I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Arthur walked toward the main academic buildings with Felix, weaving through students heading to their first classes of the term.

Felix was eating a heavily spiced pastry he’d bought on the way, looking at his phone with half-lidded eyes.

"Whoever arranged my schedule clearly hates me," Felix complained around a mouthful of pastry. "Why do I have three classes I didn’t even take last term?"

Arthur hadn’t properly looked at the rest of his week yet. "They probably realized you needed the help."

Cedric caught up with them as they merged onto the wider stone path leading to the central halls.

"What’s he whining about now?" Cedric asked.

Felix held up his phone screen. "Look at this."

Cedric didn’t bother looking. "You know today’s first session isn’t a normal class, right? It’s the second-term briefing for the year."

Arthur pulled his phone out. He had only checked the first line last night, seen the start time, and set his alarm.

"They told us before the break," Cedric reminded them as they climbed the wide stone steps of the hall. "Specialization starts this term. We don’t all have the same basic schedule anymore."

Arthur vaguely remembered an announcement about that sometime during the blur of the final exams.

The lecture hall was already filling up when they walked through the double doors.

Emily was sitting halfway up the tiered rows. She spotted Arthur and kicked the heavy canvas bag off the empty chair beside her. Arthur slid into the seat. Felix found an empty chair in the row just behind them, and Cedric sat a few seats down.

Arthur looked around as the room continued to fill. Elara sat several rows ahead of them, a thick book open on the desk in front of her. Leon was standing near the front of the hall, talking to a student Arthur vaguely recognized from a combat trial. Alicia was sitting quietly near the front row.

Arthur looked around once more. "Where’s Chloe?"

"The healer track has its own briefing this morning," Emily said, checking her phone.

The low roar of conversation in the hall tapered off as a man walked through the side door and set a stack of folders onto the main podium.

Professor Aldren Vale. Arthur knew the name from the faculty roster, though he’d never taken one of his classes. Vale was older, his dark hair already going gray at the temples.

Vale didn’t make a grand entrance. He arranged his notes, leaned on the podium, and waited.

"All right. Settle down."

The remaining whispers died out.

"Last term, most of you took roughly the same courses," Vale said, his voice projecting easily across the hall. "That changes now. You’ll still share the core subjects, but the rest of your schedule depends much more on what you’re actually training to do."

He started breaking down the new elective structures. Almost immediately, a student near the back raised a hand and asked if they could still change one of their electives.

Vale gave him the administrative deadline. Another student two rows ahead of Arthur realized he had registered for the wrong field course and started whispering frantically to his friend.

Emily checked her timetable on her phone while Vale was still talking. Felix did the same behind them.

Vale moved on to the practicals.

"You’re going outside the academy walls more often this term," Vale told them. "Dungeon work, open-field assignments, and joint exercises with other classes." He looked across the room. "And your teams will not remain fixed."

That got a much louder reaction than the electives. A low murmur of complaints and whispers swept through the hall.

"Instructors will build your teams based on the specific assignment," Vale continued, ignoring the noise. "Sometimes you’ll get a balanced team. Sometimes you won’t. Learning to work with what you have is part of the practical."

Emily leaned toward Arthur, keeping her voice low. "They’re going to stick me with idiots."

Arthur looked at her. "I’m sitting right here."

"You’re not the kind of idiot I meant."

Behind them, Felix raised his hand. "Professor. What about equipment damage during academy assignments?"

Vale looked up at him. "Academy equipment is covered within the rules of the practical. Your own gear is your problem unless the instructor says otherwise."

Felix lowered his hand with a quiet sigh.

Vale tapped the podium. "Your final schedules have been updated in the system. Review them."

Arthur finally scrolled past the first line on his screen.

A few new course names stood out. Dungeon Strategy under Vale. Monster Ecology and Fieldcraft under Garrick Fen. Applied Mana Theory under Mira Solenne. Advanced Ranged Combat under Selene Ashford.

And further down the week, Morwenna’s Combat Conditioning.

Emily leaned over far enough to read his screen. She spotted one of the new classes.

"Monster Ecology?" she whispered. "You actually picked that?"

"Why wouldn’t I?"

"You shoot them."

Elara heard enough of the conversation to turn around. "Knowing where to put an arrow isn’t the same as knowing what you’re hunting."

"That’s probably why there’s a class," Arthur pointed out.

Elara stared at him for a second, then turned back toward the front.

Vale kept talking over the rustle of students checking their phones. "Practicals also count for more this term. Finishing the assignment isn’t enough anymore. We’ll be watching what each of you actually contributes, especially when things stop going according to plan."

He told them where to find the updated practical guidelines on the academy network, picked up his folders, and dismissed the hall.

The room became deafeningly noisy almost instantly. Students stood up, arguing over electives and comparing schedules as they filtered out into the corridors.

Arthur, Felix, Cedric, and Emily walked out together. Elara caught up with them in the main hall since she was heading in roughly the same direction.

"I’ve got practical next." Emily said, checking her phone again.

"Mana theory for me," Cedric said.

Elara checked Arthur’s screen against her own. "Monster Ecology too. And Ranged Combat later this week."

"Stuck with you again," Arthur noted.

"You should be grateful someone competent will be there," Elara said dryly.

Chloe passed them from the opposite direction. She was carrying a thick textbook under one arm and walking with two healer students Arthur didn’t recognize.

Chloe slowed when she reached them. She caught Arthur by the front of his jacket, gave him a quick kiss, then stepped back.

"Briefing finally finished. I’ve got a lab," she told him, pulling back. "See you later."

Then she kept walking with her classmates.

They reached the main intersection of the academic wing where their routes finally split. Emily headed off toward the training halls, Cedric turned down a side corridor, and Elara left with a few other students heading toward the lecture theaters.

Arthur and Felix continued down the same hall together.

Felix looked at the room number on his phone, then back the way they had just come.

"Didn’t we just spend an hour listening to this guy?" Felix asked.

Arthur checked his own screen, seeing Dungeon Strategy sitting right at the top of the morning block.

"Apparently we’re getting more," Arthur said.

Felix finished the last of his pastry as they reached the classroom and joined the students filing inside.