Fiona and Cedric picked simple dishes.
Meat, vegetables, soup.
Celia took whatever looked interesting.
A little bit of roasted meat, a bright green salad, something purple that wobbled when the plate moved, and a bowl of suspiciously glowing soup.
Oliver stared at the glowing soup.
"Is that safe to eat? Where you even get that?"
He was sure she didn't get the soup in this canteen.
Celia took out a pocket with glowing powder.
"This is drex dust. A mixed breed of cow and fairy, so it's probably safe.
If not, I will study what happens. That is also useful."
Oliver decided he would never touch her plate.
When it was his turn, he filled his tray without thinking too much.
Meat, meat, and more meat.
They found an empty table near the side and sat down.
Oliver finished half his meat in a few bites.
Only then did he notice the way some students at other tables kept glancing at them.
Celia was the first to break the silence.
"As expected, the combination is good, it taste delicious too.
This boost my mana activity making it easer to control."
"You can sense that while eating?" Oliver asked.
"Of course. If I cannot analyze food, how will I analyze poison later?"
Cedric almost choked on his bread.
Oliver honest want to ask about what she want with his finger, deep in his heart he was afraid she plant to eat it.
But he decided to ask it later as he know Fiona will flip if she hear about it.
Fiona took a sip of her own soup and put the spoon down.
"There are a lot rumor the cult is still in the academy. I heard… there are many missing students."
Cedric's expression stiffened for a moment.
Then he snorted quietly.
"Most of those 'missing students' are just cowards.
They escape after the attack and ran back to their families.
The academy will not announce that loudly, or they will lose face, so they become 'missing' in the rumors."
Oliver blinked.
"So no one actually missing?"
Cedric hesitated for a breath.
"Some did die in the forest… Everyone saw that.
As for those who never came back at all… the academy says they are still investigating.
But if you ask me, most of the names you hear people talking about are from rich families who pulled their children out quietly.
They will not be back."
Fiona's fingers tightened around her spoon.
"What about the cultists? Any news?"
Cedric shook his head.
"Only that many died in the forest. And that the leader was killed.
The rest escaped or were taken by the city guard.
The kingdom's agencies are 'handling it.'"
The way he said "handling it" made it sound like "stuffing it under a rug."
Inside the sandal, Ethan hummed.
'So they are keeping everything hidden. Typical bureaucrat.'
After a while, the topic drifted away from cults to their classes.
Celia turned to Cedric first.
"Cedric, I was curious about your combat style, You use two elements, correct?"
Cedric nodded.
"I have two elements, lightning and flame.
So it is not that hard. I use fire as the core and run lightning on top of it."
"Fire and lightning support each other," Celia said.
"That is a good combination. It would be more troublesome if you had fire and ice as your dual elements."
"Is that even possible?"
Fiona eyes sharpened a little.
She also had ice affinity, so the topic caught her interest.
"We have a few recorded cases of sorcerers who managed to balance opposite elements," Celia replied. "Unfortunately, none of them recorded the exact method."
Cedric's expression twitched. He did not deny it.
Many sorcerer prefer to hide their legacy, rather than sharing it to the public.
Celia's gaze moved to Oliver.
"That reminds me. I wanted to ask you something.
In Professor Marla's class, what exactly did you do to the Ember Rune?"
Oliver stiffened.
"I swear I did not make it explode on purpose."
Fiona raised her eyebrows.
"You made something explode again?
It has not even been a month, Oliver."
"No, no, I am not asking about the explosion.
I am asking about the change itself.
Did you notice that when you modified the rune, the mana level began to rise on its own before it blew up?"
Oliver blinked.
"As I said, it was just a random stroke, And is condensing mana not normal?"
"Condensing is different," Celia said.
She tapped her spoon lightly on the table.
"Condensing does not increase the total amount of mana. It only squeezes the same amount into a smaller space.
The quality becomes higher, but the quantity stays the same.
What your rune did was different.
It was increasing both the effective quantity and the intensity at the same time.
That is why it became unstable so quickly."
Oliver stared at her.
'Senior, is that true?' he asked inwardly.
'This is why you should pay attention in class, kid,' Ethan replied.
In reality, he had been too busy laughing at the explosion to analyze it properly.
Cedric frowned slightly.
"Increasing quantity and quality of mana at the same time?
do not think that is possible.
My father talked about this many times when he trained me.
He always said to pursue quality. You cannot have both at once."
Celia smiled a little.
"I think your father meant it for combat.
Swinging a sword and hurling spells in a fight is different from what we are doing here.
I am talking about rune behavior.
There are already runes that slowly raise mana quantity by absorbing from the surroundings, but they are very slow."
She looked at Oliver with clear interest.
"What I felt from your modified Ember was not slow absorption. It was more like it was multiplying the mana that was already inside the pattern.
No extra from the environment. Just… more."
"That is impossible," Cedric said.
"What do they call it again?
The law of equivalent exchange?
You cannot get more out than what you put in."
"In theory," Celia agreed.
"That's why Oliver's rune interest me, but maybe I feel it wrong?"
Celia rested her chin on her hand.
"I want to see that modification again, can you draw it for me?"
"No," Oliver replied on reflex.
Fiona gave him a sideways glance.
"If you are going to blow something up anyway, it is better to have someone who understands why it exploded."
Oliver had no comeback to that.
'Of course I'm interested, but experimenting with this woman? Hell no! What if she cuts my finger again?'
His gaze then fell on the glowing soup, and his body started to shiver.
'Not in a million years!'
He took a long drink of the soup instead and decided that from now on, any time Celia said "I am interested," he should start running away.