The day off passed in a flash, and the Academy's busy routine began again, with all manner of everyday incidents once more filling campus life.
First, another minor magical overflow occurred in one of the Alchemy Department's laboratories. Apparently, a third-year student had tried to improve the stability of a portable Explosive Flame Potion, only to coat half the lab's equipment in colorful crystals that were difficult to remove. The student's hair, along with the supervising professor's, had also temporarily turned vivid rainbow colors.
Then the magical botany professor announced two straight days of surprise quizzes covering the properties, cultivation requirements, and mutually beneficial and antagonistic relationships of more than three hundred magical plants, prompting groans far and wide.
Meanwhile, because the clouds had been too thick the previous night, the observation assignment for the astrology elective was replaced with a paper of at least five thousand words on astrological projections.
Yet amid all these everyday complaints and disasters, nothing drew more attention than the injuries Greg Sass had been unable to fully conceal when he returned to the Academy on Monday.
Although he tried hard to act as though nothing was wrong, sharp-eyed observers could still notice the slight stiffness in his movements, the faint outlines of bandages beneath his uniform, and several fading scrapes on his face.
At Glory Kail Academy, where appearances had always mattered, this was quite conspicuous.
Rumors quickly spread.
Most people naturally thought of his past "glorious achievements," privately speculating that enemies he had made before had finally seized the opportunity presented by his fall from grace to teach him a lesson in secret.
Or perhaps he had stirred up trouble off campus again and picked a fight with the wrong person.
In short, few sympathized with him; most either gloated or watched with