18 18 For A Moment
The thickly armoured gates of the Mega City stood open in front of them, and for the first time in their eighteen years, Wolfe and Cassie saw natural sunlight with their own eyes.
The guard popped open the top hatch to let the light into the vehicle, and Cassie immediately stuck her head out the opening.
“Grandmother wasn’t teasing me. It really is warm. You can feel it on your skin.” She called back into the personnel carrier.
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“Sorry, Professor. I will keep it in mind.” Cassie apologized, pulling her head back in.
The carrier trundled slowly along the dirt path for most of an hour while the guards watched carefully out of the windows. Wolfe didn’t think that they would meet up with monsters this close to the city, they had only recently passed the last of the farms that surrounded the city walls, but the guards were definitely on edge.
“Stopped vehicle ahead.” The driver reported, bringing their transport to a halt. Both armed guards, followed very reluctantly by Wolfe, who the Professor shoved out, exited through the top hatch and moved forward to check out the obstruction.
“We have the flanks. Check the vehicle interior.” The guard ordered, and Wolfe jogged forward, on alert for any signs of motion. He didn’t know what shapes the wilderness monsters could take, but a poisonous snake wasn’t out of the question.
The area looked clear, and all of the armoured windows were broken on the SUV. It had at least one flat tire and a lot of body damage. Whatever did that was not human. The body panels had deep gouges in the steel in a four-clawed pattern.
But the shattered remains of the windows were slightly melted, and they were blown outward, not in, as they would be by an external attack.
Checking the roof, the top window was broken inward, and the interior was burned out, with three visible bodies scorched beyond easy recognition.
“The monster attack that destroyed the vehicle’s body was secondary. The roof was breached, and a thermal charge was detonated inside. Possibly a grenade. Three confirmed casualties, identity unknown.” Wolfe reported with his best impression of a professional while trying not to gag.
He had seen some stuff on the lower floors, but not like that.
‘As long as I don’t vomit, I can keep my dignity intact.’ He told himself, moving away from the vehicle.
“Wait on the roof of the Transport. It might have been magical.” One of the Guards instructed, pointing back at the Personnel Carrier.
Wolfe hadn’t considered that it might be a magical attack since Witches didn’t really come to the levels that he lived on. But why would they be attacking each other out here in the middle of nowhere?
Could this have been the work of some surviving magic-using mutants who were living in the wilderness? The only spell in the surviving Magi Records the Noxus family had was a Fire Circle, and it was from the introduction to the textbook, so it should have been one of the most basic skills in the distant past.
The two Guards took out some sort of measurement device, then shook their heads, not liking what they found or not finding what they wanted. Then they took photos of the damage and made a phone call to someone.
Wolfe considered running, but with that large gun mounted on top of the vehicle, he wouldn’t make it very far if they took offence. Not to mention that there was still a Witch inside who seemed to be going easy on him for the time being.
When they got back, it was clear the two men weren’t going to give away many details, but the more talkative of the pair leaned over to whisper to him.
“You were right the first time. Non-magical, brute force through the roof followed by an incendiary device. Some monsters can use fire magic, but they didn’t do that.”
The disturbed looks made more sense now. It would have been less alarming if it had been just monsters.
When the vehicle started moving again, it travelled noticeably faster than it had been moving along before. Cassie seemed not to notice the difference, just happily looking out the window at the grassland and scattered stands of trees, but everyone else seemed a bit more nervous.
They all had the same question on their minds. Who was in the burned-out vehicle, and who launched that attack?
After two more hours of travel, they came across another vehicle. Only this one wasn’t alone or destroyed. All of the vehicles in the group were heavily damaged, though.
“Hold at a distance. That convoy has also turned into the final path to the Academy, so we should all be headed to the same place. They have been attacked, and we don’t want to alarm them before we can make contact.” Professor Ashcroft instructed the driver.
“Don’t the cars all have radios?” Wolfe asked, certain that he had seen them featured in every single wasteland survival-themed movie he had watched.
“Ours does. All the vehicles that staff use do, and they’re never turned off. But anyone else is free to prepare their own transportation. Many among the younger generations see them as outdated and a security risk since they can be located when you broadcast. So if those are students’ family vehicles, they might not have them.” The Professor explained.
“What class do you teach, Professor? You seem to have a pretty wide variety of knowledge.” Cassie asked.
“I teach potions from the first year through graduation. Only for Class A, though. The other classes rotate between teachers.” She explained.
“So Class A is a special one? For the children of upper Nobility, I am guessing.” Cassie replied, a bit sad that this laid-back professor wouldn’t be her teacher.
Sure, she apprehended Wolfe, but she hadn’t done anything to harm him, at least not after he crashed his bike through a storefront. She had even had her team collect it, and the slightly damaged cycle was in the rack on the back of their transport vehicle.
“Close. It is special, but we don’t separate students by parentage, at least not officially. The initial sorting is done by Potential, as measured by our staff, then after that, the students are grouped by progress.”
Cassie looked confused, but Wolfe nodded happily, as this was how his school had done things. The smartest kids were put in the best classes with the best teachers. The rest got to fight over used textbooks and the few chairs and desks that survived the previous year.
“So that the losers and slackers don’t drag down the best and brightest. If my guess is right, school-supplied resources will also be reduced with performance, and if you don’t meet the minimum, you are expelled at the end of the semester.” Wolfe told Cassie to clarify the situation.
“For the first year, resources are the same for all students outside class A. From the second year onward, they are scaled. For example, during the second year, those who don’t meet the standards for Nobility are separated from the more talented Witches.
They can take the third year as a remedial class to try to make the lower nobility or drop out during the second year and still be Commoner Witches. But only the Nobility can attend the fourth year and the placement exams.” Professor Ashcroft added.
“The final year placement exams determine your rank and where you get settled. Nobles get territory, but it’s not automatically inherited, so you might be placed in a different city or village under the Morgana Coven as a successor to an aging noble without an heir that has passed the Academy.
Or you could even be given the option to reclaim wilderness land. A few even choose to return home as landless Ladies.” The Professor continued once she recalled that they likely didn’t know much of anything about how the senior years of the Academy, or the Nobility, worked.
“How are the entry tests ranked?” Cassie asked.
Melody had gotten the lowest possible score, as she couldn’t cast a spell to save her life, but to Cassie, the ranking mattered.
“Spell Power and Casting Time, measured by a magical device. Magical aids like your talisman are allowed, but outside assistance, like the young Magi here, are not. Doubling your mana draw rate with his help would be too much like cheating, especially when Talismans are allowed.” Professor Ashcroft explained.
That was incredibly biased toward the wealthy families, but Cassie had a big smile on her face. The Professor had acknowledged Wolfe was a Magi, and she didn’t sound like she wanted to kill him.
In Cassie’s mind, that was a good start.