2:30am. Carter rushed to check the time the moment he stepped into his room. "Woah, I made it so early". Because he had let the cab driver go before his little research, Carter had to get on the one means of transportation in the countryside, a tricycle.
"I'm never entering that thing again" he sighed in frustration and collapsed on his bed. He smiled at the thought of the victorious worthy information Penwitch had provided for him. "It was worth it though" he chuckled.
Carter then turned to look towards his pillow, he stretched out his arm to grab thesame notebook he had been glancing through before and opened it. He grabbed a pen from his desk and sat up to write something.
_Location of the staff of dreams confirmed, Aspell city_ he wrote down these words in a legible handwriting and smiled afterwards. Carter then quickly changed into his pyjamas and went to sleep.
THE NEXT MORNING...
Carter couldn't help but anxiously bite on his finger on his way to school. 'Penwitch said the staff is somewhere in the city but....' he trailed off. 'How am I supposed to find it in this huge city?!' He gripped his hair in horror.
Richard looked up at the front mirror from the driver's seat and caught a glimpse of Carter's frustrated expression. "Is something bothering you young master?" He asked.
Carter looked forward upon hearing Richard's deep voice. He quickly regained his composure and let out a few coughs. "I'm fine Richard" he said bluntly.
Richard could only sigh at Carter's reservation. He knew the young man wouldn't tell him anything anyways.
"If you say so" he muttered.
Soon enough, the car came to a halt as they arrived in front of the Aspell Law school for dignified men.
"Wow we're here" Carter said in an extremely unethusiastic tone. He reached out to his small bag and wrapped it around his shoulder and he moved over to open the car door to get outside.
"Richard, please don't follow me to classes" Carter said and turned to stare at Richard with a warning expression.
Richard sighed. "You don't even have a phone, how else would i stay updated on your whereabouts Carter" he raised a brow
"Just don't think about me for the next few hours okay?" Carter let out a small smile and walked out of the car before Richard could say anything else.
"Huh...Carter" Ricard spoke but Carter didn't seem to hear him and just kept walking further. He was left staring at the back view of his blue suit and white shoulder length hair dancing as he kept walking.
"Ha, he's so stubborn" Richard sighed in frustration. "I'll just have to check up on him in a few hours then..."
Carter stepped across the hallway in the second floor of the building and soon arrived at the destination of his first lecture. It was a huge classroom with about 150 seats and a small podium stood in front. Carter slid into the classroom quietly and sat at the far back to avoid attracting too much attention. Wherever he went in this school, other guys were sure to steal glances at him either because of his reputation as the reincarnation of Gressil Helenor or as the beauty of the 89th class.
"Ha, this is so frustrating" Carter sighed heavily at the thought of his current dilemma.
"Hmm, it's the greatest witch" a voice was heard from beside him and the person moved to sit next to him.
Carter could easily guess who it was. There was only one person who dared to start conversations with him at school and tease him about being the greatest witch with such an annoying voice. Yunn Denson!
Carter buried his head in his arms and totally ignored him.
"What? Having a bad day pretty boy?" Yunn spoke and was about to reach his hand towards Carter's white hair but Carter held onto his hand halfway.
"Don't touch anywhere in my body, especially my hair" Carter glared at him.
"Oh, sorry" Yunn smirked.
Carter rolled his eyes and buried his head on his arms once again.
"Pfft" Yunn let out a laugh and turned to face forward and glance at the other students present in the class.
"By the way, have you heard the rumours of the mysterious red haired girl?" He asked still faced forward.
"Huh? The what?" Carter lifted his head lazily to look at him.
"The mysterious red haired girl" Yunn said turning to look at Carter this time.
"Don't know what you're talking about man" Carter spoke in an uninterested tone.
"Ooh, using casual language are we? It seems we've gotten quite close" Yunn snickered.
"Just spill the gist of it, who is this red haired girl?" Carter rolled his eyes.
"Okay, well...a girl suddenly appeared in the school last night and...." Yunn spoke but was soon cut short as a voice echoed around the class.
"Take your seats students, the class is about to commence" Professor Harrison announced using a microphone.
"Hmm, guess I'll tell you about it later" Yunn said with a smile.
"You know what, I'm not interested anymore" Carter said and turned to face forward and listen to the professor but what he had said was a complete lie. Carter was infact extremely interested to know more about this mysterious red haired girl Yunn had mentioned but he could only curse inwardly at the professor's interruption.
"Before we begin the lesson, I would like to make reference to an occurrence last night and address this issue" Professor Neuman suddenly spoke.
Every single student waited in curiosity for what he had to say.
"Did anyone let a young woman into this school yesterday? Particularly at 11pm?" The professor asked.
Everyone paused. Carter's eyes glinted in curiosity, was this related to the red haired girl?.
"Ha" the professor sighed upon receiving no response.
"Since that's the case, I would like you all to watch out Incase you catch sight of a girl loitering around the school. She was spotted last night and was seen to have red hair and a tall height but disappeared before anyone could see who she was" He said.
"Huh?"
"A girl dared to set foot in here?"
"Really? Is she some ghost?"
"Come on, ghosts don't exist"
"A girl with red hair huh? She must be pretty"
The voices of the other students could be heard leading into an uproar.
"Hmm, is that so?" Carter wondered.
"You don't seem too surprised" Yunn stared at him in curiosity.
"Oh, it's not that I'm not surprised. I just don't believe in things like this, that's all" Carter said blandly.
"Pfft, you're so hard so read" Yunn chuckled inwardly.
Carter didn't bother to ask him what he meant by that and thought back on what the professor had said. He was indeed lying when he said he didn't believe in things like that, it only piqued his curiosity even more. Perhaps there was the slightest possibility that the red haired girl could have a connection with the staff.
