12 12 School Supplies
Once she was past the initial amusement, Cassie almost bit her tongue, trying to resist saying anything regarding Wolfe’s insinuations about her sister. It was an open secret that the girl had taken more than a few boyfriends, but nobody had dared speak of it so openly in the past.
Wolfe wasn’t done yet, though.
“Look in that mirror on the dresser. See that smile, that easygoing posture? That is the real you, the one you want to be at the Academy. Even if someone there remembers your sister, they will remember her as a failure, a fake Witch who couldn’t pass her classes.
You are a much better student, and every single Elder knows it. This is your chance to show the world who you can be without anyone’s outside influence.”
“Do you think they would let me officially change my name? With a different last name than her, I don’t think anyone would connect us. It would be like she never existed.” Cassie suggested.
Wolfe grabbed another meat-covered cracker to give himself to think before answering. “What name did she go under? From what the elders said, I think the academy knows who sponsored the students.”
“She went under Tines with our mother as a sponsor.” Cassie shrugged as if it was obvious.
Maybe it was, but Wolfe didn’t know much about the inner workings of the Noxus family or the academy.
Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door, and the sickly sweet stench of body odour masked with excessive amounts of perfume reached Wolfe’s nose. He was certain that smelling someone from the other side of the door wasn’t normal, but he could not ignore it now that he had noticed.
“Who is it?” Wolfe called while Cassie glared at the door.
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“My apologies, but your perfume is causing my allergies to act up. Perhaps we could speak at dinner?” Wolfe replied, and Cassie had to bite her fist to avoid laughing out loud.
“I am so sorry. I didn’t realize you suffered from allergies.” She was clearly pouting now, but Wolfe wasn’t letting that smell in his tiny room.
“You couldn’t have known. But both Cassie and I could use your insight into life at the academy since we’re leaving in less than a week. I do hope we can make time for a nice chat, just the three of us.”
“I will leave you to your work then. See you at dinner.” Melody seemed upset at the mention of her sister and left right afterward, while Cassie turned to face Wolfe with an anxious look.
Before she could speak, the door swung open, and Elder Maria entered, then locked the door behind her.
“I’m not going to ask what happened, but I just saw Melody crying and running for the showers while half-naked. I will warn you that ANY bit of skin contact could give you away before you master the disguise technique.” Maria reminded Wolfe without preamble, ignoring Cassie’s presence.
“I didn’t let her in. Her perfume was incredibly potent, even through the door.” Wolfe explained, defending his honour as much as he could since he was still sitting on the bed with Cassie.
“The Patriarch has the same issue. No perfume or cologne is allowed in his office. It must be inherited. But that’s not why I’m here. I have a task for my Granddaughter that you might be able to help with.
Noble Families send their children to the Academy with a few magical items. The Patriarch tells me you should have a knack for forging magical circles without all of the usual reagents, so I want you to work with her to make something that can be passed off as an heirloom item from one of the commoner Witches that our family had in the past generations.
Cassie, you don’t need to hide your power from Wolfe, he will see it soon enough, and you need something to bring to the academy if you don’t want to start at the bottom.” The Elder explained.
“Like a wand or focus talisman for gathering mana? I’ve watched a lot of online videos where the Witches use them to do large spells.” Wolfe asked.
“That could work if you can find the ingredients. I still have my first-year textbook as well. The academy might not use that edition anymore since they started to focus more on combat skills, but it still has most of the same basic spells, which a proper Commoner Witch would be able to use.” Maria agreed.
Maria had come prepared and had a maid waiting outside with her school books. Not just her textbook but a small collection of herbs, metallic markers and other objects used for simple spells, things that the Witches didn’t restrict the purchase of.
“Look through and see what you can manage. There is enough here to make a few attempts, but I am certain my Cassie can manage it. A Witch doesn’t fully come into their power until eighteen years old, so she hasn’t had much time to practice, but I have faith.” Maria assured them with a sly smile.
She knew that even if Cassie couldn’t get it on her own with no training, Wolfe could use at least some mana and could potentially help her.
Maria left as soon as she handed them the books, giving Wolfe a suggestive look that reminded him that her letter had mentioned she wasn’t adverse to them skipping the Academy entirely and starting with the Great Grandchildren instead.
“Do you think that we can manage a Mana storage trinket? It sounded like the most useful thing that I could have during my first few weeks at the academy.” Cassie asked, expertly flipping the pages of the textbook to the desired page.
The circle on the page looked incredibly similar to both the battery charging circle and the inscription for hiding his aura. If anything, it might be a bit easier to draw. There had been a collection of symbols in the outer ring of the battery charging circle that had been switched for an easier-to-draw angular rune in this version.
“How is your handwriting? Getting the circle exactly right is important, or the online videos say that it won’t work correctly.” Wolfe asked, thinking of the hasty research he had done to run his self-charging battery scam.
“Pretty good. Grandma had been training me with a regular pen in preparation for the academy. I am surprised that you know so much about magical inscriptions, though. Normally, only witch fangirls are familiar enough to be aware of how sensitive they are to mistakes.” Cassie told him with a nostalgic smile.
“It’s a long story. I will tell you all about it some other time.” Wolfe chuckled, then took the time to memorize the inscription that they were about to draw.
The more he looked at it, the easier it was to remember, like the Inscription triggered something in him and embedded itself in his consciousness. The inscriptions were originally Magi magic, and the Witches had just appropriated and modified them for their own use, so maybe it really was something that was part of him, or perhaps part of his Inheritance.
There was no way to tell for sure, but in only a few minutes of looking at the Inscription, Wolfe was certain that he could accurately replicate it without having to see it again.