Maple High School Academy Year 1
The Soul Blower - Winter and the Truth

Winter and the Truth

"WAIT!" SHOUTING MISS AIMER caused all the gazes towards her.

Up ahead, a glowing white light forms a flashing screen, displaying flashbacks of events before Lily, Maya, and Efron are captured. A truth about the beginning of the disappearance of the statue of Sif from the museum. The light stopped flashing along with the cry of Aimer Venmaris.

"Mr Jace Kalandra, please come forward!" said Miss Aimer with eyes staring straight at the podium of the hall.

The room turned very quiet. No one dared to make the slightest sound. Until sounding enthralling a pair of pantofel that echoed. The blond man was walking towards the front of the podium with his head lowered, Jace.

Aimer Venmaris stared intently at Jace. Without a word, he displayed a gaze full of his emotions. "You—"

"Hold your emotions. Don't you want to see how they complete their secret mission?" cut Samael, then smile. "Continue the show."

The white light turned back, then blinked. Slowly came the moving images like a hologram screen.

 Since morning, there was no light. This is natural, because it has entered winter. Although there is no light, the sky is still beautiful because it is decorated by colorful rainbows called aurora borealis.

Lily takes out the shrunken Sleipnir from the small box, then Efron takes over and delivers the liquid to restore the size of Sleipnir.

They are now on the riverbank behind Villagic. All the necessities they had prepared.

"We need to be careful" Maya said. His gaze was vigilantly observing around. "Can we go faster?"

Lily stopped her movements stroking Sleipnir. He turned to the statue of Sibyl who was staring at the dark sky. "Are you ready, Sibyl?"

I should have asked you. I'm ready anytime.

Lily nodded, inviting Efron and Maya to finish their preparations immediately. Efron unfolded the paper, asking Sibyl to stand on it. The paper he has cast a sealing spell to anticipate things that are not desirable. Although not a strong enough seal, considering Efron was only a level one student. Maya replaces Lily stroking Sleipnir. The stallion remains more docile to the female.

"Here we go" Lily sighed softly to relieve her nervousness. He was getting closer to Sibyl. Closing her eyes, Lily tried to focus on getting her spell to work. After that he began to chant word for word written in the paper given by Efron.

Efron and Maya stare anxiously when they find no sign of the spell reacting. Until Lily finished reading, there was no reaction. The three of them started looking at each other in panic.

What was?

Lily rubbed her hair rough. He stared at Efron and Maya in turn. They just sniffed their shoulders with a look that.

"How's this? Efron said something," riled Lily.

"Calm down, Lily."

"No. How can I calm down?" Lily walked back and forth. His hands were squeezing each other. "Oh, God. Help me, please."

Lily's eyes stared at the dark sky above her. Hopefully, he muttered, "Help me, please."

Unexpectedly, suddenly an extremely bright golden-colored light shot out from the statue of Sibyl. Lily, Maya, and Efron reflexively move away and close their eyes due to the glare.

A redemption.

The increasingly golden light formed a woman with a long mane who was smiling gently.

A request from a clean soul.

The colors in the sky go around. Until it reaches towards the golden light, the spirit of Sibyl. Sleipnir immediately approached the Goddess. Bowing respectfully, offering his back to ride. Sibyl's spirit looked towards the three students who were now staring in disbelief. Smiling, he began to climb up the Sleipnir.

Thank ye.

Within seconds, Sleipnir stepped up the rainbow. It all just vanished in an instant. Only three students remained dumbfounded.

Lily fell on the ground that was getting wet from the snow. The white shirt he was wearing got a little dirty from it. "That was ... what?" he still couldn't believe it. Lily tried to get up and walked towards the statue ahead. "Si-byl?" He held the statue of Sibyl and shook it.

Maya who realized first immediately invited Lily and Efron to return the statue of Sibyl to its original place. For some reason, he felt a dark aura approaching towards them.

"Tap-but .. is it true that Sibyl has returned? That fast?" ask Lily who still can't believe what she saw just now.

Maya continues to convince Lily that what they see is true. Efron had also cleaned up some of the items they had used earlier. Efron seemed impatient to reach into the pocket of black pants that he was wearing. His hand continued to palpate the pocket of his pants in a slight rush.

"Maya, are you carrying shrinkage potions?" efron asked after stopping his search.

"I? No. gabe. It wasn't you who brought it, was it?"

Efron scratched his head slightly hard. "That means being left behind in the potion room, ck."

"Near here is a daisy plant as I recall. I immediately looked for her" said Lily who began to move towards the windmill. However, not even five steps, he stopped. His eyes were puffed up when he saw the horde of people he knew. "Ma-dam Aimer ...."