About two hours past and the first lecture came to an end. Carter walked out of the class abruptly using the back door and avoiding the gazes of other students including Yunn.
'For the love of God, do I have to go to the countryside and find even more information again?!' He thought in frustration. 'But Penwitch may not even have new information' he thought once again.
Carter groaned in frustration as he made his way through the hall way.
Later on, he arrived at the one peaceful aspect of the school. A small garden nearest to the student dorms. Aspell Law school students were pretty much hardworking and dedicated to their studies so it was difficult to find a number of them loitering the dorms during the day which made it always peaceful around here.
"I'm at a loss" Carter began massaging his temples as a result of tiredness and frustration. Was he that desperate to find the staff of dreams that he assumed the mysterious and unknown red haired girl every single human at the school residence were talking about could have some sort of connection to it?.
"Come on Carter Hubert, you have always been a realist" he said whilst staring down with an emotionless expression on his face.
He knew all too well that finding anything related to magic was probably on the list of the top five most difficult things in the country.
"The strange girl may have as well just snuck into the school in search for some eye candy" he let out a long and exasperated sigh. "Well, it's understandable for everyone to be so worked up over it....a girl setting foot in a school for men without having being invited is a taboo after all"
'I wouldn't be this desperate to find the staff of dreams if it weren't the most important thing I need to achieve my goals right now' he thought. The staff of dreams was a thorny and beautiful staff owned by the one and only Gressil Helenor....history claims that the staff played a huge role in his journey as a witch.
"I mean, he was one of the only eight sun level witches present at the time and a member of the four high ranked magic dealers" he looked up, his expression barely changing.
"If only I could...."
CRASH!. The loud sound of shattering ceramic immediately filled the environment, this made Carter turn to look back abruptly.
"Uh...I..."
"Who are you?" Carter stared with widened eyes. He hadn't noticed the person's presence as they had hidden perfectly behind the huge ceramic flower vase.
"I...."
Carter stood up from the small bench. His eyes peered at the tall female figure in front of him suspiciously, his gaze loomed on her long and flowing red hair. 'It's her'
"I said who are you?" He asked once again, his gaze becoming more intense and menacing as he slowly walked closer to her.
"I...I..." The red haired girl kept stammering and couldn't compose a single word. She trembled even harder the moment Carter was now in front of her.
Carter looked up at her and he became slightly angry and annoyed combined with his ominous gaze from earlier. 'Why in the world did she have to be taller then me when I'm trying to be scary here?!' He thought and gritted his teeth frustratedly. He immediately took a few steps away from her afterwards.
The red haired girl was slightly surprised. "Why did you back up?" She asked in a rather small voice.
"For personal reasons.." a bead of sweat rolled down Carter's forehead as he said that.
"Anyways..." He gave the girl an intimidating glare once again. "What is a beautiful girl like you with such a sweet voice doing in a men's school?" He asked with a raised brow.
"A..a beautiful girl?...w-with a s..sweet voice?" The red haired girl covered her face with her palm as her cheeks flushed red.
"Urghhh" Carter groaned in irritation. "I'm not trying to flatter you here young lady" he said bluntly. "You do realize the implications of a lady as yourself setting foot into such a place" he added, his arms folded across his chest and his expression giving a look of being somewhat disappointed.
"I-I'm well aware of it..." The red haired girl finally spoke. "But I'm here for a reason..." Her tone lowered then, her voice sounding more serious.
"A reason?" Carter raised a brow
"Yes, a reason..." The girl said. "I have come here in search for someone" she added.
"Huh? In search for someone?" Carter asked.
"Yes" the girl nodded.
'Huh?' Carter furrowed his brows. "Wouldn't a normal person seek the attention of any staff or the dean of the school rather than breaking and entering just to find one single person?!" He asked in shock. 'Was this girl plain dumb?'
"A normal person you say...." The red haired girl trailed off. "I'm not a normal person" she said with a nervous sweat.
"Yeah right" Carter snickered. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
The red haired girl looked forward and stared him up and down and straight at the face as if sizing him up.
"What are you doing?" Carter shivered at her stare.
"You seem trustworthy and delicate so I guess I could tell you" she said with a faint smile.
"Trustworthy and delicate?" Carter repeated the words. 'And what's that supposed to mean?' He froze.
"My name is Sera and actually I'm a...." She paused for a moment.
Carter stood patiently in anticipation of what she was about to say.
"I'm a witch" she said abruptly. She then looked up to see the expression of the young student and was a little surprised. Carter had a look of disbelief at first which turned to shock and now he was staring at her with excitement.
"What?!!" He exclaimed and rushed towards her.
"Ssh, I don't wanna get caught by anyone else" Sera said. "I know it's hard to believe but..."
"Are you really a witch?! Do you go to Witchdom academy?! What level are you? How does magic work?!" Carter seemed overly excited and flooded her with a lot of questions.
"Hold on...you're not scared of me or anything?" Sera asked. It was weird for a citizen of the southern country to react in such a positive way at the mention of her being a witch, she had even prepared to disappear if he ever tried reporting to the authorities of her presence.
"Scared?! Why would I be? Witches are so freaking cool!" Carter said completely full of glee. At this point, he had forgotten all about his plans to appear cool and scary in front of the girl. He couldn't believe he had come across a real life witch! A witch was currently standing in front of him! One of the witches everyone in the country believed to be extinct!.
Sera could only smile at his response. "You know, part of the reason why I told you this is also because you look awfully familiar" she said.
'Familiar?' Carter paused at the thought. 'Come to think of it, she did say she came here in search for someone, could that be...' he looked up at her in surprise.
"Almost like..." Sera spoke.
'Gressil Helenor!'
"Gressil Helenor!" Her words coincided with his thoughts at that exact moment.
'Yep, I'm the one she's looking for'