Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

[This chapter is dedicated to Magical_Phoenix as my way of saying thank you for the powerstones you are giving to this book and for your support. :D]

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I've been practicing this for quite some time now, probably two to three weeks from now, and yet… I still felt I am not that competent enough for our upcoming magic skills test this coming Friday!

I went to school really anxious about it the moment Ariella and Maggie started talking about that.

But before anything else for today, I grabbed for my bag and took out the letter that I promised Alex to give to Peter's best friend-- which is none other than Ariella.

When Maggie excused herself because a classmate of mine wants to talk to her over her seat, I immediately took this opportunity to show the letter to Ariella.

"What's this?" Ariella wrinkled her forehead, confused by my sudden action.

But when she was able to take a closer look at the letter…

"No way… how did you--"

"Let's just say… I have my resources." I smiled at her sheepishly while saying those words out loud.

Ariella suddenly encircled her arms around me for a quick, tight hug.

"I don't know how you got this… but thank you, Krisella." she gushed happily. I can't help but smile at her reaction.

Mission accomplished.

"You're very much welcome, Ariella," I said in return before the latter pulled away from me and looked at the letter with a genuine smile plastered on her face before hiding it inside her bag.

"Well, going back to the magic skills test, are you somehow prepared for it?" Ariella asked. I only scratched the back of my neck for that.

"Not sure… but I'll give it my very best just to pass," I replied awkwardly.

When Mr. Pumpkin, our class adviser, finally entered the classroom, everyone went back to their respective seats including our friend Maggie. All eyes are now on him as we waited patiently for whatever he will say to the class.

"As you may have already known, the magic skills test will be this coming Friday. It will have two parts, written and execution. The written part of the test will be held in advance-- that is this coming Thursday. The execution part will be on Friday." Mr. Pumpkin thoroughly explained to the whole class.

Everyone made their reactions in their seats, filling the classroom with hushed voices as they exchanged their opinions with their seatmates/

"Shush, children. I'm not even finished yet." Our teacher spoke once again, making my classmates fell silent once again.

"On the execution part, we will be asking all students to execute the spells that I and the panel will be relaying to you and you shall do it with properly, hence we would fail you instantly. There would be a total of twelve spells that we would make you execute, that is three spells from each element."

By his explanation, the class went into chaos. We would have never expected that the execution part would be this hard. There are some of us, like me, who have still not mastered the four elements yet.

The element that I could do best would be water. Thanks to that heartless, cold jerk who helped me improve my magic skills during our training sessions.

"The level of difficulty for each spell that we would require you to execute is random. Meaning, there will be a tendency that we would let you execute first level spells up to the fourth level. But rest assured that we wouldn't let you do a fifth level spell, for it is only intended for rank S wizards alone." Mr. Pumpkin continued.

I don't know if I should be thankful for that, but I know all I could do now is to pray and practice a little bit harder than usual.

"Good luck with your upcoming magic skills test, my dear students."

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Prior to the announcement, I immediately went back to the castle after classes have ended for the day and told this terrible news to my three mentors.

"Ahh… I see." Lancelot was the only one who reacted to what I've said.

By the way, we are currently in the prince's office and I was already dressed as the prince when I've told this terrible news to them.

"It is then decided that for the meantime, you will only have magic training sessions with Alex for the rest of the week until the magic skills test will be over." Lancelot then smiled at both me and Alex while saying these things.

I instantly felt all blood was drained out of me the moment I heard that from the archbishop. Having a training with him for just several hours, specifically two to three hours per day, is already a pain in my neck.

How much more if I need to do the said training with him for the rest of the week?!

"Oh… I think this would be so much fun." Lucas teased us both.

"Shut up!" Alex shouted.

I guess I don't have a choice then but to do as what we've been told to do. If it only means I would literally live in hell for the rest of the week just to pass my magic skills test, then I'm willing to take it!

I sighed n defeat. "Okay, if you say so Lancelot."

Lancelot and Lucas step aside and watched us as we prepared ourselves for the upcoming training. Alex looked at me with a bored look on his face.

"For today, I want you to show me what are the spells that you could already execute so that I would know what to teach you next."

Like a good student to her teacher, I obeyed my mentor and showed him the spells that I could do for each element… and that would be two spells each.

I saw the look of awe on his face as he watched me execute all of those, along with Lancelot and Lucas facial expressions.

When I was done doing all of it, I ended it with a bow and a confused look written all over my face.

"So… how was it?" I unconsciously scratched the back of my neck as I asked him.

For the very first time ever since the captain of the magic army taught me, his reddish lips formed into a smile.

And at that moment… I felt something within my chest… like it just pound loudly than my normal heartbeat.

"Not bad… my dear student."