All the first year students were in the garden field. They were studying the different types of flowers and feeling the powers of the flowers. Every time they touched one flower or petal, the petals would sting their fingers. Some students had their textbooks opened so they could study the properties of each flower. They had to study all the flowers because the flowers had special powers that were only allowed to be used if needed. The flowers could also be used to make different types of potions. Most of the students were also going through the textbooks since there were recipes for the potions.

  Cassian appeared next to Annabelle. “I don’t understand why do we’ve to learn all these flowers if we can’t use them often?”, he moaned.

  “We can use them but only if we need to. Plus, these flowers contain very powerful powers so it’s better to learn them than not. They’ll be useful to you one day. And, you can use them to make potions and magical perfumes.”, she sounded excited about the last sentence.

  He stared at him for a moment. “Seems like you’re in love with these flowers already.”

  “Because we can use them to make potions and perfumes. The problem is that we need to learn how to make them by using powers.”

  Cassian’s dark green eyes widened. “And how many flowers do we need to learn?”

  “Five thousand and forty-eight.”, she answered with a straight face.

  He shook his head out of disbelief and stunned that she answered that question with a straight face.

  Amelia and her big group of friends just entered the garden. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the group. Rebecca came closer to Rosalina, Lithanya and Yaithra.

  “That’s Christina Amelia Theodore. Everyone calls her Amelia because she prefers to be called by her shorter name. She is one of the biggest bullies in the upper class.”, she explained to them.

  Yaithra turned to her. “One?”, she asked. Yaithra was joining Lithanya’s lessons since she was getting bored trying on the new dresses.

  The princes, princesses, emperor and empress’s knights or right hand knights were allowed to join the lessons, according to the new rule in the academy.

  “Two are her best friends. One will come tomorrow while the other one will come next year.”, Rebecca whispered back.

  Lithanya joined in. “Isn’t she known for being the most beautiful woman in Nymphaedra and Eldoria?”, she asked.

  “Yes, every man would want her to be their wife. But she has very high standards.”

  “High standards?”, Lithanya wanted more information.

  “Her ideal husband must be extremely muscular, handsome, very wealthy, dominate the family like he has to be the bread winner and make all the decisions. In other words, controlling. Also, he has been really getting into bed. Basically, a description of Yichen.”, Rebecca explained then tried to catch her breath.

  “Hence she is always with Yichen.”, Rosalina mentioned.

  “Oh yes, she loves to have fame so the reason she is around Yichen all the time is because she wants to be the empress.”, Annabelle mentioned.

  Jullien joined the conversation. “She loves to be famous and more into her reputation. For her becoming an empress will be a big thing for her. She also loves to be very controlling towards her servants.”

  “Do you think she is fit to be an empress?”, Rosalina asked.

  “Absolutely not.”, they all answered, including some of their companions.

  Cassian joined in. “She is very controlling, bullies her servants and the people who’re poor, only surrounded by people who’re very popular and wealthy. She also hates when people say negative things about her. She can’t handle anything that’s negative or the word ‘no’.”, he explained.

  Lithanya, Yaithra and Rosalina looked at Amelia. “She is really a problematic person.”

  “Very difficult to work with. An absolute nightmare.”, one upper class person came to her. “Hi, I’m Eleanor Barbarella Stone.”, she introduced herself.

  “Hello, Eleanor.”, they were stunned to see an upper class person in their group.

  “You also have Yichen’s mom’s first name, Barbarella.”, Rebecca just realised that Eleanor had the same name Yichen’s mom

  Eleanor’s beautiful smile grew and nodded. “I heard you having a conversation with Amelia. I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t like her.”

  “It’s very rare to hear that from an upper class person.”, Yaithra mentioned.

  “Oh no, many of us don’t like her. We just don’t say it in front of her face because she doesn’t like it. And she’ll do something really terrible. We’re always silent when we see her.”, she explained.

  They nodded with their mouths slightly opened then they watched Amelia flirting with Yichen while he was going through the book. Flirting was forbidden in the academy so it was strange that the senior investigators weren’t dealing with that. Some of the students forgot that Amelia didn’t like to hear the word ‘no’ or anything negative towards her. All the senior and junior investigators were scared to discipline her.

  The loud bell rang across the academy for the next lesson. Most of the students were so relieved because they were getting tired of touching each type of flower and getting stung by the petals.

  Suddenly, some of the students stopped, then turned to the mountains with stress. Eleanor also looked in the same direction with stress.

  “What’s that?”, she asked.

  “What’s what?”, Lithanya asked while closing her big book.

  “Do you hear that?”

  Yaithra mentioned. “We don’t have excellent hearing like you so we can’t hear from a distance.”

