"And what exactly is the goal of this mission ?" Alice tried to reason with herself. Her doubt and confidence fighting against each other inside her.
[A group of weird creatures overran a dungeon on the other side of this kingdom] Monika switched to her telepathic abilities to continue the conversation. Alice decided to also talk with her through her mind.
"Why are we talking through here ?" She said in her head.
[The information I'm giving you is top secret. I can't risk it getting out. But the situation is of utmost importance and I know that I can rely on you] She smiled after telling Alice that. [You can go now. I will update you on the situation when I get more information]
Alice nodded and then went to her room. But the thought of not being ready for the mission kept her up and didn't let her sleep. So she went outside to keep training. She wanted to see if adding the mana blast would be useful in any shape or form. There were many advantages to it compared to using air for movement as it created no noise or wind, and the power was way higher too.
...
By the time it was time to wake up and go to the academy, Alice mastered the improved version of the flash step. She could dash up to 15 meters in an instant without making a single sound. But it required a lot of things to do at once. She continously had to support herself with air while blasting mana from her back at an even pace to not fall over. She was all dirty so she went to quickly take a bath and change into her uniform before Tania woke up.
"Mhm~" The dryad stretched her arms as she woke up. "Good morning Alice" She said. Still half asleep. "Its the first time you woke up before me"
"I guess the training made you very sleepy. We are already late" Alice said with a serious panicked face. Frantically packing stuff.
Tania jumped out of bed to pack her stuff and change her clothes "Really ?? You should have woken me up sooner !!"
"Pfft" Alice looked at Tania "I was joking. We still have lots of time"
The dryad pouted "Why did you do that..." She turned her face away.
"Because it was funny. " She was still laughing "Now ready up. Today we have a packed day" It was true. They had gizmos today which both of them were not looking forward to and after that almost 4 hours of magic theory and magic practice.
Once Tania got ready they both were on their way.
"Since you understand how air works today you will practice supporting yourself with it while you move" Alice showed Tania how to do so. She looked like an astronaut walking on the moon.
"Okay... Let me try" Tania enveloped her body with air. But whenever she tried to moved the uneven air pressure made her fall over "Its much harder than i expected" She said.
"Just keep trying. If you practice hard enough you will be able to do this" She decided to show off her new mastered technique. Tania looked at her and the next second Alice was gone. Being behind the dryad now. "Boo !"
"AAAH!" Tania was scared out of her mind "Please just stop doing this. Why do you even act so erratic today. Did something happen?" Tania was a bit concerned.
"Don't worry about it. I'm just happy I mastered the technique" It didn't sound too convincing. It felt like she was telling that to herself aswell as Tania.
Tania decided to trust Alice. The walk to academy took longer than the day before because of how hard it was for Tania to move with air supporting her.
...
Once they got to school they stood in front of the gizmos class. Alice saw a familiar face.
"Hi Jasper !" She ran towards the short boy and hugged him. He was so short that his head was on her temple level. "Your uniform is amazing. Thank you so much for making it for me" She saw that Jasper was getting all red from all this body contact.
"I-I'm glad to hear so Alice..." He visibly shrank "It seems you are part of one of my groups"
"Yes it seems so. I'm so lucky to have someone as smart as you. You will help me and my friend to pass this because we are terrible at this" She was brutally honest.
"I don't think thats fair to others" He pushed Alice away "But I can teach you if you will need some help" He then swiftly disapeard into the crowd all red with shyness from having to talk to someone.
"Look Tania" Alice pulled her to herself and pointed at Jasper "Our get out of jail free card is running away" She was in despair like a drunk person.
"You are acting very strange Alice" Tania was even more confused now.
"No no I'm totaly fine. Trust me" She shut the topic down "Let's go to the class. We will power through it together!" She grabbed Tania's hand ran into the class.
The gizmos class turned out to be way easier and more fun than both of them expected. Because they were in first semester all they had to do was work with wood. And because both of them were dryads in some way they could work on wood with more ease.
"This is much more relaxing than i expected. I'm not going to lie" Tania said.
"I also think so. It feels so nice to change the shape of the wood. I hope it doesn't get much harder than this though" Alice added.
Luckily this class felt much shorter than they anticipated because of how easy it was. Then they had the magic theory class. As they sat in the desks the professor entered with an upper classman.
"Today the student council president will teach you instead of me. He will also tell you about the ways you could join it. But don't think lesser of him. He is one of the most skilled mages in our academy at the moment" She added. "Anyway the floor is all yours, prince Charles.
Alice's eyes widened. Prince Charles ? The same one she fought during the tournament ? She stood up and looked at him. Yes it was him, she would never forget the way he carried himself and his massive staff on his back.
"Is there a problem ?" He asked her. Making Alice realize that she just stood up during a class for no reason at all and stared at him. Making her go all red.