The headmaster sat in front of us, talking his index finger against the pricey desk and watched the six people in front of him without caring to start the hearing at all.
We already sat for around fifteen minutes there, which was probably part of his strategy to demoralise the students, but it also got on my nerves.
“So …” Another few seconds of silence. “I was told you attacked one of our teachers recklessly during a sparring match?” The headmaster asked a bit bored already.
“Yes. I used a special magic that draws out the darkness of those I hit with it … amongst other things.” Schwarz admitted and looked to the ground between his feet a bit depressed.
“Why did you learn such a disgusting magic? It’s application is completely illegal. I hope you are aware.” Magic tampering with the feelings of another intelligent being were illegal to use, that was for sure. Well, apparently for everyone but the three who were at fault for using it.
“I wasn’t aware.”
“I asked your teachers and they told me you were taught that.”
“I might not have listened.”
“That amongst other things is why you are constantly in trouble … I knew we should have stopped giving out scholarships to adventurers already.”
“I’m sorry … it … it was my fault for not thinking about the consequences of my actions.”
At least you are aware now. But that doesn’t change the fact that you broke the law.” The headmaster said, glancing at me and Hannah from time to time as if he expected us to step in. So far though, nothing I heard impressed me in any way. They were like kids, but worse as none of them was actually invested in this world. It felt like they had two value systems within them. One that looked at this world and saw a playground, and the other who actually wanted to save the world from … whatever they saw as a threat.
I usually didn’t have any problems with that, but once they started playing around with Hannah’s feelings, I knew they either had to change that, or I needed to get rid of them.
“I know I wronged you, Miss Dove. I am terribly sorry for what happened and want to apologise, regardless of the steps the academy wishes to take.” Was that apology for real though? Or would he try his next risk magic out at her once he had a chance?
“I nearly killed all of you. Do you really think an apology is enough?” Hannah snarled back, which seemed to depress Schwarz even more.
“But you didn’t. You held back.” Louis said, which was honestly a bad way to defend their group. Just because nobody was hurt, it didn’t mean everything was right.
“What are you talking about?” Oops … I assumed she remembered everything that happened, including me cancelling out every system based magic. Maybe I should have gone over everything with her beforehand.
“Your magic vanished before hitting us.” Louis said eagerly while Hannah shot me a knowing glance.
“So your defence is that it wasn’t too bad?” The headmaster asked, a smugly smile plastered all over his face.
“No … I … I just wanted to say that we did everything we could to keep damage to a minimum.”
“Which all amounted to nothing because Miss Doves attacks would have hit you, if they hadn’t vanished mysteriously. Sorry if I may say so, but your mind didn’t clear up through some mysterious power?”
“Are you questioning me?” Hannah asked with a lot of curiosity in her voice. She knew very well that the headmaster didn’t have any chance of questioning her at all under normal circumstances. But the others made it very difficult for us to threaten him openly, which did limit our options somewhat.
“No. Not all all. I am merely trying to understand what had happened. So now that we have found out it wasn’t you who stopped your magic, how did it stop?” He asked and made all the others curious as well which was honestly the worst he could do.
Hannah closed her eyes a little, thought about her answer and then faced him directly.
“It’s a state secret.” Oh my … not as bad as I assumed her reply to be, but far from what I had hoped for. Well, we could salvage this pretty easily though. It was already crystal clear she was stationed at the north and fought against the emerging threat. She could have worked for the army there … luckily we never told anyone we were with mercenaries yet. Sadly though, she admitted that it wasn’t her doing already which could only mean one thing. It was my secret she was keeping.
Gulping audibly, the headmaster took his time to collect himself after the statement she made. “And afterwards your sister managed to calm you down enough so that the others could escape.”
“That’s right … which allowed me to take action as well. I tried to render Schwarz unconscious right away as we were out of immediate danger, but I didn’t succeed in doing so fast enough.” Well, that didn’t look like a truthful testimony at all, my dear Ellie. From the distance, even I could see that Schwarz was instinctively defending himself until Hannah got to them.
“Why did you fail?” The headmaster asked, still a smile on his punchable face. It was at that point that I realised one of them must have told the headmaster the truth which was hard to hide in the first place thanks to them being separated all the way.
Biting her lower lip, Ellie took a few seconds to see understand she had no other way but to tell the truth. “He defended himself.”
“I didn’t realise what she wanted to do at that time … I was confused that I couldn’t stop my magic …”
“And why was that in the first place?”
“I … it went out of control the moment it entered her body. It grew in size exponentially within seconds … until it escaped my grasp and did its own thing. It must have been her level …” or the dark feelings within her, because there were a lot of them hidden underneath the surface.
