The chamber fell silent as the shards of the orb tinkled to the floor, scattering light across the polished tiles. All eyes clung to Kairo. His stillness was unsettling, as though he had expected this outcome long before any of them.
The examiner bent low, sifting through her records with trembling hands. Her lips pressed into a tight line before she finally forced the words out.
"Mana count… immeasurable. Classification—" Her throat caught, but she didn't stop. "…Classless."
The word struck like a spark to dry tinder.
At first, there was silence. Then, the laughter came.
It started as a nervous chuckle from above, but quickly swelled into a chorus. "Classless!" one noble heir barked, clutching his stomach. "All that pressure, and it was for nothing!"
"Ha! He's worse off than a farmer's brat."
"More mana than the pillars themselves, and not a path to wield it. What a waste."
The balcony roared with ridicule, their relief pouring out in cruel words. Fear had melted into mockery; the beast they thought untamed was suddenly declawed in their eyes.
But the sting didn't stop there. From the line of new admits, fresh bitterness rose.
"Damn it," one spat, fists trembling. "If even half that mana were mine…"
"Why him?" another cursed under their breath. "Born with a sea of power, but useless as an empty shell."
"The gods mock us," someone muttered, eyes burning with resentment.
Their voices were not jeering, but seething — curses meant not to humiliate, but to claw at fate itself. Envy, anger, despair.
Through it all, Kairo stood unmoving. His crimson eyes did not waver, his posture did not shift. The laughter, the curses, the venom — they washed over him like rain on stone. Classless. To him, it was neither insult nor shame. It was simply what he was.
At the edge of the platform, Igron smirked faintly, eyes narrowing as he studied the crowd's reaction. "Fools," he whispered under his breath. To him, Kairo wasn't diminished — he was dangerous. Even stripped of classification, that mana was a storm waiting for its time.
The nobles couldn't see it. The new admits refused to accept it. But somewhere deep in the academy's heart, a tremor had been planted.
Kairo turned away from the shattered orb without a word, leaving silence in his wake.