Mirren Academy of Spells

Chapter 9: Ruined Tower

Chapter 9: Ruined Tower

Two days before the assessment test, Claudia and even Alice couldn't pull up an excuse for me. It was an important requirement that every senior student had to be part of. But how would I survive? I couldn't even use proper magic. All I could do was faintly recognize a few energies.

"Protective spells." Claudia was hanging in our room when she told me about it. "It's the safest thing you can do. Forget about offense and attacks. The exam is in two days and you need something to protect yourself. If you fail this, everyone will know that something happened to you."

All the books about basic magic were spread on my bed while I sat, browsing through everything as much as I could. "You sound like the exam is deadly."

"Close, but not quite," replied Alice.

Naibaba ko ang librong hawak ko. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged while doing her own reading. It's prohibited to practice applied magic inside residential places like the dorm, so all we could so was read theories.

"Well, last year, we had a few broken bones and someone who nearly lost eyesight."

Napanganga ako. "What?!"

"I broke an arm the other year," prenteng sabi ni Claudia. "That's why you need to learn to protect yourself. The test is no place for non-spell users."

I was panicking. I didn't know that the assessment could be deadly. I had the foolish confidence that Mirren Academy was still an educational institution and nothing could go wrong if there were teachers around. I failed to take into consideration that it wasn't an ordinary school.

Claudia and Alice were both serious in their test preparations, but all I could do was to sneak, yet again, to the training room. But on the day before the test, Alice informed me that they had closed the whole training ground.

"They always do that every semester to prevent students from taking unsupervised training before the test," Alice explained. I was aching to train somewhere. I couldn't sit still and wait for my embarrassment to happen. Yes, I already considered the test to be a total embarrassment, not to mention the possibility of dying.

"Relax, Olivia." Alice was sprawled on her bed. "That's why they gave us this day, you know, to ease our minds and body before the test tomorrow."

I would relax if I were confident I would survive, but I wasn't.

"May iba pa bang lugar na pwede tayong magtraining?"

"Hmm..." Alice was busy with painting her nails a dark green color. I don't get it. It's not like we're about to fight for our lives tomorrow. Nope." She popped the p. "There used to be an old training tower, but it's already ruined."

"Where is it?"

She paused from painting and glared at me. "I won't tell you. Kilala kita, Olivia."

"I'm just curious. It's not like I'm gonna check a ruined tower," I lied.

She sighed in relief and went back to her work. "Yeah," she mumbled absentmindedly. "It's super far and secluded, you know. All the way to the east side of campus."

I smiled. "Yeah, super."

Alice was early to bed that night. Nang masigurado ko na mahimbing ang tulog niya, kinuha ko ang coat ko sa drawer and I tiptoed my way out of the dorm.

I managed to walk towards the darker side of the campus, away from the bright streetlamps situated in every corner. I just wanted to check something...so it wasn't exactly sneaking, right?