On the 18th of September 2024, at 1:30 PM, the atmosphere within EINA's Grand Chamber thickened with anticipation. The students were laundering about, awaiting their turn to step into the three imported Thaumitonic Resonance Chambers (TRCs), monolithic constructs of SU(2)ₕ architecture.
Confidence radiated from many, the product of favorable genetics and noble bloodlines. Others veiled their unease beneath false smirks. The elites stood surrounded by their admiring satellites, discussing the most efficient Topological Matrix for them.
In this version of EAA, the elites were actively deliberating and assisting their common folk in strategizing the most optimal Topological Matrix; some even offered constructive criticism that other students took note of.
Yet one presence dissolved such distinctions entirely, greater than nobles and royals alike.
Alyssa Woxen.
She distorted social laws like a star bends light.
Rich or poor, noble or not—they drifted into her orbit.
A short distance away, Caelum, Darius, and Princess Turaiya stood in quiet discourse, dissecting the viability of their own Matrixes as well. Watching from the periphery, Sephalyn Veledônia observed them in silence, her gaze now mainly landing on Turaiya and Darius.
Anzhelika Knyagatyrsk Golatsyn stood by herself, laughing amongst her fellow Knyagatyrskis.
Damn Russians… They have a contagious laugh…
Student ID No. 137?
Isaac listened and absorbed as many interactions as possible to ensure narrative consistency. After all, he was in his own world, literally. Everyone and everything flashed as binary to him.
Except for a few million lines of code.
Xuě Xīlián
He did not let this girl bother him too much. Curiosity guided him; his true question was never why she was different.
It was…
What would she become?
If she's both Mage and Cultivator, then what Mana Build could possibly sustain her?
With a κ Coherence Value below 0.60, she would fall outside every known classification.
Yet, maybe such limitations did not bind her.
Superstition, after all, belonged to a realm beyond comprehension.
Her physical output defied measurement; she was the strongest among all those he had observed. And with 127 subjective years of accumulated experience, her neural lattice must have been layered with extraordinary refinement.
Surely the Institute already knew; even before them, they must've run diagnostics.
Unless… She wasn't here for a Build, but rather to study that special someone.
To understand the one who insulted her... and then accepted her.
She wanted to know: Am I a true anomaly? Or just a clever mimic?
That truth became all the more evident in the way her expression shifted the moment her gaze fell on Isaac—becoming friendly, yet with tints of seriousness and hesitance. Isaac lifts a hand and gives her a simple wave, casual on the surface. She doesn't respond like how 'friends' would. She waved back, feigned a smile, then just turned and walked away.
A voice roared from the TRCs. The lead professors overseeing the evaluation, Magister Silas Ren, Professor Aldrick St. Clair, and Professor Azucena Esquivel, announced that the calibration was beginning.
The diligent students began lining up based on their student IDs.
In addition, the Headmaster personally made his entrance and, of course, began a speech.
"Students! Welcome to our makeshift TRC Examination Room. We'll be constructing one soon enough; however, I just wanted to give this year's matriculating students a surprise in advance. Hence, today's arrangements. I'm sure you have been briefed by your Practical Noësis professors, so I will not extend the wait any longer."
He moved aside from the stage as if beginning to commence the examinations.
I would just like to give thanks once more to the UKSR's scientific department for the donation of the 3 machines, the Veledônian accountants who helped fund the shipment, and the letter of recommendation given by our Monarch and his daughter."
Everyone clapped their hands; most turned towards the actual royalty in charge of those departments, who humbly accepted their thanks.
Of the other professors who came to witness the evaluation, Professor Eamon Ó Cinnéde spoke up, as if wanting to lighten the atmosphere with a joke.
"Don't forget to credit yourself, old man!"
All the students laughed and commended, even the now-arriving upper-year students. In fact, it was one of the first times the professors, let alone the students, saw Headmaster Orthellius blushing.
He quickly shook the red away, continuing once more:
"Eamon!" He couldn't help but chuckle. "Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I acknowledge my personal contribution. However, the true contributor to this rising field of technology is but the lady whose research paper I endorsed. Though she seems unable to call as promised, we will still give it up for the Enumerated Master-Class Wave Binder: Lady Carmine Di Bianchetta—"
"Hey ya!!!"
As if the torrent of wind from Professor Aldrick's previous running wasn't bad enough.
An even stronger current of air had stirred up in the closed hall as the ceiling broke apart.
Every single student was blown back at least a few centimeters, some off their own feet. Professors whose reaction times were fast enough for the given greeting managed to activate their Topological Matrixes and Out-Thread their Barriers in time, one of them shielding his wife.
Those who fell looked up to the sky and saw not just the entire ceiling gone, but the clouds parting like a helix to reveal the blazing sun and the clear blue skies. For what had descended was the girl who was advancing the very field whose crown she had just been handed in absentia.
The one. The only.
