"Nothing major," he said.
"It's just my father keeps bothering me about making friends with other children from wealthy families while I'm here. He says the people I meet at school could help our family business later. You know how parents get about this stuff."
"Oh, I wouldn't know about that. My family doesn't care about any of that." Lydia said, looking sad.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"No, it's fine," Lydia said, quickly.
"I guess it must be nice having parents who actually care about your future. Even if it means you have to make friends with people you wouldn't normally have anything to do with." She said.
Lucas wanted to learn about the academy without being obvious about Raymond so he said:
"Speaking of people, have you noticed anything... weird about the friend groups this year? I feel like everything's all mixed up or something."
"Mixed up how?"
"Well, like Damion and Zacard being buddies now. Even though Damion is adopted by the Castille family, the difference in the status of their families rank should mean they shouldnt have been best buddies even if they didn't become enemies."
Lydia thought about it.
"Yeah, that is weird. Though I should think the whole Castille adoption is exactly why. If it were any other low ranking noble family, it would have been impossible but it's hard to look down on the 'poor kid' when it turns out his family's way more important than yours."
"The Castille family is more important than the Tosins?" Lucas asked, shocked.
"When it comes to magic, yes. The Castilles have produced some of the most powerful mages in continental history. Their bloodline is insane, even if they don't have as much political pull these days." Lydia replied.
This was news to Lucas. In the game, the Castille family had been portrayed as basically nobodies before they got wiped out.
But if they were actually some legendary magical family, that would explain why Damion was so insanely powerful.
"Huh. What about the other rich families? Any other drama I should know about?"
Lydia gave him a suspicious look. "You're asking a lot of questions for someone who's only doing this because of your father."
Lucas became nervous.
It seems I've been way too obvious.
"You're right," he said, "I guess yesterday's study thing made me realize how clueless I am about everything, including the people here. I figured I should try to understand all the politicals better if I'm gonna network for my family."
Lydia seemed to buy this. "Well, as long as your sudden interest in school includes actually studying and not just figuring out who to suck up to."
"Obviously. Though I gotta admit, understanding how all these noble families get along is probably more useful right now than memorizing a bunch of old dates." Lucas said.
"Both matter," Lydia said seriously. "You can't understand what's happening now without knowing the history behind it."
They had reached their classroom door. Ms. Ocsol was already inside and other students were filing in and taking their seats.
"Before we go in," Lucas said.
"Could you do me a favor? If you hear anyone talking about Raymond James or the James family, could you give me a heads up? I don't want to go around asking everyone directly - it might seem...weird."
Lydia raised an eyebrow. "Weird? That's kind of a random thing to say."
"I just don't want to look too desperate about the family business stuff. Sometimes this kind of thing works better when it just happens naturally."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Lydia said. "Fine, I'll listen out for it. But you have to promise me you'll actually put some effort into studying instead of just focusing on this networking business."
"Deal," Lucas said.
The duo then entered the classroom. Lucas headed to his seat still thinking about what he had learned. He was so focused that he didn't even realize when Ms. Ocsol arrived in front of him.
Bang!
Her stick slammed against his desk.
"Estellan! I've had it up to here with you. The class has hardly started and you are already going to sleep. Do you have no respect!" Ms. Ocsol said.
Lucas was shocked. "No ma'am. I was not dosing off!"
"Don't lie to me Estellan. You know what you were doing and besides, that isn't the problem. The problem is your blatant disregard for authority. Yesterday, I told you that you had detention yet you skipped it and went frolicking about your business. If that wasn't disrespect, then what is?" She replied.
Lucas almost mentally facepalmed when he realized that he had forgotten about detention.
He had been so busy getting closer to Lydia and laying things in place for his future in this world that he had completely forgotten about it.
"Ma'am, wait, I can explain...." Lucas began.
"I don't need you to explain anything, Estellan. No more excuses. It seems I'm going to have to sentence you to the Grey Room if I want to see improvement. But I'm not so cruel so I'll give you one last chance. Detention this evening in this classroom at 4 pm. Make sure you're there. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am." Lucas answered.
Ms Ocsol smiled and heading to the front while saying:
"Good, now let's begin class but first I have a announcement. As you all know, your midterms are in a week and seeing as everything is going so well. We, the teachers, have decided to add combat tests to the midterms, so for those who haven't been paying attention in Combat Class," she looked at Lucas, "you can only pray to the goddess for luck."
Lucas would have known he was the one being talked about even if she hadn't looked at him because he remembered the absolute shit show that had been his last Combat Class and the worst part was that today, he had Combat Class after this.
"Ok, so now that that's done with let's move on with the class." She said.
"So as I was saying in the last class, Isirus Blake, the founder of the Adventurers Guild and inventory of the Air Bullet spell was killed by his pet horse after making the fatal mistake of firing off a Air Bullet while standing behind his horse, all for the sake of impressing a maiden.
As one would expect, the horse reared up and kicked him in the head killing him instantly. This created the 877th rule of spellcasting which is: Don't cast a spell behind an animal unless you intend to kill said animal with said spell. And so...."
This is going to be a very long day.