Chapter 21: Fairytales ran out of dreamland
Dinner was humiliating, to say the least, yet Cecilia was so hungry after days of intermittent eating that she couldn't care less.
She stuffed her face with any dish in front of her, ignoring the disgusted or horrified looks around her.
To their credit, at least they didn't skimp on the food.
Piles of mashed potatoes as soft as a cloud, hills of crispy-on-the-outside-but-soft-on-the-inside mushroom pies, mountains of every meat imaginable.
Screw the restaurant and their John Dory, this is how everyone should be fed.
Only after she finished the plate did she discover that she had scattered food all over the table; some of it even landed on the plate of the person sitting next to her.
"I am so, so sorry." Only now did she notice that, to her dismay, part of the mushed potatoes had somehow fallen on the girl's hair. She tried to wipe it off with her hand, which only smeared it along the curl.
"No worries" Although the girl quickly dodged Cecilia's harmful hand, she didn't seem as annoyed as Cecilia had thought.
She looked at the girl's innocent face. A sweet smile, bright eyes, looked about her age.
Cecilia quickly stepped forward and held her hand in an almost pleading expression: "Let's be friends?"
The girl hesitated only for a moment, then responded with a smile the awaited syllable, "Sure!"
Finally! She is starting to live a proper school life! In all the books she read, no character had no friends unless they were being bullied.
Now that she has her own company, Cecilia's ensured that this cruel fate is avoided!
Look at her big eyes and the high bridge of her nose! Look at the natural curls lightly spiking behind her back (Cecilia tried to ignore the curl she destroyed with mushed potatoes)! Look at her princess-like posture! Look how she holds that fork!
No doubt, she has just become friends with the main character!
As she went on and on with her internal monologue, her new friend went back to eating, ignoring her completely.
Cecilia looked around boredly, noticing that some of the students were still staring at her from the hasty eating incident from before, more from other tables than her own.
Is this such a shock for them? Have they never seen a hungry person? Cecilia sank deeper into her chair, trying to avoid the scrutinizing eyes.
"Now that we've all filled our bellies," The vice principal looked at her, "Some more than others, I believe that this shall be the time to discover the talents of our new students!"
All the students lined up in a neat line near the stage as if they had practiced this before; otherwise, she has no idea they could be so coordinated.
Cecilia tried to push through the students unsuccessfully, causing a small commotion (she now noticed Devin mocking her from the audience).
After a lot of unnecessary chaos, she positioned herself at the end of the line, at least she had so many more eyes on her presently.
The 'talent discovery' process turned out to be quite simple. Each student went up and in turn tried to light a number of crystals that were on the stage, so the more crystals he lit, the better his talent.
Cecilia tried to interpret in her mind, since no one was narrating the event.
There were six colors of crystals, and each of them had ten crystals of different sizes.
She watched as the student panted after lighting two or three of the last rows. Although until a second ago he was smiling confidently, now he looked like he was sprinting a marathon.
Each student managed to light an average of 4–7 crystals in each row; some even lit two rows at the same time, which elicited exclamations of wonder from the audience.
Cecilia was determined to be amazing in the test and make up for the image damage she had caused herself before. who knows? Maybe they'll even jump her grades so she can sit with Devin.
While she was floating in her imagination, the line was getting shorter and shorter.
She tried to encourage the girl who was sitting next to her and was silenced quickly, unfortunately, the girl was only able to turn on three of the six raws, and the light was very weak. Cecilia made up her mind that she would help her with magic lessons later.
In the end, her turn has come.
Cecilia went up the side stairs towards the stage, seeing dozens or hundreds of eyes examining every inch of her body made her sweat uncontrollably.
"It's your turn now, child." One of the other professors spoke for the first time.
Cecilia took a deep breath and stood in front of the front row, holding the crystal like the previous students.
After a few seconds of reading nothing, the vice principal announced, "No talent, move on!"
Although it was humiliating, it had already happened before that someone had no talent at all, not even a modicum, in one of the magic fields.
Cecilia woke up from the madness of being an extreme genius girl and moved to the next row.
After holding on for several seconds without a response, the vice principal repeated himself: "No talent, move on!"
Third row, still no response.
The girl who sat next to her was the only other one who couldn't light three rows and they weren't next to each other.
Fourth... Fifth... Sixth...
Under the amazed eyes of the audience, the vice principal announced: "This girl has no magic power!"
A flurry of murmurs went through the audience.
One of the more wild-looking teachers, who no one would consider a teacher if it wasn't for the place he sat, jumped to his feet and shouted, "Whose prank was that, huh? Aiden, Jayden, is that you arrogant scums!?"
"Professor Johnson, I advise you not to curse out the students." Despite the commotion, the teacher next to him sipped his tea quietly and said a sentence that startled Cecilia to her unmagical core:
"Who is responsible for putting her on the ship without inspection?"
To her dismay, Devin stood up, no longer smiling.
"It was me, I'm responsible."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone