A boy in a red coat cast an ice spell at Freidrech."Don"t," yelled the man in the blue coat but it was too late. The spell had been sent and less than a minute the caster was covered in ice instead. Hence, he couldn"t move his body but his eyes could. The caster was struck stupid to witness his own prey freely escaped, while he, the hunter, fell in his own snare.
"This is so annoying. Out of impulse, I attacked and now I"ll be caught. But where did I go wrong?" The caster was in deep thoughts. He was also concerned with the man in flames, but he couldn"t move.
The blue-coated guy was aghast to spectate such sinister outcome. That student hailed as one of the best mages in school had his spell literally backfired.
"d.a.m.n, you, Deimer. You already know what to expect after casting that spell," said the man in the blue coat to the mage student. His worries were not on Freidrech"s escape but the next to occur. He looked up to the barrier. "Oh, no, it is responding. Run!"
What he saw was a portion of the barrier lighted and shoot a streak of light to the frozen caster, including the surrounding five steps from where he stood and engulfed him. When the light subsided, the student had disappeared.
The truth of the matter, the barrier"s ruling was to protect all of the academy"s students. Therefore, it attacked Fred"s attacker and teleported to the school"s delinquent area, where his abilities were sealed.
Although he was a student and also under the barrier"s protection but attacking another student was not tolerated ever since the time immemorial this barrier was erected. Even a prince or a teacher was not an exemption, aside from the king, school headmaster, and the Griftein Knights.
With this situation, Fred had to thank the blue-coated guy for sending the outsider to fetch him, or he too would be marked as a delinquent on his first day in the royal academy.
In fact, the blue-coated guy was annoyed for sending his father"s man to Fred with the thought that his cla.s.smates would recall a student"s face and foil their plan. If he knew Fred would dare attack someone in school, he could have baited him to do so. And from the delinquent area, he would plan his next move.
As for Freidrech, he was totally ignorant of the rules and its effect as a new student. He didn"t even remember Theo mentioning this yesterday. All he could think now was saving his neck and run for his life. He hardly had time to spare a glance to the shouting behind him. His life was more important.
"Everyone, run after him but don"t attack or you"ll be caught as well," said the blue-coated student.
While running near the administration building, Fred saw students running toward him and somewhat felt relieved. He a.s.sumed they heard the commotion and came to investigate. Unfortunately, the heat on his chest was burning hot.
"Darn. It"s still my first day in school. Why attack me? What have I done?"
Fred felt so helpless. He knew he had no strength to fight against a big crowd with nothing else on hand but small candles and red fire speckles. Right at this time, he wished he had the physical strength to fight like his own father. But why was he born weak and no magic affinity at all? Curse his life, he thought.
The only body parts he could rely on right now were his own two legs. Thank goodness, his father made him run for hours before sunrise and after sunset ever since he learned how to run. Somehow, he never enjoyed, not even the least of being thankful when his father was still alive, which saddened him now. The only thing he could do was pray mentally, thanking his father.
His sprint was quite fast, leaving his pursuers in the dust.
One time in the past, he accidentally angered a bull lion, one of the fastest animal in this world Zeirean, with one of his flying contraption experiments. The beast went in a rampage, running after him all over the village and out to the nearby forest.
In the end, the beast stopped due to exhaustion after running for an hour while Fred was no longer in his line of sight. The villagers had a good laugh that day and even bet on him to win a prize if there was a running compet.i.tion.
With this, he avoided the group of pursuers easily and turned right when he reached the stadium, all the way to Theo"s building.
Fred thought of shouting to get Theo"s and everyone"s attention but…
"Riddle guy, over here." Fred turned to the caller"s voice and saw Amerth standing behind a tree. He ran to him and Amerth threw a flat disc as big as a saucer to the ground between Fred and the pursuing students.
As the disc hit the ground, a bluish smoke came out from it and stopped the pursuer"s on their tracks.
"Stun smoke." "Run." "Don"t use magic," the pursuers yelled and ran in different directions to avoid it.
Both Amerth and Freidrech didn"t stay to watch. They hurriedly ran to their target building and almost collided with Brant, Theo, and a teacher as they turned a corner of the building.
