx looked at both of them.

"Thanks for walking with me this morning."

She turned and headed down the hallway to the left without hurrying. Takeshi followed her with his eyes until she turned a corner and disappeared.

Aoi started walking toward the north wing, and Takeshi followed her.

They arrived at magic class, which started ten minutes after the bell rang. The teacher was a middle-aged man with short hair and thin-framed glasses. Unlike other teachers Takeshi had had since arriving in this world, this one didn’t waste time on long introductions.

"Today we continue with impregnation..."

He began as he wrote the word on the board.

"Last class we covered the general theory, so today we’re going to talk about how the internal process works, because there are still several of you who don’t understand how it differs from elemental magic in terms of energy consumption."

Takeshi opened his notebook and saw that Aoi already had hers open, pen ready.

"Elemental magic converts internal energy into an element and projects it outward."

The teacher continued.

"Once that element leaves the body, the mage stops actively controlling it, and the flame launched into the air will continue burning on its own. That’s why the mage no longer needs to sustain it."

He wrote a line on the board and underlined part of it.

"Impregnation works differently. The energy doesn’t leave the body to become something independent. Instead, it is transferred directly into a weapon in a fixed amount at the moment of impregnation, and once transferred, the weapon sustains that effect on its own for as long as the charge lasts. The mage doesn’t need to keep spending energy while the weapon is in use."

A student in the front row raised his hand.

"So do impregnation mages use less energy than elemental mages?"

"Yes, in terms of sustained use."

The teacher replied.

"An elemental mage spends energy continuously as long as they keep manipulating the element. An impregnation mage makes an initial expenditure when charging the weapon, and after that, the weapon works on its own until the charge is depleted. If the mage is efficient with that initial transfer, they can conserve quite a bit of energy during a fight."

Takeshi wrote that down and underlined the last part.

The teacher continued.

"Now, there’s something many people assume without questioning it, and that is that impregnation only works with weapons of a certain category. That’s false."

The classroom fell silent.

"Technically..."

The teacher said.

"Impregnation can be applied to any physical object, like a sword, but also a chair, a stone, or a wooden stick. The initial transfer process is the same. What changes is the quality of the result."

Another student spoke without raising his hand.

"How different is the result?"

The teacher set the marker down on the tray.

"A weapon designed to receive impregnation has an internal structure that allows the transferred energy to distribute efficiently. The effect is stable, precise, and long-lasting."

He paused.

"A common object doesn’t have that structure. The energy enters, but it doesn’t distribute properly. It concentrates in random points, is lost in others, and the effect you get is unstable and short-lived. On top of that, part of the energy you transfer is wasted because the object isn’t prepared to retain it, so the initial cost ends up being higher than it should be for a weaker result."

The same student spoke again.

"And what if someone tries it anyway with a random object?"

"It’s not forbidden."

He replied.

"But it’s not recommended for real combat use because the result isn’t reliable. It might work for a few seconds, or it might not work at all, depending on the object and the mage’s level."

He picked up the marker again.

"What can make sense is using it in an emergency situation, when an impregnation mage doesn’t have access to their weapon and needs at least some minimal effect to buy time. It won’t be efficient or powerful, but in certain situations, anything is better than nothing."

Takeshi stopped writing and looked at his notebook.

He read the last part he had written. In certain situations, anything is better than nothing.

He looked at his stats.

[Strength: 9]

[Speed: 4]

[Magic: 1]

[Endurance: 7]

[Precision: 9]

His magic was almost nonexistent. The single point he had came from Aoi’s bonus, and without that bonus, the number would be zero.

But the teacher hadn’t said a high level was required to try it. He had said the result would be unstable and that part of the energy would be wasted.

’Maybe I can...’

Takeshi looked around the classroom. Chairs, desks, notebooks. Common objects.

He looked back at his notebook and wrote a note in the margin, separate from the rest: Last resort. Only to buy time. Don’t rely on the result.