BLOOD CURSE ACADEMIA - PREVIOUS DRAFT EDITION -

CHAPTER XIX

He handed Professor Kateshi a note written by Roba. She didn’t even bother to look at it as she continued on with her lecture about simplifying complex instructions and avoiding paradoxes.

Kizu sat down at a random seat. He wondered if Basil was in the class or still passed out in their room. Looking through the assembled students around him yielded no answer. Basil could look like anyone. But he did spot Finn. His brother looked surly and irritable. Even more so than usual.

The class seemed to drag on, until eventually the bell dismissed them. As the class filed out, Kizu lingered. The wooden box of enchanted items weighed on his mind. He debated about how much to ask Kateshi without giving anything away. Before arriving at a firm decision, the professor looked over her shoulder at him and sighed.

“Yes, Kaga? Is this about your tardy slip?”

“No, I wanted to ask you how to identify enchantments.”

“Outside studies? I suppose that’s commendable, but I have to get up to the medical wing for a student examination. If you want to discuss something, then walk and talk.”

Kizu followed her out of the room’s painting and tailed after her in the hallway.

“There are many different methods to identify something,” Kateshi launched into a speech. “As you advance, you’ll notice the similarities in how an object feels to things you have enchanted in the past. Your spell sense will recognize the patterns. This is the most common means of identification; however, also easily the least accurate. Mages use it because it takes little to no effort. Simply put, it’s lazy.”

“But there are better ways?” Kizu asked, dodging around a few students loitering in the hall.

“Of course. There are rituals that you can perform which will pinpoint the exact magical properties used in the spell. With a strong enough divination spell, you can even track down its creator. Every mage leaves a personal residue on every spell cast.”

Kizu immediately filed that information away. His parents had mentioned Anna had enchanted his bedroom back in the capital. Maybe at his next visit he could use that to track her.

“And finally,” Professor Kateshi said. “Every experienced enchanter knows a few different spells that help identify objects. Though some are more situational than others. A simple example being, an enchanted castle will be too large for some spells while a thimble will be too small to detect anything with another spell. And that’s not to mention cursed living creatures. Those require an altogether different means of spellcasting better suited for Rejuvenation and Restoration spells.”

The professor glanced at him and frowned, as if just now remembering who she was rambling to. Then she shooed him away without preamble.

But Kizu had gleaned more than enough information to get by with. He was still lost in thought when he entered the astronomy tower.

“Where were you yesterday?” Harvey asked as he took his seat. “You didn’t show up in History F.”

“Family problems, sorry. Nothing to worry about now, but it was a bit of a hassle to deal with.”

“Well, what are you doing on the weekend? Do you want to go do something?”

Kizu stifled a laugh. “You want to use Mort at another party as a conversation starter again? Come on Harvey, just approach a girl if you’re interested in her. Don’t wait for them to come to you.”

“I thought you didn’t want to give me advice,” Harvey muttered.

“Welcome all,” Professor Grove said, bobbing into the room. The lights dimmed all around them.

“And besides,” Harvey whispered. “That’s not what I wanted to ask. I’m going to the combat test at the end of the weekend.”

“Combat test?”

“At the end of every week, you can retake any of your placement tests to rise in rankings. It won’t change your class for the semester, but it can help for future semesters.”

“It sounds a bit barbaric,” Kizu said slowly. “Isn’t it dangerous and reckless to allow students to beat each other up in a ring?”

Harvey waved away his concern. “Nah, it’s completely safe. Only students who volunteer participate. And it’s always only to first blood so the moment someone gets hurt, the contest ends. Besides, all of the top Rejuvenation and Restoration students always stand on standby. I don’t think someone’s been seriously injured in ages.”

Kizu didn’t think that sounded ‘completely safe’ but he supposed it made sense for them to get some practical experiences. He still thought it was barbaric. While he considered it, the ceiling lit up with stars.

“My cousin told me the combat tests are open viewing for all students,” Harvey continued quietly, so as not to interrupt the lecture. “And it’s by far the most competitive of the tests.”

“Emilia?” Kizu asked. His heart beat slightly faster.

“Different cousin.”

“Oh.”

“So?” he hissed. “Will you come?”

“I have an appointment tomorrow…but you said it was the day after? Yeah, my schedule is clear.”

“A date?” He gave Kizu a sharp toothed grin.

Kizu shuddered at the thought of a date with Roba. “No way.” But he didn’t divulge any more details, instead pretending to pay attention to Professor Grove. In truth though, he zoned her out along with the rest of the class as he stared up at the stars overhead.

Kizu pretended he was back at the basin, on top of a tall tree that hung over the jungle and looking up at the stars on a cloudless night. He could practically feel a cool breeze cut through the humidity. If he listened closely, he was brought back to the noises of the jungle. The chirping of insects, hooting of owls, and occasional howl of a monkey. He missed it.