“I have never heard of such a magic.” The headmaster admitted while looking at Schwarz sternly.
“It’s … special.” It surely is. Gifts by the gods were always special after all.
“And so are you … we cannot keep such a person who risks the health of his comrades at this prestigious academy, therefore –“ said the headmaster, but he was interrupted quickly.
“Lucy … please.” Schwarz said driven close to tears. I honestly didn’t know why he was begging me out of all people and I wasn’t exactly willing to extend my hand.
“I don’t know what to say.” Or rather, nothing he did impressed me so far.
“… therefore, I have decided to-“ resumed the headmaster, but was interrupted yet again.
“Wait. I had proposed that plan … without thinking about the potential consequences.” Ellie said, which the headmaster should know about. Well, he probably didn’t voice it as he saw no need to expel two upstanding students of his.
“And I agreed.” Louis admitted as well, somehow having grown a spine over the last few days.
“Additionally, it is legal to attack an intelligent enemy with such a spell, as long as said person is an enemy of the state. We were doing a mock battle … so one could say we were testing our ability to fight off evildoers.” Ellie stated readily which did surprise me somewhat. I never took her for some legal expert, so she must have looked it up as she was holed up in her room.
Closing his eyes for a little while, the headmaster apparently thought hard about the decisions he could take after Ellie brought their involvement in the plan up.
“Then, I do have no choice but to expel all three of you and hand you over to the guards. It was a mock battle, but that doesn’t mean you can use magic with this devastating consequences.” The headmaster said which was honestly sensible. Whenever I fought with Hannah, we would make sure that she wasn’t hurt that much as well.
“But … we had helped to defend Atlantis from hordes of undead! Doesn’t that mean anything?” Ellie asked in desperation. She made the right decision to bring that up, but I could already see that it was for naught.
“It’s the sole reason the guards aren’t involved yet which I will do right now.” The headmaster said, pushing himself up a little before Schwarz spoke up yet again.
“Wait … I take full responsibility. The others didn’t know my magic was that risky.” Wow … that really surprised me. Bearing the full brunt of the punishment wasn’t a very risky move as his sentence would remain the same, but still. It was definitely not something I had expected from him.
“That doesn’t change my mind at all.” The headmaster admitted, standing up fully while I was thinking about the same. Did it change anything? I was honestly leaning a little bit towards throwing them a way because of their poor performance in the beginning, but then last few sentences showed they were indeed capable of growth. Louis and Schwarz had even put away their petty rivalry for this matter, which was honestly not something I had expected to see in my lifetime.
But was it enough?
Well, someone apparently didn’t have the same thoughts as me. Luna sat to my left the whole time, being completely ignored because she didn’t have anything to do with the matter if I was honest. But she was with us at the time, which was the reasons she was asked to attend as well.
“Lucy … do something.” She said, pulling on my attire weakly while looking into my eyes pleasantly. “They are our friends.”
Were they? They certainly weren’t mine, but it was also true that she had befriended them as well … probably not Schwarz thought. But still, I didn’t want Luna to be hurt in any way and if that meant giving them another chance, I was more than willing to do so.
“If I may say so, I also agreed to this plan.” I said which forced the headmaster to sit down right away. If there was a person he couldn’t expel at all no matter what happened, then it was me.
“But … you-“ I basically glared at Ellie a little bit, which seemed to stop her from saying that I had no clue what they were actually trying. In a sense, I really didn’t. I had expected them to attack me with water to try to force Hannah’s hand and was honestly interested in their actions until Schwarz did his thing.
“Isn’t it a bit harsh to expel them right away?” Hannah said, following my lead right away, even though she wanted Schwarz gone after he revealed all the envy deep inside her heart.
“I … I knew as well what they were trying to do.” Luna added, stunning me completely. It was true she was around when I was asked for permission, but I could smell her lie from thirty three demonic rhinos away. There was no way she had any idea what they were planning. But for them, she did lie which was maybe the first time I had seen her do it.
And with her statement, another person he couldn’t expel was on the list, forcing his hands even more.
“Schwarz, so many people vouched for you that I cannot expel them all. Make no mistake, you will get expelled the second anyone finds any fault with your actions from now on.” The headmaster valued himself a bit too highly, or so it seemed. He didn’t have the guts to expel Schwarz when I stand in his way. “As you have decided to share the burden, you all will be punished the same. Fifty hours of teaching at different schools around the city for everyone … and Schwarz will take supplementary law lessons. Is that alright with you, Miss Dove?”
“Certainly.” Hanna lied, but didn’t let anyone see it except me.
