The Blacksmith

XV

↜𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘦𝘯𝘥↝

[𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦] 𝘴𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘦𝘥.

𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳.

The demigod woke up after falling onto the ground. They groaned and sat up, checking the clock on the bedside table.

Seeing it was 6:00 am, [name] felt proud that they were finally awake before Grim was.

"Grim, wake up," they poke the sleeping monster.

"Don't surprise me like that! You'll make me forget everything I memorized! Today's the last of final exams." Grim glares at [name], who puts their hands up in mock surrender.

[name] couldn't wait for the day to be over, they barely finished the other tests. The half-blood was sure that they were going to lose brain cells if they have to keep reading papers after papers.
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"The test is over, whelps. Put your pens away and hand over your answer sheets like good little dogs," the alchemy teacher, Mr. Crewel told the class.

[name] looked down at their paper, it was half empty. A sense of disappointment washed over them as they handed their paper in.

"And with that, I do believe exams have come to a close," the class cheers when he said this. "Down! SIT! Don't start celebrating yet. Any bad pups who fare poorly in their exams will be given mandatory remedial lessons over the winter holidays. Consider yourselves warned. Class dismissed."

The three out of the four friends were cheering, happy finals are over.

Before [name] could leave the room, Mr. Crewel called out to them. Ace, Deuce, and Grim stopped and looked back, the demigod told them that they'll catch up.

Mr. Crewel sighs and looks [name] in the eyes.

"We need to have a talk," his voice is stern.

He sits behind his desk and gestures [name] to come closer. Mr. Crewel goes through the stack of papers and pulls out [name]'s test.

"I've noticed that you never finish anything I give to you, either it be homework, class work, or test. Why is that?"

The demigod stays quiet, knowing it was too late to tell them about their learning disabilities without being yelled out, or accused of making excuses for just being lazy.

Mr. Crewel crosses his arms, giving [name] an inpatient look.

"I'm waiting."

"I've always struggled with school," they say softly. "Things just don't seem to make to me..."

"And why do you struggle so much?" His voice has annoyance in it, it's easy to tell.

[name] shrugs, acting like they don't know, even if they know quite well.

"It's because you don't try," he says sharply. "You'll be taking the remedial classes over winter break. Your dismissed."

The demigod walks out of the classroom disappointed with themself.
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A week later, that's when everything started.

The day was going on as usual, Ace and Grim were fighting but they didn't use any magic which struck [name] as odd but shrugged it off, Mr. Crewel told the class that the scores had gone up an unusual degree.

But after class, when they had the scores of who got into top fifty out on a board, that's when it became an unusual day.

Ace, Deuce, and Grim all were shocked and scared that they didn't make it into the top fifty. [name] tried to tell them that it was okay but they didn't listen.

"B-but if I don't make it into the top fifty, that counts as a breach of contract!" Grim hurriedly says.

"Oh no. Grim did you...?"

"Judging by the look on your face, Ace, don't tell me—"

Deuce didn't get to finish what he was saying as all three of their heads, sea anemones appeared.

"What is going on!" [name] yells at the three.

"I came to see what all the commotion was. Why am I not surprised it's you guys?" Jack says as he walks to the group.

"Jack, did you make a contract too? Wait..you don't have an anemone on your head!" Deuce says.

"So much for being the bad boy, your almost as square as losey-deucey," Ace comments.

That's when the sea anemones started to yank the three away. [name] watches with a sigh.

"I'm going to make sure whatever Grim did is his own problem...and I don't have to take any of the blame for it," they say as they start to walk away.

Jack watches them for a moment before following them.
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[name]'s jaw drop when they entered the dorm. It was underwater which they found to be so cool. A part of them did get jealous and angry.

Jealous because they know that Ramshackle would never be this cool, and angry at the headmage because of the school can afford these nice dorms why can they get fresh and new materials to fix Ramshackle.

"He's playing favorites I swear...." [name] mumbled under their breath.

"There's gotta be a hundred—no, closer to two hundred people here. What is this place anyway? Some kind of coffee shop?" Jack stands right next to the demigod. "'Mostro Lounge'? Where did Ace and the others go?"

"'Monster Lounge', that's a weird name for a restaurant," [name] mutters to themself.

[name] had learned some different languages back at camp. Spanish, Italian, French, etc. though the demigod never really learnt how to read the languages, just learned how to say and understand it.

The lights turn off and a spotlight turns on. In the light there stands a man with grey hair.

"Well, well. What do we have here? A band of misfortunate souls who failed to break into the top fifty?" He says with a smile. "I'm sure you are all aware of who I am, but let's go over it again.

"My name is Azul Ashengrotto, the Housewarden of Octavinelle dorm, the manager of Mostro Lounge Cafe, and as of today, you have to listen to everything I say."
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The half-blood didn't know if they were mad, impressed, or disappointed.

The three anemone idiots and all the others at the lounge traded their magic for a study guide. [name] didn't know if they should be impressed with Azul for making a study guide this enticing to people.

Back at Ramshackle, after escaping the twins who were told by Azul to basically put the the hundreds of teens into place, they sighed heavily as Jack looked at them.

Crowley had stopped by, but of course had told [name] to do his job once again.

"I'm going to kill that Crow one day..." they say with a straight face, even though Crowley acts more like a dad than your actual father.
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A/N:
Sorry for it bro my late-I kinda forgot that today is a post day 💀