Lady Carmine Di Bianchetta.
"In the flesh!"
Headmaster Orthellius, still catching his breath from her entrance, looked up at her with an expression of deciding whether to laugh or scold her.
She dropped the last few meters without ceremony, landed in a crouch that scattered dust and debris, then straightened and grinned at the room like she had not just demolished university property.
"Sorry I'm late," she said, not sounding sorry at all. "Reception's quite bad when you're crossing continental distances and mid-fall. I thought I should just pay a visit myself."
Orthellius chose to do the former.
"Hahaha! Carmine! Welcome!"
The matters of the ceiling were an easy fix for the combined efforts of the Headmaster and professors whose Module specialities were Wind and Earth. That issue didn't really seem to bother the Headmaster much.
In fact, he was more excited at her presence.
"What an entrance! Who taught you that?!" He turned towards the recovering student body. "Students! This is one of my greatest pupils. Meet Carmine Di Bianchetta. A contributor to the Enumerated Equation Theory. And also, the oldest daughter of the Familia Bianchetta—"
"SIS!"
The younger sister, who had recovered from the older's entrance, screamed in embarrassment.
Celeste Laurent Bianchetta.
At the sight, Lady Carmine's eyes widened so much that she wanted to leap to her younger sister immediately, but ultimately chose to hold back until the examination ended.
"Right… The TRC Examination… Carmine… Do be a dear and not disturb the order of things when you enter in the future, alright?"
"Ah, sir, yes sir. My bad, guys and girls!"
"And with that… Students, please rise from where you fell, and reorganize yourselves in file lines by Student ID number. So that we may finally begin the TRC Examination of matriculating Cohort 2409.
On top of this, in 2 days' time at exactly 3:30 pm, we will be having a secret announcement in the Center Hall's Grand Chamber. This assembly is a compulsory event on every student's timetable, and failure to attend will be punishable in the form of MAI reductions.
With that said, let us begin!"
Students began standing up one by one and reshuffling.
Notably, it was a miracle that Caelum Veldt managed to catch all three of the princesses, without any of them suffering whiplash from the wind due to the scrappy Barrier he managed to Out-Thread in time.
He himself was knocked over, but at least the princesses were not.
Though not as tumbled as some were.
A few were sent quite a distance back; one even left the Grand Chamber.
Isaac fell under this category.
Students around him noted that his "... ass…" was facing the ceiling rather than his head. In fact, Isaac Mun was currently flipped 180 degrees, lying on his upper back, still dazed, arms flailing out. On instinct, he assumed his fighting stance before being blown all the way back.
No amount of guarding could make up for how fragile he was.
What made it even worse were the two people next to him whom he was holding as they fell.
Student ID No. 36: Alyssa Woxen and Student ID No. 40: Olivia Kaas.
Olivia Kaas, who was protected by Isaac breaking the fall, albeit unintentionally, got up confused; one second she was on her feet, the next she was in someone's arms. A male student quickly assisted her and Isaac to their feet, thanking him repeatedly.
But Isaac didn't budge.
Alyssa, equally confused and a tad bit embarrassed, tried to pry herself out of Isaac's embrace. But it was locked shut; the movement caused him to slowly regain consciousness.
And most of the people there truly understood what the matter with him was.
He was literally knocked out cold by the impact, due to how frail his body was.
He internally cried at the dizziness.
Oh my god… What the fuck happened?
One second I'm standing upright, and the next my ass is in the sky.
Fuck… Awww~ Shit… My head hurts so badly…
My god… What the fuck am I holding…
He looked down to see an Alyssa staring back at him.
"Isaac! You good?! And uh… Could you let go of me?"
He groggily flopped onto his back and let the girl go, who supported him onto his feet as they began lining up.
ID No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… And so on so forth till… 136, 137, 138.
It was Alyssa at his left, carrying Isaac in the middle.
With Caelum—directly on his right.
Isaac felt his presence like static against his skin, his gaze even more.
Are you S.H.I.T.T.I.N.G me…
What universal bullshit is this?! Wah, just fuck me la! Every time I need to talk to somebody relevant to the story, some fucking divine intervention screws my bodily autonomy over, this time in the form of what Alyssa is describing as a smart-ass girl breaking the ceiling and blow-fucking my body to the back!
Screw this shit, man!
Oh, and of all~ the people I could have been knocked into as well.
A rando. and Alyssa?!
The girl no one should get close to cuz she's gonna fucking die?
And W-why am I the girl in this relat— friendship as well?!
To everyone's shock, Alyssa was the one who was caring for Isaac, supporting the limping him, asking whether anywhere hurt, what she could do to help him, etcetera etcetera, when she should be, by all the tropes Old EAA had, the shy and embarrassed one that was blushing at the fact he and she were so closely in contact.
I feel less like a man as the days pass in this world.
Wacao eh… I feel like the tropes are being subverted onto me…