Eternity Through Sacrifice

Chapter 31

"Why... Did you accept punishment for something you didn't do?" Kian's large innocent eyes seemed to pierce right through her. But Mireille smiled spitefully and replied to him.

"Oh? You said that you believed I did it, no?"

"I thought about it, and it doesn't make sense. There's no benefits for you to do those things to Marie. But if Marie were to frame you, I don't know what she's get out of it either. So I want to know your side of the story."

"Was I even given another choice?"

Kian met the girl's cold eyes again. They were filled with disgust and scorn which he couldn't understand. He couldn't find Andy words to console her, or even to apologize and looked away.

"Hello children-"

"AGH-!" Kian flinched at the headmaster's sudden appearance. "Headmaster, you scared me!"

"Oh, I do apologize. I came to pick up Mireille for our training!" The headmaster said in his usual eccentric manner. "Do you care to join us?"

Curious of Mireille's training, Kian nodded in agreement.

"Urgh-!" Kian groaned as the headmaster knocked him to the ground. He marvelled how Mireille could take his blows. He looked to the girl who struggled to hold her own. Two swords, one in each hand, and a dagger strapped to her leg.

The last time he had seen Mireille was during their match. She had already been strong then. Yet she was still able to hold her own against the headmaster without magic.

"One more time, headmaster." She said as she raised her swords. He nodded and gestured for her to come at him and she charged at him without hesitation. When he dodged, Mireille turned around and gestured as if to project a spell and realized he mistake. She pivoted on her heel and narrowly escaped the headmaster's sword with only a scratch on her cheek.

"You're still too reliant on your magic." The headmaster smiled. "We'll have another session in two days time."

"To-" she panted. "-morrow?" She coughed, with watery eyes and a red face.

"Without magic to reinforce your body, it won't do to keep such a strict training regime. You won't be able to hold up."

"Go along now. Before your brother comes for your head." He waved with a gentle smile.

Mireille glared at the old bastard who looked as if he knew everything about her and left, leaving the Headmaster alone with Kian. He shook his head and turned to leave when Kian stopped him.

"The girl works hard. Harder than anyone else."

"Headmaster, do you think Mireille did those things?"

He turned and looked at the boy kneeling on the ground. "No," he smiled. "She didn't. This whole academy is under my jurisdiction. I am aware of everything that goes on in this academy."

"So why did you allow the head of the Argent House to collar Mireille?" He asked meekly.

"My academy doesn't interfere with politics." He said as he left.

When Mireille returned to the dorm, she found all the others crowding around the common room. Struggling to understand magical theory. They spouted curses about the headmaster to which Mireille sighed. She agreed with them. From the beginning of her time with the rest of the Black Collars until now, the headmaster had taught almost no magical theory to them.

"SCREW THE FUCKING SYCANSIC INSCRIPTION. I DON'T EVEN NEED ANY INSCRIPTIONS TO CAST MAGIC." Donovan screeched in frustration.

"I don't even get why you're stressing out anymore. We've always failed theory exams since we transferred to the black collars' class. Just don't study." Alice said as she kicked back to relax.

Terrence laughed emptily. "I wish I could have your mentality. I wouldn't know what to do if I were to be kicked from the academy..."

Mireille hovered over to the group and took a peek at what Donovan was doing. To her, it was easy. The Argent Family had forced early magic education upon her thus, she already knew these things by heart. Sure, it was content for second and third years at the academy, but it was still pretty damn easy.

She pointed to the piece of parchment and told Donovan how to rearrange the string of squiggles into a legible magic sequence.

"Kiddo, yer pretty gud, ain't 'cha?"

"It was taught to me when I was young. The Syacansic Inscription is pretty hard though. It's primitive and inefficient. People only use it because they have trouble translating old spells into Sigilistic characters or modern day characters. Plus, a lot of people can't read Sycansic characters, so those who practice wizardry use it to make their magic circles harder to hijack."

Suddenly, Terrence and Donovan's eyes were glowing with hope. "Shrimpy, can ya do us a favor and tutor us? The headmaster's nothing but a useless bum after all."

Mireille cocked her head to the side in confusion. It's not as if she had anything better to do. So she nodded and asked for the other's to help her find light magic stones to compensate her. She needed to release the seal of the Black Collar quickly, otherwise she would fail the midterms and be caught in Claude D'Argent's web again.