Sharply sucking in a breath, Nichika’s hands started shaking. Though her brain screamed to run away, her body didn’t listen. Was she under some kind of spell?
Paying her fear no attention, Lambert went on with a grin, “You see, I’ve always been able to sniff out the subtle difference in people’s magic. It’s a specialty of mine.”
He treated her with the friendliness of someone chatting to an old friend and yet her heart thrashed against her ribcage like a drumbeat warning her of danger. Instinctual fear unexplainable by words washed over her.
Did he realize it? He reached over in yet another casual display of touch. “Y’know, you’ve got an amusing smell. Sweet enough to melt a man and…tantalize his taste buds.”
The hand he placed on her neck was colder than ice. Nichika finally came back to her senses when he brought her a little closer to him. Magically breaking free of his hold on her, she pushed him away with all her strength.
“Get…away!”
“Whoopsie wooh.” Lambert drew back without a fight. He gave her a little space and threw his hands innocently into the air. “Don’t be mad. I’m joking. Jo-king.”
“……”
Flaying him with an unforgiving glare, Nichika stood with the desk as a blockade between them. She had left the magic orb that connected her to the fire spirits in her room, but she was prepared to take him on here and now if it came to it.
Catching on to her battle-readiness, the young man hung up his teasing grin. “Whoa, down girl. Don’t go into battle mode on my account. I’m not so arrogant to go at it with the Priestess under the divine protection of the spirits.”
“What are you after? Planning to snitch to the school?” she asked sharply.
Hands folded behind his head, Lambert drolly shot down her accusation. “I’d never tattle.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll lose my entertainment if you get kicked out so soon. I’ll probably tell the truth if my bosses ask, but till then I’ll be a happy spectator. Good with that?”
“Th-Thanks?”
He chuckled at her misplaced gratitude before breaking out the wicked grin of a naughty boy. “Then again, I might tattle if you fail to amuse me.”
“HUH?!”
He may not be antagonistic at the moment, but he wasn’t one to let her guard down around. Wary, Nichika slowly inched her way from the room.
“Ooh, right,” Lambert’s well-timed utterance stopped her. “Say, Nichika, aren’t you forgetting somethin’?”
“Forgetting something? Like what?”
Am I forgetting something I shouldn’t be?
Lambert’s single remark plunged Nichika’s mind into a thick fog.
“Haven’t you forgotten something important? Or are you just pretending to have forgotten? That’s how it looks to me at least.”
The rest of what he said sounded like it came down through a foghorn. Nichika’s lips moved automatically, answering in a voice that was not her own yet sounded just like her.
“I haven’t forgotten anything.”
What the heck is this? Who is speaking for me? The calm part of her vacantly questioned.
“……”
Silence fell. First to throw in the towel, Lambert shrugged.
“Well, whatever. Let’s just leave it at that.”
Released from whatever magic held her mind at bay, Nichika blinked several times, bowed, and ran from the room. Left alone, Lambert made a lollipop appear with magic and began chomping it into tiny pieces.
“That’s some amazingly powerful memory suppressing magic right there.”
Lambert had sniffed out a very nasty smelling spell enveloping her that in no way belonged to the girl herself.
Who cast it on her and what for? Are they hidin’ some inconvenient truth?
The first person to pop into his head was the man in black who was always with her. Wasn’t he about the only person in her life capable of exercising such powerful and dark magic?
“Things have just gotten a whole lot more interesting.” He spat out the lollipop stick and smiled like a boy looking forward to his new toy. “I wanna taste test that girl.”
✦ ✦ ✦
AROUND the same time Nichika came face to face with a dangerous acquaintance, Oswald was in the height of breaking and entering. Thrusting his face through a sticky spider web, he clicked his tongue and wiped the tendrils off.
This the spot?
Crawling on his hands and knees, he moved aside a board, filling the attic with the heavy stench of beasts. He stifled a cough and swung into the room with catlike precision. In the dark he felt his way to the desk in front of some bookshelves, placed his hand on the exact drawer he was searching for, and uttered the magic password. There was a click as the drawer unlocked and obediently slid open.
Grateful for the information Wolfie obtained during his infiltration the prior night, Oswald unashamedly fished through the Five Eldra Steorra member’s desk. Quickly finding the documents he sought, he ran his eyes over the text there, his eyesight assisted by a magic item.
This is it. The items of concern to be addressed during the next Witch’s Council meeting.
Without a minute to waste, he confirmed their agenda which was a long list of things that were greatly inconveniencing to him:
1. The proper way to restrain and detain witches without an official license
2. Revoking technology and knowledge from those who aren’t under the Council’s guidance
3. Requiring witches to seek approval from the Council before creating any dangerous items or compounds
4. Any items with a rating of A or higher are to be immediately handed over to the Council and impounded until—
“Tch!”
Picking up on the heavy footsteps outside, Oswald quickly put the desk back in order and hid behind the bookshelf. As an extra precaution he activated an Elusive Ball and slowed his breathing. The bickering voices he heard passing by the room likely belonged to the Five Eldra Steorra living in this building.
Oswald stood to make his getaway before the room’s owner returned.
“The magic items you create are still too amazing.”
Oswald spun toward the rich, profound voice behind him. His eyes rounded at the person he found there. An older woman with her head held high and a refined air about her stood there unsmiling. The woman he recognized—or more like, the woman he had, at a time, met with every single day, continued her evaluation of him in the same stern voice that plagued his memories.
“Your creations are too excellent. Hence why you rely on them too much and fail to notice the presence sneaking up on you. I believe I gave you ample warning about considering your surroundings before activating your items.”
Grindieda, Elminage Academy for Gifted Witches and Wizards’ headmaster, completed the magic circle she was secretly erecting with a wave of her hand. It was a cordon circle from which one couldn’t escape without the express permission of the caster.
Knowing her spell on the spot, Oswald let out a resigned sigh and removed the magic distorting his appearance. In a matter of seconds, the gentle brunette butler reverted back to the raven-haired, frigid witch.
“I see you still always manage to find a reason not to give me full marks, Master.”
“I’m pleased to reunite with my worthless apprentice. Come along to the headmaster’s office. We can catch up there.”
Several minutes later, the door clicked open and the owner returned. By then, no one was around, and only a pinch of magic lingered.