Chapter 33 The Trap of Dreams
This afternoon was another Wizard History class.
In the evening, I threw myself onto my dorm bed feeling completely drained, every bone in my body aching.
That damn "Modern Magic" class, shit.
The conflict this morning that had almost escalated was shut down by Flint in the name of "classroom discipline," but the way Leon looked at me at the end — he definitely holds a grudge, and he's definitely going to cause more trouble.
What a fucking headache. It's not that I'm scared of him; I'm just annoyed.
Like a piece of chewed gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe that won't come off.
Theodore was still messing with his "Q&A machine," the blue screen light reflecting off his glasses. He kept tapping away and muttering, "Explain to me how to brew a Magic Potion... The color of my Magic Potion came out too dark, what do you think could be the reasons..."
I didn't even have the energy to roll my eyes.
I thought learning magic meant I could control wind and rain with a wave of my hand, conjure fire with a spell, but instead I'm wrestling with a bunch of metal junk, and I have to watch out for backstabbing from all sides.
The ring on my finger gave a barely noticeable tremor. It was the old guy — Bone Lord. Ever since Modern Magic class, when he commented that it was "quite an interesting little thing," he'd been silent. Now he was getting restless.
Just as I was thinking about him, his voice rang directly in my head.
"Charles, still lying around?"
"...If you've got something to say, say it. I don't have the energy to argue with you." I replied in my mind, my eyelids fighting to stay open.
"Worn out from this little bit? Are your bones made of straw?" Bone Lord's voice carried a sneer. "A real magic academy never shows its core easily in daylight. Night is when it sheds its disguise and reveals its true nature."
My heart skipped a beat, and half my drowsiness vanished. "What are you trying to do?"
"Night wandering."
Bone Lord said it casually. "Wait till your roommate falls asleep, go out for a walk, get some fresh air."
I almost jumped out of bed. "Night wandering? Are you crazy? School rule number one — students are not allowed to roam the castle without permission after nine o'clock! What if we get caught? Point deduction? Detention? Or straight-up expulsion?"
"Oh? Mere school rules." The disdain in his tone could practically slap me in the face. "Those things are fences for the mediocre. You, Charles, are you going to let a few pieces of parchment on the wall scare you? Get up. I'm not asking you to go roll around in the headmaster's bathtub, just to take a walk at night."
He made it sound easy. I just felt a chill down my spine.
No way. Too risky.
I tried to bury my face in my pillow, attempting to escape this old bastard's temptation.
"Don't you want to know?" Bone Lord's voice grew coaxing. "Why do ghosts only appear at midnight? Why can't you go out after nine? What do the classrooms look like at night? How are they different from daytime? Does the magic academy at night hide secrets, maybe treasures — find them, and you could get endless Mana Stones, or maybe monsters — defeat them and save all the students and professors at the magic academy."
"I don't want to know," I said.
"Well, actually, I sensed a magical material that could be used to make my body. Charles, you promised me."
I hesitated.
Sensing my silence, Bone Lord's tone grew heavier. "Or would you rather keep being a puppet, getting knocked around by 'drones'? Then swallow your disgust and play childish tattletale games with trash like Leon inside the rules?"
"What's your solution?" My eyes lit up.
"I'll tell you later. Now move, go walking at night." The old guy's voice was firm. "Think about your Focus Draught. Why did it work? Because you heard the silent rhythm of the materials, not because you counted down according to the rigid timetable in the textbook. Real magic dances on the edge between life and death, whispers in forbidden shadows — not lies in bed too scared to go out. Don't make me look down on you, Charles."
Shit.
He won.
That final provocation was like a red-hot brand, burning me right off the bed. My heart pounded wildly in my chest — half from nerves, the other half from an irrepressible thrill with a hint of reckless excitement.
Theodore's snoring was already coming from his side. Once he fell asleep, he was dead to the world. I ignored him and silently slid out of bed, moving as quickly as a startled rabbit. The dark robes issued by the magic academy were a perfect cover for moving in shadows.
I held my breath, pulled open the door, and slipped out. The sound of the door closing was lighter than a falling feather.
The hallway was dead silent.
Completely different from the daytime bustle. The magic torches were extinguished, leaving only stones hanging high on the walls emitting a ghostly, pale glow, barely illuminating the dark carpet underfoot and the cold stone walls. My footsteps echoed in the corridor, seeming so loud that I stopped nervously after each step.
"Don't act like an idiot sneaking his first peek at a girl bathing." Bone Lord mocked in my head. "Turn right, down the stairs at the end."