“We can think about this later,” Almark said. “Let’s go, we’re gonna be late for class.”
“Yeah…” Wendy looked at the wall, clearly loath to leave, but eventually walked away.
Their next class was with Demitor, the kind, gentlemanly teacher assigned to Year 3 Class 3. Almark could see Morgan’s head nodding off from the seat in front of his, likely lulled to sleep by Demitor’s calming voice.
“Leading a healthy lifestyle is crucial for a mage,” Demitor said with a smile. “In ages past, mages would live in seclusion, staying in dark caves as they spent their days reading. And while research is important, their bodies became unwell. They became quite thin and pale.”
“Like Professor Illmis,” Nelson muttered, which triggered a bit of chuckling from the class.
“Hm? Professor Illmis?” Demitor narrowed his eyes. “Yes. He’s definitely the very image of an old-styled mage,” Demitor said without a hint of sarcasm. “Sunlight is the source of a human’s life force. And, indeed, the sun is closely related to the mana we mages draw our strength from. That’s why you should make sure you expose yourself to sunlight, so you can ensure your bodies produce high-quality mana.”
“But Professor,” Nelson said as he raised a hand. “If that’s the case, why is the magic training area so dark?”
“A fine question, Nelson. That’s the tricky part, you see.” Demitor smiled. “Sufficient rest and exposure to sunlight is required for the body to produce mana, but in order to properly grasp and harness your mana, you need to focus your mind. And it’s harder to focus when your surroundings are lit up.”
“Right…” Nelson nodded. “Yeah, it is harder to concentrate when there’s light on you.”
“Not like you can concentrate when it’s dark, either,” Norish teased, which made the students laugh again.
“And that’s why the magic training area has to be dark,” Demitor said, chuckling at Norish’s remark. “In that regard, the afternoon sun being so bright might be why you’re having so much trouble focusing in class.” Demitor glanced at Morgan, who was sleeping blissfully in the sunlight, and cracked a strained smile. “Morgan, here, seems to be building up his supply of life force, for example.”
Once class was over and Demitor left the room, Almark approached Wendy.
“Wendy.”
“Yes?”
“What Professor Demitor said earlier got me thinking,” Almark whispered, leaning in. “Remember how that window appeared right after lunch break started, at noon? When the sun’s at its highest?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“So that means maybe the place behind that window only appears when the sun, the source of all mana, is at its peak. That’s probably why it’s pointless to go looking at where the window should be at the staircase after the window disappears.”
“So you’re saying…” Wendy brought her face close to Almark and whispered. “Next time there’s lunch, we shouldn’t go looking for the window at the schoolyard.”
“Right.” Almark nodded. “Once morning classes end, we should go check the stairs.”
The following day, at lunch, Almark and Wendy hurried out of the classroom as soon as the teacher left and ran to the staircase. Thankfully, the student from the next class over didn’t come out to scold them for it. But when they reached the stairs, there was, perhaps as expected, the same as usual. There was no window on the wall.
“Nothing here…” Wendy said, placing a hand on the wall, disappointed. “I really thought you were onto something…”
“Yeah. I thought it was a good idea.” Almark tapped on the wall.
“But thinking about it, if a window suddenly appeared here by the stairs, someone would have noticed by now,” Wendy mused. “It’d be a bigger rumor.”
“You might be right,” Almark agreed.
Wendy sighed, placing a hand on the wall. “Hmm, it really is weird… Whoa!”
She gave a little yelp and suddenly sank into the wall, disappearing from sight.
“Wendy!
Almark hurriedly pushed the wall around where Wendy had vanished, but it didn’t feel like he was touching a solid wall. Instead, his body sank into the wall with an odd, weightless sensation.
“Almark!”
Seeing Wendy there, calling for him, Almark sighed in relief. They were in a small room, with a window overlooking the schoolyard on the wall across from them. On the right-side wall was a door that led somewhere unknown.
“Almark, this place…” Wendy looked at him anxiously.
A desk and chair had been set up by the window, but there was nothing on the desk.
“This is the window we saw outside.”
Almark looked out the window, seeing the empty schoolyard under them. This was, without a doubt, the window they looked up at just yesterday.
“Yeah,” Wendy said, standing beside Almark. “But what is this room…?”
Suddenly, they heard a rattling coming from the right side door. Both of them froze.
“Wendy, come here.”
Almark reflexively grabbed Wendy by the arm, pulling her against the opposite wall. The door opened, and a short old lady appeared there. The old lady walked into the room and, upon seeing the two, frowned her wrinkly face.
“Oh, what are you two doing here?” she said.
The two of them stared at her, unable to instantly come up with what to say.
“Miss Maya…,” Wendy whispered when the dorm supervisor suddenly showed up. “Is this your room?”
