Ethan eventually reached the class and went to sit at his usual table.
His table was one of those larger ones that could accommodate two students, which was why there was a spare seat by his side.
The seat was where his only friend, Percival, sat. But right now, Percival hadn't arrived yet. Who knows how late the werewolf would be running today.
He Probably got distracted chasing a squirrel or something equally ridiculous.
A few murmurs also erupted within the class as Ethan had arrived and gone to his seat.
One of them, a vampire, wasn't even murmuring about it when he said to his other friend, "There's no way Stark just entered here without Beatrice."
"Oh ho ho, he's so dead," his other vampire friend replied, then added with a grin that showed way too much fang, "Just sit tight and watch. We'll have another scene where she slaps him today."
It was the same reaction for most of the others as well. Ethan sighed at this. Beatrice had really made a disrespectful mess of this body, even in class.
For almost one year during their toxic relationship, Ethan had always arrived at class with Beatrice. Eduardo would drive him from the Stark residence all the way to the Morgenstein estate to pick Beatrice up.
And she would also force him to walk together with her into class, even if they were already running an hour late.
Everyone knew him as "Morgenstein's underpants" due to how openly Beatrice disrespected him in front of the others.
However, aside from Percival, no one was brazen enough to tell Ethan about how bad his reputation had fallen in class. He was, after all, a Stark, and the single heir to Stark Industries.
No one wanted to be on the bad side of an heir to one of the top three most leading industries in Gritnia and still extremely popular within the Western Continent.
Ethan sighed. He was going to have to fix that reputation soon, but right now he had about maybe thirty minutes before Mr. Kieran walked through those doors.
And so it was time he got to why he came to class much earlier today, and that was to speak to Clumsy Bettie.
He moved his eyes about until he found her sitting by her usual corner near the window, muttering to herself like she was having a full-blown conversation with an invisible friend.
Ethan stood and made his way there, but right before getting there, Lucy, who was pulling out a few things from her bag of weird tools and items, had unintentionally let a folded paper fall from it.
The folded white paper was laid out on the ground, and Ethan almost stepped on it when suddenly he stopped and bent to help Lucy pick it up.
He immediately noticed the strange sketch on it and narrowed his eyes as he returned the paper to Lucy, who quickly said, "Oh, thank you so much, Stark! Thank you!"
As jovial as always.
"It's no problem," Ethan said, but quickly added, "I'm sorry, but can I ask what this is?"
Lucy raised the paper. "You mean this?"
Ethan nodded, which then made Lucy gladly show him. She was always enthusiastic to talk about stuff like this whenever someone asked.
Honestly, it was like watching a kid show off their favorite toy.
She laid out the sketch properly on her table, and Ethan immediately knew his eyes weren't deceiving him.
That indeed looked like the diagram of a mechabot or a Gundam. There were popular animes for things that looked like that back in his own world.
Lucy began, "Okay, so this used to be my father's sketch. It was a design for something he planned to work on before he passed. Soooo, I intend to build this one day in his honor, you know? Just that I haven't exactly figured out how to go about it yet."
Lucy stared at the diagram with a smile on her face, recounting several moments with her father in their lab at home.
Isaac Hargreeves was his name. An extremely gifted magi-engineer whose talent level was at the S rank. All big companies today who manufactured engine-powered products had at some point consulted with Isaac.
Unfortunately, he passed two years ago in what was an assassination. Shot to the head from over 2km away by someone whom the authorities said was a ranger class assassin.
The day news broke, Lucy got called from class and had to go on a long break away from Belsorth. It didn't matter whether or not you spoke to Lucy in class or were her friend, but the moment you heard she lost her father, you would feel some sort of pain, especially for Lucy.
The investigation had eventually been closed as his assailant could not be found.
Lucy, his child, was gifted as well but not compared to her father. She was only at the A-level as a magi-engineer but was the highest-ranking one in their class.
"Hm… that's an interesting diagram," Ethan said.
"You think so?" Lucy said, looking pleased to hear the compliment about a diagram no one ever particularly seemed to care about or like.
Ethan nodded, and Lucy's eyes widened in excitement as she continued, "Oh, thank you, thank you! I'm only having issues with what the right magical cores should be, or what sort of metal…"
Lucy was about to keep rambling as she would once someone seemed interested in any of her work or items. The girl could talk for hours if you let her.
But Ethan, who now had an uncomfortable look on his face, said, "Hold on, hold on, Lucy."
He lifted his palm towards her as though asking her to slow down before adding, "I'd like to talk further about it with you, I promise, but perhaps another time?"
Lucy then stopped and nodded excitedly, letting Ethan continue on his way towards Clumsy Bettie.
The magi-engineer class was a rather peculiar one. Specialists of this class were the least sought out by the guilds of the country, but they were the most sought out by technology-advancing industries.
And the higher your talent level, the more of a hot cake you were, really. There were also more humans in this class.
For casters, your talent level determined the sort and tier of spells you could possibly comprehend and learn. But for magi-engineers, your talent level determined how much structure of a material you could comprehend.
The different types of metals, magic cores, and other types of natural materials.
And it was only by understanding these things and their fundamental structure could a magi-engineer even begin to construct and compile different parts together to create something truly spectacular.
Skilled magi-engineers were so important, even to casters who made magic items, as no strong magical item had ever been made without the involvement of a specialist of that magi-engineer class.