Ensorcell

Chapter 8 - The Queen and the Iron Brother

After all the students belonging to the Serpens Cognatum finally blasted successfully the wall that led to a large circular room, the students found themselves seated on chairs arranged like those of movie theaters facing at a podium where the head of their Cognatum is standing by.

The old stern-looking lady withdrew her wand from her pockets and pointed it to her throat. At first, Drake thought she's gone nuts and will go behead herself but much to his relief (and much to the seniors' dismay), she didn't. Instead, she murmured a few words and spoke in a loud voice, as though she's speaking to the ears of everyone.

"Here goes her annual threatening speech", whispered a girl behind Drake who is probably not a freshman.

The crowd's buzzing immediately stopped upon hearing the voice of the head of their Cognatum.

"Today, we welcome our new students who got the privilege to bear the honor and power of the Serpens Cognatum", Professor Gehennam said.

"Mind you first years that being in the Cognatum of the Dragon means excellence in every task you are given", she added emphasizing the word excellence.

"I would be very happy to see each of you attaining great scores in exams of different fields and studies Trantrumeria offers."

"But if you failed one, there is, of course, a punishment awaiting as a consequence for your stupidity", she said while yelling the word stupidity in the face of Summer who is seated on the front-most part of the rows of chairs.

Only the deaf can only not hear the cackling laughter of an arrogant old lady that lingered each of her words.

"The punishment also goes with rule-breaking", she said and took the turn to look at Ignacius' direction which is a relief for Drake not only for the undeniable fact that Ignacius is being roasted but also for the peace of mind that Professor Gehennam doesn't mention anything about traitors.

No one dared to breathe a word while Professor Gehennam spoke.

"You yourselves will gain points from your triumph and victories that is needed to join the quarterly preliminary trials of the Magical Games. However, you will lose points if you did unpleasant things here inside the school. "

"What if we didn't achieve the needed amount of points for the Magical Games?", asked a black-haired girl.

"Please Ms. Eaveson", said Professor Gehennam in an unnaturally (for her) soft-sounding voice.

"For Baba Yaga's sake, here she goes again", whispered a senior in twin-tails beside Drake which he knew was named Hannah by looking at a pin of "Heirloom of Necromancy" stuck to her robes in which her name was written into.

"DO RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU WANT TO ASK A QUESTION!", yelled Professor Gehennam in an outburst of anger Drake only can compare to his old classmate's bulldog while trashing back when he was still in Lidhut.

"Well, considering you are a first year student Ms. Eaveson, I'm never giving you a punishment from this", she said while she paced around the room, "Take this as a token that can only be given once. Next time there's no salvation. Do you understand me Ms. Eaveson?"

"Yes, ma'am", the poor girl answered, teary-eyed.

"Good", said the professor, "But answering your old question, you cannot join the preliminaries when you don't get enough points, which is a lost chance to step forward to the road for the Final Battle of the Magical Games."

"However, you have 4 deadlines to earn the needed points in order to join the preliminaries, as well as 4 chances to ascend to the final battle", she added.