"Fujimaru Ritsuka!!!"
The loud voice woke him up as he stood up and saluted properly. He felt like he had just woken up from a very long dream.
"Fujimaru Ritsuka! Master Candidate No.48! Reporting for duty!"
He said loudly, making his classmates laugh out loud.
Then he was hit in the head with a thin stack of papers.
He looked around blankly and suddenly realized he was not in Chaldea.
It took him a few seconds before he could reorient himself.
It was a tranquil scene. The sunlight gently peeking through the classroom's windows caresses his well-sculpted face.
His lustrous black hair swayed gently across the fresh spring breeze as he observed his surroundings. His aquamarine eyes scanned the entirety of the classroom. Countless youthful faces, some bored, some chatting away, and some were listening attentively. He leaned down on his hand as he sighed softly.
The Red mark of the command spell is gone.
He hadn't had that kind of dream in years...
'That's right... It's been years...' He thought to himself.
He stared blankly at the teacher in front of him.
Hiratsuka Shizuka.
A tall, beautiful woman with long black hair that falls over her shoulders and reaches her calves. She has unkempt bangs that cover her purple eyes. She is usually seen wearing a lab coat over her work uniform: a black vest with a dress shirt underneath, black pants, and a tie that she wears loosely.
She was his current teacher.
So before he could say anything else.
Shizuka's angry voice echoed inside the classroom.
"So, you've got a lot of guts not listening in my class. Mr. Sleeping Beauty. I wonder where you got that confidence from?" She said as she narrowed her eyes.
Ritsuka, not willing to be outdone, saluted properly and said with a booming voice.
"I have boundless confidence in repairing singularities! Indomitable will from severing lost belts!" He said before getting hit in the head with a thin stack of papers once again.
"What the hell have you been talking about since earlier, you brat!" She said with gritted teeth, with great self-restraint, she prevented herself from hitting him in the head a second time.
"So you think you're a star student, huh? Why don't you answer my question then?" She said with a grim smile.
She took a deep breath and said slowly, "So... What are imaginary numbers? Also... If you can't answer, you are going to have to do something for me later."
Ritsuka raised his eyebrows and rubbed his chin.
"Really?" He said carefully.
Shizuka cracked her knuckles and smiled menacingly.
"Absolutely."
Ritsuka then adjusted his posture and coughed lightly.
"The Imaginary Numbers is a Space in the inner side of the world, an unobservable territory, undetectable by the current laws of physics. It contains all possibilities due to being unobserved, though for that same reason, nothing actually exists within it, so things like landmasses should be impossible."
He elucidated his points with great elegance while Shizuka was steaming with anger.
"Does my answer satisfy you? Director Olga?" He said with a harmless smile.
"Fujimaru! You Brat! What do you think math is!? And what the hell have you been saying since earlier! Come to the faculty room later! Don't forget to write a reflection report!" She said in a huff as she slapped him in the head with a thin stack of papers.
"Whatever!" Shizuka gave up and walked back to the front.
This entire comedic skit made the students around them erupt in laughter.
She angrily scrawled on the blackboard while glaring at Ritsuka, who was blankly staring at the board.
"And that's how you solve a problem with imaginary numbers..."
She said as she gripped the chalk so hard it turned into powder, making the still giggling students quiet down.
She then went back to her discussion seriously.
The teacher's monotonous voice on the podium was steadily growing fainter and fainter as he blabbed about imaginary numbers. He couldn't be any less interested.
The distant chatter of his classmates would fill the tranquil classroom with white noise that increased his drowsiness.
He was one of the rare people awarded a Grand Rank. Rather, the youngest magus to ever be awarded the title for his deeds in saving the world over and over. A steady career would soon follow him.
Or it would seem if it were his old world. Now the mystery has completely vanished. No more Magecraft, no more True Magic. Nothing. Just an ordinary world. A Complete Mystery.
The burden he carried no longer exists; he was free.
Yet...
Deep down, he feels extremely bored.
It's like doing continuous strenuous exercise for a race only to stop because you already won the championship.
Therefore, he has developed a reflex action throughout his mundane days.
He covered his mouth and tried to stifle the incoming yawn to no avail.
However, he managed to persevere to avoid getting thrashed by Shizuka.
One of his seatmates held his stomach from laughing. His name was Hikigaya Hachiman, a fellow chill guy he met during his first year here. He was his first friend.
"Fujimura... I didn't expect you to have that kind of sense of humor." He said as he wiped the tear from the corner of his dead fish eyes.
Though, to be honest, the reason they quickly became friends was that he looked like Mandricardo, or was it the other way around? Does it matter? No... He would never be able to meet any Heroic spirits anymore. They have long since been a part of human history or myth, and will forever remain as such.
Ritsuka shook off the depressing feeling and shrugged his shoulders, "Hikigaya, what do you take me for? Some aloof cool guy?"
Hikigaya shook his head, "Rather than that stupid suggestion. You are more detached. You have that look on you. Like a monk who reached enlightenment." He said in a teasing tone.
Ritsuka sneered, "I don't want to hear that from someone with dead fish eyes."
As the two argued quietly, the teacher exited the room.
They soon heard the bell ring, signifying lunch break.
He looked towards the noisy hallway filled with students and laughter as they went about their day.
He couldn't help but smile listlessly.
He has completely gotten used to the mundane lifestyle.
The peace has become part of his daily routine.
He tried to read some papers about Fuyuki City... Since Chiba is quite far from there.
However, there are no documented gas explosions.
No Blood drives near him from Chaldea.
No missing persons that were sacrificed with a blood red magic circle.
No meteor landing in South America.
No dead apostles walking around.
No Clocktower, except the official one in London.
No Atlas Institute.
No Wandering Sea.
Mystery has truly disappeared.
The price of freedom.
Yet in such days, he couldn't help but be filled with boredom.
Yet deep down he felt something was wrong. Mystery didn't vanish completely that wasn't his wish nor his goal.
Yet for some reason.
A feeling he coudn't shake off.
Something or somewhat went wrong along the lines.