Upon hearing Roy, one of the tall boys rolled up his sleeves, casually sauntered up to the short and plumb boy and violently shoved him against the wall.
“What did you say, you bright loaf?”
Roy cackled in place. “I-I-I-I.”
“Let him go, Alvareth!” The room froze. Goireman’s voice had such a scene-altering affect, you’d think she cast a spell. But no, everyone stopped talking and stepped out of her path toward Roy of their own free will.
When she stopped, the intensity of her presence made the Roy seem smaller, and she stared with earnest intensity. “Who claims that my fire affinity is poor?”
Holding onto his own neck, Roy, quite surprisingly, tossed his gaze to someone in the room. As such, the high class lads and ladies pointed their attention to the rear.
Goireman peered back and across the room. In no time at all, they were all staring at none other than Krixis, who had somehow managed to keep his nose in his book throughout. And just like that, they had a new target for their outrage. With the same cold step, Goireman approached Krixis with her entourage in tow. However, they seemed less beliggerent toward Krixis than Roy.
In stillness, standing not but a few steps away, she slowly pulled the boy’s attention from his book without saying a thing. He eventually, glanced up and gave her the attention she clearly desired, but before either of them could utter a single word, the boy named Alvareth had to balk.
“Where do you find the audacity to berate Lady Goireman’s magic?”
Krixis’s mug was more confusion than care. “What did I berate and who said I berated it?”
“He’s right over here.” One of Alvareth’s friends shoved Roy closer as if he were a prisoner but couldn’t move him fast enough due to the boy’s weight. Goireman, meanwhile, grit her teeth at the lot of them.
One glance at Roy, and Krixis rolled his eyes. “What did you say to them, Roy?”
“You said Goireman’s fire affinity was lacking, and I asked her if it was true. That’s all,” he blabbered while sweating.
“Why would you ask such a silly question—“
“I knew it,” Alvareth started.
“…and expect them to be honest,” Krixis finished.
Before either Alvareth or one of his louts could give words to their scowls, Goireman jumped to retort, “Then it is not enough to question my affinity but my integrity to boot! Where do you muster the nerve?”
What I found funny about her angry reply was the manner in which all her sycophants held their waists. Up until this point, they were all angry on her behalf. Now, they stood as one.
“It’s getting interesting, isn’t it,” Elise commented with quiet excitement.
Interesting… turbulent… I suppose they can mean the same thing.
Myself, I looked on with growing concern about that fact that both Krixis and Roy were surrounded by bullies who were growing angrier by the second. Surprisingly, impressively, Krixis’s face barely changed throughout tense exchange. Faced down by annoying boys and bitches, none of it seemed to matter. Where he stood up, he stood his ground at eye level with Alvareth before meeting Goireman’s intense gaze.
“I have seen your magecraft, Goireman,” he said. “Your water spells are brilliant, probably the best in Cinderall if not the whole of Baumwolland.” I could tell that she wanted to pat herself on the back. “But I saw your fire spells as well, and how you spare extra breath for every ignition. Your energy declines with much greater haste, so much so that the moment you fire off a complex incantation, you leave nothing else. You try to hide fatigue with that posh face, but I see it. These fawners would probably see it too if your family’s coin fell out of their pockets.
For the first time, Goireman grit her teeth, a sign that she was smoldering in silence. Hence, Alvareth rose to the occasion. “That’s a hefty club of nonsense falling from your mouth, Heidrich. In the realm of fire incantation, the lady’s spells are among the finest in Cinderfall.”
Krixis scanned Alvareth up and down. “Maybe, if you could conjure anything past a fireball, you would have realized that Goireman is struggling, Alvareth.”
“What did you become the professor?”
“I know how the word of power works.”
“Theory? Or would you fare well in a bout?”
“I do not need to fan my own flames.”
“Then why don’t we put your fire to the test?”
“But unsanctioned duels on school grounds are expressly forbidden!” Roy interjected.
Goireman casually reasserted herself. “The round one is right, Alvareth.”
It is true. Not only in Cinderfall but by decree of the archcouncil, unsupervised duels in academia are subject to strict punishments. I believe that punishment could extend to the teachers for negligence. However, I never knew all of the details.
30Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUmaq8X8C5
“If thou art crude enough to question your betters, you shan’t fly from a contest.” Alvareth peered directly at Roy. “Maybe you want to test your mettle with that crude mouth of yours, freshman?”
