Alira sent yet another silent tribute to Cion, who had already left the Academy days ago. Thanks to him exposing someone’s exploitation, she now had the upper hand and didn’t have to make another deal with the devil to use his power.

  It was Friday—the last day of the third week, and the day of the first magic practical test, and she was back at the entrance of Vesper Reign forest again with the rest of First Class. They stood before a steel gate with fences extending on both sides around the boundary of the forest.

  Whispers from the other students crawled around her. In their defense, their words were as soft as they could get, and Alira would be spared from the contents if not for her sharp ears. The fact that Maria, sticking to Alira’s side like she wanted to become a sling bag, wasn’t glaring at them could only mean that she didn’t hear them.

  Maria’s overprotectiveness has also leveled up...

  Everyone from First Class, minus Lillian, had gathered up at this late hour. Alira and Maria formed a group, standing out from the crowd. Raine leaned against a tree at the edge of the main group of huddled students. Alira wondered if he could hear what the students were buzzing about.

  Alira and Lillian...to Raine.

  It genuinely surprised her how they could be so chatty even with their first test in mere minutes. Clearly, she’d underestimated teenagers’ love for gossip—especially one that involved an alleged love triangle with two noblewomen and a genius commoner. Not to mention one of them being MIA.

  Though it could also be that they were simply keeping occupied to distract themselves from the test. After all, Professor Sigor had not disclosed a single detail about the test, and he himself had yet to show up.

  Alira wasn’t nervous despite having put in zero effort to advance her magic. She was in no place to meditate even if she wanted to. Trying to clear her thoughts was a dangerous thing to do at this moment, as it might welcome unwanted imageries instead.

  Contrary to what the new students might feel, the first semester’s tests weren’t anything to worry about at all. The Academy wouldn’t want to kick out too many students, more specifically, those who were noble children, way too early. From the novel, Alira recalled that they just had to find a way to materialize an element in areas lit by beacons, which was as easy as it could get with access to the forest’s mana supply.

  Not that Alira could do that, still stuck at the stage where she could barely feel her element. The twist that was implemented to subtly please the nobles was that the students were allowed to use artifacts to accomplish that. A pay-to-win option to pass the test.

  Alira had Xia, an Imperial Mage, in her pocket. Literally. All she had to do was find a beacon in a cleared space to manifest the smallest spark of his fire to pass without burning the entire forest down. Alira’s tail stilled as she sensed a presence a beat before it made its entrance.

  Golden lights burst like a fireworks display, each spark turning into familiar glimmering butterflies. The swarm stood between the student group and the forest gate, parting as Professor Sigor stepped out from the swirling shades of gold. It was a glamorous entrance fitting with a light mage.

  Alira had dug around a bit about the professors and important figures just because. According to her research, Professor Sigor’s first element was light, and the second element was spatial. The butterflies themselves were spatial Spirit Familiars likely chosen to enhance his weaker element.

  “Greetings, younglings. I got dragged behind my schedule because some people couldn’t see an agreement faster than they had.” Professor Cion’s eyes glided over the crowd, stopping briefly on Alira and a few other students, looking even less pleased than he had a moment ago. “I told you lots not to come if you can’t even materialize your element, yet here you are. Whatever. It’s your time wasted more than mine,” he said with a scoff.

  Despite the trick up her sleeve, Alira felt her stomach sink with a sudden premonition when the professor continued.

  “This year’s test will be different from the last ones your seniors had seen,” he said, “In fact, quite a few other things will change for your intake as you will find out later. For now, let us focus on the test at hand.”

  Well, shit.

  Professor Cion didn’t give her more than a second to panic as he spread his hand, spreading it across the crowd before him. A total of twenty golden butterflies hovering around him split from the swarm to flutter forward, each moving to stop before a student.

  Alira welcomed the one heading to her with open palms. The small flying insect landed on her gloved palms. A closer look revealed that the golden light was surrounding the butterfly like a cloud of mist. The body of the butterfly, however, was actually transparent and mostly colorless except for the iridescent glitters thinly coated on its wings.

  “While some of you may already be aware, these butterflies of mine are one Spirit Familiar—to clarify, the entire horde is a collective creature. The topic of Spirit Familiar was previously reserved for your second semester, but the board had decided to move it forward to be combined with the Preliminary Mage module. It’s sudden, but it’s what it is.” Professor Cion turned to walk through the gates, stepping into the forest.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Follow me.”

  Alira winced, being able to guess the reason why. The combination of the Academy being infiltrated, along with a student getting kidnapped, was bound to bring about drastic measures.

  She joined the group at the back with a sigh. Heavy shadows enveloped her at once the moment she took one step past the gate, leaving behind the man-made light outside the forest. Just like last time, the magic practical class was conducted late at night when the Moon was out, since that was when mana was most ample and pure.

