Black Solstice-Chapter 32: Cardmaking [1]

"Ow! My poor back..." I muttered, rubbing at the area that felt hotter than the rest of my body. It was probably bright red by now.

Child abuse!

No matter how you looked at it, this was undeniably child abuse!

If we were on Earth, I would have reported that guy and sued him ten times over for the brutal ’love’ he forced on me. Unfortunately, we weren’t on Earth, and I was already over eighteen, so I couldn’t even claim to be a child.

Still, it should be possible to lay down a complaint!

"Curses!"

Clicking my tongue, I weakly dragged my aching body toward my last class of the day, Mystical Engineering.

I was genuinely interested in this course. Unlike physical fitness, which left me battered and humiliated, Mystical Engineering promised the kind of ingenuity I craved. It revolved around coding reishi into objects to produce effects, but not in the way spells worked.

For instance, Spell Cards could store a spell for later use, but in this class, you could encode reishi directly into physical objects to create something entirely new. You weren’t just manipulating a pre-existing spell; you were crafting something from scratch.

These were called "Magical Items."

Upon entering, I was surprised to find the room set up like a proper laboratory. Beakers, containers, various ores, and intricate gadgets filled the space, lending it an air of authenticity.

I also felt a small sense of relief. None of the people I knew were in this class, giving me a rare moment of peace to focus on the work ahead.

Well, not that I knew that many people anyway.

I looked around for the perfect sitting position and eventually found a seat. As students started filing in and sitting next to acquaintances and friends, I rested my head waiting for the instructor for this class to appear.

Only when ten minutes had passed did the door swing open.

The tall man who stepped inside looked nothing like the other instructors I’d met so far.

Unlike the fitness instructor’s military bulk, this man had a long, almost lanky frame wrapped in a pristine white lab coat that fluttered around him like a ghostly veil. His posture was slightly hunched, his skin pale, and his hair was a chaotic cascade of ink-black strands, falling over his eyes in wild, unkempt waves that suggested he had last interacted with a hairbrush sometime before the invention of civilization.

Then there were his eyes: dull, heavy-lidded, permanently sleep-deprived... yet behind that gloom flickered a faint, unsettling brilliance that suggested he could demolish the entire building if he got bored enough. The deep lines carved beneath his eyes told a story of endless nights spent reading, tinkering, and possibly crying over failed experiments at three in the morning.

He looked barely alive, honestly.

Even so...

"Greetings, young devils and fresh blood! Please feel honored to have me, Professor Corvell, as your teacher for this class!" The crazy scientist practically skittered onto the podium, the pair of goggles hanging from his neck bouncing wildly with each enthusiastic step.

He was certainly lively.

The tall fellow swept his gaze across the classroom with a condescending air.

"...Welcome to Mystical Engineering. If you are here to create flashy toys for fun... leave now. If you wish to understand the delicate boundary between brilliance and catastrophic self-destruction... you may stay."

A few students audibly gulped.

Seeing that no one stood up to leave, Professor Corvell’s lips stretched into a grin.

"Good, good! Seems this year’s batch has some guts. In that case, welcome to Mystical Engineering! But please, try not to blow yourselves up. It is incredibly troublesome to fill out the paperwork, and I am a very lazy man, so let’s avoid unnecessary... kabooms, isn’t that right? Hehehe!"

How lovely.

From sadistic drill sergeants to gloomy mad scientists.

This academy truly had a rich diversity of tormentors.

† †

"That arrogant bastard. I don’t understand how someone could have that level of self-worth." I grumbled bitterly while walking to my dormitory.

Why was I this upset you may ask?

Of course, I wasn’t upset because Professor Corvell spent more than half of the class duration talking about himself and his achievements, leading to absolutely nothing productive getting done.

No demonstrations.

No practical exercises.

No explanations beyond, "If you do this wrong, you will explode. Hehehe!"

Just a long, winding monologue about how he invented some revolutionary item in his youth, how no one appreciated his genius, how the academy suppressed his brilliance, how the Demon Council feared his potential, and how he once "accidentally" vaporized a classroom but was definitely not at fault because the students had weak constitutions.

By the time he finished bragging, the bell rang.

Mystical Engineering: 0% engineering, 100% ego showcase.

"What a damn waste of time," I massaged my temples as the academy courtyard breeze brushed past me.

And yet...

That wasn’t even what upset me the most.

Of course not.

No, what truly pissed me off was the part after class, when he personally handed out today’s assignment.

"Since you’re all aspiring apprentices of ingenuity, I will start you off with a simple project," he had said with smug satisfaction. "Create a functional, reishi-coded magical item by next class. Something stable, harmless, and not prone to spontaneous combustion. Easy, yes? Good luck, fresh blood."

Easy?

EASY?

I was barely grasping the concept of Spell Cards, much less crafting original magical items from scratch!

But noooo, Mister ’I once built a reishi reactor at age ten’ decided this was basic homework.

"I swear... these instructors are demons in human skin," I growled, dragging my feet along the courtyard.

Then I paused.

Correction: they were actually ’demons’ in human skin. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"First I get whipped half to death, now I have to build a magical item overnight... This sucks. And here I thought a magical college won’t be much different from a regular one. Why do you have to do this to me, world?" I sighed, staring at the strange sky like it owed me answers.

Maybe I should just drop out and open a bakery somewhere far away.

Yes. A quiet life sounds really tempting right now.

My fantasy ended abruptly when something small collided with my hip.

"Ow!" squeaked a familiar voice.

I looked down.

"Dabble? What are you doing here?"

The Imp clutched a stack of books almost as big as his entire body, wobbling under the weight like a panicked penguin.

"I heard... gasp... the homework..." he panted. "Everyone’s talking about it... they say this is the assignment that kills dreams..."

He stared at me with wide, trembling eyes.

"Do you think we’ll survive?"

"No," I answered immediately.

His face paled.

"But we’ll still try," I added.

His face un-paled slightly.

We both stared ahead in silence for a few seconds, united by mutual despair.

Then Dabble sniffled dramatically. "I want to go home..."

"Same here. I miss my mother’s cooking."

"I can’t relate. Is yous any good?

I raised an eyebrow at him as though he had just asked a stupid question. "What are you talking about? Of course it’s good! Much better than what they serve here at the very least!"

"I see. I’m rather jealous." His smile was a little strained.

Have you ever seen an Imp try to smile through emotional damage?

It was like watching a kitten pretend it wasn’t starving.

Dabble’s forced grin twitched, wobbled, then died a quiet death on his face.

I sighed.

I was too tired and battered to speak so I just remained silent.

We began walking again, two defeated souls heading toward the dormitory, burdened by pain, trauma, and an impossible assignment.

Little did we know... this was only the beginning.