“Alright. You are dismissed. Miss Dove if you would follow me for the teachers conference? We are already a tad late.” Hannah nodded right away after he said that. Both stood up immediately and forced us to follow suit.
Hannah and the headmaster were the last ones to leave the room, but they were the first ones to leave the group as they headed straight for their next meeting.
“I … am not expelled?” Schwarz asked in disbelief which honestly made me think he was stupid. Being expelled was the last one of his worries if the headmaster had informed the guards about that matter.
“Thank you.” Luna whispered into my ear which made me smile brightly.
“I am so grateful to all of you. Make no mistake, it’s hard to return the favour, but I will be damned if I don’t.” Schwarz admitted very close to crying tears of joy.
Well then … Luna wouldn’t have much time left to hang around, so I really wished the others would stop their fussing and get away from Luna and me. It was kind of hard to tell them that exactly, so I needed something else. Something that may have the additional side effect of using what they had experienced just minutes prior.
“Hey Schwarz. You said that your magic was ‘special’ ? How do I have to understand that?” I asked while they were still busy with expressing their happiness.
“I … don’t laugh at me. But it was a gift from the god of darkness.” Nobody laughed. In fact, it was eerily silent as Ellie and Louis basically stared at Schwarz with shock in her eyes and he scratched his head embarrassed.”
“Oka-“ I said, but was immediately interrupted by Ellie, just like I wished it to be.
“I’m sorry Lucy. Do you mind if we borrow him a bit?” Certainly not. Alternatively, I could also sell him for 0,99 copper coins if she really wanted.
“Ehh. No?” I said, feigning to be a bit stunned by Ellie’s question.
“Thank you … see you around.” She said, grabbed Schwarz’s shoulders and basically pushed him away from us which Louis following her shortly behind.
“What was that about?” She asked, still looking after the three as the headed out through the distant door.
“I have absolutely no idea … is everything alright at home?” I asked, attempting to switch topics rather awkwardly.
“Lucy … it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me anything. But I want to know one thing. Did you cancel out her magic?” She asked with glee in her eyes.
“It’s called nullification field … and is also the reason why I cannot use any magic myself.” I said and noticed how she was pressing herself against me in a tight hug all of a sudden.
“Thank you so much for protecting me back then.” She said, still not letting go of me at all.
“You can always count on me.” I said, patting her back full of affection.
The headmaster sat in front of us, talking his index finger against the pricey desk and watched the six people in front of him without caring to start the hearing at all.
We already sat for around fifteen minutes there, which was probably part of his strategy to demoralise the students, but it also got on my nerves.
“So …” Another few seconds of silence. “I was told you attacked one of our teachers recklessly during a sparring match?” The headmaster asked a bit bored already.
“Yes. I used a special magic that draws out the darkness of those I hit with it … amongst other things.” Schwarz admitted and looked to the ground between his feet a bit depressed.
“Why did you learn such a disgusting magic? It’s application is completely illegal. I hope you are aware.” Magic tampering with the feelings of another intelligent being were illegal to use, that was for sure. Well, apparently for everyone but the three who were at fault for using it.
“I wasn’t aware.”
“I asked your teachers and they told me you were taught that.”
“I might not have listened.”
“That amongst other things is why you are constantly in trouble … I knew we should have stopped giving out scholarships to adventurers already.”
“I’m sorry … it … it was my fault for not thinking about the consequences of my actions.”
At least you are aware now. But that doesn’t change the fact that you broke the law.” The headmaster said, glancing at me and Hannah from time to time as if he expected us to step in. So far though, nothing I heard impressed me in any way. They were like kids, but worse as none of them was actually invested in this world. It felt like they had two value systems within them. One that looked at this world and saw a playground, and the other who actually wanted to save the world from … whatever they saw as a threat.
I usually didn’t have any problems with that, but once they started playing around with Hannah’s feelings, I knew they either had to change that, or I needed to get rid of them.
“I know I wronged you, Miss Dove. I am terribly sorry for what happened and want to apologise, regardless of the steps the academy wishes to take.” Was that apology for real though? Or would he try his next risk magic out at her once he had a chance?
“I nearly killed all of you. Do you really think an apology is enough?” Hannah snarled back, which seemed to depress Schwarz even more.
“But you didn’t. You held back.” Louis said, which was honestly a bad way to defend their group. Just because nobody was hurt, it didn’t mean everything was right.
“What are you talking about?” Oops … I assumed she remembered everything that happened, including me cancelling out every system based magic. Maybe I should have gone over everything with her beforehand.
“Your magic vanished before hitting us.” Louis said eagerly while Hannah shot me a knowing glance.