  “We’re three weeks behind, so no better time to get started than now,” Professor Cion said. “Vesper Reign forest is one of the Empire’s richest pools of Spirit Familiars. As the Academy students, you’ve already reserved your rights to them.”

  “How many Familiars are allowed to be contracted per student?” a student asked, interrupting him with little regard.

  Alira knew exactly why when she caught a glance at the student, Ilran Frostil, if she remembered his name correctly. Pointy ears. Tall build. Strict posture. An elf—the only elf in First Class. Elves of Staywes were naturally free-spirited, according to the novel. Most disdained any of their kin working for someone else to be tied to a society that wasn’t their own.

  From her own scooping around, Alira also found out that elves were generally not permitted to leave Elven High before their age turned triple digits. Professor Sigor, with his youthful appearance, clearly hadn’t.

  He paid no mind to the elven student’s disrespect. “You may contract with as many as you want during the permitted visit—if you can earn their favor, that is. Any other questions?”

  “The butterflies are both your guide and your invigilator,” he continued, seeing no one else speaking up. “Here we stood inside the safe area where you won’t encounter any familiars. You will have to go past the boundary into the forest’s depth, which the butterflies will indicate with a flash of blue light, to complete the objective of your test and contract with at least one Spirit Familiar. Any will do; none will fail you.”

  The forest around them lit up a calm blue as the butterflies changed their hue in demonstration. Then they shifted once again to an angry red.

  “The deeper you go, the stronger the familiars will be; when the butterflies shine red, you’ve gone past the second inner circle of the forest and must retreat at once. Linger, and you’ll be disqualified.”

  “Why?” the same voice interrupted him yet again.

  “Because not all of the familiars are amicable. Some can and will kill you,” Professor Sigor said as a matter of fact, without a hint of personal feeling. “Two things,” he held up two fingers, which almost earned a chuckle from Alira due to how cute the professor looked doing a peace sign, “You must not harm the familiar except in self-defense—under no situation are you allowed to kill a Spirit, doing which will lead to disqualification. You must also keep the damage to the forest to a minimum. Run and hide if you must. If you can’t escape any danger encountered, you may ask the butterfly for help, though doing so would result in failure. You may group, but know that the presence of more people would alert the familiars. And that’s it. Well, unless I forgot something. The test begins now. You have until sunrise when your invigilator will escort you out of the forest.”

  Alira snapped toward Maria at that, just a move faster than the girl. “You heard him,”

  “But miss—”

  “No butts!” Alira got to her feet, already heading west toward the underground chamber where Hollowed Mirror was found. Surely, that was where she could score something good. “Don’t follow me!” she shouted. She preferred not to have anyone around if she ever needed to use Xia.

  Better safe than sorry.

  “Oh, right,” Professor Sigor spoke, freezing the dispersing students in their step. “There’s an area in the west that is off-limits with fences around it. Climbing over things that are obviously meant to deter people from climbing will cost you your seat in the Academy. It counts the same as going too deep into the forest.”

  Tsk. Too bad.

  With no other target in mind, Alira glanced in the direction where Raine was leaving and took the opposite path. Knowing he attracted trouble with his Role, it made complete sense to go the other way. She strolled off, not before giving Maria one last look of warning.

  The forest regained its stillness once again as she left behind the remaining group of students who had yet to decide where to head. Professor Sigor’s butterfly took its spot right on top of her head, resting there to act as her living headlamp.

  “Hey, you there?” Alira called out when she was certain of being alone. Silence greeted her, but Alira knew he was there, a blend of toasted nut and warm herbs lingering in her senses. “Dude.”

  { Dude? Am I getting demoted from ‘hey’? }

  “What do you think?” Alira rolled her eyes and wished he could see it.

  Xia laughed as if he could.

  { Do you need me to accompany your little stroll? I wouldn’t say no. It’s rather boring on my side. }

  “Just be ready when I need to use your flame,” Alira said. She was confident in her ability to outrun most things, but who knew what strange familiar called this forest home. Having little interest in magic that couldn’t help her go back, Alira didn’t have additional knowledge about Spirit Familiars apart from what she knew from the novel.

  Raine had one that protected his soul from corruption despite it already being under the protection of the Gods and the plot armor as Staywes’s protagonist. It’d be nice if she could find one like that. The only threats she had to look out for were those that could corrupt her soul, after all. Anything else was taken care of by the duke’s Bind—for better or for worse.

  { My flame’s yours to command as long as you don’t mind getting burnt. }

  Cold, dead air settled when Xia’s voice faded away, the noiselessness of the forest haunting her lone footsteps. Every now and then, a small breeze blew away leaves fresh and dry, whistles and crunches resounding around her. With the butterfly’s soft gleam lighting her way, the safe zone seemed to span endlessly with no lives other than hers and the other students lost somewhere unseen.