Theo"s presence with the others relieved Amerth and Freidrech and ceased running. They leaned on the wall, breathless.
"What happened?" asked the prince.
"Those…," Fred pointed where the smoke was still present. He was gasping for air between words, "students… tried to attack me," said Fred.
Theo and others looked where he pointed and saw no one but the bluish smoke.
"There"s no one there."
"Are you sure?" Freidrech and Amerth looked back where they had left and indeed, Theo was telling the truth.
"I saw them with my own eyes. They were running after riddle guy that"s why I threw that stun smoke," said Amerth in defense.
Theo glanced at the middle-aged teacher.
"I"ll go to the security room and check for any disturbance detected earlier," said the teacher.
They waited and the teacher came back half an hour later, telling them to go home for now. Minutes after that, there was a school-wide announcement. All cla.s.ses were suspended. Specific persons were also called to report to the administration office.
Theo thought of going to the office to know the truth, but he couldn"t leave Freidrech to go home by himself after the incident. Amerth and their other three cla.s.smates wished to accompany him as well. Hence, they all went to the stables for their horses but Wenti used her family carriage.
"I"m sorry, Fred," Theo said as he pulled his horse from his separate stable. Fred"s horse was there as well. The other students went to the school"s common stable.
"Why are you sorry?"
"I think this is all my fault."
"Your fault? Why?" he said, turning his head to Theo, who was looking down on his feet. This disheartened Fred. "Theo, am I your friend or what?"
Theo frowned. "Your friend, but I… since you say the people trying to harm you were students then there is only one reason for that. Because you"re my study companion."
Before Fred could answer, the school"s paging system rang again and an announcement followed, "Lord Amberdrift, please come to the office right now."
"Me? Why?" asked Freidrech to the call.
"We better go and see. However, I felt they have someone use sheinbinne but I could be wrong as well," Theo blurted it in the spur of the moment as the word sheinbinne crept in his mind as the hidden unharnessed ability of his appeared again.
"Sheinbinne?" asked Fred. This could be something useful to him in the future and added to his exploration mental list.
Amerth came in the conversation after he heard the call. "It"s an ability to see a person"s memory in the last two days."
"What?" Fred"s eyes grew big. "They will have someone look into my mind to see what I saw in the last two days?"
"No way. They might see the flowers. This will be disastrous." Fred couldn"t bear to have his secret exposed, including the inner forewarning he had.
"The announcement didn"t say that. Don"t a.s.sume and judge. My mother said that. So, we better go first and check," said Wenti, walking to join the group of boys. Brant and Niall followed behind.
"I hope they won"t do that. That is totally invading my personal and private life. No way. I won"t succ.u.mb to such hara.s.sment."
"I didn"t say I was definite. I could be wrong," said helplessly by Theo.
"Stop whining, just go and see first," said Brant, placing his arm on Fred"s shoulders, putting Theo at the side.
Theo couldn"t believe this. They disregarded him, the Prince Theodrech.
Setting these students aside, he was happy to see Fred befriended his cla.s.smates in one meeting but for him to forget Theo and left him by himself, like someone not worth noticing, made Theo dispirited. He was Fred"s first friend here. Not them. He should be with Fred, doing the buddy thing.
Then Fred looked back. "Theo, why are you walking behind? You"re the prince. Come, and meet my cla.s.smates."
"We already know him," said Wenti, wriggling her nose and checking her fingernails.
"Hey! He"s my boss and my friend. Do you want me to let you walk all by yourself at the back?" said Fred to Wenti, who pointed her chin up at Theo. However, this made Theo happy. Fred defended him.
Theo hurriedly pulled down Brant"s arm from Fred and stood between them. "Come on, guys and lady. Let"s go together and see why they called Sir Amberdrift," said Theo smilingly.
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Sheinbinne - /Sheyn-bin/ - an ability to see a person"s memory in the last two days.
Deimer of Beeleizal - /Dey-mer of Bi-ley-zal/ - a third-year mage student, aspiring to enter the king"s exclusive royal mage.
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