A new year at Nine Petal Academy means a new crop of students, including a boy who can't control his magic, a thief, an angel, and even a suit of armor? Adela, Lei, and their friends are tasked with welcoming the new class of first years and helping...
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I waited for Alex to finish his game with Jude before heading outside with him to go look for An.
"Where do you think he is?" I asked. While I waited, I had tried sensing An and the others with both my earth and wind, but all the trees made it hard to pick up an accurate reading. The fact that they were likely zipping around didn't help matters either. There was also the magical nature of the forest itself. The wands they gave out to students had to be made from the trees here. Specifically the Koyaki, a sacred tree the people of this region used to build their gods' shrines.
I would've asked Adela, but I didn't want to bother the girls during their pool time.
"T-think i-it's probably the one where M-Mira was the other day," Jude said as he poked his head out of the dorm.
I smiled. "Thanks for the info, little guy!"
He nodded. "I-I had fun dueling tonight, so consider it a reward."
Alex smiled. "Now, if only I knew where you guys found Mira."
I rubbed my chin. "We can go talk to her. Mira has darkness magic. So she would be helpful in more ways than one." Hopefully, she wasn't busy.
Jude stepped out and took out a blue flip phone. "I-I can call Tamara. T-tried calling my brother, but that place they're at seems to have no reception."
"What's that?" Alex asked.
I raised an eyebrow at him. "You've never seen a flip phone before? Know they're old, but they're not that old."
"So that's a flip phone. When I was born, they were already out of style."
Oh, right. His home country of Kuroriku had more advanced technology than nearly all of Xeleria and even most of Zionia itself.
"M-mom says these are safer. N-new phones a-aren't good. S-spies."
"Spies? Mean from governments?"
"A-and companies. Have trackers. C-can determine what we buy in a-addition to where we go."
"True," I mumbled. There were always people listening in on others. Companies did such stuff to get better marketing to sell their products. Governments did so to keep watch over a potentially unruly population. Something we always carried around, like a smartphone, was the best vehicle to keep an eye on people and learn more about them.
"But, can't a government still spy on a flip phone?" Alex asked.
"T-true. T-there are back doors and weaknesses in security in old hardware. B-but it does help against those seeking to steal private info via spyware."
"I thought flip phones also had that risk as they can connect to the internet and download apps."
"Such features are obsolete now. Companies d-don't provide them anymore for such old hardware anymore. Makes it just a portable phone. S-simplicity at its finest."