  Eleanor forgot about that. “Of course.”, she bowed as an apologetic gesture.

  “What did you hear?”, Lithanya asked.

  Eleanor looked back at the mountains. “A roaring sound.”

  “That’s expected because there’re dangerous predators.", Rosalina got up from the ground.

  “No, but this roar sounds unusual. It’s louder than a normal animal’s sound.”

  The group looked at the mountains. “Maybe it’s just a lion, tiger or other predators trying to catch their prey or having their moments.”, Yaithra tapped Eleanor’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”, she took Eleanor’s hand and made her walk with the other students.

  The next lesson was tarots and crystals which most people were really excited for. There were a maximum of twenty glasses because only over two hundred students could fit in each classroom. Lithanya and Yaithra were sitting together right behind the room. Their friends were sitting in front of each other. The entire class had been waiting for five minutes for the senior investigator. Some of them were getting so impatient that they kept on looking at the door every minute.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  White bright smoke appeared in the middle of the room which caused everyone to scream. The mystical ornaments made chime sounds along with the wind. The smoke was slowly disappearing and it was revealing a young woman sitting with her legs crossed above the students. Her eyes opened slowly revealing her big bright glowing red eyes which scared the students in front of her.

  “Welcome to our first lesson of Tarots and Crystals, students. My name is Samantha Moonshadow and I’m going to be your senior investigator for ten years.”, she said with a calm and smooth tone.

  The students couldn’t get their voices out after witnessing this grand entrance. What caught the students in front of her were the amount of heavy mystical jewelleries she was wearing around her neck, wrists and fingers. Samantha slowly flew to the front of the massive room.

  “You can call me Miss Moonshadow or Moonshadow. But you aren’t allowed to call me by my first name.”, she faced them. The other students froze when they saw the amount of jewellery that she was wearing. “I don’t tolerate nonsense from anyone. When I give you homework, I expect your homework to be done before I can check it. Fail to do your homework, you won’t be allowed in my classroom. You’ll sit outside by the walls and do your homework there. The only time you’ll be allowed back into the classroom is when you showed me that you’ve done your homework. That also goes for your assignments and failing to learn the notes every week. You aren’t allowed to talk unless I ask you a question or you have a question. But you must raise your hand when you’re asking me a question. Don’t talk when a student is answering or reading notes out loud. Cheating is forbidden during tests and exams. If you’re caught cheating, immediately expelled. Understood?”, she asked clearly but no one answered. “Understood?!”, she yelled.

  “Yes, Miss Moonshadow!”, they acknowledged.

  “Excellent.”, she flicked her fingers in the air. “Today, you’ll be receiving your basic tarot cards. There are three thousand cards and you’ll be keeping them forever. These cards aren’t ordinary cards because they are your weapons. The ends of the cards are really sharp like a blade. Today, you’ll need to learn page 1 to 25 before Friday. It’s the descriptions of 100 tarot cards.”, she explained.

  The students froze with shock that they couldn’t even get their words out of their mouths. They had to learn twenty-five pages by Friday. Hundreds of mystical patterned boxes came out of the storeroom then flew to the students.

  “You’re allowed to touch the box once everyone else has their boxes.”, she said firmly.

  Two boxes landed on each desk. The students remained frozen while looking at the golden mystical patterned box. They were admiring the patterns to waste time while waiting.

  All the students had received their boxes. “You can open your boxes and start learning your descriptions of the 100 tarots. Tomorrow, I’ll start teaching you the basic spells of Sorcerers and Sorceresses. For the rest of the lesson, start learning your 100 cards.”, she instructed.

  Everyone pulled out their textbooks and also opened their tarot boxes. Samantha landed on the ground, creating a loud sound that shocked the students.

  “Don’t worry about what I’m doing. Focus on your learning. If you make a slight sound, you’ll be sitting outside for the whole lesson.”, she said clearly.

  All the students looked at their tarots and textbooks. The books were opened on the first page which had the pictures of the tarots and next to tarots were their descriptions. Each description had fifteen lines and they were very descriptive. Some of the students were already getting a headache even though they didn’t even start reading the first line. Samantha was walking around and making sure that the students were learning properly. None of them dared to look at her otherwise they would be kicked out of the lesson and would’ve to sit outside by the walls.

  _____________

  For the last lesson, the first year students were going for physicians. Everyone was so excited because Haoran was teaching this subject. The students were already sitting in the classroom, five minutes early and waiting patiently for Haoran.

  Lithanya and Jullien were sitting next to each other. They were having a conversation about Samantha and how scary she was.

