A: Magic Forest

(4)

The head of the magician academy who was sitting sweetly on his chair immediately showed a shocked expression when he saw a tall and sturdy young man already standing at the threshold of the entrance of his office. His face was fierce and clearly he was careless when he was wearing his clothes. His academy robes alone he did not wear at all. In fact, he had neatly stored it in his empty bag.

However, the plontos-headed old man quickly and suddenly instantly changed his expression into a cynical smile. "Well, you came to my office so quickly, champ."

Aliga was silent. He put both hands in his pants pocket and walked casually closer to the cupboard near the entrance. Instead of listening and replying to the words of the questioner, the young man seemed indifferent and instead looked at the race records and trophies that students had managed to get from this academy.

The young man's strategy worked. The head of the magician academy looked annoyed at feeling ignored by the interlocutor. The old man cleared his throat, crashing his table once. The buzz was not very strong, but Aliga and everyone in the room could hear it out loud. Aliga grinning. Finally the man was upset, his inner self.

Cia and Lila were still not twitching from the spot. A sinister aura came out from the two people. Lila knew, the stats and power level of the two witches could be analogous to the earth and sky when compared to the power of hers. "So, don't bother, old man. What do you want to tell me to come here quickly?"

"I'm going to take you all to the red moon ritual memorial race in two days." Without further ado as Aliga had said, the old man immediately said the main topic he was going to cover.

Lila and Cia looked at each other. The puzzled look on the faces of the two girls was clearly imprinted. Aliga was just as confused as them. There were so many questions that the three young witches actually wanted to ask.

"What is the red moon ritual?"

"What should we do in this race?"

Question after question was repeated by the three witches. Therefore, the head of the magician academy was disturbed and was too lazy to attend to those questions. Not to mention, Lila had repeated the same question several times to ask the head of the magician academy to make the man ride black.

"Already, already! I'll summarize your questions into one and listen to me carefully as there will be no repetition of the answers after this!" Angrily, the man got out of his chair and started yelling to the point of making anyone who heard him startle.  Then, he continued, "the red moon ritual is an event that is celebrated every 60 years and is held on the 6th of the sixth month of the year. There, you're gonna do some kind of magic power fight and-"

Without thinking, Lila suddenly interrupted the speech of the head of the magician academy. "Switch of magic? Seriously? My magic power is still very low, you know."

It was not only the head of the magician academy who was shocked. Cia and Aliga were also shocked when they saw how brave the girl was when she interrupted the words of a head of the magician academy. In response to Lila's question, the head of the magician academy grinned and stared intently at Lila's two eyes. "I have my own reasons why I told you to run that race. And especially for you, young lady, the reason I put you in such a prestigious event is probably so that I can get you out of my life."

The man's words were so sarcastic that they gave Lila goosebumps and fright. Her eyes were teary and like she was about to cry when she saw the man treating her so harshly like that.

"Hey, wait. So you're saying I'm gonna be paired with these two short, geeky girls in this famous magic race?" Aliga suddenly spoke up after being silent.

The head of the magician academy smiled, nodded steadily, then said, "of course."