“So your defence is that it wasn’t too bad?” The headmaster asked, a smugly smile plastered all over his face.
“No … I … I just wanted to say that we did everything we could to keep damage to a minimum.”
“Which all amounted to nothing because Miss Doves attacks would have hit you, if they hadn’t vanished mysteriously. Sorry if I may say so, but your mind didn’t clear up through some mysterious power?”
“Are you questioning me?” Hannah asked with a lot of curiosity in her voice. She knew very well that the headmaster didn’t have any chance of questioning her at all under normal circumstances. But the others made it very difficult for us to threaten him openly, which did limit our options somewhat.
“No. Not all all. I am merely trying to understand what had happened. So now that we have found out it wasn’t you who stopped your magic, how did it stop?” He asked and made all the others curious as well which was honestly the worst he could do.
Hannah closed her eyes a little, thought about her answer and then faced him directly.
“It’s a state secret.” Oh my … not as bad as I assumed her reply to be, but far from what I had hoped for. Well, we could salvage this pretty easily though. It was already crystal clear she was stationed at the north and fought against the emerging threat. She could have worked for the army there … luckily we never told anyone we were with mercenaries yet. Sadly though, she admitted that it wasn’t her doing already which could only mean one thing. It was my secret she was keeping.
Gulping audibly, the headmaster took his time to collect himself after the statement she made. “And afterwards your sister managed to calm you down enough so that the others could escape.”
“That’s right … which allowed me to take action as well. I tried to render Schwarz unconscious right away as we were out of immediate danger, but I didn’t succeed in doing so fast enough.” Well, that didn’t look like a truthful testimony at all, my dear Ellie. From the distance, even I could see that Schwarz was instinctively defending himself until Hannah got to them.
“Why did you fail?” The headmaster asked, still a smile on his punchable face. It was at that point that I realised one of them must have told the headmaster the truth which was hard to hide in the first place thanks to them being separated all the way.
Biting her lower lip, Ellie took a few seconds to see understand she had no other way but to tell the truth. “He defended himself.”
“I didn’t realise what she wanted to do at that time … I was confused that I couldn’t stop my magic …”
“And why was that in the first place?”
“I … it went out of control the moment it entered her body. It grew in size exponentially within seconds … until it escaped my grasp and did its own thing. It must have been her level …” or the dark feelings within her, because there were a lot of them hidden underneath the surface.
“I have never heard of such a magic.” The headmaster admitted while looking at Schwarz sternly.
“It’s … special.” It surely is. Gifts by the gods were always special after all.
“And so are you … we cannot keep such a person who risks the health of his comrades at this prestigious academy, therefore –“ said the headmaster, but he was interrupted quickly.
“Lucy … please.” Schwarz said driven close to tears. I honestly didn’t know why he was begging me out of all people and I wasn’t exactly willing to extend my hand.
“I don’t know what to say.” Or rather, nothing he did impressed me so far.
“… therefore, I have decided to-“ resumed the headmaster, but was interrupted yet again.
“Wait. I had proposed that plan … without thinking about the potential consequences.” Ellie said, which the headmaster should know about. Well, he probably didn’t voice it as he saw no need to expel two upstanding students of his.
“And I agreed.” Louis admitted as well, somehow having grown a spine over the last few days.
“Additionally, it is legal to attack an intelligent enemy with such a spell, as long as said person is an enemy of the state. We were doing a mock battle … so one could say we were testing our ability to fight off evildoers.” Ellie stated readily which did surprise me somewhat. I never took her for some legal expert, so she must have looked it up as she was holed up in her room.
Closing his eyes for a little while, the headmaster apparently thought hard about the decisions he could take after Ellie brought their involvement in the plan up.
“Then, I do have no choice but to expel all three of you and hand you over to the guards. It was a mock battle, but that doesn’t mean you can use magic with this devastating consequences.” The headmaster said which was honestly sensible. Whenever I fought with Hannah, we would make sure that she wasn’t hurt that much as well.
“But … we had helped to defend Atlantis from hordes of undead! Doesn’t that mean anything?” Ellie asked in desperation. She made the right decision to bring that up, but I could already see that it was for naught.
“It’s the sole reason the guards aren’t involved yet which I will do right now.” The headmaster said, pushing himself up a little before Schwarz spoke up yet again.
“Wait … I take full responsibility. The others didn’t know my magic was that risky.” Wow … that really surprised me. Bearing the full brunt of the punishment wasn’t a very risky move as his sentence would remain the same, but still. It was definitely not something I had expected from him.