  “I wish Miss Moonshadow will be Amelia’s senior investigator. Miss Moonshadow definitely doesn’t tolerate nonsense.”, Jullien said.

  Lithanya completely disagreed with him. “Then Amelia would get Miss Moonshadow into trouble. Amelia's behaviour is to hurt people if they go against her.”, she looked at the door. “Mr Xiao is here.”, she sat upright.

  As soon as Haoran walked into the room, everyone sat upright properly with their shoulders straight. “Good afternoon.”, he greeted everyone.

  “Good afternoon, Mr Xiao.”, they greeted him.

  “So, how were your lessons today?”, he sat on the edge of his desk and looked at them.

  The students looked at each other with some fear because they didn’t want to mention anything about Samantha. “The lessons are going well!”, Cassian answered loudly.

  Everyone got a shock from that yell. They were still recovering from the shock they experienced earlier with Samantha. Haoran could feel the tension in the student’s body.

  “I know that you didn’t expect Miss Moonshadow to be a strict and no-nonsense mentor. It’s better that way because you’ll do well in everything.”, he explained.

  “But she is so scary.”, Lucina spat without thinking twice.

  Some of the students slapped their palms on their foreheads with disbelief. They really wished Lucina shouldn’t had said that to Haoran. They were scared that Haoran might tell Samantha then she was going to make a big fuss about it.

  Haoran continued. “She is scary but she is good at her work.”, he said then changed into a new subject. “Welcome to our very first lesson. I’m Xiao Haoran Chaoxiang and I’m going to be your mentor for ten years.”, he flicked his fingers in the air. “You’ll need to bring these utensils in every lesson. Fail to bring the utensils, you won’t be allowed in the lesson. You’ll have to stand outside for the whole lesson. Talking is forbidden when I’m explaining an aspect or a student is talking. If you want to ask something or answer a question, please raise your hands. I don’t need to go through the rest of the rules because the other investigators told you in the other lessons.”, he raised a brow.

  “Yes, Mr Xiao!”, they answered immediately with relief because they were getting irritated listening to the same rules fifteen times.

  Haoran was happy to hear despite not showing it. “Excellent.”

  Small green mystical boxes flew out of the storeroom. “These’re your utensils. Make sure you keep them safe because they’re precious. Treat them like your own children. Today, we’ll be going through all the utensils and what we use them for.”, he explained. “You know what to do with the boxes.”

  The students nodded and they had to wait once everyone had the boxes. Once everyone got the boxes, they immediately opened them and it revealed small medical utensils.

  “Before Friday, you must learn pages 1 to 30. These pages have the descriptions of the utensils.”, Haoran continued talking.

  Stephen raised his hand and caught Haoran. “Are we going to examine an actual body during our practicals?”, he asked.

  “No, we’ll be using dummies for that. Oh yes, before I forget. I know that practicals for making medicines are in the second half of the year. But start now so you can be well-prepared because there are many ingredients and the methods are very complex. Also, if you miss a step or do something incorrectly, it can be really dangerous and there’s no going back.”, he explained.

  Cassian raised his hand. “How come everything is so dangerous if we don’t use them properly in the academy?”

  Haoran turned to him. “Because of the strength of the powers that can be really dangerous. Overusing these powerful powers can be really dangerous, they can also kill your body and you can't control them either.”, he explained.

  Rosalina raised her hand. “Are we going to be learning about different illnesses and how to cure them?”

  “Yes. Even the rarest illness that you never heard before. That also includes the illness Princess Lithanya had.”, his attention went to Lithanya.

  All eyes went to Lithanya who was sitting casually and staring at everyone. “Uhmmm…”, she couldn’t get her voice.

  Jullien came closer to her. “In a nutshell, your illness was the main topic for a few years after you got cured. The physicians got interested and are still trying to figure out what it really is.”, he whispered.

  Lithanya couldn’t agree more because she still didn’t know what illness she had. “Nice. At least I can use this subject as an advantage to find out that monstrous illness I had.”, she whispered back.

  Suddenly, there was a loud roar heard by the mountains. Everyone looked in the same direction which was by the windows. Haoran’s eyes glowed a little bit but he remained calm to not scare the student.

  “Everyone, calm down. It’s just an animal trying to catch their prey or finding a mate. Let’s continue the lesson.”, he said firmly.

  Some students lost focus on that roar and continued with the lesson. While the other students were still distracted by that roar. Haoran waved his hand in the air and the curtains were drawn.

  “Less time looking at the window, more time on the lesson. Let’s turn to the first page and I’ll start explaining the first few utensils.”, he instructed.

  Everyone else lost their attention to the roar and were now focusing on this lesson. They all turned to the first page and Haoran started going through the first page without even looking at the book.