Oliver Horn and Nanao Hibiya enter Kimberly Magic Academy as first-year students and become comrades and rivals while learning how dangerous the school really is. Their new circle of friends must navigate classes, swordplay, the labyrinth, and secrets that threaten their lives.
As Oliver and Nanao gain respect among their classmates, Kimberly's first-years test their strength in a battle-royal-style tournament. Competition gives rivals a reason to challenge them, while other students use the contest to pursue schemes of their own.
Pete is taken by Ophelia Salvadori's chimeras, throwing the academy into crisis. Oliver and his classmates descend into Kimberly's labyrinth to rescue him, accepting help from an unexpected ally while confronting the danger of a student consumed by the spell.
Season 1 ends here
Now second-years, Oliver and his classmates face harder studies and the colder realities of life as mages. A short trip to Galatea brings a clash with students from a rival school, new questions for Nanao, and a threat that puts Oliver's hidden purpose in tension with his friendships.
The Sword Roses continue growing as mages while Katie struggles with magical biology and Guy faces a harsh labyrinth apprenticeship. Oliver pursues Enrico Forghieri, and the chase with Pete and Nanao exposes the long conflict between mages and Gnostics.
A second faculty disappearance leaves Kimberly suspicious and unstable as the student-body election approaches. Nanao helps broom-riding star Ashbury, while a friendly but mysterious transfer student arrives and Oliver recovers from the cost of his previous battle.
In their third year, Oliver and his friends enter Kimberly's combat league, whose prizes conceal the headmistress's search for a murderer. The contest also bears on the school election, while Yuri investigates the stolen-bones case surrounding the warlock Cyrus Rivermoore.
The combat league draws the upperclassmen into its later rounds, while the Sword Roses and several seniors pursue Rivermoore into the deeper labyrinth. There they face a necromancer's kingdom of skeletal beasts and try to recover what he has taken from Godfrey.
The combat league reaches its decisive stage, with Oliver's team facing Team Valois and the Cornwallises facing Team Andrews. As the students fight for the title, Demitrio watches the competition while tracing the person responsible for the faculty murders.
The combat league's final round brings Godfrey and Leoncio into conflict and produces a new student-body president. Oliver and his allies move against Demitrio as the faculty investigation closes in, and Demitrio's revelations force the group to confront secrets buried in Oliver's past.
Before beginning their fourth year, Oliver and his friends take a long voyage around the Union. Visiting the homelands of several Sword Roses broadens their understanding of one another and offers a rare respite beyond Kimberly's walls.
The friends return to Kimberly for their fourth year, where Demitrio's disappearance brings unusual new teachers to the academy. Rod Farquois, a reversi and great sage, changes the school's balance, while Pete and Guy seek the strength to stand beside their friends.
Guy awakens as a curse wrangler and is separated from the Sword Roses just as the fourth-years choose their seminars. The change forces the friends to think about their futures, while shifting relationships and more demanding magecraft reshape their year.
The Sword Roses reach their fifth year together as Kimberly's faculty members are sent across the Union to meet an approaching threat. The mission is a trap, and the students and remaining teachers must face an unprecedented crisis on the academy's front lines.
With Esmeralda missing, Kimberly's students and remaining faculty fight an invasion by the Order of the Sacred Light. The Sword Roses hold their positions through mounting losses as the Gnostics pursue salvation and the academy itself approaches collapse.
* Arc names chosen by Arc Almanac, because the books don’t name them.
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