“That doesn’t change my mind at all.” The headmaster admitted, standing up fully while I was thinking about the same. Did it change anything? I was honestly leaning a little bit towards throwing them a way because of their poor performance in the beginning, but then last few sentences showed they were indeed capable of growth. Louis and Schwarz had even put away their petty rivalry for this matter, which was honestly not something I had expected to see in my lifetime.
But was it enough?
Well, someone apparently didn’t have the same thoughts as me. Luna sat to my left the whole time, being completely ignored because she didn’t have anything to do with the matter if I was honest. But she was with us at the time, which was the reasons she was asked to attend as well.
“Lucy … do something.” She said, pulling on my attire weakly while looking into my eyes pleasantly. “They are our friends.”
Were they? They certainly weren’t mine, but it was also true that she had befriended them as well … probably not Schwarz thought. But still, I didn’t want Luna to be hurt in any way and if that meant giving them another chance, I was more than willing to do so.
“If I may say so, I also agreed to this plan.” I said which forced the headmaster to sit down right away. If there was a person he couldn’t expel at all no matter what happened, then it was me.
“But … you-“ I basically glared at Ellie a little bit, which seemed to stop her from saying that I had no clue what they were actually trying. In a sense, I really didn’t. I had expected them to attack me with water to try to force Hannah’s hand and was honestly interested in their actions until Schwarz did his thing.
“Isn’t it a bit harsh to expel them right away?” Hannah said, following my lead right away, even though she wanted Schwarz gone after he revealed all the envy deep inside her heart.
“I … I knew as well what they were trying to do.” Luna added, stunning me completely. It was true she was around when I was asked for permission, but I could smell her lie from thirty three demonic rhinos away. There was no way she had any idea what they were planning. But for them, she did lie which was maybe the first time I had seen her do it.
And with her statement, another person he couldn’t expel was on the list, forcing his hands even more.
“Schwarz, so many people vouched for you that I cannot expel them all. Make no mistake, you will get expelled the second anyone finds any fault with your actions from now on.” The headmaster valued himself a bit too highly, or so it seemed. He didn’t have the guts to expel Schwarz when I stand in his way. “As you have decided to share the burden, you all will be punished the same. Fifty hours of teaching at different schools around the city for everyone … and Schwarz will take supplementary law lessons. Is that alright with you, Miss Dove?”
“Certainly.” Hanna lied, but didn’t let anyone see it except me.
“Alright. You are dismissed. Miss Dove if you would follow me for the teachers conference? We are already a tad late.” Hannah nodded right away after he said that. Both stood up immediately and forced us to follow suit.
Hannah and the headmaster were the last ones to leave the room, but they were the first ones to leave the group as they headed straight for their next meeting.
“I … am not expelled?” Schwarz asked in disbelief which honestly made me think he was stupid. Being expelled was the last one of his worries if the headmaster had informed the guards about that matter.
“Thank you.” Luna whispered into my ear which made me smile brightly.
“I am so grateful to all of you. Make no mistake, it’s hard to return the favour, but I will be damned if I don’t.” Schwarz admitted very close to crying tears of joy.
Well then … Luna wouldn’t have much time left to hang around, so I really wished the others would stop their fussing and get away from Luna and me. It was kind of hard to tell them that exactly, so I needed something else. Something that may have the additional side effect of using what they had experienced just minutes prior.
“Hey Schwarz. You said that your magic was ‘special’ ? How do I have to understand that?” I asked while they were still busy with expressing their happiness.
“I … don’t laugh at me. But it was a gift from the god of darkness.” Nobody laughed. In fact, it was eerily silent as Ellie and Louis basically stared at Schwarz with shock in her eyes and he scratched his head embarrassed.”
“Oka-“ I said, but was immediately interrupted by Ellie, just like I wished it to be.
“I’m sorry Lucy. Do you mind if we borrow him a bit?” Certainly not. Alternatively, I could also sell him for 0,99 copper coins if she really wanted.
“Ehh. No?” I said, feigning to be a bit stunned by Ellie’s question.
“Thank you … see you around.” She said, grabbed Schwarz’s shoulders and basically pushed him away from us which Louis following her shortly behind.
“What was that about?” She asked, still looking after the three as the headed out through the distant door.
“I have absolutely no idea … is everything alright at home?” I asked, attempting to switch topics rather awkwardly.
“Lucy … it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me anything. But I want to know one thing. Did you cancel out her magic?” She asked with glee in her eyes.
“It’s called nullification field … and is also the reason why I cannot use any magic myself.” I said and noticed how she was pressing herself against me in a tight hug all of a sudden.
“Thank you so much for protecting me back then.” She said, still not letting go of me at all.
“You can always count on me.” I said, patting her back full of affection.
