Chapter 71: Chapter 71 - Emergency Announcement
[Claire Bladeheart POV]
"The attack was quite intense, Sullyvan ripped off his own left hand so he wouldn't be arrested at the moment."
"What?!? This is crazy, not even Marcois tried to do something like that when he attacked Arthur... Did something else happen?"
"Yeah, he used water magic he shouldn't, I mean... According to the records at Xyrus Academy, he should be pretty bad at spells that need intense concentration. So him doing something like that was extreme..."
"My God, and you were used to activate that same spell you used against us in training?"
I still remembered well the conversations we had yesterday. Tessia, Me and Luz, the three of us were discussing with Director Goodsky how we would react to situations like this. Would we be allowed to use more aggressive attacks? Could we try to talk to the students before the whole situation gets worse? Should we give notice in an announcement about what happened?
Our Director said that she would think about it and this afternoon she would call us again to decide how to deal with all this, for now I could only accept her words "You must calm down, all this happened in a single afternoon, and at least As far as we know, so far the attacks have been against Luz and Arthur only. You guys need to rest, so we'll think more clearly tomorrow."
At the moment I was in my room, sitting on a chair next to my bed. I had barely been able to sleep, the whole situation made me too anxious. The only time I fell asleep was at 2 am, and now it was 5 am, that is, I could only sleep for 3 hours.
I got up, still yawning, and headed to the bathroom for a morning shower. The warm water provided with two mana gems, one of fire and the other of water, was enough to calm me down a little more.
I was staring at the bathroom wall, while the water ran down my body, I had a thought that I didn't like so much... "Did they have a lot of fun....?"
I managed to focus my thoughts on the possible group of racists we have here at the academy, and now the focus of my mind was on what had happened with Luz and Kathyln. The two of them had a date, that's for sure, and I know Luz is a kind person, he couldn't say no to Kathyln's request to spend the whole Saturday with him...
But then... Why am I feeling bad about this? Am I really... jealous?
No... Wait, he's my mentor, I'm really jealous that my mentor is spending time with someone besides me...? Why am I feeling this way? This is so weird!!!
These confused thoughts just reminded me of that other day, when he and I were alone after our training with the others...
~~~ Flashback [Alternative Chapter 62] ~~~
I had just left the training room with Luz, my face was sweating a lot and I started to hit his back. "YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU KNEW A LANCE PERSONALLY!!"
"O-ouch!" he exclaimed and glared at me as he started walking again. "I mentioned something like that to you before. And don't hit your mentor for such a silly reason, please."
I gave a sigh and continued walking with him, we were heading towards the DC's officers. I was confused as to what he was wanting to see before returning to the training room, but also my curiosity was stronger than usual.
"So... What will you get?" I asked him.
"It's just a few things I have to deliver to Gideon, I remember now that he asked for these things to be in his office before lunch time." he answered me while massaging his own shoulder.
"I see, I hope the people don't get mad that you left so suddenly without giving a more appropriate justification." I commented as we entered the first floor of the building, no one there.
"Relax, Alea and Virion are my friends and they've worked with me, they know that when I need to get out of a workout it's because the reason is urgent." He answered me and we were going up to the second floor.
"You talk so casually about them. My God, are you a forgotten elf prince by chance?" I made a comment, entering DC's Office and heading towards his room, there didn't seem to be anyone else here, we were alone.
"Maybe...?" He said playfully, showing the tip of his tongue.
It took a few minutes, but then he grabbed some parchments and left his room. "Sorry for the delay, I had forgotten I left these things under the bed... I was looking like crazy in the closet."
"I understand..." I commented with a sigh and we left DC's Office, but then something happened that I didn't expect.
I ended up tripping over my own foot and falling to the floor of the second floor hallway, but not only that, I had fallen on top of Luz, knocking him down too. I stared at him for a bit and he did the same, my cheeks getting pretty red, while his got a slight blush.
I didn't know what to do, I was extremely confused, but soon he stroked my cheek. "Are you okay, Claire? That fall was pretty hard, huh?"
"H-hey! I was the one who was supposed to say that... After all, you broke my fall..." I was still embarrassed that I had fallen out of nowhere, but he sat on the floor and looked at me, smiling.
"Relax, Claire. Everyone does something silly like this at some point." he was still smiling at me.
My god, why does he always act this way?! Even though I am older, he is my mentor and treats me like a child... Why?... Why do you do this?...
And why... Why do I like this?!?!
He's always been that way with me and he's never changed, no matter how good I am or how clumsy I get, he's always kind to me and I feel comfortable around him... No wonder I was extremely happy when he decided not to be the captain, so I could show what I'm capable of.
"You said... That... Everyone will do something silly at some point, right?..." I looked him in the eye.
