Chapter 67: The Power of the Defensive Spell

Olivia's POV

The professor had arrived.

The silence in the classroom finally broke. Someone cleared their throat. Someone turned a page.

But those stares hadn't completely withdrawn yet.

Still, the way they looked at me had changed. It wasn't fear, and it wasn't respect either. It was more like they'd finally realized that the girl who usually hid behind the dragon could also walk in alone and sit down under everyone's gaze without flinching.

Blair was teaching antidote formulas for corrosive potions today. The classroom was unusually quiet. Even the sound of quills scratching on parchment was louder than usual—like something lightly scraping at your ear, hard to say if it was annoying, but you could hear it the whole time.

I sat in the row against the wall, with a cauldron, reagent bottles, and a jar of moon-white powder in front of me. My notes were only half a page. I used my quill to hold down the instruction card so the draft wouldn't blow it away.

That protective layer was still there.

It had been there from the moment I stepped through the door. Thin, cool, like an extremely fine barrier covering my skin. Not tight or tense, just fitting perfectly.

My hands didn't shake when I poured reagents. My fingers didn't stiffen when I turned pages. Even my breathing was smoother than when I'd first walked in.

"Olivia."

Blair's voice came from the podium.

I looked up. She didn't look up, still flipping through her lesson plan.

"Go to the third shelf of the medicine cabinet and get that dark green semi-finished antidote. Show everyone what an incorrect formula looks like."

"Okay."

I stood up, closed my notebook to hold down the pages, and walked down the aisle toward the back.

As I passed the middle row, I caught a glimpse of Dina sitting by the window. She was looking down, fiddling with a reagent bottle, looking very focused, not glancing at me once.

I didn't think much of it.

The medicine cabinet was at the very back of the classroom. I stood on my toes, my fingers grasping the dark green bottle, and walked back with it.

When I reached the middle of the aisle, I caught a shadow moving on my right side.

It was Dina.

She stood up from her window seat, went around her chair, and walked quickly. Her elbow jutted out, her whole body leaning forward—not like she was heading for the door, more like something had yanked her.

Her eyes weren't on my face, but on the dark green potion in my hand.

In an instant, everything clicked together in my mind.

Blair had asked me to get an "incorrect formula"—highly alkaline. The angle Dina was rushing at me from would make my arm hit the corner of the table, then the potion would slip from my hand and splash onto me.

She knew what that stuff would do to skin. Chemical burns, redness, blistering. Serious cases would leave scars.

But this wasn't about doing something behind my back anymore. She wanted me to "accidentally" spill a bottle of corrosive liquid on myself in front of the whole class.

Not just to embarrass me. To hurt me, to make me look pathetic. Then in the screaming and chaos, nail the idea that "Olivia can't even handle Potions class" into everyone's mind.

All these thoughts exploded in my brain in less than half a second.

Dina's shoulder was already coming at me.

Bang—

I didn't move.

But she went flying. Her whole body was like it had been violently shoved from the side by an invisible hand. Her feet left the ground. She traced a short arc through the air, hit the edge of the table in the next row with her back, and fell to the floor with the chair.

The dark green potion was still firmly in my hand, completely steady. The liquid inside just sloshed once, then settled.

The classroom went silent.

Everyone froze. Someone's hand stuck in mid-air. Someone's mouth hung open. Someone had turned their head so fast their neck was now stuck in that position.

Dina lay on the floor, her back against the overturned chair legs. Her face was blank at first, then showed disbelief.

She looked down at herself, then up at me. Her lips trembled twice, her voice sharp and shaky. "You—you pushed me?"

I didn't say anything. I just stood there, still holding that dark green potion. My fingers steady, my breathing calm.

All the stares in the room stabbed at me. Denser, heavier, sharper than before, pinning me from every direction.

"Did she really push her?"

"I couldn't see clearly... it looked like Dina ran into her herself?"

"Impossible. Dina was still two steps away from her. How could she have run into her?"

"Then how did she go flying?"

The whispers rose like water. Not too loud, not too soft, just enough for me to hear, just enough to let me know—the whole classroom was discussing "Olivia knocked someone flying."

Dina was helped up, clutching her elbow, eyes red. Her nostrils flared, her lips bitten white. She didn't shout "you pushed me" again, but that look was more effective than shouting it a hundred times.

My fingers tightened slightly around the bottle. This really wasn't me—it was the defensive spell that had worked.

But if I said "she ran into me first," would anyone believe it? If I said "my defensive magic triggered on its own," would anyone believe it? If I said she "deliberately rushed at me, trying to get the corrosive potion to splash all over me," would anyone believe it?

No one would.

Blair walked quickly from the podium. The air in the whole classroom felt heavy.

She didn't look at Dina first, but at the distance between us in the aisle—about an arm and a half. Then she looked at the distance between where Dina fell and her seat—about three steps. Finally, she looked at the dark green potion in my hand.

Her expression didn't change much, but I saw her jaw tighten slightly.

"Who wants to go first?" She stood in the middle. Her tone wasn't heavy, but every word landed clearly.

Dina clutched her elbow, her voice thin and trembling. "I... I was just trying to go up front to turn in my notes. I was walking past her, and she suddenly—I don't know what happened. I just went flying."

"I didn't do anything." My voice was steadier than I expected.

Blair looked at me, like she was confirming something.

"Olivia, demonstrate the defensive spell you just used."

I silently recited the spell in my mind.

That thin barrier covered my skin again. Or maybe it had always been there, just contracted tighter, like it had been activated by that collision.

Blair reached out her hand. Her fingertip hovered about an inch above my forearm, not touching me. She pressed down, and her fingertip was held up by an extremely faint silver light—like pressing on an invisible membrane that wouldn't let her through.

"Her own magic deflected it." Blair withdrew her hand, her tone like reading a lab report. "Olivia didn't push anyone. Her defensive spell triggered the instant Dina ran into her." As for why Dina ran into her, she didn't comment.

The whispers in the classroom started up again. This time the volume was lower, but the content more mixed.

"So it really was the spell that deflected her..."

"Then why did Dina run into her?"

"Who knows? Maybe she was walking too fast and didn't look where she was going."

"How fast could she be walking? It's just two steps..."

Some people made excuses for Dina, some swallowed their doubts, some were waiting for Dina to say something.

But Dina didn't say anything. She just kept her head down. A red mark on her elbow, whether from the impact or from pinching herself.

Blair turned to me, her tone a degree heavier than before.

"Olivia, come outside with me for a moment."