Volume 3 - CH 6

Almark was still in a state of confusion when his name was called.

More nervous than ever, Almark stood up with a fright, bowed to the teacher who had come to call him, and headed for the magic practice area off to the side of the building.

(He said he envied me.)

"I'm sure Leila and Wallis are jealous of you too."

(I don't know what Deg meant.)

If he knew what it was, it might give him a clue for this exam. ......

And after thinking that much, Almark finally realized that even Deg didn't know anything about the exam, and he didn't have a clue either.

Then his thoughts went back to the beginning.

He had no choice but to do it.

(For the time being, I had no choice but to try to solve the problem on the spot.)

(Whether I could do it or not, I would give it a try.)

(I will not admit defeat right from the start.)

As he walked, while thinking, Almark arrived at the entrance to the magic practice field.

(All right,)

He takes a deep breath.

When he opened the door, he saw Yilmaz standing alone, as if it was his usual lesson.

"This is Almark."

Almark made a conscious effort to speak louder.

"Nice to see you."

Yilmaz looked at Almis and gave a small nod, just barely identifiable.

"You're the last one of the second group. Let's begin."

Then Yilmaz himself brought a palm-sized stone from the far corner. It was the same size as the stone often used for practice in stone carving lessons.

He placed it on the floor in front of Almirk and said, "Let's see what you've accomplished in class.

"......"

Almark waited for his next words. But silence. He didn't seem to want to say anything else.

Almark stared at the stone in front of him and froze.

(The results of the lessons .)

(He wants me to show him the results.)

(I don't have ...... any such results .)

(The only thing I've done in the magic practice class since that big flaming failure is meditate.)

(Sure, I did take a few peeks at the other classmates.)

(But I never learned any magic at all to do anything with stones.)

Almark thought.

(But I have to do it.)

(It's better to do it on the spur of the moment than to end up doing nothing at all.)

(What  should i do with this stone? )

Yilmaz didn't say anything .

The first person that came to Almark's mind was Deg, who had been with him earlier.

(Deg would surely be able to levitate this stone without any difficulty. Levitation magic is his specialty.)

Next, he thought of Wallis in the first stone carving class.

(Wallis would have carved beautiful geometric patterns on this stone.)

(What about Wendy?)

(Wendy could do anything, but maybe she could use her newly learned spell of transformation to turn this stone into a beautiful gemstone, or a live rabbit, or something like that.

(What about Nelson? What about Liltie ? What about Norrisch? I wonder what answers they would have given, now that they have finished this exam and are probably on their way back to their dormitories.)

The magic they are good at comes to his mind one after another.

(Oh, I've seen a lot of their magic in the past few months,) Almark realized, even after all this time.)

(Not only Yilmaz . . They all taught me.)

When he thinks about this, he suddenly remembers.

There was only one magic that he had been able to use.

"Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Feel your magic inside your body. Imagine strongly that you are gathering your magic power to the tip of the wand. Then, as you exhale sharply, imagine the magic penetrating through the back of the stone, and hold the wand ......."

Torque's voice from the first practice comes back to him .

(Yes, Torque had indeed taught me how to do the stone carving that time.)

(At the time, I couldn't do it at all. Not a single flake peeled from the stone.)

(But what happens now?)

(I have been meditating every day, d I have been kneading the magic. I think I can break the stone now.)

(I could make it now.)

Yilmaz stares at Almirk in silence.

Gulp.

Almark swallows his spit.

The technique of stone carving.

(Shall I try it?)

( Prepare yourself, Almark.)

(Now.......)