"Yes, why?" his brows lifted, confused as to where I was going with this conversation.
"Can I...do something more silly than tripping over the floor?" my face got closer to his and I feel more heat in my cheeks.
He didn't seem to react much to what I did, but before our lips touched, he put his hand in front of me, covering my mouth as it created a kind of dome of sound around us.
"W-wait.. WHAT WAS I TRYING TO DO?!?!" I thought, blushing immensely, embarrassed by it and thanking all the possible gods that he had stopped me from kissing him.
I looked around to understand the sound barrier, until I noticed Lance Aureate, she, for some reason, was now in the same hallway as us. She looks around, confused, looking for something, until she looks our way.
"Um... Hello? Did something happen?" She asked.
"Oh! Sorry, I just tripped over something." Luz answered her, but he still kept his hand over my mouth, covering it so I could say nothing.
"Uh... Why are you using an illusion spell?" When she asked that, I understood, so that we wouldn't get into an awkward moment, Luz decided to cast an illusion spell.
"But wait, I heard that she is the most powerful in sensory magic among all the Lances, HOW IS LUZ HIDING US?!?!" I thought, confused and extremely distressed to see that Luz had decided to completely ignore the elf's question.
"Okay... I'll... Go back to the princess' training room... Want to come with me?" she asked curiously.
To get around the situation he made an excuse that he was too tired and, still with the illusion active, went with me back to the DC's office. As he closed the door, he deactivated the illusion magic and went to sit in one of the chairs there, I followed him, still ashamed of what I had done.
"I-I'm sorry... I don't know what I was thinking at that moment I just-" I tried to explain myself, but he put a finger in front of my mouth, as if to keep me quiet for a moment.
"Don't worry, Cupcake, I know how you're feeling... Lily and Kathy are in the same situation as you..." When he said, my eyes widened, filling me with more confusion.
He soon spoke, as if reading my mind. "As you said to me the other day... I cook, fight, teach... I'm a warrior, an adventurer and an extremely technical mage... I'm the kind of person everyone would like to have. And some could want me, in the sense of love..." he sighed before continuing. "The three of you are people I've helped a lot and grown very close to. And you're extremely grateful for me... But we're all still 'kids' so you might be confusing true love with gratitude."
"Why are you saying this?" I asked, still processing everything he said.
"Because I also said these same things to both of them... I wouldn't want to return someone's love, when in fact it was just gratitude and not true love... You have to be sure if it's love or not... If it is... I will gladly accept and try to repay as best I can... I'm extremely bad at saying no, to people who truly love me, deep in their hearts... So..."
"So you would have multiple girlfriends?" I asked now understanding the situation, getting kind of sad and... Feeling jealous... Oh my god, do I really feel something for my own mentor?
"Don't see this as a dirty-minded thing... Please... You know very well that I'm the type that wants everyone to be okay... So, by that logic, I would only be accepting multiple people because I don't want to see the heart of anyone torn apart by a rejection." He explained it to me, making me calm down a bit. "And... If a person in my 'group' decide to leave.. I wouldn't be against it, as long as the person feels right to do so, I wouldn't be able to stop it. But one thing is for sure... If really that happens, if I have more than one special person, I'll give the best to all of them... No one would be left out..."
"Why are you like this?...." I asked, wanting to understand my mentor more, we've never had a conversation about feelings before, so I don't know how he thinks about it.
"Because I've seen and felt the feeling... Of abandonment... Of disappointment... I don't want anyone to feel this way..." I looked into his eyes, seeing tears welling up as he spoke. "I... I don't ever want... Someone to feel this way... If I can do something I'll try to do it... As much as possible..... Call me selfish... the desire to want everyone happy is extremely selfish... I accept that..."
I've never seen him crying like that before, I stretched out my arms and felt, I could feel a huge weight coming from him, it was like he was in pure pain and agony, like he'd never thrown that pain away, and now he was, he was crying and hugging me tight. I stroked his hair in response, seeing the situation I found myself in.
~~~ End of FlashBack ~~~
Yeah... I was really jealous that he spent all day with Kathyln... But from what he told me before, she's a weird case...
She seems to have become obsessed with him, and one of the ways this obsession didn't interfere so much in our relationships as students was to at least give her what she wanted all this time. It seems that whenever he is close to Kathy, he will be listening and being ultra friendly with her, so that the princess doesn't want him tied to her or even worst... so she won't try to attack any of us personally.
As for Lilia's case... I honestly calmly accepted that. As far as I know, they've both known each other since they were very young and she was one of the first people he trusted about the abnormal things he can do. In addition, Lilia is a smart and very rational person for the way she has been acting these two years.
"Yoo, Claire! Are you awake?" My mind snapped out of the sea of thoughts when I heard a door slam and a voice calling out to me.