 The hall looked boisterous ever since the staff and teachers decided to leave the room after the truth was opened by the golden flower Sibyl gave. Moreover, there was now one student who joined the chain of red light.

While grimacing, the girl called Shal looked pity at the four people who became a free spectacle for the students.

"Do you think getting kicked out of the academy is a proper punishment for them, Peony?" whispered another voice from the glasses-rounded girl with braided brown hair.

Peony slicked his shoulder, "I think it's worth the heist they did, Elle."

"But they didn't do it on purpose, did they?" ask Elleanor again.

"Come on," replied Peony who again sniffed his shoulder. "At least the dwindling population of troublemakers from this academy. Didn't you?" peony said a little loudly.

Elleanor who was standing next to him also nudged Peony's hand dislike. "Take a word."

"Peony seemed to be telling the truth, although it was a bit painful," Amara told Shalima who had only listened to the speech between Peony and Elleanor since then.

Shalima glared at Amara who looked relaxed with her words. "Don't say that!”

Elleanor, Peony, Shalima, and Amara were about to continue the conversation when a familiar black smoke entered the room. Mr. Samael came with a slightly mysterious smile. Mr. Samael cleared his throat for a moment, "I'm sorry, we've had a little discussion."

"Here I will convey the results of our discussion about ...." Samael stared at the four striking students, at the very front of the hall. "Punishment for them ...”

"I'm sorry to interrupt, sir." A student from the middle row interrupted.

"Yes, Miss Thompson?"

"I think it would be very unfair to have his sentence thrown out of the academy, sir," Elleanor said.

All speechless. There were some who nodded in agreement with Elle's statement and some of the rest even sneered dislike. Mr. Samael suddenly laughed so hard that it made everyone stare strangely at him.

"Ups, sorry." Mr. Samael began to cleared his throat to neutralize his laughter. "It's a good opinion, Miss Thompson, but I haven't even told you that I'm going to get them out."

Mr. Samael then advanced towards Lily. "How about, Miss James? What punishment would be appropriate for the four of you? Oh, for this blonde traitor of yours, would you like to request something?"

Lily looked at Jace for a moment, then immediately turned her eyes away. "No, Sir. He did what he was supposed to do. He's innocent in this case, so don't be punished."

Jace looked in surprise, feeling a little unsure of what Lily was saying. Are they not enemies?

A fella?

Jace instantly grimaced as the voice re-emerged. That voice seems to have always been his nightmare these days. How did he forget that they were friends at the time?

Mr. Samael clapped his hands, satisfied with Lily's reply. "That's great, Miss James. But unfortunately, the four of you should still be punished."

Lily closed her eyes. I don't know how many times his eyes closed in fear. He took Maya and Efron's hand. Slowly squeezing it out as if they need each other's support.

"Are you ready for the punishment?"

The four of them nodded quickly. Do not want to linger with the tension that occurs.

"All right." Mr. Samael took a breath, "The result of the meeting we had just a moment ago is ...."

Everyone who was there held their breath between being curious and feeling tense. Mr. Samael deliberately paused his sentence for a little while.

"The penalty for dissidents or dissidents is that during the holidays you are not allowed to go home. In other words, you must be within the academy area."

The four students who were being chained were sighing in relief. Just that, eh?

"Of course not that," continued Mr. Samael seemed to understand what was on the minds of all the students there. "During that time you are also required to clean every corner of the fantasy dormitory, ranging from rooms, rooms, hallways, to the cage of supernatural animals every day. Without magic."

Gosh, it must smell so bad, Maya doesn't like it. Lily had shuddered in horror when she imagined she was cleaning the cage of supernatural animals.

"You guys don't be happy just yet, there are still other penalties of course" said Mr. Samael after being satisfied to see the reaction of his students.

"There still?" ask Maya spontaneously.

"of course. You think you're just making one mistake? Stealing the nectar of a Greek god, skipping the curfew, stealing the keys to a warehouse in Villagic, visiting the Gingko Forest without permission, not returning books in time, making potions without permission, stealing spells from inscriptions in the Colosseum, looks like there's more. Do you think the punishment is just one?"

Maya grimaces shame. It felt like his disgrace was being opened in public. He stared at Mr. Samael, hoping the punishment won't be too severe.

Mr. Samael chuckled, "Your punishment won't be too heavy."

"really?"

He nodded at Maya's question. "Just help the teachers bring their thick books every day for a whole semester in the second school year."

"Oh, one more," said Mr. Samael suddenly stopped. "Your gold flowers we keep in a special room and officially belong to the academy. You, Miss James, come after this to Lakevender. Your powers need to be neutralized."