Chapter 47 Elowen's Clear Hint

Chapter 47 Elowen's Clear Hint

I was just about to use Hydromancy to put out the fire when a precise hydro bolt hit the flames.

The fire on the curtains slowly died down.

Royce kept a straight face, expressionless as he controlled Hydromancy to extinguish all the remaining flames.

"Vanessa, tell me now—what do you need to do before making a potion?" Royce demanded coldly.

I lowered my head guiltily and said quietly, "I need to draw a protective circle first to prevent magical energy from leaking out of the cauldron."

But I was too excited about making a potion myself and forgot about it for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Castillo. It was my fault. I'll be more careful from now on." I apologized respectfully.

Royce snorted. "Vanessa violated potion-making procedures and created a serious safety hazard. Three points deducted."

My classmates looked at me sympathetically.

The final grade was based on forty points from regular performance plus sixty points from the final exam. You needed at least seventy total to pass.

I had lost three points on my very first day in Royce's class. Things were going to be tough from here on out.

But I really was in the wrong, so I had to accept it.

Before I could say anything, I heard Royce continue. "However, after realizing the wrong materials were used, you didn't panic. Instead, you stayed calm and tried to fix it with other materials, making good use of every ingredient. Your choice of materials was also appropriate."

"Calm and bold, with an innovative spirit. Five points added."

I looked up in disbelief.

Royce was actually praising me?

Wasn't he supposed to be petty and vindictive? Just yesterday at the awards ceremony he was scolding me.

Royce clearly had no intention of explaining further.

After he finished speaking, he told me to use magic to clean up the mess I had made, then went to check on the other students.

When class ended, I sat in my seat, staring blankly at Royce's back as he left the classroom.

Chloe came over and waved her hand in front of my face. "Vanessa, what's wrong? Are you upset about what Royce said?"

She tried to comfort me. "It's okay. Sure, you lost three points, but you gained five. If you think about it, you're actually the first student in class to earn points."

I came back to my senses and smiled gently. "I'm not upset. I was just thinking that maybe Royce isn't as annoying as I thought."

Chloe blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

I shook my head and didn't say more.

I carefully removed the butterfly brooch from my chest.

This was a gift from Darius.

When the cauldron exploded earlier, the brooch had accidentally gotten contaminated by the potion.

I took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the stains on the butterfly's wings.

But no matter how much I wiped, the dried-on stains wouldn't budge.

I sighed inwardly and stood up. "I'm going to see Ms. Moore."

After finding Elowen in the office, I took out the brooch and handed it to her.

"Ms. Moore, my butterfly brooch has stains I can't wipe off. I was hoping you could clean it with Purification."

Elowen nodded and took the brooch, examining it in her palm.

I watched nervously.

After a while, Elowen nodded slightly. "This brooch of yours must be pretty old. It has a strong smell of age and decay."

My heart skipped a beat. I guessed that Elowen probably already knew about Darius and me sneaking into the Spectral Library.

But since she wasn't saying it outright, it meant she didn't plan to punish us according to school rules.

I nodded and changed the subject, saying softly, "Darius found this in a storage room. Come to think of it, that storage room even had a patrolling spellhawk."

Elowen looked knowing. She raised her hand, and a pale blue light glowed in her palm. "You two are really bold, going to see such an old place for yourselves. Aren't you afraid of running into something you shouldn't?"

Her tone was casual, but I knew she wasn't talking about the brooch.

She really did know about us going to the Spectral Library.

Under the effect of Purification, the butterfly brooch became clean again.

"There you go. Put it away." Elowen returned the butterfly brooch to me.

I carefully pinned it back on.

Remembering the person in black who suddenly appeared that night, I asked casually, "Ms. Moore, the academy takes the Bloodthorn Grass incident so seriously—everyone should have been at the awards ceremony, right? Was any professor absent?"

Elowen just glanced at me, picked up her teacup, and took an elegant sip.

"The gallery has been there for a long time, and the academy has decided to renovate it soon. Even if you like wandering around, don't go there. Don't cause trouble."

I nodded somewhat guiltily.

It seemed the academy's higher-ups had already discovered that someone had entered the Spectral Library. The academy would probably increase patrols for a while.

If we rashly broke in again, we would probably get caught red-handed.

This also suggested that the Spectral Library wasn't simply closed as an old campus site.

Thinking about how the file folder that originally contained records of Darius's childhood dark magic incident was now completely empty, I increasingly felt there was a huge conspiracy behind all this.

I just didn't know what they were trying to do.

Would they hurt Darius?

And my mother's whereabouts.

There were too many mysteries at Aethergate College of Magic. I wanted answers.

Since I couldn't get more information about the Spectral Library from Elowen, I thought maybe I could try asking about Gareth's situation.

Before I could figure out how to bring it up, Elowen had already stood up. "I have class in a bit. I'm leaving now."

As she was leaving, Elowen paused.

"By the way, since you're now taking potion-making classes, you could try learning to make Purification Potion. It has pretty much the same effect as Purification."

I froze for a moment.

Was Elowen teaching me how to remove scents and hide myself?

After returning to dorm 719, I told Darius everything I had learned from Elowen.

Darius looked thoughtful. "The situation at the academy isn't simple. We shouldn't act rashly for now."

I thought for a moment and continued, "Ms. Moore said before leaving that I should try learning to make Purification Potion. I don't have class this afternoon anyway. Should we go study it right now?"

"Sure. Let's go straight to the lab."

We hit it off immediately and headed straight for the laboratory.

Aethergate College of Magic gave students a lot of independence when it came to studying and research.

For functional potions like Purification Potion, transformation potions, and quick-effect potions, the lab had recipe records available.

I first retrieved two potion recipes from the file cabinet at the lab entrance, then entered the laboratory with Darius.

Quite a few students were practicing making potions here. When they heard us come in, they looked up.

I keenly noticed that many people were looking at me with hostility.

Probably because Royce had given me points this morning.

At Aethergate College of Magic, grades mattered a lot.

I didn't pay attention to it and went with Darius to a corner spot.

This time I remembered the lesson. I drew the protective circle first, then used magic to activate the cauldron.

A curious classmate came over to ask, "Vanessa, what are you and Darius planning to make? Is it the Basic Augmentation Draught that Mr. Castillo taught this morning?"

I placed one of the transformation potion recipes on the table. "No, I want to try making a different potion. I heard this transformation potion can turn people into small animals for a short time. Just thinking about it sounds interesting."

The classmate chatted for a bit, then left.

The transformation potion and Purification Potion recipes were mostly the same, with only a few key materials being different.

That's why I chose the transformation potion as cover. Purification Potion was too obscure, and with the academy currently in turmoil, suddenly making Purification Potion could easily be used against us by people with ulterior motives.

As for the Purification Potion recipe, I had memorized it as soon as I got it.

Darius and I worked together to brew the Purification Potion.

This wasn't as simple as just throwing all the materials in randomly.

Each material needed to be brewed at a specific time and temperature, and the more materials in the cauldron, the more things you needed to control simultaneously. One small mistake and it would fail.

Compared to Purification Potion, the Basic Augmentation Draught was child's play.

I focused all my attention on the cauldron. Questioning voices came from the neighboring table. "Aren't they supposed to be making a transformation potion? Those materials look a bit different."

"Hmph, if you ask me, someone's gotten too full of themselves. Got praised a couple times by Mr. Castillo and now thinks she's so great, thinks she's a potion-making genius."

"How ridiculous. She doesn't actually think randomly changing a recipe counts as innovation, does she?"

I pressed my lips together. Even though I tried hard to control it, my concentration still wavered for a moment.