I realized that I was already out of the bathroom, but still with the towel covering my body, unconsciously I had apparently already dried myself, as if it was something automatic that was so routine. "Yes, I am. What is it?" I replied.
"It's already 7 am and you're usually wide awake at 6. I just came to see if you were okay." When the person said that, I finally realized, it was Arthur.
"Wait... 7 am? But wasn't it 5 am?!? I took a shower and was floating in my thoughts for a whole 2 hours?!?!" I thought, surprised at the way I was acting, really the idea of not thinking about yesterday's attacks was an extreme success in a way.
"Oh, sorry! I just went to sleep this morning, I was working on some things with Luz and Tessia. I woke up for now!" I tried to explain as I dropped my towel and got dressed as quickly as possible in my uniform.
"Okay, I should apologize, I didn't know you guys stayed up so late to sort out that situation, anyway, I made some pancakes for breakfast." Arthur said from the other side of the door.
"Great, at least pancakes can get me out of those two situations!" I thought, referring to the attacks and the date Luz and Kathyln had.
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[Tessia Eralith POV]
{Next day - Beginning of the second half of the second school month.}
It was morning, around 6 o'clock, me and the entire student council were in the central room of our sector, having breakfast and discussing a little about what we were going to talk about in the urgent announcement that we would have before classes today. Yesterday, on Sunday, Master Cynthia told us that an emergency announcement would be better, and with her permission, we called the attention of several students present on campus to give importance to this.
Because there are students who decide to visit their families on weekends, everyone on the student council put up posters at the entrances to the school and dormitories. We wanted as many students as possible in the big auditorium.
Half an hour passed and the disciplinary committee knocked on our door to warn us that we had better go to the auditorium, so the two groups went there together. I was walking next to Arthur, while Lilia accelerated her walking a little, getting a little ahead of me, along with Luz and Claire.
Fable and Jarrod decided to talk to Feyrith and Doradrae, since they were the DC officers who weren't 100% human, they seemed to ask about opinions regarding a future student council project, which had not yet gotten out the paper. Clive walked a little behind us, walking with Kai, he seemed irritated by the situation. For him the main reason Arthur and Luz were attacked in the Sarturday was just because they were commoners, I still couldn't believe how he claimed that the people I love the most in this school would be lying about the students who attacked them being racist.
"Argh..." I was frustrated with his conduct, and the worst thing is, I know why he thinks that way, it's because he might not be racist, but he still hates to see commoners in a place that should just be for the elite.
"Tess, is there a problem?" Art asked looking in my direction, I studied his face a little, feeling my cheeks heat up.
"No big deal... It's just... This whole situation..." I tried to explain myself as we walked, but I couldn't.
"Yeah... I know how it is... There are crazy people like that all over the place, humans... Elves... Dwarves... but I think we can change them... Remember how your father treated me and my brother?" He smiled.
"Yes... He wanted you out of the castle... Just because of your race, grandpa who had to intervene to change his mind."
"Exactly, so don't worry so much, we'll fix all this problem and then you can relax without these difficulties in your head." He said in a slightly playful voice on the last part of the sentence, giving my cheek a light poking.
"Hunf!"I pouted, but after just a few seconds, I started laughing.
"Oh my god, Arthur Leywin, just you to calm me down so fast... You and that cute face, but dense skull of yours." I thought as I reciprocated, poking his cheek as well.
"Guys, I know it's good to be calm before the announcement, but the situation is serious, stop messing with the situation, kid." I could hear Clive saying that, oh my god, I'm going to slap him in the face if he keeps this up.
Art sighed and pulled me up, making me walk right beside him. My face got even hotter and I focused on looking straight ahead. I wanted to complain about the way he acted, but no, the real me was loving every second of it, even if the rational self didn't want to admit it.
It didn't take long and we arrived at the auditorium, we stood at the back of the stage while we faced each other one last time before we made that information public for everyone, I mean, there are things that we are obviously going to leave behind or omitted, but yesterday, Cynthia decided that the people who would report everything to the other students would be the victims of these attacks, the Leywins.
We started to hear the sound of several people entering the auditorium, and with the place full, Fable warned us that it was time. Everyone from the student council and disciplinary committee took the stage, me being the person who came the furthest ahead, with the podium at my side. The newcomers to the school looked excited, while the students in the third year and up wore an expression of mild fear, as such an emergency announcement was very rare, and they knew it very well.
I tried to start talking, but I saw that everyone there was talking to each other in a noisy way, I thought about using a spell to get everyone's attention, but before I could do that, Luz did it for me.
Snapping his fingers on both hands he seemed to give a light, high-pitched noise that made everyone look his way, apparently it was a sound spell that would normally burst the eardrums, but he made the volume not so intense on purpose.