“Huh?” Maya looked up at them with severe eyes, and then clicked her tongue, like she realized something unpleasant. “Oh, I understand. You two came from the elementary division’s schoolhouse, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Wendy replied. “But if you mean we came from the schoolhouse… Does that mean we’re not in the schoolhouse?”
Miss Maya huffed and jerked her chin in the direction of the door she just walked through.
Almark and Wendy peered through the door and let out a little yelp.
“That’s the dorm supervisor’s room!”
Almark remembered the place, as it was where Zeid the guard took him on his first day in the dorm to give his regards to Miss Maya. It was apparently right next to this room.
“But, how?”
“Why are we in the dorms?”
As the two looked around, puzzled, Miss Maya mumbled to herself. “Don’t tell anyone about this, you hear?” The old woman hopped onto a chair. “The first floor of the dorms hardly gets any sunlight, right? So I connected this room with the schoolhouse. This way, I can get some sunlight, and it’s convenient if I have any business there.”
“You connected it? Like, with magic?” Almark asked.
Miss Maya gave him a fed-up look. “How else would I have done it? Of course it’s with magic. If you can connect the two buildings with sheer strength, go ahead, show me.”
“Wow,” Wendy whispered. “That’s really advanced magic.”
“There’s a knack to it. Magic is like knitting that way.” Miss Maya waved a hand dismissively. “Once you get used to it, it’s nothing serious.” She then cast her gaze out the window and looked down at the schoolyard. “But it’s almost time I tune the spell I cast to connect the rooms. Whenever it’s summer, the sunlight gets stronger, and the spell ends up being easier to see. Which is how you found it.”
Miss Maya hopped off the chair.
“Now, get out. I need to recast the spell.” She waved a hand, shooing the two away. “Go on, scram.”
“Well, if we’re getting in the way, we’ll leave.” Almark touched the wall they entered through with a hand, but his body didn’t pass through it this time. “Huh?”
“What are you doing?” Miss Maya glared at him. “Only the one who cast the spell, me, can get out through there. You two only got in here because the noon sun made the spell too strong.”
“Uh…” Almark and Wendy exchanged a glance, and then looked at Maya. “So how do we get out of here?”
“That goes without saying.” Miss Maya pointed at the door she just entered from. “That’s the only door you have. They’re going to put lunch away soon, so I suggest you hurry back to the schoolhouse.”
Leaving through that door meant emerging from the dorm supervisor’s room. Thinking about the distance from the dorm to the schoolhouse, the color drained from their faces.
“Wendy, we have to go.”
“Right!”
The two bowed their heads to Miss Maya and made to bolt out of the room.
“Ah, wait,” she said, signaling them to stop. Miss Maya handed them each a ball of candy covered in a wrapper. “Your hush money,” she said with a smirk. “If you miss lunch, try licking on this. It’ll fill your bellies up so much you won’t go hungry for a couple days.”
“Uh, thank you.”
The two thanked her with uneasy smiles on their faces and ran out of the room. As they opened the large front doors to the dorm, early summer sunlight washed over them. The two sprinted down the road together, but the way to the schoolhouse was considerably long.
Wendy suddenly laughed out loud beside Almark. “Heh-heh-heh! What are we doing?!” She looked at him with a smile. “Why are we running like it’s the end of the world?”
“Uh, come to think of it, you’re right.”
Almark laughed, too. It was strange, the way they were acting. And once he started laughing, there was no stopping it. The two stopped in their tracks and laughed together for a minute.
“We should tell Morgan,” Wendy said, wiping away tears of laughter. “We should say, ‘We got in trouble because of your rumor’.”
“She paid us hush money, though.” Almark took out the candy from his robe’s sleeve. “We probably shouldn’t mention it.”
“True.” Wendy paused for thought, and then grinned. “But if we give our hush money to Morgan, we can probably tell him.”
“Is that how it works?” Almark crossed his arms, not quite wrapping his mind around the logic here. “Do you think Morgan will like it? I mean, candy that keeps you full for two days.”
Wendy chuckled at how earnestly Almark pondered this. “You’re too serious, Almark.” She then continued down the road. “We have until we make it to the schoolhouse to decide what we’re going to do.”
“Yes.” Almark walked beside her. The schoolhouse was still a ways off. “Plenty of time to figure that out.”
“Yeah. In which case…” Wendy paused and looked at Almark; she seemed to have remembered something. “Can you tell me more about what summer is like in the North?”
“Oh, right, we did talk about that.” Almark looked up at the sky. “Northern summers are…”
He narrowed his gaze as if he was staring at somewhere far away. Wendy couldn’t begin to imagine the distances Almark was picturing in his mind.
“…bursting with color. Blue skies. Verdant forests.”
Wendy looked up, drawn by Almark’s words, at the blue sky of early summer.
Soaking in the sunlight that gave all life its strength, Almark wondered if today would be the day he’d produce potent mana.