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 glanced out my window and watched the flames. Carter was still at it?
I sighed and turned around. Wished he would've stopped. He was just going to burn himself out and keep others awake.
Jude's cards sparkled on the table as the flames lit the dark room. Cards. Scarlet would probably rummage through his deck if she were here. It looked like a nice deck too. The kid was probably rich, given he had some rather rare cards. Honestly, he was careless for leaving them out in the open like that.
I dug into my bag and took out a card in a thin plastic box. When I was little, I used to think this was worth a lot because of the foil. Cat Sir wasn't even all that strong, nor did he have a special effect other than service as two tokens to summon stronger Mystic Spirits.
What were my siblings doing right now? Were they sleeping and eating well?
I spread my legs out and let my head hit my pillow. Noe, Scarlet. I still wasn't sure if I'd made the correct decision or not.
***
"I did it!" Carter said as we stood in the middle of a strange white platform. Flames covered his body, giving him the appearance of a lion.
When did he get so good? Better yet, where were we?
"You don't have to worry, Huo. I'll protect you!" Carter said, grinning as mechanical beings approached us. What was going on?
"Hmph! I can protect myself!" I said, forming twin balls of fire. They were tiny. Smaller than the ones I'd used against Jude.
"You really should've trained with us. Look how rusty you became. You can't learn how to control your magic from reading only books."
I gritted my teeth as the machines got closer. My fireballs dispersed as soon as they touched their wolve-like heads.
Carter knocked back the mechanical wolves with his fiery arm, setting them all ablaze. He spun around and hit the ones leaping at me by extending his fiery claws outward.
I gritted my teeth. Did the gap between us really grow this large in such a short time? A few days ago, I could keep up somewhat with Jude, who matched Carter. We even trained together, so in theory, the two of us should have been at the same level. Ugh. Was leaving early really to blame?
Wait. That made no sense. I glanced at Carter, who smirked.
"You won't grow if you continue to avoid people," he said, but the voice coming from his mouth was that of my father's. Carter turned his back to me and transformed into a tall red-haired man.
"D-dad? Wait, is this a dream?"
"Smart as always, Yin-yin."
I sighed. Knew this was weird. No way Carter could've overtaken me in so little time. Not to mention how in the world we went from the dorms to this place.