"Thank you, brother." I said that looking at him, he smiled and bowed slightly to me in the usual silly way.
Looking ahead again, I saw that the students were finally quiet enough for me to speak. "Good morning, dear students of the biggest mage school in Dicathen, Xyrus Academy. Many of you clearly already know me, but keeping the formalities, I'm Tessia Eralith, the student council president. You must be confused and wondering, about the why are you here in the auditorium this Monday morning."
I could see some students talking to each other, but it was such an insignificant number that it didn't bother me. "Two days ago, last Saturday, something happened that made me think that in our beautiful school, there is not only kindness, there are also people who carry extreme malice. Two fifth-year students, from names I won't talk about for the safety of their family, tried to lethally attack two other students."
When he got to that part, I could see the eyes of most everyone there, they were amazed, even so, I continued. "Some of you might think it wasn't intended to be anything deadly, that there must be some reason for such a heinous act. I'd like to pass the word on to the two students who were attacked but managed to be here today."
Luz and Arthur took a few steps forward and several students stood up in amazement, not some students went crazy and tried to kill others, but the targets were those considered the most respected and accepted by my mentor. This made the situation much more serious.
The two gave their accounts of the situations they had. Arthur spoke of how an angry student with absurd excess mana tried to impale him using earth spells, and that the fight took place in one of the academy's outer corridors. Soon after it was Luz's turn, who said about the attack he suffered, being outside Xyrus Academy, a student followed him and attacked him using water magic to choke him to death or even blind him. When he mentioned that Kathyln was next to him, the situation became even more tense, it was no longer a student reporting a violent attack, it was a student reporting a person possibly attacking someone from royalty.
After explaining the attacks themselves, Luz started to explain better the whole reason of this announcement. "Both of the cases that you, my dear students, heard about, happened this Saturday. And both aggressors said things that are extremely provocative and distressing to hear as a motivation to attack us. The one that attacked me, called me trash, inferior... Simply put me as the scum of the scum... But why he said that? Well... he claimed that because I help other people... because I was on 'the same level' as elves and dwarves, he claimed that our colleagues of other races should just be slaves!" Elves and dwarves in the audience began to show signs of anger, with some having wide eyes and others clenching their fists.
"Me, my brother, Tessia Eralith and Claire Bladeheart... The four of us had a conversation with our amazing Director, Cynthia Goodsky, and through that conversation, we are convinced that there is a possibility that extreme and racist groups exist in our school... And that these two students were part of a human supremacist group made up largely of nobles! But I still tell you, my dear colleagues! Even with our warning, don't let these types of dirty groups get what they want. They want to destabilize the harmony that our great leaders want us to have! We need to be together! So if you find or suspect that someone is from such a group, you can let the student council and the disciplinary committee know, so we will do a thorough investigation of the suspicious people." In the middle of the speech he was saying, the students of non-human races started to stand up and wave their arms up in fury, but when he mentioned that this anger was what the horrible group wanted, they quickly stopped and sat down, trying to cope with the whole situation.
"You can count on me, my brother, the princesses and all of our groups. That we will put an end to these problems, which are preventing Dicathen from evolving to a better path-" Before he could continue, he was interrupted by a large whistling noise and soon after he was hit in the left shoulder by some mana projectile.
Everyone seemed in shock, there were some screams of fear and I looked around, noticing a hooded person near the door, running out of the auditorium, some nearby students noticed that person and tried to stop him from leaving, but whoever it was, pushed everyone away and left there. Before I or either of our two groups could make a move, I heard Luz's voice as he stood up.
"Claire, Feyrith and Elijah follow me! Tessia, Arthur and Theodore look around for someone else like this bastard! The rest, calm down the other students!" Even after being hit on the shoulder and starting to bleed there, he didn't let himself be shaken, he ordered us in a coordinated way while taking a leap with wind mana, landing near the auditorium door and running in the direction where the spellcaster went.
Claire, along with the other 2 members of the disciplinary committee, were soon following Luz, she was using Wind mana to maintain speed, Elijah using strong earth element steps, and Feyrith creating a water board where he would slide and follow his colleagues. I, Art, and the oldest member of the disciplinary committee, got off the stage and ran out of the auditorium as well to have a good look around this place.
I looked back, seeing Clive wanting to follow me, but then I stopped him. "What do you think you are doing?!"
"We should do some analysis around and-" Before he could continue I raised my voice.
"Stay here and calm the other students down with the other members! I'll do it with the other two." He looked angry at having to follow a commoner's orders, but he had to accept it now because I was the one to say it in this moment.
"Enough talk, let's go Tess!" Art exclaimed, he and Theodore were already leaving the auditorium and so I followed them.
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