Roy stepped back, growing paler by the second.
I felt a squeeze on my shoulder. “Want me to save your boyfriend? Watch this!” Elise stepped off.
“Where are you going? WHAT BOYFRIEND? HEY!” I felt that I could never predict the actions of that crazy girl.
You know what Elise did? Without hesitation, she carelessly sauntered directly up to the mob until she was in the midst of their little bout. And everyone slammed her with the eyes of haughty confusion. They were as clueless as I. Elise, on the other hand, fired a super rare gaze of apathy. Their identities as the children of magelords did not matter. It was the same set of eyes with which she beheld Roy on their first meeting. Except now, they carried more heart upon seeing him. But then her gaze changed completely when they fell upon Alvareth. And she delivered her lines with the air of a scornful mother.
“It’s about time for us to study, Roy.” She motioned for him to follow while he looked on nervously. The poor little zealot was too scared to move until Elise tugged him by his tunic.
“Who is he to you, your betrothed?” Alvareth slyly commented. And all of his lackeys chuckled, including the little harpies behind him. Even through their high-pitched giggling, they attempted the illusion of grace by covering their mouths. They all looked down. The nerve... Only Goireman did not laugh. She probably didn’t know how to laugh.
“What if he is?” Elise fired back.
Alvareth’s brow rose. “What an amusing jest.”
“No, no, no… our parents betrothed us at the old age of twelve” Elise walked around Roy and held him around his belly. Being nearly a head taller than him, she couldn’t have made him more akward or uncomfortable as his face turned sanguine. “I am to be his wife upon his graduation, neither of which you shall achieve, it seems.”
“This bumbling oaf is your husband to be? What do you take us for?”
“Are you jealous?”
“Why would I be jealous, low-born?”
“There you go again,” Elise snickered. “If you had any gift beyond your birthright, you wouldn’t be so eager to risk your Cinderfall emblem over a small contest. And the girl you fancy—” Elise looked Goireman in the eye, “wouldn’t be offended by Heidrich if his words weren’t ture, now would she? ‘Tis the single leisure of your type to stress your pride. Have you nothing better to do during the free weeks?”
Alvareth, hitherto haughty and fiery, lost some of his composure. Elise had swung him a few verbal strikes. It was just a matter of which one offended him the most. But, it was obvious the moment he fired back.
“I do not fancy Goireman! But the impudence of your lot demands satisfaction!”
“Unfortunate!” Elise, folding a frowny, peered around alvareth and over at Goireman again. “Seems he does not fancy you back. Sorry, madame.”
Dumbstruck, alvareth turned around to address the freshman pride of Cinderfall with a soft voice and puppy dog eyes. “‘Tis true?”
Goireman facepalmed and breathed out the most tired sigh. Less than a second later, Alvareth realized he had been tricked, for he turned back around and inhaled Elise with all his ire. Elise was already grinning with feigned oblivion. So then and there, Alvareth gained at least several creases on his forehead. The look on his face was furious.
“Here’s something to laugh about,” he seethed.
I was slow to realize what was happening, because my ears did not catch what Alvareth had said next… because it was an incantation. He uttered it quickly. And in the blink of an eye, he summoned fire at his fingertips.
Images of a burnt and scarred Elise flashed before my eyes, so my legs did what they normally failed to do. They burst forth with speed. Yet long before Alvareth could finish reciting his incantation, another figure slapped him silly in a flash, knocking his head back and ending the incantation and the flames with it.
I stopped in my tracks and stumbled over the table.
“You couldn’t even catch my hand approaching your face,” Krixis chided. “You’ll never summon a strong flame at that rate.”
Holding his cheek from the surprise sting, Alvareth took a moment to recover from the shock of the attack. Meanwhile, the entire room was stared at him in stunned anticipation. He had every reason to be emberassed. Thus, as he lay burning eyes on Krixis, his hand curled into a fist.
The doors creaked open.
“What goes on here?”
At those words, every student with a pair of legs stood to attention. Call it painful discipline since nobody would move after that. The man who entered was special in that his head could almost reach the ceiling. A scar covered his left eyelid, yet his gaze was sharp enough to pierce the entire room with a heavy aura. It pierced with a scowl, as if he had seen everything from the next room. No one said anything; none were brave enough to peer in his general direction, for he was a professor
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and then Add to home screen.