Again—spheres.
Again—attempts to break them.
Again—explosions, smoke, steam, shouts of “watch out!” and “don’t touch that!”
I sat there, watching everything from the sidelines.
Boring. Obvious. Predictable.
Then the instructor suddenly said:
— Zenhald… you can take a walk today.
— You’ve already passed all of this.
The classroom went silent.
Finn nearly dropped his sphere.
Siren raised an eyebrow.
And Noy Levander looked at me for too long—far too long.
Elinia, meanwhile…
stared straight at me.
I looked back at her, raised an eyebrow, and with a faint smirk showed her the same old smile:
“What is it, Princess—still can’t break the red one?”
For a split second her gaze turned electric.
If looks could cut, I’d have become the two-hundred-forty-eighth fragment.
I stood up, turned around, and calmly walked out.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
I sat down on a stone bench beneath a huge tree.
Silence.
Students were training in the distance.
The air smelled of ozone and burnt grass—the combat magic class was in full swing.
I thought:
If demons appeared in the center of the capital…
Someone let them in.
Which means there’s a traitor.
The Levanders?
The Rainfords?
Someone among the high officials?
Someone in the Academy?
The thoughts kept spinning, but none formed a clear line.
— I need to stop fooling around, — I muttered.
— Time to work.
And right at that moment—
BOOOOM!!!
The air shuddered.
The bench beneath me trembled.
Birds took off.
Students screamed.
I recognized that sound immediately.
Elinia’s blast.
Classic.
I sighed.
— Well, well, — I told myself. — So she broke it.
A second later, I teleported back to the classroom.
The room was black, as if someone had set a forest on fire inside.
Smoke swirled so thick you couldn’t even see the floor.
The windows were open.
The instructor was coughing.
Finn lay on the floor like a charred potato.
Noy Levander waved his hands pitifully, trying to clear the smoke.
Siren just sat there silently, as if this were an ordinary Thursday.
And in the middle of it all stood Elinia.
Hair disheveled.
Cheeks smeared with soot.
Her dress burned through at the left shoulder.
But…
At her feet lay the red sphere, cracked almost in half.
She did it.
She wiped the corner of her mouth and lifted her head, searching for me.
When she saw me, triumph flared in her eyes:
— I broke it.
I couldn’t help myself.
I laughed.
Quietly—but clearly.
She instantly formed an electric sphere and hurled it at me.
But I had already teleported away.
I reappeared in the same spot where I’d been sitting.
— Alright, — I said. — Time to stop playing around.
The smile faded on its own.
It was time to:
find the traitor,
and finally stop acting like a child who finds everything amusing.
But…
somewhere far away,
came the sound of the instructor coughing.
I still smirked.
— She did it. Good job, Elinia.