The end of class came sooner than he wanted, breaking him from his trance.

He and Harvey ate lunch together in the cafeteria. The Tainted boy tore his teeth into a hunk of meat and scarfed it down. He never even bothered attempting to use the utensils. As he did so, he talked about the combat test and who would be competing. Apparently, Arclight matched people of similar skill levels to fight. Kizu wondered if he could actually beat anyone in his class. Arclight must think so, otherwise he’d be ranked 800, but he was completely clueless about who might possibly be weaker than him.

“You could have woken me,” a young man said, sitting down in a huff. Kizu and Harvey both stared at him. He had the sleek black hair of someone from Hon tied back in a bun. Kizu guessed his age around his own but couldn’t recall ever seeing him before in his life.

“Basil?” he guessed.

“Who else?” the young man said brusquely. “You know, I completely missed Enchanting C because of you.”

“Eh, sorry, but I got called away by the headmaster.” As soon as he said the words, he regretted them.

“Headmaster?” Harvey said, visibly perking up.

“Yeah, about that family stuff I mentioned earlier,” Kizu said lamely. “Just a matter of adding me to my family villa’s security enchantments. That sort of stuff. It accidentally kicked me out the other day.”

“Oof,” Harvey said. “And the headmaster himself had to get involved?”

“His administrator,” Kizu said. “I never saw the headmaster himself. It was all just drama, probably not worth his time. My younger brother doesn’t want me added to the system and made a bit of a stink about it.”

“After what happened with your sister, I’m surprised the headmaster doesn’t just kick both of you out and be done with your whole family.” Basil bit into an apple.

Kizu blinked. “Wait. You know what happened to my sister? How?”

Basil bit into the apple again. “I don’t know. Not exactly. But I dated her roommate’s sister for a while. Well, maybe dated is a strong word for it. She did have a remarkable set of legs. I wish I could get mine looking toned like that. It’s harder than you’d think.”

“Why do you want a woman’s legs?” Harvey asked, wrinkling his nose.

“I want every sort of leg.”

“Back up to my sister,” Kizu said. “What do you know about her?”

“Well.” Basil thought about it for a moment. “Back when I was seeing her roommate’s sister, I vividly recall her telling me about how Kaga Anna had all sorts of family drama. Got kicked out of her family’s villa and ended up back in the dorms as a fifth year. A bit humiliating. Then mysteriously disappeared. She said it might have actually been expulsion. But her sister wasn’t even supposed to say that much to her. It was all swept under the rug. Must have been a huge scandal. My money’s on dating the headmaster.”

“My sister didn’t date the headmaster,” Kizu dismissed dryly.

Basil shrugged, obviously not convinced.

“That’s all you know?” Kizu asked.

“Yeah.”

“By any chance, do you still talk to this girl? Do you know if she might have anything of my sister’s?” He knew it was a long shot.

“Oh, not at all. I mean, I could approach her, but if she found out it was me, I’d end up flayed and seasoned over a cook fire. She no longer has the best opinion of me. Anyway, I doubt her sister gave her anything.” Then he hesitated, thinking for a moment. “You know, actually there is this other girl I was seeing for a while. A fourth year. She moved into her dorm and found it loaded up with stuff from the previous year. The girl used to whine about all the clutter and how difficult it was to get it thrown out. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it might be from your sister’s sudden eviction. Matches up in the timeline well enough. No time to clean out her dorm like is required for all the other students. Easy to see how it was overlooked with how hush-hush it all was.”

“Wait,” Harvey said skeptically. “So, you dated not only Kizu’s sister’s roommate’s sister, but also the girl who moved into the room the next year?”

Basil rolled his eyes. “It’s not that surprising. When the academy only lets in 800 students, that means I only have 799 options. Well, plus the people in town too. Even still, it’s a small pool to choose from.”

“799 is a small pool?” Harvey looked like his eyes would pop out of his head.

“Regardless,” Kizu interrupted. “Do you think you could ask this girl if she still has anything from the room? I want to locate my sister with divination. It would help if I had something that used to belong to her.”

“Again, I think that’s a no-go. Not on speaking terms with her either. I, er, made the mistake of falling asleep near her. She’s horrified by me. I heard she actually wears silver rings and makes a point of shaking hands with everyone she talks to now. Extremely inconvenient.”

Kizu felt a small pang of pity for the boy.

Harvey looked completely lost. “Are you allergic to silver?”

“Deathly,” Basil admitted solemnly. He ordered a bowl of rice and chicken curry and began to eat. Kizu’s eyes watered just from his proximity to it.

“Well,” Kizu said, wiping his eyes. “Maybe I could ask her about it. She might be willing to just hand over the junk.”

“What if I told you I had a better idea,” Basil said. He leaned in close conspiratorially. His breath was hot and spiced from the curry. “What if, hear me out, we just went and took it?”